A Slice of Murder (27 page)

I hit the ground and felt the post slip out of my hands. Scrambling for it, I found it just as Sheila launched herself at me again. The knife blade gleamed as it cut through the fog toward my heart, and I barely blocked its path with the post before it could strike home. Although the knife missed, the impact of Sheila’s body on mine nearly drove the breath out of me. I had to get away from her before she could stab me again. Forgetting the post for a second, I took advantage of her proximity and drove the heel of my good hand into her nose. I felt a satisfying snap as it hit, and I could feel her blood on my hand.

Her scream of pain was like music to me.

Sheila rolled off me, and I found my feet again, the post back in my grasp.

But the woman must have been possessed. She made it to her feet before I did, despite the pain she had to be experiencing, and before I could do anything to save myself, the knife was at my throat.

“Drop the post,” she snarled.

I didn’t really have much choice. I did as she ordered.

I’d put up a good fight, but in the end, it appeared that it was too little, too late.

I kept waiting for the knife to move, but something stayed her arm.

“What are you waiting for?” I wailed. “Go ahead and get it over with.”

“Not until we get into the house,” she whispered in my ear. “You’re going to pay for your insolence,” she added.

“How’s that nose feeling?” I asked. “It made a great sound when it broke, didn’t it?” If I was going to die, at least I was going to do it on my own terms.

We walked back to the house, both of us bloody and still bleeding, and I felt like it had been hours since I’d arrived at the Olsen house.

We were near the house again when I felt the last of my energy start to fade. “I don’t care what you do, I’m not going to make it any easier for you to hide my murder. You’re going to have to kill me right here and drag my body the rest of the way.”

The knife started to prick at my neck, and I could feel the blood start to flow from the wound. “You’re not as brave as you think you are.”

I was stunned to hear someone laughing, then realized it was coming from me. “I’m not brave at all. I’m just tired of being shoved around.” The laughter was hysterical as it echoed through the fog.

“I knew you were weak,” she said. “That’s how I got you to come here.”

“I came to help you,” I answered.

“That’s what I was counting on,” she said.

Before I could answer her, I heard footsteps racing toward us, and Sheila and I both turned toward them.

“You never counted on me, though, did you?!” Josh Hurley shouted as he flew out of the fog, hurling himself at Sheila. She turned in surprise, and I watched in horror as her knife sunk into his side.

“Run!” he screamed at me. “Save yourself!”

“No!” I shouted back as I threw myself onto Sheila. She tried to pull the blade out of Josh, but he held on to her hands with his.

I wrapped my hands around her throat. I had to get her off Josh, and that’s what drove me on, despite having one dead arm and almost no strength left in me.

I managed to drive her to the ground, and I had a forearm over her throat when I heard someone shouting out my name.

It was Maddy, and I nearly cried when I heard her voice.

“Over here!” I shouted. “Hurry! We need help!”

“Who else is with you?!” I heard Kevin Hurley call out.

“It’s Josh! Sheila Olsen just stabbed him in the side!” I shouted, my voice filling with tears.

To Kevin’s eternal credit, he must have fought every paternal instinct he had as he came to Sheila first instead of his son. Taking time to slap handcuffs on her, he didn’t go to Josh until he was sure she wasn’t going anywhere.

Only then did he kneel beside his son, taking his head onto his lap. I heard him speak soothingly to him for a second. Then he called for an ambulance on his radio.

Maddy came to me, and I collapsed against her as I tried to stand.

“You’re bleeding,” she said in horror.

“It’s just a couple of scratches,” I said, trying to keep my hysteria at bay. “I’ve never been so happy to see you in my life,” I said. “What took you so long?”

She looked as though she wanted to cry. “Bob Pickering was waiting at my apartment when he couldn’t find you at your house,” she said. “He had the list you asked for, and you’ll never guess whose name was on it.”

“Sheila’s,” I said.

“Then you knew?”

“Not until just a few minutes ago,” I answered.

“She brought her car to the shop the day of the murder, so not only was she in town earlier than she admitted to us, but she had every opportunity to steal the VW car keys.”

“It makes sense once you know everything. Faith Baron is inside,” I said.

Maddy’s face paled. “Is she dead?”

“No, but I’m guessing she’s going to be traumatized by what happened.” I started to feel faint and slumped back down to the ground, despite Maddy’s efforts to hold me up.

And that’s the last thing I remembered for a while.

“Good, you’re awake,” Kevin Hurley said as my eyes fluttered open. I was in a sterile white hospital room, and the bed beside me was empty. I wondered how I rated that, but I wasn’t about to complain.

“How’s your son doing?”

Kevin frowned. “He got out of surgery an hour ago. They think he’ll be fine. Somehow the knife managed to miss anything vital.”

“That’s wonderful,” I said. “He saved my life, you know. You should be proud of your son. He’s a hero.”

“That’s what he said about you before he passed out,” Kevin said. “If you hadn’t jumped on Sheila instead of running away like he told you to, he’d most likely be dead.” His voice choked at that possibility.

“Maybe we saved each other. How did he find me?”

Kevin shook his head. “My crazy son was shadowing you. He was afraid you were in danger, so he decided it was his job to protect you. Can you believe that?”

“I can,” I said. “He’s a fine young man.”

“I know.” There was an awkward silence, and then he said, “You’re going to be okay. Neither cut hit muscle. You’re pretty lucky, you know that, don’t you?”

I shifted and felt the pain again, though it was muted now. “Funny, I don’t feel all that lucky,” I said. “I thought she was going to kill me.”

“She wanted to,” Kevin said. “Who would have believed Sheila Olsen could snap like that.” He paused, then looked down at me. “Besides you. How did you know she killed her brother? I can’t believe I missed that.”

I thought about taking credit for figuring it out, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to him, not after what I’d gone through. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn’t know until just before the very end. Sheila called me and told me Faith was trying to kill her, and like an idiot, I rushed right over there to save her. It wasn’t until I realized that she was lying about you having an affair with Faith that everything fell into place, and then it was too late to do anything about it.”

“So, that’s why you didn’t call me,” he said softly.

I couldn’t meet his gaze as I explained, “She told me that you were having an affair with Faith, and that Richard was blackmailing you about it.”

Kevin shook his head sadly. “And you believed her.”

“In the end, I knew you’d never make the same mistake again after what happened to us. But I knew Richard had
something
on you,” I said, still keeping my head down. “Don’t try to deny it.”

“My wife had a problem a while back with prescription drugs,” he finally said. “She had back surgery and got hooked on her meds.”

“You don’t have to tell me this,” I said.

“I think I owe you at least that. She got cleaned up, but we didn’t want anyone to know, especially Josh. We got the first demand for money, and she paid it without telling me. It wasn’t too tough to track the P.O. box drop to Richard, but when I threatened to arrest him, he said he’d tell all of Timber Ridge that the police chief’s wife was on drugs. I should have taken him down anyway, but I couldn’t do that to my family.” His facade started to crack as he said, “If I’d done my job, Richard Olsen would have been in jail, his sister wouldn’t have had the chance to kill him, and my son wouldn’t be lying in the recovery room.”

“You protected your family,” I said. “It’s easy to understand.”

He let out a deep sigh. “It’s all over now. I’m resigning in the morning.”

“Don’t do that,” I said, surprised to hear the tenderness in my voice.

“Why not? You of all people have a reason to be angry with me.”

“You can’t control the crazies of the world,” I said. “You made a mistake, and you paid for it. That’s no reason to throw the rest of your life away.”

“It’s all going to come out,” Kevin said.

“Not if you keep your mouth shut,” I said. “Sheila destroyed the evidence without looking at most of it. She said blackmail was beneath her. Funny, I didn’t think murderers ever tried to take the high moral ground. Chances are that nobody knows but you, your wife, and me, and I’m not going to say anything.”

“You really wouldn’t?”

I shook my head. “I won’t even tell Maddy, and I tell her everything. Your secret’s safe with me. Don’t do anything you’ll regret later.”

“I do love being the chief,” he said.

“Then don’t throw that away.”

“Maybe I won’t,” he said, and I could see a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

I was about to say something when my door flew open and Maddy came in, carrying a vase full of roses.

“You shouldn’t have,” I said as I smiled at her.

“I didn’t. They’re from David Quinton.”

I shook my head. “That man doesn’t know when to give up, does he?”

Kevin said, “I like him.”

Maddy grinned. “Another ringing endorsement.”

Kevin started to leave, then reached down and patted my good hand. “Thank you. For everything.”

“Tell Josh I said thanks myself,” I said.

“I will.”

After he was gone, Maddy asked, “What was that all about?”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” I said. “If those are from David, what did you get me?”

“Are you saying my mere presence isn’t enough?” she asked as she laughed.

“It’s exactly what I need,” I said as my voice cracked. “Could I get some water, maybe?”

She checked the pitcher beside my bed. “Your ice is all melted. I’ll be right back.”

As she left to get the water, I marveled at what had transpired over the last week. It was hard to believe that in a town as small as Timber Ridge, so much could happen.

A few days later, I was back home and going out of my mind with boredom. Maddy and Greg were running the Slice in my absence, but I was getting antsy to return to work. I just about had all my strength back, and the idleness was driving me crazy.

I wheeled my trash can to the curb, then decided to get rid of those newspapers still cluttering my garage. The bundles were heavy, though, and as I tried to lift the first one, it slipped out of my hands and tumbled to the floor.

As the newspapers spilled, a handful of hundred-dollar bills scattered onto the floor as well.

It appeared that Richard Olsen hadn’t entirely stopped hiding money in his home.

For an instant I considered how much I could use the money, but it was only for an instant.

Before I could change my mind, I called Kevin Hurley to tell him what I’d found.

Let him worry about it.

I had a pizzeria to run, whether my employees were ready for me to come back to work or not.

It’s taken me years to come up with what I consider to be the perfect pizza dough recipe, and I’d like to share it with you. Pizzas are so fun to make, it’s not fair to leave it up to the chains.

This recipe yields one thick crust for one medium 14-inch pizza or two 7-inch small pizzas, the perfect place to start:

¾ cup warm water

1 tablespoon white sugar

½ ounce active dry yeast (2 packets at ¼ ounce each)

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground oregano (optional)

2 cups bread flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine the warm water, sugar, yeast, olive oil, salt, and ground oregano (if desired) until the yeast dissolves. Wait 3 minutes. Then add the flour to the bowl, mixing as you go. Mix on slow speed for 3–4 minutes, using a dough hook on your mixer if you have one. After the dough is thoroughly mixed, knead it on a floured counter for another 3–4 minutes, or until the dough is elastic to the touch. The dough will be a little sticky, but it shouldn’t cling to your hands. Form into a ball. Spray a clean bowl with PAM, put the dough in it, turning the ball once to lightly coat the top. Cover the bowl with a towel. Then put the dough in a warm place and let it rise for about 1 hour. After it has risen, punch it down, and it’s ready to use immediately, or you can refrigerate it until you’re ready to use it later that day.

On a counter dusted lightly with cornmeal, shape the dough with your hands until you have a round approximately the size you need. Using your knuckles, spread out the dough the rest of the way, forming a ridge along the outside edges. Then add your sauce, any toppings you like, and a blend of cheese. I like to use 3 parts mozzarella to 1 part provolone, but it’s your pizza, so top it however you like. I use about a cup of cheese on each of my small pizzas, but again, it’s all a matter of taste.

I typically make two 7-inch pizzas instead of one 14-inch, since the smaller size fits best in my portable brick pizza oven, but you can use your regular oven with a pizza stone and get nearly the same results. Bake the 7-inch rounds at 425°F for about 8 minutes, or until the crust starts to turn a dark gold and the cheese is bronzed on the top. The cornmeal will prevent it from sticking to the stone, but I like to turn the pizza a time or two as it bakes, just in case. You can use a pizza peel (a flat, round wooden tool with a long handle), or for the smaller pizzas, an ovenproof pancake flipper works great. After that, cut and enjoy!

There are several perfectly fine pizza sauces on the grocery store shelves these days, but this sauce recipe is easy to make, and I figure if I’m going to the trouble to make my own pizza dough, why not make the sauce as well? This is a recipe I like to use when I don’t have the time to simmer a sauce, so feel free to change the amount of spices you use if it’s not exactly to your own taste. After all, it’s your pizza!

8-ounce can tomato sauce (one with added garlic and oregano is fine, but plain does nicely too)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

¼ teaspoon ground oregano

¼ teaspoon fine dried basil leaves

1 teaspoon white granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 dash salt

1 dash pepper

The best thing this sauce has going for it is that it couldn’t be simpler to make, because it doesn’t need to be heated. Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Then add the sauce to your pizza crust just as it is. I like to add the sauce using a spoon and spread it around until I get it just right. For my family, who likes light sauce, I use 3–4 tablespoons, but use all you want! Whatever sauce is left over we store in the fridge for a few days, but usually it doesn’t last that long around my house.

Your pizza is now ready for toppings and cheese!