Who had we missed? Was there someone else in Grant’s life we hadn’t uncovered yet? And then I knew. Bob Lemon was on it, and most likely, David had a mention as well. I was about to defend them both yet again, but I decided that for the moment, it would be in my best interests to keep getting along with our chief of police.
“No, I have a hunch that I already know.”
“That’s that, then,” Chief Hurley said when he realized that I wasn’t going to add anything else to the conversation. Did he look a little disappointed by my reticence? Perhaps he’d been hoping I’d complain enough that he’d be justified in cutting me out of the loop. If that was the plan, it was going to fail miserably.
After he was gone, Maddy came back into the kitchen in ten seconds. “Tell me everything.”
“Don’t you have customers out there?”
She shrugged. “Greg’s got things under control. Now spill.”
“Okay, but it’s going to be fast and dirty.”
After I quickly brought her up to speed about my conversation with the chief of police, my sister nodded. “It’s mostly what we expected, isn’t it?”
“All except the fact that Bernie Maine is on the loose with at least two weapons, and maybe more.”
Maddy bit her lower lip. “There’s that, all right. Do you have any idea what we should do during our lunch break?”
“To be honest with you, I’d just as soon stay here, make something fattening to eat, and try to forget about this entire mess for an hour. I don’t know who else to talk to at this point, or what I could say to them if I could come up with a name.”
“You’re not getting discouraged investigating Grant’s murder already, are you?” Maddy asked.
“Maybe a little bit, but you know that you don’t have to worry about me quitting on you. I’m not giving up until we find the killer. I guess I’d just like a little break from it all, though.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll have our own little party here at the Slice,” Maddy said with a smile. “We can even invite Greg to stay behind with us and make it a real feast. If you’d like, I can call Bob and David, as well.”
“Are you sure that you don’t mind that we’re not digging during every free second we have?” I asked. It had to be a sacrifice giving up even a minute of time that we could spend investigating, and I knew it couldn’t be easy on her.
“Absolutely. Who knows? Maybe a bit of a break will give us a fresh perspective, and we can look at all of this a little clearer than we’re seeing it right now.”
“I appreciate that.” I hugged Maddy. “Thanks, little sister.”
“You’re very welcome, big sister,” she said in return.
Chapter 14
“That was wonderful,” I said to Maddy just after we kicked the men in our lives out the front door and locked it again.
“The food or the company?” she asked.
“Both,” I replied.
Bob and David had happily come over to the Slice to spend some time with us, though Greg had excused himself, saying that he had errands to run. I thought it might be because he didn’t want to be the fifth wheel, and I wondered if there were any young women he was interested in at the college. It was probably hard on him, knowing that his best friend, Josh, had a new girl in his life, and I was afraid that Greg might be lonely. If I thought hard enough about it, I might just be able to . . . I stopped myself right there. I’d butted into the poor young man’s life enough in the past. There was no need for me to keep at it. He was perfectly capable of getting a girlfriend without my meddling.
“Those two can be a load of fun when they want to, can’t they?” Maddy asked as we started cleaning up our plates and glasses. “I’m thrilled about how small we kept the talk. Did you notice that neither one of them asked us about our investigation?”
“It was just what I needed. Thank you for not bringing it up, either.”
“Hey, I needed a bit of a break just as much as you did.” As we finished cleaning off our table, Greg knocked on the front door.
After Maddy let him in, he surveyed the dining room. “You must have done a good job, because I don’t see any signs of it myself.”
“Signs of what?” Maddy asked him.
“The wild party that you two just hosted,” he said with a grin.
“Oh, we’ve learned to keep that to a minimum,” I said.
“It must be one of the benefits of getting older,” Greg replied with a smile.
“Watch it, buster,” Maddy said as she flipped her wash towel at him. “You’ll be our age before you know it.”