Halloween Pizza Murder

by Patti Benning

  The next morning dawned grey and misty. Ellie woke up early, still unsettled by what she had seen the night before. It seemed a lot less frightening in the morning’s light, however, and she found herself thinking more about the wrecked lasagna than the creepy woman.

  Since she had plenty of time on her hands before she went to work, she decided to make herself a nice big breakfast, just like her grandmother used to. She dug around in the pantry, gathering all of the ingredients, then got to work on chocolate chip muffins. It may not be the healthiest breakfast in the world, but Ellie decided that she could use some comfort food.

  She followed the recipe she had found online, adding the semi-sweet chocolate chips last. She tasted a dollop of the batter and smiled. Perfect. She poured the mix into the muffin pan and put it in the oven, washing the dishes before returning upstairs to get dressed for the day. When she came back downstairs, she would get started on the bacon and eggs.

  As she was pulling on her sweater, she heard her cell phone ring downstairs. After a few seconds, the ringer stopped as the phone went to voicemail, then started back up again immediately. Ellie hurried to finish getting dressed and went downstairs, beginning to worry as the phone rang a third time. Who could want to talk to her so urgently? Had something happened to her grandmother?

  Just as she reached the kitchen, the phone began to ring once more. The caller ID told her it was Russell. She answered.

  “Thank goodness,” he said.

  “Russell?” she said. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  “I just got a call about a body found in the state park near your house. The description was of a middle-aged woman with dark hair. I was so worried that –”

  He broke off, his voice rough. She understood.

  “I’m fine,” she said. His description of the victim struck her like a punch. A woman with dark hair, found in the woods near her house. “Oh, Russell,” she said. “I think I saw her last night.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  She told him about the woman dressed in white that she had seen at the back door. “I thought it was someone pulling a Halloween prank,” she said. “I should have said something. She just vanished. I had no idea that she needed help.”

  “Can you come down to the sheriff’s department before work and make an official police report?” he asked.

  “Of course,” she said. “I can be there in about an hour. I just put muffins in the oven, but I’ll leave as soon as they’re done.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Thank you, Ellie. I’m going to go look at the body. I’ll meet you at the sheriff’s department in an hour. I’m sorry if I worried you, it’s just… well, I’m sure you can imagine.”

  She could. If their positions had been switched and she had heard about a body matching his description, she would have been frantic. She regretted not telling him about the woman sooner. The heavy weight of guilt settled on her chest. Had her actions caused someone’s death?

  After putting the muffins on the counter to cool, she finished getting ready to go. When she was about to leave, she dumped the muffins into a big plastic container and put a lid on it, planning to take them down to the sheriff’s department to share. She said a quick goodbye to the animals and left.

  Mrs. Lafferre greeted her at the front desk. She left the older woman two of the chocolate chip muffins before going into the back to meet Russell in his office. He was pale and tired, but smiled at her when she came in.

  “Hey, I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You said you saw the woman last night?”

  “Yes,” Ellie said, taking one of the seats across from him and putting the container of muffins on the desk. “It was around ten or ten-thirty.”

  He shook his head, but he was smiling. She frowned, confused. “It couldn’t have been her,” he said. “Early estimates place her time of death at least forty-eight hours ago. There’s no way that you saw her just twelve hours ago.”

  Ellie blinked. She was relieved, but it didn’t explain what she had seen. Maybe she had been right the first time and it had just been a Halloween prank.

  “Do you know who she was?” Ellie asked.

  “No,” Russell said. “She was found without anything on her. No wallet, no ID, not even a medical alert bracelet to help us identify her. She was only wearing a white dress. Here, I have a photo of her taken at the crime scene. Maybe you’ll recognize her – you see a lot of people coming through the pizzeria.”

  He pulled open a file and took out a printed picture, which he slid across the desk to her. Ellie stared at it, feeling her fingers go cold. This was the woman she had seen the night before. She recognized the long dark hair and the white dress.

  “Russell…” She trailed off, not sure how to explain it. What had she seen? How was this possible?

  “What is it?” he asked, frowning and leaning forward in concern.

  “This is the woman I saw,” she said. “I don’t know how, or if it’s even possible, but I did. I saw her. I saw her last night, standing on my back porch, looking right at me.”

  “Ellie, I told you, there’s no way that this woman has been dead for only twelve hours.”

  “I know what I saw,” she said. “Look, she was at my back door last night. I’m not making this up. Bunny saw her and started barking. I turned away for a second and when I turned back, she was gone. It was late enough that I didn’t want to call and disturb you, but now I’m thinking that I should have. You don’t believe me, do you?”

  “I do,” he said, his brows drawn together. “At least, I believe that you believe you saw something. It couldn’t have been the victim, though. This woman wasn’t alive at ten-thirty last night. Are you sure you didn’t have a bad dream, and then you just connected the dots in the morning when I called you?”

  “I wasn’t dreaming,” she said, beginning to get annoyed. “When I saw her, I dropped a lasagna all over the floor. I certainly didn’t dream cleaning it up. It’s still in my garbage bin.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I just don’t know how to explain this.”

  Ellie nodded. “Trust me, I have no idea what to think about any of this either. Do you know how she died?”

  “She had a stab wound. The knife entered between her ribs and nicked her heart. The poor woman managed to get away from her assailant, but only made it a couple hundred yards into the woods before she collapsed.”

  “I know you said she was found near my house. How close was she?”

  “You know the trails that go through the state park into the forest behind the Pacelli house?” She nodded. “She was found along those, almost directly back from your house, about a quarter of a mile in. A dog walker found her while he was out for a morning jog with his lab before work. He called it in at about eight this morning.”

  Ellie bit her lip. It couldn’t be a coincidence, not with the body found so close to her house. She wasn’t crazy. She knew who she had seen, the only question was how.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * * *

  Ellie was horribly distracted during work that day, making mistakes that she hadn’t made since she had first started working at the pizzeria. She burnt one of the first orders, which threw her whole schedule off, making the next couple of orders late. By the time Rose got there, she was a wreck.

  “Ms. P., what’s wrong?” her employee asked, fanning away smoke from the splatters of pizza sauce Ellie had spilled on one of the burners.

  “I’m sorry,” Ellie said. “I know it’s a mess in here. Today’s been terrible.”

  “Did something happen to your grandmother or one of the animals?”

  “No, no, nothing like that. There’s been a murder, and it was near my house. It has me pretty shaken up.”

  “Oh no, was it anyone you knew? That’s horrible.”

  “No, I didn’t know her,” Ellie said. She didn’t want to get into the more complicated matter of what had happened the night before. Not yet, anyw
ay. Not until she knew for sure what had happened. “It happened only a quarter mile away from my house, though.”

  “Are you going to be okay out there on your own?” Rose asked, her eyes wide with concern. “Do they know who did it?”

  “They don’t have any leads yet,” she replied. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” The truth was, she hadn’t even thought about that at all. Would she be safe all the way out there, alone, so close to the site of a murder? She bit her lip. It was one more thing to worry about.

  “No offense, Ms. P., but you look terrible. Do you want to go home? I know Iris wouldn’t mind the extra hours, and I’m sure she’d be happy to come in. She wants to buy a new car, so she’s trying to work as much as possible.”

  It was tempting. Ellie had already made a mess of things there, and she didn’t see her mood improving for the rest of the day.

  “If she doesn’t mind coming in on such short notice, I’ll switch shifts with her,” Ellie said. “I’ll give her a call. Thanks, Rose. I feel bad about leaving early, but I’m obviously not going to be much help here today.”

  “I’m going to go clock in, then I’ll help clean up the mess back here. Be careful when you get home. I can’t imagine how frightening it must be for you.”

  It felt good to get out of the restaurant, even though it was still a dreary day. Now that Rose had mentioned it, she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that there was a killer out there somewhere, and he had committed a murder not far from her home. Earlier in the day, she had been too distracted by thoughts of the woman that she had seen to think about that, but now she couldn’t get it out of her head. Even though she wasn’t at work, she didn’t want to go home. Not now, not alone. She decided to call Shannon and see if her friend wanted to meet somewhere to talk.

  “I’m actually heading to an interview right now,” her friend said when she answered the call. “You can tag along, if you want. I think you know the guy – it’s Steve, the hotdog shop owner’s husband? He bought the little coffee shop that closed down, as I’m sure you know, and I was going to do a small piece in the newspaper about his plans for the building. We’re just meeting for lunch at the hotdog shop.”

  “Perfect, I’ll meet you there soon,” Ellie said. “Thanks, I really need this. Something happened; I’ll tell you about it later.”

  She pulled into Hot Diggity Dog’s parking lot a few minutes later. Shannon’s vehicle was already there, along with a smattering of other cars. She was glad to see that the place was doing well. Joanna, the restaurant owner, was a likable woman, and she deserved the success. Ellie had helped her open the restaurant a couple of months ago, and the two of them had stayed in touch. Now that she was done working so hard on the second pizzeria, she would have more time to explore their new friendship. She remembered her idea for the small business club, and decided to ask Joanna about it today. She could be the very first member.

  Inside, she saw Shannon already sitting at a table with food in front of her. Steve was nowhere to be seen, so Ellie walked over to join her.

  “Hey,” her friend said, rising to give her a hug. “It’s good to see you. I’m glad you’re back. We have a lot to catch up on. You said you had something you wanted to tell me?”

  “We can talk about that later,” Ellie said. She didn’t want to discuss the murder in such a public place. “Where’s Steve?”

  “He’s running a few minutes behind,” Shannon said. “I’m just grabbing lunch while I wait. Go ahead and order something and join me.”

  Deciding that one of Joanna’s top-of-the-line hotdogs sounded good, she walked up to the counter and saw a familiar face. “Hi, Clara,” she said, smiling at her old employee. “How is it going here?”

  “Great,” Clara said. “How did the Florida trip go?”

  “The restaurant is doing well,” Ellie said. “It’s too bad you couldn’t come. I think the other employees really enjoyed the getaway.”

  “I’m sure was fun,” the other woman said. “I miss everyone at the pizzeria, but I love working here. What can I get you?”

  “Let’s see…” Ellie gazed at the menu for a moment. “I’ll have a hot dog on a wheat bun, topped with sauerkraut, dill pickles, and onions. I’ll also take a soda to drink.”

  “Coming right out,” Clara said. “I’ll tell Joanna you’re here, I’m sure she’ll want to come say hi.”

  A couple of minutes later, the restaurant’s owner came out to bring Ellie her order herself. Joanna took the seat across from her and Shannon.

  “I’m glad you stopped in,” she said. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

  “It has,” Ellie agreed. “I’ve been so busy with the restaurant in Florida, I haven’t really had time for much else. I want to start getting more involved now, though. Speaking of that, how would you feel about joining a small business club that I would be hosting? We could meet one or two times a month. We can discuss things relevant to running our businesses, and also just take the time to get to know one another.”

  “I think that sounds wonderful,” Joanna said. “You mentioned something about that a while back, didn’t you? Do you know anyone else who would be joining?”

  “Not yet,” Ellie said. “I only just decided to go through with it. You’re the first person I asked.”

  “Well, I’m honored,” her friend said. “And Shannon, I’m sorry Steve’s late. He hasn’t been himself lately. I think he just has too many projects going on at once.”

  “It’s fine,” Shannon said. “I don’t mind. I don’t have much else I have to do today, anyway. It’s nice to stop and get lunch with the two of you.”

  Ellie agreed. It was nice to spend some time with her friends and not worry about anything else. She hoped to have the chance to do this more often now.

  The restaurant’s front door opened and she looked around to see Steve, Joanna’s husband, come in. He walked over and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek before sitting next to her.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I got held up. Hopefully I’m not too late?”

  “Nope, we’ve got plenty of time,” Shannon said. “If you’re ready, let’s start with –” She broke off as her phone buzzed. “Shoot, it’s from work. They want me to go talk to the sheriff after this and see if he can make any comments about the murder.”

  Both Joanna and Steve had blank looks on their face. Neither of them must have heard about the murder yet.

  “Who got killed?” Joanna asked.

  “No one knows,” Shannon said. “The woman didn’t have any form of identification on her. James told me all about it before he left earlier this afternoon for work. Here, the paper has a photo of her that we’re printing in tomorrow’s headline.”

  She held her phone out to Joanna, who gasped. “I know this lady. Steve, isn’t she your ex?”

  He took the phone from his wife and frowned. “That does look a lot like Melanie,” he said. “But I don’t see how it can be her. She lives in Portland. What would she be doing all the way up here?”

  “We need to tell Russell if you think you know her,” Shannon said. “Here, give me her full name and any contact information you have. I’ll take it to him when I stop by the sheriff’s department later.”

  She wrote down the information, then continued with the interview. Ellie only half listened, too distracted by the unexpected possible connection between her friend’s husband and the dead woman. It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Was Steve involved with her death somehow? His face gave nothing away, but the chilling thought wouldn’t leave her.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  * * *

  Russell Ward looked at his sister-in-law, unsettled by the news that she had brought him. Steve had already gotten a reputation around town, and it wasn’t a good one. Many of the townspeople were old-fashioned, and they didn’t like all of the big plans he had for the properties he was buying. Now, it was coming to his attention that the man had a possible connection to the woman who had been found murdered in the wood
s behind Ellie’s house. An ex-girlfriend, someone who might have had dirt on him that she was using to blackmail. It was a possible motive, and one that he couldn’t overlook. If this woman was who Steve and his wife said she was, that would make Steve their lead – and only – suspect in the case.

  “Thanks for telling me,” he said to Shannon. “How did he act when he saw her photo?”

  “He looked surprised,” his sister-in-law said. “He didn’t even seem to know that she was in town. I know what you’re thinking, I don’t think anyone could be that good of an actor. You might want to ask Ellie, though. She was watching him the entire time I was doing the interview.”

  “Ellie was there?”

  “Yeah, she met me for lunch.”