A Melted Morsel of Murder

by Patti Benning

“Sounds good to me.”

  He helped her set the table, then the two of them sat down, the pizza between them. They each helped themselves to a slice, and Ellie gave them a few minutes to eat before she broke the silence.

  “So, do you know who the victim is yet?”

  “No, we don't,” Russell said with a sigh. “I've actually got some pictures I need to show you to see if you can help us identify the body.”

  “Why me?” she asked.

  “Because you know a lot of people,” he said simply. “Half the town goes through the pizzeria every week.”

  She nodded. “I'll look if you need me too. I didn't get a very good look at the body when I first found him. I panicked as soon as I figured out what the plastic garbage bags were hiding.”

  “I don't blame you,” he said. “You did perfectly, Ellie. Getting out of the cistern and away from the body and calling the police was the right thing to do.”

  She shuddered, but didn't comment on that. “What else have you found out?” she said instead.

  “Well, he was killed by blunt force trauma to the head. If it wasn't for the fact that his body was hidden in your cistern with most identifying features removed, I'd almost say it looks like an accidental death.”

  “Do you know when he died?”

  “We haven't gotten the full report back from the coroner yet. We already brought in a few suspects, however.”

  She nodded. “The tenants, I'm guessing, as well as the people from the cleaning company?”

  He nodded. “They are the most obvious groups of suspects. From what you said, it sounds like they're the only people who would've had easy access to the house the day of the victim's death.”

  “I just can't imagine that any of them did it,” she said. “I mean, I don't know anyone from the cleaning company, but the tenants seemed perfectly nice. I can't see any of them killing someone and hiding his body in the basement. Besides, they knew the cleaners were coming that day, and they knew I was going to do a walk-through of the house. If they wanted to hide a body and get away with it for a long time, I don't know why they would hide it in the house.”

  “People don't always make the smartest decisions when they find themselves in a situation like that,” he said. “We've spoken to all three of the previous tenants and spoke to a couple of the people from the cleaning crew today. The others we will have to talk to tomorrow.”

  “Do any of the people you talked to today seem to be guilty?”

  He sighed. “I can't really tell you much about the actual suspect interviews. All I can say is that nobody really stands out yet.”

  “I hate this,” she said. “How am I going to tell Nonna?”

  “I'm surprised you haven't told her already,” he admitted.

  “I was going to, but I wanted to wait until we knew more about what happened. We still don't know anything. We don't even know who the victim is.”

  “We're trying our hardest, Ellie,” he said.

  “I know.” She fell silent for a moment. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to sound like you weren't doing enough. I'm just… frustrated.”

  “I understand.” He took her hands from across the table. “We'll get this figured out. For now, I want you to just be careful. Be sure the doors and windows are shut and locked when you're home, and don't let anyone in the house that you don't know and trust. I don't know that you are in any danger, but since you're the one who found the body and the body was hidden on a property that someone in our family owns, we can never be too careful.”

  Chapter Six

  By the time Monday morning arrived, Ellie didn't feel any better about the body she had found hidden in her grandmother's basement cistern. There hadn't been much progress on the case, and she still hadn't told her grandmother about it.

  She knew that she was just putting off the inevitable, but she kept telling herself that it would be better to have some answers before approaching the older woman. She was glad that she was scheduled for the morning shift on Monday. It would give her something to help take her mind off of the body, and would be better than spending all day fretting around the house.

  She got there early enough that she had some time to herself before the other employees arrived. She took the opportunity to turn up the music in the kitchen and lose herself in making the new pizza of the day. It was a pineapple pizza with candied bacon and a creamy garlic sauce. It was a sweeter pizza, but quite good. It would be the first time that it was served to the public, and she was looking forward to her customers’ reactions. If they liked it, she would probably serve it again in the future.

  She managed to get the three pizzas that they served daily by the slice – the weekly special, cheese, and pepperoni – finished by the time that Iris and Jacob arrived. Business hours started shortly after that, and then she had very little time to think about anything other than pizza.

  It was late afternoon by the time Ellie decided to take a short break from the kitchen. She traded places with Iris and seated herself on the stool behind the front counter. She enjoyed working the register almost as much as she enjoyed being in the kitchen. It was always nice to have a chance to chat with her regulars. The dining area was busy, and Ellie found herself wishing that spring would hurry up and arrive in Kittiport. As soon as the weather warmed up, she would be able to start using the outdoor patio again, which would free up a lot of space in the dining area. It had been one of the first renovations she'd had done at the pizzeria after she took over, and she thought it was well worth the money. The only downfall was that it was something they could only use about six months out of the year. Nobody wanted to sit outside and eat a meal in the middle of a northern Maine winter.

  She took a couple of orders, typing them out on the fancy new register that they had installed a few months ago, and letting the computer send the order back to the kitchen. Looking around herself, she found it hard to believe just how much had changed since she had become manager a couple of years before. Even though she had strived to keep the feel of the pizzeria the same, there were a lot of differences. The register had been updated to something new and sleek, which was more of a computer than an old-fashioned money till. They had installed a drive-through window as well as the patio, and had a full website up and running. She was planning on implementing online orders as soon as she found someone with the programming skills to do it for her. Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria was finally making its way into the twenty-first century, and it had been nothing but good for business.

  She was lost in her thoughts when the pizzeria door jingled open. She didn't glance at the newcomer until they were almost at the register, and when she saw who it was, she did a double take.

  “Fiona?”

  The woman who had been her tenant for the past six months gave her a hesitant smile.

  “Sorry. I wasn't sure if you'd want to see me or not. After your husband spoke to me about what happened, I just knew I had to come and see you. I checked in here yesterday, but they told me you weren't working until this morning.”

  “I almost never work weekends,” Ellie said. She shook herself, trying to overcome her surprise. She hadn't expected to see Fiona here, not after finding a body hidden in the basement of the house that the other woman had lived in for almost half a year. Fiona knew who her husband was, and Ellie was surprised that she didn't want to stay far away from the sheriff's wife.

  “I… I just wanted to see how things are going.”

  Ellie frowned. “Well, life's been better.” She liked Fiona, but it was impossible to forget that she was a murder suspect. “I'm still waiting for the police to make progress on the case.”

  Fiona nodded, her eyes wide. “That's what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Ellie raised her eyebrows. Did this woman know something? Was she about to confess, or tell Ellie that she knew something about the murder?

  “Do you want to go somewhere private?” Ellie asked after only a moment of hesitation. She didn't know if it would be
a good idea to be alone with Fiona, but she wanted to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. Fiona shook her head.

  “There's no need for that. I just wanted to come here and tell you that my family had absolutely nothing to do with it. We have no idea who the victim is. We've never seen him before in our lives. There definitely was not a dead body the basement when we left the house. You should tell your husband that my family is innocent. We lived next to you for six months. Do you really think that anyone of us would be capable of something like that?”

  “I've learned that people are always capable of more than you think that they are,” Ellie said. “Listen, Fiona, I don't think that this is really appropriate. You guys were great tenants, and I enjoyed having you live next door to us, but I don't really know you that well. Certainly not well enough to vouch for you to my husband. I don't want to interfere in his case.”

  “Can you at least tell me if he thinks one of us did it?”

  Ellie shook her head. “I don't know myself. Even though I'm his wife, he doesn't always tell me everything about open cases. He is good at his job, and only ever makes exceptions for me when he thinks that I might be in danger and something he knows might help keep me safe. But I can tell you that if you and your family had nothing to do with it, then none of you have anything to worry about. He won't make any arrests without having the proper evidence.”

  Fiona nodded, leaning against the counter. Ellie could see the worry and stress in her eyes. “This has all been really hard on my family,” the other woman admitted. “Chris is freaked out that there was a body in the basement, and Dustin is upset that your husband called us in to question us. I just needed to do something to make sure that my family will be okay. I know none of them did it, and I thought you might be able to help us.”

  “I'm sorry I can't do anything more,” Ellie said. “I'm frustrated with how slowly the case is moving myself. I know it's only been a couple of days, but I want answers too.”

  “You aren’t the one who had to sit back and wait while your son was taken into an interview room and questioned,” Fiona said.

  “I didn't mean to make it sound like I'm as affected as your family is by this,” Ellie said, taken aback by anger in the other woman's voice. “I was just trying to sympathize with you. Finding a dead body in my grandmother's basement was not exactly my idea of a good day. I may not be a suspect, but I am definitely involved in this case too.”

  The other woman sighed. “I know. I'm sorry. I know you already said you can't put in a good word for us with your husband, but if you can think of any other way to help, I would really appreciate it. It's not fair that my family is getting dragged into all of this just because a body was found on the property that we were renting.”

  “All I can promise is that I will do my best to help my husband solve this case as quickly as possible. Now, can I get you anything? If not, I'm going to have to ask you to leave because there are a few people in line behind you, and I'm sure they're anxious to get their orders in.”

  Fiona stared at her for a moment, then sighed and walked away, shaking her head. Ellie felt a little bit bad. She had been a bit ruder than she meant to be when she asked the other woman to leave, but something about the thought of Fiona coming to the pizzeria to beg Ellie to tell her husband that her family was innocent made her uncomfortable. She could understand where the other woman was coming from, but Ellie would never use the love and trust that Russell had for her to protect a near stranger from a simple police investigation. If Fiona's family was as innocent as she said, then they would just have to sit back and trust in the law, and hope that the case got solved soon.

  Chapter Seven

  Ellie finished up her shift in a worse mood than she had started it. Fiona's visit hadn't done anything to make her feel better, and she had been left to wonder if her old tenant was maybe more guilty than she had thought. She knew that she would have to tell Russell about the visit, but decided to wait until he got home that evening to do it.

  She made a quick stop at the grocery store before heading back to the house. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to do with the rest of the day. She knew that she had to call Nonna at some point and tell her what was going on, and the longer she put off, the guiltier she felt. But still, something stopped her. If she told her grandmother what had happened, with no further information, she knew that she would just worry the older woman. Nonna was in great health for someone of her age, but Ellie was still concerned about what the extra stress would do to her. It would be better to wait a couple more days, and have more to tell her. At least, that's what Ellie told herself.

  She was still feeling restless when she got home, so she hooked Sawyer and Bunny up to their leashes, put her favorite walking shoes on, and shoved a handful of dog treats into her pocket. Some fresh air and exercise would do them all good.

  She started off down the road, going slowly and pausing every few steps to work with Sawyer on his leash pulling. Every time he started to tug on the leash, she would stop and wait until he turned to look back at her, then start going again. Every once in a while, she would reverse direction unexpectedly, and if he followed her without pulling at the leash, she would give him a treat. The idea was to teach him to pay attention to her while they were walking, and for him to learn that tugging at the leash wouldn't get him anywhere faster.

  It was a relatively nice day, and the three of them spent a good half an hour outside before Ellie noticed that Bunny was starting to shiver. She started back to the house, wishing that spring would hurry up and get there. She missed being able to spend an hour or two walking through the woods with the dogs. She also missed taking the boat out with her friends and spending half the day lounging on the deck in the sun. It had been a long winter, and right now she just wanted it to end.

  They were almost back to the house when she heard someone call her name out. She turned and saw the neighbor on the other side of her grandmother's house waving at her.

  “Hey, Ellie,” he said. “Do you have a minute?”

  She waved back at him and called out an affirmative. They had to backtrack a bit to get to his driveway, but she wasn't in much of a hurry. She scooped Bunny up and tucked her under one arm to keep the little dog from getting colder as she approached the neighbor’s house.

  “Hey, Kevin,” she said. “How's it going?”

  “Not too bad. My wife finally got hired on as a full-time teacher. One of the teachers at the middle school retired unexpectedly in the middle of the year. She's glad that she is able to stop being a substitute. She's always wanted to teach, but I don't think she realized how hard it would be to find a job here. I'm glad one finally opened up for her.”

  “That's nice,” Ellie said. “I'm glad for her.”

  She didn't know these neighbors very well, but they had always been friendly to her, waving at her whenever she walked by while they were outside and stopping to chat when they passed each other on walks. The houses on her grandmother's road were relatively spread out, so each parcel of property had a fair amount of privacy.

  “I heard about what happened next door,” he said, gesturing toward her grandmother's house. “You're the one who found the body, aren't you?”

  “I was,” Ellie said. She frowned. “How did you know about what happened?”

  “My wife got close to the woman who used to live there,” he said. “Fiona, I think her name was.”

  Ellie nodded. “You're right. Her name is Fiona. Her husband is Dustin, and their son is Chris.”

  Kevin nodded. “Anyway, I guess she called Fiona after she saw the police vehicles and the ambulance pull up. She wanted to make sure that they were okay. I didn't even know that they had moved out. Can't say that I'm too sad about it myself, but I know my wife will miss Fiona.”

  “Did you have issues with them?” Ellie asked, curious. As far as she knew, the Franks had been perfect tenants and neighbors.

  “Not exactly,” Kevin hesitated. “I just
didn't like that Dustin guy very much. I didn't like the way he looked at my wife. And it wasn't just looks either. There were a couple of times…” He trailed off and shook his head. “Let's just say I'm glad they're gone. I never felt very comfortable having them next door to us.”

  “I'm sorry about that,” Ellie said. She hesitated. “Kevin, do you remember seeing anything suspicious happen at the house during the day on Friday or early Saturday morning? Other than the cleaners being there, of course.”

  He shook his head. “Sorry. I don't think I'll be any help there. If I did remember anything, I would have already gone to the police about it.”

  “All right. Thank you. I'm glad you're doing well. We'll have to have you and your wife over for a barbecue when it gets warmer out. I'm so ready for the winter to be over.”

  “So am I,” he said with a grin. “Sorry for interrupting your walk. I just wanted to say hi and see how you were doing. I take it your grandmother will be back soon?”