The Missing Dough(16)

“Eleanor, I’m trying to save Bob’s reputation here, if not his life. I’d consider it a personal favor if you called Art and asked him for his help.”

My sister was more frightened than I’d even imagined if that was the way she truly felt about the situation. “Okay. Give me a second.”

I called a number Art had given me once, and waited for someone to answer. After four rings, a stranger picked up. “I need to speak with Art, please.”

“Sorry, but there’s nobody named Art here,” the man said, and then I remembered that my friend had given me a code to use to get in touch with him. The problem was, I’d completely forgotten what it was.

“Listen, I don’t remember if I’m supposed to say, ‘The fat man walks alone at midnight’ or tell you that birds don’t fly upside down, but find him and tell him that Eleanor needs his help and that he can call me on my cell phone.”

I hung up, and Maddy looked oddly at me. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“You just told me that I should call him,” I reminded her.

“Not that. It’s just that you chewed out someone who might be a very bad man in his own right.”

I hadn’t even considered that. I was about to answer when my cell phone rang.

After I answered it, Art asked, “Eleanor, are you all right?”

“I am, but I need a favor. But before I forget, could you apologize to the man I just spoke to? I’m sorry about the way I treated him on the telephone.”

Art chuckled. “It’s not necessary.”

“It is to me.”

Art paused a moment and then said, “Very well, but I’m not sure if he’s more afraid of you or of me right now. So, what is this favor? Ask, and it’s yours.”

“Wow, I’m not sure I want a blank check like that. I’m at the Clean Break Dry Cleaner in Cow Spots. A woman named Vivian owns it, and I need her alibi for a murder last night. The only problem is that she won’t give it to me, and she claims that she’s under someone’s protection. Can you help? You know that I wouldn’t ordinarily ask, but this is important.”

“I assumed that it was about Grant Whitmore when I heard that you had called,” he said. “Tell your sister I’m sorry for her loss.”

“I will,” I said. “Do I even need to ask how you heard about it so quickly?”

“Not a great deal goes on in Timber Ridge that I’m not aware of,” Art said. “I don’t know this Vivian directly. Let me make a few phone calls. How long will you be there?”

“We can wait an hour before we have to leave,” I said after glancing at my watch.

“Oh, it won’t take that long,” he said and then hung up.

“Is he going to help us?” Maddy asked.

“He asked us to wait here. Oh yeah. He also told me to tell you that he was sorry to hear about Grant.”

“That’s nice of him,” Maddy said.

We found a bench near the front of the dry cleaner, in plain view of the picture window, and Maddy and I waited for Art’s return call. Vivian pretended to ignore us, but it was hard to do, since we didn’t see a single customer come into the store while we waited. Was the dry cleaner all it seemed to be, or could it be a front for something else? Honestly, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know.

Fourteen minutes after my call to Art, Vivian came out of the dry cleaner and walked toward us. There was a contrite expression on her face, and I didn’t have to guess what was motivating her visit to us. Her words just confirmed my suspicion that Art had already acted on our behalf.

“I’m sorry if I was rude before,” Vivian said. “I was with a married man named Jack Timbold last night here in town. He’ll confirm that we were together if you ask him. Again, I’m sorry for my behavior.”

After she went back into her business, my telephone rang. “I trust that was satisfactory,” Art said.

“Can we believe her?” I asked.

“There’s no doubt in my mind. Lying is not something she would even consider, given the circumstances.”

“Then it’s perfect. Thank you for acting so quickly. I’m really sorry to bother you with this.”

“Eleanor, I am so deeply in your debt that there’s nothing you can’t ask of me.”

I didn’t have a chance to respond to that before he hung up.

“So, do we believe her?” Maddy asked.

“I’m inclined to, unless we learn something otherwise. I have a feeling that Vivian would have a lot more of a problem lying to us, with Art backing us, than she ever would to the police. For now, we can mark her name off our list.”