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Chicken Alfredo Murder Page 3
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While waiting for their nails to dry, the two women sat side-by-side, chatting happily in comfortable massage chairs. Ellie was glad that she had stopped by the pizzeria today instead of waiting and doing it later in the week. Linda already looked much better, and she thought that a good night or two of sleep would erase the bags under her friend’s eyes.
“How are things at the pizzeria?” she asked after a while. “I know sales have been good, but I haven’t been able to get much out of the reports other than that.”
“Well, like you said, sales have been great,” Linda said. “All the employees seem to be doing well. No one complains too much about their hours or the pay. I’ve got to admit, it’s hard coming up with a new special every week. I feel like between the Kittiport store and this one, we’ve done just about everything you can do to a pizza.”
“Feel free to copy specials from the store in Maine,” Ellie said. “There’s no reason you can’t reuse a special from the other store if you don’t have any inspiration of your own one week. It’s not like we share customers. I’ve used a few of your specials after reading about them in your email. Most people don’t fly back and forth from Florida to Maine just to eat at Papa Pacelli’s, so I doubt any of our customers will notice if this store repeats a special that my store already did.”
“I’m just worried people will notice and will think that I’m being lazy,” she admitted. “You come up with all these wonderful ideas, and I feel like I should be able to do the same.”
“Honestly, most of my ideas are complete misses. When I’m at the grocery store, I’ll see something that looks like it would go well on a pizza, I’ll grab it, and I’ll go home and make it. Half the time, it isn’t palatable at all. Sometimes my mistake will lead me to a pizza that’s a hit after some playing around with the recipe, other times it’s a complete waste of time and money. You have to play around and be willing to take risks. Sometimes things will sound good and they actually taste terrible, and sometimes the opposite is true. You can also get a lot of inspiration from other dishes, too. Pretty much anything can be made into a pizza with a few twists. I’m planning on trying out a curry chicken pizza when I’m back home and have an oven again.”
“That actually sounds really good,” Linda said, blowing on her nails. “Why don’t you use the pizzeria’s oven to cook it here? I’d be willing to try that pizza.”
“That’s a great idea,” Ellie said. “I’ll grab the ingredients sometime while I’m here and we can cook it together.”
The two women smiled at each other. Ellie was about to mention that she thought Linda had done a great job managing the pizzeria so far, but was distracted when her phone rang. Carefully, hoping her nails were dry enough that they wouldn’t be destroyed, she reached into her purse and looked at the number. It was Nonna. Sliding her finger across the screen answer the call, she lifted the phone to her ear.
“Hey, Nonna,” she said. “Linda and I are at the spa. How’s your day going? I plan on coming over in a couple of hours, and we can figure out what we want to do for dinner.”
“You should come over right now, Ellie,” her grandmother said. As soon as Ellie heard her voice, she knew something was wrong. “It’s so horrible. One of my neighbors was killed.”
“I’ll be right there,” Ellie said, plucking the foam inserts out from between her toes and standing up. It looked like her spa day was over, and real life was rearing its ugly head once again.
Chapter Six
She felt bad for abandoning Linda at the hotel, but she knew that the last thing her friend wanted would be to come with her. She hoped Linda had enjoyed the day and was feeling better, and knew that she would continue their conversation later and would make sure Linda knew how much she appreciated everything she did. Part of it was simply because Linda was her friend and she wanted her to be happy, but another part of it was admittedly a bit more selfish. Linda was a devoted and skilled manager for the pizzeria, and if she decided to quit because the stress was too much for her, Ellie didn’t know what she would do. All of the other employees were young, either college students or people just outside of college who were trying to make ends meet while they looked for a job to jumpstart their careers. None of them wanted to devote their lives to running a pizzeria.
As she drove towards the condo complex, she put aside thoughts of Linda for now and focused on what Nonna had told her. Ellie’s first concern was for her grandmother. She didn’t want the older woman to be in any danger. Nonna had said someone had been killed, which could mean either an accident or a murder. She didn’t know if her grandmother had witnessed the death, or if she had just heard tell of it from one of her friends. Judging from her grandmother’s concerned voice, it had been more than just a rumor she had overheard. She had a feeling that the older woman was more deeply involved in this than that.
As soon as she pulled into the complex, she could tell that whatever had happened was big. The area near her grandmother’s house was crawling with police vehicles, and she saw an officer with a large German shepherd walking through someone’s backyard. Were they trying to track someone? If someone had fled the scene, that meant it must have been murder.
The roadblock started just past her grandmother’s condo. She pulled into the driveway and walked up to the house, knocking on the door. No one answered, so she looked around. Figuring her grandmother must be with the crowd of onlookers, she headed in that direction.
Sure enough, Nonna was standing with a group of people who were staring across the police barrier toward the crime scene. Ellie recognized one of the women as Kris, her grandmother’s neighbor. She and Nonna had their heads together and were deep in conversation.
“Nonna,” Ellie called out. “I just got here. What’s going on?”
Her grandmother waved her over, her face grim. Before she could answer Ellie’s question, Kris jumped in.
“Your grandmother witnessed a murder,” she said.
“I did not,” Nonna said. “Don’t give the poor girl heart attack. I just heard a scream and then found the body.”
Ellie raised her eyebrows. “Wait, what? This was a murder? You’re certain? And you found the body?”
Her grandmother nodded. “I was walking to Dede’s house when I heard a scream, and a moment later I heard a door slam and saw someone running away. It seemed mighty suspicious to me, so I decided to go investigate. I found the poor woman on her kitchen floor. It was horrible. There was blood everywhere. I called the police right away, then I called you.”
“That’s terrible. Do you know the person who died?”
“No, I didn’t,” Nonna said. “I’m sure Dede did though, we’ll have to see if we can find her once the police leave.”
“Her name was Trixie,” Kris said. “That’s all I know.”
“Did you get a good look at the person who ran away?”
“No. They were too far away, and you know my eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be, even with my glasses.”
Ellie gazed over the police boundary toward the condo. There was quite a lot of commotion as the police cordoned off the area with crime scene tape and took pictures. She looked around, half expecting to see the killer jump out at them. Unfortunately – or maybe fortunately – she didn’t see anything else out of place. She noticed Candy’s bright red food delivery truck partway down the street and wondered if she might have seen anything, making a mental note to track the woman down later and ask.
She shook her head, chiding herself. This wasn’t Kittiport. She wasn’t here to help Russell solve crimes or to dig into a mystery herself. She was on vacation, and she wanted to enjoy it. As long as her grandmother wasn’t in any danger, she would keep her nose out of this.
“Hey, Gram, what’s going on?”
Ellie turned around to see a dark-haired young man standing at Kris’s shoulder. Kris quickly filled him in on what had happened, then turned to Ellie and Nonna.
“This is my grandson, Drake,” she said. “He is the one I was telling you about, the one who’s moving out of state soon. He can’t get away from his old grandma fast enough.”
“Don’t be silly, Gram,” he said. “You know I love you, but Kelsey lives in Arizona and there’s a good job waiting for me there. I just can’t find any work here.”
“Be quiet, you two,” Nonna hissed. “We might be able to hear what those two police officers are saying if we listen.”
Shaking her head, Ellie smiled. It seemed like her grandmother didn’t have any issues with getting involved in this. Turning her attention back to the condo where the crime had been committed, she found herself wondering what had actually happened. This was a retirement community. Trixie would have been over the age of sixty, at least. What could the motive behind such a crime be? Had it been a random killing, or was there something personal here? Were others in the community in danger? She wished that Russell had been able to come with her. She always felt better with him around, especially when something like this happened.
“Look,” Kris said. “They’re bringing the body out.”
Embarrassed by how obviously they were gawking, Ellie nonetheless stared at the stretcher with the black shrouded form on it. She felt a chill. That condo was only a little way down the street from her grandmother’s. She couldn’t help but briefly imagine the form on the stretcher as Nonna, and was very glad that her grandmother was safe. Why couldn’t they just have a nice, peaceful vacation? She wanted to enjoy the sun, the spa, and her time with her grandmother. A murder had certainly thrown a wrench in things.
Chapter Seven
It took the police a while to wrap things up. Ellie stayed out there the whole time, chatting with her grandmother and Kris, and occasionally Drake, who she learned worked in the auto industry and
was looking forward to a good mechanic’s job out in Arizona. She felt a bit bad after learning that he was Kris’s only family in the area. She could understand why he wanted to move, but she knew that the older woman would miss her grandson nonetheless.
Once the police finally left, the crowd of onlookers dispersed. Earlier, Nonna had mentioned wanting to go find DeDe to see if she had known the person who passed away, but the long span of time spent out in the sun had tired her, and Ellie convinced her to wait until tomorrow. It wasn’t as though DeDe was going anywhere, and she was sure the gossip would still be going strong the next day.
They went back to the condo together. Even though she was tired, Nonna seemed to be in a talkative mood. Ellie was quieter, busy contemplating what this murder might mean. She was more worried about her grandmother’s safety than she wanted to admit to the older woman. How could she possibly leave for Florida and go back to Maine with a killer on the loose right in her grandmother’s neighborhood?
“Do you still want to go out for dinner?” Nonna asked.
“Sure,” Ellie said, shaking the morose thoughts away. “Where did you want to eat?”
“Well, I called you away from your friend at the pizzeria, didn’t I? Why don’t we go there, and you can catch her up on everything that has happened? I’m sure she’s worried, and I always like seeing the pizzeria down here. You did such a good job with it.”
Ellie wasn’t sure that Linda would be eager to hear tell of another murder, but Nonna was probably correct in that she would be worried. Ellie had left from the hotel rather suddenly, and hadn’t spoken to her friend since. Besides, pizza sounded good. She had worked around it all morning, but hadn’t eaten anything since she had left Maine.
Ellie called Linda on their way into town, letting her know that she and Nonna would be stopping at the pizzeria for dinner, if the other woman wanted to join them. Linda said she would be there, and Ellie smiled. As long as they could avoid talking too much about the murder, she thought it would be a pleasant meal. Linda and Nonna got along well; Nonna often visited the pizzeria during her stay in Florida, and in some ways probably knew Linda better than Ellie did.
The pizzeria was even busier than it had been in the morning. It was early evening, just when people were getting out of work, and was the peak for pizza sales. This, Ellie realized, was when the regulars started coming out of the woodwork.
Even without speaking to them, she could tell by the way they acted that they were the people who came a couple times a week. They barely had to glance at the menu to order, they seemed to know the employees well, and they just had a certain sense of comfort about them that Ellie was used to with her own regulars. She smiled, glad that even in such a big city, a little restaurant like this could feel like home to people.
Linda was waiting for them, and the three of them ordered together. Ellie, who always liked branching out, ordered a couple slices of the Asian coleslaw pizza. Nonna stuck with a cheese, sausage, and green pepper pizza, and Linda got a chicken alfredo pizza with extra black pepper.
The three of them sat down and sipped their drinks while they waited for the individual pizzas to cook. As soon as they were settled, Linda asked Ellie about what had happened earlier, and Ellie spent a few minutes filling her in.
“That’s terrible,” Linda said with feeling once she had finished. “It was so brave of you to go see if that poor woman was okay.” This last part was directed toward Nonna.
“Well, I couldn’t really do anything else after I heard that scream,” Nonna said. “I would never forgive myself if someone was hurt and needed help and didn’t get it because I just decided to ignore them.”
“You could have been hurt, though,” Linda said. “What if the killer was there waiting for you?”
“I saw them run away, remember?” Nonna said. “I knew it was probably safe. I just wish I was younger. I might’ve been able to chase them down.”
“I’m younger than you, and I wouldn’t have tried that,” Ellie said. “I’m all for helping people, but I’m happy to leave the actual apprehending of the criminals to the police.”
Linda shuddered. “I’m perfectly happy never coming face-to-face with someone who wants to kill me. It’s so scary that something like that happened in your neighborhood. Do you think you’re going to be safe there? How will you sleep at night? Do you have an alarm in your house in case someone breaks in while you’re there?”
Ellie felt bad that her friend was so worried, but she couldn’t deny that those were all questions she wanted to ask her grandmother herself. It was worrying to her that the murder had occurred only a few houses down the street from where Nonna was staying.
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Nonna said. “I’ll just make sure I lock my doors and windows before I go to bed. There’s no reason anyone would want to come after me.”
Ellie bit her lip. That might have been true, if Nonna had just been another onlooker at the scene of the crime, but she had been the one who called the police and who had witnessed the person running away. If the killer found out that she was a witness, they might try to come after her.
“Nonna, are you sure you shouldn’t stay at the hotel with me for a few days? Just until things settle down. You are a witness, after all.”
“I’m not going to be in any danger at all, Ellie. I don’t want you worrying yourself about me.”
“I can’t help it,” Ellie said. “What would I do if something happened to you?”
“Nothing’s going to happen,” her grandmother said. She gave Ellie a reassuring smile. “I’ll be perfectly safe in my condo. I’m sure they’ll catch that horrible person soon enough. I don’t want this to wreck your vacation, dear.”
“Your life is way more important than my vacation,” she said. Across from her, Linda nodded.
“If I were you, I would take Ellie up on her offer,” she said. “I would never be able to sleep at night knowing that someone had been killed right down the street from me.”
Linda was beginning to look just as stressed and worn out as she had earlier that morning, before the time that had spent at the spa. Ellie frowned, disappointed that her attempt at getting her employee to relax a bit had all been for nothing. Of course, having their spa day interrupted by a murder probably hadn’t helped much.
“If I thought I was in any danger, I’d come stay with you,” Nonna said, patting Ellie’s hand. “I really don’t want you to worry about me. I just moved into my condo, I’m sure you can understand me wanting to really settle in and make it feel like home. I haven’t even finished unpacking my bags yet. I don’t want to have to pack back up and go stay in a hotel for a few days for no reason at all.”
Ellie sighed. “I suppose I can understand that,” she said. “I want you to promise me to be careful though, all right? Call me right away if anything seems off.”
“I will, I will,” she replied. “I’ll be seeing you pretty much every day, anyway. You’ll be able to see for yourself that there’s nothing to worry about.”
As one of the employees brought their pizzas out, Ellie thought to herself that the victim had probably thought there was nothing to worry about too. Bad things tended to happen when you least expected them, and she was worried that her grandmother was setting herself up for disaster.