Garlic Artichoke Murder (Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Book 11) Read online

  Eventually they made their way into the room where the ceremony would happen. They chose seats on John’s side, with Russell sitting on the aisle. Ellie had noticed that he usually chose seats where he could get up quickly if he had to, and wondered if that had to do with his responsibilities as a sheriff, or if it was just part of his personality. Russell the man was so thoroughly entwined with Russell the sheriff that it could be hard for her to tell sometimes where Kittiport’s sheriff ended and where the man she loved began.

  Before long, it was time for the ceremony to start. The familiar wedding march began to play, and the seated crowd rose to welcome the bride into the room. Ellie beamed at the woman. She looked gorgeous in her dress, and didn’t seem able to take her eyes off of the man that waited for her at the front of the room. She glanced at John, and saw that his gaze was only for his soon-to-be wife. She didn’t think that she had ever seen two people who looked more perfectly suited to each other.

  After the ceremony, the guests dispersed. The people closest to the bride and groom were going up to congratulate them. Russell hesitated, then moved with her toward the doors instead. She didn’t blame him; it seemed that a good third of the crowd was converging upon the newlywed couple. They would have plenty of chances to congratulate them later.

  While they were waiting for the reception to officially begin, Russell pulled Ellie aside. "I don't know what your plans are after this,” he said. “But if you're free, I'd like it if you would join me in a walk around the marina."

  Ellie felt her heart rate increase. Was this it? Was he going to propose? She still didn’t know if she wanted it to happen or not. It was too soon, but she didn’t know what to say so she did what she could; she smiled and nodded, and said, "Of course."

  Shannon and James found them, and shortly after that the wedding party found their way downstairs and the reception started. They found their seats, and after John’s best man gave a toast, the tables were dismissed one by one to go get their food. The food looked delicious. Ellie didn’t recognize the name of the catering company, and realized that if she was serious about opening a second restaurant in the future, she needed to start paying more attention to the competition in the surrounding towns. If she wanted to expand Papa Pacelli’s and keep the pizzeria successful, she had to know what they were up against.

  Forget business for now, she told herself. Just enjoy the day. There were plenty of tempting dishes to choose from: pulled pork, fish, and herb-roasted chicken. There were Swedish meatballs, hot and cold pasta dishes, and finger sandwiches similar to the ones that she had made for their boat outing. And, of course, the wedding cake.

  The three-tiered cake was a masterpiece. Ellie could tell that the couple had gone all out. She smiled to herself as she loaded her plate up with other goodies. I'll have to ask Nonna what her wedding was like, she thought. It was just one of the many things that she had never asked her grandmother about her personal life.

  She and Russell returned to their table, where Shannon and James were already waiting. The four of them had been seated at a table with two women whom Ellie didn’t know. Shannon seemed to know the one that introduced herself as Jillian, and exchanged pleasantries with her. The other, a beautiful blonde woman about their age, sat morosely, picking at her food after getting back from the buffet table. Ellie watched her for a moment, wondering why she looked so dejected.

  When the woman excused herself to go and get a drink, someone nudged Ellie in the ribs. She looked over to find Shannon leaning toward her. “That girl is John’s ex-girlfriend. I don’t think she’s supposed to be here; Jill said that her boyfriend was supposed to come, but had to go in to work. That was supposed to be his seat. We’re going to tell security when people get up to start dancing, but we don’t want to make a scene if we can help it. Can you pass that on to Russell, so he can help in case she freaks out when they try to make her leave?”

  Ellie nodded. Before leaning over to whisper to Russell, she found the woman in the crowd. Watching the way she slipped along the edges of the room, it sure looked like she was trying to avoid notice. She paused at the drink table, then hurried away when she noticed John approaching. She had every appearance of being a wedding crasher. I hope she doesn’t do anything to wreck this for them, she thought. This should be a joyful day for John and Leigh; she has no right to be here if they didn’t want her to come.

  The woman returned with her drink, and Ellie kept an eye on her until the DJ stood up and the speakers crackled to life. Everyone's attention turned toward the dance floor where the newlywed couple was preparing to take their first dance together as husband and wife.

  Leigh didn't take her eyes off her husband as he led her onto the dance floor. The lights dimmed. The DJ announced the new Mr. and Mrs. Hudson to cheers from the crowd. A slow song started to play, and Ellie smiled as she saw the happy tears on Leigh’s face as she laid her head against her husband’s shoulder.

  They were only a minute into the dance when everything changed. John stumbled, and they both came to a halt. He leaned on his wife for a second then, seeming to slip through her grasp, fell to the floor. Everyone in the room seemed to gasp as one.

  Leigh dropped to her knees next to her husband. Her face was near his, and she seemed to be whispering into his ear. He didn't move, didn’t even seem to be breathing. An older lady hurried forward, announcing that she was a doctor. The entire room watched in silence. A moment later she looked up, her face pale.

  "He's dead.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  * * *

  Chaos erupted instantly. It seemed that Russell teleported from his seat next to Ellie to stand next to Leigh on the dance floor, he’d moved so quickly. He spread his arms out, demanding that people keep back and give the couple some space. He grabbed one person out of the crowd and ordered the man to call 911 immediately.

  Ellie felt as if she was glued to her chair. This had to be some sort of terrible joke, right? John was a healthy man her age, maybe a couple of years older. He couldn’t just drop dead for no reason… could he? She traded glances with Shannon, who was half out of her seat. She looked just as horrified as Ellie felt.

  Despite Russell trying to keep people away, the back half of the room began to push forward in an attempt to see what was going on. James hurried forward to help protect the couple on the floor from the crowd. Ellie realized that she should probably try to be of some help as well. She stood up, and both she and Shannon tried to convince the people around them to go back to their seats. As she was doing this, Ellie saw the blonde woman who had sat with them slip through the crowd, exiting out the back door. Her breath caught in her throat at the thought that the woman might have had something to do with this, but she was already gone by the time Ellie had moved only a few feet in her direction. There was no way to stop her before she reached the parking lot.

  It didn't take long for the police to arrive. The sheriff’s department was only a couple blocks away from the community center. She was relieved when she saw the familiar faces of Liam and Bethany, Russell's two deputies. The deputies pushed their way through the crowd, looking around to find the source of the commotion. It was evident that they didn't know exactly what was going on, so she waved them over and helped them find their way through the crowd to Russell. He had managed to keep the area immediately around John clear. The doctor was still standing near the man, but she didn't appear to be working on him any longer. Leigh was crying gently into his shirt. The scene was heartbreaking, and Ellie had to look away.

  Gradually the chaos faded, and people began to do as they were told and settle back down. It wasn’t long before paramedics came through the door, and together they loaded John onto a gurney. The doctor went with them, talking vehemently to the men as she described what she had seen. Her voice was the only one in the room. A hush had fallen over the crowd as John was being carried out.

  Leigh seemed lost. She stared after her husband as if in a dream. Ellie thought that she might follow
them, but instead she turned back toward the table where she and John had been sitting and sat down, staring numbly at her hands. Maybe she didn't want to ride in the back of an ambulance with her dead husband; Ellie couldn't blame her for that.

  Feeling that the woman probably shouldn't be alone right now, she went over and took the seat next to her, not saying anything, but hoping her presence would be of some comfort. She looked around for Russell. She itched to tell him what she had seen, about the blonde woman sneaking out, but he was busy talking to an older couple that she thought must be John's parents; she remembered seeing them hug him after the ceremony. The woman was in tears, and her husband's jaw was clenched tightly. She knew that she could not interrupt that conversation. Everything she wanted to say could wait.

  Leigh began to cry harder, and Ellie laid a hand on her shoulder. She wished that she knew the woman better, or that she could find someone who did. She searched the crowd for someone who might be able to help, and her gaze landed on John’s best man, Damien. He was walking toward Russell, his face pale and confused. When he saw Leigh, he changed course and headed their way instead.

  "Leigh, what happened?" he asked, kneeling on the floor in front of her. "I slipped out when you started dancing. I just saw them take John away on the gurney. What's going on?”

  The woman just cried even harder. She didn't appear able to talk. John glanced at Ellie instead. Ellie shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know anything more than he did.

  "She just needs someone to be with her right now,” she said.

  "Did she say anything about what happened? I don't understand how John could…” He seemed to realize that this wasn't the time for the question, and instead dragged a chair over to sit next to the stricken bride.

  Ellie made her escape, moving away from the crying woman that she hardly knew and the man who had just lost a best friend. Instead of going over to Russell and the two deputies, who were still questioning the witnesses, she saw Shannon and James were hanging back a few feet, and it was them that she joined.

  "Does anyone have any answers yet?” she asked Shannon quietly.

  "No,” her friend said. "None of them saw anything more than we did; he was dancing, then he just fell over. I think I heard the doctor say something about a heart attack. Maybe he had heart troubles we didn't know about. Did Rayleigh say anything?”

  "I don't think she's capable of talking right now,” Ellie said.

  "I can't even imagine.… That poor woman. I don't know how she's ever going to get over this.”

  "Me either,” Ellie said. She glanced toward Russell. She could imagine how the woman felt; if anything happened to the man that was standing in front of her right now, she would be at a complete and utter loss.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  * * *

  The ill-fated wedding was the talk of the town for the next few days. Ellie felt sick every time she heard it mentioned. There had been some shocking crimes in town since she had moved back, but this—if it was a crime, and not just cruel fate—somehow felt like the worst.

  She didn't have any idea how Leigh was coping, or even where the woman was. Was she still in town? Or had she gone back home? Ellie wanted to see Leigh one last time before she left, hoping to give her condolences, even though she knew that it wouldn’t do much to help the pain of her loss. She figured that Leigh would probably stay for her husband's funeral, which she had heard from Russell was scheduled after his autopsy. That would be finished later in the week, hopefully.

  Whenever he was working on a case, Russell usually spent most of his time at the sheriff’s department. This time, he was even harder to get hold of than usual. John had been his friend, and she couldn’t blame him for wanting to get to the bottom of his death. Ellie knew that he would be going over every shred of evidence: every single piece of footage from the cameras at the community center and every scrap of testimony from the witnesses, trying to find an angle for foul play. They were still waiting for the official verdict from the coroner's office, but they all knew that a healthy man did not just suddenly drop dead without explanation.

  Ellie's own back and forth concerns about the possible proposal seemed suddenly ridiculous. She was glad that she hadn't mentioned anything about it to anyone other than Shannon. What was happening now was real, and it was serious. She wished that she could help Russell somehow, comfort him after the death of his friend, but she knew that the only thing that would comfort him would be finding the truth about what had happened. If John's death had been an accident—an aneurysm, a heart attack, something like that—was one thing. But if it was murder, Russell wouldn't rest until the killer was behind bars.

  Shannon seemed to be thinking about John’s death a lot as well. She had written an article about it in the paper, and had been much more withdrawn than usual. On Wednesday evening, after Ellie closed the pizzeria, Shannon invited her over. Ellie brought a pizza with her, as was becoming tradition. James was out surveying a site for a new contract, and Russell was still at the sheriff’s department.

  "Has there been any progress?” Shannon asked, taking a slice of pizza from the box. "I'm asking as me, not as a reporter. Although the paper would love to know what John's cause of death was. They keep asking me if I have any leads. The whole town seems to be waiting to see if it was murder or not.”

  "If he’s found anything, he hasn't told me yet,” Ellie said. "I know that the body’s been sent for an autopsy, and they're going to do a toxicology report as well, but it's likely that we won’t get any results from that for a couple of weeks. If the cause of death is found to be natural, John’s body could be released by the end of the week, but if it was something more complex than a stroke or a heart attack, it could take up to a month, depending on how busy the labs are.”

  Her friend raised her eyebrows. "It sounds like you know a lot about all of this.”

  Ellie chuckled. "Not really, I'm just parroting what Russell told me. But to be honest, I haven't seen much of him lately.”

  "It must be hard on him, losing a friend. He knew John a lot better than I did, and I can hardly believe it myself.”

  "He has lost a lot of people over the years,” Ellie said. They both sat in silence for a moment, considering that. Ellie wished again that she could help him, but couldn't think of a way to do so. Voicing her thoughts aloud, she said, "I just wish I could do something.”

  "Well, we can try to talk to some people,” Shannon suggested. "We helped out before that way, remember?”

  "If you mean the time that we talked to those two girls who turned out to be innocent, and got into a car accident, I’m not really sure that counted as helping,” Ellie teased.

  "Well, okay, that's fair I guess.” Her friend’s lips lifted a little bit at the memory. "Well, we didn't really hurt matters any, at least, other than your poor car,” she said.

  "I had to get a new car,” Ellie pointed out. "I can't afford to do that again. At least, not as nice a new car.”

  "There wouldn’t be any car chases this time,” her friend promised. "We'll just go and talk to people. Some people might be more open to talking to a couple of women like us than they would be talking to someone wearing a deputy’s badge.”

  "I suppose you're right,” Ellie said. “Maybe we can find someone who knows where his ex is.”

  She had mentioned the woman to Russell; he’d tried to find her, but no one seemed to know her name. John, whom she had dated, was dead, and no one else could tell who she was from her description alone. Ellie was certain that she was a local; she had the somewhat familiar face of someone who had stopped into the pizzeria before. She kept hoping that the mystery woman would return, but so far nothing. She had even gone so far as share a description with her employees, but no one had spotted her yet.

  "Do you really think that she would've done it?” Shannon asked. "I mean, if she still loved the guy or something, killing him off wouldn’t do any good, would it?”

  "She might have been mor
e crazy than actually in love with him,” Ellie said. “That sort of thing happens all the time… on TV shows at least.”

  "Maybe she meant to kill Leigh and got John instead. It's just hard to believe he's gone,” Shannon said. "I mean, he was someone that I’ve known for years and years. We saw him not even a week ago, on the Eleanora. It doesn't even feel real yet. I keep just living my life normally, then all of a sudden, I remember that this guy that I’ve known for most of my life just isn't around anymore. I hate it.”

  Ellie remained silent. She had never experienced the death of someone close to her. She hadn’t known her grandfather very well, and hadn't even been in Kittiport for his funeral. He was family, but they hadn’t been close. She could try to imagine how it felt, but she knew that she wouldn't really understand it—not until it happened to someone close to her.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  * * *

  Shannon and Ellie hadn't had time to put their plan into motion before Ellie got a call from Leigh that changed everything. She was at work when her phone rang, and almost didn’t answer the call. After hearing the other woman’s concerned voice, she was glad that she did.