A Slice of Murder (17 page)

It was a stranger to me, though I wouldn’t have been surprised if Maddy had known her.

“Are you open for business?” the older woman asked as she looked around the empty dining room.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said as I grabbed a menu. “Where would you like to sit?”

“By the window, if I could. I needed a place to come in from the cold, but I love watching it snow, don’t you?”

“It’s one of my favorite things in the world to do,” I said.

She rubbed her hands together, then said, “Let’s see. I’d like a cup of coffee to start with. Then I’ll have a small cheese pizza.”

“Very good,” I said as I motioned Maddy to the back.

As she got the coffee, I said, “Sheila was pumping me about our investigation while you were calling your Realtor.”

“He’s not my Realtor,” Maddy said. “So, what did you say?”

“I basically told her we were incompetent investigators with no clue about what happened to her brother.”

“So you told her the truth,” Maddy said as she laughed.

“Not exactly. We have a list of suspects, including her, but I didn’t see any reason to tell her that.”

“How did she react when you told her we had nothing?”

I scratched my lip as I said, “She said she was disappointed, but I could swear she looked relieved.”

“But that could just have easily been your imagination,” Maddy said as she left to deliver the coffee to our lone customer.

After I finished making the pizza and put it on the conveyor, I heard the door chime again and wondered if we’d lost our customer.

Instead, I saw a group of twenty people coming in, stamping their feet on the mat and hanging their coats up on the hooks along the wall.

In a few minutes, Maddy came back with their orders and explained, “Their bus broke down on its way to the mountains for a ski trip, so while they’re waiting, they all decided to have some pizza.”

“Let’s hear it for mechanical malfunctions,” I said as I started preparing the orders. Maybe, just maybe, we’d make enough today to break even after all. It would be a nice change of pace after the business lull we’d been experiencing.

At the very least, it would give Maddy and me something to do in the meantime.

Something we were both good at, at any rate.

“A
re you here on official police business, or is this a social call?” I asked Kevin Hurley as he walked back into my kitchen a little after eight.

“Eleanor, you know I don’t make social calls in uniform,” he said.

“Then what can I do for you, Chief?”

“You can still call me Kevin,” he said, trying to smile, but not quite making it.

“As long as I’m on your list of suspects, I think it makes sense to be a little more formal, don’t you? I
am
still on your list, aren’t I?”

When he didn’t deny it, I added, “Well, there you go.”

“I’m here looking for Josh. Have you seen him?”

“Not since I threw him out for trying to work his shift,” I said. “Why, is he missing?” Josh was a good kid, and I hoped nothing had happened to him.

“He’s probably just hiding out to get back at me. He’s your biggest fan. You know that, don’t you?”

“I like him,” I said. “He’s got a good heart.”

“Believe me, I know. I’m just afraid it’s going to get him into real trouble one of these days.”

“He’ll turn up,” I said. “He’s not about to do anything stupid, like take off for long.”

“I hope you’re right.” He started for the door, then stopped and turned back to me. “Listen, if he shows up, let me know, would you?”

“I will,” I said. I’d get Josh’s permission first, but Kevin had a point. He deserved to know where his son was.

“Thanks,” he said. “That’s all I’m asking.”

After he was gone, Maddy came back. “What was that all about?”

“Josh is missing,” I said.

Maddy didn’t look the least troubled by the declaration.

I asked, “Aren’t you concerned?”

“Not really. Come on, Eleanor, you know that Josh is just as headstrong as his father was at that age. He’ll turn up.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Is that all he wanted?” Maddy asked.

“That was it. Now, don’t you still have customers to wait on?”

“I’m going, I’m going. Who knew you’d turn out to be such a slave driver?”

I laughed. “If anybody in the world knows it, it should be you.”

After she was gone, I started wondering where Josh might be. I hoped Maddy was right. I’d hate to think that he’d done something stupid on my account, like running away. There was nothing I could do about it at the moment, though, except wish that he’d turn up soon, and be all right.

My hands were buried in a sink of hot, sudsy water when Maddy came back. “I need you out front,” she said.

“I’m kind of busy here,” I said as I finished scrubbing the glass in my hand. We did our dishes in the sink, though Joe had promised to buy me a dishwasher as soon as we got on our feet. Six years later and I was still doing them by hand, but I didn’t mind. It gave my thoughts a chance to wander as I scrubbed, rinsed, and dried. I’d read once that Agatha Christie said she came up with some of her best ideas while washing dishes, and I believed it.

“Dry your hands and come on out. Tom Frances is back from his meeting with Sheila, and I want you to hear what he has to say.”

“You’re his contact,” I said. “You talk to him and let me know what’s going on.”

“Be that way,” she said. “Maybe I won’t tell you what he says.”

I laughed. “I know you better than that. You won’t be able to help yourself.” As I wiped my nose with the back of my hand, I added, “Besides, I’m sure he’ll talk freer if I’m not standing there looking over your shoulder.”

Maddy shook her head. “Suit yourself. I just thought I’d offer.”

The second she was gone, I had to fight the impulse to dry my hands and see what the Realtor had to say, but I still thought my instincts were dead-on. The only way I knew him was from the photograph on his FOR SALE signs all over town. Evidently he and Maddy were much closer. Besides, I had dishes to wash. Who else would do them? Maddy? I didn’t think so. Greg wasn’t working tonight, though he’d be in tomorrow. With Josh gone, we were severely shorthanded. Maybe I’d have to go by the high school and put up another
HELP WANTED
notice, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. If it did, I wouldn’t fire my new hire when and if Josh came back. It wasn’t his fault that his dad had forbidden him to come to work for me, but I didn’t have much choice about hiring someone else, either. I had a business to run, and if our level of customers ever approached where we’d been before Richard Olsen’s murder, Maddy and I would never be able to do it with just Greg’s part-time help. Rita’s absence was leaving a real hole in our work schedule, but I wouldn’t welcome her back. I rewarded loyalty, a quality she clearly didn’t possess.

Maddy came back just as I finished the last pizza pan in my sink. I’d have to do the dishes again at least twice more before the night was over, but I’d gotten a jump on things, so at least we weren’t falling behind.

As I wiped my hands on a dish towel, I asked, “What did he have to say?”

Maddy pretended to concentrate on something else. After a few seconds, she looked at me. “Sorry. Did you say something?”

“You know I did. What did your Realtor friend tell you about his meeting with Sheila?”

Maddy scrunched up her nose, then smiled. “I promised myself I was going to make you beg before I told you anything.”

“You’re in for a long wait, then,” I said as I reached for a spare order pad. “While you’re waiting, you can cook and I’ll wait on customers.” I added with a smile, “Hey, that way we’re both waiting.”

She grabbed my apron before I could get past her. “That’s not fair.”

“Do you really want to get into an argument with me about what’s fair? Come on, Maddy, I don’t think either one of us wants to stroll down that road, now do we?”

“Fine, give me the pad, and I’ll tell you.”

Since I’d had no intention of working the front, it was an easy point to concede. “Now tell me.”

There was no more jousting for position now. Maddy said, “Tom told me that when he arrived Sheila started off by telling him that she wanted at least fifty percent above what the neighborhood comps were.”

“Comps?”

“You know, comparable prices. Or is it compatible prices? How should I know? It means what other houses in the area are selling for.”

“Comps. Got it,” I said. “What was his response to that?”

“He told her she’d be sitting on the property for years if she meant what she said. Sheila told him that she didn’t care, that she wasn’t in any hurry to sell the house.”

“That’s the attitude I got from her earlier,” I said. “How about you?”

“Absolutely. That’s not the best part, though.”

Maddy was smiling, and I knew I was going to have to drag it out of her, despite her initial acquiescence. Finally, I broke down and asked, “Go on and tell me. I know it’s killing you. What’s the best part?”

“She got a telephone call in the middle of their conversation and excused herself for not more than four minutes, from the way Tom told it. When she walked back into the room, she said she’d made a mistake earlier. She said she wanted fifty percent of the comps, not a hundred and fifty.”

“That’s odd. She must really want a quick sale.”

“Tom said it was just as ridiculous to ask for too little as it had been trying to get too much. He said she’s throwing money away, and he tried to tell her just that, but she wouldn’t budge. Since Tom’s commission would be slashed as well, he refused the contract. It’s all pretty strange, isn’t it?”

“But what does it mean?” I asked.

“I have no idea.”

“Just another fact for the list,” I said.

We were still discussing it when the kitchen door opened, and our First Couple of Timber Ridge walked in. I wasn’t all that crazy about chatting with Faith and Steve Baron together, but from the set expressions on their faces, it didn’t appear that I was going to have much choice.

At least Maddy was there with me. Two against two would have to do.

“You have some impatient customers out front,” Steve said. “If they don’t get some service soon, I doubt they’ll stay.”

“We can live without them,” Maddy said.

“It’s okay,” I said. “You go ahead, Maddy. I can handle this.”

“Are you sure?”

I just nodded, and Maddy left, but not before giving me a warning look to be careful. There was no need for it; I planned to keep a butcher knife close, just in case I had to defend myself. I also noticed that my sister kept the kitchen door propped open, so at least she’d be able to hear me if I had to call out for her.

“Can I help you two with something?” I said as I started chopping vegetables we didn’t need. It gave me something to do with my hands and had the added bonus of allowing me to arm myself without raising their suspicions. “Maddy would be glad to wait on you, if you’ll find a table out front. It won’t be long.”

“We’re not here to eat,” Faith said. “We need to talk to you.”

“Let me do the talking, honey,” Steve said.

“Then do it,” Faith snapped at him. Was there trouble in paradise? I certainly hoped so, since I had my suspicions that at least one of them was a murderer, and possibly both were.

Steve said, “Eleanor, did you actually think that my wife and I didn’t talk to each other? Faith and I trust each other completely, and we share everything.”

“Even Richard Olsen?” I asked, clutching the knife a little tighter than I had to.

“That’s ridiculous,” Steve said. “I told you, there was nothing to that, just rumors and idle speculation.”

I had a little more than that, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to show it to him. Before I could come back with something snappy, Faith said, “Steve, say what we came to say. I can’t stand being here.”

“Okay,” the mayor said. He looked at me, his normally jovial countenance replaced with a hard stare. “Eleanor, stay out of our lives. If you meddle any further, it will be at your own peril.”

A chill swept through me, and I was glad I had a knife in my hand. “What are you going to do if I don’t? Are you going to stab me, too?”

“Don’t say anything you might regret,” he said.

“Trust me, there’s no chance of that happening,” I said.

The mayor shook his head. His voice was full of anger as he spoke. “I didn’t stab him, and I’m not going to stab you. But what I can do is bring down a rain of fire on your head that will make the plagues of Egypt seem like child’s play. All it would take is a word from me, and I can have so many health, fire, and building code inspectors in here that you’ll be shut down before the ink is dry on the paperwork. Is that what you want to happen?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” I said. The man surely knew how to fight back. He was right, and we all knew it. No one can comply with every regulation and ordinance in the book, because some of them seemed to contradict each other. I didn’t care how clean a restaurant was, if an inspector had a grudge against the owner, he could find a reason to shut the place down, whether it merited it or not.

“Try me,” he said.

He turned to his wife, then asked, “Is there anything you’d like to add to that, dearest?”

“No, I think you covered everything beautifully,” she said as she kissed his cheek. “Now let’s go home so I can fix you a proper meal.”

“Remember what I said,” the mayor called out as he walked through the kitchen door back out into the dining room.

“There are a great many things I’ll remember from this,” I said softly to myself. If he was going to take the gloves off, then so was I. I still had that letter from Faith to Richard, and if I had to take a full page out in the paper and publish it there, I would. He’d made one major mistake coming to the Slice tonight.

He’d threatened the last real connection I had with my late husband.

And that was one thing I would not tolerate.

Maddy came back in, chatting without really looking at me. “What on earth was that all about? They trotted out of here like the kitchen was on fire. What did they say to you, anyway?” She looked at me then, and her voice hardened: “Eleanor, what happened? Did they threaten you?”

“Not physically,” I said. “It was much worse than that.”

“What could be worse than that?” she asked.

“They threatened the Slice,” I explained.

After I told her everything they’d said, Maddy’s face was as grim as I was sure mine was. “We’re not going to take that, are we?”

“Do I look like I’m going to roll over and let them get away with it?” I asked.

“Good,” she said after studying me. “We’re finally going to take some action.” There was a slight pause, and then she asked, “Do you happen to have any idea what that action might be?”

“Not yet,” I said as my fist idly tapped my thigh. “When I come up with a plan, you’ll be the first to know.”

“I’m all for that,” she said. “In the meantime, should I shoo our customers out, or do you want to finish the night?”

I glanced at the clock and saw that it was eight-thirty. “We have less than two hours. We might as well make a little money.”

As Maddy nodded, I added, “Besides, that will give me time to think about tomorrow. I want to be ready to hit the ground running.”

“I’ll put my track shoes by the bed tonight,” she said. As she gave me three orders to make, she said, “If you need me, just give me a holler and I’ll be here.”

“I know you will,” I said. “In fact, I’m counting on it.”

“Good,” she said.

As I made the pizzas and sandwiches for the orders as they came in, I kept thinking about the mayor’s threat. There was no doubt he could bring more scrutiny to my pizzeria than I wanted, but would he risk it? He was an elected official, accountable for his actions to the people of Timber Ridge. That meant he had to answer to them. Then again, before anyone realized what he was up to, I’d be out of business. If folks voted him out of office after I was shut down, it would be a hollow victory for me.

But now I had more incentive to solve the murder than I’d had yet. Was the mayor threatening me to hide his wife’s secret affair, or was there something even darker he didn’t want exposed?

Either way, I was more determined than ever to find out.

Maddy came in a few minutes before ten and said, “There’s someone here to see you.”