Read Online Killer Crust by Chris Cavender - Free Book Online Page A

that stop us, though. I’m not giving up just yet,” I said. As we approached the next door, I started to knock, and then I heard voices coming from inside the room. From the sound of it, they were having an argument. Despite the heavy wooden doors, I could still tell that it was the married couple from Asheville, Jeff and Sandy. When I looked at the door, I understood why I could hear them. They hadn’t pulled it all the way closed, so we could still hear their voices. I had to wonder if the door wasn’t completely shut because Luigi had just left them. It could be for another, innocent, reason, but then again, they could be the folks we were looking for.
    “I’m telling you, I didn’t flirt back with him,” Sandy said as I took another step closer to the door.
    “It sure looked that way to me,” Jeff said. “I won’t tolerate another incident like what happened in Asheville. I should have punched his lights out then and there, and we never should have agreed to come here and compete.”
    “Jeff, you know we didn’t have much choice. If we don’t win, we’re probably going to lose our restaurant.”
    “There are some things more important than that. I can’t stomach the thought of that man putting his hands on you.”
    “I can promise you that it won’t ever happen again, but I can’t help how the man acts when he’s around me,” Sandy said.
    “You don’t have to encourage him, though,” Jeff answered.
    “Is that what you think? Do you honestly believe that I was trying to get us a better place in the order of finishes? If I did, I must not be very good at it, because we came in last, remember?”
    “That wasn’t because of the pizza we submitted, and we both know it. He was punishing us by putting us in last place, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” Jeff said.
    “Honey, I love you, but you’ve got to find a way to get past what happened.”
    “You’re probably right, but I’d still like to punch him in the nose the next time I see him,” Jeff said. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to come here, but we’re not leaving now with our tails between our legs.”
    I was about to move on when Maddy surprised me and knocked on the couple’s door frame instead. “What are you doing?” I asked her in a whisper.
    “We still need to talk to them,” she answered softly.
    Sandy pulled the door open, and was clearly surprised that it hadn’t been shut all of the way in the first place. From the redness in her eyes, it appeared that she’d been crying at some point.
    “Hello, ladies,” she said.
    I was about to say something inane when Maddy said, “We were wondering if you’d seen Luigi lately. He was supposed to meet us up in my room, but he never showed up.” It was a lie that could easily be discovered, but Maddy was probably right saying it. After all, given what we’d just heard, I couldn’t imagine either pizza maker from Asheville confirming it with our host.
    “We haven’t seen him,” Sandy said quickly.
    “Funny, I could swear he was just down here.” Maddy replied, pushing just a little harder.
    “You’re mistaken,” Sandy said quickly as she tried to close the door. Was she trying to get rid of us?
    “Sorry to disturb you,” Maddy said as Jeff approached. “We also wanted to drop by to say that we think you two were cheated in that stage of the contest. Our pizza was a wreck, and yours was ready for a magazine cover shoot. What do you think happened?”
    “We really shouldn’t be fraternizing during the contest,” he said.
    “She means it. Your pizza really was a work of art,” I said, not just backing up my sister, but saying it because it was true.
    Jeff didn’t appear the least bit mollified. “It’s nice of you to say that, but there’s only one opinion that counts, and Luigi torpedoed us.” He shook his head as he rubbed his hand through his hair before adding, “I don’t know how we can come back from this horrible