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

  “It looks great,” she said. “I’m so glad it’s nice enough to grill again. There’s just something about a steak fresh off the coals that’s hard to beat.”

  “A woman after my own heart,” he said, grinning. “Do you want to get the salad out of the fridge while I finish up here? I didn’t have time to get the outdoor table and chairs out of the shed, so we’ll have to eat inside.”

  “After all that talk about coyotes, that’s fine with me.” She gave him a peck on the cheek, then went back inside to prepare the table.

  After dinner, Ellie and Russell did the dishes together, their arms brushing as they stood at the sink. She felt warm with happiness. It had been a perfect evening. Nothing fancy, just a delicious meal and good company, but she couldn’t think of anywhere else that she would rather be.

  “Do you need to get going right away?” he asked as they finished drying the last few dishes.

  “I can stay for a little bit,” she told him. She didn’t usually like staying away for too long; she was always terrified that she would get home to find her grandmother in a heap on the floor—or worse, at the bottom of the stairs again. The worry had become a kind of anxiety that would begin to gnaw at her if she was gone from home for more than a few hours. She knew it couldn’t be healthy, but at the same time she would feel responsible if anything were to happen to the older woman.

  “It’s a Friday night, there’s bound to be a movie on TV. Or we could go out, if you’d like. There’s a nice walking path near here.”

  “Let’s stay in,” she said, thinking of the coyotes. It was getting dark out, and she had never really been comfortable in the woods, especially when the shadows began to lengthen between the trees. If it had been a sunny summer’s day, she would have been okay with it.

  “A movie it is,” he said. He took her hand and she smiled up at him, glad that their evening wasn’t over yet.

  They had just settled down on the couch, him with his arm around her and the television remote in his other hand, when there was a knock at the front door. They glanced at each other in surprise.

  “Were you expecting anyone else?”

  “No,” he said. “I wasn’t. I hope nothing’s wrong with one of my neighbors. I did tell them to come and get me if they ever needed something.”

  He got up and she followed him to the door. He looked through the peephole. When he pulled back, he had a puzzled expression on his face.

  “Well, Ellie,” he said. “It looks like you’re about to meet my parents.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  “Mom, Dad, what a surprise,” he said, opening the door. Ellie peered over his shoulder to see two greying heads and a pair of hands clasping a bag with the words Cheesaroni Calzones written across the front.

  “Russ, it’s so good to see you. We thought we’d surprise you and James with a visit. We bought dinner in town, in case you were hungry.” The woman’s eyes found Ellie. “Oh, but it looks like you already have a guest. Who is your friend?”

  She pushed her way into the house past her son. Russell’s father shot him an apologetic look before he followed.

  “Sorry to disturb you, son. I told her we should have called first.”

  “It’s no problem, I’ll just need to go get the guest bedroom set up.”

  “No need, we’re staying at your brother’s house,” his mother said. “You didn’t tell us you were seeing someone.”

  Russell looked befuddled, but managed to pull himself together. Ellie watched with amusement and no small amount of trepidation; she had been completely unprepared to meet his family, and she knew how important first impressions could be.

  “Mom, Dad, this is Eleanora Pacelli. She owns the pizza shop in town. I’m sure you remember it from the last time you were here. Ellie, this is my mother, Glenna Ward, and my father, Lance Ward.”

  Was she imagining things, or did the older woman’s eyes flash with something unpleasant at the sound of her name? A moment later, she decided she must have been mistaken; the woman reached out and shook her hand, smiling brightly all the while.

  “Eleanora, what a pretty name. It’s so nice to meet you. Pacelli, Pacelli, the name sounds familiar…”

  “Any relation to Arthur Pacelli?” Russell’s father asked, surprising her.

  “Yes, he was my grandfather. He passed away last year. How did you know him?”

  “He ran the mill I worked at years ago,” he replied. “He was a good man. I’m sorry to hear about his passing.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Ward. I know my grandmother misses him very much. I never had the chance to get to know him very well, which I regret.”

  “Please, call me Lance. No friend of Russell’s needs to call me Mr. Ward.”

  “And call me Glenna,” his mother said graciously. “I’m so sorry for barging in like this, dear.” She turned her attention back to her son. “We can leave if you’d like.”

  “No, no,” Ellie said. “I was just on my way out. I need to get home and feed the dog anyway.”

  “Ellie, you don’t have to—”

  “It’s okay,” she told Russell with a smile. “I’ve got to be up early tomorrow anyway to take Nonna to her water therapy appointment. It’s getting late. You enjoy the time with your family. It sounds like you don’t get the chance to see them very often.”

  She waved as she drove away. It made her happy to see Russell spending time with his family. It was a shame that their evening together had ended early, but it wasn’t like she was going anywhere. They would have plenty of time for more dates in the future, but as she had learned the hard way, you never knew how much time you would have left with your family.

  Even though she wasn’t scheduled to go into the pizzeria, the weekend was a busy one. She spent most of Saturday driving her grandmother to various appointments, then on Sunday one of the water lines in the pizzeria sprang a leak, flooding the entire kitchen and forcing them to close early. Thankfully, James, who was a contractor, knew a plumber who was willing to come in to fix it before Monday.

  Because of her busy weekend, she had hardly gotten the chance to speak to Russell. They hadn’t exchanged more than a few text messages since their date on Friday. On Monday morning, she left him a voicemail before she went in to work, asking him if he and his parents would be interested in joining her for dinner either that evening or the next at the Lobster Pot. She was eager to get to know the people that had raised him and James; they had obviously done quite an excellent job. Both of their sons were successful and inherently good people. Selfishly, she was also curious to see if the older couple would shed some light on Russell’s past. Even though she respected his desire not to dwell on it, she couldn’t help being curious about his marriage and the circumstances in which he became a widower.

  “I just know he’s going to call me back as soon as I go inside,” she muttered to herself, glancing from her phone toward the pizzeria’s door. Setting a good example for her employees could be a pain sometimes, but she didn’t think it was fair to ask them to refrain from making personal calls while on the job if she was jabbering away on the phone to her boyfriend all the time.

  She waited another few moments, but when her phone remained silent she decided that there was nothing for it; she had to go inside. She slid the phone into her pocket, grabbed her purse, and locked her car. It was another beautiful day, and she knew the pizzeria would be packed.

  The vegetarian taco pizza had been Iris’s idea. Ellie had been skeptical until she had tasted the test pizza her employee had made the week before. The “sauce” was refried beans, taco seasonings, and onions, topped with a mixture of cheddar and jack cheeses. After the pizza came out of the oven, the other toppings were added. Diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, olives, green onions, and a smattering of salsa, with sour cream on the side. It wasn’t very traditional, but it was good, and good food sold.

  “Another special,” Ellie called out to Iris, who was on kitchen duty. “This time hold the olives.”

  She turned back to the customer, who promptly asked, “Do you have hot sauce?”

  With a sigh, she gave the same reply that she had been giving all afternoon. “Sorry, but we don’t.” She made a mental note to stock up on sauces next time they served the taco pizza. Customers had been requesting everything from hot sauce to salsa verde all day. She never liked telling customers no.

  “That’s all right. Do I have to wait, or will you bring the pizza out to me?”

  “Someone will bring it out,” she promised. “It will be about a fifteen-minute wait.”

  He thanked her and walked away, pushing through the door to the sunny patio. Her face hurting from smiling so much, she turned to the next customer. When she saw who it was, the smile dropped right off her face.

  “What do you want, Jeffrey?” she asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice. The young owner of her main competition in town, Cheesaroni Calzones, had made it very clear that he wanted nothing more than to see her pizzeria shut down. Any visit from him was bound to mean trouble.

  “Look at that, Trey, she’s just as rude as ever.”

  The man standing next to the calzone shop owner snickered. “Yeah. Don’t see why people keep coming here. The service is almost as bad as the food.”

  “If you think it’s that bad, why are the two of you here?” she asked, aware that there were other customers around. It was one thing for them to overhear dreadful things from her competitor; it would be quite another if she substantiated them by being nasty.

  “You never know, you might come up with something halfway palatable,” Jeffrey said.

  “Yeah, plus nowhere else in town is serving Mexican food,” Trey said. Jeffrey elbowed him.

  “Look, can we just get
one of those taco pizzas?”

  She sighed, but didn’t see how she could say no. It would be petty of her to deny a paying customer just because she didn’t like them.

  “Sure. It’ll be about a fifteen-minute wait. Cash or card?”

  She took their cash, and watched as they went to sit at a table in the corner. They were huddled together, talking about something. She was just glad that Xavier wasn’t with them. She had fired the young man shortly after she began managing the pizzeria, and the knowledge of just how much money he had stolen from her grandfather over the years still rankled. If he had come in and asked for a pizza, she doubted she would have been able to keep herself from throwing him out.

  When their pizza was ready, she delivered it to their table herself. They ignored her, which she was just fine with. Let them eat and get out of here as soon as possible, she thought. The quicker they leave, the better.

  It took her a few minutes to notice that something was wrong. Some of the customers nearest the two men began shooting glances in their direction. One person got up and left after giving his plate an odd look. Ellie glanced over at the corner table and saw Jeffrey and Trey trying to cover up their smirks.

  “All right, what’s going on?” she asked, striding over to the table. “What are you two doing?”

  “We’d like to file a complaint,” Jeffrey said, struggling to keep a straight face. “About the cockroach we found on our pizza.”

  She looked down, and her face twisted in horror until she realized it was a rubber cockroach. It was too late, though. They had already seen her reaction, and had burst out laughing. She felt heat rise to her face.

  “That’s it,” she snapped. “Both of you, get out, and tell Xavier he’s not welcome here either. I don’t want to see anyone affiliated with your calzone shop in this restaurant again.”

  The men got up, still laughing, and left. She noticed Jeffrey pocket the rubber roach, and wondered if he was going to try the same trick somewhere else. Furious, she brought their dishes into the kitchen and let them drop into the sink. She had had enough of Jeffrey and Xavier to last her a lifetime.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * * *

  She had one missed call from Russell when she left the pizzeria that evening. There was no message, but she called him back anyway. The sound of his voice when he answered made her feel better.

  “Hey, Russ,” she said. “I’m glad you picked up. I had a horrible day.”

  “What happened?” he asked, his voice tinged with concern. She told him, feeling the weight of embarrassment and anger lift off her as she did.

  “I’m just so sick of them,” she said. “I can’t stand it. Why do Jeffrey and Xavier hate me so much?”

  “I think Xavier hates you because you fired him, and Jeffrey is the sort of person that can’t stand any sort of competition.”

  “I fired Xavier because he stole from my grandfather,” she said. “He’s lucky he’s not in jail! If anything, I’m the one that should be making his life terrible.”

  “Well, you’re a mature, sensible woman, not a boy who is barely out of his teenage years, so I can’t say I’m surprised at the difference in behavior. Look, Ellie, I think you’re best off just ignoring them. If they come around the pizzeria again, give me a call and I’ll tell them they aren’t welcome. But engaging with them beyond that will only make matters worse.”

  “I know.” She sighed. “That cockroach was the last straw. I probably shouldn’t have made a scene, but they were just being cruel.”

  “That they were. I’m sorry, Ellie. I hate the way they treated you. I’ll keep an eye on them, I promise.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring you into this. I know that you can’t do much unless they break a law.” Someone less honest than Russell might use their power and influence as sheriff to punish the men that had been tormenting her for so long, but she knew that Russell wouldn’t cross that line. He had too much respect for his position, and she had too much respect for him to ask something like that. Deciding it was time to change the subject, she brought the conversation back to why she had originally called him that morning. “So how about that dinner with your parents sometime this week? I’d love to get to know them better.”

  He hesitated. “Maybe next time they come to visit. Give them more time to get used to the idea of us being together.”

  “Oh. Okay, if you think that’s best. I don’t want to give them any reason to dislike me.”

  She was a little hurt, though she didn’t want to admit it to him. Was there a reason he didn’t want his parents to get to know her better? Quit being paranoid, she told herself. They probably just need more time, like he said. It must be odd for them to face the idea that he’s dating again. They would have known his wife before she died, after all.

  “They just need time. I need to get going—I’m on traffic duty because Liam called out sick, and someone just blew past me doing ninety.”

  She chuckled and bade him goodbye after telling him to be safe. She still felt unsettled when she hung up the phone. Why was Russell acting so distant from her? Did he really just want to give his parents time to get used to the idea of him seeing someone, or was there something else going on? I think I’ll stop in with coffee tomorrow morning and see if he’s acting differently in person, she thought. I might just be imagining things.

  Bringing him coffee in the morning before she headed to the pizzeria was a long-standing tradition of theirs. She usually did it once or twice a week, and he reciprocated by meeting her at the pizzeria at closing time with a coffee for her. It wouldn’t be odd for her to stop in tomorrow, especially since they had both been too busy to see each other for the past few days. Besides, she owed Mrs. Lafferre, the department’s ancient secretary, a buttered caramel scone—she had eaten the last one without thinking the week before. She could settle her debt, clear the air with Russell, and be ready to face the work day with a genuine smile on her face.

  “The normal, Ms. Pacelli?”

  “Yes, thank you,” she smiled. “Do I really come in that often?”

  The barista nodded. “Oh, yes. You’re one of our regulars.”

  “Well, I suppose there are worse things to be addicted to than coffee.”

  She took the hot paper cups from the girl and thanked her. The sheriff’s department had their own coffee machine—in fact, it was one that she had given them for Christmas—but it could never compare to the mocha and caramel lattes that the little coffee shop down the street served. If I could make coffee like this at home, I’d have to surrender the battle with my figure. There’s probably about two thousand calories in each of these cups. Of course, I’d be so active from all the caffeine, it might even out.

  Mrs. Lafferre was on the phone when she walked in. She put the scone that she had bought at the coffee shop on the woman’s desk and gave her a quick smile before letting herself through the door that led to the rest of the sheriff’s department, and Russell’s office.

  He looked up when she knocked on the door. He looked stressed, but he still smiled when he saw that it was her. She handed him the cup and he took a sip.

  “Just what I needed,” he said. “How did you know?”

  “I was just stopping in to say hi, and to give your secretary that scone I promised I’d get her. Did something happen?”

  He nodded. “A body was found at the gym in town.”

  “Was it murder, do you think?”

  “Most definitely, unless this guy managed to shoot himself in the back.”

  “Oh.” She sat down. “I’m sorry. And with your parents in town and everything… Do you have any leads?”

  “Not yet. The security cameras at the gym are fake, unfortunately. The owner is replacing them with real ones, but it’s too late to be of help in this case. We’ll be going through the gym membership list, but since members are welcome to bring guests, whoever committed the crime may not be on the list. It’s not looking like an easy case, but you can never tell. The guy who pulled the trigger might walk in tomorrow and confess.”