Pork, Pizza and Murder

  Pork, Pizza, and Murder

  Papa Pacelli’s Pizzeria Series Book Twenty Eight

  Patti Benning

  Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Copyright 2018 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.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Also by Patti Benning

  Chapter One

  Eleanora Ward unfolded her best tablecloth and spread it over the outdoor table, placing a jug of ice water in the center to keep it from blowing away if the breeze picked up. It was their very first barbecue at the new house, and she wanted everything to be perfect.

  She went back inside, pushing open the sliding glass door and stepping into her air-conditioned kitchen, grinning to herself. It still felt like a dream that she and Russell owned their own home. She had spent most of her life renting apartments and townhouses, but now she had a place of her own, somewhere that she could see herself living ten or even twenty years from now.

  The last couple of weeks had been hectic, with both her and Russell working hard to get the house exactly how they wanted it. Rooms had been repainted, carpets had been replaced, furniture had been bought, and their first real argument as a married couple had happened over the color of the living room walls. They had ended up compromising, choosing a pale green instead of the paper bag brown that Russell had wanted, or the mauve that Ellie had favored. The oven timer began to beep just as she shut the kitchen door behind her. She walked over to the stove to turn it off, then grabbed an oven mitt to take the first of the pies out of the oven. The apple pie was a perfect golden brown, and the filling was bubbling up between the slits in the crust. She inhaled deeply, wishing that she had time to eat a piece now. It would be worth the wait, however, to sit down with her friends and family and eat the homemade pies for dessert.

  She set it on one of the cooling racks on the counter, then shut the oven door and washed her hands, getting ready to make a blueberry pie next. Behind the baby gate that was set up in the entrance to the kitchen, Bunny was standing on her hind legs and whining. Ellie waved a finger at the little papillon and the much larger black lab that was standing next to her. The baby gate was up because Sawyer could now easily reach the countertop if he felt so inclined, and she didn't want to risk him getting into the food while she was going in and out of the kitchen.

  “No pie for the two of you,” she said. “But if you're good, Russell might give you some meat trimmings.”

  She glanced at the clock, realizing that her husband would be home any minute. He had run to the store to grab some last-minute ingredients that he needed for his famous homemade barbecue sauce. She was glad that the meat wouldn't take too long to cook. Their guests would begin arriving in half an hour, and she didn't want to make them wait too long to eat. She was already nervous enough as it was; the elections for the next sheriff were coming up, and one of their guests today happened to be an opposing candidate. Ellie knew that he and Russell had a friendly relationship, but she still thought that things might be tense.

  She got to work on the pie, rolling out the crust and then making the filling, packing as many of the freshly picked blueberries into the pie pan as she dared. She had gone blueberry picking just a couple of days before with her grandmother, and didn't know what she would ever do with all of them.

  She had just slid the pie into the oven when she heard the front door open. Pausing to quickly rinse her hands off and dry them on a towel, she stepped over the baby gate and hurried toward the front door to see if Russell needed help carrying any of the groceries in. She was momentarily surprised to hear a woman's laugh, then she rounded the corner and saw her grandmother standing in the entrance way, doing her best to fight off Sawyer's overly enthusiastic greeting.

  “Sawyer, get down,” Ellie said. The lab settled into a sit, his whole body vibrating with excitement. Ellie walked over to hug her grandmother, then turned to see Russell standing in the doorway, his arms laden with grocery bags.

  “I found your grandmother in the driveway,” he said. “Thanks for unlocking the door for me, by the way, Ann.”

  “I figured I might as well put the key that you gave me to good use,” Nonna said. “I could see you struggling with all of those bags.”

  “Here, let me take a couple,” Ellie said. She reached out and took a few of the bags from Russell. The three of them walked through to the kitchen, where Ellie moved the baby gate so that her grandmother could safely get through. She would bring Sawyer and Bunny outside with them later, but for now, it would be easier to prepare food without the dogs around, so she replaced the gate as soon as everyone was in the kitchen. Russell went outside to fire up the grill. Nonna sat down at the breakfast bar, seeming unusually quiet as Ellie began to prepare the lemonade.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked at last, when her grandmother’s silence had gone on for just a bit too long. “Are you feeling all right?”

  “Oh, don't worry about me,” the older woman said.

  Ellie put down the freshly cut lemons and walked over to sit next to her grandmother.

  “Well, now I have to worry about you,” she said. “Something is bothering you, I can tell. What is it?”

  “I just feel bad that you did all of this for me,” Nonna said, raising her hand to gesture around the kitchen and, Ellie guessed, at the house in general. “You and Russell should feel free to go live your lives wherever you want. I don't want you making major decisions like where to buy a house just because I happen to live here.”

  “But you're important to us, Nonna,” Ellie said. “There's nowhere I would rather be than right here.”

  “I won't be around forever, Ellie,” the older woman said. “You might regret the decision to buy a house based on where your grandmother lives after I'm no longer here.”

  “If it really comes to that, then we'll just sell the house,” Ellie said. “I don't want you to feel bad about any of this. Russell and I both love the area. We probably would have moved here even if it wasn't for you. Are you sure that’s all? We were worried that you would feel bad about us moving out.”

  The older woman chuckled and shook her head. “I know how important it is that you and Russell have your own place to call home. Besides, we live right next door to each other. With the intercom system that the two of you had installed, it's almost like we still live in the same house.”

  Ellie smiled. That was what she and Russell had been hoping for. They had both wanted a way to have their own space and privacy, while still being close enough that they would be able to help Nonna if she needed it. While her grandmother had lived alone in the retirement community down in Florida, the entire community had been designed with ease of living in mind, and help was never more than a shout away. If her grandmother was completely on her own out here, who knew what could happen.

  The doorb
ell rang, signaling that the conversation was over for the time being. Ellie smiled at her grandmother and patted the older woman's hand before turning to go and answer the door. The house had been a surprise for the older woman, and she hoped that Nonna would get used to it soon. The last thing that she wanted was for her grandmother to feel guilty about anything.

  Chapter Two

  Forty-five minutes later, the seven of them were seated around the outdoor table. Russell was standing by the grill, hovering watchfully over the steaks.

  “It smells delicious, Russ,” Shannon, Ellie's best friend and sister-in-law said.

  “You should have given me a turn on the grill,” James, Russell's brother, said, grinning. “Then everyone would be able to taste what real steak is supposed to be like. You always overcook it.”

  “When you decide to host, then you can cook everything your way,” Russell said, pointing the grill tongs at his brother. “My house, my grill. Besides, I don't overcook it, you undercook it. I cook it just like dad taught us to.”

  “You're the only one he ever taught,” James grumbled. “It's not my fault that you were older, and Dad always had you tend to the grill during family barbecues.”

  Russell opened his mouth to say something else, but before the brotherly argument could continue, the sound of a crying baby cut through the air. Shannon jumped up and walked over to her and James’s infant, who was in a rocking baby seat in the shade, set up so he had full view of the picnic table. While she took care of the baby, Russell finished arranging the meat on the serving plate. He carried everything over to the table and took a moment to look around, making sure that they didn't need anything else from inside. He sat down just as the baby calmed, and Shannon rejoined them. Ellie looked around at her family and friends, feeling content. Nonna, Shannon, James, Russell, and her darling nephew were the most important people in the world to her. Yvonne and Ralph Breton were friends of Russell's, and she didn't know them as well, but she was glad to be getting the chance to have a fun dinner with them. Ralph might be running against Russell, but that didn't mean they weren't friends. She was proud to play hostess for the first time since she and Russell had bought their house.

  “Let's dig in,” Russell said without preamble. “Help yourselves.”

  Ellie served herself some of the homemade potato salad that Shannon had brought while James reached for the plate of meat. Nonna topped off her glass of lemonade, and Russell pulled hamburger and hotdog buns out of a plastic bag.

  “I can already tell you’re going to need to cart me out of here,” Ralph said with a chuckle. “Doesn’t this barbecue sauce remind you of those ribs we had when we were visiting your family, dear?” He turned away from his wife to address the rest of the table. “We went down to Texas a couple of weeks ago. The food there is simply amazing. You should think about opening another pizzeria there, Ellie.”

  “I think two is more than enough for me right now,” she said, thinking of all of the time and energy she had spent on the second pizzeria in the past year.

  The next half an hour was filled with good food and conversation. When they broke for dessert, Ellie began bringing plates inside and Yvonne excused herself, asking for the bathroom. Ellie was only too happy to show her where it was; she would take any excuse to show off her new house.

  She was bringing the pies out when Russell's cell phone rang, interrupting the story that Nonna was telling of her and Ellie’s trip up from Florida, which had been far more eventful than they had planned.

  Russell made a face and sighed, but didn't complain as he got up to answer the call. He was the sheriff of Kittiport, which meant that he was almost always on call. With it being an election year, he had been busier than ever. Ellie shot him a sympathetic smile as he stepped into the kitchen, already raising the phone to his ear. She admired the work that he did but she didn't envy his job.

  “This has been wonderful so far, Ellie,” Shannon said. “Thanks for inviting us.”

  “I'm glad you could all make it,” Ellie said. “It's nice to get together like this. I don't remember the last time we had a big gathering.”

  “Probably not since the holidays,” James said.

  The pizzeria owner nodded. With her grandmother spending half of the year in Florida, and James and Shannon running ragged with the new baby, it had been a long time since they had all been able to sit together and relax like they were doing now.

  Well, Ellie thought, almost all of them. Poor Russell was stuck inside, handling whatever problem had come up at work. She didn't blame him for wanting to stay on top of things; she knew how much his job meant to him, and while she personally thought that he was a shoo-in to be re-elected, she knew that he was nervous about it. Besides, she couldn't say something like that in front of Ralph.

  She was enjoying her slice of apple pie when Russell reappeared, shutting the sliding glass door behind him quietly. She looked up, a smile already on her face. The expression faded quickly when she saw that he was pale, and his phone was grasped tightly in his hand.

  “What's wrong?” she asked, her mind already racing through all the possibilities. Had someone that they knew been killed? Had something happened to the pizzeria? Had there been some sort of terrible accident in town?

  “Ellie… I need to talk with you. Inside.”

  She stood up without hesitation, ignoring the worried glances and whisperings of their friends and family as she followed her husband into the kitchen. He shut the door firmly behind them, but didn't say anything for a moment. Ellie looked at her husband’s face. Nothing that she saw there comforted her.

  “What happened?” she asked again, her voice a whisper this time.

  “The call… it was a threat.”

  “A threat?”

  “Someone called to threaten my family if I don't drop out of the election.” He gestured with his hand toward the patio. “Everyone I love the most… you're all in danger because of me.”

  Ellie was speechless for a moment. She looked at her husband, some part of her wondering if this was a strange attempt at a joke, even though she knew in her heart that Russell would never joke about something like this.

  “Is there any way to find out who called? Did you recognize the voice?” she asked, finding her own voice at last.

  “If I did, I'd already be halfway to their house to arrest them.” He sighed. “The voice was distorted. I couldn’t recognize it at all.”

  They were both silent for another moment as Russell's news sank in. She looked outside, where the others were still enjoying the barbecue. Her stomach twisted.

  “Whoever it was, do you think they meant it?” she asked. “Do you think we are really in danger?”

  “I don't know,” her husband said. She saw a flash of anger in his eyes. “I need to call Liam and Bethany. I just wanted to tell you first.”

  “Should I tell the others?” Ellie asked, glancing outside again.

  “Not yet,” Russell said. “We'll tell them before they leave, but there's no reason to wreck their dinner. I'm going to see if my deputies can help me. And I think we should only tell the people who are directly affected. We can’t risk information about an active investigation being spilled. I like Ralph, but he’s the type that loves to gossip. I want to solve this as quickly as possible with no hiccups. With luck, the phone number will already be in the system, or we'll be able to contact the company that provides the service and figure out who's on the account. This might be over before anything comes of it.”

  “Let me know as soon as you know something,” Ellie said. “What should I tell the others in the meantime?”

  “Just tell them a work thing came up and I'm dealing with it,” he said. “It’s the truth, after all.”

  He frowned for a moment, but instead of saying something else, he leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss.

  “I'll be in the computer room,” he said. “Come get me before everyone leaves, and I'll tell them what's going on.”

  �
�I will,” she promised.

  Walking back outside, she forced a smile onto her face. She understood why Russell wanted to wait until he had more information to tell everyone else. Chances were, they were all safest here, gathered together. Russell wouldn't want to worry them for no reason, and hopefully, all of this would be over before it started.

  Ellie sat down at the table, telling her guests that Russell had something come up with work, but that he would rejoin them once he had finished. She looked down at her pie, knowing that her appetite had been lost for good. Being the sheriff’s wife wasn't always easy, but even with what had just happened, she knew that she wouldn't trade it for anything.

  She didn't feel in danger, not yet. Russell would be on high alert, and he would do everything in his power to protect his family. Some small part of her mind wondered if that would be enough, but she forced the thought away. She trusted her husband, and she knew that everyone who worked with him would help him find out who had made the threat. Besides, this was Kittiport. What was the worst that could happen? Chances were good that the threat was empty, and whoever had made it just wanted to make them worry. She was determined not to let them know that they had succeeded.