Read Online Pepperoni Pizza Can Be Murder by Chris Cavender - Free Book Online Page B

the chance.”
    “Good. I’m beat,” she said.
    “Go on home,” I said. I’d already sent Josh home, since he had a test the next day that he’d admitted he’d failed to study for.
    “No, I’m good,” Maddy said. “I’ll hang around a little longer.”
    I started to say something, when I finally got it. “You’re not going to leave here until I do, are you?”
    “What’s wrong with that? I work here, too.”
    “There’s more to it than that,” I said. “Don’t even try to lie to me. You’re going to hover over me until I go home.” I was kind of psychic when it came to my sister. She could fool a great many people if she put her mind to it, but Maddy had never been able to lie to me.
    “It’s my fault you got robbed last night,” Maddy said, her voice breaking with the confession.
    “Were you the one holding a gun on me? The thief wasn’t as tall as you, and don’t try to tell me you slouched down. Besides, I would have recognized your voice, no matter how hard you tried to disguise it.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “Then if you weren’t holding the gun, how was it your fault?”
    Maddy was fighting the tears, and I gave her time to compose herself. After a minute, she said, “If I’d been with you, he wouldn’t have risked taking on two of us.”
    I hugged my sister, and then I said, “Maddy, I know in my heart that it wouldn’t have stopped him. He had a gun, and neither one of us did. The only thing it would have accomplished is that both of us would have been terrified.”
    “Even so, you shouldn’t have had to face it alone,” Maddy said sternly. “I left you.”
    “I’m the one who told you to go home, remember? Listen, we can debate this all night, but nothing’s going to change the facts. There wasn’t anything either one of us could have done to stop him.”
    “I’m still staying,” she said as she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest.
    “Fine. But I’m not ready to go yet. I have to balance the register receipts, make out the deposit, and sweep up the front.”
    “At least that part’s done,” she said. “Josh and I cleaned up the dining room after the last customer left.”
    “Good enough. I suppose if I can’t talk you out of staying, you can watch me work. I always did like having an audience.”
    “Liar,” she said, finally releasing some of the tension that had been between us.
    I laughed. “Okay, I hate attention, but I’ll make an exception for you.”
    As I ran the report on the cash register, I counted the money we had. It balanced on the first try—miracle of all miracles—and I filled out the deposit slip and slid it into the bag, along with the money we were banking.
    “Now what do I do with it?” I asked, more to myself than to my sister.
    “One thing we’re not doing,” she said as she took the pouch from me, “we’re not walking out the front door with it.”
    “Agreed,” I said. “So, where does that leave us until the safe arrives?”
    My sister looked around the kitchen for a minute, nodded, and then slid the pouch on the conveyor into the heart of the pizza oven. Unless a crook knew where to look, it was doubtful he’d be able to spot the bag there.
    “What if somebody breaks in because they’re craving a pizza?” I asked jokingly.
    “Then they get a bonus for their trouble, but do you honestly think that’s going to happen?”
    “No, but then again, I never thought anyone in Timber Ridge would rob me.”
    “We can put it someplace else, if you’d feel more comfortable,” Maddy said.
    “That’s as good a spot as any,” I said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
    “I agree.”
    As we walked outside, Maddy said loudly, “There’s no money on us tonight. Just two poor gals going home after a hard day’s work.”
    I looked around to see who she was talking to, but there was no one in sight. “What’s that about?”
    Maddy smiled. “If the robber came back to steal again, I wanted