Pall Bearers and Pepperoni: Book 1 in The Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series

by Patti Benning

  By the time Xavier showed up to unlock the doors and fire up the ovens, she was shaking with rage. She waited as he and Jacob performed the morning rituals to get the pizzeria ready for the day. When they finished at last, she called Xavier into the dining area and slammed the pile of receipts and her grandfather’s reports down on a table in front of him.

  “Explain this,” she hissed.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Xavier said, but he had gone pale. Jacob was watching curiously from the register as he counted the drawer.

  “Every single month you gave my grandfather the records of the pizzeria’s sales,” she said, her tone dangerous. “And every single month, the total on the records you gave him was significantly lower thanwhat the receipts tallied up to. Sometimes by more than a thousand dollars. My grandfather trusted you to run this restaurant, and you repaid him by lying to him and stealing from him.”

  Xavier’s eyes darted down to the printed receipts, then back up to Ellie’s face. She could see the gears in his head turning as he tried to work up an excuse. She wasn’t having any of it.

  “You’re fired. Get out. I don’t want to see you around here again.”

  Without saying a word, Xavier stomped away. He passed through the kitchen doors, and she heard a bang as he kicked something on his way out. Still fuming, she turned to Jacob.

  “Did you know about any of this?” she asked him.

  He shook his head quickly. “Xavier didn’t let anyone else tally the monthly totals.”

  She stared at him for a moment, trying to gauge whether or not she believed him. At last she nodded and began gathering her evidence up.

  “We’ll have to figure out what to do to replace him but I’m sure we can manage for now. Without him siphoning money away from the restaurant, this place should start doing much better.”

  With Xavier gone for good, Ellie decided to begin taking over his duties where she could right away. She had always enjoyed cooking, and making the pizzas came easily to her. What she found a bit more difficult was the task of juggling her duties in the kitchen with her duties to the customers. The first time Jacob left her alone in the pizzeria that afternoon to go deliver a pizza, she accidentally burned one of the orders after getting distracted by a conversation with a customer. After that, she forced herself to keep a closer eye on the clock. She couldn’t very well expect her employees to stay focused at work if she couldn’t manage it herself.

  She was just beginning to get used to the rhythm of the fast-paced work when Russell Ward walked into the restaurant, completely interrupting her tempo. She knew as soon as she laid eyes on his face that he wasn’t there for a pizza.

  “What happened?” she asked when he reached the register, feeling a spark of fear at the sight of his grim expression.

  “There was an intruder at your grandmother’s house,” he said, lowering his voice in an effort to keep their conversation private from the couple at the corner booth a few feet away. “She’s all right, but I think you should come with me.”

  Ellie’s heart began to pound. Someone had tried to break in to her grandmother’s house? She wondered if anything else could go wrong. First, Ben’s murder, then finding out that Xavier had been stealing from the pizzeria for years, and now this. Maybe returning to Kittiport hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

  “I can’t just leave,” she told the sheriff, glancing over at the couple in the corner booth. “Jacob’s out on a delivery, and I just fired my manager. I’m the only one here. Is she hurt? Is she scared?

  “She’s fine,” he assured her. “She’s actually a lot more composed than most people half her age would be. When should your delivery guy be back?”

  “Umm…” she glanced at the clock. “Any minute, hopefully.” If he doesn’t pull what he did last week, and stay out for another two hours.

  “I’ll wait,” the sheriff said. “Something seriously odd is going on here, and I want to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible. Your grandfather was a good man, and helped me out a couple of times; I’d like to return the favor by catching whoever broke into his house as quickly as possible.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  When Jacob returned from his delivery, Ellie gave him a quick rundown of what had happened, and left him in charge of the pizzeria with instructions not to accept any more deliveries for the rest of the day. The young man looked momentarily panicked at the thought of being left in charge of the pizzeria himself, but assured her that he was up to the task. As soon as she caught her employee up to speed, Ellie left with the sheriff, and followed him back home in her own car.

  There were two cruisers pulled into the driveway at her grandmother’s house. Ellie parked on the grass next to one of them, and hurried inside, Russell hot on her heels. She found her grandmother in the living room with Bunny on her lap, and the two deputies sitting on chairs and drinking tea.

  “What are you doing here?” Russell asked gruffly. Ellie looked around in surprise to see that he was talking to his friend, the one who worked as a ranger in the state park. He was wearing a dark green jacket and looked harried.

  “I was passing by and saw Bethany’s cruiser. Thought I’d see if I could be of any help,” he explained. “I was heading toward here anyway after I heard the gunshot. We’ve been having trouble with poachers lately.”

  Russell nodded. “I take it Bethany told you what happened?”

  “No one’s told me what happened,” Ellie cut in. She sat down on the couch next to her grandmother, touching the older woman gently on the arm. “Are you okay, Nonna?”

  “I’m fine, dear. Would you like some tea?”

  Ellie looked at the teapot on the coffee table and shook her head. “Will someone please just tell me what happened?”

  Russell nodded to Bethany, and the young deputy began telling the story.

  “About two hours ago, we got a call down at the station reporting a gunshot in the area. I was dispatched to go investigate, and when I arrived on the scene, I found your grandmother standing outside the house near the back door holding a firearm. I requested that she put the weapon down, which she did, at which time I secured the firearm. When questioned, Mrs. Pacelli told me that she had been napping when she heard the sound of breaking glass. Fearing for her life, she removed her gun from her nightstand drawer and went to investigate. She found a masked intruder in her kitchen, who she claims was holding a gun in his hand. She fired a round, but is unsure whether she hit him. The intruder fled.” Bethany hesitated, glancing up at Russell. He gave her an encouraging nod.

  “You’re doing well,” he said. “You did everything by the book. Go on.”

  Ellie remembered what the woman had told her, about being new to the job. Well, she’s certainly had quite the exciting start to her career, she thought.

  “I called for backup, and was told you would be here shortly, Sheriff. Then I did a cursory search of the premises and immediate property to ensure the intruder wasn’t hiding somewhere. I didn’t find him, but I did find this. The intruder must have dropped it after Ann… Mrs. Pacelli shot at him.” The female deputy picked up a plastic bag from the coffee table. Inside was a second plastic bag, and a black handgun. Ellie shivered.

  “Wait… why is it double bagged?” she asked, leaning forward to peer at it more closely. She glanced up at the sheriff, who looked impressed.

  “The outer bag is an evidence bag,” he explained. “The inner bag looks like some sort of bread bag, and the gun was in it when Bethany here found it.”

  “I don’t understand,” Ellie said, confused. “Why would the intruder have his gun in a plastic bag? He couldn’t use it like that.”

  Russell nodded. “I wondered the same thing. It will take some testing to prove, of course, but I have a theory.”

  “What is it?” she asked when he hesitated.

  “It’s just a theory, mind you,” he said. “But this is a 9mm pistol, the same caliber that killed Ben. Someone broke into your ho
use with that gun encased in a bag—likely to keep it from getting their fingerprints on it or picking up any fibers. Like I said, it’s just a guess… but I’m thinking that whoever broke in wasn’t planning on taking anything. They wanted to leave something.”

  Ellie cocked her head. “Are you saying… someone broke in to plant the gun?”

  “I’m saying it’s a possibility,” Russ said seriously. “We’ll send the gun off to forensics to get tested. They should be able to determine whether it shot the bullet that killed Ben. If it’s a match, we’ll be that much closer to catching his killer—and I’ll owe you a real apology for ever suspecting you.”

  After the sheriff and his deputies left, Ellie helped her grandmother clean up the impromptu tea party. She was surprised by how well the elderly woman seemed to be holding up. If she had been forced to shoot at an armed intruder, she was certain she would be much more shaken. Her grandmother was a tough woman for sure.

  They chatted while they cleaned, going over the break-in, and then delving into the fiasco with Xavier. Her grandmother seemed more upset by that, and Ellie felt a fresh rush of anger toward the young man. How dare he steal from her family’s restaurant? She wasn’t sure what her next step should be—she didn’t want him to get off without consequences but she also wasn’t sure she was prepared to go to court over the issue. It was something that she wanted to talk to her grandmother about, but later.

  “Do you think what the sheriff said is right?” she asked. “About the intruder coming here to plant the gun and make it look like I killed Ben? Why would anyone want to do that? I haven’t been here long enough to make any enemies.”

  “I don’t know, Ellie,” her grandmother said. “But either way, I don’t think either of us will be getting good sleep for a long time.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Ellie was reluctant to leave her grandmother alone at the house after the break-in, but she didn’t really have a choice. After she convinced her nonna to install motion detectors and a floodlight by the back door she felt a bit better, but she was still relieved when she came back to find the house secure and its occupants safe. For the first time, she wished that the little papillon was more prone to barking. The little dog was used to living in a city apartment, however, and wouldn’t be at all perturbed by strangers’ footsteps.

  As the days passed and nothing else out of the ordinary happened, Ellie gradually began to relax. Business at the pizzeria was picking up now that the restaurant was kept clean, and she stayed on top of the employees about providing good customer service. She had discovered that she had a real talent for making pizzas, and by the time her second week was up, she rarely had to consult the recipe book when putting together orders.

  When her friend Shannon suggested a boating trip that weekend with some other ladies that she knew, Ellie was more than happy to accept. She had been working hard, and figured she deserved a break; plus, it would give her a chance to meet some new people and maybe expand her social circle a bit. In a town as small as Kittiport, where everyone already knew everyone else, it could be hard to make new friends, so she jumped on the opportunity of an afternoon boating with the girls.

  “This is the life,” Ellie sighed, popping open an ice-cold can of diet soda from the cooler. She was sitting in the shaded cabin of the Eleanora with Shannon and two other women whom she had met less than an hour ago. Shannon was navigating the boat out of the marina toward a spot that she claimed had a wonderful view of some dramatic cliffs overlooking the Atlantic.

  “Thanks for suggesting that we use your boat,” said the older of the two other women. “It’s great to meet you at last. Shannon’s told us both so much about you.” Liz was a hard-working single mother of two girls, both of whom were now off at college. Ellie had taken an instant liking to her, and shot her a bright smile.

  “It’s my pleasure,” she said earnestly. “I’m glad for the chance to kick back and relax. It’s been a crazy two weeks.”

  “Sorry again about James deciding to go on a fishing trip with his buddies at the last minute. I completely forgot to tell him I was planning on using the boat today. You really saved the day, Ellie,” Shannon said. “It would have been a shame to cancel our plans. It’s a gorgeous day.”

  It really was. The blue sky had only a few puffy white clouds in it, and the sun glittered off the waves. With a steady but gentle breeze, the weather was perfect for sun bathing without getting too hot. The trip to Shannon’s favorite spot didn’t take long, and within half an hour they were anchored a few hundred yards offshore, with stark jagged cliffs topped by windswept white pines standing guard above them. The ocean was dotted with sailboats, visible from a distance thanks to their brilliantly white sails, and the silence was interrupted only occasionally by the growl of a motorboat speeding through the waves.

  The women lay in the sun on towels on the deck of the boat and chatted. Ellie, being the newcomer, mostly listened at first, joining in occasionally with stories about her own life. She didn’t have any kids, but she could commiserate about terrible bosses and even worse boyfriends with the best of them. She was just beginning to feel accepted by Liz and the other woman, Margaret, when the talk turned to Ben.

  His death wasn’t something that she particularly wanted to discuss, but she couldn’t find a good way to get out of answering their questions. Even Shannon seemed morbidly interested in what had happened.

  “Poor guy,” her friend said after Ellie retold the story of finding him behind the pizzeria. “Do you ever wonder if he’d still be alive if you hadn’t gone on that date with him?”

  Of course she did. She had lain awake at night for hours wondering what would have happened if she and Ben had gone on their date another night. Had his murder been the random work of a mugger? If so, then his death might have been nothing more than a cruel coincidence. On the other hand, if Ben’s killer had targeted him specifically, then he likely would have been killed either way. She didn’t know which was worse—to think that his death might have been nothing more than a twist of fate, or to think that Ben had somehow managed to make an enemy dangerous enough to have killed him.

  She was saved from answering Shannon’s question by the sound of a boat’s engine drawing near. All four women sat up, their eyes on the fishing boat that was speeding toward them from the open ocean. Ellie felt the stirrings of unease in her stomach. With a killer on the loose, had it been smart for the four of them to come out here alone?

  Her concerns were quickly put to rest by the bright smile that appeared on Shannon’s face.

  “It’s just James and the guys,” she said. “He knows I love this spot. I bet he thought he’d surprise us with a visit.”

  To Ellie’s surprise, she recognized all of the faces on the boat that pulled up alongside them. There was James, of course, who looked like a younger and less serious version of his brother Russell. Standing next to him was the park ranger, Duncan, who nodded at her curtly, and Jeffrey Dunham, the man who owned Cheesaroni Calzones. He didn’t seem to recognize her, for which she was grateful. She remembered how angry he had gotten at just the mention of Papa Pacelli’s, and wasn’t sure she wanted him to know that it was her family’s restaurant. From what she had seen that day that she and Shannon had gotten calzones, Dunham had some serious anger issues.

  “Any luck?” Shannon said to her husband. He shook his head.

  “They’re just not biting today. We’re going to head in, but I wanted to stop and see how you ladies were doing first.”

  “We’re enjoying ourselves. Ellie’s grandmother’s boat is nice, isn’t it? It’s the perfect size for the four of us.” She hesitated, then added, “We were just talking about Ben Elkton. Have you heard anything new from Russ about him?”

  “No,” James said. “Do you know anything, Duncan?”

  Duncan shrugged. He was wearing a long-sleeved jacket, and seemed uncomfortable in the hot weather. He gave Ellie a long look that she wasn’t sure what to make of before speaking.
“Russell doesn’t have any new suspects that I know of, no.”

  Jeffrey Dunham suddenly spoke up. “Hey, you’re that Pacelli woman, aren’t you?” He was staring right at her, and his expression was far from friendly. “You’re the one that’s trying to fix up that pizza place.”

  “I am,” she said reluctantly. “Eleanora Pacelli. It’s nice to meet you.”

  He grunted and turned to James. “C’mon, let’s get outta here, man.”

  James sighed, but said a quick goodbye to his wife and started up the boat’s onboard engine again. He gave a nod of farewell to the other women, then eased the vessel away from the Eleanora.

  “Have a nice time!” he called over the growl of the engine.

  Ellie watched the boat slowly draw away, then turned to her friend with a puzzled expression on her face.

  “What was that all about?” she asked. “Why do I get the feeling that both Duncan and Jeffrey already hate me?”

  “They’re all part of the group that Ben played poker with,” Shannon explained gently. “From what James has said, some of the guys think Ben would still be alive if it wasn’t for you, since he got killed while bringing you flowers. I’m sure it will all blow over soon enough, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Duncan, at least, should come around. Jeffrey’s just a jerk, so I wouldn’t expect too much out of him. Don’t let them get you down.”

  Her friend smiled at her encouragingly, then straightened her towel out and lay back down. Ellie settled down too, more reluctantly. Her mind was buzzing. She felt like something important was hovering just beyond the reach of her memory, something that Ben had said the night of their date, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Ellie was in a sour mood when she returned to work on Monday. Her encounter with the men on the boat had stayed with her for the rest of the weekend. She kept turning it over in her mind, feeling like she was missing something, but unsure as to exactly what. Maybe I just can’t stand the fact that those two guys seem to hate me, she thought as she unlocked the pizzeria’s back door. I didn’t do anything, and it’s just unfair. I didn’t ask for any of this to happen.