Mozzarella and Murder

by Patti Benning

  “I came out here to look at her,” the man said, lowering his cane. “The dog followed me.”

  “Why would Nonna be out here?” Ellie asked.

  “I don’t know. The crazy old bat invited me in for cookies, then ran off into the forest for no reason at all.”

  “You have no right to talk to her about her like that,” Ellie said. She frowned at the man, then looked around. Why would her grandmother do that? She supposed it was possible that the man wasn’t lying, but what would cause the older woman to act like that? Her grandmother might be in her eighties, but her mind was usually very clear.

  “Nonna?” she shouted. “If you’re here, follow my voice.”

  “Enough of that,” the man said.

  “Aren’t you looking for her too?”

  “I was—”

  He was cut off by a shout from the opposite direction. “Ellie?”

  Ellie felt a rush of relief. She recognized her grandmother’s voice.

  “I’m here, Nonna. Head this way.”

  “Ellie, you get away from that man. He’s dangerous.”

  Ellie spun around, but it was too late. Dr. Morgan was already swinging his cane at her. It struck her across the temple, hard enough to make her stumble backward. She might have kept to her feet if her shoe hadn’t caught on a fallen branch, but she landed heavily on her rear. As she was struggling to catch her breath, Bunny struggled out of her arms and ran straight toward the vet, barking fiercely. Ellie pressed her fingers to her temple and was surprised when they came away dry. She wasn’t bleeding, even though it felt like he had hit her hard enough to split her skull open.

  “Get off me, you little rat,” she heard the vet say. She blinked, trying to focus, and saw Bunny tugging at the man’s pant leg with her teeth. He raised the cane, and brought it down sharply at the little dog.

  “No!” she shouted. It was too late. She heard Bunny yelp as the cane struck her. There was a sharp crack, and the little dog’s body went flying away from him. Ellie stared at her still form, begging her to get up, but she didn’t move.

  Ellie pulled herself to her feet, feeling hot rage wash through her. The man had hurt her dog. Tears pricked her eyes. Him hitting Bunny made her even angrier than when he had hit her. She took a step toward him, not sure what she was about to do. He took half a step back and raised his cane again, when they were both distracted by the sound of snapping sticks and crunching leaves. Ellie looked up to see her grandmother hurrying toward them as quickly as she could. Her dress was torn and she was missing a shoe, but other than the large bruise on her arm, she seemed all right.

  “You stay away from my granddaughter,” Nonna said. She hefted a rock in her hand. “This will hurt a lot more than those cookies did. You already know I have good aim.”

  “Neither of you move,” Dr. Morgan said. He shuffled backward and ducked down to pick up Bunny’s limp form. When he touched her, the little dog stirred and whimpered. She was still alive. Ellie closed her eyes, relieved. It wasn’t too late for them all to get out of this alive.

  The vet reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe. “Neither of you move. This syringe is filled with enough barbiturates to kill a dog ten times her size.”

  Ellie bit her lip, and reached out a hand to stop her grandmother, who had been adjusting her grip on the rock. She didn’t know whether he was telling the truth or not, but she didn’t want to risk it.

  “Please don’t hurt her,” she said. “She was just protecting me.”

  “I won’t hurt her if you do what I say. Neither of you follow me out of the woods. I don’t want to hear a single twig snap while I’m still in here, understand?”

  Ellie is that looked at her grandmother and nodded. Nonna frowned, but eventually managed a nod as well. The vet began to slowly back away. Ellie felt her heart pound as he disappeared into the trees with her dog. How had all of this happened?

  “What’s going on?” She whispered to her grandmother as the elderly man’s footsteps gradually faded.

  “I don’t know. We had a nice date and he drove me home. I invited him in for cookies. I went to the kitchen to grab the plate, and when I came out, he had his hands in Marlowe’s cage and was trying to stick a needle in her. I yelled at the top of my lungs for him to stop. I think I gave him quite the scare, because he took off. I started pelting him with cookies, then when I ran out I threw the plate too. I got a little carried away and followed him into the woods. Bunny must have followed me. He hid behind a tree and surprised me. He got in one good hit with the cane, but I managed to get away.” She showed Ellie the bruise. “I was going to start circling back to the house, but then I heard you. Are you all right?”

  “Yes, he hit me with his cane, but thankfully he’s not as strong as a younger man might have been. I think I’ll be fine.” Ellie bit her lip. She hated just standing there, but she didn’t want to put Bunny’s life in danger by following him too soon. “Why would he want to hurt Marlowe?”

  “I don’t know.” Her grandmother looked at the ground. “Do you think it’s my fault? For telling him about Marlowe saying, ‘stop it’ the other day? Maybe he thinks she knows too much.”

  “Even if that’s the reason he did all of this, it’s not your fault,” Ellie said. She frowned. Things were beginning to make sense, at least a little bit. Maybe Alaina wasn’t the killer after all—her grandfather was. If Samantha had found out something that would threaten his veterinary practice, maybe he had killed her to keep her quiet. And maybe he was afraid that Marlowe would say his name one of these days.

  Ellie decided that they had waited long enough. “Hurry,” she said. “We have to follow him. I have to find a way to stop him before he kills Marlowe.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  *

  Ellie and her grandmother crept slowly through the trees. The pizzeria owner was hyperaware of every sound. She didn’t want to catch up to the doctor too quickly, in case he made good on his threat to kill Bunny. She didn’t want to move too slowly, either. If she didn’t come up with a plan before he got to the house, then he would kill Marlowe.

  The bird wasn’t the only one in danger. He might not be thinking straight right now, but it wouldn’t take the vet long to realize that she and her grandmother couldn’t be left as witnesses. He would have to kill them all. The only question was, how would he try to do it?

  By the time she and Nonna reached the edge of the woods, the old veterinarian was nowhere in sight. They had been too slow—he must have reached the house already. Ellie shot a glance toward her grandmother. She was torn between running as fast as she could toward the house, and her desire to stay with the older woman to protect her.

  “Go,” Nonna said, reading the look in her eyes. “I’ll follow as quickly as I can.”

  Ellie took off running across the yard. It was nearly dark now, and she could barely see where she was going, but it didn’t matter. She walked through this yard every day with Bunny, and she probably could have run through it with her eyes closed. She knew where every hole and hill was, even in the dark.

  The back door was still open when she reached it. She slipped inside silently, edging through the kitchen. Suddenly she heard a loud squawk, then a man cursing loudly. She tossed caution to the wind and rushed forward, bracing herself for what she might find. What she wasn’t expecting was Russell holding tightly to Dr. Morgan’s hands. Behind them, in the corner, Bunny was lying on her side. Marlowe, her feathers ruffled, was crouching on top of her cage with a wild look in her eyes.

  “Ellie, he’s the killer. I found him out about to stick a needle in your bird. Where is your grandmother? Is she okay?”

  “Yes, she’s fine. How did you know it was him? You got here just in time.”

  “I was coming over to… for something else. I knew something was wrong when I saw his truck in the driveway. Alaina told me everything. Liam and Bethany are out looking for him as we speak.” The last sentence was directed toward Dr. Morgan. Russell tightened
his grip on the old veterinarian’s wrists and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket with his other hand. Ellie heard the metallic sound of them being secured firmly around the man’s wrists. “He was stealing drugs from the clinic and selling them. Samantha found out and was going to turn him in, so he fired her. It didn’t take him long to realize what a mistake he had made.” Russell glared at the doctor and continued, “I’m guessing the drinks were your way of trying to make it harder for her to defend herself. It was messy, but it worked in the end. You managed to shove her into the door, where she hit her head and died.”

  The veterinarian shook his head. “I never meant to kill her like that. It was supposed to be a clean death. I’m not a barbarian.”

  “You didn’t mean to shove her so hard, did you?” Ellie asked, looking from his face to the needle on the floor. “You were going to inject her with drugs, just like you were trying to do with Marlowe.”

  “It was supposed to be a clean death,” Dr. Morgan said. “But she saw me with a needle in my hand and she panicked. I had to hit her with my cane, and she tripped and fell against the door. It’s not how I wanted to do it. If I had been able to stick with my plan, you never would have been able to tell it was murder. A young woman who lost her job and her boyfriend in the same month, found dead with a needle in her arm… you would have called it a suicide.”

  “You have the right to remain silent,” Russell said, turning Dr. Morgan toward the door. “But go ahead and keep talking. I’m going to love using all of this against you in court.”

  Russell phoned his deputy, and Liam arrived to take the old veterinarian down to the sheriff’s department, where he would spend the night in a holding cell before beginning the long journey to prison. Once he was gone and Ellie was satisfied that Nonna and Marlowe were both okay, she picked up Bunny and gently carried the little dog to the car, where she sat holding her in the passenger seat while Russell drove them to the emergency vet the next town over.

  There, they confirmed Ellie’s fear. The little dog had a broken leg. Ellie knew that Bunny had gotten lucky; if the cane had hit her any other way, it could have easily broken her spine. She felt a sharp surge of hatred toward the veterinarian. He was supposed to help animals, not hurt them. Bunny had been no threat to him—she weighed barely seven pounds. He had struck at her purely out of malice.

  She wanted to stay and wait while Bunny was in surgery, but the vet staff convinced her to go home and return in the morning to pick up the dog. She felt terrible walking away, but she knew that they were right; her waiting there all night would only make her exhausted the next day. She had to trust that Bunny was in good hands—better hands than the ones that had hurt her.

  By the time that she and Russell got back to the house, the lights were all off and she knew that her grandmother would already be asleep. Russell walked her up to the front door, where they paused.

  “You never told me, what were you doing here?” she asked.

  Russell hesitated. “Ellie, I know that this may not be the best time for this. But there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you for a long time, and if I don’t do it now, I may never have the courage to do it.” He reached into his pocket and slowly got down on one knee. As he did so, he pulled out a black ring box and opened it, holding it up to her. “Will you marry me?”

  Ellie was stunned into silence. It took her a few seconds to find her voice again. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I will.”

  Russell slid the ring onto her finger, then rose to his feet. He pulled her close to him, wrapped his arms around her, and lowered his lips to hers for a lingering kiss.