A Crunchy Crust of Murder Read online

  “Russell, forget about that,” she said. “Something weird is going on.”

  “Weird? What you mean?”

  She told him about the truck that had been following them, then about her concerns about the relationship between Jack and Brie. At last, she got to the lottery ticket she had just seen.

  “Ellie, where are you right now?”

  “I am at the Autumn Leaves Apartments. Apartment nineteen. I'm on the balcony, my phone doesn’t get service inside.”

  “I want you to stay right where you are,” he said. “I'm going to head over. I'll tell the restaurant to pack up our order to go, and we can pick it up later. Just stay where you are. I'm on my way over. Stay on the phone with me.”

  “I don't know if I can, Brie will be out of the bathroom soon and will probably want to talk about what happened. I don’t get any service inside, and it will be strange if I insist on staying out here on the phone with you.”

  “Just tell her I'm running his license plate number or something,” Russell said. “I want to stay in contact with you.”

  “I –” she broke off as the sliding door opened behind her. She spun around to see Jack standing there.

  “Are you going to come in?”

  “I'm just on the phone with my husband,” she said. She saw a look of puzzlement, and then sudden recognition on his face. She thought she also saw a flicker of fear. “Your husband? What do you –”

  He was interrupted by the sound of someone pounding on the apartment’s front door. He and Ellie started at each other for a long moment. Ellie's mind was racing. She didn't know who to trust. Was Jack the killer? Was Brie? Adam?

  “I'm going to go see who that is,” he said. “Come in or stay out, whatever you prefer.”

  He turned to go back inside, leaving the glass door open. “No, Jack, don't open the door,” she called out. She turned her attention back to Russell. “I have to go. Jack's about to let Adam in. I'll see you soon.”

  She hung up the phone then hurried inside, nearly tripping over the cat in her haste to get to Jack. She grabbed onto his wrist. “Don't open the door,” she repeated.

  He looked around at her in surprise and annoyance. “Why not?”

  “Because someone was following Brie and me on our way here,” she said. With a flash of inspiration, she added, “That's why I was on the phone with my husband. We were reporting him to the police. I don't know what he's going to do if you open the door.”

  Jack looked doubtfully at the front door. “How do you know it's the same person who was following you? How do you know he was even following you? A lot of people live in this complex.”

  “We drove around the block, and he stuck on our tail the whole way,” she explained. “A normal person isn't just going to drive around a block for no reason. And I don't know for sure it's him, but who else could it be?”

  Jack sighed. Tugging his wrist out of Ellie's grip, he approached the peep hole and looked through it. “It's that guy who was hanging around here the other day,” he said. “I'm going to open this and give him a piece of my mind.”

  “No,” she said again. “It's Adam, I know him. He works for the company that supplies the meat and cheese for the pizzeria. He’s their delivery driver. He’s the one who was following us. I recognized his truck. Trust me, Russell is on his way and he'll take care of it. Getting involved won't help anything. There is no reason to confront someone with the police already on their way.”

  He still looked doubtful, but he reluctantly turned away from the door. “What has Brie gotten herself into now?” he muttered, heading for the kitchen. Ellie heard a door open from within the apartment as he walked away. She turned to see Brie coming down the hall toward her. The young woman, who had missed all of the drama of the past few minutes, looked puzzled.

  “What's going on?” she asked. “I thought I heard someone knock. Was it Adam?”

  “It was. We didn’t let him in,” Ellie said. “Russell is on his way. We'll get this all figured out pretty soon.”

  “Good,” Brie said, breathing a sigh of relief. She walked over to the couch and plopped down on it. “Why don’t you sit down? Hey, it looks cleaner in here. Did Jack clean up?”

  “Yeah, he did,” she said. “He seemed pretty upset that I was here while the house was so messy.”

  The younger woman frowned. “That's odd. He usually doesn't care what the house looks like. Maybe he just had a bunch of personal stuff out here or something. He’s usually pretty private.”

  “His wallet was on the table,” Ellie said. She hesitated. “Has he been buying lottery tickets, do you know?”

  Brie looked taken aback by the change in subject. “Lottery tickets? I don't think so. Devon told him he should buy a couple after he won, but Jack said that was stupid. He said the chances of someone else in the same town winning were astronomically low. I don't think he's wrong about that. I mean, can you imagine how lucky one of us would have to be to win as much or more than Devon?”

  “I see,” Ellie said. She sank down onto the couch next to Brie.

  “Why?” the other woman asked. “Do you think we should do it? I mean, they are only a couple dollars each.”

  “No, I don't think so,” Ellie said. She sighed, wishing Russell would hurry up and get there. “How was your relationship with Devon? Were things going well?”

  Brie looked sad. “Things were going great. We were planning on getting our own place and moving out in just a couple months. I was so happy with him. I seriously thought I was going to marry him. It's really hard for me to believe that he's gone. I'm not sure what to do or what to think. I mean, I know I'll have to move on eventually. I just can't imagine actually getting over this and finding someone else to be with, you know? Even though logically I know it's expected and normal, my heart just says that he was the one for me.”

  Ellie nodded. It seemed like her guess about the nature of Brie and Jack's relationship might have been completely wrong. She seemed completely earnest as she spoke about Devon. She wondered if she was overreacting to all of this. Maybe Adam had a perfectly good reason for being there. Maybe the lottery ticket really was just a random ticket Jack had bought. The killer could have been a complete stranger, who had already left town and was out of their hair for good.

  Jack came out of the kitchen. He had a TV dinner in his hands, and a bottle of soda tucked under his arm. He eyed the two of them on the couch. Ellie got up.

  “I didn't mean to take your seat,” she said. “I'll stand, I don't mind.” There was a chair, but a suitcase had claimed it.

  “No, that's fine,” Brie said. “Sit back down. Jack, go eat at the table.”

  “I want to watch my show,” he said.

  “Ms. Ward is a guest,” Brie said. “It would be rude to make her stand.”

  “But I just moved all my stuff to the table, there’s no room to sit.”

  “I'll help you clean up the table,” Brie said with a sigh, standing up. “You’d think I was your mother, not your roommate.”

  Grumbling, Jack followed her over to the table. Ellie watched as the two of them moved some of the clothes and piles of papers off of it. She saw Brie toss the wallet onto a pile of clothes. The papers, which he hadn’t taken the time to replace in the wallet’s pouch, fluttered out of it. Brie reached down to pick them up. Ellie saw her eyes widen as she plucked the lottery ticket out of the mess.

  “Jack, what’s this?”

  Chapter Twelve

  I thought you said you weren’t going to buy any lottery tickets.”

  Jack looked up at her, his eyes widening. “Give that back,” he snapped, reaching for it. She let him take the wallet, but held the lottery ticket out of his reach, looking at it. “Jack… is this Devon's ticket?”

  “Of course not,” Jack said. “It's mine. It was a losing ticket. I don't know why I haven't thrown it away yet.”

  He reached for it again and Brie stepped back, still frowning the ticket. Ellie stood up, sensing tr
ouble.

  “It is. This is Devon's ticket. What are you doing with it?”

  Brie’s gaze raised to meet his eyes. Jack flinched slightly, and looked as if he was trying to keep himself from lunging at her.

  “Is it?” he asked, his voice tense. “How strange. It must have gotten in there by accident.”

  Ellie walked closer slowly, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

  “By accident?” Brie asked. “How could his missing lottery ticket get in your wallet by accident?”

  “I – I don't know,” Jack said, running a hand through his hair. “Maybe someone planted it. They're trying to frame me.”

  “Frame you? Who would want to frame you? Just tell me how this got in there, Jack,” she said. Her voice quivered. She looked over her shoulder at Ellie, as if for help.

  Getting a bad feeling, Ellie looked around for her purse, in which she kept a cannister of pepper spray. When she didn’t see it, she frowned. She didn't remember bringing it up. For that matter, she didn't even remember having it in the car. She usually kept it on the passenger seat, but Brie had been on the passenger seat. Was it possible she had left it at pizzeria? Her phone had been in her pocket, and her keys were in her hand… Her stomach sank. While her purse was probably not the most important thing right now, the fact that it was missing was a blow.

  Even though she knew that she wouldn't be much help if things went south, she stepped up closer to Brie. Jack and Brie were both looking upset, though she had a feeling that there were different reasons behind their emotions.

  “You,” Jack suddenly said, his head snapping up and staring at Brie. “You must have it put in there. You’re trying to frame me for his death. You’re the one who let the cops in to search the place while I was gone. I bet you were hoping they would find it buried in my things. Why did you do it, Brie? Why did you kill him?”

  Ellie's eyes flicked over to Brie. The young woman looked visibly shocked. Her jaw worked a couple of times and she sputtered, “How dare you? That's completely ridiculous. I loved him, why on earth would I want to kill him? We were thinking of using this money as a down payment to buy a house, and I was looking forward to my future with him. I can't believe you're really accusing me of doing that. Did… did you kill him?”

  She sounded almost puzzled, as if she couldn't quite believe that she was making the accusation. Jack's fists clenched, and he looked everywhere but at her face. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. Finally, Jack made a sound that was half groan and half sob.

  “I did,” he admitted, his voice breaking. “I did it, all right? I hate myself for it, but it's done, it's over. He was just being such an…” He trailed off, shaking his head angrily.

  Brie was backing away from him. She bumped into Ellie, and reached out to grasp on to her arm for support. “Jack, why?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. “Why would you kill him? I don't understand. I thought you were his best friend.”

  “I was!” Jack said. “I was his best friend. We practically grew up together. We were brothers in everything but blood. I thought we would always have each other’s backs. Then, he starts dating you and makes all these plans to move out and leave me here on my own – I can’t afford this place by myself, Brie. Where did he expect me to go? –then he wins that stupid lottery and I thought for sure he would split it with me, or at the minimum maybe give me a couple grand to help me get on my feet after you two leave, but no. His plans were all about you and him and your future together. He… he was forgetting about me. All those years of friendship, everything I did for him, all the times I put myself on the line for him and took the blame for some stupid thing he did, and vice versa, all of it meant nothing because he was too obsessed with his pretty new girlfriend and his new dream of having a perfect, average life. I went out to pick him up that night after his other friend canceled on him, and he was just standing there next to my car, talking about all his plans with you and him and the money, and when I asked him if he was going to share with me, he just laughed in my face.” He took a deep breath.

  “He laughed at me, Brie. I had my pocket knife and when he turned around, I didn't even pause to think about it. I stabbed him. The second after I did it, I realized what I had done and I was horrified by it, but he was still alive and it was too late. I had to stab him again and again. I was planning on hiding the body, but he ran away and I didn't want to chase him and cause a scene. I realized he had dropped the ticket on the ground, so I grabbed it and I got in my car and I came back here and started packing some stuff. I was sure that the police would knock on the door any minute. But then morning came and I heard the reports on the news. They had found his body and seemed to have no idea who killed him. I was planning on using the money to start over somewhere else, but then I realized that me leaving right away would just make me look guilty.”

  “Oh, my goodness,” Brie said. She wrapped her arms around herself, her face pale. “I think I'm going to be sick. I don’t want to believe any of this.”

  “It's okay,” Ellie said softly to her. “We'll figure –” She broke off. There was another knock on the front door. Jack shouted at the person to go away. Ellie hesitated, wondering if it was Adam again, or if it could be her husband. She thought enough time must have passed for Russell to have gotten there. She hurried toward the door.

  “Hey!” Jack started moving toward her, but Brie stepped in his way.

  “Don't you dare lay a hand on her,” she said. “Whatever happens now, you're gonna own up to it, do you hear me? What are you going to do, kill me and kill her too? Kill whoever’s standing outside the door? How many more people would you have to kill before you get out of the country? That money won’t be enough to last you long if you’re on the run.”

  Ellie hesitated just a moment, watching Jack, worried that he might attack Brie, but he seemed to be feeling more lost and scared than angry.

  Deciding she had better take the chance, she ran toward the front door and opened it to find both Russell and Adam standing on the other side. Adam was gripping her purse.

  “Hey, Ellie,” Russell said with a grin. “It looks like your stalker was just trying to return your purse. He was driving by when he saw you pull out of the pizzeria. The purse was on your car, and he saw it fall off. He grabbed it and tried to catch up with you. He didn’t realize he had frightened you.”

  Ellie barely registered the flicker of relief that went through her when she saw her purse.

  “Thanks, Adam,” she said automatically before turning her attention back to Russell. “Russell, we need you inside right now. Jack killed Devon and he's alone in there with Brie.”

  Russell’s expression went from amused to serious and wary immediately. He tugged her gently outside of the apartment.

  “Stay out here,” he said. “I’ll take care of it, but I need you safe.”

  He walked through the apartment door, his hand already reaching for his radio as he contacted Liam. Ellie sank against the wall, taking the purse that Adam handed her.

  “Wow,” he said. “I wasn't expecting this much excitement tonight.”

  “Neither was I,” Ellie said.

  Epilogue

  Ellie walked into the police department, a carryout bag with two hotdogs in one hand and a pair of drinks held between her other arm and her body. Mrs. Lafferte, the elderly woman who manned the police desk, waved at her.

  “Did you bring anything for me?” she asked.

  “You told me not to bring you anything unhealthy anymore,” Ellie said, stopping in the middle of the room. “You said you didn’t want me to even offer, because you need to stick to your new diet.”

  The older woman cackled.

  “I know, I know. I’m just kidding. Go on back and get whatever delicious food you have out of my face.”

  Ellie chuckled, shaking her head. “You had me feeling pretty bad for not bringing you something,” she said. “Russell’s not busy?”

  “He’s not with a
nyone at the moment. He might be on the phone, so just knock.” The older woman waved her back with an idle hand, then returned her attention to the newspaper she was reading. Ellie went into the back of the sheriff’s department, following the familiar path to her husband's office. She knocked on the partially open door.

  “Come in,” he said. She pushed the door open and stepped inside, placing the bag and the drinks on the desk. He inhaled deeply and leaned back in his chair.

  “Remind me again, how did I get this lucky? A wife who brings me the best hotdogs in town for lunch. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

  “It helps that said wife sometimes gets sick of eating pizza every day for lunch,” Ellie said. “So, how's everything going?” She took a seat across from him and opened the bag, pulling out her New York style hotdog.