Pepperoni Pizza Can Be Murder (25 page)

“What’s not right is trying to leave me behind.” She took her cell phone out as we got out of the car and punched two numbers in.

“Who are you calling?” I asked her.

“I dialed nine-one, so now all I have to do is hit one and we’re connected.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I said.

“Don’t look so surprised. I get them every now and then myself.”

We approached Greg’s door, and after nodding to Maddy, I knocked.

It took forever, but Greg finally came to the door. He opened it slightly, and I could see that the chain was securely in place.

“What is it?” he asked. “I’ve got another half hour on my break.”

“Sorry, but we just got a huge pizza order, and I need your help.”

Greg looked back inside and called out, “It’s okay. It’s just Eleanor and Maddy.”

There was no response, and Greg said, “Hang on a second.”

He shut the door, and I kept waiting to hear the chain slide out of position so he could let us in.

Only he didn’t.

After I realized that he wasn’t going to open the door for us, I started pounding frantically on the door. “Greg, let us in.”

I just hoped he’d do it in time, but I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that I’d lost my last chance to save him.

I
t seemed to take him forever to come back, and I was just about ready to have Maddy hit that final one on her telephone when the door finally opened.

“She’s gone,” he said. “She took off out the back. Sorry, but Katy said she wasn’t in the mood to face either one of you right now.”

“Good, I didn’t particularly want to see her, either,” I answered. “Come on. We need to talk.”

“Let me get my jacket,” he said.

“It’s not that cold out,” I answered, imagining Katy lurking in the closet with another rolling pin, or maybe a knife. I wouldn’t put it past her to slip back inside the second Greg’s back was turned. I was willing to admit that my imagination was running on overdrive, but it still didn’t ease the growing sense of dread I was feeling.

Greg shrugged, and I was sure he thought I was more than a little crazy, but I didn’t care. At least he followed us out of his apartment.

“Why don’t you ride with us?” I asked.

“Then how am I going to get home tonight? I said I’d come back to work, you two don’t have to escort me.”

“That’s not it,” I said, keeping my voice low in case Katy was lurking somewhere around outside. I had the strangest feeling that we were being watched, though I fully realized I was just being delusional. “Come on, Greg. Don’t argue.”

“Okay, I’m coming,” he said.

We got into Maddy’s car, and she started to drive.

I turned around in the front passenger seat and looked at Greg. “There’s an explanation for why we just rushed you out of there. We have reason to believe that Katy killed your brother.”

“I know, you said that before,” Greg said.

“Yeah, but now we have some proof. Jamie Lowder saw Katy going into the pizzeria the night Wade was murdered with a pizza box from Drake’s in her hands.”

“Do the police know yet?”

I shook my head. “Sandi Meadows told me that she’s trying to convince Jamie to come forward on his own so it will have more credibility with Kevin Hurley.”

“And you’re just going to let her take her time doing it?”

“No,” I said. “I gave her until tomorrow morning to make him talk to the police, and if she hasn’t had any luck by then, I’m going to tell him myself. You can’t go back to your place tonight, Greg. She might decide you’re expendable.”

“Where am I supposed to go?”

Maddy said, “He’s got a point. He probably shouldn’t come home with either one of us. After all, this small town has a thousand eyes, and we’ve got enough trouble as things stand now without adding any grist to the rumor mill.”

“I guess I could crash with Josh again,” Greg said. “But I don’t even have a toothbrush, though.”

I fished a twenty out of my wallet. “Here.”

“I’m not taking your money,” Greg said.

“How about if I put it on your tab?”

Greg nodded reluctantly as he took the offered bill. “Okay, but I’m paying you back every cent that I took.”

“Am I arguing with you?” I asked with a smile.

“No, I noticed that, too,” Greg replied. “I still think you’re overreacting.”

“So let me,” I said. “I’m asking you for a favor. Do this for me.”

“For both of us,” Maddy added.

Greg shrugged. “You know I have trouble saying no to you two.”

“That’s why we don’t ask for much,” Maddy said.

We got back to the pizzeria, and I realized that I needed to talk to Slick while I had a few minutes. I’d gotten his bill in the mail, and it was for substantially less than the amount we’d agreed on. I wasn’t about to let him get away with it, and I needed to settle things immediately.

“Could you drop me off at Slick’s on the way?” I asked Maddy.

“That’s not a bad idea. Are you going to pick up another baseball bat for protection?”

“No, I think I’m covered. I need to talk to him about the bill for our new safe.”

Greg asked, “What happened? Did he charge you too much?”

“Actually, he didn’t charge me enough.”

He looked at me oddly. “And you’re complaining about that why, exactly?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” I said.

“You’re right there. Do you want me to go with you?”

“Thanks, but I’d rather you went with Maddy to the Slice. Don’t worry, I’ll be along shortly.”

Maddy said, “Besides, we’ve got to start working on that giant pizza.”

It was Greg’s turn to stare at her. “Do I even want to know?”

“It’s an inside joke,” I said.

“Most things are with you two,” he said.

Maddy let me off at Slick’s, and then drove to the parking lot in back of the Slice. I went in and found the store owner counting a massive amount of tennis balls.

“I thought those things came in cans.”

“They’re supposed to,” Slick said. “But somehow I got a shipment already opened. I should have known that deal was too good to be true.”

“They usually are, aren’t they?” I fought back my smile and added, “I got your bill today.”

He knew instantly why I was being stern with him. “Before you get upset, I got a special deal from my guy. He had a surplus of safes, and he passed the savings along to me.”

“We agreed on a price,” I said, not backing down an inch.

“Come on, Eleanor, if I charge you more, it’s going to foul up my whole bookkeeping system, and since Roger Henderson cut me loose, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Did you lose much money?” I asked.

“I didn’t think anybody knew about that,” Slick said.

“I happened to stumble onto some information,” I admitted.

Slick shrugged. “I lost a little, but Roger paid me back out of his own pocket, so I’m good. I told him he didn’t have to make full restitution, but he felt bad about what happened, and I couldn’t talk him out of it.”

“He actually gave you your money back?”

Slick nodded. “I’m not the only one, either. He paid Paul back, too.”

So his story had been true. That still didn’t explain the limousine and the thick envelope I’d seen go into it, but at least part of what Roger had told us had been the truth.

“I’m not set up to take any more money from you,” Slick said. He added with a grin, “Sorry. I’d really like to help you.”

“I bet,” I said. I looked around the shop for something to buy, and saw a pistol on the counter.

“I didn’t know you sold guns,” I said.

He looked puzzled, and then Slick picked up the weapon. “It shoots darts, can you believe it? People will buy the craziest things.”

“How much is it?” I thought the threat of it might be enough to dissuade someone from robbing the pizzeria. I didn’t want a handgun there, but this certainly looked real enough.

When he told me, I asked, “Is that the full retail price?”

“No,” Slick admitted. “I’m giving you the merchant discount.”

“I’ll pay full retail,” I said as I slid the money onto the counter.

“Then I’m not selling it to you,” Slick said. It was clear from the set look on his face that he was serious.

“Fine,” I said, tired of battling him. “Charge me whatever you want. I’ll take it.”

As he rang up the sale and put it in a bag, I said, “You’re a tough bargainer, you know that, don’t you?”

“Especially with you,” he said. “Don’t try to slip anything over on me, young lady.”

“I won’t,” I said, not even trying to hide my smile.

I was in a better mood than I had any right to be in as I walked out of the sporting-goods store.

But that suddenly changed when I saw the same black limousine I’d spotted outside Roger Henderson’s business pull up to the curb in front of Slick’s store. When I saw Art Young start to get out, I had a very bad feeling.

“So you’re the mysterious limo owner,” I said as the driver held the door open for him. “I should have known.”

“Good afternoon, Eleanor.”

“Have you been extorting money from Roger Henderson?”

He looked at me for a long three seconds, and then he said calmly, “If you’re going to use that tone of voice with me, I ask that you at least have the decency to do it in my car.”

All the while, the burly driver had been watching us. With a slight motion from Art Young, he sprang to get the door again with a quickness that didn’t look possible for a man that size.

As we stood there near the promenade, Art asked me, “Are you going to get in, or is this conversation over?”

I looked around for someone to witness what I was about to do, but no one was watching. Where were Maddy and Greg? How about Slick? I would have to be out of my mind to get inside.

“No thanks,” I said. “You might be surprised, but I’m not that stupid.”

I’d expected a snappy retort from him, but instead, he looked hurt. “Please, you have nothing to fear from me. You should know that.”

“I don’t know anything anymore, but I’m not about to put myself at risk if I don’t have to. Thanks, but no thanks.”

He gestured toward his driver again, who closed the door and got into the car.

Art Young looked at me; then he said, “At least we can talk over there, away from prying eyes.”

I didn’t know who had the prying eyes he was talking about, but it was a reasonable request. We found a bench nearby and sat down. From anyone watching us, it probably looked like two old friends sharing a bit of afternoon sun, but there was nothing friendly about our conversation.

Once we were settled, he asked, “Now, may I ask what has driven you to treat me with such rudeness? I was under the impression that we left things rather cordial the last time we spoke.”

“That was before I knew what you were involved in.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly do you know?”

I thought about it, and then I finally admitted, “Not much. I saw Roger Henderson hand you an envelope full of cash this morning in front of his shop.”

“You saw me?” he asked.

“Well, I saw that limousine of yours.”

Art pondered that a moment, then said, “I could deny that I was in it, but I won’t treat you like a child. All I ask is that you reserve that same attitude toward me.”

“Tell me the truth. Did you have anything to do with Wade Hatcher’s murder?”

There, it was finally out.

I expected half a dozen possible reactions, but the one I got actually surprised me. Instead of being outraged by the accusation, he started to chuckle.

After a moment, he said, “Excuse me, but you caught me off-guard. No, I had nothing to do with the murder, as I’ve already told you.”

“Then why were you taking cash from Roger Henderson?”

“I can think of a dozen lies I could tell you, but I have no reason to hide the truth. He was paying off a wager, one I’d warned him not to make, but took nonetheless. It’s usually out of my range of responsibilities, but I made an exception for him.”

“You took advantage of him, you mean.”

That struck a chord of anger in him, something that he suppressed as quickly as it had appeared. “Just the opposite, as a matter of fact. He begged me to put him in contact with a friend of mine. When I refused, he told me he’d do it himself. Not only would he have lost his money, he probably would have managed to get himself killed, and since he owes me money as well, I didn’t see that as a prudent alternative.”

I was really confused now. “How can I believe you?”

“You could ask Mr. Henderson himself, but I doubt he’d tell you. I could give you the name of my associate, but that wouldn’t end well for either one of us.” He spent a few seconds thinking about it, then said, “Let’s go over to my driver. I won’t say a word, and you can ask him where I was the night of the murder. Since he’ll verify that Roger and I were in Charlotte together, it should satisfy you.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come now, Eleanor. I have no reason to have arranged an alibi in advance, since I never dreamed anyone would ask me my whereabouts. What have you got to lose?”

He was right, and he was telling the truth. I knew it in my heart.

“Okay, let’s go ask him.”

The driver must have been watching us, because as we approached him, he popped out of the car like he was on springs.

Art looked at him and said, “Tell her whatever she wants to know.” He then turned away and walked back to the bench we’d recently vacated.

“Where were you the night Wade Hatcher was murdered?”

He got out his log, looked at it a second, then said, “I was driving Mr. Young and an associate to Charlotte. We left at eight
P.M
. and returned at two
A.M
. the next day.”

“And who was the associate?”

That got a raised eyebrow, but he was a good employee and did as he’d been told. “Roger Henderson.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded. “Is that it?”

“Yes, that’s everything.”

I was about to turn away when he said softly, “Be very careful.”

“I am, believe me.”

I rejoined Art on the bench and said, “Thank you. I’m sorry if I was rude to you earlier. It’s been a pretty difficult past few days for me.”

“Do you believe me?” He looked honestly surprised.

“The truth is that I did before I talked to your driver. I don’t know how, but I can tell when you’re being straightforward with me and when you’re not.”

“How is that?”

“I’m not exactly sure it’s something I could put my finger on, but I knew.”

“I’m serious,” he said. “Sometimes in my life, I need to be a little disingenuous, so if there’s some way I’m giving things away, it would be a very good thing to know.”

I thought about it; then after a minute, I said, “You seem a little uncomfortable with the truth. I don’t know if you mean to, but when you’re hiding something, you look me straight in the eye. The only times you don’t are when you’re telling the truth.”

He looked surprised by what I said.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean to offend you.” I kept thinking about what I’d heard about Art Young, but I still had a hard time coupling the actions with the man in front of me.

“You didn’t,” he said with an expansive smile. “In fact, you’ve done me a rather important favor. Now I’m in your debt, Eleanor.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” I said, startled by his comment.

“That’s where you’re mistaken. I pay my way as I go, and I expect those around me to do the same. Good afternoon.”