A Pizza To Die For - A Pizza To Die For Part 32
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A Pizza To Die For Part 32

"Yes, I'm pretty certain I won't bite you."

"That's not what I meant," she said as her cheeks reddened a little.

"I know that. Thanks for coming." I studied her costume, and then said, "You're not a princess or a wizard, I know that much."

"That's more than anyone else has been able to come up with," she said.

"Hang on, I'll get it." I took in the entire ensemble, wondering how the flickering candle matched the rest of her outfit. That's when I got it.

"You're a giant candle, aren't you?"

"Bravo," she said.

"I love the Christmas light on top," I said.

"I like your painter's costume, too," she replied.

"It's not so much a costume as something I wear when I'm painting," I admitted.

"The streaks of paint on your face really sell it, though."

I had to laugh at that. "I'd like to take credit for it, but it was Maddy's idea." I looked at the notebook in her hand and asked, "Did you have any luck?"

"Some," she said. "I'm going to need more time, but I do have it narrowed to the Parsons branch of Nathan's family. There was a streak where the men had only daughters, so the Sizemore name was absorbed into the Parsons family and the Harpers along the way. I'm fairly certain I'll be able to find something more specific for you in a few days. I hope that's good enough for now."

I thought about the Parsons and Harpers who'd been around Timber Ridge, but for the life of me, I couldn't think of any descendents still in town. I hoped it wasn't a dead end, for Nathan's sake, at least.

"Thanks so much," I said. "I appreciate what you're doing."

"No need to thank me," she said. "I love this kind of thing." Karen looked around the kitchen, and then said, "Sorry I can't stay longer, but I have things to do before tonight's Blowout."

"I know exactly what you mean," I said.

After she was gone, I struck another suspect off my list. If a wizard at genealogy like Karen couldn't track Nathan's relative down, there was a very good chance that even if the person was still alive, they most likely had no idea that they were related to the land baron.

That left just two suspects on my list: Nathan himself, and his niece, Gina. The more I thought about it, I had to believe that Gina had killed her own brother for the sake of a bigger stake of potential inheritance. It was going to take patience on her part to wait until her uncle died, but she didn't have any competition left to take any of her ill-gotten gains.

Then another thought struck me. What if she wasn't in the mood to wait? Nathan had reported that he'd had a near miss on his lawn mower, and if Nancy was to be believed, Gina had had a hand in her near tumble down the steps. Also, Gina had taken great pride in announcing that Nathan was in the process of finalizing the changes to his will, My heart started beating like a hummingbird's wings. I felt that if I didn't act immediately, my new friend wouldn't have a chance. He could be dead before the clock struck midnight if he'd already signed the papers for his new will.

I came rushing out front to find that Greg and Josh had already left for the festivities.

"Come on, Maddy. We need to go," I said.

"What happened?" my sister asked me as she dropped the broom she'd been sweeping with.

"Gina killed Judson, and now she's going to go after Nathan." I explained my logic to her, and she didn't question my explanation. "Where do we go, though? They could be at Nathan's house, or there's a chance he's at Italia's."

"We could go check out Italia's together," she said, "and then go to Nathan's to make sure he's all right."

"There's no time," I said as I grabbed my jacket. "I don't like it, but we're going to have to split up."

Maddy nodded. She had no problem with making quick decisions, something else I'd always admired about her. "I'll take the house, you take the pizza place, and we'll meet back here if we both draw a blank."

As I locked the door behind us, I said, "Be careful."

"Right back at you," she said.

Italia's was closed, Gina had told me that it would be, but I knew the back way in.

As I moved to the rear entrance, I thought I caught a glimpse of someone inside. Their door, unlike ours, had its own window in back, and I saw a flicker of light come through the frosted window. I wanted to turn and run for help with every fiber of my being, but I knew if I didn't distract the murderer, it might be too late.

It took me a moment, but that's when I realized that the murderer wasn't Gina, or Nathan, either.

I knew it without a doubt now.

And as the pieces fell into place, I was amazed that I hadn't seen it before.

I tried the doorknob, and was relieved to find it was unlocked. I hoped that would be the murderer's mistake that ended up unraveling the entire plot to gain Nathan's fortune. As I crept in, I could see that Gina was in the kitchen, her face pale, even under the makeup. There was a fire in the wood-fired oven, and a few logs waiting to be fed into the mouth of the fireplace.

"Eleanor Swift," she said, darting her eyes quickly to the right, "what are you doing here?"

"I came to see if you needed any help," I said as I looked around for the killer.

Gina was trying to signal me, and I realized that she was looking steadily into the dining room as she spoke. "Thanks, but I'm just finishing up. I'm about to go home myself."

"I'll walk you out," I said, motioning her toward the door with my hand.

She shook her head. "Thanks, but I've got it covered." She mouthed the words, Go get help to me, but I refused to leave.

"I don't mind pitching in," I said. "Then we can go to the dance together."

"I can't," she said, the tears thick in her eyes.

I knew there had to be something that the killer was using to hold her there, and if I left them alone, Gina would most likely be dead by the time I got back with reinforcements. It was a chance I couldn't take.

It was time to end this charade.

Taking a deep breath, I called out, "Karen, I know you're in there. You might as well come out."

Karen Green stepped out of the shadows, pulling her hat off and throwing it to the ground as she walked, shattering the flickering bulb on top. "You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you, Eleanor? I knew I should have taken care of you when I had the chance."

"First things first. Let me have your cell phone," she commanded as one hand came out of her robe holding a handgun.

I had been trying to call Maddy on speed dial, but that wasn't going to happen now. I tossed her my phone, purposely under-throwing it in an effort to get her to lean too far toward me, but she surprised me by stepping forward and plucking it out of the air. With a quick glance at that exposed pizza oven's fire, she flipped it into the opening, and I saw it melt from the sudden and intense heat.

When Karen turned back to me, she asked, "How did you know I was behind it all, Eleanor?"

"A lot of things started falling into place," I said. "You were too eager to help me, and the courses you were taking finally clicked in my mind."

She smiled. "You picked up on that, did you? You're smarter than I gave you credit for."

"What are you talking about?" Gina asked, her voice filled with fear.

"Patience," Karen said, and then turned to me. "I never dreamed I'd given you too much information. Most people don't listen at all when I talk. It was your bad luck to be one of the few who do."

"What classes?" Gina asked.

Karen explained as though she were talking to a child. "I took an auto repair class, and I learned how to disable Nathan's brakes on his mower. The mechanism is easy once you know how a car works."

"It was premature, though, wasn't it?" I said. "You nearly killed Nathan while Gina was still alive."

Karen didn't like me pointing out the flaw in her plan. "How could I have known he'd use his riding mower to blow the leaves into piles? If he'd waited till spring, my plan would have worked beautifully."

Gina was starting to see how insane Karen really was. "When were you going to kill me?"

"After a suitable period, you were going to have an accident, but then that all changed when I saw Nathan coming out of Bob Lemon's office. I knew that I was almost out of time, but it's still going to work out just fine. Imagine how appropriate it will be for you to die where your brother passed away. He turned his back on me, and it was so easy to hit him from behind with that chunk of wood, I could barely believe my good fortune."

"How was I going to die?" Gina was breathless as she waited for the answer.

"I wasn't sure, but most likely it would be some kind of suicide. I should have taken a nursing class; maybe you could have overdosed on something."

I couldn't believe this woman. "So, you used the community college system to plan your rampage. What were the other classes for?"

She smiled as she said, "The law class was to help me figure out how to beat Nathan's will, and the money management was so that I'd know what to do when I inherited it all."

"There's one thing I don't understand, though," Gina said incredulously. "Why should he leave anything to you?"

Karen grinned at me, but there wasn't a great deal of sanity in it. "Do you want to tell her, or should I?"

I didn't want to give her the satisfaction. "Gina, this is Karen Green, your long-lost cousin, and another of your uncle's heirs."

Karen laughed. "You are very clever, Eleanor. I thought I hid the truth rather well today, but clearly I was mistaken."

"You almost had me, and then I remembered the last Parsons I knew. She taught me in kindergarten, and I'd almost forgotten her. We always called her Miss Garnet, but she was your aunt, Garnet Parsons, wasn't she?"

"You actually remembered," Karen said. "Not many folks even knew her last name around here when her teaching name became so accepted."

I had to keep her talking. I knew if I could stall her long enough, Maddy would realize that the house was a dead end and everything was happening at Italia's. "You must have been shocked when Gina and Judson showed up on the scene."

"I didn't know they existed any more than Nathan realized that we were related," she agreed. "He'd filed a copy of his will to preapprove his probate, and I stumbled on it after I discovered that we were related." She looked disgusted as she added, "I was going to be rich until those two showed up."

Gina turned on her. "That's why you killed my brother? For money?"

"Don't act like you're so holy, Gina," she said. "You got Nathan to pay off your debt, so it's not like you weren't getting anything out of it, either. We're not that different, when you get right down to it." She looked around the restaurant. "This place had to cost a fortune too, so I knew that I had to get rid of you before you spent what was rightfully mine."

"Yours? He doesn't even know who you are. Are you completely insane?"

"Don't call me that," she snapped. "I'm not crazy. I fooled all of you, didn't I?"

I nodded. "Nobody thinks you're crazy," I said calmly.

"Speak for yourself," Gina said. That woman didn't know when it was in her best interest to keep her mouth shut.

"What are you planning to do with us?" I asked her.

She shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, but you know too much, Eleanor, and she's in the way of my inheritance. There's no other way around it. You're both going to have to die."

"Let's not be hasty here. You can have it all. I'll sign whatever you want me to, just don't kill me."

Karen seemed to consider it for a moment, and then said sadly, "Sorry, I can't trust you with the truth."

"How about me?" I asked, trying to distract her long enough for Maddy to go to Nathan's, then realize that she was in the wrong place and come to Italia's, hopefully with reinforcements. "Where are you going to get the pizza you like so much if you get rid of me?"

"I'll be sorry to miss you, but Maddy's getting better at it every day. She might not be as good as you are, but she'll get there."

While she'd been talking to me, I'd seen Gina slowly reach back toward the fire for one of the burning logs. I wasn't sure how she planned to grab it without scorching her own hand, but I had to keep Karen distracted long enough to give her time to do something. It was the only real chance we had.

"Don't kid yourself, Karen," I said. "Maddy will close the place down if something happens to me."

"I won't let her do that," Karen shouted. "Stop saying things I don't like."

It was time for me to act.

I yelled, "Karen, look out. Chief Hurley's going to shoot you!"

As Karen spun around to see a man who wasn't there, it was the opportunity Gina was waiting for. With no hesitation whatsoever, she reached into the fire, screamed as the flames hit her hand, and retrieved a burning log quickly enough to hurl it at Karen.

It was one of the bravest things I'd ever seen in my life, even if it was done out of a sense of pure self-preservation.

As the log flew through the air, Karen whirled around and fired a shot at Gina. She went down, but there was nothing I could do for her. The only thing I could think of was to make sure that her sacrifice wasn't in vain. The wood hit Karen's chest, and as she struggled to put out the flames licking at her robe, the gun flew out of her hands.

The log wasn't finished with its purpose, though. A nearby tablecloth caught fire as the log rolled past it and ended up wedged against the heavy fabric of the curtains.

I didn't have a second to waste. I jumped toward the gun, but Karen was too fast for me, and too close to it. Ignoring the flames leaping up her robe, she grabbed for the weapon, and I fought to get control of it.

"You're burning up," I said as the heat of the robe hit my face. I could feel the hairs on the back of my hand start to burn from the proximity of the flames, and yet she was still fighting me. How could she take the pain? "Let go, Karen, or you're going to die."

"Not today," she said as she kept wrestling me for the gun. Where was she getting this strength? No matter what the source, I knew she couldn't keep ignoring the pain forever.

My life boiled down to getting control of that gun, regardless of what was going on around me. I could see the flames and smoke begin to fill the restaurant, but I refused to let go.

I was starting to wonder if any of us would make it out alive when I finally got control of the gun.

As I pointed it at her, Karen finally realized what was happening to her. She began to scream, ripping at the robe in an effort to get it off her. I ran to the nearest fire extinguisher to try to help her, but as I grabbed it and turned it upside down, I looked up just in time to see Karen swing a chair at my head. If I hadn't stepped back at the last second, I knew in my heart that I would have been hit.

I ducked, and the strike was so close that I could feel it knock my painter's cap off. Without another thought, I shot her in the face, not with the gun, but with the fire extinguisher, and then I put her clothes out once she was down on the ground.

I stood there staring at her for a few seconds, wondering what I should do next. In a heartbeat, I knew that there was only one thing I could do. I wasn't about to save myself and abandon the woman who had tried to save me. If Gina had the slightest chance of surviving, I was going to see that she got the opportunity.