She waited until Frank left the kitchen, then pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, dialing Russell's number as she worked around the kitchen with one hand.
“Hey, Ellie, I was just about to call you,” he said.
“Did you arrest Chris?” she asked.
“No,” he said with a sigh. “We took him in for questioning and just got done, but I got the feeling he didn't do it. Either the kid is the best liar in the world, and a sociopath to boot, or he's innocent. The only evidence we had on him was circumstantial, and that's not enough to make an arrest. We just let him go back home with his parents.”
“I see,” she said. “I was getting worried when I didn't hear back from you.”
“Sorry,” he said. “This is frustrating. Every lead seems to be a dead-end.”
“I wish I could help,” she said. “Kevin just came in to talk to me. He was just making sure he wasn't in trouble for going into Nonna's house, but he did make me remember something interesting. Chris's family has a van, and he doesn't have a car of his own, but the person who was there last night fled in a sedan. So, if the break-in and the murder are related, then that means that you are looking for someone with a car.”
“Good thinking, Ellie,” he said. “You're right, I've been thinking about the break-in and the murder as two separate things. I don't know why, maybe because I wasn't working the break-in case. I let Bethany handle that, since I was too closely tied to it.” He sighed. “I think I'm going to be at the office late tonight.”
Ellie nodded, then, knowing that he couldn't see her, said, “That's okay. I understand. Do you want me to stop by after I leave the pizzeria? I'll bring an extra-large deep-dish pizza. I’ll eat a slice with you, then you could share the rest with whoever else is still working.”
“That would be perfect, Ellie. If you’re sure you don't mind.”
“I'm happy to do it,” she said. “I know you've been working a lot on this case, and I'm sure having a nice, warm dinner will help you feel better even if you're up late.”
They chatted for a few more minutes, then Ellie said her goodbyes. She had to get back to work, and it was hard to make pizza with only one hand.
Chapter Thirteen
Late that evening after Ellie got out of the pizzeria, she packed up an extra-large deep-dish pizza with candied bacon and pineapple on top and headed toward the sheriff's department. It wasn't a long drive, and the pizza was still piping hot when she got there. She let herself in the front door and waved at Mrs. Lafferte.
“Ellie, dear. It's been a while since I've seen you. How are you doing?”
“I'm doing well, Mrs. Lafferte,” Ellie said. “Would you like a slice of pizza?”
The elderly woman shook her head. “Thanks, but I'm going to pass. I've been trying to keep to lighter foods recently.”
“I probably should,” Ellie said, patting her belly where her pants were beginning to feel a little bit tight. “It's hard to do though, since I work around pizza all day every day, and I happen to love the food.”
The older woman chuckled. “You can go on ahead back to Russell if you'd like. He's in his office. He let me know that you'd be coming.”
“Thanks,” Ellie said. “If you change your mind about the pizza, let me know. I've got plenty.”
She carried the pizza through the door that led to the back of the sheriff's department and followed the familiar path toward Russell's office. His door was partially open, but she knocked on it anyway before letting herself in. He smiled up at her, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
“Hey,” he said. “That smells delicious.”
She set the pizza box down on his desk and took the chair across from him.
“I hope so. It's our new weekly special. It seems to be popular.”
“Then I'm eager to try it,” he said.
He opened the box, and the two of them each grabbed a slice. They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Ellie leaned back in her chair, sighing.
“Staying up late last night really affected me all day,” she admitted. “I'm getting old.”
“If you're old, then what am I, ancient?” he asked with a chuckle.
He was reaching for another piece of pizza when his phone rang. He picked up the landline and started talking to whoever was on the other end.
“I'll head right over,” he said at last. “It will take about twenty minutes.”
He hung up the phone and Ellie looked at him with concern. “Another emergency?”
He shook his head. “It's a call from an old building out by the coast. Your friend’s husband is the one who made the call. He wanted to see if someone could just swing by the building. He said he doesn’t want to make a formal complaint yet, but he’s worried things might escalate. I guess he’s having trouble with some workers.”
She frowned. “It’s James?”
He shook his head, looking amused. “Joanna's husband, Steve. If it was James, I would've just said my brother.”
She sighed. “Right. I told you, I'm tired.”
“Do you want to come with me? I just need to patrol in the area for a bit. Then I'll come back here, finish up with a couple files, and we can go home.”
“Do you even have to ask?” she asked, standing up and sliding her coat back on. “I’d definitely rather ride around with you than sit here and wait. Steve's all right, isn't he?”
“He sounded a bit annoyed, but other than that, he's fine,” Russell assured her. “Ready?”
She nodded and grabbed her purse off the seat beside her. “I'm ready.”
They climbed into his patrol vehicle, Ellie settling into the passenger seat and pulling her seatbelt on. He pulled out of the parking lot and they sped out of town. Ellie looked out the window as he traveled along the coast. The ocean was choppy but beautiful, with a full moon shining above. She couldn't wait until summer. She missed spending time outdoors.
“Here it is,” Russell said, slowing down in front of what looked like an old abandoned motel parking lot. Ellie could see a couple of other cars there, plus a van belonging to Wallace Cleaners. She frowned, grabbing Russell’s arm.
“That's the same cleaning company that I used for Nonna's house,” she said.
“I remember,” he said with a nod, frowning. “I didn’t realize they were the people he was having trouble with. I’m going to go check-in. You stay here.”
He pulled into the parking lot then got out of the car and walked toward the motel. There was a small group of people gathered in front of one of the buildings. Ellie watched as he approached and spoke with someone she recognized as Steve, Joanna's husband. They talked for a few minutes, then Steve gestured at one of the rooms. Russell went inside. Ellie fidgeted. She was getting tired of sitting there, and she wanted to know what was going on. When she saw Steve walk over to one of the cars in the parking lot and lean against the hood, looking tired, she decided to go talk to him. Joanna was one of her best friends, and she had gotten to know Steve pretty well as a result.
She let herself out of the truck and walked over to him, giving him a wave.
“Hey,” she said. “I have no idea how long my husband will take. I just thought I would stop by and say hi. It felt weird just sitting in the car and watching you.”
“I can imagine,” he said with a chuckle. “This is not how I wanted to spend my evening.”
“What happened?”
He sighed. “I hired this cleaning company to clean out the motel. The previous owners left everything behind when it went under, and all of the beds and furniture are rotting and moldy. They hired a dumpster and agreed to clean it all out. I'm thinking of turning this land into a summer camp. So, I need to make sure everything is safe. Anyway, I saw a couple of them poking and prodding at the ceiling tiles and told them to stop. I don't know if it's safe yet, and I need to do physical repairs next, but I had to get the old junk cleaned out first. The next thing I know, I hear a shout and half the ceiling had fallen on one of the men. He was just banged
up a bit, but he kept going on and on about how it's all my fault and he's going to sue me. I told him that he and his men had to leave and that I would be looking into what happened, but that I was not impressed that they didn't listen to me when I told them to leave the ceiling be. Then their boss started yelling at me, and that's when I called Russell.”
“It sounds like a big mess,” she said.
“It is. I know they’re insured, so if one of them gets hurt, it's covered by a payout. But it could affect my insurance too. I don't want to have to take this to court, but I will if I have to. I told them to leave the ceiling be, and they specifically didn't listen to me. It's like they wanted to get hurt.”
Ellie frowned. “You mean, you think they wanted to commit insurance fraud?”
Steve frowned at her. “Well, I don't know if I meant that literally, but I suppose it's possible. If someone had gotten seriously injured, the payout would've been pretty good. I made sure that they were insured before hiring them.”
Ellie stared at a group of men who were milling about by the van, frowning. Everything happened so quickly today, first with Russell going to bring Chris into question him and then with the call from Steve. Neither of them had really had a chance to sit down and think about it, but she realized now that they had overlooked something important. The cleaning company had worked with Jason Strauss for three months, and none of them had reported him missing. She didn't know if Russell had questioned his coworkers about that or not yet, and it was possible that he was just an unreliable worker and none of them thought it was important, but she didn't know how likely that was. Someone had killed him. If Chris hadn’t done it, then it must have been one of his coworkers. She hadn’t made the link until she asked the question about insurance fraud. But if he had only meant to get injured, and not killed, then maybe she was onto something.
“Where did Russell go?” she asked him.
“I showed him the room with the collapsed ceiling. He said he wanted to take a look at it. The guy who seems to be in charge of the cleaning company told him to.”
She nodded. “I've got to go talk to him about something,” she said. “I'll be right back.”
She moved toward the motel, but one of the men in the group stepped out toward her. She recognized Ronald Wallace, the owner of the company.
“I recognize you,” he said. “We did a job for you, didn’t we?”
“Yes, you did,” she said. “You cleaned out my grandmother's house.”
He nodded at that. “I thought that was it. I don't know how I didn't realize that the sheriff was your husband. Your last names are the same, but it didn’t click until just now.”
“You must have spoken to him before today,” Ellie said. “He was working on the case with your missing employee.”
The man paused. “Missing employee?”
She frowned. “Yeah, Jason Strauss. I know you were questioned about the body found in the basement. It was identified as the body of one of your workers.”
“We didn't have anyone working with the name –”
He was interrupted by one of the other men, who was nodding. “Jason was a great guy. We drank to him last night. He was always fun to work with.”
Ellie frowned at Ronald, who was giving his employee an annoyed look. “What was that about not having an employee named Jason?” she asked.
“Look, he was working for us under the table. He was only there for a couple of weeks. It’s not a big deal.”
“You didn't notice when he disappeared during the job at my grandmother's house?” she asked.
“No. I thought he just went home or something.”
“How could he have?” Ellie asked. “All of you rode together in the van.”
Ronald shifted, looking back at his group of employees. She noticed one of them was looking at him, shaking his head. “He must've got a taxi,” the man who had spoken earlier said. The others all nodded. She noticed that they looked nervous, and were shuffling closer together. Ellie turned back around, suspicions rising. She opened her mouth to say something when Russell stepped out the motel building. As one, the group turned to look at him, and he frowned at them.
“Ellie, what are you doing here? I thought I asked you to wait in the car.”
Chapter Fourteen
Russell,” Ellie said. She started to hurry toward her husband, but she felt someone grab her arm and hold her back.
“Get your hands off my wife,” Russell said, taking a step towards them.
“Not so fast,” Ronald said. “I think she's been snooping where she shouldn't. We’re going to come to an agreement before I let her go.”
“What sort of agreement?” Ellie asked, her heart pounding.
“None of us had anything to do with Jason's death, do you hear?” Ronald said. The other men all nodded. Russell frowned at them.
“I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't care. Just let my wife go.”
“I don't think so,” Ronald said. “She's a smart woman. I saw her putting it all together.”
“Ellie?” Russell asked, looking at her. Ellie was shaking, but she held her head high. Her mind was working at what felt like a thousand miles an hour. She hadn't put it together yet, but she was almost there.
“Russell, did you tell them about Jason's death yesterday?”
“No,” he said, frowning. “How could I? We didn't identify him until today.”
She felt Ronald's hand tighten on her arm. Ellie took a deep breath, forcing herself to be brave. None of these men were holding any weapons that she could see, and she didn't know what they planned to do to her. But she trusted her husband, and knew that he would keep her safe. He needed to know the truth.
“They killed him,” she said. “They all killed Jason. They're all in on –”
She broke off as Ronald covered her mouth with his hand, yanking her back against him. “Enough of that,” he said. “You snooped too far into something you had no business in. We're gonna need to shut both you and your husband up for good.”
“Let her go,” Russell shouted, taking another step toward them. Ronald stepped back, and his workers moved to stand between her and her husband.
“Boss,” one of them said. “Maybe we should just let her go.”
“No,” Ronald said, shaking his head. “I've worked too hard for this. We’re so close to getting your payout and being done. Remember the tropical beaches, guys. Remember the girls in bikinis. One good insurance payout, and we’re done with all of this. It won't matter if they find their bodies later, because we'll all be out of the country.”
Ellie struggled and managed to free her face from the man's grasping hand.
“They're all covering up the murder. They were trying to commit insurance fraud, just like they tried to do here.”
Ronald gave a growl of fury and shoved her, making her stumble and fall to the ground. She heard Russell call out her name.
“I'm okay,” she said.
She struggled to push herself up, and suddenly found strong hands under her arms, lifting her to her feet. She tensed, looking around and expecting to see Ronald grasping her again, but instead found Steve. He was looking at her in concern.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I'm fine,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Good. I heard everything he said, and I already called the police department again with my phone. I don't think your husband can handle all of them. You should get back in the –”
“Watch out,” she shouted, interrupting him, but it was too late. The punch Ronald threw connected with Steve’s face, making him let go of Ellie and stumble back, pressing his hands to his bleeding nose.
After that, chaos broke out. Ronald grabbed her and slammed her back against the van, shouting out to his men to tackle Russell. She knew Russell had his gun on him, and wondered why he wasn't using it, but then she realized that the group of men were between her and him. He didn't want to risk hitting her.
�
��Get him, men,” Reynolds snarled. “We'll put all three of them in the ground. It doesn't matter anymore.”
The group of three men began to move toward Russell, but then one of them hesitated. The others glanced at him and also paused.
“He's the sheriff, boss,” he said. “I'm not doing this.”
“You’ll go to prison for life, Leo. You already killed a man.”
“No. I didn't,” the man, Leo, said. “You're the one who hit him with the brick. You’re the one who told us to hide him when he died. I didn't tell anyone, and I wanted to come clean. The only reason I didn't was because we all agreed to it.”
A Melted Morsel of Murder Page 6
