The Missing Dough(40)

Maddy was clearly not ready to leave, but I put my arm in hers and started walking her back down the street, toward the welcome center.

“Why did you let him off so easily?” Maddy asked me once we were far enough down the block.

“Do you honestly believe that fighting with our chief of police was going to get us anywhere? We have to choose our battles, Maddy. This one was already lost, so there was no need pushing it any harder.”

“But now we’ll never hear Maine’s alibi,” my sister protested.

“I have a feeling we’ll get it sooner than you think,” I said.

“Why would the chief loosen up about that?”

“He knows we gave him a good tip,” I said as we got into the car and started back to Timber Ridge. “There’s a good chance that he’ll reciprocate, but if we’d badgered him anymore, he wouldn’t have told us a thing.”

“How do you know him so well?” Maddy asked.

“Hey, we dated a long, long time ago, remember?”

“And you don’t think he’s changed any since high school?”

“Oh, he’s changed in more ways than I could count, but I still believe that the Kevin Hurley I used to know is still buried somewhere under that uniform.”

“You’re not getting romantic feelings about him again, are you?” Maddy asked with a suspicious expression on her face.

I laughed so hard that I nearly drove off the road. “No way, no thanks. I’ve got a man in my life these days, remember?”

“I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t going soft on me,” Maddy said.

“You don’t have a thing to worry about there.”

“That’s what I like to hear. What are we going to do next?”

I glanced at the clock on the dashboard and saw that it was time to go back to our pizzeria. “We’re doing exactly what the chief of police suggested. We’re heading back to the Slice and opening up for our evening crowd.”

“If I’m going to be honest about it, sometimes I resent that place getting in the way of our investigations,” Maddy said.

“Just remember, without A Slice of Delight, we’d have no way of supporting ourselves. It’s vital that we keep the business going as strong as we can manage.”

“You’ve got a point,” Maddy said. “But we still have more leads to follow. We haven’t even finished going through the things we found in Grant’s room.”

“I know that, and don’t forget, we still need to see exactly what was going on in her life when Sharon left you a third of everything she owned.”

“I don’t even want to think about that,” Maddy said.

“You might not want to at this moment, but sooner rather than later, you’re going to have to do just that.”





Chapter 10

“We’ve got company,” Maddy said when she came back into the kitchen a few hours after we’d returned from Cow Spots. We were in a bit of a lull at the moment, after a pretty good run of customers, and I’d been using the time to give my workstation a good scrub. Maddy liked to save her cleaning for the end of her shift when she worked the kitchen area, but I was a firm believer in keeping the place as clean as I could at all times.

“It’s not Bernie Maine, is it?” I asked as I put down my rag, washed my hands, and slid a fresh calzone onto a plate for her to deliver. Between our customers and my cleaning, I hadn’t had much of a chance to even think about Grant Whitmore’s murder.

“Not even close,” she said with a grin. She turned around and said, “Gentlemen, you can come on back now.”

I was surprised when Bob and David walked in together. After glancing at the clock, I asked, “What are you two doing here this time of day? Shouldn’t you both be working?”

Bob looked at David and asked, “Is she always this welcoming?”

“Well, to be fair, I don’t usually just show up unannounced, so I couldn’t say for sure,” he replied and then winked at me. “If you want any more information than that, you’re going to have to ask the lady yourself.”

“Coward,” Bob said with a slight smile.

“Nobody’s answered my questions yet,” I said.

“In all seriousness,” Bob said, “we decided to cut out early to see if we could help you and Maddy with your investigation. After all, we both have a stake in this, too, me more than anyone else.”

I thought about it and then looked at Maddy. “I’m not sure what I think about it, so I’m going to leave it up to you. It’s your call, Sis.”

“Why are you shoving the decision on me?”