Shrimply Sublime Murder

by Patti Benning

  “You're probably right,” Ellie said. She stretched, then glanced at the clock. “Let's go get lunch. We can try some Miami pizza, and you can tell me how it compares to what we have at home.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The Florida version of Papa Pacelli’s had started out its life as another pizza restaurant. Ellie had bought it from Linda while it was on its last legs, and with the other woman's help, they had gotten it turned around. It had turned out to be one of the best business decisions she had ever made. Linda had done great things with the Florida pizzeria, but had also turned out to be a great friend.

  They arrived during the lunch rush. Ellie and Joanna waited in line, inching forward as people made their orders. Ellie waved when she saw Linda spot them. Her friend grinned and gestured them closer to the counter.

  “You own this place, you hardly have to wait in line,” Linda said, laughing and giving her a quick hug.

  “How have you been?”

  “Great,” Linda said. “How have you been?”

  “Mostly great,” Ellie said, laughing. “This is my friend Joanna. Joanna, Linda.”

  “I've heard a lot about you,” Joanna said, reaching over to shake Linda's hand.

  “It's nice to finally meet you,” Linda said. “I'm glad the two of you could make it out here. You finally get to see the pizzeria in its full glory in the middle of summer.”

  “I’m just glad that you’ve got the air conditioning turned up high,” Ellie said. “We could probably cook a pizza on the sidewalk out there.”

  “Yeah, air conditioning is a necessity here. So, what can I get the two of you?”

  “Um, whatever your weekly special is,” Ellie said. “With all the excitement, I haven't exactly been keeping up.”

  “That’s our shrimp and lime pizza,” Linda said. “It's pretty good. I'll get you a couple slices. Or do you want a full pizza, to take some back to the hotel?”

  “Just a couple of slices for now. I'm not sure what we’re doing for dinner.”

  “And what can I get you?” Linda asked, turning to Joanna.

  “The same thing,” her friend said. “It sounds good.”

  A few minutes later, the two of them were seated at a booth with their slices of shrimp and lime pizza in front of them. It was a light pizza, served on a thin crust with a sweet buttery garlic lime sauce, shrimp, scallions, and mozzarella cheese. Ellie took a bite and immediately was in heaven. It was great, the perfect pizza for summer. It would be good served cold too, she thought, which was always a bonus. She made a mental note to add it to the list of specials to try at the pizzeria in Maine.

  “This place is so much busier than I’m used to at home,” Joanna said softly, looking around. Ellie cast her glance around the pizzeria.

  “I know. This is a great location, and they get a ton of pedestrians and beach-goers. She has more employees than I do. I have to keep reminding myself that my pizzeria does great, for Kittiport’s size.”

  “It makes Hot Diggity Dog feel pretty small and slow,” Joanna said, chuckling.

  “Will you be okay, having it closed for so long?” Ellie asked.

  “I'll be fine,” her friend said with a slight shrug. “It's mostly a hobby for me. Steve and I can live off of his income easily if we need to. I just feel bad for Clara. I know she relies on her hours to make rent.”

  “I worry about my employees too. I hope everything gets solved at home soon and we can go back to our normal lives.”

  There was a shattering sound from outside and Ellie jumped, almost dropping her slice of pizza. She looked out the large glass window at the front of the store and saw what looked like a shattered bottle on the sidewalk. She didn’t see any sign of whoever had thrown it.

  “I’m getting jumpy,” Ellie said, chuckling. Linda slipped out from behind the counter and walked over to frown at the mess through the window.

  “I bet it’s those kids again,” she muttered. “Ever since school let out, we’ve been having problems with them.” She sighed. “I’ll get one of the employees to clean up. Sorry, Ellie. They've never done something like this before.”

  “It's not your fault,” Ellie said, shaking her head. She supposed that there were downsides to living in such a big city. When it came down to it, she preferred Kittiport over Miami. Well, usually. She preferred it sans serial killer.

  It had only been a day since she left, and she was already starting to feel homesick. Yes, it was great to visit Florida and see Linda and everyone down here, but she wanted to be with Russell while he was tackling one of the biggest cases of his career. She hated feeling useless like this.

  The commotion seemed to signal the end of their lunch, and she and Joanna finished their food quickly and packed up, saying goodbye to Linda.

  “We’ll stop in again tomorrow,” Ellie said. “If you're able to take the time off, we should all go out to dinner or something and catch up. I probably won't be back down here again until the autumn when I come down with my grandmother.”

  “I'll see if I can get someone to cover the last few hours of my shift tomorrow,” Linda said. “If you need any restaurant suggestions for tonight, just let me know. I eat out way too much, so I’ll point you somewhere good.”

  Chapter Twelve

  They made their way to the beach after that. While Kittiport was a coastal town, Maine beaches had nothing on Florida beaches. The bright, sandy expanse of the coast beckoned to them. Even though Joanna had to be careful because of her stitches, they could still put their feet in the water and enjoy the sun.

  They purchased a couple of large towels, splurged on a sun umbrella, and planted themselves at the beach across from where her grandmother's retirement community was, since it was the one Ellie was the most familiar with. There was a stand selling cold drinks and snow cones, and they managed to keep themselves refreshed while they enjoyed the summer day.

  Even though she was somehow managing to relax and enjoy herself, Ellie kept a close eye on her phone for updates from Russell. She didn't know whether the fact that she hadn't heard anything was good or bad. She was sure that her husband would have called her if there had been another attack, but the fact that he hadn't called her also meant that they hadn’t caught the killer yet. She was concerned that the man behind all of this would just up and vanish, leaving them all scared for their lives for the foreseeable future. The last thing she wanted was to spend weeks or months looking over her shoulder every time she went anywhere alone.

  “I can see why your grandmother winters here,” Joanna said from beside her, stretching out on her towel and readjusting her sunglasses. “I’ll have to bring Steve out here once the hotel is finished. I'm sure he'll want a vacation by then.”

  “I bet he'll be glad once it's done being built. Do they have a solid idea yet of when it'll be done?”

  Joanna shrugged beside her. “With all the setbacks, the time keeps getting pushed back. It's looking like spring of next year now. If Maine winters weren't so hard and long, it would be easier. I'll be glad once it's done. I hope he doesn't pick up another big project like that for a while. It will be nice just to sit back and relax with him.”

  Ellie nodded. She knew that Joanne and Steve had a different relationship than she and Russell did. She and Russell both worked a lot, but they made sure to make time for each other every day, even if it was just eating dinner and watching something on the TV together in the evening. Joanna and Steve sometimes went days or in rare cases, weeks, without seeing each other. Steve traveled a lot for his job, which her friend often joked was his first wife. Joanna seemed to focus on her hot dog restaurant and her friends more than anything. Still, they loved each other, which Ellie supposed was all that mattered.

  After a couple hours, the wind started to pick up and Joanna sat up, brushing some stray sand off of her shoulder. “Would you be all right with heading back to the hotel now?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Ellie said. “We’d better head back before the beach umbrel
la blows away anyway.”

  “We can come out here again tomorrow, if it’s still nice out,” her friend said. “I just started feeling weird all of a sudden, like someone's watching us.”

  Ellie looked around, frowning. “I don't see anyone.”

  “Probably just my imagination. I’ve been jumpy ever since the attack.”

  “I don't blame you,” Ellie said. She stood up, shaking out her towel and folding it before folding down the beach umbrella. The two of them walked back to the car together, and Ellie could swear that she felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. She looked around, but didn't see anything out of place.

  They stopped by the grocery store on their way back and picked up some frozen dinners to eat in the hotel room. It looked like it would be another night of watching movies and eating junk food. It wasn't exactly the best way to be spending an unexpected vacation, but the tone of the day had changed somehow, and she and Joanna both had been feeling jumpy ever since the beach.

  It was getting dark by the time they returned to the hotel. The feeling of unease had only increased, and they hurried in together, taking the elevator up to the room. Once they were inside, Ellie threw the deadbolt and latched the chain across the door before finally relaxing. Next to her, Joanna giggled.

  “We’re like a couple of teenagers who just got home from seeing a horror movie at the theater,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Ellie said, giving a weak laugh of her own. “I guess we're both still wound up from everything that has been happening back home.”

  “I’m strangely tired, even though we didn't really do much today,” Joanna admitted. “I think I'm going to take a shower, then eat.”

  “It's the sun, it does that to you,” Ellie said. “I’ll see what’s on TV.”

  She pulled the curtains closed and relaxed on the couch after putting the food away in the mini fridge. She flipped through the TV idly, not really interested in any of the shows, and her thoughts strayed back home. Finally, she settled on a sitcom that she had watched a few years ago and grabbed the grocery bag off the counter to eat some of the chips she had bought. It wasn't the healthiest snack choice, but she was sort of on a vacation, and she figured her diet could stand to go off course for a couple of days. Without Nonna down here, and without any official work to do, she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself. She was used to her trips to Florida being working trips, and it felt strange to be at loose ends. She wasn’t quite sure that she liked it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  She was so engrossed in the sitcom that when her phone rang, she didn't even glance at the caller ID. Assuming it was Russell, she answered the phone and pressed it to her ear.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Ellie? Sorry to disturb you, but I need your help with something.”

  “Linda.” Ellie blinked, surprised. “Of course. Is everything all right at the pizzeria?”

  “There’s this guy hanging around outside by the employee entrance,” her friend said. “He’s walking around, kicking at some rocks and a few pieces of trash. I'm looking at him on the security cameras now. I would go out there and ask him to leave myself, but it looks like he might have a knife or something in his hand. I can't really see, the night vision on these cameras isn’t great. Do you think I'm overreacting, or should I call the police?”

  Ellie muted the television, sitting up straighter, feeling the blood rush from her face. “What does he look like?”

  “It's really hard to tell, like I said the cameras aren't the best. He's kind of average-ish, I guess? Nothing really seems to stand out about him other than the way he's acting. His hair looks kind of a medium color, not super dark or super light, but it’s hard to tell with the black and white.”

  “I'd call the police just to be on the safe side. You guys have No Loitering signs up outside of the building, right?”

  “Yeah, but we never really enforce it,” Linda said. “He probably just has a drink in his hand or something. Maybe I should –”

  “No,” Ellie barked, more firmly than she meant to. She took a deep breath. What were the chances that the killer had followed them down there? Astronomically low, she knew. This was probably just a coincidence, but something about the whole day had felt off to her. She remembered the loud knocking on their hotel room door the night before, the bottle thrown at the restaurant earlier that day, and the feeling of being watched while they were at the beach. She had learned long ago that sometimes her gut instincts were right, and she decided to go with them on this.

  “I really think you should call the police, Linda. Don't go outside. He could be dangerous.”

  “All right. I'll trust your judgment on this. I'll – wait, Brian, no.”

  She heard someone arguing over the phone, then heard her friend sigh. “One of my employees just went out there to tell the guy to go away. I've got to go, Ellie. I'll call you once everything’s settled.”

  The line went dead. Ellie stared at it for a moment, then put it on the table, her hand shaking. She didn't know what to do. She wished suddenly that Russell had come to Florida with her. He would know what to do.

  Joanna came out of the bathroom, her hair still wet. “Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost.”

  “Linda just called me,” Ellie said. She quickly told her friend what had happened. “And I'm worried that –”

  “That it’s him,” Joanna said, her eyes widening. “But how could he have gotten down here? He would've had to fly out, and there’s no way he could have known where we are. Unless…”

  “Unless what?”

  Her friend bit her lip. “I think I might have left a printout of the flight information at Hot Diggity Dog. I stopped by before we left just to make sure everything was locked up. Then when we got to the airport I couldn’t find my flight information even though I knew I printed it out earlier and had to use my phone to check in.”

  Ellie closed her eyes, taking a slow breath and trying to calm the pounding of her heart. “Okay. So, it actually is possible that he knows where we are. I need to call Russell.”

  She was grateful when her husband picked up instead of having the phone go to voicemail. He sounded tired, and she got right to the point, telling him about Linda's call, Joanna’s confession, and asking him about whether or not the suspect had been spotted.

  “No, it's been quiet today and last night,” he said. “Do you think it's him?”

  “I've got no idea,” Ellie said. “Why would he –”

  Her phone beeped and she pulled it away from her face to look at the screen.

  “I've got to go. That's Linda calling me back. I'll let you know soon as I know what’s going on.”

  She ended the call and switched over to Linda's, feeling bad for hanging up on Russell so suddenly, but concerned for her friend. She was relieved when Linda gave a shaky laugh and said, “Well, that’s settled. Brian shouted at the guy and eventually he just took off. He probably came from a local bar or something. Sorry for bothering you with that, Ellie.”

  “No, I'm glad you did,” Ellie said.

  Joanna waved to her, trying to her attention. When Ellie glanced up at her, she whispered, “Can she send us the security footage?”

  Ellie relayed the request to Linda. “I don’t think so. We use a closed circuit system, so I’d have to figure out how to download it from the DVR and email it to you, and I haven’t the faintest clue how to do it. Do you want to come over here and look at it tonight?”

  She relayed the information to Joanna, who nodded. “Yeah, we’ll come see it tonight if you don’t mind waiting for us.”

  “Of course. No problem. I wouldn’t normally be leaving for another half-hour anyway.”

  “Thanks, Linda. We’ll see you soon.”

  “Are we heading out?” Joanna asked once she hung up the phone.

  “Yeah,” Ellie said. “We should hurry, I don’t want to hold her up for too long.”

  “Definitely not,” Joanna said. “Bu
t if that guy’s here… Well, I want to know.”

  “It can't be him,” Ellie said, trying to make herself believe it. “We’re just jumpy. You know how we were earlier.”

  “I don't know, Ellie,” Joanna said. “After all, I'm the one who got away. Maybe he followed us down here to finish the job.” She shivered. “He might not stop until he finishes what he started.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  They took the rental car out to the pizzeria. The sight of the lights glowing through the windows was welcoming, and by the time they parked and went inside, Ellie had almost managed to convince herself that she and Joanna were both just being paranoid.