With that, they hung up. Ellie knew that he was right. She had backed herself into a corner before, and didn’t want to draw any attention to herself if she was right about the killer being someone from the community center.
She glanced at the clock on her phone. It was high time that she got back to the pizzeria. She slid the phone into her pocket, straightened up, and opened the bathroom door to find herself face to face with Ronald.
She let out a strangled yelp of surprise, then clapped her hand over her mouth. He took a step backward, and Ellie saw his arm tighten around the case of toilet paper he was holding.
“Sorry,” she said. “You just surprised me, that’s all.”
He nodded curtly, then stepped aside so she could leave. She took a step forward, then flinched back as he closed in again.
“How long were you in here?” he asked.
“Why?” She hoped he wouldn’t be able to tell that her voice was higher pitched than usual out of fear. “Is there a time limit on how long someone can use the bathroom?”
His eyes narrowed slightly. She saw them dart to the side, towards the kitchen door. To her horror, she felt a blush rise in her cheeks. His face flushed red.
“You were listening in, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t hear anything,” she lied. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now, pardon me. I need to get back to work.”
She tried to move forward again, but his thin body remained unmoving in the doorway. She fancied she could see the gears turning in his head.
“You’re that lady with the dog, right?” he said. “You were one of the ones that complained to Ms. Shippey, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t complain to anyone,” Ellie said honestly. “I left when you told me to, and this is the first time I’ve been back since. Now, will you please get out of my way?”
He gritted his teeth. What he said next came as a surprise. “I’m sorry for being short with you when you brought your dog in.”
She blinked. “Oh. Well, thank you. Apology accepted.”
“I know I’m not very good with people, but I love this job and I really need it. I know you heard my conversation with the owner. Just… don’t say anything bad about me, okay?”
Ellie nodded. Ronald gave her a small smile. At that moment, someone called out his name.
“Ronald? What are you doing?”
She recognized Kristy’s voice immediately. She heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall towards them.
“There are a ton of people waiting for the game room to get set up. I thought you were going to organize that?”
Kristy reached the bathroom and looked surprised to see Ellie standing there. The pizzeria owner noticed that her eyes were red, as if she had been crying recently.
“I’m on my way,” Ronald replied, back to his old, grumpy self. “I’ve got to drop off this toilet paper first. The janitor’s late, and someone complained about empty toilet paper rolls in a couple of the stalls. Of course, it falls on me to take care of it.”
“Well, sorry, I would have done it if someone had asked. You’re the one that has the keys to the supply closet, though. Anyway, I just came down here to remind you about the game room. I need to get going, so I can’t help.”
“I’ll walk out with you,” Ellie said quickly, glad for an excuse to leave behind her strange encounter with Ronald. “I should be going too.”
She bade the thin man a brusque goodbye, then started down the hall with Kristy. The other woman looked even more exhausted than before. Ellie didn’t blame her. Her best friend was gone, she was suffering through an abusive relationship, and she had the threat of losing her job hanging over her head. The woman could probably use some kindness in her life.
“Hey, Kristy?” she said as they walked. “Do you want to get coffee with me?”
“Right now?”
“Sure, if you have time.”
“Well…” the other woman hesitated for a moment. “Okay, I guess I do.”
“Awesome.” Ellie smiled at her. “My treat, as thanks for rescuing me from Ronald.”
“Thank you.” Kristy gave her a grateful smile. “Let me go grab my coat.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
* * *
Ellie took Kristy to the same coffee shop that she went to with Shannon and Karen every week. She had been gone from the pizzeria for longer than she had intended, but she didn’t regret making the offer. Kristy had been going through some truly horrible stuff lately, and though Ellie knew a cup of coffee wouldn’t fix anything, she hoped that the act of kindness would remind the woman that she wasn’t alone.
The table by the window that Ellie usually sat at was taken, so the two of them opted for a more private table near the back. Kristy was carrying a large tote, which she set down under the table before sitting.
“Are you going on a trip?” Ellie asked, indicating the bag with a nod of her head.
“Oh, no. I have my laptop in here, and I don’t want to leave it in the car because of the cold.”
“Ah, okay,” Ellie said. She didn’t really know what to say next. Her great idea had only extended to buying the woman coffee. She had no idea what they would find to talk about for the next who-knew-how-long.
“So, what was Randall bothering you about?” Kristy asked.
Ellie was glad for the conversation topic, and launched into the story enthusiastically.
“So, who’s Ms. Shippey?” she asked when she was done. “I hate to admit it, but I don’t have the slightest clue of how the community center is run.”
“She owns the building. Her husband created some huge charity foundation before he passed away, and that’s how she pays the employees and manages all of the activities we do there throughout the year,” Kristy said. “She’s nice. Probably a bit too nice, really. Randall’s a weird guy. He got in trouble last year for kicking a kid out who was running in the halls. As in, he made the kid go outside and wouldn’t let him back in. It wasn’t some teenager or something like that, either, but a young kid that was there for our free daycare program. I’m surprised he didn’t get fired right then.”
“I’m surprised she kept him around after that,” Ellie agreed. “I don’t like the way he was talking about Courtney, either. It almost sounded like he was glad she’s no longer with us because he thought she was trying to take his job.”
“He did always act like he was in some sort of competition with Courtney. I think you’re right; he felt threatened by her.”
Ellie glanced around to make sure no one else was listening in before she spoke in a low voice. “You don’t think he could have hurt her, do you?”
Kristy bit her lip. “It’s a possibility,” she said at last.
“The poor woman. I just feel so bad for her. The only reason I can think that she didn’t go to the doctor, or report the crime if she got attacked was that she was protecting whoever did it.”
She looked up to see tears sliding down Kristy’s face. She kicked herself mentally. This wasn’t the time or place to talk about Courtney’s death. What had she been thinking? She had wanted to take Kristy out to cheer her up, not dredge up sad memories.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, leaning forward to put a hand on the other woman’s arm. As she did, her elbow knocked over the half-full cup of coffee. “Shoot. I’m going to go get napkins to clean this up.”
She grabbed a wad of the cheap paper napkins that they had near the register and began wiping up the floor. The corner of Kristy’s tote was touching the puddle of spilled coffee. Ellie reached out to move the bag aside, and was surprised when Kristy reached down and pulled it away first.
“I should be going,” the other woman said quickly. She fumbled with the handle on the tote. Her hands were visibly shaking. Ellie couldn’t believe how stupid she had been to bring up Courtney in the first place.
“I’m so sorry, Kristy. If you want to stay longer, I can buy another cup of coffee and we’ll talk about something else.”
“No, I really should get going. You’re a nice person, Ellie. Thank you.”
She stood up and began to walk away. Ellie saw the tote’s shoulder loop catch on the corner of the table and opened her mouth to say something, but it was too late. Kristy felt the loop catch and gave the bag a firm tug to free it without looking back. The bag tore at the seam and the contents spilled out across the cafe’s floor.
Ellie froze as a huge amount of cash fluttered to the ground around her. The entire cafe had gone silent. Kristy was staring down at her in mute terror.
“What —” Ellie began. She broke off mid-sentence as Kristy’s fingers fumbled inside her jacket and a second later she pulled out a small revolver. Her hands were shaking too much for her to be able to aim it well, but the pizzeria owner didn’t want to take her chances with even a randomly fired bullet.
“No one move.” The words came out in a dry whisper. Kristy cleared her throat and tried again. This time her voice was louder and clear. “No one move.”
“Kristy, what are you doing?” Ellie said. “Did you steal all of this money?”
“How do you know that?” the other woman asked, her eyes wide.
“A friend of mine works with you at the newspaper. She told me some of what’s going on. This is all stolen, isn’t it?”
“No,” the other woman said defensively. “Not all of it. I saved up some. I had to hide it from Jayce. Cash was easiest.”
“You need help, Kristy.” Ellie was still kneeling on the floor, where just moments ago she had been cleaning up spilled coffee. She made to stand up, but stopped when Kristy centered the barrel of the gun on her.
“I don’t need help,” Kristy said. More tears were sliding down her face. “I don’t need anyone. I just want to leave. Please, no one move. I don’t want to hurt anyone else, but I will if I have to.”
“Anyone else?” Ellie asked, worry clenching her stomach. “Did you already hurt someone, Kristy?”
The other woman’s lips trembled. She closed her eyes. Ellie began to slowly push herself to her feet, but before she could make any progress, Kristy’s eyes snapped open.
“Stay where you are,” she said. “You’ve been nice to me and I don’t want to shoot, but I will if I have to. I’m done being a doormat.”
“Kristy—”
“Don’t think I don’t mean it,” the other woman said. “I killed my best friend. Compared to that, this would be nothing.”
Ellie was stunned into silence. Kristy was the one that had killed Courtney? Why? How? None of it made any sense to her.
“Empty out your purse and put the money in it. When you’re done, hand it to me slowly, and stay on the floor. I’ll leave, and none of you will ever see me again.”
The contents of her purse clattered as she dumped it out on the floor. Her cell phone was so tantalizingly close, but she didn’t dare make any moves towards it. Instead, she did as Kristy had requested; she began grabbing at the bills spread over the floor and shoving them into her bag. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. One of the women sitting at one of the farthest tables had her phone out and was typing surreptitiously on the screen under the table. Ellie knew that she had to find a way to keep Kristy distracted.
“I understand about the money,” she said softly. “You needed it to get away. And the gun—you needed it to protect yourself. But why would you hurt Courtney?”
“I didn’t mean to,” Kristy said in a tremulous voice. “I never knew how bad it was.”
“What happened?” Ellie asked.
“She found out about the money. She didn’t think I should be stealing. She wanted to go to Ms. Shippey for help. I told her if she did, then our friendship would be over. I was angry, and so was she. I got in my car and pulled away, but she stepped out in front of me. I tried to stop, but it was icy and I couldn’t. I didn’t even hit her that hard, but she ended up getting pinned between my car and another car. We both knew she was hurt. I was scared and I begged her not to tell anyone. She kept it to herself. The next day she seemed better, but the day after that she started getting sick, she said her stomach hurt… I asked her not to go to the doctor, for me, because I didn’t want to get in trouble. We were at the community center when she started getting really bad cramps. She went outside for some fresh air. When she didn’t come back, I thought she had gone to the doctor. I never thought—”
Kristy’s voice broke as she began to sob. Hesitantly, Ellie stood up. The gun wasn’t pointing at her any longer, in fact, the woman seemed to have forgotten all about it. She tensed for a moment when Ellie touched her hand, but let the weapon slide from her grip without a fight.
“There, there,” Ellie said feebly, patting her arm. Over the other woman’s shoulder, she could see the flashing lights of the police cars through the window. Courtney’s killer had been caught at last, but clearing up the mystery wasn’t nearly as satisfying as she had thought it would be.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
* * *
Ellie watched out the front window as Russell parked his truck behind her little green car. A smile grew on her lips as she saw him walk unaided across the driveway and up the path to the front stoop. He had a limp, but that would go away with time. She was glad to see him up and active again, and knew that he was happy to be back to his normal life as sheriff.
She opened the door before he could knock. Bunny let out a sharp yap and dashed over to dance eagerly around his feet. He bent down to pet her before straightening up to greet Ellie.
“You look nice,” he said.
“It’s a funeral, I’m not sure nice is the right compliment,” she said. “Morose, maybe.”
“Well, you look morose. In a nice way. Are you ready to go?”
“Yes, just let me say goodbye to Bunny and grab my purse. Do you know if we’re still meeting Shannon and James first?”
“I believe so. I haven’t heard anything to the contrary.”
“Good,” she said. “It will be nicer to go together. I still don’t know if it’s right for us to go. None of us knew Courtney that well.”
“You should be there,” Russell said firmly. “You’re the one who found out who killed her. Her parents invited you specifically. Shannon has to be there to cover the story. And, well, I’m going because you asked me to.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a quick smile. “Let’s get going, then. The last thing we want is to be late.”
When the service ended, Ellie hung back near the grave while the rest of the gathering began to drift away. She felt an overwhelmingly deep sadness when she thought of the young woman and the life that she would never have. She didn’t like it, but she felt sad for Kristy too. The other woman had made bad choices that had led to someone’s death, and Ellie didn’t doubt that she deserved whatever sentence the judge decided on, but try as she might, she couldn’t forget the way the woman had just stood there and sobbed after confessing what she had done. She didn’t want to feel pity for a killer, but it seemed unavoidable in this case.
“Do you need more time?” Russell asked from beside her. Ellie sighed, then shook her head. Standing there staring at a young woman’s grave wouldn’t achieve anything. It was time to go and give Courtney’s family the privacy they probably wanted.
“Thanks for coming with me,” she said to Russell as they walked back towards the car, where Shannon and James were waiting. “It means a lot.”
“I’m glad you decided to go,” he said. “I think it’s better, in the long run. There are some cases that you just never forget. Getting this sort of closure doesn’t fix everything, but it helps. Spending time with those close to you helps, too.”
“I don’t know how you do it,” she said. “You’ve worked on so many murder cases. How do you still have any faith in humanity?”
To her surprise, Russell smiled. “That’s easy. Because people like you exist, and people like Shannon and James. Good people. I’m not in this to catch the bad guy. I’m in it for them. To pr
otect the good ones.”
Ellie nodded. It was a fine line, but she thought it was an important one. It was the difference between living a life with love in your heart, and living a life guided by hate or vengeance. She had to remember to be that way herself more; to focus on the good things and the good people that she loved, because they were all that mattered in the end.
Four Cheese Murder: Book Seven in Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Page 6