Chapter 11
“David, wait up,” I called out as he hurried away from Paul’s shop. I had to run to catch him, and I must have looked like a fool chasing after the man, but I didn’t care.
“David,” I said, nearly out of breath as I grabbed his arm. “Didn’t you hear me?”
“Hello, Eleanor,” he said. “Sorry about that. I was thinking about something else.”
I had to give David credit for being such a terrible liar. After all, I wanted to be able to read when he was angry or hurt, not be fooled by a disguise he showed the world. I spun him around to face me, and then I said with every ounce of conviction that I possessed, “I don’t know what that must have looked like just now, but I had a little powdered sugar on my nose, and Paul got it off for me. That’s the sum total of it. Nothing happened.”
“You don’t owe me any explanations,” he said. “We never said that we were exclusive.” I could tell that he was hurt, and I hated being the cause of it.
I couldn’t think of a thing to say, so instead, I kissed him, as soundly as I knew how, not caring who might see.
When we finally pulled away, an older man standing nearby began applauding, and I felt my face redden slightly.
“Okay, now I believe you,” David said with a crooked little smile. “I’m sorry if I overreacted, but you’ve got to admit that Paul is a handsome young man.”
“I never denied it,” I replied, and before David could react, I hugged him. “You’re not so bad yourself, mister, and you’ve got one big advantage over him.”
“What’s that?” David asked.
“You’re the one I’m dating,” I answered. “Just you, and nobody else.”
“That’s a good point.”
I don’t know what possessed me to say it, but I added, “Trust me, if I wanted to be with Paul, I would be.”
I realized how it must have sounded, but before I could correct it, David just laughed. “My, aren’t we full of ourselves today. Eating powdered donuts must make you feel invincible.”
“You know what I meant,” I said.
“I understand,” David said. “I’m just teasing you. Listen, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m late for a meeting. Sorry about the way I reacted just then.”
“A little jealousy isn’t necessarily all that bad,” I said. “But you don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Neither do you,” David said, the smile on his face deep and wide.
I was feeling pretty good about things with him when Bob Lemon nearly knocked me down near the Slice in his rush to get past me.
“What just happened?” I asked, afraid I already knew the answer. It appeared that one of my worst fears had just been realized. “Did she say no?”
“She has to think about it,” Bob said, clearly unhappy with the result. “I guess that’s better than nothing.”
I smiled and hugged him. “Are you kidding? That’s a major victory, if you ask me. My sister must really care about you. You know that, don’t you?”
“I do,” Bob admitted. “I just hope she’ll say yes, and soon.”
“If it helps, I’m rooting for you,” I said.
“I appreciate that,” he said, “but you’re not the sister I need to win,” he added as he hurried off.
When I walked back into the Slice, I found Maddy in the kitchen furiously chopping vegetables, even though we had plenty for the rest of the day.
“What’s up, Sis?” I asked as innocently as I could manage.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Maddy said as her gaze never left the cutting board. “Bob told me you knew about the proposal all along.”
At least I didn’t have to keep that secret any longer. “Do you understand why I couldn’t tell you?”
“I don’t know that I do, actually,” Maddy said as she continued to chop. “A little warning might have gone a long way. I told him I had to think about it, in case you’re wondering.”
“I heard.”
“He couldn’t wait to call you, could he?” she asked, giving the cutting board another serious whack.
“As a matter of fact, I just saw him outside,” I admitted.
“You weren’t watching us, were you?”
“No,” I said, glad I could admit that honestly. “I was at Paul’s getting into a mess of my own at the time.”
That got Maddy’s attention. “Anything you’d care to share with me?”
“Maybe later,” I said as I moved closer and took the knife from her. “I believe that we’ve got enough for tonight.”
She looked down at the pile, and then grinned at me. “Tomorrow, too, I’d wager. Sorry about that.”
“Hey, I understand completely. Cooking helps, doesn’t it?”
She frowned at me as she said, “I wish. I’m no closer to an answer now than I was when he asked.”
I put my arm around Maddy’s shoulder. “You’ve got time, don’t you? He didn’t give you a deadline or anything, did he?”
“No, Bob is too sweet a man to try to do something like that. He’d never try to rush me. I’m just not sure when I might have an answer for him. I honestly have no idea what I want, and I can’t tell you how frustrating it is for me. You know me, Eleanor. I pride myself on being decisive, and yet I can’t make up my mind about the most important question I’ve been asked in a long time.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll find the right answer. I have faith in you,” I said.
“I’m glad at least one of us does.” She glanced at the clock and said, “It’s nearly time to open. Did you get enough to eat at Paul’s, or should I make you something before the crowds hit?”
“I’m good,” I said. “Let’s go face the day. Oh, before I forget, here’s your key.” I handed it to her, and she took it gratefully and returned it to its rightful place on her key ring.
As she did it, she looked at me and said, “Eleanor, no matter what I say to Bob’s proposal, I’m here as long as you want me. Okay?”
I hugged my sister, and then said, “That’s good to hear.” After we broke apart, Maddy said, “While I’m thinking, I could really use a distraction, and investigating Benet’s murder might be the perfect solution. What are our plans on how to keep digging into it?”
“Well, we’ve spoken to the three people closest to Benet that were in town, but I’m not entirely certain that Cindy has told us the complete truth up to now.”
“I can’t see her lying to us,” Maddy said with a frown. “Why would she? We’re just trying to help.”
I thought about that, and then said, “She might do it if she was hiding something.”
“Like what?”
“That I wish I knew,” I said. “There was something between Cindy and Benet, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it might have been.”
“Then maybe we should tackle her first,” Maddy said as she glanced at the kitchen clock. “I’ll go open the front door.”
She came back ten seconds later.
“That was fast,” I said.
“I never opened it,” Maddy admitted.
“Any reason in particular why not?” I asked.
“Cindy’s outside waiting to get in, so I thought you might want to talk to her yourself before things get crazy for our evening shift. You two have a closer connection than I do with her, so you might have better luck if you speak with her alone. Now might be the perfect opportunity to question her.”
“That’s a great idea,” I said. “Let’s go.”
There were no other customers waiting outside, so I let Cindy in and locked the door behind her. She asked, “Are you open yet? I don’t want to interfere.”
I looked at my watch and lied, “We’ve got a minute before we let the masses in. Come on back into the kitchen where we can talk.”
Cindy agreed, not noticing that I’d shaved a bit off the time. Maddy smiled at me, and out of Cindy’s sight, my sister gave me a thumbs-up.
As Cindy and I walked back into the kitchen, I saw Greg standing just outside. Behind him, Josh Hurley was waiting as well.
“I’ll go let them in,” Maddy said, and then looked right at me as she added, “We’ve still got a few minutes before we open, right?”
“Right,” I said, happy that she’d bought me a little time.
Cindy and I went back into the kitchen, and she took one of the barstools I kept there for the rare times I allowed visitors in my kitchen.
“How are you holding up?” I asked her as I set my kitchen in order to prepare for our first customers of the evening. “Have you decided when you’re going to have your grand opening at the bookstore?”
“Do you mean the reopening?” she asked, a little crestfallen.
“Cheer up. That’s the joy of owning your own business,” I told her. “You can call it whatever you want to.”
“I suppose,” she said. “To tell you the truth, after what happened yesterday, some of the bloom is off the rose, if you know what I mean.”
“You just have to weather the storm,” I said, not meaning to give her yet another pep talk. I had questions to ask Cindy, but I had a difficult time not trying to buck up her spirits. After all, we were more alike than different, and I suppose part of it was that I wanted to help her succeed. I couldn’t focus on that now, though. I had to ask her a tough question that had been hounding me since we’d spoken the day before.
“Cindy, I hate to ask you this, but I need to know what you were talking about yesterday when we spoke.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. Was she that dense, or was she just playing with me? I couldn’t imagine that she didn’t know exactly what I was talking about.
“When I asked you if you’d met Benet before, you said not really, and when I pushed you, all you’d tell me was that it was complicated.” It was time to lay my cards on the table. “Cindy, the author you brought in for a book signing was murdered in my pizzeria. I know you think it reflects badly on you, but how do you think my customers must feel? If I don’t solve this case, and soon, it’s going to haunt me to the point where it may kill my business. Maddy and I are going to investigate, but to do that, I need your help. You have to be honest with me. I feel as though I’ve been of some help to you lately, and all I’m asking is that you do the same for me in return.”
I shouldn’t have been so forceful, but I was afraid that it might be the only way I could get through to her.
After a moment, Cindy finally nodded. “Okay, you deserve that much, at least. All I ask is that you don’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.”
“If I can’t say anything to Maddy, don’t tell me at all,” I said. I didn’t even have to think about it. Maddy was so much more than my sister, no matter how deeply that bond went. Sure, she was my employee, but she was also my coconspirator; most of all, she was my best friend.
Cindy chewed her bottom lip for a second, and then reluctantly nodded. “Okay, you can tell Maddy, but that’s it.”
“I can probably do that unless it’s vital information needed to catch a killer,” I said, meaning it. If what she told me became pertinent to the case, I’d have to reserve the right to break my word to her. Catching a murderer took precedence over keeping someone’s secret, no matter what the fallout might be.
Cindy nodded absently, and then she explained, “Benet contacted me six months ago, if you can imagine that.”
“He came to Timber Ridge?” I asked, incredulous that no one in town knew that the chef had been here before now.
“No, he did it online,” Cindy explained. “I got an e-mail from him one day out of the blue. He said he heard about my plans to open a bookstore and asked if there was anything he could do to help. I told him that having him there when I cut the ribbon would mean a great deal to me, but he claimed to have a scheduling conflict and said that he couldn’t make it.”
“And that ended your contact with him?” I asked.
“No, it was just the icebreaker. After that, we usually e-mailed back and forth once a week. He told me he was fascinated with what it took to open a bookstore, and then he gave me a glimpse into what his life was like.”
I remembered how Benet had acted around Cindy when he’d come to town, and it just didn’t jibe. “He was rude to you when he got here, though. There wasn’t anything nice about him when he walked into your store. I was there, remember?”
“Hang on, I’m getting to that,” Cindy said, looking worried as she continued to tell me the story. “Two months ago, we had a falling out online, and he told me not to e-mail him anymore. I was upset, especially since I didn’t know what I’d done to cause it, but he never answered any more of my queries, and I finally stopped trying to get in touch with him altogether. As a matter of fact, I’d nearly forgotten all about him when he got in touch with me again.”
“What made him change his mind?” I asked. I knew that time was getting away from us, but these answers might help me find the man’s killer. If that meant that folks would be a little late getting their pizza, so be it.
“I don’t know what happened, and that’s the truth,” she said. “I was shocked when I got the call from Oliver. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not to speak to Benet, or anyone else, about our earlier e-mail exchanges, and to pretend that the chef and I had never met. If I violated that agreement, he would walk out of my shop forever.”
“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.