Killer Crust (A Pizza Lovers Mystery)

by Chris Cavender

  I got the message, and I saw that some of the other contestants were nodding their approval of this change in rules. Had there been complaints about our second entry for the regular crust phase of the competition, especially after we’d taken second place? Knowing some of the teams we were going up against, it wouldn’t have surprised me one bit.

  That was fine with me tonight, though. I didn’t need any more second chances. I nodded my agreement along with everyone else, and then Jack smiled. “Good. I’m glad we got that settled. I’m going to make an announcement, and then we’ll turn off the big timer.”

  Jack Acre turned to the crowd as we rejoined our teams, smiled, and then said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to thank you for taking time out of your evening to join us, and we won’t waste any more of your evening than we have to waiting for the full hour to pass. As soon as the final pizza comes out of the oven, the judging will begin.”

  Someone from the back of the room shouted out, “Where’s Luigi?”

  Jack held up his hands. “He’s been unavoidably detained, but as his second in command, I’m taking over for him in his place. There’s no need to worry. The contest will go on.”

  There were a few murmurs from the crowd, but there wasn’t really anything anyone could do about it. Where was Luigi, though? He loved the limelight; that much was clear. So then why had he given up his opportunity to have a captive audience? It must have been important; that was all that I could say.

  Maddy was still staring at our oven when I rejoined her.

  “How’s it looking, Sis?” I asked.

  “We’re good so far,” she said as she kept her glances darting from the oven to the power cord and then back again, “but I’m not lowering my guard for one second. Has anybody pulled their pizzas yet?”

  I looked around, and saw that the team from Charlotte was cutting their pizza already. It had an abundance of ham and pineapple on top, and the aroma wafting over to our station was heavenly. “The Charlotte team went Hawaiian,” I said.

  “I can smell it from here. Wow, that’s going to be tough to beat. How about the Raleigh team?”

  I glanced over at them and said, “Nothing yet. Asheville’s pulled theirs out, though. They went with a kitchen sink pizza this round.”

  Maddy frowned. “How is a thin crust possibly going to hold it all?”

  I had the same concern. There was a danger of losing toppings if a thin crust was overtopped. Then I looked closer at their pizza. “They’ve done a fine petite cut on all of the veggies. It looks pretty amazing,” I admitted.

  I noticed one of the twins removing their pizza, and my heart sank a little. “The Raleigh team went with straight cheese, too. Their pizza looks amazing.” It did too, with bubbling brown and golden cheese covering the top of a perfect-looking crust. I knew right then that we didn’t have a chance tonight against this competition.

  “I’m not feeling so sure about my choice anymore,” I said.

  “Well, on the plus side, ours is almost finished, too. Let’s not give up yet. Get the Parmesan and the grater ready.”

  It was our final touch, a light brush of olive oil on the exposed crust, and then a fine grating of fresh Parmesan cheese. Hopefully it would be enough to set us apart from the rest of the competition. I pulled our pizza out of the oven, Maddy and I put the finishing touches on it together, and then I cut it and plated a piece.

  Jack nodded when he saw that we were finished, and he motioned us all to present a slice of each of our pizzas. I was so nervous my hands were shaking, but I managed to hold onto the plate as we each carried a slice to Jack where he sat alone at the judge’s table. He looked pleased to be in charge, and I had to wonder if he’d found a way to distract Luigi himself just so he could preside over the festivities instead of his boss.

  We put our plates down in front of him. He took a single bite of each slice, and then made several notes on his judging sheet.

  When he was finished, he stood and addressed the crowd. “Tonight’s fourth place entry is the team from Charlotte.” He said it with a hint of satisfaction, as though the outcome had been predetermined in his mind. So much for Tina Lance’s theory that the contest had been rigged. Or was the fix just in with Luigi? Without their silent business partner judging, it looked as though they might have to win this contest on their own abilities. That explained why the Charlotte team looked shocked by the announcement, as well they should. They’d gone from first place to last, putting them now squarely in the middle of the pack. “The third place entry tonight is from Timber Ridge.”

  I felt my heart sink a little. I must have made a mistake going with such a simple pizza. My fears were confirmed as Jack awarded second place to the team from Raleigh. That made the Asheville pizzeria the winner for the night. The tension melted a little between the husband and wife team as they accepted the crowd’s applause, but it was clearly still there.

  Jack finished up by saying, “Thank you all for coming. By my calculations, the race is dead even right now. In other words, the competition is wide open, and our contestants are in a dead heat as we go into the next round. Join us tomorrow morning for the deep dish entries, and again tomorrow afternoon for the final stage. Finally, be sure to join us tomorrow evening when we crown our champion pizza maker and award our cash prize.”

  Folks were starting to stand when our chief of police trotted up the stairs and took the stage rather unexpectedly. He grabbed the microphone from Jack and addressed the crowd. “If everyone would please sit back down, I have an announcement to make.”

  There were quite a few comments from the crowd, but I knew that Kevin Hurley wasn’t about to say anything until he was good and ready. He glanced back at Maddy and me and I could see an apology in his glance for just a split second.

  What was that about?

  I found out soon enough as Kevin addressed the crowd. “I’m afraid I have some bad news for you folks tonight. There’s been a murder here at the hotel today, and at the moment, nobody’s going anywhere.”

  Chapter 7

  “A murder?” I asked as the crowd began to rumble. “Did somebody kill Luigi?” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but all of the contestants on the stage looked straight at me, and to make matters worse, Kevin did himself.

  He shook his head in my direction with a look of consternation on his face, and then turned back to the crowd. “I’m sorry to say that tonight’s host, George Vincent—otherwise known as Luigi DeMarcos—was killed in the contestants’ greenroom sometime in the three hours between the afternoon session and the beginning of this evening’s competition. My officers will be taking your names and checking your identifications as you leave the auditorium, so be patient with them. We’ll try to get you all processed as soon as we can, but this is going to take a while.” There were more grumblings from the audience, but Kevin asked as though he had perfect silence as he added, “I need to ask that if anyone had contact with Luigi at any point today, or went anywhere near the greenroom just over there, please step forward so we can have a conversation about it. Otherwise, everyone else should find their way to one of the exits.”

  For the most part, the crowd headed to the doors in the rear where Kevin’s staff was waiting for them. He approached us on stage first, and I saw David and Bob heading for the stage as well, only to be stopped by one of Kevin’s deputies. I wanted to tell her to let them up, but I wasn’t in a position to make any requests at the moment.

  Kevin gestured to the other contestants, and then gathered us together and said, “I need to speak with each of you individually. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can go back to your rooms.”

  “How did he die?” Kenny from Charlotte asked.

  “Are you sure it was murder?” one of the Raleigh twins asked at nearly the same time.

  Kevin held up his hands. “I’m sorry, but you all must have misunderstood me. I’m not answering questions right now; I’m asking them. I’m going to have to ask you to stop tal
king, to me and to each other, until I can interview you all.” He pointed to me and said, “Eleanor, you’re first.”

  “I’m going with her,” Maddy said, taking my hand in hers as though it were an unbreakable bond.

  “If they are going to together, then we are, too,” Jeff said. “You aren’t going to separate us, either.”

  “I said one at a time, and I meant it,” Kevin said. “Eleanor, let’s go.”

  I turned to my sister and said, “It’s going to be fine, Maddy. I’ll be okay.”

  “You don’t have to say anything to him, you know,” she said as she looked at Bob, who was still at the steps being blocked from joining us. “You’re entitled to an attorney.”

  “I don’t need one. I didn’t do anything wrong,” I said. It might have been a foolish response to make, but I didn’t care. If Kevin wanted to talk to me, I wasn’t going to hide behind Bob to keep him from asking me questions.

  “Please?” I asked, and Maddy dropped my hand.

  “Thanks,” I said as I followed Kevin to the other greenroom on the opposite side of the stage. I was pretty happy that I wouldn’t have to go over to the scene of the crime. The spaces were identical, though they were being used for different purposes. This room, instead of having a table, chairs, and snacks, was some kind of storage area. There were Christmas decorations stashed there, along with Valentine’s Day hearts, and banners and buntings for the Fourth of July. Someone had crammed everything to one side and they’d jammed a small folding card table and two chairs into the remaining space.

  I took the seat across from Kevin and said, “Ask away.”

  “Why did you assume that it was Luigi who had been killed when I made the announcement?” he asked, all semblance of affability gone from his voice.

  “Why wouldn’t I? He was missing his own contest for goodness’ sake, and if you knew the man on any level at all, nothing short of murder could have kept him off that stage and wallowing in the spotlight.”

  “Exactly how well did you know him, Eleanor?” Kevin asked, taking out the notebook and pen that were constantly with him.

  I considered how to answer that, and finally said, “Not all that well, but our paths crossed for a long time. He tried to buy the Slice from me right after Joe died, but I turned him down cold. I might as well tell you now that we didn’t leave things on good terms, so I was surprised when he invited me to participate in the contest.”

  Kevin jotted that down, and I knew that he’d be digging into my past soon. “Why did he hold the contest here? Do you know?”

  “I asked him that question myself, as a matter of fact.”

  That piqued his interest. “What did he tell you?”

  “He just said that there were reasons that didn’t concern me, and then he wouldn’t tell me anything else. Why, do you think that it’s important?”

  “It could be,” he said. “Luigi’s business is based in Charlotte, and there are a ton of venues he could have chosen there instead of coming to Timber Ridge. I didn’t understand him coming here from the start, to be honest with you.”

  “I guess the only people who have a chance at answering your question are his employees or Gina herself.”

  “I’ll follow up with all of them,” he said as he made another note. After a moment’s pause, he asked, “Eleanor, when’s the last time you saw him alive?”

  The question had a chilling ring to it. While I’d heard his voice upstairs on our hotel room floor, I hadn’t actually laid eyes on him. “You want to know when I last saw him? It had to be just after the afternoon contest was finished,” I admitted. I’d told him the truth, at least the literal fact even if I was doing my best to obfuscate the truth. If I was lucky, he’d blow right past it.

  “I’m curious. Why did you place the emphasis on seeing him just now?” Kevin asked, not missing a beat. “Did he call you after the first stage was judged?”

  “No,” I admitted, “but Maddy and I were going to our rooms and we overheard him threatening someone in the hallway.”

  “Were you planning on keeping that little tidbit to yourself?” he asked.

  “I was just answering the question you asked me,” I protested.

  I could tell that he wanted to say something else, but after a moment, he let it go and asked me, “What time exactly did that occur? What did he say and who was he talking to?”

  I told him everything that Maddy and I had heard, and then said, “You can ask Maddy for confirmation if you want to.”

  “I will, right after we’re finished.” Kevin took down my statement verbatim, and then asked, “And you honestly don’t have any idea who he was talking to?”

  I shrugged. “We couldn’t see or hear anyone else from where we were hiding in the little ice and vending machine room, but after we heard that Luigi was gone, Maddy and I knocked on doors to see if we could find out who it might have been.”

  “You two just can’t help yourselves from snooping, can you?” he asked, a touch of ire in his voice as he spoke.

  “The threats were real, Chief, and Maddy and I wanted to know what was going on.”

  “Who did you talk to as you were interviewing suspects?” Kevin asked.

  “We spoke with Jack Acre first. I think we woke him up from his nap, as a matter of fact.”

  “Okay, who else was there?”

  I didn’t want to throw Jeff and Sandy under the bus, but I really didn’t have any choice. “We spoke to the team from Asheville. Actually, they were fighting when we got there.”

  Kevin perked up again. “Do you happen to know what it was about?”

  “Luigi was clearly their topic of conversation when we overheard them fighting. Jeff was upset about the way the man was acting toward Sandy.”

  “Flirting, do you mean?”

  “It sounded as though it went way beyond anything innocent, and Jeff was clearly still furious with him,” I finally admitted. I felt like a rat doing it, but Kevin needed to know everything if he was going to investigate this murder.

  “Interesting,” he said as he jotted it all down. After the police chief finished, he looked at me and asked, “Can you account for your time between two and five this afternoon?”

  I knew that was the window of opportunity for the killer, and realized that Chief Hurley was asking me for my alibi. “I was with Maddy every second, but you’re going to want more than that, aren’t you?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind.”

  I thought about it, and then gave Kevin a nearly minute-by-minute accounting. He whistled as he finished writing it all down. “That’s the most detailed alibi I’ve ever gotten.”

  “We were busy, and nearly the entire time, we were with other people.”

  “Then the magic time right now is between three-thirty and five,” he said.

  He checked his notebook, and after a moment, Kevin started to ask me his next question. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he’d accept what I’d told him at face value, but I knew that as soon as he checked out my story, he’d believe me. He had no other choice, actually, and I was glad for every encounter Maddy and I had that afternoon.

  Kevin looked up from his notebook. “Let’s get back to your room search. Did you speak with anyone else while you were knocking on doors?”

  “We saw the Raleigh twins, but they brushed past us on the way out of their room, and they made it pretty clear that they had no interest in talking to us. After that, we knocked on a few more doors, but nobody else answered. Hang on, that’s not strictly true. We got one guy who wasn’t there for the contest, so we stopped trying to figure out who Luigi might have been talking to after that.”

  “You two were busy,” he said. “Think long and hard before you answer my next question, Eleanor. Is there anything else you want to add that might help me in my investigation?”

  I hated being such a blabbermouth, but Kevin had a right to know. “When we were in the restaurant eating our meal, a woman named Tina Lance approached us. She’s
a reporter from a paper in Charlotte none of us had ever heard of, and she said that the contest was fixed from the start.”

  “Did she go into any more detail?”

  I nodded. “Actually, she told Maddy, Bob, David, and me that Luigi was partnering with the Charlotte team, and that they were going to win the contest no matter who made the best pizzas for the competition.”

  “Did you catch the name of her newspaper?” he asked.

  “It was the Charlotte Touch. She gave me one of her business cards,” I said as I pulled it out of my blue jeans pocket.

  Kevin took it, recorded all of the information from it into his notebook, and then handed the card back to me. “Wow, I can’t believe all you were able to find out even before we found Luigi’s body.”

  “You have to remember something. We weren’t investigating a murder at that point. Maddy and I were just trying to find out if we had a chance of winning the grand prize. I suppose that’s all off now,” I said, realizing that all of the renovations I’d been planning in my mind had just gone up in smoke.

  Kevin frowned, and then said, “I’m not so sure that’s true. This fellow Jack Acre; you said he was in charge when Luigi didn’t show up, right?”

  “Sure, he ran tonight’s contest round all by himself, but I can’t imagine he has the authority to continue it with the company founder dead.”

  The police chief shrugged. “Don’t give up hope yet. I’m going to see if I can get him to carry on with the competition without Luigi.”

  “Why would you do that?” I asked. “You’re not just going to ask him as a favor to me, are you?”

  He shook his head. “Think about it, Eleanor. If I can keep my suspects here at Tree-Line without being forced to do anything in my official capacity, I have a better chance of solving this murder before everyone scatters to the four winds. Are there any other suspects you might know about that you haven’t shared with me yet?”

  I considered it, and then said, “Well, I heard Luigi scolding Jack Acre and Frank Vincent when I first showed up. They’re two of his top employees, and Frank in particular looked at his brother with open contempt when he didn’t think Luigi was watching. There’s also a woman hanging around the contest who was spitting mad at Luigi for dropping her from the competition. I don’t know her name, or anything about her, but you might want to find her and ask about her alibi.”