With that, she got up and left the women to eat their meal in peace. She had a lot to think about, and there was one person that she was just itching to share it all with.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
* * *
By the time the pizzeria closed that evening, Ellie was beat. As she swept out the dining area, she toyed with the idea of going straight home, but knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she told Russell all about her conversation with the wives of the murdered men today. She had to admit, she had been impressed by the women. They were doing what they could to figure out who had killed their husbands. It couldn’t have been easy for any of them, but she especially felt for the ones who had children. She had forgone that part of life, and could hardly imagine what it must be like to be so completely responsible for another human being. And those poor kids, growing up without fathers… whoever the killer was, he or she deserved to rot in prison for a very, very long time.
After closing up, she drove over to her favorite coffee shop and ordered two drinks before heading to the sheriff’s department. For Christmas, she had bought the department a new coffee maker, but even so, nothing compared to the caramel mochas from the little shop.
She had texted the sheriff a few minutes before close, so he knew she was coming. He met her at the door and took his coffee gratefully.
“My favorite,” he said. “This ought to hold off the sleep deprivation for another hour or two.”
“You know what would fix it completely?” she asked. “More sleep.”
“You make it sound so easy.” He leaned down to give her a quick kiss, then held the door for her so she could go in. It was late, and the secretary, Ms. Lafferre, had already gone home.
“I guess I’m here because I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep myself. We’re a pair of insomniacs.”
“Perfectly matched, then,” he said. “So, what was it you wanted to tell me? You said it had to do with the murder cases?”
“Yes. You’ll never guess who came into the pizzeria today…”
She told him all about her lunch with the three women. She didn’t leave any detail out. If they weren’t going to tell the sheriff the full truth, then she would. She hadn’t made any promises to keep her mouth shut, and she hadn’t even asked for the women to talk to her in the first place. Russell couldn’t do his job right if he didn’t know everything. If someone else died, and she hadn’t told him everything that the women had told her, she would never be able to forgive herself.
“All of the men were acting this way?” He shook his head. “That’s just… odd.”
“I’ve been trying to figure it out all day,” she admitted. “One of the men might have been having an affair, but what are the chances that all three would have been?”
“Their deaths keep getting more and more mysterious,” he said. “There are so many clues, but none of them seem to tie together. The fact that the three women work together is still bothering me as well. There just has to be something I’m missing.”
“I hate this so much. I feel terrible for the women, and their children, and the men who died, of course. I feel scared to be home alone, and whenever I leave my grandmother home alone, I’m terrified of what I might come back to. So far all of the victims have been men, but what if the next one isn’t? Or what if next time it’s someone I know, like you or James?”
“Come here.” He put his coffee down and wrapped her in a hug. “I’d be happy if the killer came to my door. At least then I could quit looking for him. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Right now, the women, and that bar, are the two things that tie all three men together. Unless I’m completely wrong about all of this, there was something going on that we just aren’t aware of yet. It will all fall into place eventually.”
“I hope you’re right.” She closed her eyes and rested her head against his shoulder for a moment before popping them open again. “Hey, didn’t you say you had something interesting to tell me, too?”
“I do.” He grimaced. “It’s not exactly good news. It’s about Billy.”
“Oh no, did you find some sort of criminal record on him?”
He nodded. “He’s been arrested for petty theft a couple of times, and once for facilitating illegal gambling.”
“That means he lied on his application,” she said, stung. “I can’t believe it. And Iris… I wonder what she has to do with all of it.”
“Iris?” he said. “She’s the one with the brightly colored hair, isn’t she?”
Ellie nodded. “They drove to work together today, and I watched them flirt all afternoon. There’s definitely something going on between them.”
“I don’t think she would cover up for him if he was stealing, do you?” Russell asked, a frown causing his brows to crease. “She can’t have known him long. Why would she risk jeopardizing her job for someone she just met?”
“I don’t know,” Ellie said. “I really don’t. I just want this whole thing with Billy to be over. Should I fire him tomorrow? No, I should get him to confess first, shouldn’t I? Otherwise he’ll just go and steal from someone else. He must be taking money from more than just the pizzeria. He had a lot of cash in that backpack of his.”
“Slow down,” the sheriff said. “You can’t go confronting this guy. He might get dangerous if he thinks you’re on to him.”
“I can’t in good conscience let him go get some other job in town if I know he’s a thief. He’d still be stealing from the same people, he’d just be doing it from some other restaurant,” she said.
Maybe he could go and work at Cheesaroni Calzones, she thought. They sure deserve someone like him. She knew that she wouldn’t really be comfortable with that. In the end, he would still be stealing from the people of Kittiport. She frowned, thinking of the customer’s wallet that she had found. That was what made her the maddest of all. Stealing petty cash from the register was one thing. Stealing a wallet from a customer was a whole different ballgame.
“If you’re set on outing him, I have an idea,” Russell said. “But you have to promise to do exactly what I say…”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
* * *
It was a couple of days until the shifts at the pizzeria lined up just right for Russell and Ellie to put their plan into action. She got to the pizzeria a good hour before it opened and began her preparations as usual, trying to ignore her rapidly beating heart and sweaty palms. This was exciting. It was like being undercover, except she was really just being herself. She wondered what Billy was thinking as he drove over. Was he nervous? Did he know something was up? Or had he believed her when she said she just wanted to talk to him? Now that she knew he had a history of stealing, she had no doubts that he was the one taking small amounts of cash out of the register. It made her angry to think that she had given him a chance, and even after knowing her history with the previous manager, he had decided to take advantage of her. Today, she would get the truth once and for all.
The employee door opened, and in walked Billy, just on time as he almost always was. He did look a little nervous. Serves him right, she thought.
“Hi, Billy. Come and sit down with me. Feel free to pour yourself a glass of lemonade first, if you would like.”
He shook his head and joined her at the round staff table in the kitchen immediately. “Did I do something wrong, Ms. P.?”
“I just need to ask you a few things,” she said. “I’ve noticed that the register has been short pretty often lately. And I can’t help but notice that it always happens on the evenings that you work. I don’t want to sound like I’m accusing you of anything, I’m just wondering if you have any idea what’s going on.” It was difficult to stay polite when she already knew that he was a liar and a thief, but she thought she was doing a pretty good job.
“I have no idea,” he said, his eyes widening in surprise. “How much are we talking here? If it’s just a few pennies, I may have made a mistake while counting.”
She was prep
ared for this. She handed him a printout, with the differences between what should have been in the drawer and what was actually in the drawer highlighted.
He looked at it for a few seconds before glancing back up at her with obvious embarrassment on his face. “These are the exact amount I’ve been taking out in tips each night,” he said. “I must have been doing it wrong.”
She frowned. She hadn’t expected this. “Let’s look at the receipts.”
She got up and pulled the receipt box out from the pantry. It wasn’t as organized as it should have been, but it didn’t take her long to pull the receipts from the past few days off the top of the haphazard pile. Sure enough, when she crunched the numbers, the amount missing from the drawer each night matched the tips on the receipts from each of the pizzas Billy had delivered.
“Jacob showed me how to cash out each evening and grab the tips that people left with a card. I just must have missed a step somewhere.”
“It sure looks like that,” she said, somewhat reluctantly. She had been prepared to fire him the second he had admitted to stealing, but it looked now like he hadn’t been stealing from her at all. “Wait here for —”
She was cut off as the employee door opened once again, revealing Iris. Ellie frowned. What was the young woman doing there? She wasn’t scheduled to work that day, and even if she had been, it was way too early for her to be there.
“Ms. P…” Her voice trailed off as her eyes landed on Billy. It took her just an instant to rephrase whatever it was that she had been about to say. “Can I talk to you, Ms. P.? It’s important.”
“Not right now, Iris, I’m in the middle of a conversation with Billy.”
“It’s about that thing we were talking about…” Her eyes flicked to Billy again. “Um, my medical problem.”
Ellie blinked. What medical problem was the girl talking about? She didn’t remember Iris telling her anything about any issues. Whatever it was, it must have been important, or Iris wouldn’t have been so adamant about interrupting.
“Alright, Billy will you wait here? I’ll talk to Iris in the other room really quickly.”
Feeling annoyed at her employee, she gestured Iris over and walked through the swinging door that led to the dining area. Russell was waiting on the other side. When Iris saw him, she gave a small jump, but to her credit didn’t make a peep. Ellie made sure the door was shut completely before speaking to Iris in a whisper.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “First, are you okay?”
“What — oh, yeah. I was just trying to get you to talk to me. Sorry about that.”
“What’s so important that it couldn’t wait?”
“It’s about Billy. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been spending more time with him lately.”
“I noticed,” Ellie said.
“Right, well I’ve been trying to get close enough to him that he would tell me where he got all of his money from.”
“Oh.” Ellie shot an embarrassed look towards Russell. It looked like she had been wrong about her youngest employee. “I have to apologize, Iris, I thought that you might have told him about the test money we set out.”
“I would never, but I can see why you might have thought that. It’s fine, it doesn’t matter, because he’s not stealing from the pizzeria.”
“I just figured that out,” the pizzeria owner said. “He had just been making a mistake with the register. He was only taking his tips out.” Behind Iris, she saw Russell sigh.
“I don’t know about that, but I do know where he got all of that money. He’s been gambling, Ms. P.! He takes money from people all around town. And guess what, he even told me that he makes stops sometimes while he’s driving to collect. That’s why he’s late occasionally.”
Russell frowned. Ellie thought he was going to say something, but when he remained silent, she said, “Wow, thank you for telling me, Iris.”
“He said he takes bets on sports at some bar in town, and he sometimes makes a few thousand in a night. He doesn’t even need this job, not really.”
Iris’s words felt like a punch in Ellie’s gut. He takes bets at a bar in town… this is a one bar kind of town. He’s taking those bets at the same bar where Nancy and her friends work. The same bar that all three of those men must have frequented. She met Russell’s eyes over her employee’s shoulder, and knew that he must have realized the same thing. This was the link that he had needed to solve the case.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
* * *
Billy opened the door from the kitchen. Ellie started. Russell, who was standing just on the other side of the door, froze. If Billy looked to just slightly to his left, he would see the sheriff.
“Did you need anything else, Ms. P.? Or is it okay if I go? I’ve still got about half an hour before my shift is supposed to start.”
“Um, I’m not done talking to you yet, Billy. Please wait.”
He sighed and shut the door. She breathed out a sigh of relief. Their cover had almost been blown.
Turning to Iris, she said, “Thank you so much for telling me. I really appreciate it. You have no idea how much. Was there anything else?”
“Nope,” Iris said. “I just thought you should know.”
“Thank you,” she said again. “Go enjoy your day off, now. I’ll take care of Billy.”
Iris nodded and left, leaving Ellie and Russell alone in the main room of the pizzeria. The sheriff was still frowning.
“I’m going to go talk to him,” she said.
“Ellie, no. He might be the one who killed those men. It’s far too dangerous.”
“Are you going to arrest him?”
He gritted his teeth. “I can’t yet. I need evidence, not just hearsay. She didn’t even say anything to tie him to those poor men.”
“Then I’m going to go talk to him. You listen at the door like you were. It’s the same plan as before.”
“Except now you’re in there with a killer, not just a thief.”
“If he’s guilty, then I’ve been around a killer for weeks. I just didn’t know it. How is this any different?”
Satisfied that she had won the argument, she went back into the kitchen without waiting for his reply. Billy was lounging at the table, spinning his phone around with one hand.
“Is Iris okay?” he asked, looking up.
“She’s fine,” Ellie said. “We can get back to our discussion now.”
“I thought we got that cleared up? I didn’t steal anything, and now I know how to do tips right so I won’t mess it up again.”
“There are still other things to discuss.”
“Like what?”
“Like —” for an instant, she almost mentioned the bag full of money that she had seen. She cast around for another excuse to keep him there longer. Her eyes landed on the sink. “Like the dishes.”
“The dishes?”
“Yes. I think you’ve been using too much soap. It might seem silly, but it adds up, and it also leaves soap residue on the dishes. The customers complain.”
She reached for one of the heavy ceramic plates to show him, but her hands were shaking. The plate slipped out of her grip and shattered on the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the swinging door that led to the main area twitch open a fraction of an inch. The thought of Russell watching over her calmed her down.
“Why are you acting so weird, Ms. Pacelli?” he asked. “What did Iris say to you?”
“Nothing, I just haven’t eaten breakfast. Why, is there something you don’t want her to say?”
She met his eyes and was surprised by how cold and uncaring his gaze was. What had happened to the charming young man that she had hired?
“There’s plenty I’d rather you didn’t know about me, Ms. Pacelli,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter, does it? Because this whole thing was a set-up from the beginning, wasn’t it?”
The door to the kitchen swung open at the same instant that Billy stood up and pointed a gun at her. His
eyes never left her face, even when Russell shouted at him to drop the weapon.
“I don’t think so, dude. How about you put yours down?”
“How did you know he was here?” Ellie gasped. Their plan had seemed so perfect. How had she ended up at gunpoint?
“I saw Iris glance at something on the other side of the door when I opened it. Then I saw the door move when you dropped that dish. I put two and two together quickly enough.”
Exotic Pizza Murder (Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Book 9) Page 6
