Pesto Pizza Murder Read online

  Mentally berating herself for not going up sooner to check on the damage, she shut her laptop, ran into the kitchen to grab some paper towels in case she needed to dry anything, then went upstairs.

  The attic was significantly less creepy in the daylight. The single window was hexagonal and large enough to let in plenty of sunlight. There was a single, bare bulb with a dangling chain that she had forgotten about in the rush the night before. The light lit up the corners where the sunlight didn’t reach, revealing that most of the boxes were still nicely stacked. The only ones that had been knocked over were those directly in front of the window.

  The wind last night must have been stronger than I thought, she thought, frowning. She was still shocked that the storm had managed to blow open the attic window, breaking the wooden frame in the process. Maybe we have termites, she thought with a shudder. Termites might have weakened the wood enough for the wind to blow the window open. The house had been inspected before they bought it, but there was no telling what they might have missed.

  She began straightening up, lifting the boxes back into their neat stacks and re-packing those items that had fallen out of them. She was glad to find that nothing important had been damaged.

  Using the paper towels she had brought up with her, she began mopping up the small puddles of water left behind by the snow. It really wasn’t as bad as she had expected. The darkness and the sound of the storm raging outside must have made it seem a lot worse than it really was.

  She followed what seemed to almost be a trail of puddles over to an open box near the back of the attic. As she mopped up the last of it, she stood up, glancing down at the large cardboard box the puddles ended at. She really should have done a better job of labeling everything up her, because she couldn’t remember what was in it.

  Maybe that could be her project for the day; going through the boxes up here and labeling them clearly so she and Russell wouldn’t have to go digging through them all whenever they wanted something.

  She opened the top of the box and glanced in, expecting to see summer clothes of hers or old case files of Russell’s. Instead, the first thing she saw was a vase.

  It was a beautiful vase, creamy white with gold accents and stylistic art done around the outside. It was nestled on top of some folded linens. Ellie didn’t recognize it, which meant that it was probably her grandmother’s. How it had gotten packed in with their stuff, she had no idea. Maybe her grandmother had meant it as a housewarming gift, and had forgotten to mention it, or maybe the older woman had packed it away in a fit of absent mindedness. Regardless of how it had gotten there, it was beautiful. Ellie lifted it, examining it, and on impulse decided to take it downstairs and send some photos to her grandmother to see if she couldn’t figure out the history behind it. It had the feel of an antique, and antiques were something Ellie had been getting more and more interested in lately.

  Taking one last look around the attic, she tossed the damp paper towels down through the trapdoor, then carefully navigated the ladder with the vase in hand.

  Chapter Seven

  Ellie got to the pizzeria in plenty of time to prepare for their late opening. The roads in town had long since been cleared, but mountains of snow towered over the cars and pedestrians alike from there the snowplows had deposited it. There were still some people out shoveling sidewalks and parking lots. The pizzeria had a contract with a local snowplow company, so the parking lot had been plowed, but Ellie knew that she would have to spend some time clearing the sidewalk in front of the store.

  She didn’t think she had ever seen so much snow before. It was simply everywhere. It would be months before it all melted. The snow hills that every parking lot and dead end boasted would survive long into spring. Right now, the fresh snow was beautiful, but as time went by Ellie knew that the pure, white snow would turn grey and dirty as pollution from traffic built up. She was not looking forward to the dreary days of early spring.

  The pizzeria wasn’t the only business that had gotten a late start. The local schools and the library were both closed for the day, and a fair amount of the small businesses she had passed on her way into town looked dark and empty.

  She expected that the pizzeria would easily make up for whatever profits they may have lost by being closed all over, since most of the other small restaurants didn’t show any signs of opening. Anyone who didn’t have power would be looking for something warm and filling for dinner, and Papa Pacelli’s would be the perfect place to go.

  By the time Ellie opened the restaurant, the vase she had found had slipped her mind. The condition the attic had been in, however, had not. As she slipped a steaming hot pizza into a box, she found her thoughts drawn back to the night before, when the crash of the window breaking open had coincided almost perfectly with the lights flickering. It hadn’t skipped her attention that the one light that had been blown out during the power surge was the bathroom light. The same one where a woman had died not long ago.

  Logically, she knew that everything could be explained away as a coincidence. The bathroom light must have been old, it probably would have gone out soon anyway. Same with the wood surrounding the window frame in the attic; termites or a leaky seal could explain why the frame had been weak enough to allow the wind to blow the window open.

  But would the wind have been able to knock over the boxes? The more she thought about it, the more her gut told her no. Papers and clothes, which was what most of the boxes held, were pretty heavy when packed into small spaces like that. She could maybe see the wind knocking over the box closest to the window, but what about the boxes along the side wall that had fallen? They had been out of the direct path of the wind, and even the strongest gust couldn’t change direction like that.

  Logically, she didn’t believe in ghosts. But somehow logic wasn’t all that reassuring at the moment. Ellie was slowly coming to terms with the realization that her house might be haunted, and if the state of the attic was any indication, the resident ghost was very angry.

  “Hello? Is anyone here?”

  The voice snapped Ellie out of her imagination. She realized she had been standing in the kitchen, staring off into space, when she should have been out front at the register. Someone must have come in while she was zoned out.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said as she pushed through the door to the front. “It’s been a weird day.”

  The woman at the register looked familiar, but it took Ellie a few moments to match her face to a name. By the time she realized it was Jessie, the woman who had come in with her brothers after her mother’s funeral the day before, the other woman was already speaking.

  “Oh, that’s okay. I was just worried that maybe you weren’t open after all. I passed by earlier this morning and your sign was off. I’m half starved, and I really didn’t want to eat pizza two days in a row, but nowhere else is open.”

  “Well, we serve salads too, if you’d rather go with something a bit healthier,” Ellie said. “You were staying at a motel, right? I could get you a salad for now, and a small breakfast pizza for tomorrow morning so you don’t have to worry about finding somewhere to eat if we get more snow.”

  “More snow?” Jessie’s eyes widened. “Are we supposed to? I’m from a few states further south, and I thought this was a lot of snow.”

  “We’re supposed to be getting snow throughout the week,” the pizzeria owner told her. “I know, it seems like it just never lets up, doesn’t it?”

  “Wow. I hope the roads aren’t too bad by the time I have to drive back home. I can’t imagine living somewhere where it’s like this all winter.” Jessie shook her head and shot a glance out the window. The sky was still clear, but there were low clouds on the horizon. “What you said sounds good. What’s on a breakfast pizza, anyway?”

  Ellie smiled. “Whatever you want. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, onions, sweet peppers… and, of course, cheese. You can come up with just about any toppings you’d like, and I’ll go get it ready for you. I
can add just about anything to your salad too.”

  “You’re a lifesaver,” Jessie said. She took a few moments to tell Ellie what she wanted, and Ellie went back into the kitchen to put the orders together and make sure Rose had picked up the next stack of pizzas that were supposed to go out on delivery.

  She prepared the Greek salad Jessie had asked for and brought it out along with some ice water and a brownie. “The brownie’s on the house,” she said as she put the dishes down on the table Jessie had seated herself at. “I remember what you said about why you were here yesterday, and I hope things are looking up for you.”

  “Thanks.” Jessie gave her a small smile and reached for the water. After taking a sip, she said, “I wish I could say things were getting better, but honestly, everything’s worse. One of my brothers is fighting the will, the other brother isn’t speaking to him, and neither of them are very happy with me at the moment either. It looks like I’m going to have to be here for a while.”

  “I’m sorry.” Ellie hesitated. “Do you want to talk about any of it? I know I’m a stranger, but sometimes it helps to bounce ideas off of someone who isn’t involved.”

  The other woman shook her head. “Thanks, but I kind of want to just forget about it all for now. Besides, you probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you half the crazy stuff that was going on in my life.”

  “I don’t know, I’m starting to have a pretty open mind.” Ellie chuckled. “I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that my house is haunted. I doubt anything you could tell me would be weirder than that.”

  “Oh, really?” Jessie’s eyes widened. “I love haunted houses. I was on an amateur paranormal investigation team for a while back in college. We never found any solid evidence that could prove ghosts were real, but I definitely felt something a few times. Do you want me to come look around?”

  Ellie blinked. Her reflex was to say no, but after everything that had happened in her house, she was beginning to realize she had to be more open to the possibility that there was more out there than she wanted to believe.

  “You know what? Sure. If any house is haunted, mine is.” She hesitated, then lowered her voice. “More than one person has been killed there. I’m not usually superstitious, but something just feels off about the place.”

  Jessie’s eyes shone with excitement. “Tell me when you get off work, and I’ll come over.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jessie returned to the pizzeria just as Ellie was locking the front doors. She smiled and waved, then rolled down the driver’s side window and handed Ellie a coffee.

  “I stopped at the cafe on the corner and thought you might want something too. I didn’t know what you liked, so I just got you a vanilla latte. I hope that’s okay.”

  “It’s perfect,” Ellie said. “Thanks. I just finished up here. Do you want to follow me back to my house?”

  The other woman nodded. “Lead the way.”

  Ellie took her time driving back home, making sure Jessie could easily keep up with her. Ever since agreeing to this, she had been having doubts. Was it really smart to invite a stranger over to her home while she was there alone? What did she hope to gain from this? Even though she was spooked by the eerie events of the night before, she wasn’t fully convinced that ghosts were real. She wasn’t sure what to expect from Jessie’s visit, and knew that she would take anything the other woman said with a grain of salt.

  She pulled into her driveway and shut off her engine. Jessie pulled in behind her and joined her on the front stoop.

  “I have dogs,” Ellie warned belatedly as she pushed the front door open. “They’re both friendly, but the lab is young and still tries to jump up on people sometimes. Just ignore him until he calms down. If he gets too rambunctious, push him away.”

  Sawyer and Bunny greeted her excitedly, then turned their attention to her guest, who stepped into the house and shut the door behind her. She followed Ellie’s advice and ignored Sawyer, who was bouncing up and down in front of her, and took off her coat, handing it to her host.

  “Should I take my shoes off?”

  “Whatever you’re more comfortable with. If you’re going up in the attic, you might want to leave them on so you don’t have to worry about getting a splinter. The floor boards up there aren’t great.”

  Jessie nodded and left her shoes on, bending down to let Bunny sniff her hand and to give Sawyer, who had calmed down enough to sit still at her feet, a scratch behind the ears.

  “It’s a small world,” she said as she straightened up. She looked around with a smile on her face. “When we turned onto this road, something told me you were going to pull into this driveway. I can’t believe you live here, it’s such a coincidence.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ellie asked with a frown.

  “My parents best friends used to live in this house. My brothers and I were here all the time when we were kids. You’ve changed some stuff, but I still recognize it. I actually really like what you’ve done with the place. If I remember correctly, the walls used to be covered with the ugliest wallpaper in the world. It looks so much better now.”

  The pizzeria owner blinked, too stunned to respond right away. It was a coincidence, and a pretty major one. Sure, Kittiport was a small town, but it wasn’t that small. At last, she said, “Did you set this up or something? Is that what you and your brothers do, convince people their houses are haunted and then prey on them when they’re convinced they’re going crazy?”

  “No, no.” Jessie raised her hands, looking hurt. “Seriously, I had no idea you lived here until just now. It is a coincidence, I promise. I’m not charging money or anything, so where would the benefit in something like that be for me? Like I said, I’m interested in the paranormal, but it’s just a hobby. I haven’t actually been involved in the community for years. And my brothers both think I’m a bit crazy as it is, they’ve never been interested in the same stuff I am. I swear, this is just a weird coincidence. It makes me think that there might really be something going on here. Oh, I wish I’d brought my recording equipment.”

  Frowning, Ellie shifted on her feet, considering what the other woman had said. “All right,” she said at last. “Let’s head upstairs. You can take a look at the attic. If you want to look at the guest bathroom too, go ahead. That’s where… where the person died.”

  Jessie nodded, then gestured for Ellie to lead the way.

  At first, the pizzeria owner watched curiously as Jessie walked slowly around the room, but after a while she got bored and went downstairs to take care of the animals. She still wasn’t completely comfortable with the other woman being there, but Jessie seemed harmless enough if a bit eccentric.

  By the time she came downstairs, the dogs had eaten dinner and Marlowe was working her way through a bowl of fresh fruit. “I’m ready to see the guest bathroom now,” Jessie said.

  “It’s through here.” Ellie led her down the hall. “Sorry, the light is still out. I haven’t replaced it yet. I’ll go grab bulbs now.”

  When she returned with the new light bulbs, she found Jessie staring into the mirror. Ellie cleared her throat, and the other woman jumped slightly.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I’ll get out of your way so you can change out the bulbs if you want.”

  “Did you… sense… anything?” the pizzeria owner asked as she began unscrewing the burnt-out bulbs.

  “I’m not sure,” Jessie said. “I thought I smelled a cologne or perfume up there that seemed familiar, but it could have been something that you or your husband wears. And down here in the bathroom… well, I’m not sure if it’s my mind playing tricks on me because I know someone died in here, but it does seem a bit colder than the rest of the house, doesn’t it? And there’s that stain on the ceiling. It could be water damage, or it could be an impression left by a spirit.” She sighed. “I really wish I was still in touch with the people who were in the paranormal club at college. I was hoping there would be something obvious, something that
screamed yes, there is a ghost here, but I should have known better. There never is.”

  Ellie nodded. She hadn’t really expected Jessie to find any solid evidence of paranormal activity. “I’ll keep on being a skeptic, then,” she said, giving the other woman a smile. “Thanks for coming over. At the very least, it was a reminder that I needed to replace these bulbs.” She stepped back and flicked on the light switch. The lights came on, then with a quiet popping sound, the bulbs went dark.

  Chapter Nine

  Jessie stayed for another half-an-hour after the light bulbs went dead. She spent most of that time in the guest bathroom, trying different things to get the ghost to “show itself” again. Ellie wasn’t sure what the other woman was expecting, but whatever it was, it seemed that it didn’t happen. She left disappointed, but hopeful that something interesting might happen in the future. If it did, Ellie was supposed to call her immediately.