Exotic Pizza Murder (Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Book 9)

by Patti Benning

  Her friend chuckled. “I guess you have a point. What’s the plan, then? How are you going to catch this guy in the act?”

  “Honestly, I don’t even know what act I’m trying to catch him in. That was a lot of money. I would have noticed if that much was missing from the pizzeria’s accounts. I don’t know if he’s been gambling, stealing from customers, or what. Like I told Jacob, he might not even be doing anything wrong. There are valid reasons for someone to carry around that much cash.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, I can’t think of any, but I’m sure they exist.”

  Her friend burst out laughing, and a moment later, Ellie joined her. It felt good to talk with Shannon. Spending time with her best friend always seemed to make her feel better, no matter what crazy stuff was going on in her life at the time.

  CHAPTER NINE

  * * *

  “I don’t know about this,” Ellie said. “If he figures out what we’re doing…”

  “How will he?” Iris asked. “At least this way we’ll know for sure if he’s been stealing. If we just ask him, he’ll feel like we don’t trust him.”

  “We don’t trust him,” Jacob pointed out.

  Ellie sighed. Things had been going so well, until the drawer had come up short of money two nights in a row. Billy had been working both nights, and while she had no proof he had taken the money, to say she was suspicious would be an understatement. She hated going behind his back, but if he wasn’t doing anything illegal, making an accusation to his face might be even worse.

  “Look,” she said. “We’re only going to try this once. We’ll leave the money out. If he takes it, we’ll confront him. If he leaves it, we’ll let it drop, okay?”

  Her employees nodded. She wished that Iris hadn’t overheard her and Jacob talking about the money they had found in Billy’s car. It would be one thing if it was just between the two of them — Jacob had been the one to find the money, after all, and despite all of the anxiety the issue had caused her, she was glad he had told her. Bringing Iris into the matter felt too sneaky for her liking. Billy didn’t need all of the employees talking about him behind his back. She wanted the pizzeria to be a safe place for all of them, not a place where they had secrets from each other.

  Billy was currently on a delivery. When he got back, Ellie would ask him to take a shift at the register while she handled the deliveries for a while — she wouldn’t be lying if she said she would enjoy the chance to get out of the restaurant for a bit, and it was true that he still needed more practice ringing customers up. Before she left, she would leave a couple of bills on the counter by the register and tell him that a customer had overpaid. Iris and Jacob would be watching to see if he took the money, or left it where it was. It wasn’t a complex plan, but it should at the very least tell her whether her new employee was honest or not.

  “Ms. P., he’s pulling in now,” Jacob said, peering out the drive-up window in the kitchen.

  “Alright, everyone, just act normal. Remember, we don’t want to mislead him any more than we have to.”

  The first part of the plan went smoothly. Ellie placed a pair of twenties on the counter before sending Billy out to the register with instructions to give the money back if a customer came looking for it. Of course, she knew no one would come back looking for money since no one had actually overpaid, but she figured it was a good ruse. If the money was gone when she got back, then she would know that Billy was being dishonest.

  It had been a long time since Ellie had been on delivery duty. She had forgotten how peaceful it could be to load up a few pizzas in the car and head out, away from the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. Kittiport was a pretty little town, and always a pleasure to drive through, even in the evening. The harbor with lights from the boats, and the smell of wood smoke filled the air as people began lighting their fire places. It was still early enough in the year that it got chilly in the evenings, so the sight of smoke plumes over houses wasn’t at all uncommon. She left her windows down just a hair to allow the early spring scents of her home town into the car, turned on her favorite radio station, and pulled out of the parking lot towards her first delivery destination.

  “Keep the change, dear,” the elderly woman said, smiling at her. “You have a nice evening.”

  “You, too,” Ellie said, returning the smile. “Thanks for choosing Papa Pacelli’s.”

  She got back in her car, still smiling. It was always nice to see a familiar face unexpectedly. This first delivery had been to an old friend of her grandmother’s, someone who Ellie saw occasionally when she dropped her nonna off at restaurants and get-togethers. She truly loved how tightly knit the town was… and it made her all the angrier at the person or people that had committed the two murders. Kittiport should be the sort of town where people didn’t bother to lock their doors, but lately it had been the kind of town where people were afraid to open them.

  Her next delivery was a mile or two out of town in one of the nicer suburbs. She hadn’t had much occasion to drive out that direction, so she pulled out her phone and turned on the GPS. She had only gone a few miles when a robotics voice told her that the GPS signal had been lost.

  “Great,” she muttered. “I’ve just got to remember that I’m looking for Rabbit Woods subdivision. It can’t be that hard to find.”

  It took her longer than she would have liked to find the subdivision, then she drove around in circles for another few minutes before she found the correct drive. She triple checked the address on the receipt before pulling into the driveway of a sizable two-story house.

  “Here we go,” she said. “The last delivery before I can go back to the pizzeria and see if Billy took the money or not.”

  She grabbed the insulated bag that kept the pizza warm, hefted the two-liter of soda, and made her way up the walk to the porch. Her steps faltered when she saw that the door was already open. Was she supposed to let herself inside? Some people were casual about deliveries, but she didn’t know anyone who would leave their front door wide open like that, especially on such a cool spring evening.

  She took the last few steps up to the porch and raised her hand to knock on the door frame, but her hand never made contact with the wood. Her eyes focused on the dark form lying just inside the door. She hadn’t seen the shape at first; she had been looking at eye level, expecting someone to walk up. There was no mistaking the dark red stain beneath the man lying sprawled in the entrance as anything other than blood.

  Somehow managing to hold onto the pizza, Ellie took a stumbling step backwards and let out a scream.

  CHAPTER TEN

  * * *

  The lights from the police cars and ambulance looked out of place in the quiet little subdivision. Ellie shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The temperature had dropped even farther. She knew that she should probably be sitting inside her car, but she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from the scene that was unfolding in front of her. A minivan had just pulled into the driveway, and she immediately recognized the dark-haired woman that got out of the front seat. Nancy, wife of Jason, the man that she had found dead.

  Ellie was unable to look away as the woman approached the house slowly, her hand going up to her face in an expression of shock as she realized what she was looking at. She recognized Bethany’s blond hair as the young deputy rushed to give what comfort she could to the woman. Her gaze flicked back to the van, and she saw a shadow move behind the darkened windows. She realized that the son must be in the back, waiting for his mother to figure out what was going on.

  “Oh, my goodness,” she muttered. It was too much for her. She fumbled for her car door and slid inside. She wished she could just go home, but she had promised Russell that she would talk to him as soon as he was done with the paramedics.

  What’s going on in this town? she wondered. Three deaths so far, and unless the killer left some evidence behind this time, this probably isn’t the end of it. It was intriguing to her t
hat this victim and the first victim had known each other. Was that a link between the crimes, or just a coincidence? In a town as small as Kittiport, it wasn’t too unlikely of an occurrence.

  A knock at the passenger window startled her. She looked up to see Russell peering in. She unlocked the door and gestured for him to join her.

  “How are you?” he asked as he sat down in the passenger seat.

  “Not great. Pretty bad, actually,” she admitted. “But it could be worse.” Her eyes were on the huddled form of Jason’s wife. The poor woman’s life had changed forever. Her world would never be the same again.

  “This is the third one,” the sheriff said. She turned to see him shaking his head sadly. “Three murders, three wives left behind, and two of them had kids. I haven’t felt so drained by a case since…” He fell silent, then said, “Well, it’s been a while.”

  “They were in my restaurant earlier this week,” she said in a quiet voice. “I remember, because I overheard them talking about the first victim. If I knew then that they would only have a few more days left together, I would have told them to leave, to get out of town. I would have paid for a vacation for the three of them to the Bahamas if that’s what it took to get them out and prevent this.”

  “There’s no way you could have known,” he told her.

  “I know.” She sighed.

  “Do you want to give your statement now? If you’d rather wait —”

  “No, no, now is okay. I want to get it over with. Plus, it’s all still fresh in my mind.”

  “Alright. Let’s begin with the call he put in to order the pizza…”

  After Russell finished questioning her, Ellie was free to go. While every bone in her body ached to go back home and curl up in bed with a hot cup of tea while she tried not to cry herself to sleep, she knew that she couldn’t just vanish from the pizzeria. She had to at least go back and tell her employees what had happened.

  When she let herself in the employee entrance, she was surprised by Jacob’s enthusiastic greeting. “Ms. P.! There you are. We were getting worried.” He glanced quickly around the kitchen, then added in a lower voice, “Billy didn’t touch the money. Iris and I made sure we left him alone with it for a while, but nothing happened. I don’t think he’s been doing anything wrong.”

  “That’s good,” she said, not quite paying attention. Her suspicions about her new employee seemed inconsequential now.

  “Did something happen, Ms. P.?” he asked. “You were gone an awfully long time.”

  She told him about the murder, her voice shaking. She realized it was probably a good thing that she had decided to take the last two pizzas out for delivery, otherwise one of her employees might have been the one to find the corpse. Better her than them, she thought.

  “Wow, I can’t believe that someone else was killed,” he replied when she was done. “Were there any witnesses? Did anyone see the killer drive away this time?”

  “Not that I know of,” she told him. “Russell was still questioning the neighbors when I left. I just stopped in to update you guys and drop off the insulated bag and the delivery sign before going home. I need some space to process everything.”

  “I’ll let Iris and Billy know what happened,” he said. “Go on home, Ms. P. We’ll be fine here.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  * * *

  The Eleanora bobbed gently on the waves in the harbor. Ellie hoisted Bunny into her arms and stepped from the dock to the boat, glad it was a calm day. It had been a while since she had been out on the boat that her grandfather had named after her, and she was eager for the feeling of freedom that came when she was out on the open water.

  “There you are,” Russell said, coming along the dock. “I was wondering who made it here first.”

  “Here, let me help you,” she said, reaching to take the cooler from him before he made the step over to the boat. “This is heavy. What all did you pack?”

  “Anything and everything we could possibly want for a picnic,” he said with a grin.

  “If it weighed any more, I might be afraid the boat would sink,” she joked. “You ready to go?”

  “Yep. Untie her, and I’ll get us out of the marina.”

  She undid the rope that tethered the boat to the dock and then took a seat as the sheriff began to maneuver the boat out of the maze that was the marina. She was happy to steer when they were on the open water, but didn’t trust herself to do it around so many expensive vessels. With her luck, she would crash into some millionaire’s boat and end up owing more than she would ever make in her life.

  It was a warm day on shore, but as they got into the open ocean, she became glad that she had thought to bring a light jacket. There was a strong breeze, which would have made the trip miserable if she hadn’t had something warm to put on. After one strong gust too many, Bunny gave her an annoyed look and got up to go into the cabin. Ellie laughed and followed her, pulling open one of the bench seats to withdraw the small, bright orange doggy life vest that she had bought a few weeks ago.

  “I’d better put this on you,” she told her dog. “We wouldn’t want you getting lost if you fall overboard.”

  The vest served the double purpose of both life-saving equipment and a windbreaker, and after Ellie had strapped it on, the little papillon looked a lot happier. She had fallen into the ocean the year before, and while the dog hadn’t seemed spooked by the experience, her owner sure had been. Bunny was so small that a shark could probably swallow her in a single gulp. Granted, Ellie had yet to see a shark off the Maine coast, but her dog’s safety still concerned her.

  “Where do you want to go?” Russell asked her. “The normal spot?”

  “Sure. It’s our favorite for a reason.”

  Their favorite spot was a stretch of coast that bordered the state park. The stark cliffs that towered above the ocean were lined with pine trees. It should have been a forbidding view, but Ellie had always found it beautiful. If they were lucky, they may even see some of the seabirds nesting in the cracks and crags on the side of the cliff.

  It felt good to get out and away from town. She hadn’t been able to shake the low mood that had taken over since she had found the body. She hardly even cared about the fact that the drawer had come up short another couple of times. Nothing seemed important after witnessing the woman’s grief when she drove up to her husband’s murder scene. Both Russell and she had decided that they needed at least a few hours in which the murders didn’t touch their lives at all.

  “It really is beautiful here,” she said softly and Russell slowly guided the boat nearer to the cliffs. “I’m glad winter is over. Being outside is just good for the soul, and a whole lot more pleasant when I’m not freezing my face off.”

  The sheriff chuckled. “I don’t mind the winter so much, as long as it doesn’t storm more than once or twice. This past year was worse than usual. It’s over now, at least. I’m sure I’ll enjoy this spring weather more once I don’t have these cases hanging over my head.”

  “We aren’t out here to talk about that,” she reminded him.

  They had already beaten the subject to death, going over the same thing again and again wouldn’t do anything but put them both in a bad mood. She knew that things were already tense at the sheriff’s department. Everyone wanted to find the killer, or killers, but every lead they thought they had ended up being a dead end. The one link between all three men was that their wives all worked at the same store — but no matter who they questioned, they couldn’t make sense of a motive. How could the wives working together be tied to the deaths of their husbands?

  “You’re right, you’re right,” he said, putting his hands up in mock defeat. “I think this is a good spot. I’ll drop anchor, and we can unpack that picnic. I even packed a little something for Bunny, in the hopes that it would keep her from begging us for our food.”

  Ellie grinned. Her little dog had a big appetite. She was supposed to be on a diet, but it wasn’t working out so well
. She knew Nonna still slipped the papillon food under the table, and Marlowe seemed to enjoy tossing the food out of her dish and onto the floor, and then watching Bunny eat it. Ellie knew she was outnumbered when even the bird joined in on sneaking her dog treats.

  The picnic that Russell had packed was delicious. They ate it out of the wind, on the small table in the cabin. Bunny chewed on her bone, occasionally glancing up at the two people as they ate their ham and cheese sandwiches. Ellie popped a grape into her mouth, feeling happier than she had in a long time. It was so peaceful out here on the water, it was easy to feel some of the stress of the past few days slipping away.

  “How’s the pizzeria doing? With everything that’s been going on at the sheriff’s department, we haven’t really had a chance to talk about your work lately.”