“No, this one’s a pure coincidence. I was two streets over when you called, so it was easy enough to swing by here.”
“Did you happen to see Samantha Stout as you were driving up?”
“No. What was she doing here?” he asked, clearly surprised by her presence in my neighborhood. “Was it about the murder?”
“So, you know about her connection to the case, then,” Maddy said.
“It’s immaterial what I know. What have you two been able to find out?”
“She was dating Grant a few months back, but she broke up with him when she lost money in an investment he recommended to her that went bad,” I said.
The chief whistled softly as he shook his head. “It doesn’t take you two long to get right down to the bone, does it?”
“This murder is tied to us in too many ways,” I said. “You knew we’d be digging into it.”
“Unofficially, of course I did, but the longer I could ignore your meddling, the better it was for both of us. There’s no way around that now, though. Why exactly did Samantha Stout come by here this morning?”
“She wanted to warn us that her ex-husband had a jealous streak even after they separated, and when Grant came by the stage the night he was murdered, evidently things got a little heated between the three of them.”
“But he was dating his ex-wife, Vivian Wright, up until the day he died,” the chief said stubbornly. “Two sources I checked with confirmed it.”
“If you don’t believe us, just ask her yourself. She’s under your guard still, right?”
He looked angry at the suggestion. “Not anymore. Somebody bailed her out of jail an hour ago.”
“Wow, that was fast. How much was her bail set at?” Maddy asked.
“Two hundred thousand dollars, and her boss put it all up in cash,” he said.
“No doubt it was from the money he made running a book out of the dry cleaner,” Maddy said.
“It goes quite a bit deeper than that. Gambling was just the first bit we’ve found so far. Who knows how deep it goes?”
I thought about Art Young and the fact that he was in some kind of trouble. He might accept that as a cost of doing business, but it would be hard to lose my friend over a dark rivalry that I knew nothing about.
The police chief asked, “Did Samantha happen to give you an alibi for the time that Grant was murdered?”
“She claimed that she left the stage, got into her car, and drove straight home. Nobody saw her, and she didn’t take any cell phone calls, either,” I said.
“So then that means that she’s not afraid to throw her ex-husband under the bus,” Chief Hurley said.
“Maddy and I couldn’t tell if she was acting or not, but if she was, she was doing a bang-up job of it. I had the feeling that she was honestly frightened of him when she was here talking about him,” I said.
“There could be a great many things that she’s afraid of right now,” he said. “I need to speak with her, and her ex, as well. Any idea where he might be hiding?”
“I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a clue,” I admitted, glad that I could answer him truthfully.
“Well, if you see him before I do, tell him that I’m looking for him.” Chief Hurley started down the steps but turned to face us before he left. “I’d ask you both to stop digging into this murder, but I hate wasting my breath. If you get in over your head, call me. I don’t care what time of day or night it is. Do we understand each other?”
“We do,” I said.
As he neared his squad car, I called out, “It’s nice to know that you care about us, Chief.”
“Well,” he said with a slight grin, “Josh loves working at the Slice, and I don’t want him to have to go through hunting for another job anytime soon.”
Once he was gone, I turned to Maddy. “He likes us. I don’t care how much he protests otherwise.”
“And who can blame him? We’re very likable, as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
I glanced at my watch. “We have an hour and a half before we need to go to the Slice. Any ideas about what we might do with our time?”
“I was hoping you’d ask,” Maddy said. “As a matter of fact, I do have something in mind at that.”
Chapter 12
“So, where exactly am I driving?” I asked my sister as we pulled out of my driveway. “Are we going back to Cow Spots to do some more digging?”
“It does seem as though everyone we’re interested in talking to lives there,” Maddy agreed. “But what I’d really like to do is get another look at Grant’s basement apartment at his mother’s house.”