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

by Patti Benning

“I’m just stopping in because I had some extra time on my hands,” the pizzeria owner said. “Pete gave me the same look you did. I’m getting married, that doesn’t mean I’ve vanished off of the face of the earth.”

  “Sorry,” Rose said. “It’s just that it’s the day before your wedding. I can’t imagine coming in to work the day before I get married. I’d be a wreck. There must be so much you have to do.”

  “Almost everything’s taken care of by now. Mostly I’m just trying not to imagine myself tripping while I walk down the aisle.”

  “I’m sure everything will be perfect. It was so nice of you to invite all of us.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t be where I am today without my employees. You are all vital to the pizzeria’s success, and without the pizzeria, I may not have stayed in town long enough to meet Russell.” The pizzeria would be opening late Saturday, to give all of her employees time to enjoy the ceremony and the reception before heading to work.

  She spent the next twenty minutes helping out where she could in the kitchen, and letting the routine of kneading dough, grating cheese, and making sauce calm her down. When the time came for her to leave and make her way to the Lobster Pot for lunch with her father, she felt marginally more in control.

  Ellie took one last look around the kitchen and realized with a pang that this was the last time she would ever be making pizzas as Eleanora Pacelli. The next time she stopped in at the pizzeria, she would be Eleanora Ward.

  The Lobster Pot was one of the most popular restaurants in town. It was right next to the marina and had outdoor seating for when the weather was nice. True to its name, it was famous for its locally caught lobster. Evenings were the restaurant’s busiest time, but even midday on a Friday the restaurant had enough people inside that for a moment when she first walked in the doors, she panicked, wondering how she would find her father. How much would he have changed over the years? All she had to go on was the grainy family photo that he had sent her grandmother last Christmas.

  Then her eyes landed on a man with greying hair and the beginnings of a goatee who was sitting alone in a booth close to the door. Even though years had passed since she had last seen him in person, she knew in an instant who he was.

  Taking a deep breath, Ellie approached the booth. She wavered at the table, waiting for him to look up before she sat down. When he did, she couldn’t read the expression in his face. Was he glad to see her? Shocked? Did he feel anything? She couldn’t tell. They stared at each other for a long time, then he gestured at the seat across from him.

  “Are you going to sit?”

  She sat, clutching her purse tightly as she tried to come up with something to say. What did she want her first words to him to be? At last, she settled on something simple, something that wouldn’t jump to any of the serious issues too quickly.

  “How was your drive?”

  “Snowy. There was a storm up near the border last night. The roads cleared once I got down into Maine, though.”

  Her father lived in Canada, with a wife and children. Ellie had never met any of them even though the children would be her half-siblings.

  “I’m glad you made it all right. Where are you staying?”

  “A buddy of mine’s letting me crash on his couch tonight. I’ll be driving back up after the wedding tomorrow.”

  She nodded. It was probably better if he didn’t stay for long. She would do what she could to keep him and her mother separated, but the longer they were both in town, the more likely they would be to run into each other.

  They looked at their menus in silence, and Ellie realized for the first time that this must be just as awkward for her father as it was for her. She had so many things that she wanted to ask him but didn’t know where to begin.

  “Why’d you decide to come to the wedding?” she asked, deciding to start with the most immediate first.

  He sighed and put down the menu, fidgeting with the corner of it as he spoke. “I thought I might regret it one day if I didn’t. You’re only going to get married once, if everything goes well, and that’s something a father should be there for.”

  “You know, I’m having Nonna walk me down the aisle,” she said.

  It had been difficult to decide between her grandmother and her mother for that task. She owed a lot to both of them, but in the end, she had decided to ask her grandmother. She wouldn’t have had the life that she had now in Kittiport if it wasn’t for the older woman. She would never have met Russell, would never have taken the job at the pizzeria, and would never have found her place in life. Nonna had been nothing but supportive of every decision she had made, while her mother had never stopped trying to fit Ellie into the path she envisioned her daughter going down, regardless of Ellie’s feelings about the matter. For such an important walk, she wanted support, not judgment.

  “I assumed you had someone lined up for that. I’m sure she’s happy. I just want to watch.”

  She nodded. That was fine by her. The wedding wasn’t about him, anyway; it was about her and Russell.

  “I just want you to know that I did want to see you after I left,” her father added, unexpectedly. “Donna thought it would be a bad idea. She moved the two of you away to Chicago soon after, then I found out Jess was pregnant, and I knew I had to focus on my new life. I should have tried harder, but I never meant to leave you behind so completely. With every year that passed, it got more and more difficult to imagine what I would say to you when I saw you again, so I kept putting it off. I’m not going to apologize for leaving, because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been happy like I am now, and I wouldn’t have had Justin and Samantha, but I do want to apologize for letting you slip away from me. That was wrong, and I should have tried harder.”

  Ellie didn’t know what to say. Her vision blurred, and she picked up her menu so she could blink back her tears in private. One apology wouldn’t fix a lifetime of absence, but she thought it might be a step on the way to repairing their relationship.

  CHAPTER NINE

  * * *

  By the time they had finished eating and their leftovers were packed up and ready to go — the Lobster Pot was famous for its large servings — Ellie and her father had managed to find a conversational topic that they could stick to without bringing up the past too much; the pizzeria.

  Her father was interested in hearing all about the restaurant’s success and was thrilled when she told him about the second pizzeria she had opened in Florida. Papa Pacelli’s had been his father’s creation, and even though he had never been involved with the restaurant himself, he was fascinated by it. Ellie was happy to talk about the day-to-day running of the pizzeria and what it entailed, and to tell him about some of her adventures in Florida. She was proud of her accomplishments and was glad that she could share how well her life was going with him.

  They left the restaurant together and walked down the sidewalk toward the marina where they looked at the Eleanora, her grandfather’s boat which she and Russell had covered with a heavy canvas tarp before the worst of the snow began. It was odd to think of her father growing up in Kittiport, but of course he had, so walking through town for him was taking a walk through his childhood memories.

  “I miss living on the coast,” he said as they walked back toward the Lobster Pot, where their cars were parked. “I don’t miss the wind and the salt, and that horrible fish smell on hot summer days when the fishing boats are coming in, but I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than the ocean. I’m glad your grandmother was able to keep her house. I can’t imagine her living anywhere else. She always loved the ocean.”

  “Do you talk to her much?”

  “I call every month or two. I know she’s disappointed in me, but even though we don’t see eye to eye, she still cares about me. You have no idea how hard it is to come back here.”

  There was honking down the street behind them, but Ellie didn’t turn around. “Did she tell you about —”

  Before she could finish her se
ntence, her father grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to the side, just in time. A large pickup truck swerved onto the sidewalk, right where she had been standing, then tore away, fishtailing down the road as the driver fought for control over the vehicle.

  “That was close,” Ellie managed to say after a moment, her heart pounding in her chest. “Thank you.”

  “What was that driver thinking?” he asked angrily. “He can’t drive like that in the winter. The roads are icy. He could have killed you.”

  Ellie looked down the road in the direction that the truck had come. The roads were dry, and they hadn’t had more than a sprinkling of snow in the past few days. The truck hadn’t slipped on an icy patch; the driver must have been trying to hit her on purpose.

  She kept the chilling thought to herself as she said her goodbyes to her father and got into her car, but the instant she was alone, she pulled out her cell phone. She couldn’t ignore the coincidences anymore, and she no longer thought Russell was being paranoid. Someone was out to get her.

  “I don’t have any idea who the truck belongs to,” she said for what must have been the third time. After hearing about her most recent near-death experience, Russell had wanted to see her immediately. She was sitting in his kitchen, which looked even more barren than it had before.

  “But you’re sure it was the same one you saw at your house last night?”

  “I’m not certain since it was dark out, but I’m pretty sure.”

  “I don’t like this,” he said, rising from his chair to begin pacing in the small kitchen. “Ever since the attack in the bar, someone has been targeting you. I’m sure now that Olive wasn’t the original target.”

  Ellie looked down at her hands, which were gripping the edge of the table. She hated that someone had died because of her even if it wasn’t her fault.

  “I just don’t understand who would go to such lengths to try to hurt me. And before you say it, I’m sure that the truck doesn’t belong to anyone in the bridal party.”

  “If it’s not someone in your bridal party, then who could it be? No one else would have known that you were going to be at the bar or at the salon at those times.”

  “Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” she said. “It’s possible that one of the incidents wasn’t related, isn’t it? The dye in the face mask could have been a prank from one of the new nail technicians, like the girl who helped me assumed. If the killer is a local, it’s possible that they were at the bar without knowing I would be there and decided to take advantage of the coincidence when it occurred. He or she might have nothing to do with the bridal party, or with the wedding at all.”

  “Then where does that leave us?” Russell asked, looking helpless. “Ellie… I think we should postpone the wedding.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because if someone is trying to kill you, it’s the first place they’re going to look. The wedding date and location is public knowledge. They could easily sneak into the ceremony or the reception. I don’t want to be a widower for a second time, Ellie. If something happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to stand it.”

  “We can’t postpone the wedding. Almost everyone is coming from out of town for this. My dad is here, and I haven’t seen him since I was a child. Your parents are driving up, my mother and friends came all the way from Chicago… we can’t do something like that at the last second.”

  “I would happily inconvenience all of them if it meant that you were safe.”

  “I don’t want to postpone the wedding, Russell. I want to walk down the aisle tomorrow and marry you. I’m not going to let some criminal with a chip on his shoulder change that.”

  He sighed and leaned against the counter, running a hand through his hair. “How will we keep you safe?”

  She bit her lip, knowing that his concern was real and valid. Nearly being run over by a truck had forced her to admit that. An idea sprang to mind, and she smiled.

  “What about Bethany?” she asked. “I can ask one of my bridesmaids to step down — I think Katia is about her size — and she could stand with me at the ceremony and keep close after, like a bodyguard. That way I’ll be safe, and if the killer does try something during the wedding, she’ll be right there to apprehend them.”

  Russell fell silent, considering her proposal. Bethany was the younger of his two deputies but had proven herself to be capable in the past. Ellie liked her, and the two of them got along well. It was a fair compromise, and when he nodded slowly, she knew that he would agree.

  “Fine,” he said. “I’ll talk to her, and you give the news to your bridesmaid. Even with her there, I want you to watch your back, okay?”

  “I will,” she promised. She stood up and kissed him, then grabbed her purse. “I’ve got to go. We both have a rehearsal to get ready for. Tell Bethany to be there at three, and of course she’s invited to dinner afterward.”

  She felt triumphant as she left his house. Not only was the wedding still on, but they had a plan in place to catch her attacker if he or she struck again. She would never admit it to Russell, but part of her hoped Olive’s killer did try something at the reception. What could be better than getting married and solving a case in the same day?

  CHAPTER TEN

  * * *

  By the time the rehearsal was over, Ellie was famished and exhausted. She felt bad about asking Katia not to stand as her bridesmaid during the ceremony. All of the bridesmaids’ dresses matched in color, though she had let each woman choose whichever style she preferred, so having one woman standing in a dress that didn’t match would draw the attacker’s eye and might put them on guard. If there hadn’t been a need for secrecy, she wouldn’t have minded having one bridesmaid with a differently colored dress, but she wanted to flush out the killer if she could.

  She knew that she was using herself as bait at her own wedding, and several times she wondered what on earth she was doing. The simple fact was, she wouldn’t have a bodyguard forever, and if someone really was after her, she would prefer that they strike when she was expecting it, not when she wasn’t.

  It was a relief to stop by the pizzeria and pick up the big stack of pizza boxes that her employees had waiting for her. She had debated either getting someone to cater the rehearsal dinner, or going out somewhere, but she figured that pizza would be just fine. They were a pizza family, after all.

  She was the last one to arrive home, and she was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone had pitched in. The table was almost finished being set, extra chairs had been brought up from the basement, and the remaining bottle of champagne was waiting on the counter.

  “We’ve all had a long day, and I’m sure we’re all tired of people telling us where to stand and what to say, so let’s just dig in and have a good time,” she said as she put the boxes down on the counter. “We can start being stressed again tomorrow morning.”

  She would never have admitted it to her friends, who had worked so hard to plan a fun night out for the bachelorette party and a relaxing spa day, but that evening was the best one of the entire week. Everyone she loved was under one roof, and she finally got the chance to forget her concerns for an evening and just relax. She and Russell kept trading smiles, and she was wondering if he was thinking the same thing that she was — that the next time she saw him would be when she was walking down the aisle.

  As the meal began to wind down, she joined Shannon in the kitchen to begin consolidating the pizzas. She had gone overboard when she made the order, but it had been on purpose. There would be no time tomorrow morning for a formal breakfast, and she didn’t think she would have any appetite once she woke up anyway, but the others might be hungry, and it would be easy for them to grab a slice out of the fridge while they were getting ready.

  “You should go back in and join the others,” her friend said. “Enjoy the party and let those of us who aren’t getting married tomorrow clean up.”

  “I don’t mind helping,” Ellie said. “Besides, I haven’t had mu
ch of a chance to talk to you alone this week. I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done.”

  “Honestly, Darlene has helped a lot,” Shannon said. “I think she’s trying to make up for crashing on your couch for a month last year.”

  Ellie laughed. “She doesn’t have anything to make up for. I’m glad you have help, though. You’ve made all of this so much —”

  She broke off, a flash of movement by the back window catching her attention. Her eyes took a moment to work out what she was seeing and adjust to the glare of the kitchen lights on the glass. Once they did, she dropped the pizza box she was holding. A man was standing on the other side of the patio door.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shannon turn and clap a hand over her mouth in surprise. The man wasn’t looking at them; rather, he seemed to be surveying the back yard. After everything that had happened over the past week, Ellie knew there was only one course of action that she could take. She called for Russell.