Four Cheese Murder: Book Seven in Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Page 4

  CHAPTER NINE

  * * *

  Ellie returned home from her coffee date to find Nonna waiting in the kitchen with a plastic container full of cookies and her coat and shoes already on.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I was hoping you could give me a ride to the community center, dear,” the older woman said. “After everything that those wonderful people have suffered through, I thought it would be nice to do a little something special for them.”

  “The cookies? I’m sure they’ll appreciate them.” Ellie sighed. She hadn’t planned on returning to the community center, at least not until after Courtney’s unusual death had been solved. She had been face to face with a killer far too often for comfort. While she might enjoy speculating about the crime, she didn’t want to get up close and personal if she could help it. She didn’t see how she could say no to her nonna, though. “Let’s bring another of those boxes of clothes from the basement while we’re at it.”

  They arrived at the community center less than half an hour later. Bunny had come along for the ride, and was sitting happily in the back seat. Ellie was glad that she had thought to bring the little papillon. She hadn’t gotten out of the house as much during the colder weather, and could probably use the change in scenery. As she parked, she noticed that it didn’t look like it was as busy as it had been the first day that Ellie had stopped in. She wondered if that was because of the death, or because people had started to get back on their feet now that the electrical company had had a chance to repair the damage done to the power lines during the storm. She remembered the winter weather advisory that had popped up on her phone that morning. She would have to check the news later; hopefully they weren’t in for another heavy snowfall.

  “Nonna—wait—” Ellie hurried around to the passenger side of the car, where her grandmother was trying to pull herself up while holding both the container of cookies and her purse. “Let me get the cookies. And hold on to my arm. Everything that melted earlier this week refroze, and there are a lot of icy spots. You don’t need to break anything else.”

  The two of them made their way carefully down the sidewalk and up the steps, with Bunny trotting at their feet. Nonna leaned heavily on Ellie as they traversed some of the worse patches, and the younger woman was reminded again of how old her strong-seeming grandmother really was. It scared her to think that the elderly woman would have attempted to make this journey on her own—and with her hands full, no less—if she hadn’t stopped her. How could she stop her grandmother from constantly overestimating her physical abilities without insulting her?

  It was a puzzle that she would have to solve another day. Right now, they had a batch of delicious home-baked cookies to drop off. Ellie pulled the door to the community center open and held it for her grandmother. The older woman walked inside ahead of her, and she followed closely behind.

  “The donations go to a room down that hall,” Ellie said.

  “I know where I’m going,” Nonna said, not unkindly. “Hand me the cookies. I want to bring them in myself. Arthur was dedicated to this place; I’m doing this for him.”

  Ellie handed over the plastic container and watched carefully to make sure her grandmother was steady. Thankfully, the slightly sloped hall had a railing, and the older woman was able to lean on this as she made her way towards the donation center.

  The bulletin board caught Ellie’s eye before she could follow. She glanced down at Bunny, who was sniffing around excitedly, as much as her leash would allow. It occurred to her that they probably didn’t want dogs near the food donations. She had better check the pinned rules before going any further.

  The rules said nothing one way or the other about dogs, so Ellie figured she and Bunny were probably safe. At worst, they would be asked to leave if it turned out dogs weren’t allowed. She was about to turn and join her grandmother down the hall when a familiar name caught her eye. It was a handwritten ad for a new roommate, posted by someone named Tina Collins. She didn’t know the last name of the woman who was Courtney’s roommate, but she would have bet that it was the same Tina.

  That was fast, she thought. But I guess if she needs someone to cover the other half of the rent, it can’t be helped. Then she noticed the date on the paper. It was dated before Courtney’s death.

  Ellie frowned. She remembered Kristy’s offhand remark about Tina’s roommate turnover rate. It was obvious that there had been some sort of rift between the two roommates. She wondered if Courtney had been the one to decide to go, or if Tina had been kicking her out. Either way, it seemed like an important piece of information. She pulled out her cell phone and snapped a photo of the note, which she planned to send to Russell later. She knew that he was frustrated with his lack of involvement in this case; the note might at least give him something new to mull over.

  CHAPTER TEN

  * * *

  When she reached the donation room at last, she found her grandmother deep in conversation with another elderly woman. She wasn’t in a hurry, and she didn’t want to interrupt, so she wandered over to the food table and snagged one of the cookies that Nonna had brought. Bunny seemed happy to be in a new place. She was on her best behavior, and seemed to understand that this wasn’t the time or place for begging.

  “If you were this good all the time, I would take you more places,” she said to the dog. “Come to think of it, you’ve been much better behaved while we’re out and about ever since you fell into the ocean last year. Did you learn your lesson when you almost drowned?”

  The little dog wagged her tail, happy with the knowledge that her owner was speaking to her, even if she didn’t understand what was being said. Ellie felt a rush of affection for the Papillon and bent down to stroke her back. She hoped the dog was happy, overall. Sometimes she felt like she was quite the boring owner. With the weather like it had been, they hadn’t even managed to go on a daily walk lately.

  “Cute dog. Is she friendly?”

  Ellie looked up to see the redhead, Kristy, leaning against the food table. She looked tired. The last time Ellie had seen her had been on the day that Courtney’s body was discovered. She remembered how shattered the woman had been when they had found out about her friend’s death. She was glad to see that she was still getting out and interacting with people—it must be better than sitting cooped up at home.

  “Yes, she is. You can pet her if you’d like. Her name is Bunny.”

  Kristy crouched down and held out her hand to the little dog, who sniffed it with a rapidly wagging tail. Ellie smiled as the other woman scratched the dog behind the ears. She was a firm believer in the healing power of pets. Animals seemed to have a way of making even the worst hurts better.

  “Thanks. She’s a cutie,” the woman said, standing up. “I’m glad you stopped by again. We lost a lot of support after what happened to Courtney. It’s not so bad now, since things are mostly back to normal, but we’re going to need all the help we can get after this next storm blows through.”

  “I saw something about that this morning,” Ellie said. “Is it supposed to be bad?”

  Kristy nodded. “We’re supposed to see high winds, freezing rain, and later on a couple of feet of snow. The whole shebang. Thankfully the weather looks clear for the foreseeable future afterward, but I’m sure there are going to be quite a few power outages before it’s over. If the snow is bad enough, the grocery store might close, which means that anyone without a car is going to be stuck in Kittiport with no food. Even people who have a vehicle probably won’t want to venture out until after the plows have come through. We’re recommending to everyone that they stock up with at least three days of food and bottled water before the storm, and we’re handing out free blankets to anyone that needs them.”

  “If the storm hits us that hard, I’ll probably have to close the pizzeria,” Ellie mused. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep an eye on the weather channel.”

  “No problem. We just want people to be safe.” The woman
frowned slightly. Ellie guessed that she was thinking about her friend. She made a decision, based on what she would want if their positions were reversed. She would want to do anything in her power to find out what had happened to her friend, even if it was painful to think about.

  “Kristy… I know this might sound like an odd question, but what do you know about the relationship between Tina and Courtney? I saw on the bulletin board that Tina had posted that she was looking for a new roommate, and the note is dated from before Courtney’s passing.”

  “Tina… well, there is a lot of history there,” Kristy said, her frown deepening. “It feels odd to talk about it, but I guess there’s no point in keeping secrets for her anymore. After Courtney broke up with her last boyfriend, she didn’t have anywhere to go. She stayed with me for a while, but I live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment with my fiancé, and there just wasn’t enough room. She heard that Tina had a spare room and was looking for someone to share the rent with, and, well it seemed like a perfect match.”

  “It went sour?” Ellie guessed.

  “It did. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about Courtney. She was an amazing person with the biggest heart of anyone. It’s just that she was bad with money. Like, really bad. She started being late with her portion of the rent pretty much right away. She borrowed the cash from me a couple of times, but I have my own stuff I’m trying to work through and I just couldn’t keep giving it to her. Eventually it got to the point where Tina had to put her foot down. She was going to let Courtney pay her only half of the money she owed, if she moved out by the end of the month, which would enable Tina to find another roommate sooner rather than later. I know Courtney was looking for a better job, and was really hoping to get one here, but Tina just didn’t think she would be able to find one in time.”

  “Wow,” Ellie said. “I guess everybody has a lot going on beneath the surface. I would never have guessed any of that. Do you think the issues between the two of them might have escalated into a physical fight at some point?”

  “I have no idea. Do you think that Tina could have had something to do with her death? I mean, I heard the rumors, but I think that Courtney would have told me if something violent had happened between them.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Ellie said with a sigh.

  Bunny started barking so suddenly that it made them both jump. She followed her dog’s gaze to see Ronald approaching.

  “Get the dog out,” he said, sounding annoyed. “No pets in here. You have to leave her in the car.”

  “Come on, Ron, leave them be. The dog isn’t hurting anybody. There’s hardly anyone in here,” Kristy said.

  “The rules are the rules,” he said. “Go on.”

  She apologized and tugged on the dog’s leash. Bunny was still yipping, her tiny, fierce gaze fixated on Ronald. It took Ellie a second to pull her away. She caught her grandma’s eye on her way out and nodded at the door. She would wait outside for the older woman to get done; she wasn’t going to leave the poor dog alone in the car, not when it was so cold out. Besides, she didn’t want to go back in and have to talk to Ronald again anyway. She understood that he was enforcing the rules, she just wished that he didn’t have to be so rude about it.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  * * *

  The promised storm failed to appear overnight. Ellie kept a close eye on the weather channel as she got ready for work that morning, but none of the weather reporters seemed to be able to agree on when exactly the northern coast of Maine was going to be hit. It looked like it would be safe to open the pizzeria as usual that morning. She could always decide to close early if it looked like things were beginning to get bad.

  Mondays always meant a new pizza of the week. Considering her favorite chip dip, Ellie had designed an artichoke and garlic thin crust pizza with asiago and mozzarella cheese. She always enjoyed introducing a new type of pizza to the menu, but was especially in love with this recipe. It paired especially well with their gluten-free crust, and despite the looming threat of the storm, business was hopping.

  Around three in the afternoon, the sky began to darken in a menacing fashion. Ellie had to double-check the clock; it was so dark that it appeared to be a few hours later outside than it really was.

  “Jacob, I’m going to start telling people we aren’t taking any more delivery orders. I don’t want you to get stuck in the storm when it hits.”

  “All right, Ms. P. Do you think we’re going to close early?”

  “Let’s see how things go. If we get freezing rain, we’ll close up for sure.”

  A few minutes later, she got a text from Shannon asking if they were still open.

  Yes. For now, she replied.

  Can you put an order in for me? Deep dish supreme. I’ll be there soon, Shannon sent back.

  Will do.

  Shannon showed up a few minutes before her pizza was ready. Papa Pacelli’s was entirely empty by then, and just minutes ago, freezing rain had begun to fall, hard.

  “This is terrible,” Shannon said, shaking off her jacket as she came through the door. “Are you going to close early?”

  “You’re our last customer,” Ellie said. “Everything I’ve been hearing tells me this storm is only going to get worse, and I want to be safely home before it does.”

  “Smart idea. Sorry if my order is holding you up.”

  “It’s not a problem. We had one more, but they called to cancel. Did you get out of work early, too? You usually stay at the paper later.”

  “Oh, yeah, everyone got sent home. Half of the places in town are closed. You should have seen the line outside the grocery store, though. A lot of people are doing some serious last minute shopping.”

  “Wow. I’m glad—Hold on, sorry.”

  Ellie’s phone was buzzing in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw Russell’s number on the screen.

  “I’ve got some interesting news,” he said once they got their greetings out of the way. “I don’t know much yet, but I thought I’d share with you since you’ve been just about as involved with this case as I have. Liam just called to tell me that Detective Mendez took Tina Collins into custody.”

  “Really? How did they link her to Courtney’s death?”

  “It’s all thanks to that photo you sent me of her post on the bulletin board, looking for a new roommate. I passed it on to Detective Mendez, and he did some digging. It turns out that Tina’s neighbors heard a lot of raised voices coming from her house in the days leading up to Courtney’s death. One of them claims he heard Tina tell Courtney that she wished she would just disappear. A few days later, she was found dead. It’s enough to raise eyebrows, at least. She’ll be held for questioning, and the police will be searching her apartment for a possible murder weapon.”

  Ellie gave a low whistle. All of this because she had happened to glance at the bulletin board on her way into the community center. “Well, I’m glad to hear that the police have a suspect now. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Thanks to that jerk who shot me, I now know what it feels like to be left out of the loop.” He gave a dry chuckle. “It doesn’t feel good at all. Hey, I hope you’re closing early. I’ve got the news on, and it looks like Kittiport is going to be buried in a few hours.”

  “Yep, we’re closing right now. Shannon’s here picking up a pizza, and she’s our last customer.”

  Her friend reached for the phone, and Ellie handed it over while she went into the kitchen to get Shannon’s deep dish supreme boxed up and ready to go. When she came out, her friend handed the phone back.

  “Sorry, I said goodbye and hung up without thinking. I don’t know if he wanted to talk to you again.”

  “He’ll call back if he has anything else to say,” Ellie said. “Here’s your pizza. Fresh out of the oven.”

  “Thanks.” Shannon took the box. “I just checked with Russell and he said he’s free. I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with James and me tomorrow night, if the roads
are safe. I’m guessing the whole town’s going to have a snow day, so I thought it might be fun to use the extra time to do something fun while we’re all off work.”

  “Sure. If the pizzeria’s closed, my schedule is free,” Ellie said. “I can pick up Russell, since he’s not supposed to be driving. What time should we be there?”

  “Six? If James and I don’t have to go in to work, we can do it at any time, really.”

  “Six works for me. Should I bring anything?”

  “If you could whip up something for dessert, that would be great.”

  “Something decadently sweet and loaded with calories. Got it. I’ll do my best.”

  The next morning, Ellie woke up to find that the woods behind her grandmother’s house had turned into a shimmering winter wonderland. The freezing rain had encased the branches in a thin coating of ice, and the snowfall that had followed later during the night had settled over everything like a fluffy white blanket. Every inch of the trees sparkled in the sunlight. It was gorgeous, though Ellie knew that the frozen branches spelled disaster for the power lines.

  Since the skies were clear, she guessed that the plows would have no trouble clearing the roads by that evening. Around noon, she decided it was time to tackle the task of figuring out what she was going to bring to dinner. Shannon had said dessert, but she hadn’t specified what kind. Since she and Nonna were completely snowed in at the moment, she would have to get creative with the ingredients they had on hand.

  “How about this?” Nonna asked, holding out a slightly stained recipe page. She had a huge binder full of recipes, from ancient-looking handwritten ones, to a mulberry pie recipe she had asked Ellie to print off for her last week. Ellie loved looking through the binder; she never knew what she would find.