Pepperoni Pizza Can Be Murder (14 page)

“The things I do for you,” Maddy said.

“It’s for the team, and I take my own share of hits,” I said.

Maddy nodded. “I know, I know.” She shivered once, and then asked, “Is there any time to go back to my apartment before we open?”

“Why?”

“I need a shower after that encounter,” she said.

“Sorry, but a good washing up in the sink is going to have to be good enough. We’ve got work to do.”

“More crime solving?” Maddy asked.

“No, pizza making,” I said. When I saw my sister’s frown, I added, “Don’t worry, as soon as we get the dough started and you’ve got the toppings prepped, we’ll dig into that box and see what we can find.”

“It’s a deal,” she said. “But here’s another thought. Why don’t you prep the kitchen, and I’ll start searching for clues?”

“Maddy, I need you to stay focused. The sooner we get our work done, the sooner we can start looking.”

“Spoilsport,” she said.

“You know it.”

When we got to the pizzeria, I parked in back, as was my custom, and Maddy went around to collect our box of what, hopefully, were clues about Katy’s vanishing act.

We were both in back of the car when I heard a voice I’d been hoping I wouldn’t hear for a while.

There was no dodging it now, though.

I had no place to run.

“Where have you been?” the police chief asked me as I turned around.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I had to check in with you wherever I went, Chief,” I said. I tried to shield the box from him, but it was clear he was curious about what was in it. I decided to tell him before he asked. Not the truth, but something that might ease his suspicious nature, not that he wouldn’t be right on the money this time. “It’s just some old stuff for recycling,” I added.

He nodded, then reached out and took the telephone book on top. Was Katy’s name anywhere on it? I hoped not, because I was going to have a hard time explaining why I had it, and worse yet, the contents of the rest of the box I was holding.

He leafed through it, and then flipped it back on top. “I’ll take it for you. I’m going to the recycling center this afternoon.”

He made a move for the box, and then Maddy quickly appeared and said, “Thanks anyway, but we’ve got some trash to sort out first. Was there a reason you were looking for my sister, or are you just serving and protecting everyone in Timber Ridge?”

“I just want to make sure you’re all right being here alone after the murder and the robbery.”

“I’ve nearly forgotten about it,” I lied. I doubted I’d ever be able to get rid of that image of the gun shoved in my face, or the body on the floor of my kitchen, but he didn’t have to know that.

Kevin looked long and hard at me. “Eleanor, why don’t I believe you?”

I shrugged. “It’s just your nature, I guess.”

Maddy laughed. “If I’d have said that, you would have thrown me in jail.”

Obviously not the least bit amused, Kevin answered, “I’d have to have more cause than that.” He paused for a few seconds, and then asked, “How was your big date last night, Maddy?”

She reddened slightly. “How on earth did you hear about that?”

“Don’t kid yourself,” he said sternly. “There’s not a whole lot that goes on around here that I don’t know about.”

That stung Maddy a little, I could tell by the way her breath sharpened. I needed to stop this little trade-off of jabs before she said something I’d later regret. “Thanks for checking on me, but if I’m going to have dough ready by noon, I’d better get started on it right now.”

He tipped his cap to me. “I understand.”

We started to walk away when he called out, “By the way, has either one of you seen any sign of Greg Hatcher this morning?”

“No,” I said simply, and Maddy shook her head as well.

“How about last night?”

“I haven’t spoken to him since you and I talked last,” which was the plain and unvarnished truth. Whether the chief of police believed me or not wasn’t my problem. It felt good to be able to tell him the truth, even if it was a change of pace for me recently.

“If you hear from him, call me,” Kevin said.

“So, the real reason for your concern becomes apparent,” Maddy said.

“Why can’t it be about both things?” he asked.

“I’ll let you know, Chief,” I said.

He seemed content with that, and after we turned the corner, I said to Maddy, “Do you always have to go out of your way to antagonize him?”

“No, but usually it’s worth the trip. I’m not about to let him bully you while I’m standing right beside you.”

I looked at her a second. “Are you sure it’s not because he brought up your date with Bob Lemon?”

“That’s irrelevant,” she said.

I shoved the box into her arms as we neared the door. As I did, a piece of paper fluttered out of the telephone book. Maddy took the box, and I retrieved the paper.

As I looked at it, Maddy asked, “What does it say?”

“Give me a second.” I opened the paper and found a telephone number written on it. “It’s just a number,” I said as I showed my sister.

She put the box down on the ground in front of the pizzeria’s door and pulled out her cell phone.

“What are you doing?” I asked her, though I was pretty sure about the answer.

“I’m calling it, what do you think?”

I reached for her phone, but she must have anticipated the move, because she pulled it out of my reach at the last second.

“Hang on,” she said as she moved it to her ear. “It’s ringing.”

I pulled her phone away enough so we could at least both hear. After four rings, a voice came on. “Hello, this is Wade Hatcher. I’m not here, but if you’d like to leave a message, you know the drill.”

There was something about that voice that tweaked my memory. I was still pondering it when Maddy said, “It’s no surprise that Katy had Wade’s number.”

“Hang on a second,” I said as I waved a hand in the air in front of her. To my continued shock and amazement, my sister actually did as I’d requested, but whatever tenuous connection I’d made was gone.

“Never mind. I thought I heard something in his voice that I recognized, but I was wrong.”

Maddy wasn’t about to accept that, though. “Let’s listen to it again.”

“It’s no use,” I said.

“Come on, you have to at least try.”

She punched redial, and a few seconds later, it was back.

It took me a full ten seconds, and I had to focus sharply on the inflection of his voice, but then it hit me.

“He’s the one who robbed me,” I said.

Maddy looked at me as if I’d just announced I was going to sell the business and move to Alaska. “How can you be sure? I thought you said he whispered when he held you up.”

“He did, but there’s something in the quality of his voice that makes me believe that he’s the robber.”

Maddy was quiet for a few seconds, and then she said, “My first reaction to hearing that recording was that he sounded an awful lot like Greg.”

I’d realized that myself, but I didn’t say it aloud. “Greg didn’t rob me.”

“Are you sure? I’m nearly as big a fan of his as you are, but how can you be sure it was Wade and not Greg?”

“Because I know Greg Hatcher, and he’s not going to rob me. He knows if he needs money, he can have whatever I’ve got, no questions asked.”

“The voices are similar,” Maddy repeated. “I’m just saying.”

“No, I don’t believe it. He could no sooner rob me than…”

I left the sentence hanging in the air, but Maddy finished it for me, anyway. “No sooner than kill someone?” she asked. “Is that what you were about to say?”

I nodded, too appalled to speak it.

“Maybe we don’t know Greg as well as we thought we did.”

“He didn’t kill anybody,” I said, but it was pretty clear my voice was losing conviction as shades of doubt began to creep into my mind.

“Still, I think we both need to be careful when Greg comes back.”

“Don’t you mean ‘if’?” I asked as I unlocked the door.

“No, he’ll be back. There’s not much doubt about that. I’m just wondering when it’s going to happen.”

Maddy retrieved the box, and after she was inside, I relocked the door so we could work in peace. She carried it back into the kitchen, and then deposited it on a stool by the counter.

We both kept ignoring it as I measured the warm water and yeast out for the first batch of dough. As I added other ingredients to the mix, my gaze kept going back to the floor where I’d seen Wade’s body. I couldn’t get the image out of my mind, and I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever be able to wipe it clean. The sight of his body lying there, the bloodied rolling pin, and the thin-crust pizza were burned into my retinas.

And then I asked a question I should have been wondering about from the moment I saw the crime scene: “Where did the pizza come from, Maddy?”

She looked confused by the question. “You make them every day.”

“I’m talking about the one I saw beside the body.”

“I just assumed it was one of ours,” she said, a frown creasing her lips.

“The kitchen was clean, though. Nobody made it after I left, or there would have been dirty dishes.”

“He could have cleaned up after himself,” Maddy said uncertainly.

“If Wade even knew how to make a pizza, he wouldn’t be able to clean up so we wouldn’t realize someone had been in our kitchen. Look around. Is there a single thing out of place back here, except for the fact that the rolling pin is missing?”

I looked again as Maddy scanned the room. Finally she said, “No, it’s how we leave it at night.”

“And not even Greg knows our routine back here,” I said, with more than a little relief in my voice.

“That means someone brought a pizza with them after we closed. Who would do that?”

“And, more important, why?”

I wiped off my hands and grabbed the telephone.

Maddy asked, “Who are you calling?”

“I need to know if Kevin held on to that pizza.”

I dialed his number, and he nearly growled at me when he answered.

I didn’t let his tone bother me, though. “Do you still have that pizza you found beside Wade’s body?”

“Of course I do, it’s evidence. Don’t tell me you want it back.”

“I’ve got a hunch I never made it in the first place,” I said. After I explained my theory to Kevin, he said, “Don’t go anywhere. I’m going to get a big cooler, and then I’ll bring it by.”

“I’ll be right here.”

After I hung up, Maddy asked, “Why would someone bring a pizza from some other place to a pizzeria?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m going to give it some thought until I can figure it out.”

I went back to my dough, and my thoughts kept returning to the box of Katy’s discards as I worked. I was hoping that if I distracted myself enough, my subconscious might give me an idea of how the errant pizza had ended up in my business. The box was intriguing as well. Could there be a clue to what had happened to Wade Hatcher buried among Katy’s papers? And would Maddy and I be clever enough to find it, if there was? I had my doubts about both counts, but we had nowhere else to be at the moment. As soon as we got a little downtime, we’d have to start digging into the pile and see if we could make any sense of it.

There was a pounding on the back door two minutes after the first batch of dough was rising.

I looked at Maddy as I wiped my hands on a dish towel. “That was fast.”

“Don’t forget, he’s got flashing lights and a siren. It’s probably great for getting through traffic.”

I opened the back door and saw that Kevin had a cooler in his arms. “It’s the only one I could find on short notice.”

The cooler had the Carolina Panthers football team logo on it. “That’s fine with me. I’m a huge Panthers fan.”

“I didn’t know you liked football.”

“It’s fun, but what I really like are football fans. You wouldn’t believe how much pizza we sell whenever there’s a game.” I held out my hands. “Let’s see it.”

“You have to put these on first,” Kevin said as he handed me a pair of latex gloves.

“Are you serious?”

“It’s evidence, and while I doubt a piece of pepperoni could hold a fingerprint, in this day and age, you can’t be so sure.”

I donned the gloves, and then opened the cooler. The pizza was wrapped in lots of plastic, so it was difficult to tell much about it. “I need to see it without the wrapping.”

Kevin nodded, and then took the pizza back from me. He was wearing gloves himself, so I couldn’t fault him for his caution with me. Maddy was watching everything with an air of wonder and amusement on her face, but fortunately, she was keeping her comments to herself, at least for now.

After the wrapping was off, Kevin handed it back to me, but I refused it.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “The wrapping’s off, just like you asked.”

“That’s not one of mine,” I said emphatically.

“How can you be so sure? You haven’t even really looked at it.”

“Maddy, do you want to tell him?”

She nodded, then glanced at the pizza. “Look at the crust. That one was baked in a gas oven. We use electric.”

“And you can tell that from one glance?”

Maddy frowned at him. “Can you tell a revolver from a shotgun?”

“Of course, I can.”

“That’s your business, and this is ours. We didn’t make it. I’d say Drakes in Goshen’s Landing, if I had to guess. Eleanor, what do you think?”

“It looks like one of theirs to me. The question is, who would bring a pizza from somewhere else here?”

Kevin studied the pizza for a second; then he said, “Maybe it was a killer who wanted to lure someone else here for a pizza, but didn’t have one on hand.” He wrapped the pizza back up, then said, “Thanks for your help, ladies.”

“You’re welcome,” we said, though he probably didn’t hear us. No doubt he was about to pay a call on one of our competitors, which was fine with me. Let them explain a patrol car in front of their pizza place, for a change.

We went back to work, but ten minutes later our day was interrupted again. Someone was rapping steadily on the front door of the pizzeria.

“Are you expecting anybody this morning?”

“Not me. Do you think Kevin thought of something else?”