Chicken Alfredo Murder Read online

  She wasn’t disappointed when she got to the hotel. The lobby screamed affluence, and she found herself momentarily distracted by a huge fish tank in the center of the room. It was a cylinder that spanned the distance from floor to ceiling, filled with stingrays, brightly colored fish, and spiky anemones.

  Tearing her gaze away from it, she made her way to the front desk, dragging her bags behind her. It wasn’t very late yet, but she was exhausted. In the space of less than twelve hours, she had travelled across the country, gone shopping, and made a meal.

  “Hi, welcome to the Alabaster Sand Hotel and Resort. How can I help you?”

  Ellie smiled at the young woman behind the desk. “My name is Eleanora Ward. I have a reservation and was told I could check in any time after three.”

  The receptionist typed on the computer for a moment, then looked up, a bright smile plastered on her face. “I see your reservation right here. Your room number is six hundred and three, on the very top floor. Here’s your keycard. You’ll find all of the information about room service and the spa in a binder on the table in your room. Would you like me to call someone to help you with your bags?”

  “No thanks,” Ellie said. “I can manage them on my own.”

  Giving the cheerful young woman one last tired smile, she grabbed the keycard and dragged her bags over to the elevator, her thoughts on what was sure to be a comfortable bed in the suite six stories up. She was dead on her feet, and wanted a good night’s sleep before she started the second day of her vacation.

  That was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time, she thought as she brushed her teeth the next morning. The king-sized bed had been plush, cool, and was ridiculously big. It probably helped that she had slept the entire night without having to listen to Russell’s snores. She loved her husband, and wouldn’t trade their marriage for anything, but a night of silence was golden.

  Feeling refreshed and more energized than she thought was possible, she finished her morning care routine, enjoying the seemingly endless spray of hot water from the shower and the soft, fluffy towels, and got dressed in an outfit that she had bought just for the trip. Khaki capris, a loose white blouse, and comfortable yet eye-catching straw flipflops likely marked her as a tourist, but she didn’t care. All she needed to complete the look was a sun hat, and she was toying with the idea of picking one up when she went out.

  Old habits died hard, and even though she was on a vacation, she had made a short to-do list for the day. The first item on it was a visit to the pizzeria. She was eager to see Linda again, and to see how the Florida pizzeria was doing. The reports had all been positive, but ever since Sandra had passed away a couple of months ago, Linda had been sending just the bare minimum of detail.

  Making sure she had her hotel key, she left the suite and made her way downstairs to where breakfast was being served. She had a good hour before the pizzeria opened, which would be plenty of time for a Belgian waffle and some sausages. Inhaling the tempting scents, she made her way over to the buffet table, hoping that her grandmother’s first morning in Florida was just as satisfactory.

  After breakfast, she spent a good ten minutes watching the fish in the giant tank in the hotel’s lobby before tearing herself away and going to find her vehicle. Not being in a hurry was a strange feeling, and she didn’t think she would ever get used to it.

  The drive to the pizzeria was a short one. It was still a good half hour before the restaurant would open to the public, but Linda’s car was parked around back as Ellie had guessed it would be. To get everything ready for the day, someone would usually have to be there forty-five minutes to an hour before opening. Even though she had very little to do with the day-to-day running of the pizzeria, Linda still emailed her a copy of the schedule every two weeks, and she knew that today was one of Linda’s opening shifts.

  Wanting to surprise her employee – Linda knew she would be visiting Florida, but didn’t know exactly when she was planning to stop in – Ellie let herself in the employee entrance and walked down the short hall that led to the kitchen.

  “Surprise!” she called, grinning.

  “Oh!” Linda let out a squeak and dropped the – thankfully empty – pizza pan she had been holding. Raising her hand to her chest, she took a deep breath. “Ellie. You scared me half to death.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ellie said, immediately feeling guilty. She should have called ahead, or at least waited until the pizzeria was open. “Are you okay?”

  “Once my heart stops beating at a million miles an hour, I will be,” she said, but she smiled to show that she wasn’t angry. “I hate being here alone, so I’m already jumpy. I just wasn’t expecting anyone else to be here.”

  “I didn’t know you hated being here on your own,” Ellie said, moving to sit at one of the tall chairs by the counter. “Would it help if you had the radio on? Or maybe you could put a small TV in here, just for background noise.”

  “I don’t think any of that would help,” Linda said, bending down to pick up the pizza pan. “It’s just, ever since Sandra died, I’ve been on edge. I haven’t really felt safe since. It’s horrible.”

  “I had no idea,” Ellie said. “You’ve been going through this for a while.”

  She looked at her friend, examining her closely for the first time since she had walked into the kitchen. There were bags under Linda’s eyes, and it looked like she had lost weight. She looked paler, too – a rare occurrence when one lived in Florida. Her friend had seemed a bit more withdrawn the last time she had seen her, but she hadn’t stayed for very long during her last visit and had been more focused on her grandmother and the last-minute road trip she had planned.

  “I know you probably think I’m just being silly,” Linda said, beginning to look embarrassed. “You’ve gone through so much, and just look how strong you are. I’m sure it will blow over eventually. I just need to keep telling myself to quit being so jumpy. There isn’t really someone with a knife waiting around every corner.” She gave a self-depreciating laugh and turned to face the sink, turning the water on and testing the temperature with her fingers.

  “I don’t think you’re being silly,” Ellie said firmly. “We all handle trauma differently, and you were a lot closer to Sandra than I was. You worked together almost every day. She was your friend. If I lost my best friend, I –” She broke off, not wanting to imagine losing Shannon. “I wish you had told me you were having trouble. I would have made sure you got some time off to take care of yourself.”

  “Oh, I couldn’t,” her friend said. “I need the hours, and besides, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself at home, not now that my daughter went back to college for the semester.”

  Ellie eyed the other woman. Linda was tired, stressed, and at the end of her rope. All of a sudden, she had the perfect idea.

  “When does your shift end?”

  “Why?”

  The pizzeria owner grinned. “Because I’m staying at a hotel that has a day spa, and I get the feeling you could use some pampering.”

  Chapter Four

  Ann Pacelli hummed softly to herself as she washed her breakfast dishes. It had been a strange morning. For the first time in half a year, she had woken up somewhere other than the home she had shared with her husband for over fifty years. It had been disorienting at first, until she laid eyes on the half-unpacked suitcase on top of her chest of drawers and remembered where she was.

  Back in Florida. She had been looking forward to this trip for weeks, and felt horribly guilty about it. It wasn’t that she was eager to get away from her family and friends up in Maine; quite the opposite, in fact. But she just felt so trapped there. Kittiport was the definition of the middle of nowhere. In Maine, she was housebound unless one of her friends or her granddaughter was free to give her a ride somewhere, and she hated feeling like a burden. Plus, the cold was insidious in the fall and winter months. She loved her house, but it was old and drafty and cost a fortune to heat, and even then, she always felt
chilly.

  Here in Florida, in a community filled with people her own age, she felt more like her own person again. There were multiple ride services that could take her anywhere she wanted, and there was lots to do. The weather could rarely be called chilly, and even on those rare days that the temperature dropped below what was comfortable, the condo with its state-of-the-art central air system kept things toasty warm – and of course, the opposite could be said for hot days. She was comfortable here, and she was able to regain some of the freedom that she had lost when she had lost her driver’s license.

  She felt something that she rarely felt at home; a sense of adventure.

  Her granddaughter was going to come over later that day and take her out to dinner somewhere in Miami, but for now, Ann was on her own. She didn’t know what to do with herself. The beach was tempting, but the condo complex itself offered a lot of amenities. There was a pool, an exercise facility, and a clubhouse that boasted games, movies, and a book club.

  She decided that the first item on her to-do list should be to visit some of her friends. She had chosen this particular retirement community because many of her friends from Kittiport had moved here. She had also made new friends the last time she was down here, and was eager to see them again. Not everyone was a snowbird; many people lived here year-round. If she didn’t have family keeping her in Maine, she might make the move permanent herself, but she treasured her time spent with Ellie, and now Russell, Shannon, and the baby. Shannon’s and the Ward brothers’ parents all lived out of town, so she was the de facto grandmother for Ellie’s little nephew. It was wonderful to have a child in her life again, and she wanted to be able to watch him grow up while she still had enough energy to do things like bounce him on her knee and bake him cookies and muffins.

  Once the breakfast dishes were cleaned and put away, Ann spent a few minutes unpacking and tidying up the main rooms of the house, deciding to leave the bedroom for later that evening. If she had guests over, at least the rest of the house would look like she was on top of things.

  Before going out, she stepped into the backyard and looked around, getting a feel for what all she would want to buy for it. It was a small yard with a white picket fence and a stone patio that would be perfect for grilling and sitting out with her friends. There was already a small table and chair set, but she would have to pick up a grill and an umbrella at the store. It occurred to her that there was enough room for a dog, and she toyed with the notion of rescuing a small older dog for company. Of course, then she would have to figure out a good way to travel with the dog when she went back up to Maine. She shelved the idea and decided she would come back to it later when Ellie was around to bounce her concerns off of.

  Feeling adventurous and excited for the future, Ann left her house and headed down the sidewalk. She had already spoken to Kris yesterday, and decided that she would check on DeDe today. DeDe was one of her friends who lived here year-round, so Ann knew that she wouldn’t have been moved to a different condo.

  It was a bit of a walk, but she was feeling good. It was a warm day, the sun was out, and she could hear the sound of someone’s music playing softly over the air.

  When she heard the scream, she thought at first that it must be someone’s television with the volume up a bit too loud. It wasn’t until she heard the second scream, which cut off midway through, and then a moment later a loud slam that she realized someone was actually in trouble.

  Her heart squeezed in her chest as she turned toward the noise. It had come from one of the condos on her left. It wasn’t until she saw a dark figure fleeing from a backyard that she was able to pinpoint exactly which one the noise had come from.

  Feeling the hair at the back of her neck prickle – something definitely wasn’t right here – she pulled out her cell phone and walked toward the building. She knocked on the front door, but didn’t get an answer. Biting her lip, she considered her options. She could assume that whoever had screamed was perfectly all right and carry on with her day. She could call the police and let them deal with whatever had happened, and handle the embarrassment if she had called for no reason. Or she could poke her head around the back and see if she could figure out what was going on herself.

  Pacelli woman were known for being strong and independent, and Ann was no different. Keeping a tight hold on her phone, she walked around to the backyard, opening the white picket gate and stepping through. The back door was shut, and she paused a moment to knock on it, then peered through the glass window into the kitchen. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the comparative darkness inside, but when she saw a smear of something red on the floor, she inhaled sharply.

  She reached for the door handle and found it unlocked. She pushed the door open slowly, calling out as she did so. “Hello?”

  No answer. She took a step into the kitchen, then another one. Peering around the counter, she put her hand to her mouth in horror. An older woman lay on the floor, a bloody wound on her head, and her eyes open and staring at nothing. Backing out of the air-conditioned kitchen into the warm, Florida sunlight, and punched three digits into her cell phone and raised the device to her ear. This trip was turning out to be a little more adventurous than she had planned.

  Chapter Five

  The next item on Ellie’s to-do list had been to go to the aquarium, but she decided that could wait. She spent the rest of the morning at the pizzeria, helping Linda in the kitchen and serving the customers. Although the interior of the Florida pizzeria had a similar design to that of the original Papa Pacelli’s, the structure of the restaurant was different enough to throw Ellie off. It was strange to glance out the window and see a busy Miami road instead of a quiet Kittiport street.

  Although Linda seemed to be at the end of her rope, the restaurant itself was doing just as well as the reports indicated. From the moment they opened, there was a constant stream of customers. They sold a lot more pizzas by the slice here than they did in Maine. The week’s special was a cold Asian coleslaw pizza, which seemed to be a huge hit.

  Though she was happy to see a busy restaurant, she found herself more and more glad that she lived in a small town, where the majority of her customers were regulars. There might be a lot of people here, but they were mostly strangers; tourists and travelers who would likely never set foot in Papa Pacelli’s again once they left.

  Once one of the employees arrived to begin the afternoon shift, Ellie practically forced Linda out the door. She wanted to help the other woman feel better and get her groove back, and she thought that the hotel’s spa would be the perfect place to help that happen.

  Her friend brightened up as soon as they walked through the doors into the hotel lobby. The beautiful architecture and bubbling fish tank would be enough to make anyone smile.

  “This is gorgeous,” Linda said. “You’re staying here for the whole two weeks? You’re lucky. I wish I could go on a trip like this. Well, not exactly like this – I’d go somewhere other than Florida, for one.”

  Ellie smiled. “I got a special deal from one of the travel sites I browse whenever I come down here,” she admitted. “I’m lucky to be here, I wouldn’t have sprung for it if I hadn’t seen the deal. My grandmother offered to let me stay with her, but I thought that this would be an even better way to unwind. You need to take more time off, Linda. It’s important to take care of yourself, not just the pizzeria.”

  Linda made a face. “I’m here now, aren’t I? So, what’s first?”

  First, Ellie decided they would see if any massages were available. They were lucky and managed to find an appointment that was available in twenty minutes. They spent the time waiting looking through pamphlets and figuring out what else they wanted to do that day.

  The massage was perfect. Ellie felt as though the tension was melting away from her. She often spent all day on her feet, and she hadn’t even realized how sore her muscles were until the masseuse’s magical hands eased everything away. Glancing over at the table next to her, she
saw that Linda looked just as relaxed. Some of the stress was gone from her face, and Ellie felt a warm glow. Her plan was working. She was sure Linda would start feeling better if she took more time to take care of herself. She would make a point to insist that she took at least one or two mornings off every week.

  After the massage, they got manicures and pedicures, giggling over colors like schoolgirls. Since she worked with food, Ellie was hesitant to get gel tips or acrylics, but she did splurge on an artistic design with tiny little rhinestones. Linda chose a floral theme with ivy and roses, painted tiny enough to fit on her nails. It had been a while since Ellie had done something like this for herself, just for fun, and she found herself enjoying it more than she would have guessed. When she got back to Kittiport, she would have to drag Shannon out to the local salon, so they could have a girls’ day out like this too.