Diane Davidson - Chopping Spree

At six, Arch, Tom, and I sat down to a meal of steaming cream of mushroom soup, heated cornmeal rolls, and dressing-topped slices of hot grilled chicken over an enormous bed of crisp, fresh, sliced, and diced vegetables. Arch and Tom could not have cared less what the dish was named, nor did they give a hoot about it being the fad among mall-crawlers. They dug into the salad as if they hadn’t eaten for days. (Come to think of it, Arch and Tom didn’t care much about Escoffier, either.)

Ah, men!

Ah, food!

After supper and two pieces of Tom’s melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake, Arch announced that he had to write up the field trip.

Chopping Spree Salad

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts

¼ cup fresh lime juice

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 large head romaine lettuce, outer leaves removed

4 canned hearts of palm, well rinsed

Nonstick cooking spray

¼ cup pine nuts or blanched, slivered almonds

½ cup diced fresh jicama

1 cup seeded diced tomato (about 2 medium tomatoes)

½ cup trimmed, thinly sliced scallions (about 2 scallions)

Tangy Lime Dressing (recipe follows)Place the chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap and pound them with a mallet to a ⅓-inch thickness. Slice each breast in half lengthwise.In a 9 × 13-inch glass pan, mix the juice with the oil and place the chicken into this marinade while you prepare the rest of the ingredients and dressing, about 15 to 20 minutes.Wash the head of romaine very well, then cut an inch off the top to make an even edge. Carefully slice the rest of the head into ½-inch slices. You should have about 8 cups of romaine pieces. Rinse these well, spin them to remove any moisture, and wrap them in paper towels. Chill until you are ready to assemble the salad.Place the rinsed hearts of palm into a bowl of cold water and allow them to soak for 5 minutes to remove the brine.While the hearts of palm are soaking, lightly spray a small sauté pan with nonstick spray (or use a nonstick pan) and toast the pine nuts over medium-low to medium heat. Stir frequently to prevent burning. When the pine nuts are just beginning to turn golden brown (3 to 4 minutes), remove them from the heat, place on a plate to cool, and set aside until you are ready to assemble the salad.Remove the hearts of palm from the water, pat them dry with paper towels, and cut them into ¼-inch discs. Wrap the pieces in a paper towel and chill until you are ready to assemble the salad.Dice the jicama and tomatoes, slice the scallions, and set aside. Spray the grill with nonstick spray and preheat the grill while you prepare the Tangy Lime Dressing.Grill the chicken over medium-high to high heat for about 4 minutes per side, or until it is cooked through but not dry. Remove the chicken to a cutting board, cool slightly, and cut into bite-sized pieces.Place the lettuce, hearts of palm, jicama, tomatoes, scallions, and chicken in a large, attractive salad bowl. Toss with half of the dressing, then add the dressing by tablespoons until the salad is lightly dressed, not overdressed. (You may have a bit of dressing left over.) Sprinkle the toasted pine nuts on top and serve immediately. Makes 4 large servingsTangy Lime Dressing:

½ garlic clove, minced

¼ teaspoon dried fines herbes (available in the spice section of the grocery store)

1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley

1½ teaspoons minced fresh cilantro

⅓ cup buttermilk

1½ tablespoons fresh lime juice

⅓ cup best-quality mayonnaise

3 tablespoons (or more) heavy cream

1 tablespoon finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to tastePlace the garlic, fines herbes, parsley, and cilantro into a miniature food processor and blend until pulverized, less than a minute. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the buttermilk with the lime juice and mayonnaise until well combined and smooth. Whisk in the garlic-spice mixture, the cream, and the cheese, blending until smooth. Taste very carefully and add more cream if the dressing seems too tangy. Add salt judiciously, as the mayonnaise and cheese are already salty. Grind in some pepper and taste again. Use immediately.

“Did anyone come in before you left?” I couldn’t help asking. “To… claim the body?”

He blinked. “Yeah, Mom. Some woman crashed through the door, grabbed the cadaver, and screamed, ‘Dad! Where have you been?’ ”

I shook my head while Arch and Tom exchanged grins. “Someone from the coroner’s office, Arch.”

“Oh!” Arch shook his head. “No.” He dumped a third piece of cake onto his dish and disappeared upstairs.

I busied myself wrapping up the unchopped vegetables. Tom started on the dishes. After I’d stored the leftovers in the walk-in, he asked me to sit down so we could talk. My mind reeled off an “Uh-oh,” and I uneasily took a seat.

“You showed me those pages you got from Dean’s doctor’s office,” he began. He was drying the bowl I’d used for the salad. “But the guys working the case didn’t find the prescription the doc made that Dean had just filled. A bottle of Vicodin Extra Strength.”

I swallowed. “From what you’ve told me, they couldn’t find a lot of things.”

“The prescription was only for twenty pills,” Tom went on. “If you assume Julian is innocent, then somebody followed Dean to that shoe department to kill him. Our perp saw an opportunity—customers have left, clerks gone for a moment, big cabinet to hide behind—and took it. Then when the killer was slipping out, maybe he or she saw the clerks coming back to clean up. Or maybe the killer saw you coming in with the guitar. Barry Dean was barely alive, so our perp shoved him into the cabinet. Still, Barry might tell you who stabbed him. So the perp panics. Whacks you with the guitar and calls nine-one-one. Julian shows up, tries to pull the knife out of Barry, and gets arrested. Hitting you and incriminating Julian were unplanned.”

“So you think Barry’s murder was premeditated. How does the sheriff’s department see it? The same as you?”

“That depends,” Tom mused. “At this point, they’re just trying to gather enough evidence to turn this thing over to the district court.” He gave me the full benefit of his ocean-green eyes. “The only thing that’s going to help Julian is if our guys find out who killed Barry Dean. I don’t know if they’re telling me everything about the case. But I have to warn you that the trail is getting cold. It’s been over forty-eight hours since you discovered the body.” I tsked while Tom continued: “Our guys turned Dean’s house inside out, went through his two cars and his boat. When they pulled their detail off his place, they still hadn’t found much. Julian’s Rover, his apartment? Nothing there, either.”

I groaned. “I can just imagine the mess the cops must have made at Julian’s place.”

“You know how I got that chocolate icing shiny tonight?”

“How?”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out Barry Dean’s Vicodin prescription, and placed it on the table. “I used an ingredient I hardly ever use. Your clarified butter. The kind you keep in the freezer.”

“Tom, I was going to tell you…”

“Uh-huh.”

“They… the pills, they slipped into my apron pocket somehow when I was on the shoes, you know, beside Barry…. The bottle must have fallen out of his pocket. That’s how I got Barry’s doctor’s name.”

“Goldy, you should have handed these over. With both of us handling them, there’s not a hope of prints now.”

“I was just trying to help Julian. How can I trust the sheriff’s department, when all they’re trying to do is find evidence to convict Julian? But I’ll turn them in tomorrow, if you want.”