Bacon Cheddar Murder: Book 2 in Papa Pacelli's Pizzeria Series Page 7
He looked at her in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m, um, looking for Shannon. We were supposed to meet…” she lied, thinking quickly.
“She’s not here. I’m, ah, housesitting. She had a family emergency out of town.”
“Okay, I’ll just go then—”
She was cut off by a scream from somewhere inside the house.
“Help! Someone help!” Shannon’s voice was panicked, but recognizable.
Shawn and Ellie stared at each other for a moment, then they both moved at the same time: Ellie towards her car, and Shawn towards her. He was faster than she was, and pulled her roughly inside by her shoulder.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” he growled. “What happens next is your fault.”
She heard the clunk of the deadbolt as he locked the door behind them. He shoved her forward, directing her down the hall and into the kitchen, where Shannon and James sat bound to chairs.
“Ellie!” Shannon exclaimed tearfully. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it was you. I thought you were the police.”
Shawn forced her into a chair next to her friend, then began rummaging around in the kitchen drawers.
“Don’t you have any more tape here?” he grumbled. “I used all of the roll I brought on the two of you.”
Shannon ignored him, her wide eyes still fixed on Ellie. James hadn’t said anything; he seemed to be concentrating on trying to wriggle his hands out of the duct tape binding him to the chair.
“I don’t understand,” Elli whispered as the fisherman continued to search through the kitchen drawers in vein. “Russell said he sent one of his deputies to keep an eye on you.”
“He did,” Shannon replied just as quietly. “Bethany was here for most of the day, but she got an emergency call in from the department and had to go. Russell and Liam are out searching for the guy they thought was the killer, so she was the only one who could take the call. He showed up twenty minutes after she left.”
Ellie looked back over at Shawn. He seemed distracted by his search for something to tie her up with. Would he even notice if she made a break for it? She could run and go get help for the others. It’s now or never, she thought. I won’t be able to do anything once he finds some tape or a rope and ties me to this chair. Deciding to take her chance while she could, Ellie jumped to her feet. She’d only taken a step towards the hallway before Shawn’s head snapped around and his arm came up. He was pointing a gun at her.
“Run, and I shoot her,” he said, shifting his aim to Shannon. “Try me. I dare you.”
His voice was frighteningly calm. Shaking, Ellie slowly sat back down. He had already killed two people; she had no doubt that he would kill a third.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why are you doing this? Are you going to kill us all?”
“Just shut up,” he said, pointing the gun at her again. “None of this is my fault, you hear? An idiot member of my crew left those fish sitting in the sun for hours. They didn’t smell bad, and I wasn’t going to take a loss of a few hundred dollars just because some worthless kid couldn’t remember to do his job, so I sold the catch anyway and fired the guy responsible. Even if the fish were bad, I thought the restaurants would notice before they cooked them. I sure didn’t think anyone would die from it.”
“You killed Anthony because you knew he was going to talk,” Shannon broke in. “And you killed Chloe because she was getting close. Now me… that article of mine must have really scared you, huh?”
Ellie usually appreciated her friend’s attitude and desire for the truth, but now was most definitely not the time for it. She kicked the other woman under the table.
“Quit talking,” Shawn snapped. “I mean it.”
He kicked open the cupboard under the sink and bent down for a second, rising victoriously with a fresh roll of duct tape in his hand. Ellie quailed as he approached her. She was trapped. She didn’t dare make a break for it; even if he didn’t shoot her, he was sure to shoot Shannon and James. But if he managed to tie her up, then she would truly be helpless.
“Please, don’t do this,” she begged as he tore a long strip of duct tape off of the roll. He placed the gun on the table in easy reach, as a warning in case she tried anything, and reached for her wrist, which she jerked out of his grasp.
“Don’t struggle, Ellie,” James said in an oddly calm voice. “It will just make things worse.”
Has he given up already? she thought, disappointed. She had expected more fight from the sheriff’s brother. If he thought the situation was hopeless, then was there anything she could do?
Ellie felt the fight go out of her. Shawn reached for her wrist again, and this time she didn’t resist as he taped it to the arm of the chair. He did the other one, then bent down to tape her ankles. That was when James made his move.
He lunged across the table, having managed to free one arm from the tape. His fingers closed around the gun that Shawn had been waving around, and in an instant his finger was on the trigger and the pistol was pointed at the fisherman’s face. Shawn froze.
“Back up slowly,” James said. “Keep your hands in the air where I can see them. You’ve killed two people and threatened my wife. I hope you believe me when I say I will shoot.”
Shawn seemed to believe him, because he did what James said. Ellie began shaking again, this time with shock and relief.
“Ellie,” James said, not taking his gaze off of the murderer. “The left arm of your chair is loose. You should be able to wiggle the dowel free pretty easily and get your hand loose. Once you do that, free yourself, then start working on Shannon. I’m going to keep my eyes on this guy until my brother gets here. You should NOT have messed with the Wards, Shawn Franks. We don’t go down easily.”
EPILOGUE
“Still having nightmares?” Ellie asked.
“Oh yeah,” Shannon said. “I don’t think they’ll stop any time soon, either.”
For someone who had been plagued by bad dreams for the past week since her near-death experience, the woman seemed oddly happy. Ellie suspected her friend’s mood had something to do with why Shannon had wanted to meet for coffee in the middle of the day.
“Come on, spit it out,” she said at last. “I know you’re dying to tell me something. You always get a weird smile on your face when you’re keeping a secret.”
“I do not,” her friend said, laughing. “But fine, since you insist. I just got news from my boss this morning. She wants me to start covering some of the bigger stories. She was impressed with how I handled this one.”
“That’s great news, Shannon,” Ellie said. “This is huge for you. You should celebrate or something.”
“Honestly, I kind of want to keep it quiet for now,” Shannon said. “I mean, technically I’m taking Chloe’s spot, which obviously I feel horrible about. I just needed to tell someone other than James. He didn’t exactly have the reaction I was looking for.”
Ellie raised her eyebrows. “I would have thought he would be proud of you. This is what you’ve wanted for years.”
“He seems to think I’m going to stick my nose in the wrong story and get in trouble again,” her friend said. She laughed. “I can’t really blame him, I guess. Anyway, how have you been?”
“Not terrible, not great,” Ellie said. “I’m glad that Shawn is behind bars, but I keep going over it all in my head, wondering how things got so out of control over some spoiled fish. People can be kind of horrible sometimes.”
“Most people are good though,” Shannon said. “It’s just that the good is less noticeable than the bad most of the time. Oh, how is your grandmother? I should have asked about that first, I’m sorry.”
“She’s doing all right. Thank goodness she didn’t break her hip the last time she fell. But that’s three times in the last week and a half.” Ellie bit her lip. “I’m worried about her, but I don’t know what to do or how to bring it up. She’s so determined to be independent.”
“Isn’t she having some family over in a couple of weeks? Maybe you could talk to them about it and stage some sort of intervention. Get her to use a walker or something,” Shannon suggested.
“That’s a good idea, but I’ll have to wait and see how things go. This is my great-aunt and uncle and their son. If I ever met them before, I don’t remember it. They may be family, but they’re practically strangers,” Ellie told her.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll handle it just fine,” her friend said. “You managed to survive this week, and I’m sure it was much worse than anything family could throw at you.”
She has a point, Ellie thought, taking a sip of her coffee. Compared to surviving these past few weeks, how bad can a visit from family be?