Pizza, Weddings, and Murder (Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Book 23)

by Patti Benning

  Sure enough, their next stop was a bar where Shannon had reserved a section of tables just for them. Ellie ordered her first drink just as the live band began to play and couldn’t help but grin across the table at Shannon. It had been far too long since she had just gone out and had fun, and this was just what she’d needed to take some of the edge off of the stressful days just before her wedding.

  “Let’s dance,” Katia said after a few minutes. “It will be fun. Look, a couple other people are doing it.”

  “In a second,” Ellie said. “You go ahead, I want to talk to my mom.”

  As her friends traipsed off to enjoy the atmosphere, Ellie turned to her mother, who had been unusually quiet the entire evening. Donna was the sort of person who rarely kept her opinions to herself, so Ellie knew that something serious must be on her mind. A busy bar with a live band might not be the best place to have a conversation, but she wouldn’t be able to fully relax and enjoy the evening until she knew what was going on.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, moving to a seat closer to her mother.

  The other woman just nodded, swirling her drink around in her glass. After a moment, she looked up and sighed. “I’m fine, Ellie. You should be out there enjoying this. It’s your evening, after all.”

  “Look, I know that things haven’t always been perfect between us, but if something’s wrong, I want to know. Is everything okay back home in Chicago?”

  “Everything’s fine there.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Her mother put her drink down and reluctantly looked up at her daughter. “You didn’t tell me you were inviting your father. If I had known he was coming…” She shook her head. “Well, I would have still come to the wedding, of course. You’re my daughter. But I would have liked to be prepared.”

  “I sent him an invitation a few weeks ago, but I haven’t heard back. I don’t think he is coming. If I knew for sure that he was, I would have told you.”

  “He left a voicemail on your grandmother’s landline.” Donna began to fidget with her napkin. “He called while you were out picking her up from the airport. He’s coming, and he’ll be here Friday.”

  Ellie gaped at her mother. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

  “I thought you would have listened to it by now,” Donna said.

  “I never check that answering machine, and Nonna’s probably gotten out of the habit of it.” Ellie shook her head. “I’m sorry. I had no idea. I invited him because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but I didn’t really think he would come. He’s had plenty of chances to get involved in my life since he left. Why would he choose now?”

  “I’ve never understood why your father makes the choices that he does,” her mother said coldly. “This will be the first time I’ve seen him since he walked out on us. I’m going to do my best to remain civil for your sake, but I’m sure you can understand how hard it will be for me.”

  “Of course. I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t think. If you want —”

  A sharp scream cut her off. The band played a last few, discordant notes before falling silent. Ellie turned to see a small crowd gathered around the door to the women’s restroom. Someone else screamed, and then someone shouted, “Help! She’s not breathing.”

  That seemed to break the spell of silence that had fallen over the bar. Ellie got up and hurried toward the bathroom, having no idea what had happened, but hoping she could help in some way. The crowd parted just enough for her to see through the door which someone was propping open. There were two women on the bathroom floor, one laying sprawled on her back, and the other cradling the first one’s head, her hands covered in blood.

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  Ellie was one of the people who helped keep the crowd back from the scene in the bathroom. She tried not to stare but couldn’t keep herself from sneaking glances at the people inside. A woman had come forward, claiming to be a nurse, and was kneeling next to the other two women, searching for a pulse on the injured one. A few people in the crowd had their cell phones out, and she hoped that one of them was calling the police, because she had left her phone in her purse, back on the table.

  “What happened?” a man asked, pushing to the front of the crowd. “Is she dead?”

  Ellie thought he looked familiar. Was he a customer from the pizzeria? “I don’t know,” she said. “Did anyone call the police? Do you have a cell phone?”

  He did, and he pulled it out to make the call. Ellie breathed a small sigh of relief. At least the authorities would be there soon. She didn’t know if the injured woman was still breathing or not, but if she was, then it was obvious that she needed an ambulance. No matter how skilled the nurse was, there was only so much that could be done to save someone’s life on a bathroom floor with no medical equipment.

  “Ollie? Oh, my goodness, Ollie! What happened?”

  A woman with spiky blonde hair came rushing forward, her face pale and her eyes panicked. Ellie managed to catch her by the shoulder before she reached the bathroom.

  “That’s my sister!” she cried out, her voice rising toward a screech. “Her name’s Olive, and it’s her birthday. Let me go.”

  Ellie released her grip, not sure if it was the right thing to do but knowing that she couldn’t keep the woman from her sister in what might be the last moments of her life. Everything around her was chaos, and the only thing she could think of was keeping the crowd of people back from the scene in the bathroom, making sure that the woman who was a nurse had the room to work, and that no one tampered with anything that might be evidence. She couldn’t see where all of the blood was coming from, but she had a feeling that that much blood couldn’t have come from a simple accident. The bathroom was a crime scene.

  She didn’t know how long it was before a voice with authority commanded the crowd of people to back away from the door. When the first police officer appeared, she felt almost weak with relief. Whatever had happened, it was in their hands now. She didn’t know what to do, or how to help, and she was glad that someone who did had arrived.

  While the police cleared the way for the paramedics, she rejoined her mother and her friends at the table. They traded wide-eyed looks, but none of them said a word. All of Ellie’s concerns about the wedding, and all of the stress of planning it, seemed small now. Someone began to wail, and she caught sight of Olive’s spiky haired sister trying to follow the paramedics who were carrying the stretcher out through the front doors. The police stopped her, and one of the officers said something to her that made her calm down slightly.

  Then Ellie saw another familiar face, one that she knew much better. Russell was there, making his way through the chaotic room. She raised her hand, waving, and when he saw her his face relaxed. He made a beeline for them and pulled her into a hug.

  “I’m glad you’re all right,” he said.

  “How are you here?” she asked. The Benton Harbor police force was even smaller than Kittiport’s, and they occasionally joined forces on the larger cases, but she didn’t think they would have called Kittiport’s sheriff in for something like this.

  “Shannon,” he said. “She called me as soon as she realized what was going on.”

  “I thought you might want him here,” her friend said. “And I figured it might make things easier. They’re probably going to question everyone in the bar, but Russell might be able help get us all out of here before the sun rises.”

  “Thank you,” Ellie said with feeling. She felt better with her fiancé there. He knew how to handle things like this. “I’m sorry. I should have thought to call you myself. Everything just happened so quickly, and then I needed to help keep people from trampling on that poor girl —”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Do you have all of your things? All of you? I’ll find someone to talk to. They’ll ask you some questions, and then we’ll be able to leave.”

  Russell paved the way for them to
get out of the bar as quickly as possible. Ellie was still stunned by what had happened, and she knew her friends were too. The limo was waiting for them, parked across the unused spaces at the far end of the parking lot, and it was toward that vehicle that she began to walk. Russell stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  “Do you want to ride back with me?” he asked. “I’d like to talk about what happened. I have a feeling it will be hard to get you alone back at the house.”

  She nodded and told the others to go on without her. She was glad for the time alone with Russell. With all of the business and wedding preparations, she had hardly seen him at all over the past few days.

  “Are you okay?” he asked once she was buckled into his truck’s passenger seat. “I know you’re not hurt, but other than that… it wasn’t an easy scene for me to look at, and that’s my job.”

  “I’m just in shock,” she said. “I keep wondering what happened to her. Then I think of her poor sister, and my heart just aches. It was her birthday.”

  “The sister’s?”

  “The victim’s. Her name was Olive. Or is, I guess. I don’t know if she’s still alive.”

  “The paramedics found a pulse, but it was weak,” he told her. “I got a chance to talk to one of the officers who was the first to arrive on the scene while you were being questioned.”

  “Where was all of the blood from? I didn’t see any obvious wounds.”

  “She had stab wounds in her back,” he said. “The woman who found her must have flipped her over to check for a pulse.”

  “That poor woman,” Ellie breathed. “Someone did this to her. Why? Who would commit a murder in a bar bathroom?”

  “It could have been a crime of opportunity,” he said. “But if someone plotted it out, they didn’t do a bad job. There aren’t any security cameras in the building, except for one at the register, and the bathrooms aren’t in range of the camera. It was a busy night, and people must have been coming and going from the bathroom all evening. No one would have been paying attention to who went in or out. The killer must have hidden in plain sight.”

  It sometimes made her uncomfortable, how easily Russell could look at things from a criminal’s perspective. Here he was, thinking things through and putting the pieces together, while she couldn’t stop seeing the blood smeared across bathroom tiles whenever she closed her eyes.

  Something occurred to her as Russell turned onto the main road that would take them all the way through Kittiport and back to the Pacelli house. “The killer must have still been in the bar when the woman was found. She couldn’t have been in there for long. Do you think whoever it was stuck around until the police got there?”

  “It’s possible. If the attack happened in the heat of the moment, the perpetrator might have panicked and left right away, but if it had been planned out, or if the attacker was with someone else, they might have stayed so as not to appear suspicious.”

  She gave a small shiver, wondering if the woman’s attacker had been one of the faces in the crowd that she had helped to hold back. Another thought occurred to her. Just how close had she or one of her friends come to being the victim instead?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * * *

  The next morning was Ellie’s last shift at Papa Pacelli’s pizzeria before her wedding. When she woke up to the blaring alarm, part of her wanted to call in and see if Jacob would be willing to come in and cover for her, but she still had things she wanted to get done before she would feel okay about stepping back for a few days.

  For over a year, she had managed the little pizzeria that her grandfather had opened over twenty years ago. Before moving to Kittiport, she had known next to nothing about how to make pizza and had known even less about running a restaurant. She couldn’t help but feel proud when she thought about how far both she and the little restaurant had come. Not only was it thriving, but she had opened a second Papa Pacelli’s down in Florida just a few months ago, which was showing more promise than she could have dreamed.

  When she walked into her beloved restaurant that morning, her thoughts were still on the grizzly scene from the night before. She hadn’t heard anything about the woman since Russell had dropped her off at her house, but she knew that her fiancé would update her as soon as he got news. She hoped that Olive had survived, both for her own sake, and because if she had, then she might be able to name her attacker.

  “Hey, Ms. D. How was the party?” Iris, one of her employees, was already in the kitchen, her bright orange hair pulled up into a short ponytail. “Did you have fun?”

  “Hi, Iris.” Ellie put her purse down and took the time to remove her coat before answering her employee. She didn’t really want to go into the attack from the night before but knew there was no way to avoid it without being rudely short to the young woman who had innocently asked how her night had gone. “The first couple of hours were fun, but it took an unexpected turn for the worse.” She launched into an explanation of the evening as she tied her hair back, washed her hands, and got ready to cook.

  “That’s terrible,” Iris said, her cheerful demeanor gone. “I’m so sorry. I hope she’s okay, and I’m glad everyone you know is all right.”

  “So am I,” Ellie said. “I’m sure the news will have the story soon. If you see anything about it, will you let me know? I have a lot to do today, and I may not get a chance to check online.”

  “Sure. Do you want me to start taking down chairs out front? I was just about to do that when you came in.”

  “Go ahead. Did Jacob ask you guys to start coming up with ideas for the specials for the next two weeks? I’d like to look over them before I leave today, so if we need to order anything extra, I can do it tonight.”

  “The list is on top of the coffee maker,” she said. “We didn’t put anyone’s names by the ideas. We’ve got a bit of a bet going. Whoever’s ideas get chosen won’t have to mop up for a week.”

  Ellie chuckled, pushing thoughts of the attack at the bar the night before out of her mind. It felt good to have something to focus on besides the woman on the bathroom floor.

  “I’m glad you’re making work fun. I’ll let you know soon what the specials will be, so you can call the others and figure out your duties while I’m gone.”

  The next two specials could wait for now, however. The pizzeria would be opening in just under an hour, and she had work to do if she wanted to get their most popular options ready to go for the customers who just wanted a quick slice and didn’t have time to wait for a whole pizza. Since it took the longest to make, she began with that week’s special; Alfredo Parmesan chicken pizza with bacon bits sprinkled over the cheese.

  She prepared the chicken before doing anything else, carefully cutting the raw meat into chunks before searing them in a buttered pan. One of the things she prided her restaurant on was the fact that they always used fresh food when they could get it. Fresh or frozen, nothing was ever precooked. It meant that some pizzas might take a little bit longer to make, but she thought it was worth it. There were thousands of pizzerias in the world, and quality was the best way to stand out.

  While the chicken sizzled away, she washed her hands and began preparing the sauce. Homemade Alfredo sauce was by far superior to anything she had ever found in a store, but it had taken her a while to get used to making it quickly and perfectly every time. Now she added the ingredients without so much as checking a recipe, stirring carefully until the cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and Asiago had melted into the perfect creamy consistency.

  The crust would take the least amount of time to make, so she tackled that last. Thin crust pizzas were the most popular in Maine, so even though she preferred good, old-fashioned Chicago style deep dish pizzas, the dough she took out of the fridge was tailored to make the perfect, crisp thin crust pizza.

  After rolling the dough out, she put it in the oven to begin the first stage of cooking while she took out the remainder of ingredients she would need to make the pizza. The onions took only
a couple of minutes to chop, and the bacon had been made the day before, and was already cooled and ready to crumble into bits.

  It wasn’t long before she was spreading the creamy Alfredo sauce over the crust, then adding the chicken and onions, and a generous amount of shredded cheese. The bacon bits she added last, sprinkling enough so that they would add flavor to every bite, but not so many that they overpowered the rest of the flavors with their saltiness.

  When the pizza was in the oven, and she had just enough time to throw together a classic cheese and a classic pepperoni pizza before Iris opened the doors and another day at the pizzeria began for real.