A Slice of Murder Read online

  With much anticipation,

  Faith

  Maddy was staring at me, and as I looked up at her again, she said, “The names are pretty unmistakable, aren’t they? That’s quite a bombshell.”

  “It’s TNT,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

  “I just opened it ten minutes ago,” she said. “Honestly, I nearly forgot about finding it until then.”

  I tapped the letter with one finger. “Why was Richard hitting on me when he was already seeing the mayor’s wife on the side? Faith is always so prim and proper, I never would have believed she had it in her to step out on Steve Baron.”

  “The man owns a gun shop,” Maddy said. “How dumb was Richard, anyway?”

  “He was stabbed, remember?”

  Maddy said, “Steve’s not stupid. He probably knew if he shot Richard, he’d be arrested before morning.”

  “I’m not sure that’s true,” I said. “People acting in the heat of the moment don’t always act rationally. I had no idea Richard and Faith were fooling around. Did you?”

  “No,” Maddy admitted. “But that letter’s pretty hard to deny, isn’t it?”

  “Truthfully, I’m not quite sure how to handle this,” I said as I slipped the letter back into its envelope. “We can’t exactly walk up to the mayor’s wife and ask her if she or her husband killed Richard Olsen, can we?”

  “No, but we can’t let it go, either. Do you think this is what the blackmail was about?”

  I bit my lower lip, then said, “Do you think Richard seduced her, and then when he got tired of her, he started blackmailing the woman? That’s dangerous business.”

  “Look what happened to him,” Maddy said. “It fits.”

  “So do half a dozen other explanations,” I said. “But that doesn’t make any of them right.”

  “Then we keep digging,” Maddy said.

  We got into my car and headed back to the pizzeria.

  Maddy said, “What should we do now?”

  “I thought we might make a pizza and spend some time figuring this out.”

  “Sounds good,” Maddy said. “You know me—I’m always interested in food.”

  I parked in back, more out of habit than anything else. There were probably a dozen spots in front of the pizzeria, but I could barely ever bring myself to park in one, even when we were open for business, just in case a customer needed one. I wondered if I’d ever have another customer, or if I’d served my last slice. I started to unlock the back door when I realized that I hadn’t removed the barricaded bar.

  “We’ve got to go around to the front,” I said.

  Maddy nodded, and as we walked through the shortcut, I saw that the parking area was jammed. At least someone was making money.

  Then when we turned the corner, I realized that there was a cluster of people standing in front of the pizzeria.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Maddy.

  “I don’t have a clue,” she said, “but it appears that we’re going to have to put our investigation on hold.”

  As I walked through the dozen folks standing in line, I said, “Sorry about that. We’re running late, but we’ll be open in a few minutes.”

  There were some grumbles, but nobody left, which was a good thing.

  As Maddy and I went inside to get ready to open the pizzeria, I wondered what had brought everyone there. Had they come for the food, or did they want to get a close-up look at a killer? Either way, I was going to do my best to feed them, and make a profit while I still could.

  “Oh, no. We don’t have any pizza dough,” I said as I walked into the kitchen. I made fresh dough every morning, and we nearly always used it all by the end of the day. Once a week I discarded any dough I’d frozen during the week so I could start fresh again on Monday morning, but I knew for a fact that the freezer was empty at the moment.

  Maddy grinned at me. “Remember, I made some this morning as soon as I got here. Check the fridge.”

  “How did you have time to do it before I got here?” I asked as I opened the refrigerator door.

  “I might have rushed it a little,” she said. “I used my recipe, not yours.”

  Under normal circumstances I would not have been pleased. Maddy’s dough skipped a few steps, and I thought you could taste it in the finished product, though no one else seemed to be able to. But at the moment, I had two choices: use Maddy’s, or send everyone home.

  I hugged her briefly, something she was clearly not expecting.

  “What was that for?”

  “For saving us tonight,” I said.

  She was clearly uncomfortable with the show of affection.

  “It was my turn,” she said. “I’ll get the ingredients, and you turn on the oven.”

  We had a conveyor oven, though Joe and I had lusted after a wood-fired one when we’d first opened the pizzeria. The wood oven wasn’t as expensive, but neither my husband nor I had wanted to get into the firewood business. The conveyor oven would heat up in fifteen minutes—it was pretty much foolproof—and if we needed to, we could churn out a lot of pizzas in a hurry. The negatives were that it was expensive to repair, the fan was louder than I would have liked, and it had been a pretty substantial investment when we could ill afford it.

  Still, normally it was a pretty good match to our business.

  I preheated the oven, then started shaping crusts as Maddy worked on toppings. She’d prepared a nice mix earlier that morning, so we were in good shape.

  “I’m going to go ahead and open up,” I said.

  Maddy wiped her hands on a dishrag and took off her apron. “I’ll take care of it. You stay in the kitchen, and I’ll handle the front. We can do this, but you have to turn down deliveries tonight. I know you don’t want to, but we don’t have much choice.”

  “To be honest with you, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to deliver another pizza in my life.” The memory of what had happened last night was still fresh in my mind, and I doubted it would ever go away.

  “It’ll be all right,” Maddy said as she touched my shoulder lightly. “Now, let’s make some pizza and pay the rent.”

  “Sounds great,” I said, and I meant it. Creating pizzas had pulled me out of tailspins before, and that was what I needed now. Thank goodness all of my customers hadn’t deserted me.

  Maddy opened the doors, and I kept myself busy while I waited for the first order. I’d just gotten things ready when Josh Hurley—one of my few remaining employees—walked into the back.

  “I’m ready to get to work,” Josh said as he grabbed an apron.

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Sorry. I can’t let you.”

  “What do you mean? What did I do?” Then his face clouded up. “You talked to Dad, didn’t you?”

  “He doesn’t want you working here, Josh.”

  “He’s not in control of my life,” Josh snapped. I could see that he’d inherited his father’s temper, though he hadn’t yet learned to master it as well as his father had.

  “Until you’re out on your own, he is,” I said. “I can’t afford to give him another reason to come after me.”

  “I took your side!” Josh yelled. “I stood up for you, and now you’re turning your back on me?”

  “Josh, listen to me. This is for the best.”

  “Mom said you’d do this, but I didn’t believe her.” He threw the apron at my feet, then stormed out.

  Maddy came rushing back. “What was that all about?”

  “Josh and I had a difference of opinion.”

  “Is that what you’re calling it?” she asked. “I half expected to find you crumpled up on the floor back here.”

  “Maddy, go take care of our customers. I’m fine.”

  “Okay,” she said, though it was pretty clear she didn’t believe me. “Here’s what I’ve got so far.”

  She put the orders on magnetic clips and stuck them on the wall where we had a metal strip. I studied the orders so far and got to work on th
e pizzas. We offered fresh ingredients on our pies, and I made the sauce myself. After I spread it out evenly onto the four crusts I had waiting, I dealt the toppings out like they were playing cards, then drowned each pizza with the whole-milk mozzarella and white cheddar blend of cheese my customers preferred.

  After I slid them onto the conveyor, one after the other, I started on the sandwiches, making two Turkey Clubs, a Garlic Chicken Sub, and a Raging Panini with every hot pepper I had in stock included. It kept me busy enough for a time that I nearly forgot about Richard Olsen, at least for the moment. The phone rang a few times, but I let the machine pick it up. Not only was I too busy to take orders over the phone, but I was in no mood to tell folks we weren’t delivering. It was a fair part of our business income, but for tonight, we were going to have to do without it.

  Maddy came back to pick up a pizza and said, “Someone wants to see you.”

  “I’m not in the mood to be on public display,” I said.

  “I think you’ll want to make an exception.”

  “Why would I want to do that?” And why was she suddenly smiling? “Maddy, what are you up to?”

  “Me? Nothing. I can’t believe you’d accuse me of being up to something without any proof.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said contritely. “It’s just been one of those days.”

  “I accept your apology. Hang on a second.”

  Maddy vanished for a second, then came back with David Quinton.

  “Hi, Eleanor. Sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

  David and I had gone to high school together, and we had even dated a few times before I’d gotten involved with Kevin Hurley. There still was animosity between the two men all these years later, at least from what I’d seen, though I doubted it could possibly still be over me.

  David had aged well, his boyish good looks transforming him into a handsome man, with a strong chin, a very fit body, and a pair of baby-blue eyes that had melted more hearts around town than just mine fifteen years ago. David had never married—devoting himself to his business instead—and eleven months after I’d lost Joe, he’d come calling on me, stating his wish to get reacquainted. I’d rebuffed him, the pain of losing my husband still fresh in my heart, but he’d been persistent, asking me out once a month every month since then. Why he didn’t give up and move on was beyond me, but my refusals had done nothing to decrease his ardor. Maddy thought I was crazy for turning him down, but then again, she hadn’t had Joe.

  “Hi, David. It’s sweet of you to check on me, but I’m fine, honestly, I am.”

  “Do you need help hiring a good lawyer? I’m happy to do anything I can; all you have to do is ask.”

  “Thanks, but Bob Lemon is representing me,” I said.

  “He’s a good man,” David said as he nodded. “Isn’t there anything I can do?” He looked around the kitchen and saw that I was alone. “I’m handy with a knife and a cutting board, so I can help you back here.”

  “I’ve got it covered,” I said, trying to keep the smile off my face. He was like a puppy in his earnestness, and I felt my heart finally start to soften toward him some. It was a slow thaw, but a thaw nonetheless.

  He still wasn’t going to give up. “Deliveries, then. I can surely do that for you.”

  I looked him steadily in the eye. “David, I appreciate the offer, honestly, I do, but I’m fine. Everything’s under control.”

  His features softened for a moment. “Eleanor, you don’t always have to be so strong and independent. There’s something to be said for letting someone else see that you can be vulnerable, too.”

  “I know,” I said. He was right, but I could no more change the way I’d become than I could transform myself into a tall blonde, like my sister had. I just wasn’t built for it.

  “Don’t wait too long,” he said.

  “Why? If I do, are you finally going to take my advice and start asking other women out?”

  “This isn’t about me. It’s about you. I’d hate to see you close yourself off to life after Joe. He wouldn’t have wanted you to do that, and you know it.”

  “That’s enough of that,” I said, suddenly cold. He had no right to bring Joe into our conversation. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”

  He looked so sad at my response that I almost apologized, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

  Instead, he left the kitchen looking as though he’d just lost his last friend.

  Maddy came back thirty seconds later, a scowl plastered on her face. “What did you do to that man? He looked like he was getting ready to go look for the tallest building he could find so he could throw himself off it.”

  I waved a hand in the air. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Maddy wasn’t having any of that, though. “I don’t care what you want, Eleanor. He’s a good man, and he deserves better than the way you treat him.”

  “Do you like him? If you want him, he’s all yours.”

  “Don’t be thick,” Maddy said, her voice rising with every word. “He wants you. What did you say to him to make him slink out of here like he did?”

  “He brought up Joe,” I said, trying to choke back my tears. I wasn’t going to cry, I promised myself. I wasn’t.

  Maddy’s voice softened. “Kiddo, nobody in the world loved your husband as much as you did, but I had to be next in line. He was a great guy, but he wasn’t a saint.”

  “I know that,” I said, fighting to keep the quiver out of my voice. “But he was mine.”

  Maddy took my hands in hers. “He’s gone, Eleanor. You know as well as I do that he wouldn’t want to see you like this. He wanted you to be happy.”

  “I’m happy,” I said as I pulled a hand from hers and wiped a few tears from my cheeks. I hadn’t even realized that I’d started crying.

  “Yeah, you look overjoyed,” she said.

  I pulled my other hand away. “Listen, I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine.” As I sniffled a little, I asked, “Don’t you have customers to wait on?”

  “You’re as stubborn as Dad was, you know that, don’t you?” Maddy asked.

  “Well, you’re as nosy as Mom,” I said.

  Maddy shook a finger at me. “There’s no need to be mean. I’m going back to work.”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said.

  After she was gone, there was a lull in the orders, giving me too much time on my hands, and too many thoughts swirling around in my head. How did everyone feel they had the right to tell me what Joe would have wanted? He was my husband, my best friend, and my one shot at happiness. Was that true, though? Could I love another man? Was there room in what was left of my shattered heart to let someone else in? I didn’t honestly know the answer, and I wasn’t certain I ever would.

  It was all too hard, too much to deal with at the moment, and as I longed for enough new orders to distract me, Maddy came back. There was no sign of our previous conversation in her gaze, though I was sure mine was still displaying it like a billboard by the side of the road.

  “I hope you’ve got more dough,” she said.

  I’d recounted the rounds we had left. “We’ve got enough for fourteen more crusts,” I said. “Surely that’s enough to see us through the rest of the night.”

  “Twelve will do just fine,” she said. “Carrie Wilkes just came in and ordered twelve specials to go. I told her we could do it.”

  “Let me get started on it,” I said as I began pulling out balls of dough. “Is she having a party or something?”

  “Or something,” Maddy said. “She’s taking them to Rick’s dorm room over at the college. I’ll go tell her you’ll get started on them right now.”

  Carrie would never learn, but I wasn’t about to say anything to her. She had been divorced for sixteen years, leaving her with a son to raise alone, and a stack of bills that continually grew. She’d started an office-cleaning business so she could work at night while her sister watched Rick, and she�
��d built up the company until she had branches spread out over Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Carrie had insisted that her son go to North Carolina Mountain University, a forty-minute drive from Timber Ridge. He’d agreed but had set some ground rules that Carrie continually broke. I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about getting the pizzas, but I wasn’t about to challenge her on it. Carrie had developed a hair trigger when it came to conversations about her son. Still, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t do it to Rick. He’d worked for me during high school—over his mother’s protests that he didn’t need a job—and I had a great deal of affection for him. He’d given me his number at college, as many of my alums had given me theirs.

  I called him up and heard party music in the background.

  “Hey, Rick. It’s Eleanor Swift.”

  “Eleanor, how’s life?” There was a pause, and then he laughed. “You’re calling about my mom, aren’t you?”

  “Did you know she just ordered a dozen pizzas?”

  “Yeah, it was at my request. I’m inviting the whole floor to my room for pizza, and yours is the best anywhere.”

  “You’re just a little prejudiced,” I said. “I’ll start on them now.”

  “Thanks,” he said, “and thanks for checking with me. She’s getting better, honestly. I’ve got her weaned down to one visit a week.”

  “That still sounds like a lot,” I said. I remembered the sense of freedom I’d felt during my freshman year of college, and how much I’d cherished my privacy from my parents and from Maddy.

  “Are you kidding? She wanted to go to class with me the first week I was here. I’d say we’re making great progress.”

  If he knew about what had happened to Richard Olsen, he didn’t mention it, which was fine with me. For once, it was nice talking to someone without having that shadow looming over me.

  “Okay, they’ll be on their way soon. You should have them in about an hour.”

  “Sounds great. Bye.”

  After he hung up, I got started on the pizzas. Then after I slid them onto the conveyor I began to clean up. It was close to ten, our regular closing time, and I was tired, though I’d put in quite a bit less than a full day. It was probably from the strain of trying to find a killer and run a business at the same time. Maddy and I were going to have to figure out a way to balance the two, or I’d be worn thin in no time at all. Still, it was good having customers back in A Slice of Delight. It had felt less than whole without the sounds of people enjoying themselves there. By the time we’d ushered the last customer out the door, I was ready to go home.