Hot, Spicy Murder

by Patti Benning

  The next half hour passed in a blur as Ellie answered what felt like the same questions over and over. The paramedics arrived and spent only a few short minutes working on the man before she heard one of them call the time of death, and they loaded him onto a stretcher before covering him with a sheet and wheeling him to the ambulance.

  A moment of silence fell as the paramedics lifted the stretcher into the ambulance and shut the doors. There was something so final about it, and even the police stopped talking for a moment. Ellie wondered just how many murders they dealt with. A town this small couldn’t have that much going on.

  Just as the ambulance doors slammed shut, another door opened just down the sidewalk from them, and Ellie saw her grandmother’s white-haired head poking out.

  “Ellie, I was worried…” the older woman broke off, taking in the sight of the two police vehicles in the parking lot. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll explain everything soon, Nonna,” Ellie said. The police seemed to be just about finished questioning them, and already had crime scene tape strung across the doorway. She heard one of them radio something back to headquarters, mentioning a forensics team.

  Her grandmother frowned, but seemed about to duck back into the motel room when Ellie saw her gaze catch on the crumpled rear end of the yellow car. This time, the look on her grandmother’s face was utterly horrified. She shuffled out the door and down the sidewalk, her gaze fixed on the vehicle.

  “What… What…?”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Regina said. “Was that your car?” Her wide-eyed gaze darted between Ellie and Nonna. Ellie gave a short nod. Her grandmother was still staring at the vehicle in horror.

  “We have a report that you can file with your insurance,” one of the police officers said. He approached Ellie, handing her a piece of paper. “And here’s my card as well. If you can think of anything that might be relevant to the case, please give me a call.”

  “I will,” Ellie promised. He nodded, then told her that she was free to go. The other woman had been dismissed as well, and Ellie followed Regina and her grandmother over to the two vehicles. The three of them stared at the wreckage.

  “I’m so sorry, ma’am,” Regina was saying. “It’s just that I saw the body, and I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going…”

  “It’s okay,” her grandmother said faintly, her hands still clasped to her chest. “It’s okay… we can fix it.”

  “My insurance should cover the whole thing,” Regina said. “If you need any more information from me, just let me know.”

  Speechless, her grandmother simply waved the other woman away. Ellie walked up next to her, putting an arm around the older woman’s shoulders. “We’ll get it fixed,” she promised. “I’m sure there’s an auto body shop around here somewhere. It will be as good as new in just a couple of days.”

  Her grandmother nodded, but she could still see the doubt in the older woman’s eyes. Ellie sighed, then urged her to come back into the motel room with her. This trip wasn’t going how either of them had planned.

  Chapter Six

  Despite what had happened, Ellie found that she slept unexpectedly well that night. The long drive, combined with the sun, made it so that she was exhausted. Since the diner was already closed, she and her grandmother made do with a quick dinner of sandwiches and granola bars from the gas station across the street. Then, chatting for only a few minutes first, the two women got into their beds and, with the blinds closed and the air conditioning unit running, fell asleep.

  Ellie woke up early, feeling disoriented at first. When she realized where they were, the memories of what had happened the day before came rushing back to her. The damage to the car that they were supposed to be transporting home was bad enough, but thoughts of the dead man were far worse. Damage to a vehicle was nothing compared to the loss of a man’s life.

  Trying not to wake her grandmother, she got up and showered quickly, then got dressed and went outside to look at the damage to the vehicle in the daylight. She bit back a sigh. While the damage seemed to be mostly cosmetic, she knew that there was no way they could drive all the way back to Maine with it like that. They would have to get it fixed here, before going back home.

  She pulled out her cell phone reflexively, meaning to call around to see if there were any local car shops that might be able to handle the task of fixing the vehicle, then sighed when she saw the lack of phone service. She had forgotten that they were in a dead zone, which meant that she wouldn’t even be able to call Russell.

  Suddenly she remembered the phone on the desk between her and her grandmother’s beds. Feeling silly, she returned to the room and picked up the handset, frowning down at the complicated instructions next to the phone. When she saw the big red letters that said no out of area calls, she sighed and put the receiver back down.

  Maybe there is a phone I can use in the motel lobby, she thought. She left the motel room for a second time and walked over to the lobby, taking a wide detour around the room where the dead man had been found. When she let herself into the lobby, she realized that she had better see if she could extend their stay as well. She had rented the room for only one night, but it was looking like they were going to have to stay for another day or two at least.

  She imagined herself sitting on a sunny beach down in Florida with her grandmother next to her, neither of them having a care in the world besides where they were going to eat lunch. Shaking her head, she sighed. There was no use in resenting or regretting the decision to go on a road trip. Neither of them could have possibly known what was going to happen, and it had sounded like a great idea to Ellie at the time.

  Still, this was turning out to be more of an adventure than she had bargained for, and she was ready for it to be over.

  Once again, the lobby was empty, but when she rang the bell on the front desk, a middle-aged man appeared within moments. He looked tired and his face was pinched with stress. She couldn’t blame him, not considering what had happened the day before.

  “My grandmother and I are renting a room number eleven,” she told him, deciding to address the matter of their stay first. “We are driving the yellow vehicle that was in a collision yesterday, and we’re going to need to find a way to get it fixed before we go home, so it looks like we’ll have to stay for another couple of nights.”

  “Of course, of course,” he muttered distractedly. “How many nights?”

  “Let’s start with two,” she said. He nodded and punched something into the computer. “What number was your room again?”

  “Number eleven,” she said, watching as he finished registering them and preparing the machine to accept her card. Suddenly, something occurred to her. “That man who passed away yesterday… was he an employee here?”

  The man across the counter looked up at her. “Richard? No. He was a health inspector.” He frowned, seemingly lost in thought. “We knew him pretty well, though. He’s been coming around yearly for the past decade.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss, then,” she said.

  He nodded. “That means a lot, Ms.…”

  “Ward,” Ellie said. “Eleanora Ward.”

  “Charles Maple,” he said, extending a hand to shake hers. “Sorry if I seem a little bit out of it. Nothing like what happened yesterday has ever happened here before. I’ve owned this motel for twenty years, and the worst we have ever had to deal with was some theft.”

  “I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through,” Ellie said. “I’ll just pay for this, then I’ll stop bothering you.”

  “It’s no bother,” he assured her. “Once word gets around about what happened, goodness knows that we’ll need the business. I don’t know how we’ll pull through this, to be honest. Poor Annie is a mess. I don’t blame her; it was all I could do to even come in today.”

  “Is Annie your wife? Is it just the two of you that work here?”

  “It’s me and Annie, and a lady about your age named Sarah
comes in sometimes to help out.”

  Ellie slid her card through the machine, thinking back to the woman she had seen yesterday passionately kissing the health inspector. What had that been all about? She hoped that the young woman was handling his death as well as she could.

  After paying for their room, she made her way back and sat down on the bed, the sound of the shower running in the bathroom telling her where her grandmother was. She pulled out her cell phone again and paced around the room, looking for a spot with service. She had completely forgotten to ask the motel’s owner if he had a long-distance landline that she could use, but didn’t want to go back to the lobby so soon. It was obvious that he was having a difficult time, and she didn’t want to bother him more than necessary.

  After having no luck for a couple of minutes, she flipped through the book of Yellow Pages that was left on the desk between their beds and copied down the numbers of a couple of local auto shops. No matter how much the man’s death was bothering her, she knew that it wasn’t her responsibility to solve it, so she decided to focus on what she could do instead; finding a way to repair the car so they could make their way back to Kittiport.

  “Do you want to go to that diner for breakfast?” her grandmother asked when she came out of the bathroom.

  “Good morning to you, too,” Ellie said, giving the older woman a small smile. “And sure, that sounds like a good idea.” She’d had enough gas station food and fast food for a lifetime, and would be glad to sit at a real restaurant for a change.

  It was lucky that the diner was so close by. She shot another glance at the damaged yellow car, then began walking across the parking lot with her grandmother. What was a short and easy walk for her, was a little bit more strenuous for the older woman. About halfway across the parking lot, Ellie had to let her grandmother – who had refused to bring her walker with her to the diner – lean on her. Letting Nonna take her arm, they walked the rest of the way together. Her grandmother, who had already asked all the questions she could think of about the man’s death the evening before, was oddly silent as they made their way toward the restaurant. Ellie wondered what she was thinking, but decided to wait until they were seated to ask her. She didn’t want her grandmother to waste her breath answering questions, not when she was already beginning to look so taxed.

  Not for the first time, Ellie was suddenly struck by just how old the other woman was. It was so easy to forget her grandmother’s age; most of the time, her mind was sharp, and despite the walker that she had to use occasionally now, she seemed to be able to get around pretty well on her own. Ellie felt a twinge of sadness. She wished that she had been able to know the woman when she had been younger and in the prime of her life. Her grandmother was an impressive person, and Ellie knew that there was no one else she would rather have beside her during a trip like this… other than her husband, of course. Suddenly, she missed him terribly, and swore to herself that she would find a way to call him as soon as possible.

  Chapter Seven

  The little diner was nicer inside than Ellie expected. It was empty, though she could hear voices in the kitchen, and smell the promising scent of something fried. Looking around for a sign that indicated whether or not they should seat themselves, she saw nothing, and with a shrug, led her grandmother to a table near the register. A moment later, a middle-aged woman came out, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, and a smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Ellie recognized her immediately. She was the same woman who had been kissing the health inspector in the motel.

  “What can I get you?”

  “I’ll have orange juice, please,” Ellie said.

  “I’ll have the same,” Nonna said.

  “All right, I’ll go get your drinks while you look over the menus. The breakfast special this week is a double stack of pancakes with bacon, eggs, and hash browns on the side. We’ve also got some lovely French toast, though. It’s my personal favorite.”

  Smiling, Ellie took the menus from her. She felt a sudden pang of homesickness as she thought of Papa Pacelli’s in Kittiport. She always loved visiting other restaurants, of course, but nothing could compare to the pizzeria that she had worked in for the last two years. No matter how much she tried, she could never stop comparing her own restaurant to other people’s restaurants. While the diner was nice and clean, and smelled absolutely wonderful, she privately thought that the pizzeria’s atmosphere was much more welcoming.

  Of course, she would never mention it. She tended to avoid talking about her own restaurant when she was out to eat. She didn’t want people to worry that she was being judgmental. Most of the time, all she really wanted was to enjoy the food.

  The waitress walked away to get their drink orders, and Ellie and Nonna pored over the menu. Even though a lot of the options looked good, in the end, Ellie decided that she wanted to try the French toast. Russell had made it for her the day before the trip, and she thought it would remind her pleasantly of home.

  When the waitress returned with their two glasses of orange juice, she and her grandmother were both ready to order. Her grandmother ordered a simple breakfast of an English muffin, eggs cooked Sunnyside up, and two sausage links. Ellie went all out with French toast, hash browns, and bacon.

  “Coming right up,” the waitress said, flashing them a quick smile. “Are you two new to the area? I think I’ve seen you before…”

  This last was directed to Ellie. She nodded. “We’re staying at Maple’s Motel,” she said. “We’ll be here for a couple of days.”

  “Where are you from?” the other woman asked, her voice curious. “You have a little bit of an accent that I’m not familiar with. I never travel anywhere, so it’s always neat to meet new people.”

  Ellie grinned at that. Apparently, she had picked up a little bit of the northern Maine accent in her two years in Kittiport.

  “We’re from Maine,” Ellie explained. “We’re taking a road trip back from Florida.” The waitress let out a low whistle. “You’re a long way from home. Well, I hope you enjoy our weather. You should come back for lunch or dinner; we serve the best hamburgers around. We’re making a key lime pie for tonight that will knock your socks off, too.”

  Ellie agreed, thinking that they probably didn’t have much choice. With the car out of service, they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere unless they walked, and she didn’t think that there were any other restaurants close by. Thinking of the car’s current condition, she remembered the phone calls that she had to make, and she jumped up, following the waitress after giving her grandmother a hurried explanation about where she was going.

  “Excuse me,” she called out. The waitress, Sarah, turned around. “Do you have a landline that I could use? My cell phone doesn’t get any service here, and I need to call my husband and see if I can find a body shop that will work on our car. Someone ran into it in the parking lot last night.”

  “Of course,” the woman said. “Follow me, it's in the hallway between here and the kitchen. If you want, I can give you a recommendation for the best body shop in the area.”

  “Any recommendations would be great,” Ellie replied.

  She dialed Russell’s number while the woman went into the other room to get the number to the auto shop for her. She breathed a sigh of relief when her husband answered. She hadn’t been able to speak with him since yesterday morning, and she hadn’t realized just how much she had missed him.

  “It’s me,” she said when he answered. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any cell phone service here, or I would have called you last night.”

  “Ellie,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’ve been trying to call you. I was so worried.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get in touch with you earlier. There was so much going on, and by the time we finally were done for the evening, I was just wiped out. Is everything okay there?”

  “Everything’s fine,” he reassured her. “I stopped in at the pizzeria for dinner last night, and every
thing there is fine. The animals are doing well too. Of course, everyone misses you. How is the road trip going?”

  Ellie took a deep breath, knowing that her husband wouldn’t be happy with what she had to say, but at the same time, knowing that she had to tell him. “Actually, there has been a complication…”

  Russell was silent for a long moment before replying after she finished her story. At last, he blew out another breath of air and said, “I have no idea how you keep finding yourself in these situations, Ellie.”

  Stung, she said, “It’s not my fault. I wasn’t even the one who found the body. That was Regina – the woman who ran into the car.”

  “I’m not saying it’s your fault,” he said soothingly. “I’m just worried about you, that’s all. I hate the thought of not being able to keep you safe. It’s my job to protect you.”

  Touched, Ellie said, “I know. And I wanted to call you as soon as it happened, but like I said, my phone didn’t have any service. The phone in the motel room doesn’t do long distance.”

  “Do you want me to fly out there?”

  Ellie hesitated. The truth was, she would love to have Russell there, but logically, it didn’t make sense. He would have to take time off of work, and she knew how difficult that was for him. Plus, he would also have to find someone to watch the animals, and she didn’t know if their regular pet sitter would be available on such short notice. She didn’t want to have to worry about the animals on top of everything else.

  “No, it’s fine,” she said. “Nonna and I are just going to stay for a couple of days until the car is fixed, then we’ll head straight home. I’ll be okay.”

  “Well, maybe I can at least help from here. What did you say the man’s name was? And what did the crime scene look like?”

  “His name was Richard. I don’t know his last name. It looked to me as though he had been stabbed, but I didn’t get a good look at his wounds. He was just inside one of the motel rooms, and the door had been left open. I didn’t see much besides…”