Lobster Pizza Murder (Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Book 22)

by Patti Benning

  She bit her lip. She didn’t know why, but she still had the nagging feeling that Noah’s death hadn’t been the accident everyone thought it was. Maybe it was just because she had been the last one to speak with him, the last one to look into his eyes, but she felt as if she owed him more than to just take the easy answer and be satisfied.

  “Ellie?”

  “Thanks for updating me,” she said. “You know I’ve been thinking about him a lot. I’m sorry you’ve been working so much. You deserve a day off.”

  “Well, tomorrow should be a quiet day unless something new happens. I’m finally all caught up, and I told Liam I might not be in unless they need me. I was thinking, do you want to bring Sawyer over before you head to work? I can watch him during the day, so you don’t have to worry about running home to let him out. If I do have to go in, I’ll just bring him with me. I’m sure someone at the sheriff’s department won’t mind puppy sitting if it comes down to that.”

  “That would be wonderful,” she said, smiling. It would be the perfect time to reveal that Sawyer was theirs, if they wanted to keep him. She felt confident that Darla wouldn’t change her mind; she had seemed truly relieved to be rid of the dog items, and happy that Ellie wanted him. “I’ll stop by around ten and stay for a bit before heading in to the pizzeria.”

  “I’ll see you then,” he said. “Right now, I’m going to head to bed. I’m beat.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  *

  Ellie woke up bright and early the next morning, feeling happier than she had since witnessing the accident the week before. After sleeping on it, she decided to take Russell’s revelation about what the forensics team had found — or, rather, hadn’t found — after going over the car at face value. Noah had been grievously injured when he spoke to her, and he probably hadn’t been thinking straight. What had happened to him was a terrible, terrible accident, but it was just that — an accident.

  She helped Sawyer down off the bed, and took both dogs downstairs and opened the back door so they could take care of business. Sawyer had proven that he would stick around, at least when Bunny was out there with him. She couldn’t wait to watch him grow up. She hadn’t even known that she had wanted another dog, but now here he was, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  Shortly after nine-thirty, she loaded the puppy and some of his toys into the car, and set off for town. She slowed as she passed Papa Pacelli’s, feeling her heart warm at the sight of the familiar sign. This restaurant was what had started everything. If it wasn’t for the pizzeria, she may not have stayed in Kittiport after getting back on her feet after her old life in Chicago fell into ruins. The restaurant had brought her together with so many new people, and had even helped her to make friends in another state. She loved it more than she would have ever thought possible.

  A few minutes later, she pulled into Russell’s driveway. He lived in a small, single-story house in an older neighborhood on the outskirts of town. His house had a comfortable feel to it, and she always enjoyed going over.

  She grabbed Sawyer’s leash and tucked his toys under her arm. “Are you ready?” she asked the puppy. “You’d better be good today. I don’t want you wrecking Russell’s house. And don’t chase the cat. She’s nice, once you get to know her.” She bent down to straighten the red bow she had tied to the puppy’s collar, then led him up to the door and knocked.

  Russell answered almost immediately, and looked down at the puppy. He raised his eyebrows. “It’s a bit late for a Christmas present, isn’t it?”

  Ellie grinned. “He’s a present to both of us. I spoke with Noah’s wife, Darla, and she confirmed that she didn’t want him back. She gave me all of his old toys, a bed, and his vet records. He’s ours, if we still want him.”

  Russell bent down and greeted the puppy, who had taken quite a liking to him over the past week. He grinned as he looked up at her. “What do you think? It’s not the perfect time, with our wedding coming up, but I admit I’ve grown attached to the little guy. If you want to keep him, then I’m for it.”

  “I think we can make it work,” she said. “We’ll have to find a pet sitter for over the honeymoon, but we would have had to do that anyway for Bunny and Marlowe. He’s already pretty much potty trained as long as I remember to take him out frequently, and I think he’s even grown on Bunny. He’s hard not to love — he’s just so friendly and good natured. I would miss him a lot if we found him a new home.”

  “Well, then, I guess it’s settled. Welcome to your new family, Sawyer. Maybe you’ll grow up to be a police dog, huh? You can sniff out drugs and find missing people for me. What do you think?”

  Ellie laughed as he wrestled with the puppy. She stepped around him and shut the door behind her, dropping the leash into Russell’s hands. “I’ll have to tell Nonna. I know she’ll love to meet him. Anyway, I brought his toys, and I have a little bit of food here in case he gets hungry. If he gets to be too much, you can take him to my house and leave him in the study. It’s puppy proofed, and that’s where he’s been staying during the day while I’m at work.”

  “I think we’ll be able to manage,” he said. “I take it you can’t stay long? Are we still on for tonight?”

  “Not very long,” she said. “And yes, we are. Let’s meet at my house, and we can drive to the White Pine Kitchen from there. I have to be at the pizzeria in about half an hour to start opening, but I just want to make sure you and Sawyer are settled. Where’s Sookie?”

  “She’s probably hiding somewhere,” he said. “She was sitting on the back of the couch, but I saw her run off when Sawyer came in.”

  “Poor cat,” Ellie said. “She’s not a fan of dogs, is she? I hope she settles in all right when we live together. Bunny has gotten used to Sawyer pretty quickly, at least.”

  “What does Marlowe think of him?”

  “I think she’s a little bit nervous of him. She’s never seen a dog bigger than Bunny, as far as I know. She’ll come around, though.”

  She left for the pizzeria not long after, confident that Sawyer would be in good hands. She knew that Russell liked Bunny, but the little papillon was very much her dog. Sawyer liked everyone, but when Russell was around, he was the one that the puppy chose to follow with a dogged loyalty. She was glad; Russell had very few close friends, and she often wondered if he was lonely. A dog might be just what he needed.

  She pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car, looking down at her keys as she walked toward the door. I have too many of these things, she thought. I really need to start marking them in some way. They all look —

  She let out a sharp scream as someone grabbed her by the arm. Looking up, she saw a hooded figure. Panic seized her; she dropped the keys and violently pulled away from the man who had grabbed her.

  “Whoa, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. He let her go, then bent down to pick up the keys. “I didn’t mean to scare you. You were walking right past me; you didn’t seem to be paying attention to where you were going. Here.”

  He handed her the keys. Her heart still beating heavily in her chest, she stared at him. He was wearing a black hoodie this time, but she was sure it was the same man who had been staring at her in the pizzeria, and who had come to her door — and possibly the same man who had been in her yard the evening after Noah had died.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “My name’s Gus Spencer,” he said. “I’m Noah’s brother. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about his death, but it never seemed like the right time. I must have freaked you out pretty badly last night, too, huh?”

  “Yes. I mean, I saw you here, at the pizzeria, and then you showed up at my house, and after your brother’s accident, I just thought —” She broke off, remembering what Darla had said. If anyone had motive to kill Noah, it was his brother, and here she was, talking to him alone in a parking lot.

  “That’s what I need to talk to you about. You’re the one who found him. I need to know if he said anything before he pa
ssed.”

  “I don’t know if —”

  “Please,” he said, his eyes boring into her own. “He’s my brother. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but I loved him. His death doesn’t feel right to me, and if you know something, then I need to know it too.”

  Ellie breathed out slowly, weighing her options. “Fine. But I want to talk out here. The sheriff is my fiancé, so don’t try anything.”

  “That’s fine. Whatever you’re comfortable with. I’m not gonna hurt you or anything.” He leaned against the back of the building, putting his hands into his pockets. He didn’t look very threatening, but Ellie didn’t let her guard down. “Did he say anything when you found him?”

  “Yes,” she said. She hesitated, then repeated Noah’s final words to him. “And that’s all, besides mentioning his dog.”

  “Yeah, he loved that pup.” He straightened up. “Did you tell the police?”

  “Yes.”

  “And? Are they looking into it?”

  “Not any more. They didn’t find any evidence that his car was tampered with.”

  He made a fist. She tensed, and he must have noticed because she saw him force himself to relax. “Sorry. I’ve got anger issues. I’ve been working through them, but… Look, my brother was a careful driver. He’s lived in Maine his whole life. He knows how to handle snowy roads and bad conditions. I don’t believe for a second that he crashed into your tree on accident.”

  “They found empty alcohol bottles in his car,” she said.

  “But did they test his blood? He was always picking up trash off the side of the road. He hated littering. Always said it killed wildlife. He loved animals. And he’d never drink and drive. Our father did, and it didn’t end well for him.”

  “I — I don’t know if they tested his blood.” She frowned. “What are you doing in town? Don’t you live south of here?”

  His brows drew together. “How do you know that?”

  “I talked to Darla the other day.”

  “What did she say?”

  Ellie inched backward. She didn’t like how intense the man was, and the conversation had made her uncomfortable from the beginning. She wanted nothing more than to get inside and lock him out.

  “I think we’re done here,” she said. “Look, I have to get to work. I have a business to run.”

  “I’m sorry. Please… look, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I have nothing to hide. I was in town to meet with my brother. He wanted to talk about restarting our business. We used to run a body shop for cars — you know, painting them, repairing cosmetic damage after accidents, that sort of thing. He thought that his wife was going to spring a divorce on him, and wanted to start making plans before they split. He was on his way to meet me when he had the accident. I had no idea what had happened to him, and I was getting worried, so I decided to head into town. That’s when I saw the damage to the tree in your yard. It looked fresh, so I stopped and found some pieces of his car. Then, when I saw the news the next morning, I knew.”

  Ellie frowned. His story made sense. But how could she know if he was telling the truth?

  “Why didn’t you just come talk to me the other day in the pizzeria?” she asked.

  “You seemed busy, and I didn’t want to talk about my dead brother in front of a crowd,” he said. “And at the house the other day, I was worried you were calling the police, so I left. You seemed so freaked out, that I decided it would probably be best not to stick around.”

  “So… are you saying you think he might have been murdered too?”

  “Yes,” he said firmly. “And I think I know who did it. His wife. I just need someone to help me get evidence that the police will believe.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  *

  Even though it was against her better judgment, Ellie unlocked the door and let Gus into the pizzeria’s kitchen. She began getting everything ready for opening as they spoke.

  “Why would Darla want to kill him?” she asked. She thought back to her meeting with the other woman. True, Darla hadn’t shed a single tear while they talked about her husband, but Ellie knew they all handled grief differently. Just because the woman had seemed remarkably composed didn’t mean she was a killer.

  “Their relationship has been strained for a long time. Like I said, Noah thought that she wanted a divorce. I think that dog was the last straw — Darla never did like animals in the house — but it was a lot of little things.”

  “Going from wanting a divorce to killing your spouse is a big jump,” Ellie said, pulling a block of cheese out of the fridge.

  “Well, now she’ll get his life insurance,” he said. “It’s probably more than she’d get in alimony, if she got anything, and she won’t have to go to court over it.”

  The pizzeria owner shook her head. “It’s a stretch,” she said. “You know more about their relationship than I do, of course, but even so, the police didn’t find anything wrong with his car. How would she have done it?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. What I do know is that my brother wasn’t a liar. His last words on this earth were a warning that someone had tried to kill him. One of the reasons he was eager to get back into business with me, was because he wanted to be far away from Darla. Things kept happening at the house, things that he didn’t like.”

  “Like what?”

  “He found a picture of the two of them, smashed on the floor. His car had been keyed while it was sitting in the driveway. He overheard her talking on the phone, saying she wished someone would just drop dead, and was sure she was talking about him.”

  Ellie paused, considering this. “Well, I agree that it sounds like she wasn’t happy with him. I’m not saying I don’t believe you. If the police had found something — anything — that indicated his car had been tampered with, then maybe you could go to the police with what you have. Actually, I think you should do that anyway. Go to the sheriff’s department, and ask to talk to Russell Ward. He’s the sheriff, and he’ll listen to you. He’s the one you should be telling all of this to, not me.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said darkly. “I only came to you because I thought he might have said something to you, something about what really happened. Thanks for telling me what you did, but I can see that it isn’t enough to put Darla behind bars. I should get going.”

  He rose, and she watched with relief as he walked out the door. She locked it immediately, then grabbed her cell phone. It was time to call Russell.

  She was unable to shake the thoughts about her conversation with Gus for the rest of the day. Her fiancé had promised that he would look into it, but she didn’t know exactly what that meant. She hadn’t been able to talk with him for very long, not with the pizzeria so close to opening. While she worked, she chewed over the thought of Darla as a murderer. The question of how burned brightly in her mind. If it had been something simple, such as the brake lines being cut, she might have believed it. A relationship that was already rocky might turn sour easily after the addition of an unwanted puppy. If Noah had ignored his wife’s wishes and had gotten the dog anyway, it could have been enough to push her over the edge. However, even if Darla had wanted to kill her husband, Ellie couldn’t work out how the other woman had made it happen.

  She was forced out of her thoughts when Iris poked her head into the kitchen halfway through the afternoon and said, “Ms. P.? There’s someone out here who wants to talk to you.”

  Assuming it was Gus again, she put down the rolling pin she had been holding and went out front to see what he wanted. She was surprised when she found, not Gus, but another familiar face. Clark Mackley. Just weeks ago, the man had been on the run for a crime he hadn’t committed. The last time she had seen him, he had been in the hospital. What was he doing here?

  She asked him exactly that, and was surprised when he said, “Actually, I’m looking for a job.”

  “Here?” She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. She had not only led the police right to him whe
n he had been in hiding, but she had also accused him of a second murder — which he also hadn’t committed.

  “Well,” he said, looking down at the counter with an embarrassed expression, “I don’t really know anyone else in town, except for my cousin, but it seems like everyone knows me. I was all over the news, remember? You’re the only one who knows the full story about what happened. No one else believes I’m innocent. I can tell, when I talk to them. No one’s going to hire me. Except, maybe, you?” He looked up again, his eyes hopeful.

  Ellie opened and closed her mouth. She was speechless. Clark was likable enough, but she didn’t know much about him besides his criminal — or not so criminal — history. He had escaped police custody, and had injured Bethany in the process. She didn’t know how Russell had ended up handling his case, but she was certain that there must have been some sort of criminal charge for assaulting an officer, even if he had been innocent at the time of his arrest. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t hire someone like him without talking to her fiancé first. Well, she could, but she didn’t want to.

  “I don’t need to work in the pizzeria,” he added. “Anything would help. Odd jobs. I’ve worked as a handyman before. I can shovel snow. I’m living with my cousin, I don’t need to make much. I just can’t think of anyone else that might give me a chance.”

  “Well, I’m not hiring right now,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  He nodded sadly. “I understand. Thanks anyway.”

  He began to walk away. She sighed. She never could stand feeling bad for someone.

  “Wait,” she called out. “I’m going to be repainting the upper floor of my house soon. Is that something you’d be willing to do for pay, once I figure out the colors?”

  He brightened. “Painting. Yeah, I can do that.”

  “All right,” she said, already wondering if she had made a mistake. “Leave me your number. I’ll call you soon to set it up.”

  There I go opening my mouth again, she thought as she watched him walk away for a second time, this time with more spring in his step. At least my life isn’t boring.