Read Online A Pizza to Die For by Chris Cavender - Free Book Online Page B

come in, given the fact that we had already locked the door and put up the CLOSED sign,” he said with a smile. “Would you like some help with the dishes?”
    I’d been steadily working on them as the orders had decreased, and I’d been through four sinks of suds so far. “Thanks, but I think I’ve got it under control. How’s the front look?”
    “Like a herd of angry llamas stormed through it,” he said. “But we’re getting it in good shape.”
    Maddy came back, followed by Josh. “We’re here to help you tackle the back,” she said. My sister looked around the kitchen and whistled. “Wow, I’ve got to hand it to you, Eleanor. You work fast.”
    “It pays to keep on it all the time,” I said. “That way, it’s usually not as bad at the end.”
    “I can see that. We’ve got the front in pretty good shape.”
    “What about the llamas?” I asked.
    “What?”
    Greg said, “Maybe I exaggerated a little.”
    “Maybe. Why don’t you all go on home? Everyone deserves to have an early evening, and I can handle the rest of this myself.”
    Greg and Josh were headed for the front door when Maddy said, “I’ll let them out, and then I’m coming back.”
    “It’s okay. You can go, too,” I said.
    “Why?”
    “Don’t you have a date tonight?”
    She frowned. “The key word is ‘had,’ not ‘have,’ ” she said.
    “Are you sure?”
    Maddy bit her lip and then asked, “Eleanor, do I look like I’m kidding?”
    I could see that she was in pain, but for the moment, there was nothing I could do about it. “Okay, I’ll gladly take the help, if you’re sure.”
    She came back a minute later, smiling. “Man, I didn’t know how fast those two could move when they had incentive.”
    “Were they in that big a hurry to get out of here?”
    She laughed, a sound I always liked hearing. There was something about a laugh that infected me with a touch of joy myself, and I just couldn’t get enough of it. “They were both afraid you’d change your mind.”
    “I’m not that bad to work for, am I?”
    “You have your moments,” she said as she took up the drying towel, “but most of the time you’re a wonderful boss.”
    As we worked our way through the rest of the dishes, I said, “I still can’t believe Judson is dead.”
    “Are you kidding me? After the way he treated us? I can’t believe he lasted as long as he did, if that was his standard of behavior toward people.”
    “Nonetheless, it looks bad for us, doesn’t it?” I asked as I handed her another glass to dry.
    She nodded. “That’s exactly why we have to ignore what Bob said and dig into this ourselves.”
    I thought about that for a few seconds, and then said, “At the risk of having a pot thrown at me, can I say there’s a chance that Bob might be right?”
    Maddy looked at me with a serious expression, and then smiled broadly. “Of course he’s right, but we can’t let that stop us, can we? Since when have we been afraid of stepping on Kevin Hurley’s toes? We both have a stake in this, and you know it.”
    “So we start digging into Judson Sizemore’s life. What do we really know about him?” I asked.
    “Other than the fact that he was a pretentious bore?”
    “Maddy,” I said.
    “Okay, I’ll get back on track. The only thing we really know is that he was being backed by one of the richest men in Timber Ridge, someone we thought was just about stone broke. That’s as good a place to start as any, as far as I’m concerned.”
    “Then we need to talk to Nathan Sizemore.”

    As we drove to Nathan’s house on the outskirts of town, I realized that I didn’t really know much about the man other than the reputation he had around town. He was an odd bird, there was no denying that, and I was still trying to accept the fact that he was wealthy beyond my wildest dreams as we headed over to speak with him. I’d only seen his house a few times as a kid, and I hadn’t really thought much about him since then, if