Page 23 of The Map Home
Inside, Tad shrieked,Yes!at the top of his lungs. To Dakota, he said, “Cool. Is double pepperoni good?”
“What? Are you still scared of vegetables? Can we get some black olives on it too?”
“Fine. I’m parked behind Logan’s shop. I’ll stop in at Gustoso. Meet at my place in half an hour?” Gustoso had been opened in the early 1970s by an Italian couple who’d moved to Wyoming of all places, and their kids and grandkids ran it now. The word meant tasty in Italian, and everything they served was delicious, but especially their pizza.
“How about I drive you to your truck?” Dakota suggested. “If you’re parked by Logan’s, what were you doing over here in the park?”
Tad felt his cheeks heat up but hoped that Dakota wouldn’t notice in the dark. “I’ll tell you while we’re eating. I’m too hungry to think straight right now.” He stared down at the crumpled, mostly frozen Santa costume. “I’ll leave this here for now in case whoever left it decides to come back and get it. But if it’s still here in the morning, I guess I’ll do something with it.”
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Dakota snapped a couple pictures of the pathetic object, the flash briefly illuminating the backstop and home base.
“What are you doing that for?” Tad asked. “It’s not a victim.” He laughed. “Although it looks like one.”
Dakota shrugged. “It is odd, I guess, that’s why. I’m a cop. Therefore, we now at least have some evidence if we need it.”
“You don’t think someone offed Santa?” Tad asked incredulously.
Another shrug. “Nah, but somebody went to the effort to dress up like Santa and then dispose of the costume.”
“Have you always been this suspicious?” Tad teased.
Dakota’s dark eyebrows drew together. “You do know me, right?”
Chuckling and shaking his head, Tad started toward Dakota’s truck.
Dakota stoppedin front of Gustoso and Tad hopped out.
“I’ll park up the block and meet you inside,” Dakota said before Tad shut the door.
“Why?”
“To make sure you don’t ‘forget’ the olives.”
Tad rolled his eyes—even if Dakota had been right. He hated olives. And Dakota, inexplicably, loved them. “Maybe we should get two pizzas. We can catch up onYellowstone.”
“Yellowstone,” Dakota grimaced. “Can we please watch something else? Anything else? What aboutWitcheror something like that? I never caught the last one.”
A car behind Dakota’s truck honked lightly.
“Fine, we’ll argue later.” Tad pushed the truck door shut, and Dakota drove off.
Inside, Gustoso was warm and smelled like pungent tomato sauce, herbs, and fresh dough. The owners had strung up Christmas lights too, giving the place an even more festive feel. Tad’s mouth started to water almost instantly. He was definitely splurging and ordering two pizzas. One of them would have no black olives fouling its flavor.
“Tad Gillespie! How lovely to see you. It’s been sometime since you’ve been in.” The woman who greeted him, Evie, was one of the founder’s four children. She’d taken over from her parents when they’d retired.
“Hi, Evie. How have things been?” Tad asked as he approached the front counter. He was disappointed to see that the dessert case was mostly empty.
“Busy with the tree lighting today,” she said.
“I bet it was.”
“What can we do for you? And are you staying, or taking away?”
“Two large pizzas to go. Double Pepperoni and?—”
“And a sausage, onion, black olives, and spicy salami, please,” Dakota said from behind him.
“To go,” Tad added.
