A Slice of Murder

by Chris Cavender

  Greg came back with another order, and as he handed it to me, he asked, “Have either one of you looked outside lately?”

  “There aren’t any windows back here, remember?” Since the building abutted the neighbors on each side, the only other place for a window was in back. Even if we had one, all it would show would be the alley where Maddy and I parked every day.

  “You might want to come up front, then,” Greg said.

  I made the subs and put them on the conveyor, then followed the two of them out front. After nodding my greetings to our customers, I looked outside. The fog had doubled its intensity from the night before. As I looked out across the promenade, I couldn’t even see the parking spaces our customers used. The closest lampposts were just blobs of light hovering in the air, while the others were completely obscured by the dense mist.

  I was amazed anyone had braved the weather just to eat my food.

  “Maybe we should close early,” I said as I glanced at the clock. We only had another ninety minutes, but it could get worse in the meantime.

  Greg said, “We can if you want, but I don’t think it’s going to get any thicker. I say we risk it.”

  Maddy said, “I’m with him. We already shut down for an hour this afternoon. Let’s stay open and see what happens.”

  “Okay, but just remember, I offered.”

  I went back to the kitchen, and to my surprise, a few more orders made their way to me.

  I personally thought everyone out in that kind of weather was insane.

  We got two calls asking if we were still open, and when I told the callers we were, they sounded pleased. I’d grown accustomed to turning down the delivery requests, but many of my loyal customers had been relieved that I was taking call-in orders again. It added an extra hassle to my days, but if it meant mollifying my regulars, I was more than willing to do it.

  It was ten minutes until closing, and I hadn’t had an order in twenty minutes. When I walked out front, I was surprised to see that the place was deserted. Greg and Maddy were cleaning up, so I walked to the front, flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED, and said, “As soon as you take care of the front, you two can go home.”

  “We don’t mind staying,” Greg said as Maddy nodded her agreement.

  “I know you don’t, but I don’t mind, really. Go on.”

  Greg said, “If you’re sure.” He started flipping chairs onto tables at a record pace, and in a few minutes, he was finished.

  “See you tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

  I unlocked the door and let him out into a world of whiteness. “Are you sure you can get home all right?”

  “I’ve walked this way a thousand times,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

  Before I looked back at him, he was gone, vanished in the mist.

  Maddy said, “What a mess.”

  “You need to be really careful driving home,” I said.

  “Why don’t I follow you, just to make sure you get there okay?”

  “Maddy, I don’t need an escort, or a chaperone. I’ll be fine.”

  She frowned. “I don’t like leaving you alone like this.”

  “For goodness’ sake, I’ve buried a husband; I can deal with a little fog.” As much as I loved my sister, we had been spending a great deal of time together lately, and I could use a break.

  “Fine, be that way,” she said as she grabbed her coat.

  “I didn’t mean anything by it,” I said, trying to apologize.

  “Of course you didn’t,” she said. “Good night.”

  She started to disappear into the fog when I called out, “Call me when you get home.”

  “Your cell phone’s dead, remember?”

  I’d forgotten all about that. “Then I’ll wait here until you make it there. You can call me at the Slice.”

  “Now who’s the one who’s independent?” she asked. Maddy reached into her purse, then swore under her breath.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I can’t believe I left my cell phone at home. I know exactly where it is, too—sitting right on the kitchen counter.” She thought a few seconds, then said, “Tell you what. We’ll each give the other one thirty minutes to get home. Then I’ll call you if I haven’t heard from you by then, okay?”

  “It’s a deal. See you in the morning,” I said, but she was already gone.

  I walked back into the Slice. I had just finished cleaning up the kitchen when the telephone rang.

  It was Sheila Olsen, and from the sound of her voice, she was terrified. “Help me,” she whispered.

  It took me a second to realize she was the one calling. “Sheila? Is that you? I can barely hear you.”

  “Faith Baron’s here at Richard’s house,” she said with a gasp. “She’s talking crazy and waving a knife around. I ran into the bathroom, but she’s hammering at the door.”

  I could hear pounding in the background.

  “Hold on. I’ll call the police,” I said as I started to hang up.

  “Don’t!” she shouted. “Hurley’s in on it, too. Richard was blackmailing him when he found out Faith was sleeping with the police chief, too.”

  “Kevin and Faith? Really?”

  “I’ve got the photos to prove it. I didn’t burn everything, and now they want them back. He’s on his way over here. You’ve got to help me.”

  “What can I do?” I asked.

  “Come get me. The window’s been nearly painted shut, but I can get it open if I have enough time. Drive to the house and you can pick me up. Please, I’m begging you.”

  “I’m on my way,” I said.

  I might not be able to call the police, but at least I could call Maddy. Then I remembered that she didn’t have her cell phone with her, so there was no way I could get in touch with her in time. I left a message on her answering machine and hoped she’d get it in time.

  It looked like I was going to have to do this all alone.

  As I crept slowly through the fog toward Richard Olsen’s house, I thought of a thousand things I should have done instead of rushing off to save her. If what she told me about Kevin was true, I still could have called Helen Murphy, or even the state police. What was I doing risking my life like this? I had half a mind to turn around and go back to the pizzeria, but there was a small chance I could save Sheila’s life if I acted boldly. What choice did I have?

  By some miracle I made it to the right street. Instead of pulling up in front of the Olsen house, I parked near Travis White’s place and got out of the Subaru.

  I could see there were blobs of light where the house should be, but it was still too foggy to make anything else out except the general illumination. I took out my pepper spray, and wished I had Maddy’s stun gun as well.

  As I started toward the house, I kept thinking about all the clues my sister and I had uncovered. How was it possible that we’d missed the fact that Kevin was having an affair with Faith Baron? It just didn’t make sense. I knew Kevin, and no matter what he might have done in his life after he betrayed my trust by the lake, I honestly believed that he’d never do it again. His faithfulness to his wife was well known around town, and I’d heard rumors that a few women had tried to get him to break it, all without success.

  That’s when I knew that Sheila had been lying to me on the phone. And there was only one reason she’d do that.

  She was setting a trap for me.

  After all, she’d been the one who’d stood the most to gain from her brother’s death. Sheila might not have known how much she was going to inherit, but I had to wonder if she’d known her name was on all of his accounts, including the deed to his house. She would have had to sign papers for access cards to his accounts, and I didn’t buy her story that she hadn’t paid attention to what she’d been signing.

  And now she was wrapping up another loose end. The only problem was, that loose end was me.

  I had to get out of there!

  My fingers tightened on the pepper spray as I started back tow
ard my car in the fog. I knew I was in over my head. I just hoped I could make it out in time.

  But I was hopelessly lost in the fog.

  I had to be getting close to the Subaru, but just as I thought I was getting near it, an arm reached out of the fog and knocked the pepper spray out of my hands.

  Sheila had found me.

  And through the swirling mist, I saw a butcher knife clutched in her hand.

  “Where’s that nosy sister of yours?” she asked as she peered around in the fog.

  “She’s right behind me,” I said, hoping the bluff would work.

  Sheila just laughed. “Good, I hope she’s close enough to watch me slit your throat.”

  “Right here?” I asked, not believing that I’d been so easily duped. I’d solved the case, but not until it was too late to bring in the police.

  She paused, then said, “No, I don’t want anyone finding you that easily, and who knows how long I can count on this fog. Go on; head toward the house.”

  I was about to protest when I saw her jab the knife blade in my direction. I didn’t need any more incentive than that.

  “How can you be sure where it is?” I asked.

  “My sense of direction is impeccable,” she answered.

  “Faith never was here, was she?”

  “Oh, she’s here all right,” Sheila said. “Not only is she as nosy as you are, but she is going to pay for sleeping with my brother. I know he had his faults, but messing around with a married woman wasn’t one of them until she came along.”

  “Then she’s still alive?”

  Sheila cackled softly. “For now. I wanted someone to witness her last breath, and you’ll do nicely. If we’re lucky, your sister will show up to see yours.”

  I had to get away from her while I still could. I took my first step away from her into the mist when I felt the knife slash my arm. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it sent blazes of pain through me, and it stopped me in my tracks.

  Sheila said, “Go ahead and run. I’ll find you, and then I’ll make it ten times worse for you.”

  She’d clearly lost her mind.

  “Why me?” I asked, hoping she’d at least satisfy my curiosity before she killed me. I pressed my hand against the cut to slow the blood seeping out of me, and the touch shot another jolt of pain through me.

  “You know too much about my brother, and I finally realized that you’d never let his murder go. I can’t afford to leave you or your sister alive.”

  “It was all me. Maddy doesn’t know anything about what I’ve been up to,” I said in a hopeless attempt to at least spare her my fate.

  “Don’t lie to me, Eleanor. I know the two of you have been all over town trying to solve my brother’s murder, like a pair of Nancy Drews.”

  “I just don’t get it. How could you kill your own flesh and blood?” I asked. I was doing more than buying time. I honestly wanted to know what could possess someone to do such an unspeakable thing. Maddy and I certainly had our differences at times, but I would die to protect her, and I knew she would do the same for me.

  She actually looked sad in the dim light filtering through the fog. “I didn’t mean to kill him.” After a moment’s hesitation, Sheila added softly, “I got into some trouble, and I had to have money to get out of it. I knew Richard always had more than he needed, and I was his sister. If he’d just given me some when I asked for it the first time, he’d still be alive. What happened was more his fault than mine, when you think about it.”

  This woman was seriously crazy, but if I was going to know what really happened to Richard Olsen, I’d never have a better chance to find out. “You were chasing him through town in the Barons’ VW, weren’t you? Did you plan that all along, too?”

  “This is getting tedious,” Sheila said. “Keep moving.”

  I wasn’t going to go anywhere, at least until she threatened me with that knife again. “Don’t you want to tell someone what happened? They say confession is good for the soul. What could it hurt? It’s not like I’m going to be around to tell anyone.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” she said. “I’ll keep talking as long as you keep walking.”

  “I don’t know which way to go,” I said, telling the truth.

  She gestured straight ahead with her knife. “I’ll tell you when to turn.”

  After a few steps, I said, “So, you were going to tell me about the chase.”

  Sheila almost sounded gleeful as she replied, “We need to go back to that afternoon if you’re going to understand. My car broke down on my way here, and after I put it in the shop, I walked to Richard’s house to ask him for a loan. He turned me down cold. No matter how much I begged, he wouldn’t budge.” Her voice took on a harder edge as she continued, “I knew there had to be money hidden somewhere in his house, though. He’s been squirreling cash away in odd places since he was a kid. I used to borrow from him back then, until he got too crafty for me.” She hesitated, then added, “But I had to get him out of the way first. When I left his house, I remembered the key display at the mechanic’s, so I pretended to check on the status of my car and grabbed a set of keys from the board that were marked ‘finished’ when no one was looking. After that, I wandered around for a while, then came back and got the car after dark.”

  “What were you planning to do?” I asked, stopping without even realizing it.

  She poked me in the back, thankfully with the blunt end of the knife, instead of its sharp point. “Keep walking, Eleanor.”

  “Sorry.” Why was I apologizing? My southern manners were bred too deeply within me, I suppose.

  After I started moving again, Sheila said, “I put on a mask and started hunting for him around town. I figured if I could force him into a telephone pole, he’d be in the hospital at least overnight, and I’d have time to search his place in peace. He was too good a driver, though. Every time I went for him, he somehow managed to get away. I ditched the car a few blocks away, then went back to his house, thinking maybe I could sneak inside. He caught me, though.”

  “And that’s when you killed him?”

  Her voice sounded as though she were lecturing a small child on table manners. “I never would have done anything to him if he hadn’t laughed at me. He called me weak. I lost my temper and admitted that I’d been driving the black Volkswagen, and that’s when he lost his temper.”

  “Are you saying you killed him in self-defense?”

  She chuckled softly. “If anyone ever catches me, I might say just that, but just between us girls, that’s not what happened. He screamed at me, called me crazy, and grabbed his phone to call the police. He should have grabbed the knife instead. It was sitting on the counter, no doubt waiting for that pizza you were bringing him, only I didn’t know that yet. I told him to put the phone down, and if he’d listened to me, I wouldn’t have had to stab him. Richard had no one to blame but himself. I was starting to search the house with a flashlight I found there, and then you showed up. I waited for you to step inside so I could take care of you, too, but you wouldn’t do it!” She was actually scolding me for not cooperating with her plan to kill me.

  How close had I come to dying that night? I didn’t even want to think about it.

  She continued, a little petulantly, “When you went back to your car, I slipped out of the house. The next day, I had to know if you saw me hiding in the shadows, so there was only one thing I could do. I walked into the pizza shop, ready to get rid of you if you recognized me. When you clearly didn’t, I knew I was home free. Then you and your sister helped make me richer than I ever could have imagined, and I was ready to leave this place forever, but you wouldn’t let it go, would you? Now I’m going to finish this once and for all so I can start over somewhere else.”

  “My sister’s never going to let up. She’ll hunt you down when she finds out you killed me.”

  After a moment, Sheila said, “Then I’ll just have to take care of her as well before I leave.”

  What had I done? B
y trying to save myself, I may just have condemned my sister. “Leave her alone.”

  “We’ll see,” she said.

  As we walked on, I realized we had to be getting close to the house unless Sheila’s self-proclaimed sense of direction was way off. I didn’t have much more time to act. Maybe if I got her angry enough, she’d make a mistake and I could get away to warn Maddy. “I can’t believe how petty you are. You killed your own brother for a fistful of cash.”

  “He wasn’t living that great a life, was he? Between his adultery and blackmailing, I might have actually done him a favor. As far as we know, he’s in a better place now.”

  “Maybe you should join him as soon as you can,” I said, not caring anymore that I was provoking her.

  “No doubt I will, but not anytime soon,” Sheila said. “I can’t say the same thing for you, though.”

  My arm seemed to throb harder at the sound of her words, as if my spirit were draining away from me with my blood.

  There was a momentary break in the fog, and we were close enough that I could see the house. How had she done it? I never could have found it in the thick mist.

  What I spotted inside chilled me more than the cold fog embracing me.

  Faith Baron was on the floor, trussed with plastic restraints and muted by duct tape over her mouth. The look of panic in her eyes told me all I needed to know. She knew just as well as I did that most likely neither one of us was going to live to see another dawn.

  I had one last chance before I ended up like Faith. Sheila took her eyes off me for one second as her free hand touched the doorknob to open it, and I threw myself away from her, stumbling into the swirling fog.

  She was right on my heels, and I could feel the knife blade cutting the air less than an inch from the back of my neck. I ran blindly on, knowing that my one chance lay in getting away, and getting help. I ran through the fog, and I could always seem to hear her just behind me. With the worst luck I’d ever experienced in my life, the mist seemed to be dissipating, at least where we were. It wasn’t enough to give me any kind of real visibility, but Sheila wasn’t having much trouble following me.

  As I ran, I stumbled over something and fell to the ground. There was an outline of two poles on the ground beside me, and I recognized the posthole digger Travis White had been using to construct his fence. They were long and awkward, so as a weapon, I’d never be able to swing the tool with enough force to stop Sheila. I was about to give up hope when I spotted a shiny metal post lying beside the digger.