Rest in Pizza (13 page)

Authors: Chris Cavender

BOOK: Rest in Pizza

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“So you agreed,” I said.

“Sure, why wouldn’t I? I needed him as a draw, and he needed a venue to launch his book. It seemed to make perfect sense at the time. But then ...”

She stopped, as though she were afraid to add any more to it. I couldn’t have that, though. “What happened?”

“My mother found out that Benet was coming to town, and she started acting so strangely, it was as though I didn’t even know her.”

“In what way?” I asked.

Cindy shook her head as she said, “It’s hard to explain. She seemed troubled by Benet’s visit, but on the day he arrived, she was the first one to greet him at the hotel. When he came to the shop, he acted as though he actually might have been afraid of her. Can you honestly imagine my mother intimidating anyone? I know that I can’t.”

Cindy’s mother, Janet, was the calmest and most soft-spoken person I’d ever met in my life. Not only that, but she was barely five feet tall, and probably didn’t weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. The thought of her menacing anyone was beyond me, but there were more ways to do it than to threaten someone physically. How had she managed it, though?

“Would you mind if I spoke with her about what happened that day?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Cindy said emphatically. “Leave my mother out of this. She isn’t a part of what happened to the man.”

“How can you say that with any real conviction?” I asked as the kitchen door opened.

Maddy was there, with an apologetic look on her face. “I’m sorry, but the group that reserved most of the dining room for right now is here. We have about forty hungry customers hoping to get served an early dinner, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“What group?” I asked. “I don’t remember anything about anybody in particular coming by.”

Maddy looked sheepish as she admitted, “That’s probably because I forgot to tell you. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” I said, just wanting the distraction to be over. “What’s the name of the group?”

“It’s the Senior Juniors again,” Maddy said.

I remembered them. They’d chosen our restaurant six months before, and they must have liked what we served, since they were back again for round two. The group got its name because it was a collection of senior citizens who were named for their fathers, or the women who had married them. It was the oddest thing to bind a group of people together that I’d ever heard of, but I hadn’t minded when I’d put their money in the bank.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get started in a second,” I said. “We’re not done here.”

Cindy shook her head. “Eleanor, you told me at least a dozen times that the customer always comes first, and I know you meant it. It’s fine. We can talk later. After all, it’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon.”

“Do you promise we’ll discuss this more?” I asked. I really didn’t want to disappoint the group, but we weren’t finished, not by a long shot.

“I promise. We’ll talk tomorrow,” Cindy said.

“Or maybe even tonight,” I suggested.

“We’ll see.”

“But either tonight or tomorrow, right?” I asked.

“Absolutely,” she answered as she headed for the kitchen door.

“I’m holding you to that,” I said.

She just nodded as she escaped through the kitchen door.

After Cindy left, Maddy said, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t have much choice. After all, I’m the one who booked them.”

“Don’t sweat it, Maddy. You did the right thing.”

“Wow, you sounded pretty desperate to finish your conversation with Cindy. Did you learn anything good in the short amount of time you had?” my sister asked me before heading back into the dining room.

I just shrugged as I started working on pizza crusts. “I thought I had one puzzle solved, but a new one just showed up.”

“That’s good, though, right?” my sister asked.

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, at least we’re not up against a dead end. If anything, we have too many suspects. That’s got to be something.”

I just shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.” I clapped my hands together, and then said, “It’s time to start making pizzas. Do you happen to remember what they ordered?”

She rolled her eyes. “I haven’t lost my mind. I wrote it down.” Maddy patted her pockets, and then asked, “Now, where could that slip be? I know I had it here somewhere.”

“We could always just guess,” I said with a grin.

She pulled a note from her pocket. “It was right here all along. We need ten large cheese pizzas.”

“It’s not going to be much of a challenge, but maybe that’s a good thing.” As I got out more dough from the fridge, I suggested, “Why don’t you give me a hand back here, and the guys can wait on our customers.”

“Two Spencer women working side by side in the same kitchen?” Maddy asked. “What would Momma say?”

“She’d say it’s about time, I bet,” I said. “Besides, don’t forget that I’m a Swift. You know that.”

Maddy said, “You might have taken Joe’s last name, but you’re a Spencer by birth, and deep down you always will be, so don’t try to deny it.”

“I wouldn’t do it, even if I could.” I had been proud to be Joe’s wife, but no less honored to be the daughter of my mother and father. As far as I was concerned, there was no reason in the world that I couldn’t be both.

Maddy smiled. “Good. While we’re getting busy making pizzas, why don’t you tell me everything that Cindy had to say?”

“Why not?” I asked. We were both good enough at making pizzas that it didn’t require our total attention while we were doing it. As we worked, I brought Maddy up-to-date on what Cindy had said, especially the fact that her mother, Janet, might be a little more involved than anyone realized just yet. “Remember,” I added as I slid my first pizza on the oven’s conveyor, “that’s just between the three of us. Cindy made me promise for the both of us.”

“I won’t say a word,” she vowed.

My sister could be a little flighty at times, but I knew that when she gave her word about something, you could take it to the bank.

I started making another pizza as Maddy slid hers onto the conveyor right behind mine. After a few more pizzas, there was no more room to put them on the line at the moment, so we parked them on the counter so they could wait their turn. We were pretty far ahead of things, and the first pizza came out less than a minute later.

I prepped it to serve, and then asked, “Do you mind shifting gears again and helping the guys out in front?”

Maddy smiled at me. “You know me, Eleanor, I’m the Jill-of-all-trades. I can handle anything that needs to be done around here, too.” As my sister took the pizza from me, she asked, “Are we going after Janet after work, or would it be better if we waited until the morning?”

“I don’t like to think of it like we’re going after anyone,” I said. “I just want to ask her some questions.”

“Because that’s what we do,” Maddy replied.

“Some days, it feels like that’s
all
we do,” I agreed.

“That’s us. Ten hours of boredom followed by two minutes of excitement.”

“Does our downtime ever last that long?” I asked.

“Honestly, when things are slow, it feels like it’s two years sometimes,” Maddy said as she disappeared through the door with the pizza. The door opened briefly for one more second as she added, “If I get a vote, I say we try to talk to her tonight after work.”

In my heart, I knew that Maddy was right.

It might be late to interrogate one of our new suspects, but time wasn’t exactly in our favor at the moment.

The faster we found Benet’s killer, the better it would be for A Slice of Delight.

Chapter 12

“I
didn’t think they’d ever leave,” Maddy said as all four of us cleaned up the tables from the Senior Juniors. They’d acted like kids, not worrying too much about the mess they were making, and after they were gone and back on their bus, they left a monumental cleaning task for my crew. Greg and Josh didn’t seem to mind, though, something that was a bit out of character for them.

“Okay you two, what’s going on?” I asked as they each carried bins of dirty dishes into the kitchen.

“Us? Nothing at all,” Greg said with a smile.

“That’s right. We’re happy all of the time, don’t you think?” Josh added.

“Come on, come clean. I know you’re both up to something,” I said. I turned to my sister and asked, “Maddy, do you have any idea about what’s going on?”

“Don’t look at me. I don’t have a clue,” she confessed.

I stared at both young men in turn, but I didn’t say a word. I knew that one of them would crack before I did. I was making bets in my mind which one would talk first when Greg was the one who folded.

“Okay, the folks who just left gave us a nice tip as they departed,” Greg admitted. “We were planning on sharing it with you two, but we were waiting for the right moment.”

“Now’s as good a time as any,” Maddy said as she looked around the nearly empty restaurant. “How much did you get?”

Greg nodded toward Josh, and both young men dug into their pockets and dumped out handfuls of spare change onto a table as they smiled.

“They’re mostly pennies,” Greg added, and the two of them started laughing out loud.

“It’s not all that funny to me,” Maddy said.

“Oh, but it was,” Josh said. “They acted like they were big spenders when they did it.”

“They’re probably on tight budgets,” I said. I understood the way they felt, but I didn’t like the idea that they were having fun at other peoples’ expense. “It may have been the best that they could do with limited resources.”

“You think we didn’t think of that?” Josh asked. “If that was the case, we both would have been cool with it. We saw some of those bankrolls these guys were carrying around, though, and they could stuff a pillowcase between them, so that theory won’t hold water. Eleanor, did you or Maddy happen to hear where the group is headed after this?”

“No, I thought this was just a day trip,” I admitted.

Josh laughed. “They’re going to spend three nights in Cherokee so they can gamble.”

Greg said, “I guess we should just be glad we got them on their way to the casino and not coming back. We might not even have gotten that.”

They collected the change and added it to the tip jar on the counter, counting it and laughing the entire time. I didn’t get their sense of humor, but then again, sometimes they didn’t get mine. As long as they were having fun, I didn’t care.

“Is it okay if I come in?” David Quinton asked as he poked his head into the kitchen just as the main dinner hours were coming to a close.

“Of course you can,” I said as I finished a sub and put it on the conveyor. It was a new offering with jalapeno peppers, spiced sausage, ham, and a sauce Maddy and I concocted one day when we were searching for something new and different. We called it a Sliced Screamer, and we served it with some fiery chips on the side. “What brings you here?”

“I just wanted to say hi,” he confessed.

“Weren’t you supposed to be working late tonight?” Since David had come back to town, he’d taken over managing the branch office of his company, and he often worked late, especially since I was tied up so much in the evenings. Our dates usually consisted of getting together after work and sharing a quick bite, but every now and then I left the restaurant in Maddy’s hands and we had a real date.

Tonight wasn’t supposed to be one of those, though.

“What can I say?” he said with a grin. “I missed you.”

I gave him a quick kiss, and then said, “I miss you, too.” A thought suddenly occurred to me. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we have a mini date right now? I can make you anything you’d like for a late dinner, and we can eat back here.”

“Eleanor, I didn’t come by just so I could con you out of a free meal,” David said with a grin.

“Who says it’s free?” I asked, smiling back at him.

“Whatever you charge me, I’m sure it will be worth every penny,” he said.

I couldn’t help myself. I grinned as he mentioned one of the coins we’d just gotten so many of.

“Did I say something funny?” he asked.

“No. It’s just a little pizza parlor humor.” I explained to him what had happened earlier, and then asked him, “So, what do you say?”

He didn’t even hesitate. “That sounds great to me, if you don’t mind.”

“I’d love to do it,” I said. I rubbed my hands together, and then asked, “So, what do you feel like tonight?”

“What’s that sub you were just making?” he asked.

“I call it the Sliced Screamer,” I admitted.

After I told him what was on it, he shook his head as he said, “I’m not sure I’d like that. How about a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese on it, and a pair of sodas?”

Why not? “Going old school, huh? I like it.”

As I kneaded the dough into the pan, I asked, “Are things finally slowing down at work? I know you inherited a real mess from your old boss.”

“I really liked the guy,” David said, “but if he were here right now, I’d kick his tin can all the way to Hickory.”

“Is it really all that bad?”

David shrugged as he watched me work. “It was when I took over, but I’m finally getting everything in order again.”

As I added sauce and the toppings, I asked, “Are you going to be bored once you’ve got it all squared away?”

“I doubt it,” he said as he plucked a pepperoni slice from my hand and ate it.

“Hey, no more snacking,” I said.

“Sorry. I missed lunch.”

I suddenly felt bad about scolding him, but that was one of my kitchen rules. “Okay, I’ll let it pass this time, but no more. Now, sit over there on the barstool and tell me how you’re going to spend your time while I’m here working.”

He took the seat, and then said, “I don’t know where to even start. There’s so much I want to do, but I haven’t been able to with the mess my predecessor left me. There’s plenty to keep me busy.”

I slid our pizza onto the conveyor, and then took the other barstool and joined David at the counter. “Whew, that feels good.”

“Seeing me, or getting off your feet?” he asked.

“Would it be bad if I said both?”

“No, it would be perfectly understandable,” David answered. “I don’t know how you do it, Eleanor. I’m not sure one day off a week is enough.”

“We manage just fine, but then again, Maddy and I are both lucky enough to have understanding boyfriends.” I almost told him then about Bob’s proposal, but decided that if Maddy or Bob wanted anyone else to know, they’d tell him themselves. I certainly had no business telling anyone, not even David.

“Did I just say something wrong?” he asked. Could the man read me that well already? That could mean trouble for me if I ever had to tell him a little white lie.

I was saved from answering by Maddy’s arrival back in the kitchen. “Do you have that large sausage and pepperoni pizza ready yet? They’re getting impatient, so I promised them that I’d come back and check on their order.” She looked at David and asked, “Are you still here?”

“No, I left a minute ago,” he said with a smile.

Maddy looked at me and said, “He’s hilarious, isn’t he?” “We all have our moments,” I said. I glanced at the conveyor and said to Maddy, “They’re going to have to wait one more minute until it’s ready.”

“You could always just reach in and pull it out early,” Maddy said. “I do that sometimes myself.”

“You shouldn’t,” I said. “Especially with pizzas. They need the entire time to cook; though you might get away with pulling a sub out of the oven a little early, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“No one’s complained yet,” Maddy said.

I didn’t want to have that particular conversation with Maddy with David sitting right there, and bless his heart, he must have sensed it.

“If you two will excuse me, I need to go wash up. Are we eating back here, or should I grab a table?”

I thought about eating in the kitchen, but I needed a bit of a break from it all. “Why don’t you go grab the table closest to the kitchen, and I’ll be out as soon as our pizza’s ready.”

After David was gone, I said, “Maddy, I’m serious about this. Just because no one has complained doesn’t mean they haven’t noticed. We can’t afford to lose any customers over this. I’d rather they have to wait three minutes for something good than get something second-rate right on time.”

“No need to keep drilling me about it. I understand,” Maddy said. “I won’t do it again, scout’s honor.”

“You and I both know that you were never a scout,” I said with a smile.

She protested, “Hey, is it my fault they wouldn’t take me?”

“That’s not what Mom said,” I answered.

“Who are you going to believe, our dearly departed mother, or your dear, sweet, trustworthy sister who’s standing right in front of you?” She didn’t even wait for me to answer. “Okay, scrub that. I’ll do better from now on, Eleanor. I promise.”

“Good,” I said. I hated being the boss with my sister, but she had a tendency to cut corners if she thought she could, and with my limited profit margins, I couldn’t afford to give anyone a reason not to come back.

“Did you tell him?” Maddy asked as she motioned toward the front toward David.

“Tell who about what?” I asked, focusing on what I had to do next.

“I’m talking about Bob’s proposal,” Maddy answered, as though I were slow on the uptake.

“I didn’t say anything to him about it,” I confessed. “I figured that was your right; if you want folks to know, you can tell them yourself.”

Maddy nodded. “That’s good. Thanks. I don’t want the word to get out before I actually make my decision. He won’t be mad when he finds out, will he?”

“David? I don’t see why he would. After all, it doesn’t exactly involve him, does it?”

Maddy was clearly surprised by my reaction. “Seriously? I’d think the possibility of his girlfriend’s sister getting hitched might matter just a little bit to him, but maybe that’s just me.”

“When the time is right, do you want to tell him yourself?” I asked, just as David walked back in.

“Tell him what? Are you two talking about me again?”

“I thought you were going to wait at the table,” I said.

“I got hungry,” he admitted. “But I still want to know what you two were saying about me.”

“Wow, what an ego you must have,” Maddy said to him with a smile. “My pizza’s next in line, right?” she asked as she turned back to me. “Is it ready yet, or should I come back in a minute?”

The pizza she’d been waiting for finally slid out on the conveyor, golden brown, bubbly cheese on top and perfectly done crust all the way around.

“You’re all set to go,” I said as I plated the pizza and cut it.

After Maddy left to deliver it, David said, “How about ours? We’re next, right?”

I glanced inside the oven. “Right after the sub I made, remember? Down, boy. It’s going to be another four minutes before ours is ready.”

David nodded, and then asked, “So, are you?”

“Am I what?” I asked, though I knew perfectly well what he was asking.

“Are you going to tell me what you two were talking about just then? I ordinarily wouldn’t ask, but since I suspect it’s about me, I thought it might matter.”

I wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it. “Maddy has a secret, but until she gives me the green light to say anything, I don’t feel right about telling anyone else. Does that make any sense at all to you?”

“Sure it does,” David said as he took his seat on the barstool again. “I’d hate to be the cause of a rift between the two of you. When she’s ready for me to know, you can tell me, but until then, I’m fine with not hearing what it’s about.”

I walked over and gave him a kiss.

“What was that for?” he asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“For changing into a man I could really get used to having around here,” I said.

“In that case, you’re most welcome.”

He glanced at the conveyor’s output end and asked, “Is that thing ready yet? Maybe there’s something wrong with the conveyor belt.”

I laughed. “You’re as bad as Maddy sometimes.”

“I’ll take that as a good thing,” he said.

“The interpretation is entirely up to you,” I answered as the sub sandwich slid out. I plated it, cut it once, and prepped it to be served.