The Missing Dough(56)

“I have to admit that it makes more sense than the blackmail angle we came up with,” I agreed.

Rebecca looked confused by our conversation. “Would one of you mind telling me what you two are talking about?”

“We heard that Grant withdrew a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash on the day that he died,” I explained. “You have every reason to be upset. It’s a great deal of money to lose.”

“It wasn’t lost, it was stolen, and you both know it.” Rebecca paused a second and then said, “Wait one second. How much did you say he took out of his account?”

“He cleaned it out completely. From what we’ve heard, he got one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash,” I repeated for her.

“You’ve got to be mistaken,” Rebecca said. “My brother never would have done that to me.”

“Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but it looks like you’re wrong about that. If anybody stole anything from your mother’s estate, my guess is that it was Grant,” Maddy said.

“Don’t you talk about my brother that way!” Rebecca said as she tried to launch herself at Maddy.

Fortunately, I was close enough to stop her. “Do you want me to call the police chief, or are you going to calm down and get a hold of yourself so we can figure this out?”

“I’m okay,” she said after a full minute of deep breathing and, apparently, even deeper thought. “Could it be true? Would Grant really steal from our own mother?”

“Technically, it was most likely from her estate,” Maddy said. “Do you have any idea when your mom’s accounts were cleaned out?”

“No. I never thought to check,” she admitted.

“Call the bank and see,” Maddy said.

After a brief conversation, Rebecca hung up her cell phone. “The money in Mom’s accounts was transferred the day after she died.”

“Where did it end up?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“In Grant’s private account.”

“How could he do that legally?” I asked.

“Apparently, he and Mom had a joint account. He had every right to do it, but I know that not a dime of that money was his.”

“You’re mad at the wrong person,” I said. “Maddy didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I’m not so sure,” Rebecca said, clearly searching for some way to absolve her brother of guilt. “Grant never would have been able to do it on his own. You were in on it together from the start, weren’t you? Is that why you killed him? For the cash? Where’s my money, Maddy? It’s rightfully mine.”

“Rebecca, you have completely lost your mind,” my sister said rather calmly, given the situation and the wild accusations flying around the room.

“Did I lose my mind when I looked out my window this morning and saw you drive by my mother’s house? Do you care to deny that, too?”

So, we had been caught, after all. “That was my fault,” I said quickly, before Maddy could say anything.

Rebecca looked at me with an acid glare. “Why am I not surprised that you’re in on it, too?”

“There are no conspiracies here,” I said. The only excuse for our presence that I could come up with was the one I’d used earlier with the chief of police in Cow Spots. “I lost an earring, and I was trying to find it.”

“At my mother’s house? Were you the ones there snooping yesterday?”

Now I was just managing to dig us a hole that was getting deeper by the second. “Not there. At Bernie Maine’s business. He was your brother’s business partner, but then you knew that already, didn’t you?”

“So what? I know that Bernie wouldn’t steal from me.”

Maddy butted in. “From what we’ve heard, he would have tried to steal the president’s pants while he was still wearing them. What makes you so special? Have you ever considered the possibility that he’s the one who killed your brother and stole all that money?”

“That’s pretty cagey, trying to blame someone else for something you probably did yourselves,” she said.

“I don’t care how it sounds to you. All I know is that you’re going to have to leave again. Rebecca, how many times am I going to have to throw you out of my restaurant before you get the hint that you’re not welcome here, at least not as long as you continue to accuse us of things we didn’t do?”

Rebecca calmed down enough to say, “If you were headed to Cow Spots looking for your earring at Bernie’s office, that still doesn’t explain why you were at my mother’s house.”