“Don’t you think that might be kind of risky?” I asked. “We almost got caught the last time we snooped around there.”
“What are the odds that Rebecca is going to be there?”
“I’d say that it’s a coin toss, if I had to guess.”
She brightened at that. “Those are pretty good odds. We’ll have some time to snoop if we’re lucky.”
“And if we aren’t?” I asked.
“We can always try to track Vivian down, now that she’s out on bail,” she answered.
“I think the odds of her being back at Clean Break are close to nothing.”
“Then we’ll try somewhere else if that doesn’t pan out. I wonder how hard it would be to break into Bernie Maine’s place?”
I had to laugh at the question. “That’s just rhetorical, right?”
She just grinned at me, and I drove to Sharon Whitmore’s house to see what else we could find there.
Rebecca’s car was parked out front, so that was a dead end for us, at least for the moment. She had a rosebush in a wheelbarrow sitting in the yard, as well as some bagged mulch. “She’s planting roses,” I said as I drove on past her place. At least she wasn’t outside in the yard working when we drove by. I didn’t have the slightest idea how we would have explained our presence there, but knowing Maddy, I was sure that my sister would have come up with something just plausible enough to be accepted.
“Should we go to the dry cleaner now?” Maddy asked.
“You’re the brains of the operation. I’m just your chauffeur.”
“We both know that’s a big fat lie,” she answered.
I didn’t respond and instead just kept driving.
As I’d suspected, the dry cleaner was closed as well.
“That just leaves Bernie Maine’s place,” Maddy said as I pulled into the parking lot.
“You weren’t serious about breaking in, were you?” I asked.
“I’m fresh out of ideas, but if you have any good ones yourself, I’m open to suggestions.”
I thought about it, and then I realized that she was probably right. I wasn’t all that happy about breaking and entering again somewhere else, but what choice did we have? The longer it took to solve Grant’s murder, the worse it would look for every suspect, including Bob, and to a lesser extent, the rest of us.
“Should I park at the welcome center again?” I asked.
“No, let’s pull up behind his office. That way no one knows that we’re here.”
“I’d like to keep it that way if we could,” I said.
“You don’t have to worry about me, Eleanor. I have no desire to be arrested, either,” she said.
“Well, it’s good that we agree on something.”
The back door of the office was locked, and on the rare chance that he had hidden a key somewhere else, we checked flowerpots, rocks that looked fake, and even under the doormat.
There was no hidden key, though, at least not one that we could find.
Maddy had leaned over to pick up a big rock when I said, “Hey, I already checked under there.”
“The more I think about it, the more this looks like a key to me. After all, what does it do but let people in where they want to go?”
“Well, it keeps people like us out,” I suggested, taking the rock from her hand. “Smashing a window would attract too much attention.”
Maddy grinned. “That’s your objection? You’ve come a long way, Sis. I can remember a time when you’d never bend a rule, let alone break it.”
“I admit that I saw the world more as black and white when I was younger, but I’m still not willing to move the line that far back.”
“Then this morning has all been for nothing,” Maddy said.
“I don’t know about that.” From where I stood, I could see Bernie Maine’s recycling bin, and best of all, it was full of all kinds of discarded papers. “I wonder what we might be able to find in there if we look hard enough.”
“Are you willing to dump all of this into the back of your car, because we don’t have any trash bags on us,” she said.
“Let’s just take the recycling bin. We can always bring it back later, after we’re finished with it.”
“I was right with you until you suggested we return it,” Maddy said with a smile.
“I can live with that. I’ll get the car door, and you grab the bin.”
After it was securely in back, Maddy and I drove out of the driveway.
At least we tried to, but it was kind of tough when Chief Hudson’s cruiser was blocking our escape.
Evidently, our presence hadn’t gone unnoticed after all.