Fiesta Pizza Murder (Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Book 10) Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FIESTA PIZZA MURDER

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Fiesta Pizza

  Murder

  Book Ten

  in

  Papa Pacelli’s

  Pizzeria Series

  By

  Patti Benning

  Copyright 2017 Summer Prescott Books

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.

  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

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  FIESTA PIZZA

  MURDER

  Book Ten in Papa Pacelli’s Pizzeria Series

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  Eleanora Pacelli walked along the beach with her dog trailing behind her. The water was still freezing, but the breeze was almost warm, and she knew it wouldn’t be long until the beach was full of sunbathers. Right now, she and Bunny had it to themselves.

  She heard a sneeze and the sudden jingling of tags, then splashes made by tiny feet. Turning, she saw the little black and white papillon shake off a fine mist of water. The dog stood back from the reach of the waves lapping gently at the shore, and gave the water a deeply offended look.

  “Did you wander too close?” Ellie asked. She chuckled. While the dog enjoyed sniffing along the water’s edge, actually getting her paws wet was a different story entirely. Swimming in the ocean probably wouldn’t have been the best idea for the papillon anyway; she was small enough that a shark could probably swallow her whole in one bite.

  Bunny gave a second shake, then resumed her trot along the shore, this time staying further up the beach where the sand was dry. Ellie pulled her cellphone out of her pocket to check the time. She had an hour before she had to be at her family’s pizzeria to help open for the day.

  “Time to head back,” she called to her dog.

  They followed their own footprints through the sand, climbed up the grassy hill, and paused at the road to make sure no cars were coming. Ellie clipped Bunny’s leash to her collar and they crossed the road to home. The Pacelli place, an imposing, white house built in the early twentieth century, was a few hundred yards from the beach access. Behind it stretched the dark expanse of the state forest; one large white pine decorated the front yard.

  Ellie let herself in through the front door and slipped off her shoes. She unhooked Bunny’s leash and hung it on the coat rack. The little dog ran off in search of water and whatever scraps of food she could sniff out. Marlowe, her grandfather’s greenwing macaw, had developed a habit of throwing bits and pieces of food out of her cage for the dog. The pellets and veggies didn’t seem to bother the papillon’s stomach, so Ellie hadn’t put a stop to the arrangement yet. At least it was healthier than the pieces of muffin and bacon her grandmother liked to slip the dog in the mornings.

  She stopped in the kitchen to see her grandmother before going upstairs. Ann Pacelli was well into her eighties, but refused to act her age—which had led to a few close calls. She had slowed down a little bit after breaking her arm in a fall, but now that she was fully healed she was right back to her old habits. Right now, she was taking a loaf of bread out of the oven; the third loaf that she had made that morning.

  “I’m back from my walk, Nonna,” Ellie said, pausing to give the older woman a peck on the cheek. “Don’t feed Bunny. She’s already had breakfast, and you know what the vet said about her weight.”

  “Oh, if you insist. I’ll put aside some scraps for her for dinner. You can at least give the dog something to eat besides that boring kibble.”

  “The kibble is healthy for her,” the younger woman said, exasperated. It was an old argument between the two of them. “She’s so small that even a few extra bites of something unhealthy makes a difference.”

  “If that’s what you want, dear.” Nonna heaved a sigh. “You sound just like your grandfather was with that bird of his. There’s nothing wrong with giving animals a fun treat every once in a while.”

  “Well, if you give Marlowe too much sugar, she’ll be bouncing off the walls just like a toddler… if that toddler had a pair of pliers and wings.”

  Her grandmother chuckled. “I’ll give you that. It’s just so hard to say no when they give me their sad looks.”

  “I know, Nonna,” Ellie teased. “We just have to be strong. So, what’s the occasion? Why are you making so much bread?”

  “My dear friend Margie just had hip surgery and won’t be able to move around the kitchen to bake for a while. She can’t stand store-bought bread, so I thought I’d take over a couple of loaves to tide her over while she heals. This last one is for us. I thought I’d make us sandwiches for lunch. Do you have time to eat before you leave?”

  “I should,” Ellie said. “I’ve got to run upstairs and take a shower and get changed, but I can take a few minutes to sit down with you before I go.”

  “I’ll have lunch ready when you come down,” her grandmother promised.

  After a hurried shower and a quick lunch, Ellie drove into town. Spring had been underway in the small northern Maine town of Kittiport for a few weeks already, and the sight of the green buds on the trees lining the main road never failed to bring a smile to her face. It had been a hard winter, but now that the weather was nicer, the whole town seemed to be breathing easier.

  As she made the final turn towards Papa Pacelli’s, she glanced across the road toward the sheriff’s department. It was reassuring to see the familiar pickup truck parked in front of the building. She had been dating the sheriff, Russell Ward, for quite a few months now. She had no doubt that her association wi
th him had helped her settle into the small town. Even though she had been born and raised in Kittiport, she had spent most of her life in the Midwest. Many people in town considered someone like her an outsider—but those same people were willing to give their elected sheriff the benefit of the doubt. If Russell liked her, they figured she was probably okay.

  At the pizzeria, she found the employee door already unlocked and two men waiting inside. One was tall and lanky with dark hair, and the other was stockier, with light brown hair that had been styled with more care than she ever put into her own hairdo.

  “Hey, Jake,” she said. The taller of the two tipped his red and black hat to her.

  “Hey, Ms. P.”

  “And it’s good to see you, Pete. Are you doing your training today?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I think I’ve got everything so far. The register is just like the last place I worked. I think the hardest part will be remembering where everything is.”

  “That will just take time,” Ellie assured her new employee. “We try to keep the kitchen organized, but things still end up out of place. Never be embarrassed to ask where something is.”

  After a serious error in judgment with her last hire, she had been nervous about bringing another new employee in, but there was no getting around the fact that they needed someone else. When her best friend—and Russell’s sister-in-law—Shannon Ward had mentioned that her nephew was moving to town with his father and would be looking for work, Ellie had jumped on the chance to hire him. Peter Chesterfield had been the ideal candidate, and not just because he had references from people that she knew and trusted. He had been out of high school for a few years, and had worked in the food industry while taking online college classes. He knew his way around a kitchen, and more importantly, he didn’t seem to have a single secret to his name.

  She grabbed her set of keys and went out front to make sure the door to the outdoor eating area was unlocked, and that the patio itself was clean and ready for guests. She checked her phone while she was out there, and saw a text message from Russell.

  Saw you drive by. I meant to call you before you got to work. Dinner at my place tomorrow?

  She replied, Sure. Biting back a smile, she slid the phone into her pocket. She liked a lot about living in Kittiport, but the sheriff was easily the best part. Less than a year ago, she had spent most of her time bitterly wondering how the life she had made for herself in Chicago had come crashing down around her in what seemed like an instant. Now she was glad she had left that life behind. Her new life had so much more to offer, and she didn’t think she had ever been happier.

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  “You know, for an animal that only weighs about four pounds, you are a lot of trouble.”

  Ellie bent down and offered her arm to the large red and green parrot on the floor. When the bird stepped up, she stroked the feathers on top of her head affectionately, then let Marlowe climb back on top of her vanity. The macaw’s wings weren’t clipped at the moment, but she preferred to be carried around by people than trying to fly.

  “Next time you get down, I’m not helping you up,” she warned. “You seem to think it’s a game, but I need to concentrate on my make-up. I need to leave for Russell’s soon, and I’m never going to be ready if I have to interrupt myself every two seconds to get you off the floor.”

  The parrot ignored her, paying attention to the mirror instead, where she was staring at her reflection with her feathers puffed out. Ellie chuckled. The bird’s antics never failed to amuse her, except when those antics included destroying something. Marlowe’s beak was capable of snapping small bones in half—drywall and molding didn’t stand a chance.

  Ellie didn’t think she would have ever gotten a macaw for herself, but the bird had been her grandfather’s. When Arthur Pacelli had passed away, his wife had kept the bird, which after twenty years was every bit as much a part of the family as a human would have been. It had taken Ellie some time to win the trust of the parrot, and to learn to trust her in return, but she was glad that she had made the effort. She had never had such an intelligent pet before, and it was amazing to watch the bird think things through.

  “Shoot, I really have to go,” she said, checking her phone. She knew that Russell wouldn’t mind if she was a few minutes late, but she would still be embarrassed. She had always hated being late, even though sometimes it was inevitable. Tonight, however, she was determined that she wouldn’t be.

  The Kittiport sheriff lived in a small house on the outskirts of town. He had been married, once, but after his wife died, he’d sold the house that they’d bought together. Ellie didn’t know much about his wife or how she had died, other than that it had been a murder, and he had never found her killer. It wasn’t something that he talked about much, and she didn’t press for details.

  She rarely brought up her own past herself. She had been an entirely different woman in Chicago. Her fast-paced, high-stress job and ambitious fiancé had shaped her more than she liked to admit. Since moving back to her childhood hometown of Kittiport, she felt like she had been able to become more herself. She did miss some parts of her old life. The city itself, in fact, was what she missed the most. There was something so beautiful about Chicago’s skyline. It had been nearly a year since the last time she had seen a skyscraper, and the thought made her oddly nostalgic.

  I think the tallest building in Kittiport is the church, she thought, eying the steeple as she drove by on her way to Russell’s house. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the feel of the small town, but there was just something breathtaking about seeing city skyscrapers tower so majestically.

  She was still in an introspective mood when she pulled into Russell’s driveway. It was strange to think how different her life could have been if she had never taken the leap and moved halfway across the country to care for her elderly grandmother. Where would she be right now? What would she be doing? She certainly wouldn’t have ended up owning a pizza shop if she hadn’t left Chicago. Of course, if she had, it would have been proper deep-dish, not the cheese- and tomato-topped crackers easterners called pizza.

  She smiled at her rush of affection for the little pizza shop. It had become the focus in her life, and it felt good to look at the improvements she had made and know that she had something to be proud of. It made all the work that she had done at her old job feel unreal. Pushing numbers around for a bunch of people with more money that she’d ever touch had never been nearly as satisfying as making pizzas and bringing smiles to people’s faces.

  Someone knocked at her car window. She jumped, then laughed at herself when she saw that it was just Russell. Who else had she been expecting? All the stress of the past few months must really have gotten to her.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said as she got out of the car. “I saw you sitting out here, and thought I’d make sure everything was all right.”

  “I was just thinking about how different my life is now,” she told him. “In a good way, of course.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that. Kittiport really has a way of getting to people, doesn’t it?”

  She nodded, following him towards the house. “It really does. It’s such a perfect little town. You can’t help but fall in love with it.”

  Inside, she put down her purse and looked around. She hadn’t been to Russell’s house very many times; on most of their dates, they went out, either to a restaurant, or to James and Shannon’s house for the dinners that they hosted nearly every week. With the recent nicer weather, they had been getting ice cream and walking along the docks in the evenings, a new tradition that Ellie enjoyed.

  Not much had changed since the last time she had been to his house a few weeks ago. His sheriff’s jacket was hanging up near the door along with his keys. The floor looked like it had just been vacuumed, and the thought that he had cleaned up just for her made her smile. There was a thump from the other room and a grey tabby cat made an appearance.
It stared up at her for a moment, then proceeded to rub against her legs.

  “Sookie’s coming inside now?” she asked as she bent down to pet the cat.

  “Well, she came to the door during that rainstorm we had a few days ago, and I couldn’t just leave her outside. She hasn’t left since.”

  She smiled. The grey cat had appeared about a month ago, first begging for scraps then running off, but gradually coming closer and closer until Russell was able to pet her. None of the neighbors knew whose she was, but they had all seen her around. It seemed that she had adopted Russell, and thankfully she didn’t seem to mind sharing him with Ellie.

  “I’m glad she’s here to keep you company.”

  “I feel bad leaving her alone all day while I’m working, but she doesn’t even look at the door when I leave it open. I can’t just throw her out, especially not with it being coyote season. They’re having pups right about now, and will be looking for easy meals.”

  Ellie shivered. She had heard the coyotes howling in the state park behind the Pacelli house. It was an eerie sound, one that made her glad for the walls and windows between her and the outdoors. She always watched Bunny carefully when she went outside. She had heard stories of coyotes attacking and killing small dogs and cats.

  “I don’t think she minds being left alone here during the day,” she told him. “It’s probably peaceful. She can relax and not always be on guard like she was when she lived outside.”

  “And she always knows where her next meal is coming from,” he said, chuckling. “She’s a little bit spoiled, I have to admit. She got the trimmings from the steaks before I put them on the grill. Speaking of, they should be just about done by now.”

  They went outside to the back porch, where Russell’s grill was emitting mouthwatering smells. He opened it to show two large steaks on the bottom rack, and foil-wrapped corn on the cob on the upper rack.