Killer Crust Read Online Free PDF Page A

us.”
    “Don’t kid yourself, Maddy,” I said. “Knowing them, they’re probably skiing in the mountains right now. Their school is on break for the next ten days, and I refuse to believe that they aren’t off somewhere taking full advantage of it.”
    “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said as she took another sip. “How about the other two, though? It’s a shame they’re missing this.”
    “Believe it or not, David said something about them having dinner together before they join us here later,” I said. “I can’t believe Luigi would exclude them, even for this portion of the evening. It’s not really fair.”
    “And that surprises you in what way, exactly?” She glanced around the room, which was finally starting to fill up, and then she asked me, “Where is our grinning host, anyway? You’d think that after shelling out all of this money, he’d at least be on hand to bask in the glory of it all.”
    I looked around the room and saw three other sets of people that had to be our fellow contestants, though no group had strayed enough to speak to another. It was amazing how eight people just disappeared in the space designed to hold about three times that. “Maybe he’s off somewhere trying to figure out a way to cheat us all out of the grand prize,” I said with a smile.
    I was just joking, but Maddy took it seriously.
    “If it happens, let me just go on the record right now to say that it wouldn’t surprise me one bit,” my sister said. She was interrupted from adding anything more by a nice-looking couple as they finally got up the nerve to approach us.
    “Excuse me, but aren’t you Eleanor Swift?” the woman asked, extending her hand. She was tall, nearly six feet, and willowy, with long, straight blond hair and hazel eyes.
    “I am,” I said. “I’m sorry, but if we ever met, I don’t remember you.”
    She laughed gently, a sound that reminded me of wind chimes in a summer breeze. “There’s no reason in the world that you should. I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your pizza.”
    I smiled at her and admitted, “Well, I can’t hear that enough, so I appreciate your compliment. Are you one of the competitors?”
    “We are,” the man with her said as he stepped forward. “We’re the Clarkes. I’m Jeff, and this is Sandy. It’s no secret why you’re in the competition. I agree with my wife. Your pizza is delicious.” Jeff was several years older than his wife, if my guess was right. He was rather nice looking, with gray coming in at his temples, and piercing blue eyes.
    “You must be here for a good reason as well,” I said.
    Jeff grinned at his wife. “Isn’t that odd? Why is it that neither one of us introduced our pizzeria?”
    Sandy shrugged good-naturedly. “I’ve long given up on trying to figure out some of the things we do.” She turned back to me and added, “We own the Grinning Cat Pizzeria in downtown Asheville.”
    “Really? I’ve been there,” I said, suddenly excited. “I love your pizza, and your restaurant, and I’m not just saying that.” I turned to my sister and said, “I told you we should have introduced ourselves to the owners when we were there.” Maddy and I had taken a day trip to Asheville a few months before to shop for Christmas presents, and while we’d been in town, we’d stopped in and had the most delicious pizza for lunch, something that was our normal habit while visiting other cities and towns.
    “It’s true. We were jealous,” Maddy said after she introduced herself. “I don’t know which I loved more, your sauce or your brightly decorated pizzeria. It’s really eclectic, isn’t it?”
    Sandy laughed at the observation. “Most places we’d stick out like a sore thumb, but since we’re in Asheville, we fit right in. One of our customers was wearing a T-shirt the other day that sums our town up perfectly. It said, ‘If you’re too weird for Asheville, you must just be too weird.’ The city isn’t all