Thanksgiving Pizza Murder (Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Book 19)

by Patti Benning

  Ellie wanted to call Russell again, but she didn’t want to do it with Darlene in the car. She had a lot that she wanted to talk to him about. She had been so involved in her own family’s issues, that she hadn’t even asked him how his parents were doing. She knew that he probably wanted to talk about Kenneth, as well. Liam might not think that he really killed him, but he was certainly being treated as a possible suspect, and that had to hurt even if he understood the reasoning.

  They had a lot to talk about, and all of it would best be done in private. She would just have to wait until later tonight.

  It felt odd to be sharing the house with Darlene and her mother. Even though she missed her grandmother, it seemed that she had gotten used to living alone over the past month. It probably didn’t help that things between her and her mother were tense. She knew that was another important conversation she needed to have, but she didn’t know if she was up to it tonight.

  Dinner was a quiet affair, with them all lost in their own thoughts. They ate the pizza, then finished up the rest of the leftover brownies. It might have been pleasant, if they hadn’t all been weighed down by what had happened.

  After dinner, she did the dishes, then headed toward the stairs, wanting to call Russell as soon as possible. Her foot was on the first step when her mother called out to her.

  “Ellie? Can we talk?”

  She sighed, but didn’t feel as if she could say no. Her mother had known Kenneth as well, and was probably grieving his loss in her own way.

  “What is it?” she asked, joining her mother on the couch. Bunny hopped up between the two of them, putting her front paws on her mother’s lap. Ellie’s mother stroked her absently.

  “Are things… okay between us?”

  Ellie didn’t know how to answer that. Her mother had showed up two days ago, guns blazing, intending to wreck her engagement to Russell. Now, she just looked tired.

  “I don’t know, Mom. You shouldn’t have come here like you did. I love Russell. I know that I’ve only known him for about eighteen months, but that’s long enough. He’s a good guy. Better than Kenneth…” she broke off. She didn’t want to speak poorly of the dead.

  “Ellie, it just doesn’t seem right to me. You left Chicago so suddenly and moved here. You used to be a successful businesswoman, and now you are running a fast food joint. You can’t have thought this through very clearly.”

  “The pizzeria isn’t a fast food joint,” she said. “It’s a restaurant. And it’s a successful one. I opened the second pizzeria down in Florida last month, and is already bringing in money. It might be different than what I was doing before, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important. And to be honest, I like it a lot more. I am my own boss, I get to see people enjoying what I make every single day, and most of the time it’s low stress. I don’t think I have ever been happier.”

  “What about in ten years?” her mother asked. “You still going to be happy in this tiny town in a decade? Are you going to get bored here? Bored with your sheriff?”

  “I know that you haven’t lived here for a long time, but trust me when I say Kittiport is far from boring. And Russell isn’t boring either. I wish you would give him a chance. How could you accuse him of killing Kenneth?”

  She shook her head, remembering why she had been so angry at the older woman.

  “Don’t act like you never even considered that,” her mother said. “He is the last person that saw him alive, and he had a good reason to dislike him.”

  “I never for a second thought that Russell killed him,” Ellie said quietly. “I trust him, Mom. If you would take the chance to get to know him, you would see that he is a good guy. Can you try, at least?”

  Her mother sighed. “I will try,” she said. “I suppose with the mess that I’ve made, I owe you that.” She was silent for a second then said, “Do they know what happened to Kenneth yet?”

  “No,” Ellie said. “As you heard, Russell is not on this case. I don’t know anything more than anyone else does at this point. I do know that your car was found in the pizzeria’s parking lot. The police came earlier today and took it away. They might be able to find some answers there.”

  “Wasn’t his body at the marina, though? Maybe he decided to take a walk after talking to your fiancé.”

  “Maybe,” Ellie said. “No one knows what’s going on yet.”

  “I hope they figure it out soon,” her mother said. “Poor Kenneth. I just feel so terrible.”

  Hesitantly, Ellie gave her mother a hug. “Don’t blame yourself. We don’t know what happened yet. I just wish Russell was working the case. I’m sure he would have some answers by now.”

  “I’m going to go make some tea,” her mother said. “You wait here, okay? We can keep talking when I get back. Do you want any?”

  “No, thanks,” Ellie said. She was itching to get upstairs and call Russell, but at the same time, she wanted to keep talking things out with her mother. It had been a long time since they had just sat down and had a conversation.

  Her mother got up, and Bunny followed her, leaving Ellie alone in the room. She leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes, wishing once again that all of this was just a bad dream.

  CHAPTER TEN

  * * *

  Ellie looked at herself in the mirror, not sure why she felt so nervous. She had already shown the dress to Shannon, who loved it. No matter what her mom said, it wouldn’t change the way that she felt about it. Or, at least, that’s what she told herself.

  She took a deep breath, then opened the bedroom door, lifting the dress carefully as she went down the stairs. Her mother, who was waiting in the living room, froze when she saw her.

  “What do you think?” she asked.

  “Ellie… it’s beautiful,” her mom said in a whisper. She was surprised to see the other woman’s eyes filled with tears.

  “You really like it?”

  “I love it. And I can tell by your face that you do too. I’m sorry, I’ve been just terrible, haven’t I? You look so happy, and here I am trying to wreck it all. No wonder you didn’t tell me about your engagement sooner. You probably don’t even want me at the wedding.”

  “Don’t be silly, I want you to come to the wedding,” Ellie said. She and her mother had spent the last hour talking, and she felt a lot better now. They both did. There was a lot of things they both needed to get off their chests. “I was going to tell you about our engagement. I shouldn’t have put it off for so long. I was never planning on not inviting you.”

  “I would give you a hug, but I don’t want to wrinkle it. I wish I could have gone shopping for it with you, but I understand why you went with your grandmother. Thank you so much for showing it to me.”

  Ellie smiled at her mother, then turned around and went back upstairs to get changed. It did feel good to have this out of the way. Now, her mother and Russell’s parents all knew about the engagement. There wasn’t anyone else left to tell, unless she wanted to track down her father. She didn’t, though. Her mother had at least tried to be a good parent. Her father, on the other hand, had left without a backwards glance. If he didn’t want to be a part of her life, she wasn’t going to make him.

  She had changed and hung the dress up again carefully in the closet. Then, she picked up the phone. She wanted to see Russell, even though it was late.

  It took her a while to get out of the house, but at last, her mother had settled down for the night, and Darlene was engrossed in a movie in the living room. Marlowe was sleeping, and Bunny was happily snuggled up with Ellie’s cousin.

  She pulled into Russell’s driveway and turned her headlights off, not wanting to disturb his parents who were probably sleeping. He met her at the door, letting her in before she had a chance to knock. His cat, Sookie, rubbed against her legs, purring. Ellie petted the little cat, then straightened up and gave Russell a hug.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk before now,” she said. “Things have just been so crazy
at my house.”

  “Trust me, it’s been busy here, too. I spent the entire day with my parents. They wanted to see you, but I told them that you were busy with your mom. They can’t wait to meet her.”

  “I think she’s really starting to come to terms with me and you,” Ellie said. “We had a good talk this evening. What she said about Kenneth… I think she was just upset. She didn’t really mean it.”

  “I’m glad that the two of you are figuring things out,” he said.

  “I just hope everything goes smoothly on Thanksgiving. I might almost be glad that my mom is here, if it wasn’t for what had happened to Kenneth.”

  “About that,” Russell said, lowering his voice as he let her in the living room. “Even though I’m not on the case, Liam called earlier today to update me. Kenneth died of trauma to the head. The autopsy revealed that he was already dead before he was thrown into the water.”

  “So, someone killed him and then tried to dispose of the body?” Ellie said.

  “That’s what it looks like. We – I mean, they – are looking for the site of the murder now. Since he was parked at the pizzeria, they are starting there. With all the rain that we’ve been getting, the unfortunate truth is that there probably won’t be anything left, but I know that my team won’t leave any stone unturned. To make matters worse, the car had been wiped clean by the time the police got to it. There wasn’t a single fingerprint on any of the door handles.”

  She sighed. It sounded like Liam had his work cut out for him. “It’s been really hard,” she admitted. “I used to know him so well.”

  “I know,” he said. “It’s never easy losing someone you’re close to. Did he know anyone in town?”

  “No,” she said. “At least, not that I know of. He’s from Chicago, and never visited Kittiport.”

  “That will probably make it harder to figure out who did this to him,” he said. “Usually it’s someone who knows the victim, but in this case, it looks like it was an attack of opportunity. It’s odd, though. I found his wallet in his coat pocket. There was still cash inside, and plenty of credit cards. Do you know if he carried anything else valuable with him?”

  “I have no idea,” she said. “He used to have a nice watch, but I don’t know if he still wears it.”

  “He had a watch on him, too,” Russell said. “This doesn’t feel like a mugging gone wrong. If someone killed him for his money, they would have taken his wallet.”

  “So, who did it? Who had motive?”

  Her fiancé fell silent. After a moment, he said, “Me. That’s why Liam won’t let me be on the case. He doesn’t really think I did it, but I’m the only one that had any sort of motive. I wish I had done something differently that night. I shouldn’t have let him leave while he was still so angry.”

  “What did the two of you talk about, anyway?” She hadn’t had a chance to ask yet.

  “He started off just by asking about how you are doing. As we spoke, he got more and more agitated. He admitted to regretting what he did, cheating on you, and accused me of taking advantage of your fragile emotional state. I don’t want to go into too much detail. Speaking poorly of the dead is something I try to avoid. In the end, I told him that I was done talking to him, and that he should leave now. He walked out the door, and that was the last I saw of him.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ellie said. “He and my mom are both similar in that they always thought that they knew more about what I wanted than I did. If I had known he was going to go and talk to you, I would have stopped him.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I shouldn’t have agreed to talk to him. After our interaction in your kitchen, I should have known that he wouldn’t be reasonable.”

  “What happened in the kitchen?”

  “He came in to tell me that I should leave, that he came here to talk to you and not to me. When I told him I wasn’t going anywhere unless you asked me to, he shoved me, which made me drop the glass. That’s how I cut my hand.”

  “I had no idea,” Ellie said. “You should have told me. I would have kicked him out right away.”

  “I thought it was something that you had to deal with,” he said. “I thought it would be good if you got closure with him, and worked things out with your mom without me interfering.”

  She shook her head, at a loss for words. The whole thing had been a disaster. She was mad at Kenneth, even though he was dead. He had had no right to come barging into her life like that. Her mother, at least, she could somewhat understand. Her mother, though her actions had been misguided, had acted out of love. Kenneth had come out of some odd sense of jealousy or possessiveness, both traits that she had always found unappealing in him.

  “I’m sorry about everything,” she said. “We will still have a nice Thanksgiving, even with the investigation. I’ll make sure of it.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  * * *

  She, Darlene, and her mother settled into a routine over the next two days. Darlene usually woke up first, and made the coffee, then Ellie would get up and start breakfast. Her mother joined them for the meal, then helped Ellie do the dishes. Ellie went down to the station with her mother to talk to Liam, telling him what they knew about Kenneth, and everything they knew about the night before he had died. She knew that the deputy was good at his job, but she still found herself wishing that Russell was working the case. She wanted to ask Liam why he had asked Russell to step aside, how he could think that his boss had had anything to do with it, but she didn’t. She knew that they had to follow protocol, and having Russell involved in the case would just complicate legal matters.

  Thanksgiving morning, she woke up to find snow drifting down past her bedroom window. So far, the snow all seemed to be melting when it hit the ground, but she knew that wouldn’t last for long. Soon, the ground would be dusted with white. It would be perfect weather for a cozy meal inside together.

  She did what she could to push thoughts of Kenneth’s death out of her mind, and went downstairs to begin preparing the kitchen for the day. They were eating early, at about two, and she had a lot to do before then. Making a full Thanksgiving dinner for six people was no small feat. Darlene had already agreed to help her, but Ellie was surprised when her mom joined them in the kitchen.

  “Okay, what do you want me to do?”

  Ellie smiled. In years past, her mother had always refused to have Thanksgiving at her apartment, insisting on hosting herself. The fact that she was willing to listen to what Ellie said and help her out meant a lot to her.

  “I’ve got to get the turkey in. Darlene is going to make the pies. Do you want to do the casseroles? I’m planning a making a cheesy potato casserole, a creamed corn casserole, and a green bean casserole.”

  “Sure. Just give me the recipes, and I will get to work.”

  Her grandmother’s kitchen wasn’t small by any means, but with all three of them working on different projects all at once, space was at a premium. Even though she was focused on preparing the turkey, Kenneth’s death was a nagging feeling of sadness at the back of her mind. Russell hadn’t been able to give her any updates about the case, and she had the sinking feeling that it would go unsolved. He didn’t know anyone in Kittiport, which meant that they didn’t have a motive to work off of. The rain would have wiped any evidence outside clean, and the car itself had been wiped down.

  The car would have sat at the pizzeria all day on Sunday. She was a little bit upset that none of her employees had called in, but it wasn’t unusual for people to park there and do their shopping elsewhere before returning. Still, she couldn’t help but think that if only one of them had noticed the car sitting there all day, then the police might have found it before it got wiped clean.

  There’s no use in worrying about it, she thought. Focus on what’s happening now. This is Thanksgiving with my family. I may not see my mom again until the wedding. It may not be perfect, but I should try to live in the moment and enjoy it while it lasts.

  About ten minut
es before two, someone knocked on the front door. Ellie hurried to answer it, letting Russell and his parents come in out of the cold. She was pulled into a hug by his mother, and felt her heart lift. This was much better than their first meeting had been.

  “Oh, Ellie, how are you? Russell told us all about what happened. I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you,” Ellie said. “It’s been tough, but I am glad that you’re all here now. It will be nice to have Thanksgiving with everyone.”

  “I’m excited to meet your mom. It’s so wonderful that our family is going to grow not once, but twice next year.”

  Ellie smiled. “I’m so excited for Shannon and James.”

  “It was quite a surprise,” the other woman said. “But I’m thrilled. I’m going to be grandmother.”