The Pizza Mystery (5 page)

Jessie stepped back. Why did Laurie always make the Aldens feel like intruders?

Benny scooted by everyone and began to pick up the papers that had fallen on the floor.

“Never mind those,” Laurie said. “Just leave them. There's plenty to do in the dining room. Go!”

Benny felt a lump in his throat. He wasn't used to anyone speaking to him like that. He was only trying to help.

“Okay,” the Aldens mumbled as they trooped out.

“Laurie Baker sure is a confusing person,” Jessie whispered to Violet and Benny. “Sometimes she likes us, then other times she treats us like pests.”

The Piccolos beamed when the children came into the dining room. Mrs. Piccolo pointed to an empty table. “Why don't you children sit down and have some pizza after your hard morning?”

After they'd all eaten, Mrs. Piccolo handed Benny some napkins to fold. Napkin folding wasn't too exciting compared with making pizza from scratch. But Benny did the job anyway.

Violet sat down to help Benny while Jessie and the Piccolos took orders.

“You don't look too happy today, Benny,” Violet said.

“Everything was more fun when it was just us helping the Piccolos,” Benny whispered. “Laurie's always getting mad at me, like today when I tried to pick up Mrs. Piccolo's recipes.”

Violet looked shocked. “That notebook had Mrs. Piccolo's recipes in it? I thought she kept it locked in that old pine cabinet by the sink.”

“So did I,” Benny said. “But sometimes Mr. Piccolo forgets to take the key out of the cabinet. Anybody can open it.”

“Well, it could be that Mrs. Piccolo gave Laurie the notebook, so she could help make the sauce.” Violet sounded doubtful. “And maybe Mrs. Piccolo isn't keeping her recipes secret now that Laurie is her new helper.”

“I don't think so,” Benny said. “But we'll never find out ‘cause she keeps chasing us out of the kitchen!”

There was no time to finish this talk. Violet and Benny got busy making up delivery boxes while Jessie handled the phone orders.

During the busiest part of the lunch hour, something strange happened. The phone rang several times in a row. But each time Jessie greeted the caller, no one answered. After four calls like this, Jessie went over to Mrs. Piccolo.

“Somebody keeps calling but doesn't say anything,” Jessie said.

Mrs. Piccolo was too busy to worry. “Maybe it's a wrong number,” she told Jessie before disappearing into the kitchen.

The phone rang again. This time Jessie waited for the caller to speak first.

“Hello,” a man's voice said. “Is your refrigerator running? Well, you'd better go catch it.”

“Oh, for Pete's sake!” Jessie said when she heard this old joke. “I wish whoever is fooling around on the phone wouldn't waste our time during the lunch hour. This is making us lose real orders.”

Luckily the fake phone calls stopped. Jessie took down two real phone orders and brought the slips back to the kitchen. She was surprised to see Henry standing there, holding three pizza boxes.

“I thought you were still out, Henry,” Jessie said in a concerned voice. “Is something wrong?”

Henry could hardly speak. “This is the third pizza someone ordered. But when I got to the address, no one was there. Three wasted pizzas,” he said. “Now they're all cold.”

“Oh, no,” Jessie said. Like all the Aldens, she hated to waste anything, especially at the restaurant where money was so tight. “Why would someone do this?” she asked.

Before Henry could even take a guess, Violet came into the kitchen looking upset.

“What's the matter now?” Laurie asked when she saw that Violet was about to cry.

“There's a customer out there who left without paying. He ordered a large Pizza Supreme. See.” Violet showed Laurie the order she had written down just fifteen minutes before. “He said he ordered a plain pizza. Even though I'm sure he didn't, I told him I'd get him a plain one if he could wait a bit. But he just left without paying! I couldn't bear to tell Mr. and Mrs. Piccolo.”

“Maybe you did get the order wrong,” Laurie said impatiently. “That's what happened yesterday, too. We can't keep wasting food like this. You'll just have to be more careful. I can't be in two places at once.”

Violet swallowed hard. Piccolos' Pizza was busy, and this was no time to cry. Laurie Baker was so cross sometimes. But what made Violet feel worse was knowing for sure she had written down the right order.

Jessie and Henry comforted their sister. Laurie was too busy banging pans around to pay any more attention to Violet.

“It's okay, Violet,” Henry said. “At least you just lost one pizza. I lost three of them. The Piccolos can't afford to have these things happen too often. They'll lose their business just when they're getting back on their feet.”

No one had the heart to tell the Piccolos what had happened. The children decided they would just be more careful and work harder than ever!

CHAPTER 7

Everything Goes Dark

T
he day began with Mr. Piccolo's cheery whistling downstairs. Upstairs, the Alden children were all asleep, all but Benny, that is. Mr. Piccolo's whistling meant it was time for him to get up.

It was early morning. Benny wanted to get to the kitchen early. That way he could help Mr. and Mrs. Piccolo get the dough started before Laurie Baker got there and scooted him out.

“Tomatoes, potatoes, burritos!” Mr. Piccolo sang out as he took jars and bundles from the big refrigerator. “Pull up a stool, Benny. I need a smart boy like you to measure out some salt, some flour, and some yeast. Do you know what to do?”

“I sure do, Mr. Piccolo,” Benny said with a smile.

“Today my old waiter, Nick Marra, comes back. There's nobody to touch Nick when it comes to waiting on tables,” Mr. Piccolo said. “Unless it's the Aldens, of course!”

“I can't wait to see Nick,” Benny said as he sprinkled yeast over a big bowl of warm water.

A half hour later, Benny noticed Laurie Baker's red hat go by the kitchen window. He jumped off his stool. “You don't have to leave, Benny,” Mrs. Piccolo told him.

Benny disappeared upstairs anyway. He knew Laurie would find some way to get him out of the kitchen. He'd rather leave on his own.

It turned out the Aldens weren't the only ones Laurie Baker didn't want near the kitchen. When the children came downstairs later on, the Piccolos were out doing the day's shopping for the restaurant.

Laurie was in charge, and she was arguing with Nick Marra. This surprised the Aldens. They remembered how easygoing Nick was. Nothing ever bothered this young man. No matter how busy the restaurant got, Nick always had a smile for everyone.

But that day, Nick Marra wasn't smiling. His face was red and his bright blue eyes glittered angrily.

“If you hadn't been away so long, the Piccolos wouldn't have put
me
in charge!” Laurie Baker said to Nick.

“Well, they asked me to come back, so I'm . . . .” Nick stopped talking when he saw all four Aldens staring at him.

Jessie went over to Nick first. “Hi, Nick. Remember us? We're visiting the Piccolos and helping them out for a while.”

The children were disappointed when they didn't get one of Nick's big smiles or even a friendly greeting. He mumbled a hello and that was it. Violet felt especially hurt that he was so unfriendly.

“Boy, she gets everybody mad, even Nick,” Benny whispered when the children slipped out to the dining room.

For the rest of the morning, the Aldens heard cross words between Nick and Laurie. Nick had his way of doing things, and Laurie had hers. But Violet couldn't help wondering if there was something else bothering Nick.

After lunch, the Piccolos went home to rest. The Aldens were busy with the only job Laurie let them do in the kitchen, washing dishes. Right in front of the children, Nick and Laurie started fighting again.

“It would be easier to box up the take-out pizzas in the kitchen,” Nick argued. “They lose heat when you pack them up in the pantry.”

“I can't have everyone underfoot when I'm working in the kitchen,” Laurie told Nick. “It's bad enough with Mr. and Mrs. Piccolo.”

Nick's eyes flashed with anger. “Maybe you don't realize that you're
their
employee, Ms. Baker. They were running this restaurant before you were born.”

“And they were losing money until I showed up to straighten out their business,” Laurie said. “Now I don't need you to tell me what to do!”

The Aldens wanted to disappear. Nick Marra actually
did
disappear! He went right out the front door with a loud bang! Jessie, Violet, and Benny finished up their work silently then headed towards the stairs.

“Is the dining room set up for tonight?” Laurie asked before they got away.

The children nodded then shut the door behind them. They didn't come downstairs again until they heard the Piccolos return right before the dinner hour.

“I hope you children aren't coming down with something,” Mrs. Piccolo said when she came into the dining room. “I'll make you some spaghetti before we get busy. You all look pale and hungry. My special tomato sauce will fix you right up.”

Jessie shook her head. “No thanks, Mrs. Piccolo. We already had something to eat upstairs.”

Mrs. Piccolo looked worried. “Something's not right today. I can tell. Nick wasn't himself. Laurie, well, she works too hard. But it's you children I'm worried about. You're too quiet.”

“We're okay, Mrs. Piccolo,” Jessie told her.

Luckily for the Aldens, some dinner customers came in right then. In a short time, there were so many customers to serve that no one noticed things were not going smoothly at Piccolos' Pizza.

Not once did Laurie look up at any of the Aldens, except when Henry stayed too long in the kitchen waiting for pizzas to deliver.

“Wait in the pantry,” Laurie said. “It's too busy in here.”

Henry did as he was told. He waited for Laurie to bring the pizzas out to the pantry area. Like Nick, Henry couldn't figure out why they had to box up the take-out pizzas away from the kitchen. But Laurie Baker's mind was made up. The kitchen was pretty much off-limits to Nick and the Aldens.

By six-thirty, every table at Piccolos' Pizza was filled. Mr. Piccolo was just coming out of the kitchen with a large sausage pizza when the lights flickered, then went completely dark. The customers let out an “Ah” at the same time. Only the battery-powered exit lights and the candles on the tables lit the dining room. They cast a soft glow over the nervous diners.

The Aldens heard Mr. Piccolo call out in a calm, sure voice: “Relax, everyone. No problem. Just a little blackout. Just sit tight. I have a couple of flashlights and emergency lamps right here. Nothing to worry about.”

Jessie peeked out the restaurant window. She expected to see the whole street in darkness. “It's only the restaurant that lost its power,” she told Henry, who had just come back from his deliveries.

“I know. Everything went black just as I came in the kitchen,” Henry said.

“Where's Laurie?” Jessie asked. “Does she have any light in there?”

“You know, that's the strange thing,” Henry said. “The lights went out just as I got here, but Laurie already had a flashlight in her hand when she came up the cellar stairs.”

Even in the dim light Henry could see his sister's eyes widen. “Why would she need a flashlight down in the cellar unless she knew the power was going to go off?”

“Just what I was thinking,” Henry answered. “But you know what she said? That she heard a noise down there and grabbed a flashlight so she could go and check on it. Then she tried to blame everything on Nick.”

“Nick? I'm pretty sure he was out here when the power went off.” Jessie looked over toward the kitchen and saw Nick setting up the emergency lights. “You know, Henry, now I'm not so sure. We were so busy, I don't really know where he was.”

The customers grew restless. They wanted to go home.

“Listen, everyone,” Mr. Piccolo called out. “My helpers here, they're going to wrap up your pizzas for you to take home. It's take-out night for everyone. Nobody pays.”

A few people clapped. The Aldens couldn't clap. They knew this emergency was going to cost the Piccolos a lot of money.

Mr. Piccolo went on. “On your way out, my good friend Benny Alden here will give you a coupon for free pizza when you come back to the restaurant. All right?”

“All right!” a few adventurous customers cheered.

Nick came out with a stack of pizza boxes. Laurie handed everyone a spatula. Then they all went around to each table boxing up the unfinished pizzas. As promised, Benny handed out free pizza coupons.

Mr. Piccolo sighed when the last person left. “What a night! We'll have to get an electrician out here first thing in the morning to see what the problem is,” he said.