Jalapeno Pizza Murder Read online

  Chapter Six

  Call an ambulance,” Russell said, dropping to his knees and feeling for his cousin’s pulse. Ellie didn’t have to be asked twice. She ran from the room, hurrying into the kitchen, where she had left her cell phone on the counter. She dialed the emergency number quickly, and somehow managed to explain to the dispatcher what they had found. Her hands were shaking, and she kept seeing Bea’s still form on the floor, her eyes open and bloodshot.

  She realized the dispatcher was asking her questions about Bea’s current condition. Forcing herself to break out of her daze, she went back to the bathroom to find Russell still kneeling on the floor next to his cousin. He was just looking at her, a broken expression on his face. Why isn’t he trying to save her? Ellie thought. Why isn’t he doing CPR?

  “Ma’am, I need to know the condition of the victim,” the dispatcher said in her ear. “Is she responsive?”

  “I don’t know… hold on.”

  She lowered the phone.

  “Russell, is she…?”

  “She’s gone, Ellie,” he said simply.

  “Maybe CPR —”

  He shook his head. “She’s been gone for a while.”

  “But…” She trailed off, shaking her head. She wanted to deny it, to hear Russell say that there was a chance they could bring her back, if only the ambulance got there fast enough, but the woman’s still form on the floor told her Russell wasn’t mistaken.

  “Here,” Russell said in a dull voice. “Give me the phone. I’ll get them to send out Liam or Bethany.”

  Wordlessly, she handed the phone over to Russell, who rose to his feet and took it, stepping out of the room. The water faucet was still on, and she reached over to turn it off before lowering herself to the floor to sit next to Bea. Somehow, it didn’t feel right to leave the other woman alone.

  Hesitantly, she touched her fingers to the other woman’s neck, already knowing she wouldn’t find a pulse, but hoping for one nonetheless. Her skin was cold, and she could tell that the body was already going stiff.

  She jerked her hand back and looked away, biting her lip. She pinched herself, wondering if this wasn’t some strange, horrible, all too realistic nightmare, but the pain did nothing but make her wince.

  “What happened, Bea?” she whispered. She glanced back down at the other woman. “You were so happy and full of life yesterday. How can this be real?”

  Russell stepped back into the room, the phone off and in his hand. He looked down at her, frowning, then slipped the phone into his pocket and extended his hand to help her up.

  “Liam’s on his way over, and a forensics team will be here in a while. We should wait in another room, so we don’t disturb anything.”

  She took his hand and pulled herself up, then glanced at Bea again. “We shouldn’t just leave her all alone,” she said.

  “I know it’s hard, but I don’t want to risk contaminating the scene.”

  “Contaminating the scene? Do you mean that this is a crime scene? You think someone might have done this to her?” Her voice was getting higher. “Russell, that’s ridiculous. We would have heard it if someone broke into our house and murdered your cousin!”

  He tugged her gently out of the room and pulled the door shut behind them. “I don’t know if it’s a crime scene, that’s what Liam and the forensics guys will figure out. I just don’t want one of us to accidentally interfere with something that could tell us what happened. We might smudge a drop of blood, or accidentally knock something onto the floor or down the drain, and it could make Liam’s job a lot harder.”

  “Liam’s job? You’re not taking the case?”

  Russell shook his head. “Ellie, I’m way too close to this. My cousin died in my own house. There’s no way I could participate in the investigation with a level mind.”

  Ellie felt her lower lip quiver, and realized she was on the edge of hysterics. Her questioning Russell like this wasn’t helping anything. Bea’s death was beginning to sink in, and before she lost control, she stepped closer to her husband and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face against his shoulder. “Oh, Russell, I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. This is… this is so horrible…”

  She started crying, and felt Russell squeeze her tightly before moving one hand up to stroke her hair. They stood there like that, taking comfort in each other, until someone knocked on the front door and the house exploded into chaos as the dogs began barking and Marlowe started to scream.

  The sudden chaos jolted Ellie, and she peeled herself away from her husband. “I’ll take care of the animals,” she said. “You go let whoever’s here in.”

  After corralling the dogs and locking them in her office and covering Marlowe’s cage with a large blanket, knowing that the macaw would just get more and more upset as more people arrived, she found her husband talking to Liam in the hallway just outside the bathroom. Russell gestured for her to join them.

  “Hey, Ellie,” Liam said, giving her a grim nod. She nodded back, glad that he was there. She had known him for years, and trusted that he would know just what to do. “I was just telling Russell that I’m going to do a preliminary investigation before the specialists get here. Since Russell isn’t going to be able to work this case, it’s going to be best if we treat the two of you just like we would treat anyone else in this situation. It’s not that I don’t trust you, because I do, but if I don’t go by the book on this, it could open up other issues if this case ends up in court.”

  “In court?” Ellie’s eyes widened. “Of course, we’ll do whatever you need, Liam. Just tell us what to do.”

  “Right now, I’m just going to have you and Russell answer some questions. Bethany’s on her way here, and she’ll take care of that. I don’t want either of you to worry. At first glance, this looks like an accident, but given whose house this is, we’re just going to take every precaution we can.”

  “What does who owns the house have to do with the case?” she asked.

  Liam gave Russell a reluctant glance, as if knowing that what he was about to say would hurt his friend. “Well, the sheriff has more than his fair share of enemies. If someone wanted to hurt him or discredit him, murdering someone he loved in his own home would be the way to do it.”

  Russell paled. “If someone killed Bea to get at me, I’m not going to rest until they get what they deserve.”

  Liam gave a tight smile. “And that’s exactly why you’re staying far away from this case, boss. Now, I think I just heard Bethany pull up. Go find her and let her do her thing. I’m going to get started here. We’ll figure out what happened in no time at all. I promise, Russ, I’ll get you your closure.”

  Chapter Seven

  It was a long day for both Ellie and her husband. After telling Bethany everything she knew about Bea, and giving the younger woman every detail she could think of about the party the night before, she and Russell had waited in the living room while the police and forensics team combed over the bathroom with a fine-toothed comb. When she saw two men walk past the living room with a shrouded form on a stretcher, she closed her eyes and turned away.

  At last, Liam joined them in the living room and sat down on the couch, looking tired. “Right now, we’re considering it an accidental death,” he told them. “The preliminary investigation indicates that she had a head injury likely caused by her head striking the floor. We won’t know for sure if that was the cause of death until after the autopsy, but my gut tells me it is. It looks like she must have slipped and fallen during her morning routine, striking her head on the tiles as she went down. There is no sign of foul play and no reason to treat this as anything other than a horrible accident. I know you, boss, and I’m telling you right now, don’t blame yourself. This could have happened to anyone. She must have just gotten out of the shower, and the tiles were wet. There’s no way either of you could have heard anything, not with your room being upstairs. Sometimes life is just unfair. Accidents happen, and it’s no
one’s fault.”

  Ellie took Russell’s hand, and he squeezed her fingers. “Thank you,” he said, his voice tight. “Do you know when the autopsy will be done?”

  “I’ll have to make a couple of calls, but I think I should be able to get it pushed to high priority. With any luck, it will be done by the end of the week.”

  Russell nodded. Liam opened his mouth, then closed it again, as if he was searching for words that wouldn’t come. Eventually, he just said, “I’m sorry, Russell. I can’t even imagine how horrible all of this is. Will you and Ellie be all right?”

  The sheriff nodded. “We’ll manage. Thanks for taking care of… everything.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. It’s my job,” the deputy said seriously. Then he gave a small smile. “I did learn from the best, after all.”

  Once Liam left, the house was oddly quiet. Ellie let the dogs out of the office and uncovered Marlowe’s cage, wishing she could explain to them what had happened. When Sawyer sat in front of the guest room where Bea had been staying and whined, she felt tears prick her eyes again.

  “Sorry, boy, but she isn’t coming back.”

  She wanted to talk to Russell, but she could tell that he wanted time to himself to absorb everything that had happened. She didn’t blame him. All she could do was let him grieve in his own way.

  So she called Shannon instead. She knew that one of the deputies would notify Bea’s parents, but the rest of her family had to be told as well, and she didn’t want that job to fall on Russell’s shoulders.

  Shannon’s shock and horror at hearing what had happened made her own grief rise back to the surface, and she spent a few minutes crying on the phone with her sister-in-law. She hadn’t known Bea for long, but she had liked the other woman quite a bit, and finding her dead in the downstairs bathroom had affected her deeply.

  After the tears, she was surprised to find that she felt a bit better. It was as though her grief had been temporarily exhausted, and for the time being she was able to think clearly. It wasn’t until she happened to glance at the clock in the kitchen while she was pouring herself a glass of water that she realized she was an hour late to work.

  “Shoot,” she muttered. She tried to remember where her phone had gotten to, and eventually found it on the coffee table in the living room, where Russel had put it after taking it out of his pocket during their long wait after talking to Bethany. She found Jacob’s number in her contacts list and hit the call button.

  “Hey, Ms. P.,” he said, sounding cheerful as he answered the phone. “What’s up? Oh man, I didn’t make a mistake about the schedule, did I? Was I supposed to come in this morning?”

  “No,” she said. “I was supposed to open, actually, but I didn’t make it in. Could you do me a huge favor and head over to the pizzeria right now? I’m not going to be able to make it in at all today. Rose will be in around three, but I know she has a dentist’s appointment this morning.”

  “Yeah, I should be able to be there in about half an hour. Is everything okay?”

  Ellie took a deep breath. “No, it’s not, but I’ll tell you about it later.”

  It was an odd day, punctuated by grief that came over her in waves. In the times that her mind was clearer, she cleaned and cooked, finding solace in the kitchen just like she always did. Russell moved around the house like a ghost, always stopping to give her a kiss or hug as he went by as if he needed to make sure she was still warm and safe. Late in the afternoon, she made two turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches and brought them into the living room, where Russell was scribbling something down in a notebook.

  “What are you working on?” she asked as she set one of the plates down in front of him.

  “I’m making a list of everyone Bea knows in town,” he said.

  “Are you going to call them?” she asked. “I can do that instead, if you want. I know how hard this is for you.”

  He gave her an odd look. “Call them? No. They’re all suspects. Daphne and Georgie are at the very top of the list.”

  Ellie felt her stomach twist. She took a seat on the couch beside Russell and set her own plate down on the coffee table.

  “Sweetie, didn’t Liam say she slipped and fell? I know it’s horrible, but I really don’t see how it could have been anything but an accident. I can’t imagine someone attacked her in our own house, with us sleeping upstairs, and we didn’t notice. Besides, the doors were all locked when we got up, and there was no sign of any of the windows having been forced open.”

  “It just doesn’t sit right with me,” Russell said, tossing his pen down and leaning against the back of the couch, his eyes closed. “Liam’s missing something, I just know it.”

  Ellie chewed on her bottom lip, not sure how to respond. Russell was great at his job, but she also knew he had a hard time accepting the loss of people close to him. She had a feeling that going through the motions of investigating the crime might help him keep his emotions under control, but at the same time, she didn’t want him to get in trouble. Liam had specifically told him that he shouldn’t be involved in the case, and if Russell started questioning people, he might get into trouble.

  “Let’s at least wait until the autopsy results are in, okay?” she asked. “Liam knows what he’s doing, and you know as well as anyone that there’s a good reason why there is a policy preventing people from investigating cases they have close ties to. Now, let’s eat. And don’t you dare tell me you aren’t hungry. You haven’t had a single bite all day.”

  He had been opening his mouth, probably to say exactly that, and closed it to give her a wry smile. “You know me too well.” The smile fell from his face. “Ellie… thank you. I know this is hard for you too. You’ve been my rock today, and it’s… well, I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re keeping me sane.”

  Chapter Eight

  After their talk on the couch, Russell seemed to be handling his grief better, and by the time Ellie had to leave for work the next day, she felt more comfortable leaving him on his own. He had a temporary leave from the sheriff’s department, and Ellie wasn’t sure whether it would be good or bad for him. On the one hand, she didn’t think he was in a good place mentally to be working, especially since his job could be deadly if he wasn’t on his toes. On the other hand, she hated to think of him all alone in the house where his cousin had died.

  Ellie was a little bit ashamed to admit it to herself, but it was a relief to get out of the house and get back to work at the pizzeria. She loved opening in the mornings; there was something so relaxing about having the whole place to herself while she cooked. It was as if everything else got temporarily pushed to the back of her mind as she turned on music, preheated the ovens, and began rolling out pizza crusts.

  This week’s special was a slightly spicy pizza with jalapenos, mushrooms, and a garlic sauce topped with lots of gooey mozzarella cheese and a Parmesan encrusted crust. It was best as a classic round, and according to the report Jacob had left her, it had been very popular with the customers so far that week.

  She hummed to herself as she got the normal cheese and pepperoni pizzas in the oven and started on the special, pulling on thin rubber gloves while she chopped the peppers. If she didn’t, she knew that she would rub at her eyes later in the day without thinking, and that was a mistake she didn’t want to make again.

  Once the peppers were chopped, she turned her attention to the mushrooms, washing them thoroughly before cutting them into thin slices. The pizza had been inspired by jalapeno poppers she had ordered at a restaurant during her and Russell’s last date night, and a smile flashed across her face as she remembered it. The smile quickly faded as she mentally compared the happy man she had eaten with to the way her husband was now as he grieved the death of someone he had known his entire life. She thought back to just the week before when he told her about Bea’s visit, and how excited he had been. She felt a sudden surge of anger that all of that had been taken away from him, though the anger w
as direction-less. Suddenly she realized why Russell had decided her death wasn’t an accident. Having someone to blame, someone to direct that anger toward, must give him something to hold on to. Not hope, exactly, but a sense that justice was a possibility.

  With a sigh, she slid the mushrooms off of the cutting board and into a clean glass bowl before taking a saucepan down from the hanging rack over the counter and placing it on the stove. Life was unfair sometimes, and it hurt to admit there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  She refocused her attention on the sauce she was making, and quickly peeled a few cloves of garlic, methodically putting them in the garlic press and squeezing the handles together over the saucepan. Once she was satisfied that there was enough garlic for at least a few batches of the sauce, she added a pat of butter and turned on the burner while she prepared the milk, flour, and spices that would give the sauce the creamy texture and rich flavor that she loved.