The Missing Dough(33)

“So, not so much on the restraint part.”

“Not so much,” she agreed. “That pizza looks great. Did they order an extra-large? I thought they asked for a medium.”

“No, but I went ahead and made one big enough for all of us. It might be easier to get them to open up if we all share a meal together.”

“Did you ask them about it first?” Maddy asked me, probably a little louder than she’d intended.

“Ask us what?” Samantha asked. “Is that for us? If it is, it’s way too big.”

I walked to the table and put the pizza down in the middle. “This is the only lunch break we get, so we were kind of hoping that we could all eat together. It’s on the house if you’re willing to share it with us.”

“Sold,” Kenny said.

“Is that okay with you, too, Samantha?”

“Of course it is,” she said.

Maddy grabbed us a couple of drinks and refilled theirs, and we sat down to have a bite to eat and to talk a little about murder.

“This is delicious even without the beer,” Kenny said after he took his first bite.

“Because it’s free, or you really think it’s good?” Samantha asked him.

“Can’t it be a little bit of both?” he asked, and then he took another bite.

I tried some, too, and he was right. My garbage pizzas were tasty, and it didn’t hurt that I was starving. Most days I was fine making food for everyone else, but today was one of the times where I was tempted to nibble on everything I made, a strict no-no for a pizza chef.

As we ate, I decided to dive in and start the conversation. “So, what did you want to see us about?”

“We understand you two are nosing around into Grant’s murder,” Kenny said.

“Can you possibly be a little more tactful than that?” Samantha asked.

“We prefer to think of ourselves as amateur sleuths,” Maddy said, “but yes, we’re investigating his murder. As a matter of fact, if you hadn’t walked into the Slice this afternoon, we were going to come looking for you.”

“Why would you want to see us?” Samantha asked, watching us both closely. “We knew Grant, but neither one of us had anything to do with his murder. We were all friends.”

“You were more than that,” I said.

Kenny looked at Samantha with disdain. “I told you they knew you were sleeping with the guy. So much for beating around the bush.”

It was all I could do not to show my surprise about a physical relationship between Samantha and Maddy’s ex-husband. My sister didn’t even flinch, and she had a lot more reason to react to the news than I did.

“Who told you about us?” Samantha asked, not bothering to try to deny it.

“It wasn’t all that hard to figure out,” I said quickly before Maddy could comment. “We saw the way you were looking at Grant last night during your performance, and if there was any doubt in our minds, Kenny’s reaction onstage sealed it for us.”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Samantha said. “Grant and I did have a fling, but our marriage was already over by the time it started. Isn’t that right, Kenny?”

“So you say,” her ex answered. It was clear that Kenny wasn’t all that convinced, and neither was I.

“I won’t keep defending my behavior, to you or anyone else,” Samantha said. “It was a short, stupid thing between us, and when it ended, Grant and I both walked away without any hurt feelings or regrets.”

“I’m willing to bet you were pretty upset about losing your investment, though,” Maddy said to Samantha.

“You know about that, too?” she asked, clearly surprised by our knowledge. “You two really are as good as we heard you were.”

“How much did you lose?” I asked her.

“It wasn’t all that bad. In the end, it totaled less than ten thousand dollars,” she admitted.

I whistled. That had to be a good chunk of her savings if her prime source of income was playing at street fairs. “How much less?”

“Not much,” Kenny said. “It was all from the divorce settlement Samantha got from me, so in a way, he ripped both of us off when he talked her into making that deal.”

“But everyone lost money with Orion, didn’t they?” Maddy said.

“Your sources aren’t as good as you might think. Sure, we all lost out on paper, but I just found out that Grant discovered a way to pull most of the money out of the investment before Bernie found out and everything collapsed. He had no choice but to shut it all down. Grant had cash, and I wanted my share back. It’s the reason we wanted to talk to him last night after our show,” Samantha said.