A Pizza to Die For (9 page)

“Maddy, as a chef . . . ? I think you’re better suited at being a waitress.”

“Hey, this was your idea,” she said. Before Maddy delivered the first pizza, she turned to Bob and said, “You don’t have to finish those, you know.”

“Bite your tongue,” I said. “He offered his aid, and I’m going to take him up on it. Go on, he’ll be here when you come back.”

Maddy took the pizza, gave Bob a wink and a big grin, and then left.

“Sorry about that, Eleanor,” he said.

“Don’t apologize. Wash.”

He did as I asked, and when things slowed down, I said, “I can think of another way you could help.”

“Would you like me to sweep the floor? I’m afraid I’d be out of my league making pizzas.”

“Trust me, you’re not getting anywhere near my oven. I’m talking about helping us investigate Judson Sizemore’s murder.”

Bob frowned at me. “I understand you’ve already gotten someone to assist you there.”

“Hey, you’ve worked for Art Young before, so don’t give me any holier-than-thou attitude.”

He shrugged. “Just because I’ve worked for the man doesn’t mean that we’re friends.”

“If it did, I’d like to think that I wouldn’t judge you based on someone else’s rumored actions that I couldn’t confirm or refute, even if I cared about them in the first place.”

Bob put the platter he’d been washing back in the sink. “Don’t kid yourself, Eleanor. He’s not as charming as you seem to think he is.”

That did it. I was tired of his attitude, even if he
was
washing dishes for me. “What does it matter how charming I think he is? He’s my friend, and I asked him for help. You should think about the fact that he gave his assistance without hesitation, which is more than I can say for you.”

Bob nodded slowly. “It appears that I’m determined to be in one of your doghouses, doesn’t it?”

“It seems that way to me at the moment,” I said.

“Let’s start over. What can I do for you?”

“Nothing,” I said, suddenly cooling to the idea of getting him to help us. “I’ve got it covered.”

“Eleanor, I’ve already apologized. What more do you want from me?”

I gave him my coldest look. “I’m sorry; I must have missed that. When exactly did you apologize?”

He thought about it for a few moments, and then nodded. “You’re right, of course. I shouldn’t have said anything about a friend of yours, no matter what my personal opinion of the man might be.”

“I suppose there is a request for forgiveness buried somewhere in there,” I said. “For a man who’s supposed to be good with words, you are alarmingly lacking at times, did you know that?”

“In front of a judge and jury, I’m fine. It’s just when I’m dealing with you and your sister that I seem to cause myself the greatest number of problems. I honestly am sorry, if it matters.”

“Of course it does,” I said. “Your apology is accepted.”

“Then how may I help you?”

I thought about punishing him a little more, since I was overly sensitive about anyone attacking my friends. Then I realized that with Maddy as a girlfriend, he got enough grief without me adding to it. “I don’t know anything about Judson Sizemore or his sister, Gina. Would it be possible for you to ask around in Chastain and see what you can find out about either one of them?”

“I can do that,” he said. “When do you need the information?”

“As soon as possible,” I replied.

“Then I’ll leave the rest of the dishes to you, and I’ll get right on it, as long as I have your blessing, that is.”

“If you can help with this, I’ll be happy to finish up the dishes myself.”

He took his apron off, and then said, “Then I’ll be going. I’ll let you know what I uncover as soon as I learn anything about them.”

“I’d appreciate that. Thank you, Bob.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

After he was gone, I was starting to feel better about our chances in the murder investigation. With Bob Lemon working one side of the street and Art Young working the other, I felt like we had the opportunity to get a real handle on why Judson Sizemore had been killed in his pizzeria.

That good feeling quickly faded away when the door opened again ten minutes later, but instead of Greg, I saw someone I had no interest in dealing with at the moment.

“What can I do for you, Chief?” I asked Kevin Hurley as he came back into my kitchen. I’d had no idea that it would be such a popular spot. If I had, I might have tried to fit in a comfy chair or two alongside my pizza oven.

“We need to have an extended conversation,” he told me.

“About what? I can teach you how to make pizza, but you’d have to pay attention, and I wouldn’t mind if you took notes.”

“I know how to make pizza,” he said. “I’ve got a number by the phone to call one in whenever I want.”

“Then I’m afraid I can’t teach you much else.”

“Would you be quiet long enough for me to talk, Eleanor?”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Sorry, sir.”

He just shook his head. “Do you always have to do things the hard way when it comes to dealing with me?”

He had a point. I never made things easy on him, even when it worked in my favor. “I’m sure that it appears that way sometimes, doesn’t it? Okay, I’ll try to be a little more cooperative from here on out.”

The police chief bit his lip, most likely to keep from making a crack about my promise. “We need to talk more in depth about Judson Sizemore.”

My ears burned a little, since I’d been talking about the man all day. “Go on, I’m listening.”

“Remember, I’m here to ask questions, not disseminate information,” he said.

“I have to hear the question before I answer it, don’t I? What do you want to know? If I’ve got an answer, you’ll get it without any sass.”

He glanced in the little notebook he always carried around in his breast pocket, and then he asked me, “Is it true that you threatened him two days ago?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a threat,” I said. “He rebuffed every attempt I made at a cordial relationship, even though we were going to be competitors. I just told him that I’d tried being nice, but since that hadn’t worked with him, I’d have to try another course of action.”

Kevin shook his head. “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t imagine him taking that as a threat.”

“Me, either,” I said. “I’m glad we agree on that.”

The police chief frowned at me. “Eleanor, I was being sarcastic.”

“Were you? Sometimes it’s so difficult to tell. Okay, I promised you a straight answer. I didn’t threaten him, at least not in my mind.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“You were there,” I said. “It was when you helped me get him out of the Slice when he was here handing out flyers for his pizzeria.”

“And you didn’t see him after that. Is that correct?”

“Kev . . . I mean Chief, I did not see him after we had that conversation in my pizzeria.”

“All right,” he said as he jotted something down in his notebook. “Eleanor, I’ve got to be honest with you. It would be a lot better for you if you had an alibi when the victim was murdered.”

“I’m not about to apologize for sleeping alone,” I said.

He shut his notebook. “I’m not asking you to do that, and you know it.”

“Just so we’re clear.”

“I heard David Quinton was back in town.”

Where was this going? Were we still discussing the murder case now? “True. We had lunch together, but he’s leaving again soon.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“For me?” I asked.

“For everybody. I always liked David.”

“So did I.”

After a few more seconds, he left me alone in the kitchen, wondering what the end of that conversation had been all about.

The door swung open a second later and Greg walked in.

“Where have you been?” I lashed out at him, not meaning to take my anger out on him, but not able to stop myself.

He just laughed. “Well, Mom, it’s like this. I was planning to come straight home, but Betty Jo wanted to get a malted, and gee, you know how swell I think she is. Lighten up, boss, I’m three minutes early.”

I let out a deep sigh. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“Chief Hurley must have really rattled your cage.”

I wasn’t about to discuss that with him. “If you’re ready to work, we can use you.”

“Just point me to a customer, and I’m on it,” he said.

“Ask Maddy,” I said.

“I’d love to, but she’s not out there. As a matter of fact, I was kind of hoping you could tell me where she went.”

Chapter 7

“S
he’s not out there?” I asked. I couldn’t believe my sister would just abandon her post like that.

“Not as far as I could tell. I figured she was back here with you picking up someone’s order.”

“Well, she’s not.”

As I raced out the kitchen door, a thousand scenarios went through my mind. Where could Maddy be? Had something happened to her? I had to believe that it would take something urgent to make her leave her post,

“I’ll help you look for her,” I said as I scanned the dining room.

She wasn’t there, and I was getting really concerned. I stormed out of the Slice, not caring if my customers walked away with the contents of the entire place if they were in the mood to. Being paid for my pizza was not even on my mind.

Maddy was all that mattered at that moment.

I found her just outside the door. As a matter of fact, I nearly ran her over as I rushed out.

“Where have you been?” I asked as I hugged her.

“Our illustrious chief of police was interrogating me, and I didn’t think you’d want our customers to see it. Why, were you worried about me?”

“Of course I was,” I said. A twinge of anger came up. “Now get back inside before I have to fire you.”

She grinned at me. “You can’t fire me. You love me, remember?”

“Trust me, I can and I will if you ever disappear from the Slice like that again.”

As we walked inside, I saw Margaret Wilmoth standing at the register. She said, “I would have left my money if I’d had the exact change.”

“Sorry about that,” I said. “How was everything?”

“Delicious, as always. Is everything all right, Eleanor?” Margaret had been a guidance counselor at my high school, and I’d always been a big fan of hers. She and Billie Davis, another counselor who’d worked there, were two of the reasons most kids in jeopardy of dropping out had stayed in school.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Thanks for coming.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world.”

After she was gone, I turned to Maddy and asked, “Do we have everything under control now?”

She nodded as she sniffed the air. “We do on my end. Is it me, or is something burning in the kitchen?”

I raced back into the kitchen, certain that the place would be in flames, but I didn’t find anything even close to igniting.

It took my heart ten minutes to slow down enough for me to decide that calling 911 might be a bit premature.

Our lunch break finally arrived, and I was so exhausted from the mass of customers we’d had that I was tempted to find a booth out front and take a nap, though it would have been the worst time in the world to do it.

For some reason, my sister was perky and ready to go.

“How do you do it, Maddy? I know you worked just as hard as I did this morning, but you still look fresh.”

She grinned. “I recommend Mountain Dew. It’s my caffeine beverage of choice.”

“Maybe I should have some myself,” I said.

“It’s up to you, but I think it’s great stuff.”

“I’d better not. After all, I don’t want to get hooked.”

She smiled at me. “There are worse things in the world, trust me, and you can pick one up just about anywhere.”

“I’ve been thinking about something,” I said. “I’m not ready to give up on Nathan just because Gina wants us to. How do we even know that she’s telling us the truth about her uncle’s intentions?”

“It’s like we’re psychic or something,” Maddy said. “I was just about to suggest we pay him another visit.”

We got to Nathan’s place, and I started for the porch when Maddy stopped me. “We’ve got a better chance of getting him alone if we go out to the garden, don’t you think?”

“It makes sense to me.”

As we walked around the house, I kept looking in the windows, hoping not to see Gina Sizemore there. The woman had been in Nathan’s life for less than a year, and she was already trying to control his every movement. It made it tough to talk to him, but I wasn’t about to be stopped that easily. I hated the idea that Nathan could believe that I had anything to do with his nephew’s death. But I couldn’t convince him of that if I didn’t get the opportunity to speak with him.

We got around the back, and Maddy’s instincts were on the money. Nathan was there harvesting snap peas and, better yet, Gina was nowhere to be seen.

“Nathan, could we speak with you?” I asked as we approached him.

He looked up at us, and then went back to his harvesting. The tender green pods were exploding with peas, and they looked so good, I wanted a few for myself. Nathan’s face had been serene as he’d been picking vegetables, but the second he spotted us, a cloud crossed his face.

“I’m not talking to you, Eleanor.”

“How about me?” Maddy asked.

“Neither one of you,” he said firmly. “You’re trespassing on private property, and you both need to leave.”

“Give us just three seconds to speak with you and then we’ll leave you alone,” I said. “Nathan, we didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Judson. You’ve got to believe us.”

“There’s no reason I should,” he said harshly. “You wanted him dead, and from what I’ve heard, you told him as much yourself.”

“Who told you that, Gina? If she did, you should realize that she’s lying to you, at least about us.”

“That’s enough,” a voice I recognized said from the back porch. I hadn’t even heard her come out. I looked up to see Gina holding her uncle’s shotgun, and it was pointed right at both of us. “You heard the man. You’re not welcome here.”

“We just came to talk,” I said.

Maddy grabbed my arm. “Nobody here is interested in what we’ve got to say. Let’s go, Eleanor.”

“Listen to your sister while you still have the chance,” Gina said. “Now move.”

She held the gun like an old friend, and I knew that Maddy was right. We didn’t really have any choice in the matter. It was time to go.

“Okay, we’re leaving,” I said. Before I could let it go, I turned back to Nathan and said, “Listen, if you change your mind and decide that you want to talk to us, you know where to find us.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Gina said as she stepped off the porch and moved toward us.

I’d pushed our luck as far as I could. Maddy and I left at a fast pace, but at least we hadn’t run away from the scene.

Maddy and I didn’t speak again until we were back in the car and driving away from Nathan’s house.

Finally, Maddy looked at me and grinned. “That went well, didn’t it?”

I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. “What do you mean? We didn’t learn anything, and we just ended up making matters worse.”

Maddy smiled. “I don’t think so. We found out how far we could push Gina, and how much control she has over her uncle. Can you believe that he didn’t make a move to protect us when she threatened us with that shotgun?”

“There’s something we need to keep in mind. Nathan just lost his nephew, and Gina lost her brother,” I said. “In some parts of the country, it could be said that they reacted in a reasonable manner.”

“Something’s going on there,” Maddy said.

“Do you have any idea what, exactly?”

“Not yet, but give me time. I will.”

“I have no doubt about that,” I said. “What should we do now?”

I glanced at my watch and saw that we had a little less than thirty minutes left on our lunch break. “We could go back to the Slice and take a nap before we have to reopen,” I said.

“We could, but I honestly can’t imagine us doing that, can you?” she asked. “Our investigation time is limited, so we can’t squander the free time we’ve got.”

“So, where do you suggest we go?” I asked.

“That, I’m not certain about. I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we drive around until we can come up with something?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

As Maddy drove past the promenade, I glanced over at the Slice as I always did, and I was surprised to see a man standing out front. One quick look in the parking lot and I spotted the long, black car I’d come to recognize over the years.

Art Young was standing there patiently waiting for us to return.

“Maddy, pull in.”

“Why?”

She saw Art then, and then noticed his car. “Can’t he wait until we get back?”

“That would be rude. He might have news for us,” I said.

Maddy pulled into an open space, and then said, “Fine, but I’m not going over there with you. I’ll be at Paul’s again looking at his pastries. Come find me when you’re finished.”

“He’s not here this time of day,” I explained to her. Paul had some horrible hours, including coming to work in the middle of the night and leaving not long after most folks took their lunch hours.

“Look again,” Maddy said with a smile. Paul was indeed still open, later than was his normal custom.

I wondered what he was doing there that late, but I couldn’t let it concern me at the moment. “Okay, I’ll meet you over there as soon as I finish up with Art.”

As we got out of Maddy’s car, she said, “Boy, are you ever getting the short end of that stick. I’ll think of you when I eat a cinnamon bun.”

“Good. While you’re doing that, I’ll be thinking about your waistline.”

“Eleanor, that’s just mean. How am I supposed to enjoy a wondrous treat if I’m thinking about how it’s going to end up looking on me?”

I laughed. “Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll find a way to justify it before you hit the front door.”

“I’m good about things like that,” she said.

Maddy veered off toward Paul’s bakery, and I headed toward Art Young.

“Are you waiting for me?” I asked as I neared him.

“You didn’t have to rush over here. It’s a beautiful day, so I didn’t mind waiting for you. I have news, and I thought you’d be eager to hear it.”

“I am,” I said. “Would you like to come inside? I can make you lunch, and you can eat while you’re telling me about it.”

He appeared to consider it, and then said, “The offer is tempting, even if I have already eaten. Another time, perhaps. Would you mind if we have our conversation on one of these benches?”

“Are you kidding? I spend my day in the kitchen, and there’s no window in the back of my building. It sounds delightful to me.”

We found a bench, and as soon as we sat down, Art took out a small leather notebook and flipped it open. “Judson Sizemore liked to gamble, and he was extremely bad at it. He owed an associate of mine in Chastain over a hundred thousand dollars, and from what I was able to learn, he was quite tardy in paying any of it back.”

“Would someone kill him over that? Everyone realizes it would be hard to collect anything from a dead man.”

“Yes, but sometimes these things escalate. There’s also talk that he owed a private individual about the same amount, though how he managed to talk anyone into giving him money is beyond me after everything I’ve heard about him.”

“So there could be a set of motives there,” I said as I listened to this darkness about Judson while sitting in the warm sunshine.

“Possibly. Also, I understand that he recently broke off his engagement to a woman in Chastain named Lacy White. Apparently, Ms. White has a temper, and if my sources are right, she’s been arrested for assault on two other boyfriends in the past when they ended things. If she reacted that way to broken romances, how might she take having an engagement end?”

“Not good, I’m guessing. Do you have any idea how I can find her?”

He glanced at his notebook again. “She works at Carole’s, a women’s clothing store in Chastain. It’s at five-sixty-two East Morning Street. Also, there’s a man Lacy’s close to named Jack who might be trouble. I don’t have a last name for him yet, but I’m working on it. He also has ties to Gina Sizemore.” Art closed his notebook, and then added, “I’m afraid that’s all I’ve been able to find out so far.”

“That’s excellent,” I said. On an impulse, I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for helping.”

He looked pleased by the public display of affection, no matter how minor it was. “All you need do is ask.”

Standing up, Art nodded toward me. “Now, I’m afraid I must go. I have an appointment in Charlotte, and if we hurry, I’ll just be able to make it after all.”

“Thanks again,” I said as he headed to his car. I nodded to his driver, a big man I’d spoken to before. I waved at him, but if he saw me, he didn’t give any indication that he knew me. Laughing softly to myself, I walked to Paul’s bakery. At least now Maddy and I had somewhere to go.

I walked into Paul’s again and took a deep breath, basking in the aroma of freshly baked bread and pastry treats. The scent of baked goods was so powerful—even though most of them were already gone—I could already feel myself gaining weight just by being there.

Maddy was at a table sitting with Paul. She was eating a cinnamon bun the size of a dinner plate, and there was another one, untouched, beside her.

I pointed to the treats and said, “You’re not eating both of those, are you?”

“That all depended on how long you took,” she said.

“Hi, Paul,” I said as I sat and joined them. “How are you?”

“I’m delightful,” he said. “It’s past closing time, and I’m just about ready to go home, so it’s all good news for me.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t keep you,” I said.

“Stay,” he said with a smile. “I’ll flip the OPEN sign to CLOSED, and we can chat a little. I’ve been talking to Maddy about the Halloween Blowout. I can’t wait.”

“I nearly forgot all about it,” I admitted. It was my favorite event at my most special time of year, and the pallor of Judson’s murder had nearly wiped it from my mind.

“How could you do that? It’s in three days, Eleanor. You’all are participating again, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely,” I said as I reached for the cinnamon bun. “We’re making little ghost pizzas with mozzarella cheese this year. How about you?”

He grinned. “That’s why I’m here now. I’ve been trying some things out in the back. Would you like to see what I’ve been able to come up with so far?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

He jumped up, went back into his kitchen, and then returned a minute later.

“What do you think?”

He presented a tray filled with all kinds of kid-friendly spooky confections. There were white glazed ghosts, black frosted bats, and yellow iced moons laid out for our inspection.