A Pizza To Die For - A Pizza To Die For Part 24
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A Pizza To Die For Part 24

"Thanks, ladies. You're both good for my spirits."

We left the bakery, and I was surprised to hear someone calling our names once we were out on the promenade. I'd half expected Gina to be lurking in the shadows, but it was her unwilling roommate, Nancy Thorpe, who was hailing us.

"I'm glad I caught you," she said as she ran toward us. There was no sign that her pregnancy was slowing her down any, but then again, I didn't see her every minute of the day, either.

When she caught up with us, I asked her, "What can we do for you, Nancy?"

"You were so nice to me yesterday," she said, "that I wanted to come by and thank you. Could I take you out to lunch?"

"We're kind of tied up here until two," I said.

"That doesn't work for me. I eat at eleven, and then again at four," she admitted as she patted her belly, which was still fairly flat.

"Perhaps another time, then," I said as her cell phone rang.

I motioned to Maddy, and we started walking away, when Nancy called out to us, "Hang on a second, this won't take long at all." Then, into the phone, she said, "Okay, I'm with them now. I'll ask them."

She held the telephone to her shoulder. "Nathan needs to see you both at two-fifteen, and he won't take no for an answer."

I thought about all the reasons we had to refuse him, especially since he was again financing our latest competitor, but as I was trying to word my response, Maddy surprised me by jumping in and saying, "Tell him we'd be delighted."

"Wonderful," she said, and then as she spoke into her phone again, she walked off, completely forgetting us.

"Have you lost your mind?" I asked my sister as I unlocked our door.

"Have you? I could see it in your eyes. You were about to say no, weren't you, Eleanor?"

As I led us inside and locked the door behind us, I said, "You'd better believe it. I have no desire to see Nathan Sizemore at the moment."

"Sis, look at the big picture. We've been wanting a chance to talk to the man again, and Nancy drops an opportunity right in our laps. We can't say no."

"Even with everything that's going on?"

"Especially because of it," she said. "This is an opportunity that we can't afford to miss."

I could see Maddy's point, but that still didn't mean I wasn't upset with everything that had gone on since Judson had first announced the opening of his pizzeria. Nathan Sizemore was behind it all, if only with his money, and I wasn't happy about seeing him again, but I knew that didn't mean that Maddy was wrong.

"Okay, we'll go," I said.

"That's the spirit. Now, the only thing left to decide is whether we're going to kill him with kindness, or confront him the second we walk through the door."

I thought about it for a few seconds. "As much as I'd love to blast him, I think we should wait and hear what he has to say," I said. "We can play it by ear from there."

"Agreed," Maddy said.

As I got the dough out of the covered bowl and started to work it on the countertop, she said, "While you're doing that, I'm going to make up a list of questions for him. There's no sense going in there unprepared."

"I agree," I said. After a moment's thought, I added, "I think we should take him a pizza, maybe one of those deep dish ones I made, just to show Gina what she's up against."

"Maybe you should take him a regular garbage one, instead," Maddy said softly.

"Are you saying you don't like my new pizza?"

She shook her head. "I'm not insane. I would never say that. All I'm saying is that it might be risky taking something you haven't thoroughly tested."

She had a point there. "Then I'll make a few before we go, and we can see how they taste," I said. "I actually have time now to let the dough rise, so we should be fine on that count."

When Maddy couldn't find any flaws with that argument, I got my old recipe book out again and leafed back to the deep dish section. Maybe I'd take one of each kind of pizza I made: a thin crust, a regular one, and a deep dish.

That, more than anything I could say, would show him that we meant business.

After the dough was ready, I made up the first batch of deep dish pizzas. "Maddy, ask anybody who comes in if they'd like to try a slice of deep dish," I said as the pizzas started piling up in back. I'd made enough dough early on to make a dozen pizzas, and so far I had eight made.

"You've officially lost your mind, Eleanor," she said as she looked at the pizzas stacked in the kitchen. The first five had been questionable in one way or another, and I'd decided not to serve them, but the last three were looking good.

"Come on, think of it as a public relations campaign for good will. We're going to need every last customer we can get when Gina starts showing off that flashy new pizza oven and a chef who can spin dough in the air."

"Okay, you might not be so crazy after all," she said.

Another deep dish came out of the oven on its second trip through when Maddy came back in.

"Do you have any more orders for me?" I asked.

"Are you kidding? Did you honestly think people were going to buy pizza when we're giving it away? Give me a hand, will you?"

I nodded as I cut the last pizza. "Come on. This will be fun."

I started carrying pizzas out front, and Maddy and I delivered slices until everyone there had sampled some. There were nods and smiles all around, and I embraced the warmth of my customers.

Karen took hers with a smile. "Wow, you really have the gift," she told me as I served her.

"It's just pizza," I said.

"Don't ever say that. What you do transcends that."

Her earnestness was a little too much for me. "How are your classes going at the college?" I asked.

"I'm learning something new every day," she said with a grin. "It's amazing how fascinating the world can be."

"Any ideas on what classes you'll be taking next semester?"

She smiled at me as she said, "Money management and investment sounds like fun."

"If you say so," I said as I moved to another table.

By the time we were out of pizza, several customers asked about ordering entire pies.

Maddy approached me back in the kitchen with a handful of orders. "You've created a monster out there. I hope you like making these things, because I've got a feeling they're going on the menu for good."

"Whatever keeps folks eating here is fine with me," I said. Not that long ago, I'd been intimidated by the thick and gooey pizzas, but now that I'd mastered them, they were actually fun to make. I looked at the list of orders and realized that I might just have enough dough left and still have a new style of pizza to take to Nathan's, but it was going to be close.

"Don't take any more deep dish orders," I told Maddy before I started working on the first one in line.

My sister frowned at me. "Do you think that's wise? You've got them wanting it, and now you're not going to deliver?"

I smiled at her. "In a way, their rarity will probably make them more desirable, don't you think? If our customers can't get them every day, they might order more when they know they're available on a limited basis."

Maddy shook her head as she heard my rationale. "I long ago gave up trying to figure out your reasoning."

I lowered my voice. "Besides, the real reason is that I don't have much dough left. Play along with me, okay?"

She nodded. "Got it. Sis, are you still intent on taking three pizzas to Nathan's house?"

"Why? Do you think it's a bad idea?"

Maddy laughed. "Believe it or not, I've come around to your way of thinking. That's exactly the right move to make with him, bold and audacious."

I went back to cranking out deep dish pizzas again. I owed my mystery customer from yesterday a debt. This new menu item might be enough to see us through some tough times ahead, and even if it didn't, it had reignited my desire to keep the Slice open regardless of what was going on outside the pizzeria's doors. Opening A Slice of Delight had been Joe's idea, but I'd grown to love it over the years as something of my very own. It was just one more debt I owed Joe's memory in a long line of things I was thankful for.

As our lunchtime closing neared, I made my last deep dish, and then added a thin crust and a regular pizza to the conveyor. I wanted everything to be fresh, hot, and ready to roll when we left.

Unfortunately, what I wasn't counting on was another visit from our chief of police.

Chapter 14.

"Kevin, I'd love to chat, but there's someplace I need to be soon," I said as he came back into my kitchen.

He looked at the oven and saw the deep dish pizza appear on its first pass through the oven. "It looks like you're still busy."

"Those are to go," I said. "I'm leaving in eight minutes."

"Then you have time to talk after all."

I could tell he wasn't about to leave until we had this conversation. "Fine. We can talk while I clean up." I threw him a dish towel and smiled. "Would you like to dry?"

"Sure," he said, surprising me.

"I was just kidding," I said.

"I wasn't."

I started washing dishes, and after I rinsed them, I handed them to our chief of police, which he dutifully dried and stacked.

"You're doing it again, aren't you?" he said with an edge to his voice.

"Sorry, did I leave some soap on that one?"

"Eleanor, you know full well what I'm talking about. You just can't keep your nose out of this case. Are you ever going to learn how dangerous that can be?"

I didn't like the sound of that. "You're not threatening me, are you?"

He snorted. "Of course not. But someone killed Judson Sizemore, and you're taking too many risks with your life to try to find out who did it."

That was an interesting twist on things. "So, you don't think I did it anymore, is that what you're saying?"

He shook his head. "Would I be standing here helping you with the dishes if I did? I've known you my entire life. I can't imagine you killing him, at least not over pizza."

"Don't kid yourself. I take it pretty seriously," I said as I handed him another plate to dry.

"Are you really trying to talk me into believing you did it?" he asked as he dried it and added it to the growing stack.

"No, I'm just saying this isn't some kind of hobby for me. It's become my life."

"I know that," he said. "But it wouldn't make you a murderer."

"What would?" I asked him.

"I can think of a few reasons. If someone threatened Maddy or Greg or even Josh, I could see you doing it."

I nodded. "You're right. They're my family." It was an odd thing to say to Josh's father, but he understood exactly what I meant.

Kevin smiled as he said, "Trust me, my kid would walk through fire for you, and we both know it. That's one reason I'd hate to see you get hurt."

"Then why don't we compare notes about the case? I might have uncovered some things you don't know about yet," I said. It was a crazy thing to say, and I knew it the second it left my mouth, but unfortunately, I couldn't take it back.

He shook his head and dropped the dish towel on the counter. "You never know when to stop, do you?"

"I've had that problem in the past," I said.

So much for the good mood that had existed between us, however briefly. As Kevin left, I wondered what had brought him to my kitchen in the first place. Had there been something he'd wanted to tell me, or was he fishing for something else? My comment had been out of line, and I'd known it, so now I would probably never find out why he'd visited.

At least the dishes were nearly done.

As the pizzas were ready, I moved them to boxes, and then to warming sleeves. Maddy came back just as I had them stacked and ready to go.

"What did our illustrious chief of police want?" she asked.

"He came by to help me do dishes," I said.

Maddy frowned at me. "Be that way. Eleanor, if you don't want to tell me, just say so."

I told her what had happened, and she whistled softly. "Sometimes you've got the guts of a cat burglar."