Killer Crust (A Pizza Lovers Mystery)

by Chris Cavender

  “That was the easiest part. The pills didn’t always work right away, or every time he took them,” Jack said smugly.

  As I started to put the pill bottle down on the table, Maddy asked him, “But why did you want to kill him in the first place?”

  “I didn’t know that the fool had changed our agreement behind my back,” Acre said with disgust.

  “You were the one we heard arguing with Luigi in the hallway the night before the contest, weren’t you?”

  “I figured you must have heard something, but I guessed that you wouldn’t even think to suspect me after I feigned sleep when you pounded on my door.”

  “What were you fighting about? Control?” I asked.

  “The man was insane. He warned me that he was going to change everything at Luigi’s, but he wouldn’t tell me anything specific about what he was going to do. I pushed him for more information, and I even tried to use something I had on him as leverage, but he shocked me and wouldn’t back down. I couldn’t believe it when he actually threatened me. If I’d known the truth at that point, I probably would have killed him on the spot. Can you believe he’s letting that moron brother of his run things? The guy gets a million bucks and control of the business. It was all meant to be mine, and now that idiot is going to ruin my company.”

  “Frank is smarter than you give him credit for,” I said. “He might just fool you.”

  “Oh, please, don’t bother trying to defend the man with your dying breath.”

  “You still haven’t explained how you think you’re going to get away with this,” I said. I inched forward, as though anticipating his answer, but actually, I was just trying to get closer to the knife on the table.

  “Actually, it’s pretty neat. I have more than one gun with me, and one of you is about to be unmasked as Luigi’s true killer while the other gets shot trying to avenge her sister’s death. The only question is which one of you wants to go first.”

  “Neither one of them,” a voice from the back said. I looked to see Hank White standing there in the shadows, but to my dismay, he didn’t have a gun with him. All he had was the heavy-duty flashlight we’d borrowed earlier.

  “What are you going to do, blind me with that?” Jack asked, laughing as he gestured toward the light with his handgun.

  Hank flipped on the light at that moment and sent a powerful and concentrated beam into Jack Acre’s eyes. Acre tried to shield his gaze from it with one hand as he fired a shot in Hank’s general direction.

  I knew that it had hit its mark when I saw the impact of the bullet, and watched Hank’s shoulder jerk as he fell.

  Without hesitation I grabbed the knife on the table and lunged at the former vice president of marketing and sales for Luigi’s. I’d been aiming for his chest, but it struck his arm instead. I realized that it might still work though, as the gun clattered to the stage.

  At that moment, Maddy jammed her personal taser into Acre’s chest and he went down in a heap. I’d made fun of her for carrying it before, but I was glad she had it with her now.

  “Grab the gun while this thing is recharging,” Maddy said fiercely.

  I did as she asked and grabbed the handgun, holding the barrel less than a foot from his chest.

  When Acre recovered enough from the shock, he said, “You don’t have the stones to use that.”

  I cocked the trigger as I moved my aim from his heart to right between his eyes. “Would you care to bet on it?”

  “Drop the gun,” I heard Kevin Hurley say as the lights came up.

  “He just tried to kill us!” I shouted.

  “I’ve got him covered, Eleanor. Drop it!”

  I did as he said, making sure that Acre couldn’t get it again without going through me.

  “Hank White’s been hurt,” Maddy added.

  “I’m fine. It’s just a scratch,” Hank said as he tried, and failed, to stand up.

  “Call for an ambulance, Chief, and then you can take this murderer into custody,” I said.

  “I knew it all along,” Kevin said with a slight grin as he hurried onstage to join us.

  “So did we,” Maddy replied, lying equally as well as our police chief just had.

  Chapter 19

  “What made you check the auditorium? Did someone hear the shot?” I asked as one of Kevin’s men took Jack Acre away and the EMTs put Hank on a gurney and took him to the hospital.

  “I could tell you that it was all just a part of my master plan,” Kevin said, “but then we’d both know that I was lying. I was in the lobby when I heard the muffled shot, and I came running. Nobody nearby realized what it was, but I’ve heard enough shots to tell when it’s a car backfiring and when it’s the real deal. How did he think he was going to get away with it?”

  “He was going to say that I killed Luigi, and when I found out that he knew about it, I tried to kill him. He set us up to look like killers, and he might have gotten away with it.”

  “What about Maddy?” he asked.

  “I was going to die defending my sister, even if she was a homicidal killer,” she said dramatically.

  “Anybody who knows you would never believe that pack of lies,” Kevin said.

  “Hopefully, but there would be some room for doubt given the way he tried to set us up. What are the odds that twelve people would recognize that he was lying?” I asked.

  “You keep talking about being set up,” Kevin said. “How did he try do that?”

  “First off he used our pizza to kill Luigi, and then he hid the man’s meds in our fridge, which were actually placebos. The more I think about it, I’m beginning to realize that he might not be so crazy after all. He actually might have gotten away with murder.”

  “Well, I never would have believed it,” Kevin said.

  “You might not have had any choice,” Maddy replied.

  “Believe me when I tell you both that I would have found a way to prove you were innocent and avenged your murders,” he answered.

  “Let’s just all be happy that it didn’t come to that,” I said. My name, as well as my sister’s and my pizzeria, have all been dragged through enough mud over the years.

  “So what happens now?” Maddy asked.

  “Acre’s going to jail, Hank’s on his way to the hospital, and I’m guessing you two are on your way home.”

  Maddy and I looked at him in tandem and smiled. “Why on earth do you think we’d give up one last night of luxury here, especially since no one’s trying to frame us for murder anymore?”

  “Are you telling me that you lunatics are actually going to stay in the place where you were almost murdered?”

  I shook my head. “Why not? It’s all already paid for, remember?”

  “You’re both a little odd. You know that, don’t you?” Kevin asked.

  “We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Maddy replied.

  “As much as I’d love to stay here and chat with you, I have a prisoner back in my jail that I need to interrogate.”

  “If you decide to go old school on him with pipes and brass knuckles, give me a call,” Maddy said.

  Kevin just shook his head and chuckled softly as he left.

  Gina had been waiting off to one side in the back of the auditorium, and as soon as the chief of police left, she came rushing to us. “I can’t believe how close you two came to getting killed tonight.”

  “Oh, we’ve been closer before,” I said.

  “Much,” Maddy agreed.

  “Don’t you two take anything seriously?” Gina asked with a nervous laugh.

  “Oh, we were plenty serious when that gun was pointing at us. We’re just glad that Hank was there to distract Jack long enough for us to act,” I said. “They told us that he was going to be okay before they took him to the hospital.”

  “He should get hazard pay for what he did tonight,” Maddy said.

  “Oh, he will,” Gina said. “I can’t thank you two enough for all that you’ve done for me over the past few days.”
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  “We were happy to help,” Maddy said.

  Gina was about to say something else when the back doors opened again, and David and Bob came rushing through.

  “We can’t leave you two alone for a minute, can we?” David asked with a grin as he wrapped me in his arms.

  “What can I say? Even when we aren’t looking for trouble, it still manages to find the two of us.”

  Bob hugged my sister as well, and then took a step back and looked at her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, but I think my taser broke when I jammed it into Jack Acre.”

  Bob finally let out the breath he’d obviously been holding. “Don’t worry about that; we’ll get you a new one.”

  “Can I have a BoltBlaster 2000? They look really sweet,” she asked with a huge grin.

  “After what just happened, you can have whatever you want. Just name it, and it’s yours,” Bob said.

  “Be careful what you’re promising,” Maddy said. She looked at all of us and said, “I don’t know about the three of you, but almost getting killed tonight has made me a little peckish.” She turned to Gina and asked, “What do you think? Could you get your chef to rustle us up something special?”

  “You name it, and it’s yours,” she answered.

  “You know, I could get used to this kind of lifestyle,” Maddy said.

  “If it weren’t for the attempted murders and all, I’d have to agree with you,” I said as we walked out of the auditorium.

  “Gosh, Sis, you want it all, don’t you?”

  I took David’s hand with one of mine, and grabbed Maddy’s with the other, squeezing them both. “As a matter of fact, I’ve already got everything I need. What do you feel like eating, David?”

  “A pizza might be nice,” he suggested with a wicked grin.

  “If you don’t mind, I’m not in any hurry to make any more of those,” I admitted.

  “Hey, I was just kidding.”

  I thought about it, and then said, “Calzones might be nice, though. I’ve been meaning to try making them for our menu at the Slice. What do you say? Are you men willing to be my guinea pigs tomorrow?”

  Bob and David looked at each other solemnly, and then my boyfriend turned to me and said, “For you, we’re willing to risk it.”

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you both,” I said as I put one arm in each of theirs and we made our way to the restaurant. As we walked through the lobby, I realized that they’d probably thought I was kidding, but I was going to make them live up to their promise and taste my first attempt tomorrow.

  I glanced over at my sister and smiled, and she returned it in kind.

  It meant a great deal to have the men with us, and Gina as well, but I knew that even though I rarely said it, Maddy was my rock, and I was thrilled that she was such an important part of my life.

  Who knew? With that thousand bucks, she might just get a raise out of this ordeal.

  Then again, I knew that she’d enjoy it a great deal more if we really did decide to blow it and not use it on the restaurant.

  Then and there, I promised myself that was exactly what we were going to do, too. After all, we could always find a way to make more money, but we didn’t often have an excuse to celebrate our lives.

  And after what we’d just gone through, what other excuse did we really need?

  MY EASY, QUICK, AND DELICIOUS CALZONE RECIPE

  (Square Pegs)

  This is quite a simple recipe I use at home myself. It’s especially good if you don’t have a lot of time and you need to put a meal or snack together in a hurry. These calzones can be prepared as the oven preheats; they are fast to create and are absolutely delicious. You can create your own homemade sauce if you’d like, but the Ragu pizza sauce listed in the ingredients section is an excellent substitute, and has the bonus of being no trouble at all. The only dough I still make by hand with any regularity is the first dough recipe from A Slice of Murder (what a shameless way to make you run out and get that book, right?). Lately I’ve been experimenting with some of the refrigerated pizza dough you can buy at the grocery store, and I’ve found that Pillsbury’s Thin Crust and their Classic Crust are both wonderful for homemade pizzas. I’m not getting anything for saying that, but the crusts are as good as—or in some cases even better than—some of my homemade dough, so they are absolutely worth a try, especially if time is a factor for you. For this book I did a taste test and made calzones for side-by-side comparisons in three different styles of dough, and I was astonished by just how good the premade refrigerated doughs were when judged against my own recipes.

  Ingredients

  1 package Pillsbury Thin Crust or Classic Crust refrigerated

  pizza dough (13.8 oz. or 11 oz.)

  1 bottle Ragu PizzaQuick Traditional SnackSauce (14 oz.)

  4 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese (We like to grate it fresh, but it’s

  your choice)

  4–8 pepperoni slices, depending on taste

  Any additional toppings, such as mushrooms, peppers, onions,

  etc., used in moderation (Maximum 1 tablespoon equivalent

  of each per calzone)

  grated Italian cheese mix to taste, prepackaged. We use Sargento

  Artisan Mozzarella and Provolone Blend

  cornmeal (so the dough doesn’t stick)

  PAM nonstick cooking spray

  Directions

  Preheat the oven to 400° F, and don’t forget to put your pizza stone in so it heats gradually. As the oven warms, carefully unfold the prepackaged refrigerated crust of your choice and spread it open on a greased cookie sheet. The sheets will be approximately 8 inches by 12 inches. Cut the sheets horizontally to get three smaller sheets, each 8 inches by 4 inches. We make this size calzone, but you can also cut each sheet again to produce six 4 inch by 4 inch starters. Make no effort to round them at all. We like the homemade square calzones, which is why we call them square pegs.

  For the larger size calzone, place the 4 inch by 8 inch sheet on a plate dusted with cornmeal. Spread 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese in the center of the rectangle, leaving an inch of free dough all the way around so the edges will seal later. On top of the grated cheese add 2 tablespoons of pizza sauce, followed by the pepperoni slices and any other toppings you like. Then add 2 tablespoons of the Mozzarella and Provolone mix. Fold the dough in half, making a square roughly 4 inches on each side. Take a fork and press the edges of the dough together using the tines. When you are finished, three sides of the calzone will look like picket fences lined up, while one side will be smooth. Once the oven has reached 400° F, place the calzones in the center of your oven on the pizza stone. Bake them 11 to 14 minutes, or until the center crusts are just past tan and more brown than gold. Don’t worry if the edges aren’t the same color (they won’t be), so go by the center of the calzone to tell. Remove the calzones and serve them hot. You can dip these in a little extra sauce on the side if you’d like or add a little olive oil and grated Parmesan, or serve them basically any way you like them. Don’t be afraid to play with the recipe until you find exactly what you want!

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2013 by Chris Cavender

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2012949615

  ISBN: 978-0-7582-8628-4

 

 

 
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