Authors: Chris Cavender
Rest in Pizza (19 page)
“Do you love him?” I asked.
“It’s more complicated than whether I love the man or not,” Maddy replied.
“It wouldn’t be for me,” I said.
“So you’re saying you think that I should turn him down?”
Was my little sister actually asking me for advice? I had a hard time believing that. “No, I never said anything of the sort. I’m just saying that by having trouble answering him, that’s an answer itself, isn’t it?”
“I think sometimes you forget that not everyone is as lucky as you were,” Maddy said. “I’m not even sure I believe in true love anymore. As many times as I’ve been married, the decision gets tougher to make each time someone asks me.”
“And yet they keep asking, don’t they?” I said with a grin. “I’m still trying to figure out what makes you so irresistible to them all. It’s a real gift.”
“More times than not, it’s a curse,” she said. “Sure, I’ve said yes four times so far, but do you have any idea how many times I’ve said no? Trust me, accepting is much easier than declining.”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve been asked only once, and I said yes before he could finish asking the question.”
“Well, that’s why I’ve been in a bit of a funk tonight. Josh is worried about his parents, but I hadn’t realized we were both being so difficult to work with that Greg would feel compelled to sneak out the back.”
“Cut Greg a little slack,” I said, knowing my sister might just call him and ask him why he left. “We both need to remember that he doesn’t have to work here; he’s got plenty of money. But he still comes in every shift I schedule him for, and I for one am grateful for that.”
“So am I,” Maddy admitted. “He’s a good guy to have around.”
“Josh is, too,” I said. “Though he’s a little more high maintenance.”
Maddy grinned at me, and it was good to see it. “Than who, an opera diva?”
“Hey, we’re all different,” I said. “It’s not a problem covering out front for Greg until we close, is it?”
“No, we’ve got it,” she said as she grabbed a toasted sub and went back out front. “It’s all good.”
And I knew that it would be, but I hoped their dispositions improved. The last thing I needed was losing customers because of my waitstaff.
The next morning, Maddy was at my house and ready to go ten minutes before she was due to arrive.
“You’re early,” I said as I glanced at the clock. “Did you call it an early night last night?”
She didn’t look all that happy when she explained, “I didn’t have much choice. Bob was waiting for me when I got home.”
That could mean a number of things could have happened, not many of them good. “What happened?”
“He told me that until I could come up with an answer, he thinks the two of us should take a little break.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said as I handed Maddy a cup of coffee. “Are you okay?”
“He didn’t break up with me, Eleanor. He just wants to give me a little time and space to think about his proposal.”
I nodded, doing my best to understand and show my sister that I had her back. “So until then, you two aren’t going out? How long do you think you have until he withdraws the offer altogether?”
Maddy didn’t even have to pause. “I don’t have to think, he told me himself. If I don’t have an answer for him by the end of the week when he wants my reply, I’m telling him no. You’re right. This decision just shouldn’t be this hard.”
Was she actually going to drag me into this after all? “Hang on a second, don’t go by what I said. Everybody’s different. If you need more time, take it.”
“No, that’s the only thing I’ve actually made my mind up about. Now, may we quit discussing this and get back to our crime busting?”
“I’m game if you are,” I said.
“That’s what I like to hear. What’s the plan for this morning?”
I’d done nothing but think about what we should do next. “As uncomfortable as it’s going to be, we need to talk to Cindy and Janet again.”
Maddy didn’t like hearing the news any more than I’d liked sharing it. “What makes you think they’re going to talk to us? We can’t just bribe them with another pizza. We don’t have any ready, and besides, it’s going to take something more than that to get them to talk to us.”
“I have a plan, don’t worry,” I said.
Maddy looked at me skeptically. “Care to share what that might be with me? I love hearing fantasies.”
“Why don’t you come along for the ride, and let me handle it? It might work better if you’re not expecting it, either.”
Maddy thought about that, and then said, “I think you’re crazy, but when has that ever stopped me from tagging along in the past?”
“You drive,” I said. “I need to fine-tune what I’m going to say.”
“We could drive across the country and I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything, so take your time.”
By the time we got there, I was ready.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Maddy said as we parked in front of Janet’s house.
“If I don’t do this now, I’ll probably chicken out.” I completely meant what I was about to say. It was the only way it could work, and even if I didn’t get anything else out of the coming conversation, it was still something I knew in my heart that I had to do. If I didn’t at least try, I’d never be able to forgive myself.
“Okay, but remember, I’m right behind you,” Maddy said.
“Thanks for your support,” I said with a grin. “I appreciate that.”
“Support nothing,” Maddy answered. “I want to be out of the line of fire in case they start throwing things, so I figure the safest place I can be is right behind you.”
That didn’t make me feel any better as we walked up onto the porch together.
I took a deep breath, and then rang the doorbell.
Janet answered, and the look of sheer displeasure on her face was tough to miss. “What do you two want?”
I looked her straight in the eye, and then said, “Do you have it in your heart to forgive us for telling Chief Hurley about your connection to Benet?” I asked. “Maddy and I were trying to do the right thing, but we both realize now that we should have handled it differently. We wronged you by blindsiding you and Cindy like that, and we’re here to make it right, no matter what it takes.”
Maddy nodded as she said, “We’re both truly sorry.”
Janet looked hard at each of us in turn, and for a second I thought that door was going to slam in our face. It wouldn’t be the first time it had ever happened, but I never liked it.
“I suppose it won’t hurt to let you both come in,” she said, stepping to one side to allow us passage.
“What are they doing here?” Cindy asked, clearly as unhappy with our presence as her mother had been.
Janet looked firmly at her daughter as she said, “Young lady, they came to apologize, and we’re going to hear them out.”
“They told Chief Hurley about my father,” Cindy said, faltering as she spoke the last word. “That isn’t anyone else’s business but ours.”
“If your father hadn’t just been murdered, I would agree with you,” I said. “Maddy and I were wrong not to warn you about what we were doing, but the decision itself was a sound one. Don’t you want your dad’s killer to be punished for what he did?”
“Of course I do,” Cindy said angrily. “They didn’t just kill him. They robbed me of any chance I ever had to get to know him.”
“Then, in essence, we all agree,” I said. “I just went about helping out in the wrong way. I asked your mother, and now I’ll ask you. Can you find any way to forgive us? We would both hate to lose your friendship over this.”
Asking someone for forgiveness is powerful. It’s one thing to hold on to anger and let it grow from afar, but confronting someone face-to-face is much harder to ignore. It didn’t always work, but if you were sincere, it was always worth a try.
“I know you weren’t purposefully trying to hurt us,” Cindy conceded. “But it was tough hearing the questions Chief Hurley asked. He wanted alibis for both of us, and he wouldn’t leave until he got them.”
“Did you manage to convince him of your innocence?” I asked. I was dying to know what the mother and daughter had told him, but I couldn’t ask flat out, at least not yet.
“I hope so,” Janet said. “Cindy’s right. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.”
I was about to try to word a request for more information than that, something that wouldn’t offend them since we were on precarious ground at the moment, but Maddy beat me to it.
“So, what exactly did you tell him?”
Cindy was clearly about to tell us when Janet put a hand on her daughter’s arm, shutting her up before she could reply. “Ladies, I believe you’ve done what you set out to do,” the mother said. “You’ve asked for our forgiveness, and we’ve granted it. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some things to see to.”
“Thank you,” I said, getting out of there as quickly as I could drag Maddy with me.
Once we were outside, Maddy protested, “She was about to tell us.”
“Sis, there is no way that Janet was going to let Cindy say another word, and besides, my apology was sincere. If we have any hope of getting anything more out of either one of them, we’re going to have to get them alone. They’re too strong when they’re together.”
“Kind of like us, right?” Maddy asked.
“I’d say they’re exactly like us,” I admitted with a grin.
Chapter 18
“D
o we have time to speak with Benet’s posse?” Maddy asked as we drove away from the Rankin house.
o we have time to speak with Benet’s posse?” Maddy asked as we drove away from the Rankin house.
I thought about all we had to do this morning before we opened, and then nodded. “If I speed the dough up, we should be fine. This is too important not to do right now while we still have the chance. Kevin Hurley told us he couldn’t keep them from leaving for much longer, so we have to push them even harder than we have been.”
“I’m not sure how we can do that and still stay on their good side,” Maddy said. “We’ve been pressing them pretty hard already.”
“We’ve run out of time to act delicately,” I said. “I thought you’d be happy. You normally prefer the ‘full speed ahead’ method of investigation where we hammer everyone with accusations until someone breaks down and confesses.”
Maddy grinned at me. “Don’t get me wrong; you know I love a good manhunt as much as the next gal. I just want to be sure you’re certain that we can burn some bridges in the process.”
I thought about that, and then amended my earlier statement by saying, “Why don’t we just try to scorch them at first, and save the burning only if we need it later.”
“That sounds like a deal to me,” Maddy said. “You know, if this wasn’t about finding a murderer, it could be kind of fun.”
It obviously matched my sister’s definition of entertainment more than it did mine, but if it helped her to look at it that way, it was fine with me.
When we got to the hotel room, we found Oliver sitting alone, the door to the suite standing wide open. The poor man looked as though he’d just lost his last friend.
“What happened here?” I asked him as I walked into the room with Maddy on my heels.
“I lost everything,” he said, tears tracking down his cheeks as he looked up at us.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“They took my recipes back,” he said, the words seeming to stick in his throat. “They were mine. I created them, but Jessie is exercising a clause in our agreement to release them in book form in Benet’s name. I don’t get a dime of royalties for them, and not a penny of the advance. I can’t believe that fraud is going to keep cheating me long after he’s dead.”
“They paid for them in the first place, though, right?” I asked gently.
“I got fifty dollars a recipe,” he said. “Using them, I could have started my own cooking empire. Now I’ve got nothing.”
“You could always come up with more dishes,” Maddy suggested. “You’re brilliant at it.”
“Nothing I could ever create would ever be as good as those were. I’m finished, and I know it. To think that I did all that work, and I still got cheated in the end. I just can’t believe it.”
“Believe what?” I asked. We needed to keep him talking. Maybe something would slip out. I hated taking advantage of Oliver when he was in such despair, but there was a window to get the truth, and I couldn’t let emotion stand in my way.
“It doesn’t matter if you know now or not, and I’m tired of keeping secrets. When Benet was murdered, I was in the back room of the bookstore with Cindy having a little fun, if you know what I mean. We had a connection from the moment our eyes met, but she didn’t want any of you to know, so I pretended to be mean to her while you all were around. After you were gone was a different story altogether.”
Was Cindy’s mourning just a show? Could she really be that impulsive? Of course she could. She told us so herself. Like mother, like daughter.
“That was a little sudden, getting involved so quickly, wasn’t it?” Maddy asked.
Oliver shrugged. “She’s an impulsive woman, and I wasn’t about to say no. And then she told me the truth about herself.”
“What truth was that?” I asked.
“I know you already know, so there’s no use pretending that you don’t. When she told me that she was Benet’s daughter an hour ago, I wanted to kill myself.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I told her that there could never be anything more between us than the few times we shared together. She cried and tried to talk me out of leaving her, but every time I’d ever look at her again, I knew that I’d see that leering face of her father’s instead of hers. There’s just no way it would have worked.”
“So, if we speak with Cindy, she’ll confirm that you two were together even as her father was being murdered?” I asked.
“She might not want to admit it, but it’s true. Go on, ask her.”
“Can you prove any of this if she denies it?” Maddy asked.
Oliver nodded glumly. “She’s got a strawberry birthmark on her left hip. Check that if you don’t believe me.”
It was too specific to be a lie, as far as I was concerned. Wow, the daughter was more like the mother than I’d ever imagined.
“Can’t you see why everything has gone so wrong in my life? I lost my job, my recipes, and Cindy, all within a few days. I thought Benet was ruining my life while he was alive, but if I would have had any idea how much pain he could cause me when he was dead, I would have been his bodyguard instead of his ghost chef.”
If what Oliver had just told us was true, he and Cindy both had an alibi for the time of the murder. “We’ll check it out, but you should be in the clear if it’s true,” I said.
“I already told my story to the police chief, and he bought it, so why shouldn’t you two? It happens to be the truth, but I don’t care at this point whether you believe me or not. At this point, I’ve got nothing left to lose.”
Maddy shook her head. “Quit feeling so sorry for yourself, Oliver. You’ve got it all exactly wrong.”
“What do you mean?” He looked intrigued by her statement.
“Think about it,” Maddy said. “One of the best times in my life was when I lost everything I held dear. Do you want to know why?”
“Because you’re some kind of masochistic nut?” he asked, and it was all I could do not to laugh.
“No, because when you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up, and the world is full of new possibilities.”
“I’m having a tough time seeing it that way,” Oliver admitted as his head dipped down again.
“Tell you what,” Maddy said. “I’m willing to admit that you’ve earned a day of self-pity, but as soon as you’re finished, start thinking about what you want to do next with your life.”
“Can I have at least a week to feel sorry for myself?” Oliver asked with a slight grin.
“Twenty-four hours, and not another minute more,” my sister answered with a smile of her own. “Do you happen to know where Jessie and Patrice are right now?”
“They’re downstairs in the conference room. Since they promised the police they wouldn’t leave town until tomorrow, they’ve convinced Benet’s cookbook publisher to fly down here to meet with them. They’ll be in meetings all day from what I heard, but by tomorrow, they’ll be gone.” Oliver stood, and brushed at the seat of his pants, as though ridding himself of dust. “I suppose that I will be, too.”
“Where are you going to go from here?” Maddy asked.
“I don’t know,” Oliver said, and then began to smile with a full-blown grin. “You know what? You’re right. That’s kind of the beauty of it, isn’t it?”
“Don’t worry. I have a feeling that you’re going to do just fine,” Maddy said.
“Thanks.”
After we were out of the room, I looked at my sister with a fresh perspective. “I never would have believed it if I hadn’t heard it myself.”
“What’s that, their alibi? It’s pretty strange, isn’t it?”
“No, I’m sure Chief Hurley has confirmed that by now. I just never thought I’d hear Maddy Spencer giving a motivational speech to anyone.”
She shook her head. “Don’t expect to ever hear it again. The boy was in some serious trouble, and I thought I could help.”
“I’m not complaining. I thought it was great. One thing, though. When did you lose everything you ever cared about?”
She bit her lip, and then admitted, “I might have embellished a little when I said that.”
“You could have fooled me. You sounded as though you’d experienced it firsthand,” I said, remembering how I’d felt when Joe had died.
“It was more like secondhand,” she admitted. “I was using you as my example. I meant every word of it, Eleanor. The way you managed to keep going was truly inspiring, and I thought Oliver had a right to know that just because his dreams died didn’t mean that he had to end with them.”
I bit back the tears, but then I let them explode as I hugged Maddy. She calmed me, and after the brief flood abated, she asked, “You’re not angry with me for doing that, are you?”
“I’m honored,” I said. “Don’t ever underestimate the role you played in it, though. If you hadn’t come back to town when I needed you most, I wouldn’t have made it, and that’s a fact.”
“You’re stronger than you think,” Maddy said.
“Maybe so, but I also know in my heart that I’m even stronger with you.”
As we neared the hotel’s conference room, Maddy asked, “Is there any reason to just wait around outside for them to take a break?”
“I don’t think so,” I said. I glanced at my watch and then added, “We probably just have to come back later. I’m not really sure how long we can wait.”
“Pizza making sure gets in the way of our investigations sometimes, doesn’t it?” Maddy asked with a smile.
“I can live with that,” I said. “I only investigate these things because I have to. I make pizza because I love to. It’s two completely different things.”
“I’m glad you found your true calling,” Maddy said as we headed out to her car. “I don’t know if I’ll ever find mine. Who knows? Maybe I’m destined to always be the bride, and never the bridesmaid.” We got in and Maddy started to drive away.
“I’m not sure you got that exactly right,” I said. “You’ve sacrificed a lot coming to work for me. I know your dreams have soared higher than being a server at a small-town pizzeria.”
“Funny, I thought I was the assistant manager,” she said with a slight frown.
I quickly amended my statement. “You are. But it’s not quite up to your earlier aspirations; you’ve got to admit that.”
“Dreams aren’t all they’re cut out to be,” Maddy said. “At the moment, all I want is to be happy.”
“Can anyone ask for anything more?” I asked.
“Oh, you can ask,” she said with a wicked laugh. “But that doesn’t mean you’ve got a prayer of getting it.”
“Aren’t you happy now?” I asked, concerned about my sister.
“I’m happy enough,” she admitted.
“I’ve always wondered just how happy that might be,” I said.
“Eleanor, sometimes it’s greedy to want more, when you already have enough.”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to take that, but I never got a chance to spend any more time considering it as someone jumped out in front of Maddy’s moving vehicle.
Maddy slammed on the brakes, and still narrowly missed knocking Janet Rankin to the ground.
“Are you insane?” Maddy screamed at her as she jumped out of her car.
“I thought you saw me flagging you down,” Janet said, pale from the near hit.
“I did, but just barely,” Maddy replied.
“Pull over to the side,” I said to my sister. “We all need a second to catch our breath.”
Maddy did as I asked, and in a minute, the three of us were sitting on a bench by the sidewalk.
“What were you thinking when you did that?” Maddy asked her, using a much calmer voice than she had before.
“I needed to speak with you both,” Janet said. “I didn’t know any other way to get your attention.”
“What was so important that you’d risk your life for it?” I asked.
“It’s nothing as dramatic as all of that. You’re apologies meant a great deal to me earlier, and after thinking about it, I decided that I want to give you our alibis. You deserve at least that much.”
“We’ve already got Cindy’s,” Maddy said, but before she could add anything more, I put a hand on her arm.
“But we’d appreciate it if you could tell us as well,” I added.
Janet nodded. “I don’t blame you for checking our stories. She was with Benet’s assistant the entire time of the murder.”
“And you believe them?”
Janet nodded. “My daughter is many things, but she’s no liar.”
Whether she was or not was beyond our scope of investigation at that moment. “That covers her, but where were you?”
Janet looked ashamed. “I told the police, so I’ll tell you, but I’d appreciate if you don’t tell Cindy.”
It felt as though Maddy was about to agree, but I knew better than to make promises like that. “We won’t say a word if we don’t have to, but that’s where it ends. I’m sorry if that’s not good enough for you.”
“It will have to do,” Janet said. After a moment’s pause, she said, “I was on the phone with Nathan Pane the entire time, and Chief Hurley has already checked my telephone records. There’s no way I could have killed Tony, not without Nathan hearing every last bit of it.”
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