Shrimply Sublime Murder

by Patti Benning

  “Well, I'm glad you did,” Ellie said. “I'll be there in about half an hour. If you get there first, tell her that I'm on my way.”

  Chapter Five

  Ellie made arrangements for the pizzeria on her way to the hospital. Pete was the newest employee, but even he had been there for quite a while, and he was perfectly capable of going through the opening routine by himself. It would mean he would have to get there an extra twenty minutes early, but he agreed without complaint and asked her to pass his well wishes along to her friend.

  Ellie knew that she had gotten lucky with all of her current employees. They were all trustworthy and were hard workers. She had someone new coming to start in just a couple of weeks, and she was a bit worried about it. Hiring someone new was always a gamble.

  The hospital in Benton Harbor wasn't particularly big, but it was quite busy since it was the only one around. Ellie had only been there a handful of times, probably more often than she really should have if she lived a normal life, but not often enough to know her way around without stopping at the helpdesk and asking for directions.

  Once she knew where she was going, she made her way to the elevator. At the top she glanced at the signs, then turned right to head down the hall. When she reached Joanna's room, she was stopped by a police officer, who asked her for her ID and her relation to the victim. She provided both, and mentioned that Russell had asked her to stop by and sit with Joanna. The man seemed to have been expecting her, and nodded her through.

  The sight of her friend lying in a hospital bed with gauze around her head and a bandage on her arm made Ellie pause. It could have been so much worse, she told herself. She must have made some sort of noise, because Joanna opened her eyes. Recognizing Ellie, she smiled.

  “Come in and sit down. You look like you've seen a ghost.”

  “Worse,” Ellie said. She took a seat next to the bed and gave her friend a weak smile. “I just saw one of my best friends lying in a hospital bed.”

  “I'm fine,” Joanna said. She winced as she spoke, moving her arm to grab a glass of water. “Well, mostly fine. I'm going to be fine. I was lucky. Did you hear what happened to Ms. White?”

  “Who hasn't, by now? Joanna, what happened?” Her friend shuddered and Ellie quickly added, “You don’t have to tell me if it's too –”

  “No, I want to,” Joanna said. She took a deep breath. “I went into the hot dog shop early to start opening up like I always do, and I left the front door unlocked. I don't usually bother to lock it, and I guess that was my downfall today. I heard someone come in and I called out that we weren't open yet but they were free to wait if they wanted to. I didn't hear anything back, so I stepped out of the kitchen and a man grabbed me and started swinging this knife at me. Thank goodness I was carrying a fresh pot of coffee. I threw it at him and managed to slip past him when he let go of me. I slipped on the spilled coffee and whacked my head against a table, but I managed to get up and get out of there before he recovered himself. I ran across the street to the post office and called the police. By the time they got there, he was gone.”

  “Oh, Joanna, I'm so sorry,” Ellie said. She took her friend's hand gently. “I'm so glad you're okay. If you hadn't been holding the coffee…”

  “I know. I was lucky, like I said.”

  A gentle knock sounded at the door. Ellie looked up to see Russell standing in the doorway. She smiled at him. Joanna looked up and said, “Come on in.”

  “Hey, I hope I'm not interrupting anything,” he said as he stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. “You’re looking better, Joanna.”

  “I’m feeling better. A bit woozy. These pain meds are definitely doing their job.”

  “I just stopped in to see how you're doing and to let you know what’s going to happen in the immediate future. I do have a few more questions to ask you, but that can wait until you’re off the meds. I know I already took your statement at the scene, but sometimes after trauma like that people remember things more clearly a couple days later. Are you feeling well enough for some updates?”

  “Definitely,” Joanna said, sitting up straighter in the bed.

  “Well, once again the attacker seems to have escaped us. Thanks to your description, we’ve got a better idea of what he looks like.”

  “Dirty blonde hair, and just a few inches taller than me. I wish I could help more,” Joanna said with a sigh. “I only caught a glimpse of his face. Sorry that I can't even remember his eye color.”

  “Hey, it narrows it down a bit. And thanks to you, he's going to be sporting a burn on his chest and neck. That will make him easier to identify too. We’re offering a reward for information leading to an arrest, so it’s possible a friend or family member might see the burn and decide to do the right thing and turn him in.”

  “Why is he doing this?” Joanna asked. “I don't understand. I barely knew Ms. White. The attacks can’t be related, can they?”

  “There must be some link between the two of you in his mind. Can you think of anything?”

  Ellie's friend bit her lip, then shook her head. “I – I really can't. I mean, we are both business owners, and we’re both women. That's pretty much where the similarities end. Oh, and we both went to Ellie's small business meetings back when she had them.”

  Russell frowned. “Ellie, can you give me a list of people who attended those?”

  “I will,” she promised. “It wasn't the same people every month, and I only did it for a couple of months. I kept meaning to restart after the holidays, but it just never really happened. I'll see if I can remember everyone who was there.”

  “Thanks. If you don’t mind, I’ll hang around for a little while. The officer who was posted at your door needs to take a quick lunch break, and I don’t want to leave either of you unprotected.”

  Her friend shivered. “Thanks. I’m not exactly ready to be alone yet. I hope you catch that guy soon. He has no right to make people feel like I do right now.”

  Chapter Six

  After a little while, Russell ran down to the cafeteria to get them food. Ellie stayed with Joanna, chatting with her about everything from the weather – after the long winter, the nice weather really was a good conversational topic – to plans for the food cart that they were hoping to get up and running in just a few weeks.

  Russell returned with a couple of chicken salad sandwiches and some puddings, along with three cups of coffee. He handed the food out, then passed a coffee to Ellie, before turning to Joanna with an apologetic grimace.

  “Sorry, I wasn't sure if you were supposed to have caffeine with the medications you're on, so I got you decaf.”

  Joanna laughed and took the cup from him. “That's fine. I already had my morning coffee anyway. I don't need to be too jittery, not while I’m lying in a hospital. I wish I could just go home. I feel fine.”

  “Head wounds aren't anything to mess around with,” Ellie said. “Keeping you in for observation is pretty normal. Plus, Steve is still out of town. You don't really want to be home alone with all this going on.”

  “No, you're right. That I do not.”

  “Any word on when he'll get here?”

  “He's driving back now. It will be another couple of hours. The poor guy, he must've about had a heart attack when the hospital called him.”

  “I dread getting a call like that,” Ellie said, glancing at Russell.

  “So do I,” he said softly.

  She turned away, feeling her chest constrict. He had more experiences with bad calls than any of them; his first wife had been murdered. They didn't talk about her much. Ellie had seen her picture couple of times, but for the most part, Russell was silent about that part of his life. She didn't mind it too much. She understood that he would always love his first wife. She wondered sometimes if he didn't talk about her because he was worried about making Ellie feel as if she was competing with a dead woman. She honestly didn’t feel that way. She knew that he had room in his heart to love both of them.


  She heard a buzzing sound and saw Russell take his cellphone out of his pocket. “I've got to take this,” he said, stepping out of the room. Ellie and Joanna sipped their coffees in silence for a bit. They had done a lot of talking already, and Ellie didn't really know what else to say. She didn't want to make things worse for her friend by asking more questions about what had happened.

  She had finished the sandwich and gotten started on the pudding when Russell came back into the room. His face was pale, and she knew right away that something had gone wrong.

  “I have to go,” he said, his voice rough. “There's been another murder.”

  “Already?” Joanna asked, her eyes wide. “It can't be the same person, can it? I mean, I threw coffee at the guy that attacked me, and it's only been a couple hours. He must've been burned. Wouldn't he want to take time to heal first?”

  “I don't know. He might be working on a timeline of his own that we have no idea about.”

  “Who was it?” Ellie asked as Russell grabbed his gear from the chair.

  “Anderson, the guy who owns that little bookstore on the edge of town.”

  Ellie and Joanna exchanged a look. “Another business owner?”

  He gave a short nod. “You’ve got hospital security posted on your door, Joanna, and the police will be back soon. He won't let anyone through unless he has clearance from you or me. Ellie, I’d like to ask James to come pick you up once he’s out of work. I don't want you alone even for a second. It seems like this person is targeting business owners in Kittiport, and for all we know, you could be next on his list. Can you stay at Shannon and James's house tonight?”

  “Of course,” she said. “Whatever you think is best. What about you and Nonna? And what about my employees? Oh, my goodness, I have to close the pizzeria. If this person really is targeting small business owners, he might go there looking for me and one of them could get hurt.”

  “Can you do that over the phone?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. Wait here for James, okay? I'll stop by their house this evening if I can. If it’s too late, I’ll just text you.”

  “Be careful, Russell,” she said. “And… I hope you catch the guy.”

  Chapter Seven

  After Russell left, the mood in the hospital room changed. She and Joanna were both anxious, on edge. Ellie was grateful for the presence of the security guard outside the door. With two people dead and one injured, she was beginning to realize that there was a serial killer loose in Kittiport. The thought was almost unbelievable. How could her beloved town host such violence? And why was somebody trying to kill business owners? That was really the only thing that linked all of the people so far. The person who owned the bookstore had been a man, so it wasn't as if the killer was only targeting women, and Ellie hadn't known him at all.

  “I didn't know him either,” Joanna said when she asked her. “I think I've been in the bookshop maybe once in my life. What's going on? Do you think he'll try coming after me again? Or you?”

  “I don't know,” Ellie admitted. “We just have to be careful and stay on our toes.”

  The decision to shut down the pizzeria temporarily was an easy one. She wasn't about to risk life and limb keeping it open when there was a rash of murders striking the businesses in town, and she was definitely not about to ask her employees to do it for her. She felt bad that they were going to miss out on the hours that they had been expecting, but she would rather they were safe.

  The only problem was, she didn't know how long it would be. What if Russell didn't manage to catch the killer for weeks? She couldn't realistically keep the pizzeria closed the whole time, just as many other small business owners wouldn’t be able to afford to keep their doors shut. She had savings, yes, but the pizzeria was her livelihood, and every day it was shut down was money out of her pocket.

  Steve arrived shortly before James did. Ellie excused herself for a few minutes to stretch her legs while he and his wife greeted each other, making sure that she kept the officer on guard in sight at all times. She rejoined them a little bit later, sitting in a chair in the corner while Steve sat next to Joanna. The concern on his face was evident, but she seemed eager to wave her injuries off.

  “They really aren't that bad,” she said. “I'm going to be fine.”

  He was still fussing over her when James walked in. Ellie nodded at her brother-in-law and got up.

  “I'm going to get going,” she told Joanna and Steve. “I'll see if I can come visit again tomorrow if you're still here.”

  “I better not be,” Joanna said. “I want to get home.”

  She wished her friend well, then left with James, who seemed jumpy as he walked to the car.

  “I'm not sure how my brother managed to get himself involved with a serial killer,” he said as he held the passenger door open for her. “I just hope he's being safe.”

  “Me too,” Ellie said.

  It was a twenty minute drive from the hospital to James's house in Kittiport. Ellie found herself almost dozing on the way. She was tired; it had been a long, emotionally draining day. She wanted to go home, but she knew that it wouldn't be smart for her to be there alone, and Russell was evidently planning on a late night at work.

  Once inside Shannon and James's house, she felt some of her worries begin to fade away. It was a comfortable home, in one of the nicest subdivisions in Kittiport. Her nephew, Andrew, was in a great mood, and she and Shannon spent some time reading books and playing with him before he went to bed.

  Once he was sound asleep, and James was pouring over something work-related in his office, Shannon poured them each a glass of wine and had Ellie join her in the living room.

  “To another crazy day in the life of Ellie Ward,” she said, raising her glass for a toast.

  “Crazier than most,” Ellie said. “Seriously, this guy has attacked three people in two days. Everyone must be panicking.”

  “Yeah, it's all anyone's talking about in town,” Shannon said. “Andrew’s babysitter was worried about it earlier today. I'm worried that someone's going to get hurt accidentally. We’re all just so frightened, someone’s bound to do something reckless unless this gets solved soon.”

  “Russell is doing his best,” Ellie said, not meaning to sound defensive but realizing that she did. “I mean, I know that you know that. I just don't see what else he could be doing, and I don’t want the town to pin this on him. I know that he, Liam, and Bethany are all going to be working around the clock until this guy is caught, but what if it just isn't enough? What if more people keep getting hurt and killed? I'm worried about this town, but also about my husband. You know how personally he takes all of this.”

  “I know,” Shannon said. She gave Ellie a tight smile. “I don't really know what to tell you other than that I know, and I'm here for you both. James is too. You're welcome to stay here as long as you want.”

  “I'd hate to intrude,” Ellie said. “And someone really should be home with the animals. I don't know if I want to stay there by myself… But I'll probably ask my grandmother to come over.”

  “I’m just saying, my house is always open to you.”

  “I know,” Ellie said, smiling. “I couldn't ask for a better friend.”

  Chapter Eight

  Ellie woke up early the next morning to the unfamiliar sound of a baby crying. She shuffled out of the guest bedroom in her slippers and the pajamas that Shannon had lent her to find her sister-in-law in the kitchen with Andrew, cooing to him to try to get him to quiet down.

  “I'm so sorry,” Shannon said, looking up to see Ellie in the doorway. “He is just fussy when he wakes up. James wakes up at the same time I do, and so it usually doesn't matter if he cries –”

  “It's okay,” Ellie said, covering up a yawn. “I really don't mind. Plus, Andrew just wanted to see his aunt, didn't he?”

  She gave her nephew a kiss on top of his head, then glanced toward the coffee maker. Shannon chuckled.

 
; “The coffee is fresh and warm. Help yourself.”

  The two of them chatted while they scrounged up breakfast, Andrew occasionally joining in with babbling of his own. Ellie checked her phone twice, but found nothing but the text Russell had sent her after getting in last night. He had been at the office late into the night, and hadn’t wanted to wake everyone up by stopping at Shannon and James's house. She was itching to know if he had made any progress in the case, but she didn't want to wake him if he was still sleeping. She knew that the early mornings and late nights were bound to catch up to him at some point, and he needed all the rest he could get.