The Gourmet Mystery

I got the call from an excited Lawrence Horton at about 1:30 on Monday afternoon. Horton, an old movies fan, is the owner of The Blue Parrot Restaurant, which is not far from the newspaper where I work, for too little money, as Food and Wine Editor. “Come right over. I need your help. Right now! Before this news gets all over town.” He sounded desperate, like a heart attack ready to happen.

I raced down the street and was there within a few minutes. Horton waved me into his office, and introduced me to a patron, William Saunders. “Yes,” Saunders said, “I read your column. You know your food and wines. So you’ll appreciate that I don’t like paying hundreds of dollars for what I did not order! My wife Caroline and I were celebrating our anniversary. We ordered a special meal, steaks with black mushrooms. That’s what we got. But when I checked the credit card, it was for the truffles, at three times the cost of the meal we actually had! We came here on your recommendation, too!”