The Missing Dough(49)

“Have you told any of this to the police?” I asked.

She looked scared by the very idea of it. “There’s no way I’m incriminating Kenny like that. Who knows what he would do to me then.”

“But you’re telling us,” Maddy said.

“I’m worried that if Kenny thinks you’ve turned on him, something could happen to the two of you, and I can’t have that on my conscience. I came here to warn you both to be very careful around him.”

“You have to know that we’re going to tell the police everything you just told us, Samantha,” I said. “Chief Hurley has a right to know.”

“Do what you feel that you must, but I’m trusting you to leave my name out of it. Kenny has to be stopped, but I can’t have him realizing that I’m the one who pointed the finger at him. I don’t know what he’d do if he found out.”

“We’ll do what we can to keep your name out of it,” Maddy said. It wasn’t exactly a promise to keep her identity secret, just a pledge that we would try. I could live with that, but Chief Hurley needed to know about Kenny’s wild jealousy.

“You get why we can’t make any promises, don’t you?” I asked.

“I understand. Anyway, if there’s anything I can do, just ask me.”

“Where were you when Grant was murdered?” I asked.

“You’re still asking me for an alibi, even after what I just told you about my ex-husband?”

“The sooner we can cross you off our list of suspects, the better,” I said as reassuringly as I could.

She nodded. “I’m afraid I left the stage after we played a few encores, and then I drove back home, alone. I didn’t see anybody along the way or talk to anyone on my cell phone. Honestly, I don’t have an alibi, which is one of the reasons I reacted the way I did when you asked me for one.”

“I understand,” I said. “It’s a tough question to have to answer.” I didn’t think that Samantha’s reply meant that she was guilty of anything, but it didn’t do anything to clear her name, either.

She put the coffee mug down and then stood up. “Anyway, that’s the only reason I came by. Kenny Stout is a liar and a thief, and I’m afraid that he’s capable of things much worse than what we’ve seen so far. Don’t believe a word he tells you, and above all else, never turn your back on him.”

After Samantha was gone, Maddy turned to me and asked, “What was that visit really all about?”

“Don’t you believe her story?” I asked.

“I don’t know. We both saw a flare-up of Kenny’s temper, but that doesn’t make anything else Samantha just said true. She did look scared when she talked about him, though.”

“I agree. If nothing else, it gives us some food for thought. I wonder if it’s really true that Grant was dating his ex-wife.” I couldn’t imagine the two of them together, but I’d also seen odder matchups in my life.

“It should be easy enough to prove one way or the other,” Maddy said. “I can’t imagine Vivian getting out of jail that fast, can you?”

“How are we going to find out if she is, though? The chief was already suspicious of our connection with her last night. He’s not going to let us interview her while she’s locked up. You can bet on that.”

I grabbed my phone as Maddy asked, “What are you doing?”

“There’s only one thing we can do. We need to use the direct approach.”

“You’re calling the police chief?” Maddy asked as I dialed his cell number.

“There’s no better way to find out the truth,” I said.

“Hurley,” he answered after he picked up.

“Chief, this is Eleanor Swift. Was anyone hurt in the wreck last night?”

“It wasn’t as bad as it looked at first. I’m not saying that both cars weren’t totaled, but miraculously, everybody got out of it alive. Is that really the reason you’re calling me?”

“No. I wanted to go ahead and finish the conversation we were having about Cow Spots last night.”

“I’d like to do that myself,” he said.

“Do you have any interest in coming by the pizzeria before we open today? We can chat then.”

“I have a better idea,” he said as a car horn honked outside.

“What’s that?” I asked, and then I heard the car horn honking again.

“Step out onto your porch and you’ll see,” he said, and then he hung up on me.

“This is getting to be a habit for you,” I said to him when I opened the door and found him standing on the front porch. “You’re not stalking me, are you?”