Chapter 17
“We were making a delivery out that way, and we wanted to see if we could help make your life a little easier,” I said as I stared out at the view, not risking making eye contact with Patrice.
I didn’t know if she bought it or not, but I was saved when my sister finally came back out. “Eleanor, I hate to break this up, but we need to get back to the Slice. It’s almost time to open again.”
The hour we took every day was not enough to investigate, and I considered for a moment postponing our dinner service, but then I realized that our customers were counting on us, and I needed to be there for them.
“You’re right, of course.” I turned to Patrice. “Will you be okay until Jessie comes back?”
“You needn’t worry about me. I don’t need anyone to watch over me,” she said defiantly.
“I didn’t mean to imply that at all,” I said. “I just know how it feels to be alone after something so tragic happens.”
“Of course you do,” Patrice said, her voice softer now. “I heard about your late husband, and I’m truly sorry.”
I shrugged. “We do what we must to get by, don’t we?”
Patrice was about to answer when Jessie opened the door and hurried into the suite. She looked honestly surprised to see that Maddy and I were there. “What are you two still doing here? Don’t you have pizzas to make?” At least she was off the phone, though probably for just a moment, judging by the way she was holding it.
“You asked us to stay, remember?” Maddy asked with a smile.
“I keep telling everyone that I don’t need a keeper, but no one will believe me,” Patrice said.
“Of course you don’t,” Jessie replied with some real sympathy in her voice. I had to guess that she really cared about Benet’s widow from the way she spoke to her. “I just didn’t want you to be alone. That’s all.”
“I’m fine with being by myself,” Patrice insisted. “I’ve been alone before, and I will be again.”
“Yes, of course, I know that,” Jessie said.
Jessie escorted us to the door, and as we were leaving, she said, “I’ve just got a minute before the brass is calling back, but I’d like to ask you both for a favor.”
“Name it,” I said, curious about what Jessie was going to ask from us.
“Patrice is having a pretty rough time of it, no matter how lucid she might sound at times. We all need to have a heart and give her some understanding.”
I nodded. “We get it, Jessie. We don’t want to cause her any more grief than she’s already dealing with.”
“Thanks for understanding.” She was about to add something else when her phone rang. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to take this.”
She closed the door, and Maddy and I were once again standing in the hallway.
“Amazing,” I said as we started downstairs. “I believe Jessie truly cares about Patrice.”
“It’s good someone’s watching out for her,” Maddy answered. As we approached my car, she said, “You know what? I’m glad you’re driving. I’m not all that sure I could make it myself.”
“I tasted your glass, you big fraud,” I said with a smile. “That was clever of you to leave the alcohol out of your drink and just have straight orange juice.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maddy said, clearly confused by my statement. “My drink had more champagne in it than juice.”
“But the one I tasted was just OJ,” I said.
“Then you must have grabbed the wrong one, because mine was absolutely spiked with liquor.”
I thought about the way Patrice had acted earlier, and then asked my sister, “Why would Patrice want people to think that she was drunk when she was in fact, sober?”
Maddy shrugged. “Beats me.”
“I have a thought,” I said. “Maybe she wanted the people around her to take her for granted. If she appears to be a lush, folks might just start to drop their guard around her, thinking that she’s a harmless drunk.”
“So she might be doing some investigating into her late husband’s murder on her own, is that what you’re saying?” Maddy asked.
“It’s possible,” I admitted.
“But how likely is it?”
“I can’t give you any odds,” I said. “I just don’t have enough information yet.”
“She might be playing a pretty dangerous game. We need to keep an eye on her though, don’t we?” Maddy asked.
“We do,” I said.
“So, what should we do now?”
I didn’t even have to think about my answer. “We go back to the Slice, try to sober you up, and get ready to work.”
Josh was waiting for us up front when we got back to the pizzeria, even though he wasn’t due to work until later that evening.
“Did I misread the schedule today, or did you?” I asked him as I took out my new key and unlocked the door.
“I know that I’m not supposed to come in for a few more hours, but we need to talk about something right now,” he said firmly.
Maddy walked through the open door, and then said, “Why don’t you two stay out here and chat? I’ll go ahead and get things ready inside.”
I remembered how tipsy she was, and started to worry about what might happen in my absence. “Don’t go near the knives, and be careful turning the oven on.”
“Got it,” she said and gave me an okay sign.
“And drink a pot of hot coffee. We’re opening in three minutes,” I told her.
“That’s plenty of time for me to get things right,” she said.
As she disappeared unsteadily into the kitchen, I turned to my youngest employee. “What’s going on, Josh?” A thought suddenly occurred to me. “You’re quitting, aren’t you?” I’d grown complacent with my little crew, but I always knew that it wouldn’t last forever. The nature of my business meant that employees would come and go, but it was still tough to get used to seeing the good ones leave.
“No, why would you say that?” he asked. “You aren’t getting tired of having me around, are you?”
“Of course not, but I know you’re almost finished with high school, and you’ll be going away before long.”
He grinned at me, and I could see his father in him whenever he did it. “As a matter of fact, it’s just the opposite.”
“You’re not thinking about dropping out when you’re so close to graduating, are you? You can’t do that, Josh.”
“Tell me about it. My folks would kill me. They don’t agree about much these days, but they both know they want me to go to school.”
I was confused yet again. “So, tell me, how is that the opposite, then?”
He explained, “My folks want me to go to UNC–Asheville, but I want to stay closer to home. I figure if I go to the community college like Greg does, I can work more hours here. You’re always saying how you need more help than you’ve got.”
“Do you really think that Asheville is all that far away from us? It’s not even an hour and a half from here, and I’ve heard great things about the school, and I love the town itself.”
Josh frowned. “I’m not denying that it’s all really cool, but why not wait a few years before I go? You’d think my mom would be happy that I wanted to stay, and that my dad would be pleased about the money I’m saving him, but neither one of them is crazy about the idea.”
“And you’re trying to convince me to talk to them?” I asked.
He grinned at me as he said, “Hey, I figure it might be worth a shot.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Josh, I’m just your boss, I’m not your parent. Work it out with them, and then come talk to me about what the three of you decide, but I can’t afford to get in the middle of a domestic dispute.”
Josh looked disappointed by my answer, as though he had been expecting me to say something else. “You’re turning your back on me, too, Eleanor? I thought you’d be different.”
I hugged him for a moment, and then said, “Don’t get me wrong. If the three of you can work something out, I’d love to have you here as long as you’d like to work for me, but I’m not about to get into your family argument. I have enough trouble with your folks without butting in where I don’t belong. Do you understand?”
“I guess so,” Josh said.
“Now, I’ve got to open the Slice. Will I see you later?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be here,” he said, though he wasn’t smiling as he said it.
I came back in and found Maddy in the kitchen downing a huge mug of coffee. “Where’s Josh?” she asked. I wasn’t sure if it was the caffeine or if the alcohol was just wearing off on its own, but she was already looking better than she had been when we’d left Patrice’s room.
“He’s gone,” I said. “You are not going to believe the crazy thing that kid just asked me to do.”
“I don’t know; give me a clue.”
As I unwrapped a few pizza dough balls from the fridge, I told her all about it, finishing up with, “Can you believe that he tried to drag me into that?”
“It’s nuts, even for him,” she agreed. “You know the Hurleys are going to put pressure on you to back them on this, don’t you?”
“They can ask all they want to, but I’m telling them the same thing I told Josh. It’s their family situation. I’m not in it now, and I don’t plan to be. I’ll tell you one thing, there’s never a dull moment around here, is there?”
“That’s one of the reasons I keep hanging around,” Maddy replied.
We had a busy night, but I noticed that Maddy wasn’t her usual chipper self. Whether it was from the mimosas she’d downed or something else entirely, I couldn’t say. Added to that was Josh’s sullen mood, and the pizza parlor had a grim feel to it all evening.
Greg came back around closing and said, “Can I take off early? It’s like a morgue out there.”
“There are no customers left?” I asked as I started cleaning up my work area.
“Oh yes, the diners are fine. I’m talking about my coworkers.”
I nodded. “I guess they both have a lot on their minds.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this. They sucked the fun right out of this shift.”
I glanced at the clock and saw that we had fifteen minutes until we were due to close. “Why don’t you call it a night and slip out the back way?”
“You really wouldn’t mind?” he asked.
“Are you kidding? I’d go with you, if I could,” I replied with a grin.
“Why don’t you? Maddy can come back here and finish your shift for you.”
“I’m tempted, trust me, but I’d better not. It’s too late for me, but you can still save yourself.”
“I will,” Greg said. He put his apron on its hook, and then let himself out the back door.
After I locked up behind him, Maddy came back. “Greg, table eight is ...” Her words died off as she realized that I was alone.
“What happened to Greg?” Maddy asked.
“Isn’t he out front with you?” I asked, trying to hide my grin.
“Eleanor, I may be getting older, but I’ve got quite a few years before my senility starts creeping in. I saw him come back here.” She looked at the hooks with aprons and saw Greg’s. Grabbing it, she waved it in the air. “See? I knew he was here. He left the back way, didn’t he?”
“I let him go early,” I admitted.
“It’s not like him to skip out early on a shift,” she answered.
I had two choices at that moment. I could ignore her statement, or I could tell her the truth. I opted for the truth. “He said it was like a morgue working with the two of you. What’s going on, Maddy? Something’s clearly troubling you tonight. Have you made up your mind about Bob’s proposal yet?”
“No,” she snapped.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” I said, and turned back to my cleaning. “I shouldn’t keep asking you.”
Her expression softened instantly as she said, “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you, Eleanor. The problem is, Bob came by the Slice two hours ago.”
“I didn’t realize that. What did I make for him?” There were a great many folks who came in whose orders I knew by heart, so whenever I got a slip with their specialty on it, I knew they were dining with us.
Bob wasn’t that predictable, though.
“You didn’t.”
“Do you mean that he didn’t stay?” I asked, dropping my dishcloth for a moment.
“Not long enough to eat. He walked up to me, asked me if I’d made up my mind yet, and when I told him I hadn’t, he walked right back out again. The thing is, when he got to the door, he turned back and looked at me as he said, ‘I won’t wait forever, Maddy.’ Now what is that supposed to mean?”
“That he won’t wait forever?” I asked.
“Seriously? You’re trying to have a little fun with me right now?”
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “You can’t blame the man. He asked you a pretty important question. Why wouldn’t he want the answer?”
“I’m not sure what to do,” she said. “I keep going back and forth in my mind, but every time I do, I come up with a different answer.”
“Do you love him?” I asked.
“It’s more complicated than whether I love the man or not,” Maddy replied.
“It wouldn’t be for me,” I said.
“So you’re saying you think that I should turn him down?”
Was my little sister actually asking me for advice? I had a hard time believing that. “No, I never said anything of the sort. I’m just saying that by having trouble answering him, that’s an answer itself, isn’t it?”
“I think sometimes you forget that not everyone is as lucky as you were,” Maddy said. “I’m not even sure I believe in true love anymore. As many times as I’ve been married, the decision gets tougher to make each time someone asks me.”
“And yet they keep asking, don’t they?” I said with a grin. “I’m still trying to figure out what makes you so irresistible to them all. It’s a real gift.”
“More times than not, it’s a curse,” she said. “Sure, I’ve said yes four times so far, but do you have any idea how many times I’ve said no? Trust me, accepting is much easier than declining.”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve been asked only once, and I said yes before he could finish asking the question.”
“Well, that’s why I’ve been in a bit of a funk tonight. Josh is worried about his parents, but I hadn’t realized we were both being so difficult to work with that Greg would feel compelled to sneak out the back.”
“Cut Greg a little slack,” I said, knowing my sister might just call him and ask him why he left. “We both need to remember that he doesn’t have to work here; he’s got plenty of money. But he still comes in every shift I schedule him for, and I for one am grateful for that.”
“So am I,” Maddy admitted. “He’s a good guy to have around.”
“Josh is, too,” I said. “Though he’s a little more high maintenance.”
Maddy grinned at me, and it was good to see it. “Than who, an opera diva?”
“Hey, we’re all different,” I said. “It’s not a problem covering out front for Greg until we close, is it?”
“No, we’ve got it,” she said as she grabbed a toasted sub and went back out front. “It’s all good.”
And I knew that it would be, but I hoped their dispositions improved. The last thing I needed was losing customers because of my waitstaff.
The next morning, Maddy was at my house and ready to go ten minutes before she was due to arrive.
“You’re early,” I said as I glanced at the clock. “Did you call it an early night last night?”
She didn’t look all that happy when she explained, “I didn’t have much choice. Bob was waiting for me when I got home.”
That could mean a number of things could have happened, not many of them good. “What happened?”
“He told me that until I could come up with an answer, he thinks the two of us should take a little break.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said as I handed Maddy a cup of coffee. “Are you okay?”
“He didn’t break up with me, Eleanor. He just wants to give me a little time and space to think about his proposal.”
I nodded, doing my best to understand and show my sister that I had her back. “So until then, you two aren’t going out? How long do you think you have until he withdraws the offer altogether?”
Maddy didn’t even have to pause. “I don’t have to think, he told me himself. If I don’t have an answer for him by the end of the week when he wants my reply, I’m telling him no. You’re right. This decision just shouldn’t be this hard.”
Was she actually going to drag me into this after all? “Hang on a second, don’t go by what I said. Everybody’s different. If you need more time, take it.”
“No, that’s the only thing I’ve actually made my mind up about. Now, may we quit discussing this and get back to our crime busting?”
“I’m game if you are,” I said.
“That’s what I like to hear. What’s the plan for this morning?”
I’d done nothing but think about what we should do next. “As uncomfortable as it’s going to be, we need to talk to Cindy and Janet again.”
Maddy didn’t like hearing the news any more than I’d liked sharing it. “What makes you think they’re going to talk to us? We can’t just bribe them with another pizza. We don’t have any ready, and besides, it’s going to take something more than that to get them to talk to us.”
“I have a plan, don’t worry,” I said.
Maddy looked at me skeptically. “Care to share what that might be with me? I love hearing fantasies.”
“Why don’t you come along for the ride, and let me handle it? It might work better if you’re not expecting it, either.”
Maddy thought about that, and then said, “I think you’re crazy, but when has that ever stopped me from tagging along in the past?”
“You drive,” I said. “I need to fine-tune what I’m going to say.”
“We could drive across the country and I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything, so take your time.”
By the time we got there, I was ready.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Maddy said as we parked in front of Janet’s house.
“If I don’t do this now, I’ll probably chicken out.” I completely meant what I was about to say. It was the only way it could work, and even if I didn’t get anything else out of the coming conversation, it was still something I knew in my heart that I had to do. If I didn’t at least try, I’d never be able to forgive myself.
“Okay, but remember, I’m right behind you,” Maddy said.
“Thanks for your support,” I said with a grin. “I appreciate that.”
“Support nothing,” Maddy answered. “I want to be out of the line of fire in case they start throwing things, so I figure the safest place I can be is right behind you.”
That didn’t make me feel any better as we walked up onto the porch together.
I took a deep breath, and then rang the doorbell.
Janet answered, and the look of sheer displeasure on her face was tough to miss. “What do you two want?”
I looked her straight in the eye, and then said, “Do you have it in your heart to forgive us for telling Chief Hurley about your connection to Benet?” I asked. “Maddy and I were trying to do the right thing, but we both realize now that we should have handled it differently. We wronged you by blindsiding you and Cindy like that, and we’re here to make it right, no matter what it takes.”
Maddy nodded as she said, “We’re both truly sorry.”
Janet looked hard at each of us in turn, and for a second I thought that door was going to slam in our face. It wouldn’t be the first time it had ever happened, but I never liked it.
“I suppose it won’t hurt to let you both come in,” she said, stepping to one side to allow us passage.
“What are they doing here?” Cindy asked, clearly as unhappy with our presence as her mother had been.
Janet looked firmly at her daughter as she said, “Young lady, they came to apologize, and we’re going to hear them out.”
“They told Chief Hurley about my father,” Cindy said, faltering as she spoke the last word. “That isn’t anyone else’s business but ours.”
“If your father hadn’t just been murdered, I would agree with you,” I said. “Maddy and I were wrong not to warn you about what we were doing, but the decision itself was a sound one. Don’t you want your dad’s killer to be punished for what he did?”
“Of course I do,” Cindy said angrily. “They didn’t just kill him. They robbed me of any chance I ever had to get to know him.”
“Then, in essence, we all agree,” I said. “I just went about helping out in the wrong way. I asked your mother, and now I’ll ask you. Can you find any way to forgive us? We would both hate to lose your friendship over this.”
Asking someone for forgiveness is powerful. It’s one thing to hold on to anger and let it grow from afar, but confronting someone face-to-face is much harder to ignore. It didn’t always work, but if you were sincere, it was always worth a try.
“I know you weren’t purposefully trying to hurt us,” Cindy conceded. “But it was tough hearing the questions Chief Hurley asked. He wanted alibis for both of us, and he wouldn’t leave until he got them.”
“Did you manage to convince him of your innocence?” I asked. I was dying to know what the mother and daughter had told him, but I couldn’t ask flat out, at least not yet.
“I hope so,” Janet said. “Cindy’s right. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.”
I was about to try to word a request for more information than that, something that wouldn’t offend them since we were on precarious ground at the moment, but Maddy beat me to it.
“So, what exactly did you tell him?”
Cindy was clearly about to tell us when Janet put a hand on her daughter’s arm, shutting her up before she could reply. “Ladies, I believe you’ve done what you set out to do,” the mother said. “You’ve asked for our forgiveness, and we’ve granted it. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some things to see to.”
“Thank you,” I said, getting out of there as quickly as I could drag Maddy with me.
Once we were outside, Maddy protested, “She was about to tell us.”
“Sis, there is no way that Janet was going to let Cindy say another word, and besides, my apology was sincere. If we have any hope of getting anything more out of either one of them, we’re going to have to get them alone. They’re too strong when they’re together.”
“Kind of like us, right?” Maddy asked.
“I’d say they’re exactly like us,” I admitted with a grin.