Murder by the Slice (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

by Mary Maxwell

  “Not as urgent as that raving lunatic you’re dealing with.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure.”

  I told him that I was definitely sure. Then I told him to have a safe drive back home.

  “Thanks, Katie,” he said. “It’s really good to hear your voice.”

  I felt a flicker of glee blended with sorrow before I wished Trent good luck with the intoxicated suspect and he clicked off the line.

  CHAPTER 41

  When the final customer was gone and the dining room was ready for the next day, my sister and I stood on the back porch outside the Sky High kitchen. Wisps of downy clouds drifted overhead like feathers scattered across the pale indigo afternoon sky. Olivia had a suitcase in one hand and a bag filled with slices of Sky High’s greatest hits: Peach Passion Pie, Cocoa Loco Cupcakes, Deb’s Double Cherry Dream Pie and Raspberry Marble Cheesecake. She put the overnight case on the bench beside the door.

  “I don’t want to leave,” she said, grabbing my hand. “This has been way more fun that I thought it would be!”

  “Really?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, really. I like how different it is from my life in Denver.”

  “But don’t you miss the razzle-dazzle of your legal career? The hustle bustle of getting two teenagers ready for school every morning? The joy of keeping a household running like a well-oiled machine?”

  She smirked. “Are you finished yet?”

  “What’re you talking about?” I smiled and squeezed her fingers as she came in for a hug. “Isn’t that about right for your typical day at home?”

  She pressed her lips to my cheek and gave me a sisterly kiss. Then she squeezed me so hard I thought my ribs would splinter.

  “The razzle-dazzle of a legal career is over-rated,” she said, stepping back before any bones cracked. “Getting the boys to do anything is way beyond hustling or bustling. And I don’t keep the house going; that’s Sylvia’s bailiwick.”

  “Who’s that?” I asked.

  “Our housekeeper,” my sister answered, averting her eyes. “We decided to see how life would be with another pair of hands.”

  “And how is it?”

  “You have no idea!” Olivia gushed. “Silvia’s a miracle worker. She’s taught me so much about getting organized and cooking and cleaning.”

  “Maybe she could come up to Sky High for a few days,” I suggested. “I’m going to miss having you around here to help.”

  My sister leaned down and grabbed her suitcase. Then she checked her watch and gave me another quick kiss. “I should get on the road, sweetie.” Her voice was softer and more delicate, tinged with a hint of sadness and the possibility of tears. “Even though I’d rather stay here and make another Deep-Dish Apple Delite from Nana Reed’s recipe.”

  I gave her a swat on the rear. “Hit the road, Jack! Call me when you get there, okay?”

  She walked down the steps, turned and waved. “I love you, little sister!”

  “Right back at ya!” I called. “Thanks again for coming up. You made my first week a whole lot easier than it would’ve been.”

  She smiled. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” she said, opening the door and climbing behind the wheel of her SUV. “I’m so proud of you for keeping Sky High in the family.”

  I watched until she disappeared around a bend in the road. Then I went back inside and fixed a glass of raspberry iced tea. Julia and Harper had gone home for the day. Angus wasn’t due back for another hour to repair the leak in the kitchen sink. And all of the special orders had been picked up for the day. I was alone in the café, and the silence was a welcome respite from the chaos and clutter of the day. Before I shuffled into the office to shuffle papers around my desk, I decided it would be nice to sit quietly and catch my breath. As I savored the first icy sip, my phone chirped in my pocket. I checked the name before swiping the screen to accept the call.

  “Hey, Trent,” I said, sitting on a stool beside the walk-in cooler.

  “Dina and I think we’ve got this thing figured out,” he said.

  “What thing?”

  “The connection Gustave Landecker and your boss,” he said.

  “That’s good to hear,” I told him. “And I’ve also got a theory to share with you. Late last night, I went through the files that were on the flash drive that Rodney mailed to me.”

  “What did you say?”

  I repeated my last comment and Trent demanded to know why I’d copied evidence in a murder investigation.

  “Because it belonged to Rodney,” I said. “And he sent it to me for safekeeping.”

  The line went quiet. I wasn’t about to back down; under other circumstances, I would never make a copy of something related to a police investigation. But it made perfect sense in this case.

  “Okay, Kate,” Trent said finally. “What’s your theory?”

  “Why don’t you go first?” I suggested. “Then we can compare notes and see how close we are.”

  I listened as he unfurled the roster of names and incidents and clues. I’d been thinking so intently about the same list of people and events and seemingly disconnected bits of evidence for the past twenty-four hours that my mind stuttered as I tried to concentrate on the sound of Trent’s voice.

  “…your permission, I mean,” he was saying. “I won’t do it if…”

  I couldn’t imagine what he was asking.

  “My permission?” I said softly. “For what?

  I was waiting for his answer when I heard something in the dining room. It sounded like a muffled clicking or tapping noise.

  “It’s just a bit unorthodox,” Trent said. “And we—”

  “Hey, can you hold on a sec?”

  “Uh…sure,” he said. “What is it?”

  The scratching was gone. I listened closely, wondering what I’d heard, when a loud tapping echoed through the empty café.

  “I don’t know,” I told Trent. “Just hang on…” I started to get up from my desk. “Actually, let me call you back in a few,” I said quickly. “I keep hearing strange noises. The blower motor on the ice cream freezer has been acting up. I should check that real fast in case it’s getting ready to go kaput.”

  Trent told me to take care of whatever it was and we could continue the conversation as soon as I’d resolved the crisis. I put my phone on the desk, lurched out of my chair and headed down the short hallway toward the kitchen just in time to hear the sound of splintering glass in the distance.

  “What in the heck?” My voice sounded faint and wobbly; an icy chill threaded through my body.

  I picked up the pace, rushing into the kitchen and through the swinging door as a menacing voice rasped loudly from somewhere in the shadows.

  “Yoohoo?” a man called. “Anybody home?”

  CHAPTER 42

  My legs stopped instantly, frozen in place as my eyes swiveled left and right and then back to the left. I didn’t see anyone, though there was enough sunlight streaming through the front windows that I could make out the jagged shards of glass on the floor near the entrance.

  “Who’s there?” I said in a crisp, unwavering voice.

  The intruder answered with a brittle laugh. “Is that the sound of you being brave, Kate?”

  I swallowed hard, pushing the fear and adrenaline down as far as it would go. I concentrated on my breathing, remembering Rodney’s advice the first time we worked a stakeout together and things went sideways. The man we were trailing, after someone tipped him off that we were outside in a car, snuck out the back way and took a shot at the back windshield of Rodney’s Crown Vic. “Keep your breathing slow and steady,” he’d said in a calm, commanding tone as the second bullet pinged against the back of the trunk. “The key to survival is slow and steady, Katie. If you let it get away from you, there’s a chance you’ll make an unforced error.”

  As I felt my lungs filling with each new gulp of fresh air, I heard footsteps in the distance. They slid and stopped, slid and stopped, as if the perso
n was intentionally signaling their location.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” the guy said. “But I will if that’s what it takes.”

  I waited, breathing slowly and wishing that my phone was in my pocket instead of on the desk in my office.

  “But it’s your choice, Kate.”

  I inched forward and knelt behind the counter. If the intruder rushed into the dining room, at least he wouldn’t see me immediately.

  “Because we don’t care about you,” the man said as the footsteps grew louder. “We just want the computer gizmo that your boss took.”

  He was in the dining room now, talking about the flash drive and how Rodney would still be alive if only he’d listened to the warnings he’d received.

  “We told him to back off,” the man said. “To keep his nose out of where it didn’t belong.”

  The voice was louder and more distinct now. I was certain it was Muldoon, but I didn’t want to risk a peek. I glanced to my left, searching for something that I could use as a weapon. But the stacks of paper cups, napkins and menus would be useless.

  “But that guy was stubborn,” Muldoon continued. “About as stubborn as you, Kate.”

  My eyes shifted toward the far end of the counter, settling on a dark object tucked under a folded Sky High Pies apron. It was the cordless phone that usually sat in its cradle on the back counter near the ice cream freezer. I carefully scooted along the linoleum tiles, doing my best not to make a sound.

  “I guess being stubborn is a trait that can be either a blessing or a curse,” Muldoon said. His voice was louder, so I knew he was moving toward the counter. “Just depends on what you do with it, right?”

  The phone was nearly within reach. I started to push myself along the floor again when I heard a distinct click directly overhead.

  “Hey, there,” Muldoon said. “Did you fall and can’t get up?”

  I looked up; the barrel of a black pistol was aimed directly at my head.

  “What do you want?” I whispered.

  He smiled, revealing teeth as mottled and chipped as a slaughterhouse floor.

  “There’s money in the office,” I said. “And I gave the flash drive to the—”

  The gun came closer as he leaned over the counter.

  “I don’t want your money,” he said. “I want that computer gizmo thingy that your boss took.”

  “I just told you,” I said, feeling a shiver along my spine. “I gave it to the police.”

  Muldoon smirked. “What the hell you do that for?”

  “Because I figured it was—”

  “That was a bad move, Kate.” He wagged the gun at me. “You just made this whole thing much more complicated than it needed to be.”

  His forehead buckled into a field of wrinkles as he walked toward the opening in the counter.

  “Who’d you give it to?” he asked.

  “Trent Walsh,” I answered.

  “The doofus with the black Jeep Cherokee?”

  I nodded.

  “Jeez, Kate. Why’d you do that?”

  I didn’t answer this time. I kept my eyes on the gun and held my body as still as possible. Muldoon walked slowly behind the counter and came toward me.

  “Well?” he demanded. “Why’d you give the thingy to that cop?”

  I swallowed hard. “Because it seemed like the right thing to do.”

  He laughed; the throaty chuckle bounced around the empty room.

  “Shucks, Kate. That’s not a good enough reason. There’s a ton of money on the line here. If you’d been smart, they probably would’ve—”

  He paused, angling his head to one side.

  “You hear that?” he asked quietly.

  I shook my head.

  “Figures,” he grumbled. “You’re one of those ‘hear no evil’ kind of girls.”

  He squinted and listened again. “Sure you didn’t hear anything?”

  “I’m positive,” I said. “The only thing I can hear is my pounding heart. Why don’t you let me call Trent? Maybe he’ll be willing to—”

  Muldoon sneered, shaking his head violently. “Well, I swear there was a noise or something,” he said. “But I guess—”

  The swinging door from the kitchen suddenly slammed opened.

  “You were right,” Ellen Parker said. “For maybe the first time in your life.”

  She had her Birkin bag in one hand and a petite handgun in the other. The firearm was a gleaming snub-nosed silver derringer with a jet-black grip. When Muldoon realized that she’d gotten the drop on him, the bumbling felon blurted out a sloppy, nervous laugh.

  “What’s this?” he asked dismissively. “You playing tough girl now, Eileen?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “It’s Ellen,” she hissed. “And I’m taking the flash drive. So put your gun on the floor and move slowly away from the counter.”

  The guy’s nervous snickering grew louder. “The flash drive?” He gestured at me with the barrel of his weapon. “Little Katie Reed just told me that she doesn’t even have it.”

  I glanced at Ellen. “That’s true. I gave it to Trent.”

  “Get to your feet, Kate.” She used the polished derringer as a pointer, aiming it first at me and then out toward the empty tables and chairs. “Go stand out there in the middle of the room.”

  I wasn’t about to argue. Between the ravenous look in her eyes and the loaded handgun, it was obvious Ellen was wound pretty tightly. Add Muldoon to the mix—a jittery, snickering goon armed with a much larger pistol—and there was a strong possibility someone wasn’t walking out of the café on their own two feet when the dust settled.

  “Now?” I asked.

  Ellen sneered. “What do you think, genius?” She stepped closer to Muldoon, her eyes wide with contempt. “Yes, I mean now!”

  CHAPTER 43

  In Ellen’s petite hand, the gun looked enormous. And wobbly. She was shaking so hard I figured there was a very good chance that somebody in the room wasn’t going home alive if she squeezed the trigger.

  “What are you doing?” I asked in a gentle whisper.

  She ignored my question, keeping her eyes focused on Muldoon. “I’ll say it one more time,” she hissed. “Get up. And go stand in the middle of the room.”

  He hesitated for a moment or two before complying with the demand. From where I was situated behind the counter, I couldn’t see him. But I listened to his footsteps as he shuffled slowly between the empty tables and chairs.

  “Okay,” Ellen said. “Now sit down. And keep your mouth shut.”

  I heard the scrape of chair legs against the linoleum and then a muffled thud as Muldoon dropped into the seat.

  “This is not going to go down well at home,” he said. “You basically just signed your own death certificate, Elaine.”

  A deafening roar filled the room as Ellen pointed the gun at the ceiling and pulled the trigger.

  “My name is Ellen!” she shrieked, even though her voice was distorted by the ringing in my ears.

  “And I do not want to hear you say another word, Muldoon!”

  My heart was slamming wildly against my ribs as I fought the urge to scramble toward the swinging door into the kitchen. I knew that I could move quickly, but I wasn’t sure how agile Ellen might be with the gun. If she had any speed at all, she could get off at least one more round before I could disappear through the opening and out the backdoor.

  “Kate?”

  My name was barely audible through the droning of the gunshot in my ears. I looked up and watched as Ellen came toward me.

  “Kate,” she said again. “Where’s the package that your boss sent to you?”

  I cringed against the counter as she pointed the barrel of her gun toward my head.

  “And I don’t want this to be a lengthy chitchat,” she added. “Tell me what you did with it.”

  I swallowed and pulled in a short breath. “I gave it to Trent. He’s got it at the police station.”

  Her eyes blazed with fury. “A
re you kidding me?” she raged. “Didn’t any of those messages or warnings get through that thick skull of yours?”

  I held my eyes on the gun, watching gratefully as she lowered it to her side.

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I thought it was the right thing to—”

  She lunged toward me, reaching out with her empty hand.

  “The right thing!” she screamed as her fingers circled my wrist. “The right thing!” She jerked my arm and ordered me to stand. “The right thing for you to do is get over there with Muldoon so I can think.”

  As I clambered to my feet and walked around from behind the counter, I caught a flash of something red through one of the front windows. I turned my eyes away so that Ellen wouldn’t look in that direction and went over to the table where Muldoon sat scowling and tapping the toe of one scuffed boot on the linoleum.

  “Take a load off,” he said, nodding at the other three empty chairs. “I hear the food here is pretty good, but the service sucks.”

  “Shut up, Muldoon,” yelled Ellen. “I need quiet so I can think.”

  He snickered. “That’ll be a first. I didn’t even know you had a brain up under all that hair and makeup and crap.”

  While Ellen seethed and paced, I carefully glanced at the front windows again. In the lower left corner of the far right window, I saw a shock of dark hair and a pair of eyes. It was one of the teenagers that I’d talked outside Juice & Java. When he realized that I’d spotted him, the kid ducked out of sight again.

  Bad time to collect on that offer for free pie, I thought. You boys should’ve come—

  “Okay!” Ellen barked. “Here’s what we’re going to do.” She slithered around the table until she was directly behind Muldoon and facing me. “You’re going to get on the phone, Kate. And you’re going to call Trent and tell him to bring the flash drive over here.”

  Muldoon snorted a laugh. “Well, now isn’t that an absolutely foolproof plan?” he said, turning to look at Ellen. “Invite the cops to come on by and surround the place so we can surrender?”