Pepperoni Pizza Can Be Murder (3 page)

“Thanks.”

I let him out, and then locked the door behind him. Paul was a good man with a strong and caring heart, and I hoped that one day he’d find his own true love.

I’d meant what I’d said about mine. For me, it had been Joe, and would always be Joe.

I had a great life, and for the most part, I enjoyed every minute of it.

It was good being me.

At least it was until later that night when someone stuck a gun in my face.

“D
on’t do anything stupid and I won’t hurt you,” the masked man said as he poked the handgun toward me.

“Why don’t you rob a bank like everyone else does?” I asked, still clutching the deposit bag with the night’s receipts. Maddy and Greg had worked so hard during the rush that I’d sent them both home early. Ordinarily, my sister never would have taken me up on my offer, but she’d had a headache and had leapt at the chance to escape.

The funny thing was that I hadn’t even been nervous walking at night to my car through the breezeway between two buildings to the alley behind the pizzeria, where I parked my Subaru.

Apparently, I’d been wrong not to expect something.

“Don’t make me shoot you, lady,” the robber said, his voice muffled by the mask he was wearing. I tried to figure out how I could describe him to the police after this was over, but he was so average in height and build that it was almost painful. It didn’t help matters that he was covered from head to toe in black, including the ski mask that had to have obscured his vision. I couldn’t even see the color of his eyes through the mask, though I kept trying to ignore the gun shoved in my face. It was tougher to do than it sounded.

“Last warning,” he said, and I saw a gloved finger start to move toward the trigger.

“Take it,” I said as I tried to give the deposit bag to him in a rush.

The problem was that my hand was shaking so much that I dropped it before he could grab it. He swore as the bag hit the ground and sprang open. I’d been meaning to replace it since the zipper had busted two months ago, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.

He knelt down in front of me to scoop up the cash and receipts, and for a second, I thought about hitting him over the head with my purse. It wasn’t as bad a choice of weapons as it might have appeared, since it was loaded down with lots of nice, heavy things, but before I could act on my impulse, he looked up at me, gestured with the gun, and then just shook his head.

No words needed to be spoken. He was warning me, and I was going to go along with his silent demand. After all, it was only money, and I could always make more, though tonight’s take wouldn’t be that easy to replace.

Still, it wasn’t worth dying over.

He stood again, then quickly ran down the alley toward a cluster of other buildings before I could even get my breath back.

I called the police dispatcher on my cell phone as I leaned against my car, still shaking from the potentially deadly encounter.

“I need to speak with Kevin Hurley,” I said.

“He’s clocked out for the day,” Helen Murphy explained. “I thought you said he already came by your restaurant tonight.”

“Then send someone else,” I screamed, not meaning to raise my voice, but having no real control over it. “I’ve just been robbed.”

Helen’s voice softened immediately. “Are you all right, Eleanor?”

I took a second to get my breath, and then said, “No, but I will be.”

“He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“Not physically, but my nerves are jumping all over the place,” I said as I slumped even lower against the driver’s-side door. “Just send someone over to the alley behind the Slice as soon as you can, Helen, would you?”

“It won’t be a minute,” she said. “Stay on the line until someone shows up.” I could hear her making a call on the police radio, and she was as good as her word. It couldn’t have been sixty seconds before I saw a squad car rushing toward me.

I felt a little bit of relief when I realized it wasn’t the police chief. I didn’t want to deal with Kevin Hurley, especially not yet, but my joy was short-lived when I saw another squad car closely following the first one.

It appeared that our chief of police wasn’t about to leave this for one of his employees.

It somehow made a very bad situation even worse.

“You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?” Kevin asked me after he determined that I was okay.

“Come on, Chief, it’s not like it was her fault,” the policeman who’d first answered the call said.

Kevin iced him with a deadly glare, then said, “Garvin, you’re new, so I’m going to give you one chance to question my judgment. And guess what? You just used yours up. Now get back on patrol.”

The new officer turned slightly green as he made his way back to his cruiser.

“You didn’t have to be so hard on him,” I said after Officer Garvin was gone, “especially when he was right.”

“Don’t you start on me,” he said.

“What are you going to do, punish me, too?”

“Eleanor, you don’t understand. He’s got the chance to become a good cop someday, but he needs to learn his place in the pecking order of things, or he’ll never make it.”

I was mad now, my fear displaced by my anger. “How about me, Chief? Do I need to learn my place as well?”

The police chief took a step back, apparently surprised that I still had a bite to go along with my bark. I didn’t know why he’d ever think otherwise. I’d never given him any indication in the entire time he’d known me that he could boss me around.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a long sigh. “I’m just worried that this could have been much worse.”

“I’m not stupid,” I answered, managing to speak a little softer than I had before. “I wasn’t about to argue with him. He wanted my money, and he had a gun pointed at me, so I gave my deposit to him. End of story.”

Kevin nodded, then said, “I have a thought, if you’re in any mood to hear one from me.”

“Go on. I’m listening,” I said.

“You really should get a safe for the pizza place and take your deposits to the bank the next day on your afternoon break. Eleanor, you shouldn’t be carrying money around with you at night when you’re all by yourself.”

I could tell he was bracing himself for a blast, but I didn’t have any more fight in me. “You know what? You’re right. It’s a little like locking the barn door after the horse is loose, but I’ll buy a safe tomorrow.”

“And you need a better alarm system,” he added.

“Don’t push your luck. I can barely afford to stay in business as it is.” I waved a hand at his paperwork. “Are we finished here? I just want to go home.”

“Just sign this and you’ll be finished for now,” he said as he handed me the report he’d been working on since he’d first arrived.

I did as he asked, and he handed me a copy of it. “There’s not much chance you’ll get that money back, you know that, don’t you?”

I nodded. “I know. Right now I just want to forget this ever happened.”

“In Timber Ridge? You’re kidding, right? You’re going to have to tell this story two dozen times before the week is over, and you know it.”

“Just let me have my fantasy a little while longer, okay? Good night, Chief.”

“What happened to calling me Kevin?” he asked.

“When you come in for pizza, or ask me something about your son, I’ll call you Kevin, but not when you’re here on business.”

He waited until I got into my Subaru and drove away. I half-expected him to follow me home, but he must have had other, more pressing business to attend to besides acting as a police escort to a shaky ex-girlfriend.

I debated calling my sister, knowing she’d left the Slice with a raging headache, but I realized that if I didn’t, she’d never forgive me. I pulled out my cell phone and punched in her number as I drove.

“Hey, it’s me,” I said.

“Miss me already?” Maddy asked.

“I just got robbed.”

She laughed, then hesitated. “Don’t do that, it hurts when I laugh.” There was a brief pause, and then she added, “Wait a second. You’re not serious, are you?”

“I wish I were kidding, but I’m not. He got all of today’s cash, including the money the Elvis entourage spent, and all of our receipts.”

“Forget the money. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. He stuck a gun in my face, and that was about all I could see. Not that much skin was showing otherwise. The robber was wearing a heavy coat, jeans, work boots, and a ski mask.”

“Did you at least recognize his voice?”

“Do you think someone I know robbed me?” The volume of my voice tripled as I said it. Being robbed by a stranger was one thing, but having someone I knew hold a gun on me was a thousand times worse.

“Hey, settle down. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was just a question.”

“Sorry, my nerves are a little frayed.”

Maddy said, “Come over to my place. I’ve still got your pajamas here, and there’s a new toothbrush still in its wrapper waiting for you.”

“I should go home,” I said.

“Why?” she asked. “You shouldn’t be alone tonight.”

“You’ve got a headache.”

“It’s getting better by the minute. No more excuses. Come on.”

“You know what? You’re right, I don’t need to be alone tonight,” I said as I turned my car around and started for her apartment. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“I’ll put the popcorn on,” she said. “We’ll make it a party.”

“Thanks, but I just want to go to bed and try to forget what happened.”

Maddy shifted gears instantly. “We can do that, too.”

I shoved my telephone back into my purse, and then as I drove to my sister’s place, I thought about what had happened. Something she’d said had really shaken me up. I hadn’t told Kevin, but I was just beginning to realize that there had been something familiar about that voice.

I’d heard it before, even though the robber had tried to disguise it.

The question was, where?

The more I concentrated on isolating it, the fuzzier it got. I decided that the only way I was going to identify it was to forget all about it and let my subconscious have a crack at it.

But I couldn’t help feeling nauseous when I realized that someone I knew had threatened me with a gun and had taken all my cash.

Maddy was waiting by the front door of her apartment, and as I got out of the car, she flashed her lights for me.

I walked up the stairs, fighting the irrational urge to run. Until that moment, I hadn’t fully realized just how terrified I was. Stress was like that for me sometimes, hitting me with a delayed reaction long after I was out of danger. It took everything I had not to keep looking behind me, afraid I might see that masked gunman again.

My sister didn’t say a word; she just wrapped me in an embrace the second I reached her. “I’m so glad you’re all right. We’ve got to come up with a better way to handle our money.”

“I know,” I said as I disengaged myself from her grasp. “Kevin suggested we buy a safe, and said that we should make afternoon deposits instead of night drops. For once, I have to agree with him.”

“Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day,” she said with a smile. “Why should the chief of police be wrong every time he says something? Come on in, I’ve got some hot chocolate simmering on the stovetop.”

“I said I wasn’t in the mood for a party, and that includes those famous chocolate bombardment bashes you’re so famous for.”

“This is just a little toddy to help you sleep,” she said. “Hot cocoa always did have that effect on you.”

“Sure, okay, that sounds good.”

I took the mug she offered and sipped it gratefully. It was warm, but not too hot to savor, and just holding the toasty mug in my hand made me feel better.

“Was it horrible?” Maddy asked softly.

“It was pretty scary,” I admitted.

She nodded, as if that was enough. “Then there’s no reason to talk about it. Let’s change the subject, shall we?”

“I’m all out of topics of conversation,” I said.

“That’s all right,” she said with a laugh. “We both know that I can more than monopolize any conversation.”

I laughed along with her, and realized that coming to her place had been the perfect decision. Maddy had her faults—I knew them more than anyone else, even her ex-husbands—but she loved me, and she could nearly always make me smile, a rare enough event on days like today.

After the hot chocolate was gone, I stifled a yawn, then excused myself and made my way to her guest bedroom. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to sleep after what had happened, but to my surprise, I was out before my head hit the pillow.

There was a note on the door of the Slice when we opened the next morning. My hands shook a little as I opened it, but I was relieved to see that it was from David Quinton:
Eleanor. You weren’t home last night. Call me as soon as you get this. David.

Maddy asked, “Who is that from?”

“Nobody,” I said as I started to crumple it up and put it in my pocket.

“Come on, don’t hold out on me,” she said, and snatched it out of my hand.

She read the note aloud as I unlocked the door. “I think it’s sweet.”

“You would,” I said as I started to lock up behind us.

She followed me to the kitchen, where I immediately started making our dough for the day. As I got out the ingredients, she asked, “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know. I figure there’s a good chance that somebody’s going to want pizza today, so I figured I’d better make some dough. I’m kind of crazy that way sometimes.”

She shook her head. “You know what I mean. Before you do anything else, you need to call David.”

I ignored her suggestion and continued working on the dough. “You can call him if you want to, but I’ve got work to do.”

“Eleanor, it’s clear that he’s worried about you.” She grabbed the telephone and shoved it toward me. “It will just take two seconds.”

“You don’t honestly think that, do you? Even if it were true, it’s two seconds I don’t want to spend talking to him. Maddy, I’m not ready to have a conversation with anybody about what happened.”

“You talked to me last night.”

“Just barely, and you’re my family.” I attempted to ignore the phone, but the more I tried, the more adamant my sister became that I call him.

I finished adding yeast to the water, mixing the flour and other ingredients together, and turning on the mixer before I finally took it from her. “Fine. I’m calling him right now, so back off, all right?”

“That’s all I’m asking,” she said.

As I dialed David’s number, Maddy asked, “Do you want me to give you some privacy?”