A Melted Morsel of Murder Read online

  “It's okay. I'm glad you told me now. Do you think that it will be safe for me to move back?”

  “I'm sure it will,” Ellie said. “I'll ask Russell tonight, but I don't see why it wouldn't be. We'll install new locks and get you a brand-new security system if you want.”

  “You don't have to go to that length,” Nonna said. “I trust yours and Russell's judgment. Thank you for telling me, Ellie. Please let me know as soon as you know anything more. I feel so bad for that poor man.”

  “I will,” Ellie said. “And I do too.”

  She spoke to her grandmother for a few more minutes, then finally said goodbye to her. She felt better for having told her what was going on. She didn't like keeping things from the older woman. She knew that it must be stressful for her grandmother to know everything that was happening in her precious house, which she had lived in for decades, but she also knew that her grandmother would rather know than not know. All she could do was hope that the case got solved soon.

  She found herself with a long day stretching out in front of her. She could go into the pizzeria early, but she knew that her employees sometimes enjoyed working without her hovering over them. She might as well take advantage of the time off when she had it.

  Ellie decided to pay a visit to someone she hadn't seen in far too long a time. Her sister-in-law, Shannon, who also happened to be her best friend. Shannon had had a baby the year before and ever since, the two of them seemed to struggle to find time to spend together. The fact that Shannon had recently started going back to work didn't help matters, but she only worked part-time and only worked certain days of the week. With luck, she would be free today.

  The quick phone call later confirmed that luck was indeed on Ellie’s side today. Shannon had the day off, and was spending it at home with Andrew. When she heard that Ellie was free too, she told her to come on over. She also promised to invite Joanna. The three of them hadn’t gotten together in a while. Ellie was excited to go see her little nephew and her sister-in-law, and didn't waste any time in getting ready.

  It felt good to get out of the house. She had a lot that she wanted to talk to Shannon about. Shannon worked at the local paper, and she knew a lot about everyone, even more so than Ellie did. She was sure to have opinions on everything that had happened. Ellie wished that she had thought to ask for photos of the victim from Russell. There was a chance that Shannon might have recognized him.

  Her friend lived in an upscale subdivision inside Kittiport's town limits. James worked as a contractor and made enough money to easily support them both, and Shannon worked in the newspaper just because she enjoyed it, as well is for a little bit of extra spending money of her own. Ellie knew they both enjoyed their jobs, and she was glad for both of them. She couldn't imagine having to work a job that she hated, now that she knew the difference it made to have a job that she loved.

  Shannon had been her best friend from high school, and then they had mostly fallen out of touch after Ellie moved away. When she moved back to town to discover that Shannon had married her high school sweetheart, James Ward, she had been thrilled for her friend. The fact that Ellie had then fallen in love with James's older brother, Russell Ward, was only icing on the cake. The two of them had once been as close as sisters, and now they were sisters, at least as far as the law was concerned.

  Shannon opened the door before Ellie even got a chance to knock. She was holding Andrew propped up on her hip, and Ellie's nephew gave an excited squeal when he saw her. She reached out her arms and took him, kissing his cheek.

  “And how are two of my favorite people on earth doing?”

  “We've been doing well,” Shannon said as she let Ellie in and shut the door behind her. “We're getting into the new routine. On the days that I work, I get up early and drop him off at the sitter’s before heading out to the office. I'm usually back by noon or one, then he comes home and has a nap, and we spend the rest of the day doing errands or playing together.”

  Ellie propped her nephew up on her hip and followed her sister-in-law into the house, walking toward the living room. “That sounds nice. Is James still gone a lot?”

  “He's been trying to be better about being at home on weekends,” Shannon said. “At least he doesn't work as much during the winter. I know it's going to be even harder in summer when he's gone almost all the time. I don't mind that much, though. I've got a lot of support, and Andrew's babysitter lives right down the road. I know James will always take time off if I need him to, and that's good enough for me.”

  “That's good,” Ellie said. She snuggled her nephew for a moment longer, then put him down in his playpen. “If you’ve got the time today, there's a lot I want to talk about.”

  “I'm all ears,” Shannon said. “It will give me a good excuse to put off vacuuming.”

  Ellie chuckled and sat down on the couch. “Your house always looks great. I don't know how you do it, with a baby and everything.”

  “My secret is keeping him entertained,” Shannon said. “I make sure he’s somewhere he can see me and give him lots to do, then I turn on the music and have fun with it. He seems to like watching his mom dance around like a crazy person.”

  Ellie smiled. “I bet he does.”

  The two of them talked for a few more minutes until a knock sounded at the front door and Shannon got up to answer it.

  Chapter Eleven

  She returned a moment later with Joanna behind her. Ellie stood up and greeted her other friend. Joanna had moved to town the year before and opened a hotdog restaurant. She had quickly found a place with Shannon and Ellie, and the three of them had become tight. Her husband, Steve, worked as a developer and was currently bringing new business to Kittiport. He was the one in charge of the large hotel that would be opening up sometime later this year, and had several other development properties in progress.

  The three of them chatted for a bit just to catch up with each other's lives, then Shannon asked Ellie what had been going on recently. Ellie launched into the story of finding the dead body in her grandmother's basement and the break in.

  “Neither of us have any clue what's going on,” she said. “It's a tough case, according to Russell. They haven't been able to identify the victim yet or anything.”

  “That sounds like it would be frustrating,” Joanna said. “Who did you say the cleaning company was again?”

  “Wallace Cleaners,” Ellie said. “Why?”

  Her friend frowned. “Steve just hired them to clean out the old property he bought on the outskirts of town. It’s an old motel near the coast that is going to be turned into a summer camp for children. He was actually going there today to see how they're doing. I think I should call him and tell him what you just told me so he can be on the lookout.”

  Ellie nodded. “That would probably be a good idea. We don't know for sure they had anything to do with it, but they are definitely suspects.”

  She was going to say more, but she was interrupted by her phone vibrating in her purse. She dug it out and saw that Russell's name was on the caller ID.

  She answered it. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Ellie,” her husband said. “I just wanted to let you know that we finally got a positive ID on the victim.”

  Her heart began to beat faster.

  “Who is it?”

  “A man named Jason Strauss,” he said.

  “I've never heard of him,” Ellie said.

  “He’s only been in town for about six months. We managed to figure out his last place of employment, and I think we’ve finally got a lead on the case.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The last place he has a record of working is the local high school,” he said. “He was a janitor. Do you want to know why he got fired?”

  “Why?”

  “Because he had a public argument with one of the students. I'll give you three guesses as to which student.”

  She frowned, then her eyes widened. “Chris Franks?”

&nb
sp; “The one and only,” Russell said. “I guess he walked on Chris smoking in the bathroom a while back and reported him, which got him suspended. When Chris got back to school, he got into a huge argument with the janitor. It sounds like things escalated and Jason ended up yelling at Chris. Since Jason was a janitor and Chris a student, Jason ended up losing his job. According to what we have on file, he's been unemployed for about three months. I'm going to go talk to the Franks now. I just thought I would let you know.”

  “It's appreciated,” Ellie said. “So, do you think Chris is the killer?”

  Across from her, she saw her friends eyebrows raise. She put a finger to her lips, telling them not to interrupt. She wanted to hear what Russell had to say.

  “It's possible,” Russell said. “I never like having a minor as a suspect, but Chris is old enough to have physically gotten away with something like this. I'm still not sure what Jason would have been doing at his house, but I'm guessing I’ll figure that out pretty soon once I talk to the Franks. I'll call you back once I know whether we'll be making any arrests, so you can give your grandmother the good news.”

  “Thanks for letting me know. If we figure out who did this, I'll be able to sleep a lot better tonight.”

  “I know,” he said. “Me too.”

  She wished him luck then said her goodbyes and hung up the phone. Across from her, her friends were watching her eagerly.

  “Did he solve the case?” Shannon asked.

  Ellie shook her head. “No, not yet,” she said. “But he might be on the right track.”

  She quickly filled them in on what he had said. “So, it sounds like Chris and the victim, Jason, had a disagreement a few months ago and that somehow led to Jason's death.”

  “It's still weird,” Joanna said. “What was he doing at your grandmother's house?”

  Ellie shook her head. “I have no idea.”

  Shannon was frowning. “Russell said that he hadn't had work for three months?”

  “That's what he said,” Ellie said.

  “Where did he get the records?”

  “I have no idea,” the pizzeria owner said. “I didn't ask him. Why?”

  “Well, I'm just thinking, he worked as a janitor, which is not that different from what the cleaning company did. What if he started working for them after he got fired from the high school, and they just paid him under the table or didn't report his employment yet?”

  Ellie stared at her, realizing that her friend was a genius. “Shannon, that has to be it. That would explain why he was at Nonna’s house. That would tie everything together.”

  “I'm just guessing,” Shannon said, looking a little bit embarrassed. “I mean, it makes sense, but I could be wrong.”

  “Let's see if we can figure it out,” Joanna said. “What did you say the victim's name was?”

  “Jason Strauss,” Ellie said.

  “All right.” Joanna picked up her phone and started tapping away on the screen. Ellie watched, puzzled.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I'm checking online,” Joanna said. “I made a social media account for the hotdog shop, and a lot of people added it to their friend lists. Jason's name sounds familiar, so I'm guessing he's probably stopped by the store a few times at least. Aha.”

  She handed her phone number to Ellie, who looked at the screen. Her confusion lifted quickly. “Wow, good work, Joanna.”

  “What?” Shannon asked. “What did you find?”

  “He worked at Wallace Cleaners,” Ellie said, handing the phone over. “Joanna was right. He has it listed on his social media account. They must have been paying him under the table, which is why Russell didn't find it when he was looking into who the victim was.”

  “So, this means that Russell's probably on the right track?” Shannon said.

  “I hope so,” Ellie said. “It all does make sense if you think about it. It would explain why Jason was at Nonna's house, and it would explain why Chris was there for the murder. The cleaners arrived before the Franks had finished packing up and leaving. Chris must've gotten Jason alone somewhere and attacked him. With luck, Russell will make the arrest within the hour, and we’ll have the full story soon.”

  “How horrible for the Franks,” Joanna said, taking her phone back. “His parents are going to be shocked when Russell shows up there.”

  Ellie frowned. She hadn't even thought of them. She had just been happy that it sounded like Russell was on the right track. “You're right. This is going to destroy them.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Ellie spent another couple of hours with her friends, then excused herself to go to the pizzeria. She felt better for having talked to them, but was wondering why Russell hadn't called her back yet to tell her that they had arrested Chris. It all seemed to make sense, and she wanted the closure of knowing that the person responsible for Jason's death was in prison. She knew her grandmother would be relieved to learn that the case have been solved.

  Pete and Jacob were working that day, and both greeted her as she came in. The candied bacon pizza was selling well, and the pizzeria was busy. She was glad that she decided to come in today, even though she wasn't strictly needed. She kept her phone on her at all times, but on vibrate and in her pocket. She wanted to know as soon as Russell had made the arrest so she could relax once and for all.

  The hours ticked by, and there was no update. She began to get worried. Of course, she knew that Russell had a job to do and might just not have had the time to call her, but surely if he had actually arrested Chris, she would've heard by now. He knew how much she wanted to get to the bottom of this with him.

  She was working out front when distraction came in the form of Kevin, her neighbor, walking through the pizzeria's front door. She was surprised to see him, and was even more surprised when he came up to the register with his hand shoved into his pockets and a nervous expression on his face.

  “Can I talk to you?” he asked.

  “Sure,” she said. “Do you want to go somewhere more private?”

  He nodded.

  “You can come in the back with me, I suppose,” she said. “I'll just have to see if Jacob can pop out front for a moment while we talk.”

  He followed her into the kitchen where she asked Jacob to take over for her. Her employee agreed, and she took over making the pizza while he went out front. Kevin stood slightly behind her, hovering.

  “What is it?” she asked as she spread the sauce around on the pizza.

  “I… I just wanted to make sure that I'm not going to get arrested.”

  “Oh?” She quickly finished up spreading the toppings over the pizza and put it into the oven, then turned to give Kevin her full attention.

  “I mean, I know that I shouldn't have gone into your grandmother's house, but I really was just trying to be helpful. I wasn't trying to do anything illegal. I was worried when I saw someone flick the lights on upstairs. And then when no one answered the door, I figured it couldn't be one of you.”

  “Well, considering that there was someone else in the house and they ran away, I think you're fine. You’ve lived on the same street as us for a while, and you've always been perfectly nice. I think that unless something else comes to light, you've got nothing to worry about. We’re much more concerned with catching the person responsible for a hiding a body in my grandmother's basement.”

  She saw him relax. “Thanks. It's just last night… Everything went so quickly. I've been standing around the house all day, wondering if the police were going to show up and drag me off to jail or something. My wife told me I was being silly, but I've been making myself sick worrying about it.”

  “Well, you don't have to worry anymore.” She smiled at him. “Sorry if we just kind of left you hanging. It was a busy night for all of us, and I know Russell really wanted to get looking for the killer.”

  “I wish I could be more help with that,” he said.

  “Well, unless you know something I don't, I think
we’re kind of all at a loss. Russell does have one suspect, but I haven't heard back from him about that. I'm starting to worry it was a dead-end.”

  “Yeah. Do you think the break in had something to do with the murder?”

  “I do,” she said. Then she frowned. It had never crossed her mind that they may not be related, but as far as she knew, Chris didn't have his own vehicle. His parents had a van, which he drove sometimes, but the person who had broken in the night before had driven away in a smaller sedan. “Actually, Kevin, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I'm going to call my husband. Can I get you anything before you go?”

  “I might want a couple of slices,” he said, looking over where their pre-made pizzas were. “The candy bacon pizza looks pretty good. I'll go order it out front. I don't want to bother you anymore. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I feel a lot better now.”