Pretzel Pizza Murder

by Patti Benning

  “I just don’t understand,” Nonna said at last. “Why would he put you in the will? After everything you’ve done?”

  “Well, it was part of the agreement for the money I lent him,” Marietta said casually.

  “The money?” her grandmother asked, looking up at her sister-in-law, her brows furrowing.

  “Of course. I lent him almost twenty thousand dollars to keep the pizzeria running. Since he’s my brother, I didn’t make him pay me back, but I did ask him for this. The revenue from the pizzeria will pay me back over time. I’ll expect what I’m owed from the past year, of course.”

  Both Ellie and Nonna were staring at her now. “What? You didn’t know he had to borrow money from me?” she asked innocently.

  “He always told me that the pizzeria was doing so well,” Nonna said. “When would he have had to borrow money from you? And for what?”

  “It was during the recession. He decided to keep the pizzeria open and sell the food for lower prices instead of closing. He got into some serious debt and had to have me bail him out or lose the restaurant.”

  Ellie and her grandmother were stunned into silence. Orson shifted, seeming uncomfortable with his wife’s behavior, but not willing to say anything.

  Neither of them had known any of this. Arthur Pacelli had gone into debt and hadn’t gone to his wife, but to his estranged sister?

  Ellie shook her head. She refused to believe it. None of this made any sense. Marietta had to be lying. With any luck, they would get to the truth tomorrow and that would be the end of it.

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  Normally Ellie’s grandmother was a wonderful host. Ellie had never seen her be so much as rude to a guest, but Marietta was a different story. Nonna grumbled and complained the entire time that she was setting up the guest bedroom for her sister-in-law and her husband. If looks could kill, both women would be long dead. She didn’t know how anyone would be able to stand sleeping in the house tonight, but eventually they did manage to fall asleep, though Ellie’s rest was fitful.

  She woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the front door slamming. She sat up, her heart pounding, until she remembered their unexpected guests. She listened, but heard nothing else. With a sigh, she laid back down, more eager than ever to get everything sorted out the next day.

  A night’s rest didn’t do anything to change the situation, though it improved her mood slightly. Things at breakfast were just as tense between the two women, despite the beautiful meal that Nonna made. She wasn’t sure, but she thought that her grandmother was showing off. Orson kept quiet, apparently uneager to involve himself in his wife’s feud with her family. Ellie didn’t blame him; she barely said a word herself during the meal.

  Ellie found herself disliking Marietta intensely, but she couldn’t tell for certain whether it was due to the woman’s personality – she did seem to be both arrogant and self-righteous – or the fact that her grandmother was so outspoken against her. She wasn’t too worried about the outcome of their visit with the lawyer later that day. She thought that chances were Marietta had somehow forged the will. She didn’t believe that her grandfather would have done something like give someone else part of the pizzeria without telling his wife. That wasn’t like the Arthur Pacelli she had heard so many stories of.

  Somehow, the four of them made it out of the house on time that morning. Ellie drove all of them into town, even though her aunt had her own car. She was impressed with how well Marietta was doing. She was Arthur’s older sister, which meant that she was also a few years older than Nonna. She was still driving, and seemed able to get around by herself pretty well. Ellie couldn’t understand why someone her age, someone who obviously had a lot of money and was doing well, would want the pizzeria so badly. Was it just the principle of the matter? After getting to know the woman a little bit better since the night before, she wouldn’t be surprised. What other reason could the older woman have for wanting to be involved in the pizzeria? Her husband seemed more embarrassed by it all than anything, making her think that he couldn’t care less about who owned the pizzeria.

  Ellie watched the older woman’s face in the rearview mirror as they drove through town. She knew that the Pacelli’s had been in Kittiport for generations, so that meant that Marietta must have grown up here. She looked for some sign of recognition, or sadness at all of the long-lost memories the town must have, but saw nothing other than a keen interest in where they were going. Even when they drove by Papa Pacelli’s she saw only a fleeting expression of curiosity on the woman’s face. She could see why Nonna didn’t like her very much. She didn’t seem like a warm person at all. She knew what she wanted, and she was going to get it no matter who she had to trample in the process.

  In fact, she reminded Ellie just a little bit of the person that she had been back when she lived in Chicago. Someone who valued business and money more than human friendships. Ellie had never been that bad, and she had never hurt anyone on purpose, but she had definitely been focused enough on her career that she had let her personal relationships slide. Is that what had happened between Marietta and Arthur? She would probably never know, not for sure. She would never be able to get her grandfather’s side of the story.

  The lawyer’s office was in a house in town, the lower story of which had been transformed into offices. She had only met the man once before, back when they had finalized putting the pizzeria in her name. He had been a nice man, soft-spoken and intelligent, and he was more than happy to get them an appointment on short notice. He had known the Pacelli’s for decades, and had been just as shocked as Ellie when he heard about the second will.

  “How long ago did Papa make the will? The one that you knew about?” Ellie asked her grandmother.

  “Just after the pizzeria opened, twenty years ago. He wanted to make sure his children and I got everything that he wanted us to. He left the house, the pizzeria, and most of the savings to me, and split the rest between the two children. The Eleanora, of course, stayed in the family as well.”

  “The will he gave me, he made ten years ago,” Marietta said from the back. “I’m surprised he didn’t tell you, Ann. I thought that the two of you were close?”

  Ellie felt a rush of protectiveness towards her grandmother. She was beginning to see why the older woman disliked Marietta so much.

  “He did tell me everything, which is why I know that you’re the one that’s lying,” Nonna said. She crossed her arms and looked out the window. Ellie, glancing over at her, thought that her expression was less certain than her voice was. She felt a stirring of uncertainty for the first time since speaking to the lawyer over the phone. What if her grandmother was wrong? Were they about to lose everything?

  What if the will is real? she wondered. I would have my aunt as a business partner. I just met her yesterday, how am I supposed to run a restaurant with her? She had no doubt that everything would change if Marietta got what she wanted. The older woman didn’t seem like the type to want to sit back while Ellie remained fully involved. She had already mentioned reconsidering opening the second pizzeria, something that Ellie knew she could never let happen. Linda was depending on it, and she herself had already put a lot of money into the restaurant.

  “Here we are,” she said, pulling into the parking lot adjacent to the lawyer’s office. She shut off the engine and forced herself to take a deep, slow breath. It was too early to start panicking. Chances were, the lawyer would see through whatever Marietta was trying to pull, and that would be the end of it.

  Telling herself not to be so paranoid, Ellie got out of the car and walked around to the other side to open the passenger’s door for her grandmother. She helped her nonna get out, then joined Marietta and Orson on the sidewalk. Giving her grandmother’s arm a comforting squeeze, Ellie took a deep breath and led the way inside.

  “Hello?” she called out as she walked into the building. The front door was unlocked, but inside it was dark and silent. Had th
ey gotten the time wrong? Surely someone would be there. He had agreed to meet them early as a special favor. Perhaps he had forgotten, or had something come up. She pulled out her phone just in case she had missed a call, but there was nothing.

  “Which office is his?” Marietta asked, looking around.

  “I think it’s down that hallway,” Ellie said, pointing the way for the older woman. She looked around the empty, dark waiting room once more, shrugged, then followed Marietta down the hall with Nonna close behind her. Marietta stopped at the door with the lawyer’s name on it and knocked briskly. There was no answer. She tried the knob, which turned easily, and pushed the door open, walking inside as if she owned the place. Ellie heard a strangled gasp a moment later, and Marietta backed quickly out of the room.

  “What is it?” Ellie asked, struggling to see around the woman in the narrow hallway, which was made more difficult by the fact that Orson had rushed forward too.

  “He’s… he’s in there,” the older woman said in a strangled voice.

  Ellie finally managed to make her way around the other woman. She leaned through the doorway and felt her blood run cold. Sure enough, the lawyer was at his desk – slumped over, with a congealing pool of blood underneath his head.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * * *

  Even Marietta was silenced by the shock of finding a dead body. She, Orson, Ellie, and Nonna waited outside the building for the police to show up. It didn’t take long. Kittiport was a small town, and the sheriff’s department was right in the center of it, only a couple of blocks away from where the lawyer’s office was situated.

  Ellie was glad to see Russell’s familiar truck pull into the parking lot. Not just because he was her fiancé, but because she knew he was one of the best detectives in the area. He loved his job, and he took it very seriously. It was one of the things that had originally attracted her to him. Not many people were as dedicated to their jobs as he was. The sheriff’s election was coming up in the next year, and she knew that he would get it. No one else could ever compete with him as the sheriff of Kittiport.

  The four of them waited outside with Bethany, one of Russell’s deputies, while he and Liam went into the building to take a look at the crime scene. Ellie shivered, feeling cold even though the sun was out. She had spoken to the lawyer just yesterday. How long ago had he been killed? More importantly, who had done it? She wondered what sort of cases the man had been working on. Had he been killed because of his work, or for some other reason?

  “We’ll have to find another lawyer, you know,” Marietta said suddenly. “I’m not just going to let this drop. Even if it takes months for them to go through all of his case files, I’ll stick around. I want what’s mine.”

  “You were always so selfish,” Nonna said. “A man just died. You finalizing your claim on half of my husband’s pizzeria is nowhere near as important as that.”

  “Please, you two,” Orson said. “Can we not argue right now? We can figure all of this personal stuff out later.”

  Marietta frowned, but fell silent. Ellie stared at her for a long moment, remembering the sound of the door slamming the night before. Something tickled at the back of her mind, but before she could latch onto it, Russell reappeared in the doorway of the building.

  “Ellie, can the four of you meet me at the sheriff’s department? I’ll help Liam finish up here, then I’ll meet you there. You know the drill by now, I’m sure. Ask Mrs. Lafferre to make you each a cup of coffee if you would like. There should be some donuts left from this morning, too. Make yourself comfortable in my office.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Good luck. I hope you guys find something that will help you solve this case quickly while you’re looking around his office. He helped my grandmother and my grandfather a lot, and he didn’t deserve to go this way.”

  “We all knew Zane at the department too. He was a good guy.” Her fiancé frowned. “It’s never easy when it’s someone you know personally.”

  “I’m sorry.” Ellie bit her lip. It was sometimes easy to forget how well Russell knew the small town of which he was responsible. Many of the cases he dealt with involved people that he knew personally.

  “The only person that has to be sorry is the one that did this.”

  Ellie drove herself and her companions the short distance to the sheriff’s department. She helped her grandmother out of the car again, and then the four of them slowly made their way up to the door. Mrs. Lafferre, the elderly secretary, greeted them with a smile.

  “Well, here are two of my favorite Pacelli women,” the secretary said with a scowl toward Marietta.

  “Orson Brown, it’s been quite a while,” Mrs. Lafferre said. She shook her head, looking amused. “Well, what can I help the four of you with? Russell just ran out on a call, I’m not sure when he’ll be back.”

  “I’m actually the one that made that call,” Ellie said somewhat reluctantly. Her face was a familiar one at the sheriff’s department, and it wasn’t just because she visited Russell a lot. She seemed to run into an inordinate amount of trouble compared to the other citizens of the town.

  “Oh,” the other woman said. “I see. I take it he will be meeting you here soon, then?”

  “Yes, just as soon as he ties things up at the scene of the crime,” Ellie said. “He wanted us to wait in his office.”

  “Of course. You know the way, head on back. First, the four of you can help yourselves to some donuts. Liam picked them up from his cousin’s shop in the next town over. They’ll have to do for now, since the coffee shop closed up. It looks like I won’t be getting any of my favorite croissants for a while.”

  Ellie winced. She had been instrumental in the closing of the sheriff department’s favorite coffee shop. It hadn’t been her fault, of course, but at the same time, if she hadn’t stuck her nose in business that it didn’t belong in, the shop might never have been shut down. Granted, the owner had deserved every day of her prison sentence, but she sure would miss that coffee. Trying not to think too much about the lattes she would never get a chance to taste again, she grabbed a donut for herself and her grandmother, then led the way down the hall, leaving Marietta and her husband to catch up.

  Russell’s office felt like a second home to her. He had a huge mahogany desk sitting in the center of the room, and behind it was a window that looked out over the marina, though the blinds were drawn right now. She let the two older women sit in the comfortable leather chairs while she and Orson stood. She tried the donut, which was a little bit too dry for her taste, then sighed. Everything was a mess. Ever since she had gotten home the night before and found her long-lost aunt waiting at the house, nothing had gone right.

  Before too long, Russell joined them. Ellie introduced him to her Aunt Marietta and her uncle Orson, and then he took them one by one into an interview room to ask them questions. Ellie went first, leaving Nonna and her two in-laws alone in his office.

  “Did the four of you have an appointment to see Mr. Drescher?” he asked as he sat down.

  “Yes,” Ellie said. She took a few minutes to catch him up on the suspicious second will and Marietta’s claim to half of the pizzeria. “We were supposed to meet him this morning. I didn’t call to confirm since I had just spoken to him last night.”

  “Okay, maybe we can get a timeline on this,” Russell said. “Do you know the exact time that you spoke with him last night?”

  “My phone probably says.” She reached into her purse and took out her cell phone. It only took her a few seconds to find what she was looking for – Zane Drescher was the last person she had called. “I spoke with him at nine-thirty last night,” she said. “I was just going to leave him a voicemail, but he was still in the office and he answered the phone. He said it was fine if we came in at eight this morning. He knows my grandmother well, and he said he didn’t mind making a special appointment for her. I mentioned the will to him, and he said he didn’t know anything about it.”

  “Very odd,” Russ
ell said, making a quick mark on his notepad. “How about you walk me through everything that happened this morning, then I’ll see everyone else for questioning? I’m sure all four of you want to get home as soon as possible. This isn’t the way that anyone wants to spend their morning.”

  It wasn’t, but Ellie wasn’t looking forward to going back home either. They still hadn’t resolved anything about the mysterious second will, and she had no idea what was going to happen.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  * * *

  Ellie was reluctant to leave Nonna home alone with her in-laws. The two women obviously hated each other, but she had no choice. She had to go into work. The pizzeria wouldn’t run itself, after all.

  She was already feeling frazzled when Clara showed up at the front door just after the restaurant opened. She wasn’t scheduled to work that day, so Ellie knew immediately that something was going on.