Italian Wedding Murder: Book 4 in Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  ITALIAN WEDDING 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

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Italian Wedding

  Murder

  Book Four

  in

  Papa Pacelli’s

  Pizzeria Series

  By

  Patti Benning

  Copyright 2016 Summer Prescott Books

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  **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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  ITALIAN WEDDING

  MURDER

  Book Four in Papa Pacelli’s Pizzeria Series

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  “Thanks for choosing Papa Pacelli’s. Have a nice day.”

  Eleanora Pacelli smiled as she watched the woman and her two young daughters walk away, pizza box in hand. Even after working there for months, she still enjoyed the simple things, and nothing could compare to watching yet another satisfied guest leave.

  “Hey, Ms. Pacelli. Is she here yet? I heard the door open.”

  That was Clara, one of Ellie’s employees. She was poking her head out of the kitchen door, looking eagerly around the restaurant.

  “Not yet. A customer just left. I’m sure she’ll be here soon, though,” the pizzeria manager said.

  “Let me know the second she walks in,” the young woman said. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

  The week before, Ellie had spent days interviewing potential new employees for the pizzeria. Three employees and herself just wasn’t cutting it, especially not with the restaurant’s increased success since she had started managing it. It had been a nerve-wracking process for her; all of her current employees had been there for longer than she had, having been hired by her grandfather before he passed, and she was anxious to find someone that would fit in well with everyone that already worked there.

  After days of interviewing several applicants, Ellie was certain that she had, at last, found the perfect new employee. Still, she was worried. Even her grandfather had made a mistake once; he had hired Xavier Hurst, after all. The young man had been the worst employee possible. Not only had he let the pizzeria fall into disrepair, but he had also stolen thousands of dollars from it over the course of the two years that he had worked there. The fiasco was the perfect example of how dangerous it could be to trust the wrong people.

  As the clock ticked closer to three, when the new employee was supposed to show up, Ellie began casting anxious glances out the window. It would be embarrassing if her first hire was a no-show on the very first day.

  She felt a rush of relief when she finally saw a girl with brightly colored, spiky hair walking down the sidewalk towards the pizzeria. “Clara, she’s here.”

  Her employee appeared so suddenly that Ellie got the feeling she had been waiting right by the kitchen door. “Is that her?”

  “Yes.” She looked over at her employee and saw a flicker of doubt cross her features. It’s the hair, Ellie thought. I had my doubts at first, too. But I really like her, after spending some time speaking to her.

  The young woman crossed the street and let herself into the pizzeria. Ellie smiled at her. “Hi, Iris. This is Clara Callahan, another one of my employees. She’ll be handling the majority of your training today. Clara, this is Iris.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Clara,” Iris said. “I can’t wait to get started.”

  “It will be nice to have someone else around,” Clara replied, still eying the new girl’s brightly colored hair.

  “All right, follow me into the back, Iris, and I’ll get you your shirt and hat. Then Clara will start showing you the ropes in the kitchen,” Ellie said, still smiling. She was determined to make her new employee feel as comfortable as possible.

  It didn’t take long for Clara to overcome her misgivings about Iris, and soon the two young women were chatting happily in the back. Eleanora was pleased. It seemed like her first new hire had been a success. Once Iris was trained up enough to work on her own, they would all be able to take more time off. It would be easier to get another employee to come in if someone called in sick, too.

  Happy to let her two employees get to know each other, Ellie spent the next few hours at the register, chatting with customers and taking orders, which she called back to Iris and Clara. She saw a lot of familiar faces; Kittiport was a small town, after all, and Papa Pacelli’s had a lot of regulars. She was on the verge of taking a break when someone she knew even better than most of her customers walked in.

  “Hey, Ellie,” her best friend, Shannon Ward, said. “How are things going?”

  “Pretty well. The new employee started today,” Ellie told her. “What can I get you? I can call back the order, then take a short break and chat while you’re waiting, if you want.”

  “Actually, I’m not here for pizza,” Shannon said. A grin broke out across her face. “I’m here on business.”

  “Oh?” Her friend was a journalist for the local newspaper. She had a column of her own, in which she covered the multitude of miscellaneous events around town, such as the outcome of a quilting contest, or who caught the smallest fish in the fishing competition.

  “My boss thought I would be the perfect person to cover this story, since we’re friends. It’s going to be on the front page and everything,” the other woman continued.

  Ellie was lost. Nothing news-worthy had happened to her or to the pizzeria for weeks — and she was happy to keep it that way.

  “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, Shannon.”

  “The anniversary, of course,” her friend repl
ied. “What do you have planned?”

  “Anniversary?” Ellie said blankly. She wasn’t married. It could be her grandparents’ anniversary, she supposed, but she had no idea why that would be a story worthy of the front page of the newspaper, even for such a small town.

  “For Papa Pacelli’s, of course. Monday will mark twenty years from the time your grandfather first opened the doors. At the ten-year anniversary, he had a big party and invited everyone. There was a raffle for a year of free pizzas — one a week for the entire year — and all of the proceeds went to charity.” Shannon’s face fell. “You don’t have anything planned, do you?”

  “Of course I do,” Ellie said, struggling to come up with something on the spot. In truth, she had had no idea that the pizzeria’s twentieth anniversary was approaching, let alone that she was expected to celebrate it. She couldn’t send her friend away without a story, though. “I thought I’d do the same thing that my grandfather did ten years ago. Another big party, with a raffle, and some sort of pizza buffet.”

  “Awesome,” Shannon said. “I can’t wait. I’ll be there early to take lots of pictures. This is going to be great publicity for both of us — my name and your restaurant, both on the front page of the newspaper. I’ll make sure the whole town knows about Papa Pacelli’s twentieth anniversary party!”

  The pizzeria manager smiled, hoping that her friend wouldn’t be able to see through the expression to the panic that lay beneath. How in the world was she supposed to plan an event for the whole town, in just three days?

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  “Twenty years already? Oh my, I can’t believe it’s been that long,” Ann Pacelli said, putting down the apples she had been peeling and looking suddenly tired. “Twenty years ago, your grandfather would have been retiring from his job at the paper mill, and I thought we were getting old then. It can’t really have been that long, can it?”

  “Twenty years ago, I was in college. It’s a long time for me too, Nonna.” Ellie took over the peeling, gently encouraging the older woman to go and sit down. “So, do you have any ideas for this party I’m supposed to throw? Do you remember what Papa did last time?”

  “The ideas you have already sound good to me. Maybe you should have some games, in addition to the raffle?”

  “Like what?” She looked down at the apple in her hand and realized she already had one answer. Kids still enjoyed bobbing for apples, didn’t they? “Nonna, do you have any old pictures of the pizzeria? I was thinking I could blow them up and hang them around the restaurant, so people could see how it’s changed over the years.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea, dear. I know I have some in one of the photo albums in your grandfather’s study. We can look through them once the pies are in the oven.”

  Of the three apple blueberry pies they were making, only one was for the Pacelli women. The other two were going to friends of Ann’s — friends that had recently gone into nursing homes. Ellie knew her grandmother was dreading the day she would become unable to care for herself. She didn’t seem to quite believe her granddaughter when she promised that she would stay and care for her in their house.

  It didn’t take long for the two of them to put the finishing touches on the pies and get them in the oven. Ellie carried a small bowl off apple wedges and blueberries sprinkled with cinnamon out to Marlowe, her grandfather’s green-winged macaw. The huge red parrot dove beak first into the dish, mashing the fresh fruit with her beak. The pizzeria manager knew that she was going to have quite the mess to clean up later — the bird was a notoriously messy eater — but Marlowe’s enjoyment made it all worth it.

  Leaving the macaw to her feast, she and her grandmother made their way down the hallway that lead to the sizable study. Bunny, Ellie’s little black and white papillon, followed them, knowing that the big desk in the study held dog treats that were a lot tastier than the apples and berries the bird got.

  “Here you go, Bunny,” Ellie said, tossing a couple of cookies down onto the dog bed that she kept by the desk. Her nonna walked straight over to the shelves and began pulling down old photo albums. In no time at all, they had found more pictures of the pizzeria in its early days than she would ever need.

  “Hmm. It looks like I took a lot of photos in the first couple of years, but haven’t taken as many recently,” the older woman said. “You know what we need? A current picture, one with you out front.”

  “No, Nonna, I haven’t been there long enough to —”

  “Nonsense. You’re the reason the pizzeria is as successful as it is right now. If you hadn’t been able to come and help out after your grandfather passed, well, I’m afraid I would have ended up selling it.”

  “Well, if you insist… but I want you to be in it, too.”

  With only two days left to prepare, time was of the essence. Ellie gathered her favorite of the old photos of her grandfather and the pizzeria and put them in her purse alongside the camera her grandmother handed her. What was supposed to have been a quiet Saturday morning with some light baking, was quickly becoming far busier than she had planned.

  “Are you sure you want to go with me to get the pictures blown up, Nonna?” she asked as she helped her grandmother in the car. “I have no idea how long it will take. I would be happy to drop you off back here at home first.”

  “No, no, I’ll stay with you, dear. We can take a stroll around town while we wait. I’ll even treat us to lunch, if you’d like.”

  Their first stop was at the local nursing home, where Ellie helped her grandmother carry in the two still warm pies. After a good twenty minutes of visiting with each of her friends, Nonna, was ready to go to their next destination; Papa Pacelli’s. Ellie still wasn't sure how she felt about hanging her own picture on the wall of the little restaurant. It felt a bit too much like tooting her own horn. She had really hardly done anything there, and she certainly didn’t feel like she deserved a spot of honor alongside her grandfather.

  Nonna quickly corralled a pedestrian and asked him to take the picture for them. Ellie posed with her arm around the older woman’s shoulder, a smile on her face. It was impossible to say no to her grandmother.

  They dropped the camera with the new picture on it along with the stack of old photos off at the copy shop, which promised to have them blown up to the right size in an hour. That left them with a good amount of time to walk around town and chat, something that they hadn’t done as much of lately as the weather got colder.

  “So, how are you settling in, Ellie?” Nonna asked, linking her arm with her granddaughter’s. The old woman’s pace was slow, and Ellie was once more reminded that her grandmother wasn’t as young as she acted sometimes — she was well into her eighties.

  “I think I’m settling in pretty well, Nonna. I’m definitely getting used to running the pizzeria.”

  “I don’t mean just as far as business goes. How are you? Are you happy here? Are you making friends? Have you gone on any more dates with that sheriff?”

  “No, like I told you, that was just a one-time thing,” she told her grandmother gently. She had explained to the older woman before that the only reason for their dinner date had been to help solve a case; there had been no romance involved. Nonna, however, remained convinced otherwise.

  “You two went so nicely together, dear. I really think you should give him another chance.”

  “Nonna…” Ellie sighed. She knew it was no use arguing with her grandmother. “I promise, if he asks me to go on a date with him, I’ll say yes.” There, she thought, that should do it. I’m not lying to her, but since he’s never going to ask me out, I won’t ever have to follow through.

  “Wonderful,” Nonna said, brightening up. “Now, I promised you lunch, didn’t I? Where would you like to eat?”

  “Um, I’m not sure.” She looked around, hoping for inspiration. They were right across the street from Cheesaroni Calzones; Papa Pacelli’s main competitor. Her grandmother saw it at the same time she did. They met
each other’s eyes, and Ellie gave a snort of laughter. “Anywhere but there. You choose, Nonna. And I’ll pay. You do enough as it is.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  It wasn’t easy, preparing for the party over the weekend, but somehow Ellie managed it. She thought the pizzeria looked very good when it opened Monday afternoon. Iris, Rose, and Jacob, who had all agreed to come in early and help out, had spent a few hours in the morning shopping at the local party store. Now black and red streamers — to match the restaurant’s wall tiles and paint — were hanging from the ceiling. Balloons had been blown up and put outside, and a big banner that read Happy 20th Birthday! was hanging over the register. All in all, it was very reminiscent of their grand re-opening party, in which Papa Pacelli’s had turned over a new leaf.

  The main differences were the raffle — fifty-two weeks’ worth of free pizzas — and the buffet table. Just a few dollars would get each guest unlimited pizza. They were bound to take a financial loss on the day, especially since the proceeds of the raffle were going to charity, but she knew the publicity would be worth it. She had read Shannon’s article in the Sunday paper, and had felt a mixture of pride at the sight of her friend’s name, and worry that she wouldn’t live up to the expectations set by her grandfather ten years ago.