"Thank legality you're here!" Legal Suit Larry said clasping his hands together. "This child leveled the accusation at you that you were at Les Schargo's when the murder happened.."

"Ah yes. We shall address zat in due time, but first."

Mr. Dupree waltzed past Larry and approached Mina. She could practically smell the lotion in his hair. A spark danced in his green eyes and without warning, he grasped her hand and kissed it. It felt like a cold slug slithering across her knuckle.

She immediately pulled it away. "Um, gross!" she exclaimed.

"Mon Cherie!" he exclaimed in his high pitched voice. "I am not gross. Just French! Oh ho ho!"

Mina felt sick to her stomach over the greasy hair tonic and his unwanted act of affection. Dupree glided back to the prosecutor's side. "Oh and if zat leetle girl sues me for 'arassment, just throw zee currency zey have in America at her. What do zey call zat? Washingtons? Benjamin's? Newtons?"

As Trudy went to sit down, she made an uncomfortable face over Dupree's behavior. "Do you know this guy?" Mina asked as she wrinkled her button nose.

"Barely," Trudy answered. "We talked on the phone, but as we discussed, it wasn't very long."

Mina nodded and tapped her butterfly necklace. "My intuition tells me he might be the guy. I just gotta catch him."

Trudy smiled. "Bag him, Mina. For me."

Justice Divine Justice observed Dupree with her eagle eyes. "Mr. Dupree, I would like you to testify before the court. Especially because it's now apparent you were at the crime scene last night."

"I object, your honor," Legal Suit Larry whined. "My client had nothing to do with this mur…."

"Objection overruled," the judge said with a bang of the gavel. "I would like to hear that from him!"

Dupree casually shrugged his shoulders and approached the witness stand. *Relax baldy. Much like my health code and my stainless steel kitchen tables, my reputation is clean!"

As Mr. Dupree oogled her from the witness stand, Mina swallowed hard. "Something tells me this guy is more slippery than the amount of hair lotion he uses."

Mina paged through her notes when something at the top of the page caught her eye.

"Mr. Dupree?" she said, pointing directly at him

"Oui madamoiselle?"

"If your alibi is so clean, where were you this morning?"

"Objection!" Legal Suit Larry cried. "That's irrelevant to this case…"

The prosecutor paused and raised a finger. "He was probably out in his garden, having his morning snails."

Dupree giggled, blushed and threw a hand forward. "Oh ho ho, Mr. Pros-zee-cutor, I am not zat French. Ok well, I deed have some croissants, but then I had some urgent business to take care of."

"Urgent sinister business!" Mina said forcefully.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Dupree muttered angrily beneath his breath. "Eef you call talking to zee media because your place of business became a crime scene sinister, then be my guest!"

Mina was dead silent. Her ears flushed pink as everyone observed her folly.

With a self satisfied smile, Dupree wagged his gloved finger. "Sorry, Mon Cherie. You will have to try harder zen zat to tarnish my reputation."

"Oh lawdy," Mina thought helplessly. "I might have to grasp at some straws here."

"Mr. Dupree," she asked. "Why were you at the restaurant last night?"

Dupree continued to smirk. "I work zere, madam. I am zee proprietor after all."

Mina winced. "Youch," she thought, "that was the short straw. Ooh how about…"

"Um," she said. "When did you leave?"

"I punched out at 10:00 pm. You can check zee clock. Zat awful butchery 'appened fifteen minutes later."

"Did you stay afterwards?"

Dupree pointed at Trudy. "Only to leave zat girl's jewelry and keys in the kitchen. But I called her after I left."

Mina placed her hand on her chin. "And you left the backdoor to the kitchen open for Trudy? Do you normally leave your restaurant unlocked at night?"

"Well," Dupree. "My head chef told me 'ee would lock zee door on the way out. He was staying late because he said he was prepping for tomorrow after he had ruined our reputation. "

Legal Suit Larry straightened the papers in his hand. "I think you see where this is leading, your honor. Mr. Dupree called Ms. Cumberson about her keys. She came in through the backdoor. There she saw Hamsey and the knives on the wall and her murderous hatred consumed her. She then delivered his head in a catering box to my client's office like it was a loaf of ..err…head!"

"Merci me!" Dupree said, blowing his nose into his ascot. "Finding my 'ead chef like a chicken without his head. Oh cruelest irony."

Dupree clasped his hands together and rose then to the heavens. "Au revoir, my dear Chef Hamsey. Parting is sweet sorrow."

Much to Mina's surprise, the dubious Dupree had started to gather some sympathetic reaction from the audience. Some people even dabbed at their eyes over his operatic performance.

"Crap!" Mina said to herself as she paged through her notes. "He whipped out the sob story! And he's French so its super effective!"

Her eyes darted around the room. "Surely, there's a way I can spin this."

"Mr. Dupree!" Mina said, continuing to shuffle the papers. She located one at the far end of the table. "What is your relation to your head chef?"

"What?"

"Your working relationship. Mr. Hamsey is notoriously hot headed and…"

"Objection!" Legal Suit Larry screamed in his falsetto. "This has nothing to do with the Trudy Cumberson case!"

"B-b-but!" Mina stammered.

"Non," Dupree said, a shiny tear trickling down his face. At least, it resembled a tear. "Eet eez no problem. Zee head chef Horton Hamsey was zee most brutally honest person I ever worked with."

The audience and jury watched in stunned silence as the owner wiped away his tear. "They say, zere was only two things in the kitchen zat make you cry. Onions and Head Chef Horton Hamsey."

Mr. Dupree opened his eyes and smiled. "And I respected zat mentality to the very end. Goodbye dear friend, Hamsey and I will avenge you when zat hen eez behind bars!"

A moment's silence followed before everyone applauded. Even the former diva Divine Justice wept. "Mr. Dupree. In the music world, that is what we call a Hammy…I mean, Grammy winning performance.*

"R-Really?" Dupree stammered.

"No," the judge answered curtly. "But It seems you truly had a respect for Chef Hamsey. Between the motive for the crime, the fingerprints on the cake box and your love for Chef Hamsey, I am all but moved in the direction of Trudy Cumberson being the culprit."

She turned her eyes to Mina. "Defense. I believe you have questioned him enough. The jury will now deliberate."

Mina's heart pounded and it wasn't from nearly finishing her cappuccino. Her eyes nervously darted around the room. "But…but… I…"

The judge raised her gavel. "The only butt left is your nonexistent one. Now sit d…"

Mina was ready to give up when, suddenly, a loud chiptune cut the judge off. It was the theme of Ninja Kitty and it was coming from the table.

She picked up the phone and when she looked at the caller ID, she knew it was her last lifeline.