Thin Crust Killers

by Chris Cavender

  “Eleanor, I need to speak with you,” he said, nearly out of breath.

  “Go ahead, but I’ve just got a minute. I’m in the middle of prepping for lunch right now.”

  “This can’t wait,” he said as he started to regain his breath. “Do you have any idea where your brother-in-law is?”

  “Seriously? That’s what’s so urgent that you want to talk to me right now?”

  Trent nodded. “He missed our meeting this morning, and I want to know why.”

  I couldn’t believe the tone he was taking with me, but I wasn’t going to put up with it for another second. “I never know where Steve is. And guess what. It’s not my job. I’m not the man’s keeper.”

  “Of course you aren’t,” he said as he slumped down on the bench beside me, deflated by my comments. I never expected to get that kind of reaction from him.

  “Is it honestly that important?” I asked, suddenly feeling sympathy for the man.

  “It could be the story I’ve been waiting for over twenty years,” he said. “Does that sound significant to you?”

  “And it’s about Steve? I can’t imagine what it could be about that would be interesting to anyone.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not about Steve. You don’t understand. Eleanor, he’s the key to the puzzle. He has information that’s going to rock this part of the state.”

  “But you don’t know what it is,” I said.

  “Nothing specific. He was going to tell me this morning, and then he didn’t show up when he was supposed to. I waited for him for an hour.”

  “He was talking about that last night, too,” I admitted.

  Trent whirled around on the bench. “What exactly did he tell you?”

  “It sounds like the same line he gave you. Let me give you a piece of free advice, Trent. There’s something you should know about my late husband’s brother. He’s prone to exaggeration, and you can only believe a third of what he tells you half the time.”

  I wasn’t sure about the math of my statement, but I was certain about the sentiment. Steve had his good points, but his bad ones far outweighed the good. He kept saying he’d changed, but I hadn’t seen a lot of evidence to support his claim so far, though paying me back money he’d owed Joe had at least been a good start.

  “He has proof,” Trent insisted.

  “Absolutely. He’s keeping it in a cardboard box,” I replied. “I saw it last night.”

  “What was in it? Did he show you what he had?”

  I couldn’t believe how earnest Trent had become.

  “Actually, he asked me to hold on to it for him.”

  Trent’s face exploded into a smile. “Then all’s not lost. Let me see it. It’s the right thing to do.”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  Trent snapped at me, “Eleanor, you don’t have any choice. You have to show me what he gave you.”

  “The reason I can’t show you anything is because I turned him down,” I said contritely.

  “You refused to help him?”

  I started to get a little defensive, mainly because a part of me still felt bad about saying no the night before. “He wouldn’t tell me what was in it. How was I supposed to know what it was? I couldn’t take the chance.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Trent said, grudgingly giving in a little. “If he’s not in his hotel room and he isn’t with you, where else could he be?”

  “I don’t have a clue,” I said.

  “You’re not much good to me then, are you?”

  “Hey, I like to think that I have my moments,” I said in my own defense.

  “But right now isn’t one of them.” He stood, then said, “If you see him before I do, it’s imperative that you have him call me.”

  “How will I know?” I asked.

  “Know what?”

  “If I see him before you do,” I replied. “That’s not exactly something I can determine on sight, now is it?”

  “I swear, you can be dense sometimes, can’t you? Just ask him. I’ve got to go. I can’t waste my time looking all over Timber Ridge for the man. I’m going to be at my office. Call me there if you find him. I’ve got work to do.”

  Before I could say anything else, he was hurrying away.

  What an odd man, and an even odder conversation.

  Maddy was waiting for me by the door.

  The second I walked in, she asked, “What was that all about?”

  “I didn’t think you wanted to know,” I said. “Otherwise, you would have stayed right beside me.”

  “I was just joking around, Eleanor. You know how I am.”

  “Fine. You had your joke, but I’m still not telling you what Trent wanted.”

  “It probably wasn’t all that important anyway,” Maddy said as she started flipping chairs over from the tabletops and tucking them underneath.

  “That’s it, try to weasel it out of me with reverse psychology.”

  I went into the kitchen and checked the clock. Less than two minutes later, Maddy came back. I actually had to give her credit. She’d held out ninety seconds longer than I thought she could.

  “Are you ready to tell me yet, or am I going to have to stage a walkout until you do? A work stoppage could cripple the business, you know.”

  Her smile took the sting out of her threat, but I’d played it long enough. “Actually, Trent’s request was tied into last night.”

  “The bloody menu? Did he confess to doing it?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “I’m talking about Steve’s little visit to my house. Evidently I wasn’t the only one he told about his plans to blow the lid off some kind of scandal in town. He was supposed to meet Trent this morning, but he stood him up.”

  “Do you think he’s all right?”

  “Steve? The man’s made of Teflon. Nothing ever sticks to him. He’s got more lives than a box full of cats.”

  Maddy frowned at me. “Why would anyone put a cat in a box, let alone more than one? How would you go about it, even if you had a good reason, though I can’t imagine what that could possibly be? It just doesn’t make sense.”

  “Don’t take everything I say so seriously. It’s just an expression,” I said, my patience starting to wear thin.

  “That’s odd. I’ve never heard it before,” she said a little truculently.

  “That doesn’t mean it’s not an expression.”

  “If you ask my opinion, it’s never going to catch on.”

  “Fine, no boxes full of cats any more. Does that make you happy?”

  “I don’t care one way or the other,” she said, “but I’m willing to bet that the cats will be overjoyed with the news.”

  I threw a clean dishrag at her, then I said, “If we’re done with our sister stand-up act, let’s open the pizzeria. What do you say?”

  She glanced at the clock and we both saw that it was actually two minutes past noon. “I’d say it’s long overdue.”

  As she headed out front to unlock the door, I started getting things ready for my first order of the day. As I did, I started thinking about what Trent had said. It wasn’t all that odd for Steve to miss an appointment, so there was no reason to worry about him.

  If that were true, though, why did I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I thought about him? It could have simply been because I’d refused his request the night before. Then again, it could be a premonition about something much worse to come.

  “Did you hear the news?” Maddy came back and asked me later in the day, around twenty minutes before we were due to close for our afternoon break. It had been a busy lunch rush, and I was glad to finally be able to catch my breath a little.

  “I’ve been in the kitchen since you unlocked the front door at noon,” I said. “How on earth would I hear anything back here?”

  “We could always switch back, if you liked the front so much,” she said.

  “No, thanks. All things being equal, I’d just as soon s
tay in the kitchen most of the time. It’s easier to deal with orders than customers.”

  “Come on, don’t be afraid. I won’t replace you permanently, I promise.”

  “Keep that up and I’m calling in sick tomorrow,” I said. I’d been too ill to work only twice since Joe and I had first opened the Slice of Delight, and the place had shut down both times. Maybe with Maddy’s newly discovered confidence in her ability to handle a rush, I wouldn’t have to lock the doors the next time I was under the weather.

  “If you even think about skipping out on us, Greg and I are going to be getting colds ourselves in just a few minutes. You’re good, Eleanor, but even you can’t work the front and the back by yourself.”

  “Josh will help me if I call him.”

  “He can’t. He’s got a cross-country race, so he’s off today. It’s your choice. You can stay out tomorrow, but if you do, we’ll take off today.”

  “There’s a flaw in your logic, Maddy. Just in case you haven’t spotted it yet, I’ll give you some time to figure it out.”

  “Don’t be smug. It doesn’t become you. You’re wondering how we’ll know what you may or may not do tomorrow,” she said. “Trust me. We’ll know.”

  “Believe me, I’m not taking a sick day unless I’ve contracted the plague,” I said. I looked at my sister a little quizzically as I said, “That’s the second time today you’ve threatened to lay out of work on me. Did I say something I shouldn’t have to offend you recently? If I did, I’m sorry.”

  “Eleanor, we both know that it’s just a threat I use sometimes when I don’t think you’re taking me seriously enough.”

  “Maddy, I always take you seriously. It’s just some of your theories I take with a grain or two of salt.” I took a deep breath, then added, “I don’t know how we did it, but somehow we got off the original subject. What did you hear?”

  “About what?”

  “You started this inane conversation by asking me if I’d heard the news, remember? So, what’s the news?”

  “The FBI is close to catching the bank robber,” she said.

  I wanted to be elated when I heard the news, but if it were true, it kind of negated what my sister and I had been doing. “How did you find out?”

  “Phyllis heard it from Ruby, and she found out from Garnet.”

  “So, Garnet heard about it herself.”

  Maddy shook her head. “No, Garnet heard it from Erica. She’s the one who heard it from Susan, and she overheard a couple of FBI agents talking about it on the phone to their boss when she was serving them coffee at Brian’s Cafe.”

  “So it’s most likely seventh- or eighth-hand information,” I said. “And you’re actually giving it credence? Come on, Maddy, the story could have changed a dozen times by the time it got to you.”

  “I know that, but it’s possible. You have to give those boys in suits credit. They’re pretty good at what they do.”

  “If they have all of the information,” I said. “I still think Hank was killed because of something he knew, not because of where he happened to be working.”

  Maddy looked sternly at me. “You’re not suggesting we tell the FBI our theory, are you?”

  “Are you kidding me? They’d laugh in my face if I dared to breathe a word of it. Or they might do something worse, which I don’t want to think about at the moment.”

  Maddy frowned at me, then said, “You don’t want to stop investigating until they actually make an arrest, do you?”

  “Of course not. Why, do you?”

  “No, I want to see the killer caught and punished for what he did.”

  “Then it’s settled. We keep digging until the feds haul someone away in shackles, or until we find the real killer ourselves.”

  Maddy nodded in agreement, then said, “There was something else I came back here to tell you, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was.” She took a tress of her dyed hair in her hand and said, “I guess I’m having a blonde moment.”

  “You and I both know that you’re as brunette as I am at the roots,” I said.

  “Then I guess I don’t I have any excuse at all.” She started for the door, then stopped suddenly.

  “What’s wrong now?” I asked.

  “Just this.” She tore two sheets off her order pad and slid them across the counter toward me. “I need two pepperoni pizzas for dine in.”

  “Honestly? That’s what you forgot? It’s kind of important to the process that I actually get the orders, don’t you think?”

  “It just slipped my mind for a second or two,” she said. “Are you trying to tell me you never forget anything?”

  I laughed, then said, “Come on, Maddy, we both know better than that. I forget things all of the time.”

  She nodded. “That’s good. Then at least it’s not just me.”

  After she was gone, as I worked on the pizzas, I wondered if there was any truth to the rumor she’d heard. Could the FBI have cracked the bank robbery case and found the killer themselves? I knew they were a professional organization dedicated to finding bad guys, but Maddy and I weren’t slouches at sniffing out criminals, either. We’d had some luck in the past, though I credited it more to our skill than coincidence. In a way, I’d probably be a little disappointed if the rumor turned out to be true. After all, my sister and I always tried to finish whatever we started, and we’d definitely started investigating the circumstances of Hank Webber’s life, if not his death.

  Greg came back into the kitchen, and I was expecting an order from him, but his hands were empty.

  “Don’t tell me you’re getting it, too,” I asked.

  “Getting what?”

  “Forgetful. Maddy came back and almost forgot to give me orders for two pizzas. They’ll be out in a second, if you’d like to save her a trip.”

  “Sure, I’ll be glad to, but I didn’t forget anything. There’s a delivery for you out front, and they won’t talk to anyone but you about it.”

  “Deliveries come through the alley in back,” I said. We had a longstanding rule that all deliveries to the pizzeria came in through the rear entrance. There was a large, steel door there that we usually left barred, but I’d open it whenever the occasion merited. Only I wasn’t expecting anything. “Is he sure he has the right place?”

  “How would I know? Aside from a grunt or two demanding I produce you, he isn’t saying much of anything at all.”

  I took the pizzas off the conveyor, slid them onto serving platters, and then deftly cut them into eight nearly equal pieces. “Don’t bother with these. I’ll take them out myself.”

  Greg looked positively stricken. “Eleanor, don’t even joke about doing that to me.”

  “What, deliver pizza to Maddy’s customers?”

  “No, don’t leave me back here. You and Maddy handle the cooking chores any way you’d like, but leave me out of the loop.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’d never dream of asking you to cook,” I said.

  “Good. Then I won’t have to say no,” he said. “Come on, you’ve got to see this for yourself.”

  I walked out front with him, and there was a man with a wheeled dolly standing by the front door. Whatever he was hauling around was massive, I could tell that much right off the bat, even though it was covered with a painter’s tarp.

  After I delivered the pizzas, I pointed to the tarp and asked, “What exactly is that?”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care. The only thing that matters is that this is a delivery from Mr. Arthur Young.”

  “What on earth could Art be sending me?”

  “Ma’am, I have no idea, but it might not be a bad idea to say ‘thank you’ and try your best to make him believe you’re sincere.”

  “Is that for the auction?” Maddy asked as she approached us.

  “Of course, that has to be what it’s for,” I said. The fact that he’d promised me a contribution had completely slipped my mind.

  “Now who’s forgetting things?�
� she asked.

  “That would be me.”

  “Ma’am?” the delivery man asked gently. “Could you sign for this so I can be on my way? I’m expected somewhere soon.”

  “Then by all means, let me sign,” I said as I reached for the offered clipboard. “Where are we going to put it, though?”

  “That’s not my problem,” the man said.

  “It is until she signs your little piece of paper,” Maddy said.

  The man looked like if he’d been prone to violence, my sister would have known about it soon enough. “That’s true enough, but Mr. Young is not a man to fool around with, if you know what I mean.”

  I said, “Neither am I. I’ll make you a deal.”

  “Lady,” he said, finally starting to lose his hold on his temper, “I don’t have the authority to make deals. I’m just a delivery man.”

  “Then deliver this to city hall, and come back here so I can sign your form.”

  “I knew I should have stayed in bed today,” he said under his breath.

  “Hang on one second,” I said.

  “Listen, I didn’t mean anything by it. There’s no reason to make this into a thing.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have spoken out of turn. I would consider it a personal favor if you didn’t tell Mr. Young I gave you any lip.”

  “I won’t say a word to him about it,” I said.

  The look of relief on his face was clear. “I owe you one.”

  “You don’t owe me anything. Just give me the clipboard, and I’ll sign it wherever you want me to. After all, it doesn’t make any sense for you to have to come back here after you’ve done your job.”

  “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

  “Go right ahead.”

  “How do you know I’ll do it once you’ve signed my release?” he said, his open curiosity getting the better of him.

  “There’s something you need to remember. While Mr. Young is your employer, he is my friend. Think about it. Would you take a chance on lying to him, or anyone he knows well at all?”

  That certainly got his attention. “I’ll take care of it, you can trust me on that. No need to check up on me. Consider it done. City hall basement, here I come.”