Chris Cavender - Pepperoni Pizza Can Be Murder (Pizza Lovers Mysteries)

M y name is Eleanor Swift, and for once, nobody was trying to pin a murder on me, even though it happened in my pizzeria, A Slice of Delight. A dead body in the kitchenwith a large thin-crust pepperoni pizza and a bloody rolling pin on either side of itcould have easily put me in the crosshairs of the police investigation.

But I wasnt completely off the hook, even though I had a perfect alibi.

My delivery man was being accused of the homicide, so I could hardly stay out of it, could I?

At least thats what I kept trying to tell Kevin Hurley, the chief of police for Timber Ridge, North Carolina. And he might have believed meor even listened to my argumentif I hadnt dumped him back in high school nearly twenty years ago. It was a long time for someone to hold a grudge, but he clutched it like a starving man grabbed for the last donut in the box.

Two days before the murder, my sister, Maddy, came into the pizzeria fifteen minutes late from her allotted hour afternoon break. It was a little after three, and things were generally slow then, but I wasnt about to start any precedents with my one full-time employee, even if she was my only family left. Maddy had been divorced several times, but that never stopped her from looking for her next future ex-husband. When my husband, Joe, had died, shed come to work for me after her last divorce. I should say latest divorce, because with Maddy, it was hard to say what might happen down the road.

Youre late, I said as I handed her my order pad.

Sorry, she answered, smiling brightly at me as her body language clearly denied the sincerity of her apology. My sister and I were studies in contrast, and not just because of her record number of weddings and my widowhood after being married to the same man for more than ten years. Maddy was tall and thin, and her hair had been blond so long, I doubted her roots even remembered what color they should be. I was shorter and quite a bit curvier, while my hair was the original chestnut brown it had always been.

Why dont I believe you? I asked as I started back to the kitchen. Sometimes I worked the front, but the back was where I was most comfortable, the place that I belonged.

I just ran into David Quinton, she said with a wicked smile.

That merited a bump on my adrenaline scale, though I wasnt about to admit it to anyone else, not even Maddy. David had been pursuing me for some time, and Id finally decided to let him catch me. Well, sort of. We had a standing dinner date once a week for the past several months, alternating restaurants and who picked up the tab. It was nearly May, and I couldnt believe the weekly meal had so quickly become a habit for me, something I looked forward to when times were slow at the pizzeria.

I saw that smile, Maddy added. Dont bother denying it. When I shook my head, she added in a more serious tone, Eleanor, youre not being disloyal to Joe if you admit that you like spending time with David.

Please. I get that same line from him every week, dont you start on me. I bit my lip, and then against my better judgment, I asked, What did he have to say?

He wanted to know how I was doing, Maddy said with that smug expression of hers.

Thats it? Maybe my part-time beau was getting tired of our chaste dinners and had decided to go after my sister, instead.

She grinned. No, he asked about you, too. Why dont you call him?

I shook my head. Were having dinner in three days. I can wait that long to get together, if he can.

Maddy shook her head. Youre more stubborn than I am, and there arent many people I can say that about.

Ill take that as a compliment.

You can take it however youd like, but we both know thats not what I meant. We were back by the soda fountain, and for the first time, Maddy looked around the dining room. It was nearly deserted, but I knew whator, more appropriately, whowas missing.

She frowned. Wheres Greg? He didnt take off on you, did he?

Greg Hatcher was my main deliveryman, and since wed just recently started taking telephone orders again after a really unpleasant time, I needed him at the pizzeria more than ever. Maddy knew how much pressure his absences placed on me, and while my sister might take more than her fair number of shots at me, she was always the first one to defend me if she thought I needed it.

Dont worry so much. I let him go.

You fired him? Eleanor, we need someone to deliver the pizza, and he needs the paycheck so he can stay in college. How could you do that?

Take it easy. I didnt get rid of him. He had an errand to run.

Maddy wasnt mollified. Thats not like Greg to leave you here by yourself. What was so important that it couldnt wait until I got back? She shook her head, and then added, He didnt duck out on you to see Katy Johnson, did he?

Katy went to college nearby with Greg, and theyd been dating off and on since hed first come to work for me two years ago.

No. As a matter of fact, they broke up.

Again? If theyre so unhappy with each other, why do they keep getting back together?

I looked at her and fought the laughter I was feeling. Youre giving relationship advice? Seriously?

Hey, several of my ex-husbands would gladly write me references, she said. Just because we split up doesnt mean we arent all still friends. Well, mostly, she added uncertainly, no doubt ticking names off her internal matrimonial roster and putting them in columns likely labeled FOR and AGAINST .

Fine, youre the relationship guru, I said, but Greg didnt run off on me. I gave him my blessing to take off. He had a meeting with Bob Lemon.

Bob was a local attorney who, despite appearing to be quite sane in most respects, was lobbying to be Maddys next ex-husband. To his chagrin, he was failing at it miserably, too.

Whats Bob got to do with him? Gregs not being sued, is he?

No, I said as I donned my kitchen apron. Wed slowly migrated to the back where my pizza oven and supplies were kept, but Maddy kept the door that separated the two spaces open with the edge of her left shoe. Its about his inheritance.

Its finally happening? I thought Wade was still holding everything up. Dont tell me he finally broke down and signed the blasted agreement.

Not yet, but Bob and Greg have high hopes. Gregs older brother, Wade, was keeping their grandparents estate open long past any semblance of sanity. Greg had told us his brothers request was simple, and nonnegotiable. He wanted three-quarters of everything, despite how the will read, what their own parents said, or what the letter from their grandparents themselves outlined. Gregs grandparents had died the year before when a gas leak and subsequent explosion in their home had taken them both. Theyd ignored their grown children in their joint wills, instead leaving an estate approaching two hundred thousand dollars to their two grandchildren, to be divided equally between them.

Apparently, it was the last part that Wade had trouble with.

I honestly didnt think hed ever budge, Maddy said. Ive heard of people who never back down.

It happens. When our parents had died, there had been just enough money to pay their bills, a perfect arrangement in my mind. Theyd enjoyed themselves up to the very end, and while Id hated to see them go, theyd left this world as close to breaking even as I would have thought possible. In a way, they left us the greatest gift of all, precious memories instead of stocks and bonds. I wouldnt have traded a million dollars for the memories I had of them, and I knew my sister wouldnt, either.