Thin Crust Killers

by Chris Cavender

  “We haven’t tried to hide anything. It’s no secret that we’ve been trying to get justice for Hank Webber,” I said. If I was about to be murdered for something I’d done, I wasn’t going to go down like some scared little kid.

  Missy looked annoyed by my comment. “What do I care about that? The man meddled in my life, and I’m not sorry about what happened to him. Hank ruined everything with my beloved, and as far as I’m concerned, he deserved everything he got. Because of him, I’ve lost the love of my life forever.”

  “You never had him in the first place,” I said loudly. It was too late to watch my words now. “Doc Parsons and his wife are having a baby together. The only thing you had was going on in your head.” Calling her out like that was like poking a grizzly bear in the face with a stick, but I was past caring. Missy had invaded my space—my safe harbor from the world—and I was tired of it. Let her try whatever she wanted, but I was going to fight with every ounce of my strength.

  “We were together,” she shouted at me. I looked around for some kind of weapon to defend myself with, but the only thing I could see was a battered old umbrella standing up in the closet.

  It was better than nothing.

  I lunged for it, caught it with a quick grab, and then I whirled around to face her.

  She was about to come after me—I could see it in her eyes—when Bailey walked in behind her. “What’s going on in here?”

  Missy whirled around to face him. “Stay out of this, Bailey. It doesn’t concern you.”

  “Missy, I could hear you yelling at Eleanor halfway down the street.”

  “She’s not going to get away with what she’s done,” Missy insisted, her voice suddenly softened.

  “Missy, whatever you think is going on here, you have to realize that I didn’t do anything to you,” I said.

  “You made him go away,” Missy snapped.

  “You need to leave,” I said, buoyed by Bailey’s presence. “There’s nothing more I can say.”

  “Trust me, I’m not finished with you yet,” Missy said. She was six inches from my face, and I could smell the craziness that enveloped her like a cloud.

  Bailey took her arm and pulled her away from me. “That’s where you’re wrong. Go on, Missy, you told me this morning you were leaving town. I think it’s best if you follow through with that plan and just go.”

  “Not without settling this with her,” she said as she pointed at me.

  “You’ve had your say,” Bailey said. “Now go.”

  Missy looked at him for a few seconds, and then she turned and shot a venomous look straight at me. After a moment of that, she turned back to Bailey, and I saw her expression soften. “You’re right. I’m not going to waste any more time on her. I’m going to start driving south, and I’m not stopping until I hit the Florida Keys. I’m sick of this town, and everyone in it.”

  She pulled free of Bailey’s grasp, and then stormed out of the house, slamming the thick quarter-sawn oak door on her way out.

  “Thank you so much,” I said as I put the umbrella back in its place. “She’s really crazy, isn’t she? I wasn’t sure I was safe.”

  “I was happy to help,” he said.

  “What brings you by?” I asked. “Not that I’m complaining. It’s just that we didn’t exactly leave things on good terms earlier.”

  “That’s why I’m here. I came by to apologize,” he said. “I overreacted.”

  “There seems to be a lot of that going on around here lately.”

  He shrugged. “Blame it on emotions running hot.”

  “It’s as good an excuse as anything else,” I said.

  “So, we’re good?”

  I nodded absently, but I couldn’t help wondering why he was really there. Was there something I’d missed earlier?

  And that’s when it hit me, like an avalanche out of the blue. Bailey—not Missy—was the murderer I’d been looking for all along. He’d lied to me at least twice, and I’d let him talk his way out of it both times. Bailey had the most motive of anyone to rob the bank, since he was in deep financial trouble, no matter how much he downplayed it. Hank was threatening to expose his larceny, so what better way to get rid of his accuser? Those last two IOUs proved that he hadn’t reformed as he’d claimed. If he’d paid them off, I’m sure the first thing he would have done was rip them into pieces. It was the only way it all made sense. Steve hadn’t been telling me that the envelope contained insurance against a killer. He’d been trying to say that the insurance agent was the killer.

  “What is it?” Bailey asked. He must have seen something on my face.

  “I’m sorry? I don’t know what you mean.”

  He wasn’t buying it, though. “Something just tracked across your eyes. You’re good at hiding it, but not before I saw that flash.” I was starting to regret giving up my only weapon, even if it was just an umbrella. Bailey shook his head after a few seconds, almost as if he were sad that I’d figured it out.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handgun. “You know, so there’s no sense in pretending.”

  “I don’t, honestly. Why do you have a gun?”

  “I was hoping I wouldn’t need it,” he said. “I should have let Missy take care of you, but I couldn’t be sure she’d have the guts to take care of you when it mattered most.”

  “Are you saying that she’s the killer?” I asked, trying my best to be convincing.

  “Come on, Eleanor, playing dumb doesn’t suit you. What gave me away? At least tell me that much.”

  There was no use pretending anymore. “You lied so easily about quitting gambling, and then Steve gave me the final clue, though I was too blind to see it. He told me it was insurance, but I misinterpreted it at first. The man was smarter than I ever gave him credit for.”

  “Don’t think too highly of him. He wasn’t smart enough to have a backup plan in the newspaper office when I killed him. I was going to take care of Trent, too, but he slipped out before I could deal with him. Did the two of them really think that they could beat me? Do you?”

  “I give up. You’re smarter than everyone else in the whole world.”

  He scowled at me. “Now you’re just making fun of me. Let’s see how you like this.” Bailey gestured for me to walk into the closet. “Go on, get inside.”

  “Are you going to shoot me?” I asked, feeling the cold bullet ripping into my heart even before it was fired.

  “No, I need this to look like an accident.” As I backed in, I saw him glancing around the room, and then he said, “There’s a lot of wood in here, isn’t there?”

  “You’ve already used an explosion and a fire to kill someone,” I said. “No one is going to believe that it’s a coincidence if I die that way, too.”

  “What do I care what they think? By the time anyone puts it together, I’ll be long gone.” He paused, then I could swear he licked his lips. “I love a good fire. It tends to purify everything it touches, don’t you think? I’d like to say it’s not going to hurt, but I can’t promise you that. If it’s any consolation, the smoke will probably kill you before the flames actually get to you.”

  “Don’t do this,” I pleaded. “I won’t tell anyone what I know.”

  “We both know you’re lying,” he said. “I’ll shoot you if I have to, but I’d really rather not. Go on, get into the closet.”

  I thought about making a break for it, but he was watching me too closely. Maybe I could hit him with the umbrella. It was really the only weapon I had at my disposal.

  As I reached for it, he knocked my hand away with the barrel of his gun. It felt as if something was broken, and I yelped out in pain as I clutched it to my chest.

  “You brought that on yourself. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Missy will tell the police you were here,” I said, fighting to come up with anything that might stop him as he forced me into the closet against my will.

  Bailey laughed. “Come on, Eleanor, you know better than that. You h
eard her. She’s on her way to Florida. They’ll never be able to find her, even if they think they have a reason to look. If she does hear about this someday, I’ll be long gone. I’ve decided it’s time for a new life.”

  “Then leave,” I shouted. “There’s no reason to kill me.”

  “There’s every reason in the world,” he said as he closed the closet door. I heard the lock click into place, and a small glimmer of hope sparked in me. Joe and I had been meaning to fix that lock since we’d first moved in, but we’d never gotten around to it. Maybe now it would be my salvation.

  But I couldn’t do anything until he was gone.

  After a few minutes, I was about ready to try to make my break when I heard a voice on the other side of the door. “Good-bye, Eleanor,” he said.

  I heard the front door slam, and immediately I started to smell smoke. Bailey had lit a fire on his way out, but I still might be able to put it out in time.

  I jiggled the lock, and sure enough, I could feel it free itself.

  But something else was blocking it.

  I pushed against it with all my might, but couldn’t budge it. Was I going to die in there after all?

  I took a scarf and wrapped it around my face to keep the smoke at bay, and as I turned back toward the door, I had an idea. Spreading the coats to either side, I put my back against the closet wall and jammed my legs against the door. Maybe if I had some kind of leverage, I could move it. I shoved three or four times, but I wasn’t doing any good, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. I had the energy for one last shove, so I vowed that I would make it a good one. Bracing myself again, I kicked out with everything I had, my arm aching where Bailey had hit me with the gun barrel.

  Outside the closet, the bookcase Bailey had placed there crashed to the floor, and with another shove, I was finally free.

  The hallway was full of smoke, and the alarm in the kitchen was blaring at me full blast. In another moment, I couldn’t see anything. The acrid smoke had completely filled the front hallway. Stay calm, I told myself. I got down on my hands and knees and tried to figure out what to do. If the kitchen alarm was behind me, the front door had to be in front of me and off to the right. I started crawling in that direction, praying that I was on the right path to escape. With every movement, the jarring of my hand sent shivers of pain through me, but I did my best to ignore them.

  The heat from the flames was intensifying, and my heart broke as I realized that everything Joe and I had worked so hard to achieve was burning up all around me. There’d be time to mourn that loss later, though. Right now, I had to save myself, and I fought as I forced everything else out of my mind.

  What seemed like a lifetime later, my head finally bumped against something hard, and I reached up until I found the knob for the front door.

  Opening it, I crawled outside, off of the porch, and into the front yard. My eyes still burned from the smoke and the fumes, and I couldn’t even see my house through my clouded vision.

  As I collapsed near the sidewalk, my body refusing to move another inch, I heard sirens wailing in the distance.

  And that was all I remembered for a very long time.

  I woke up in the hospital, my arm in a cast and an oxygen tube clipped to my nose. Maddy was right there beside me, and Kevin Hurley was there, too.

  “How are you doing?” Maddy asked me. She started to touch me, but then she abruptly pulled away. “I don’t want to hurt you, but could you stand a hug?”

  I nodded, my throat still raw from inhaling the smoke.

  “Okay,” I croaked out, and Maddy embraced me way too hard.

  “Easy,” I said, and she lightened her grip.

  After she backed off, I looked at Kevin and said, “Bailey.”

  “We know all about him,” he said. “It took us some time to piece it all together, but we finally reached the same conclusion you did when Maddy told me about the IOUs and what the envelope had written on it. Steve almost played that one a little too cute.”

  “Where is he?” I whispered, motioning to Maddy that I needed something to drink. She got it, and gave me a sip of blessed ice water. In my mind, it was better than the finest champagne I’d ever tasted.

  “You won’t have to worry about him anymore. He’s dead,” Kevin said matter-of-factly. “He was in such a hurry to leave town that he ran his pickup truck straight into the back of a gasoline tanker, and it caught on fire. It wasn’t a pretty way to go,” he added.

  I nodded in agreement. Having just come so close to dying by fire myself, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not even the man who’d just tried to kill me.

  Kevin patted my leg, the one part of me that didn’t hurt at the moment. “Glad you’re okay. Sorry about your house. It’s a shame.”

  After he left, I looked at Maddy. “How bad?”

  “You’re going to be fine,” she said. “You’ve got a broken arm, and some scrapes and bumps, but as soon as your lungs clear up, you’re going to be all right.”

  “House,” I said.

  Maddy shrugged. “It’s not that bad.”

  I’d seen the flames, and I’d barely lived through the smoke. “Liar.”

  “No, it’s the truth. The volunteer fire department was able to contain most of the damage to the front hallway, and two crews are working on your place even as we speak.”

  “Expensive,” I managed to say. I’d canceled my insurance policy with Bailey, so I knew that I didn’t have enough to cover the repairs, no matter how minor they might be.

  “You’re not going to have to pay a dime of it. Remember I said you had two crews working on it? Art and Lincoln are having some kind of turf war fighting over who gets to fix your place back up. It won’t be finished by the time you get out of the hospital, but they’ve both assured me that someday soon it will be as good as new. Until it is, you can come stay with me.”

  “Love you,” I whispered as I squeezed her hand.

  “I love you too, Sis. You know you can stay with me for as long as you’d like to, don’t you? It’s going to be great having you as a roommate, even if it is for only a few weeks.”

  I nodded, still numb from the thought of coming so close to losing so much of what Joe and I had created together.

  Still, it was only wood, and stain, and fabric. What really mattered I held in my heart.

  “Some folks are here to see you,” Maddy said.

  “No visitors,” I said.

  “They just want to pop in and say hello.”

  “Who?” I didn’t feel like seeing anyone.

  “Art and Lincoln are sitting on a bench out in the hallway, seeing how far they can sit apart from each other and still be closest to your room. It’s absolutely hilarious.”

  They were both doing so much for me, it would be callous of me to say no.

  “Mirror,” I said, and Maddy provided me with one. A single glance was all it took for me to know that I was in no shape to meet visitors, even if they were my benefactors.

  “Later,” I said.

  Maddy laughed heartily, and it was clear that she was releasing some of the strain she’d been under herself. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of them.”

  She left the room for thirty seconds, and then came back holding two huge bouquets of yellow roses. They were my favorite, but how had Lincoln and Art known?

  “They both asked me what kind of flowers you liked the best,” Maddy said, as if reading my mind. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”

  She put them on the table beside me as a nurse walked in.

  “You were supposed to stay two minutes, and then leave. I’m sorry, but your sister needs her rest. We had a deal, remember?”

  “I’m leaving,” Maddy said. “Take care, Eleanor. I’ll be back as soon as they let me.”

  “Bye,” I managed to say before she was gone.

  As I lay there, I thought about all that I’d lost. Steve’s cash had been stowed in my purse, and had no doubt burned along with everything els
e in the hall closet, but that wasn’t the biggest thing I’d miss. I mourned the loss of those ratty old jackets of Joe’s, and how they’d never comfort me again, but I knew they’d never be replaced in my memories.

  It would take more than a fire to extinguish the place he had in my heart.

  And I always had A Slice of Delight.

  That, as much as any place in the world, reminded me of my late husband, and all that he’d meant to me. I had a place to work that needed me, people around me who loved me, and a strong will to see what was around the next bend in the road.

  In many ways, though I’d come close to losing so much, I realized that my wealth extended far beyond bank accounts and earthly possessions.

  In terms of love, I was a very rich woman indeed.

  Cast Iron Pizza

  When I first read about a pizza being baked in cast iron, I was skeptical, but after tasting the results, I’ve got to admit that I’m sold. While I love the crust that comes out of my pizza oven, this is a worthy substitute. If you haven’t tried cooking with cast iron before at all, I heartily recommend it. True, cast iron is a little more finicky to care for than today’s modern cookware, but lately I’ve become a real fan, buying three skillets for my own home kitchen in recent months. I decided to try something relatively easy for my first foray into cast-iron pizza making, so I kept things simple, and so can you. If you have a well-seasoned old skillet hanging around with nothing to do, or if you simply want to invest twenty bucks or so in a new pan of your very own, I urge you to give it a try! Happy eating to you all!

  Ingredients

  1 can refrigerated pizza dough (you can certainly substitute your favorite homemade dough here if you’d like) (1 crust)