“It’s almost always my first choice of things to do,” Maddy said. “Sorry about all of that blabbing earlier. I don’t know what got into me.”
“I don’t either,” I said. “I was about to strangle you at one point.”
“Then I’m glad that there was a cage between us,” Maddy said with a grin.
I was about to unlock the front door when I saw that someone had written something on the window glass. In the gaudiest shade of red lipstick I’d ever seen, it said BACK OF in bright letters. It was written in block print, and I doubted there was a single fingerprint anywhere near it that belonged to the person who had written it, but I pulled out my phone and called the chief of police, anyway.
“I can’t leave you two alone for three minutes, can I?” he asked after he drove back to the Slice and got out of his squad car. Being the chief of police gave him the privilege of driving straight onto the brick-paved promenade, and he’d been known to take advantage of it before. “Where is it?” he asked.
I pointed to the door as Maddy said, “We keep wondering what we’re supposed to do with the back of something.”
“You both know they meant to say, ‘Back off,’ ” the chief said. “Whoever was writing it was obviously interrupted before they could finish.”
“Do you think someone saw them doing this?” I asked as I looked across the promenade for any potential witnesses. Unfortunately, the square was deserted.
“I don’t have any idea.” Chief Hurley pulled out his camera from the trunk of his car and took a few pictures. After that, he took some powder and dusted it on the glass.
Nothing showed up at all.
“When was the last time you cleaned this?” he asked.
I shrugged, but Maddy said, “Josh cleaned it right before he left last night. He wanted something to do since it was kind of quiet, and I didn’t see what it could hurt.”
“Probably nothing,” the chief said. “I was hoping for a palm or a fingerprint, though.” The police chief packed up his little kit and then returned it and the camera to the trunk of his car.
“That’s it?” I asked. “That’s all you’re going to do?”
“I’ll have one of my men canvass the area in case someone saw something, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.” He could see that I wasn’t happy with the minimal effort, so he asked me, “Eleanor, what else do you want me to do?”
“Nothing,” I said. “You’re right. I just hate that someone tried to scare us off like that.”
“As threats go, it’s a pretty benign one,” Chief Hurley said. “Here’s some cleaner and a few paper towels you can use to get rid of it. This is pretty powerful stuff, so go wash your hands as soon as you are finished with it.”
“Hang on a second,” Maddy said as she pulled out her cell phone and took a few pictures herself. “Go on. I got it,” she answered.
After I cleaned the window and handed the spray bottle back to the chief, he said, “If there’s nothing else, I’m going to take off.”
“See you later,” I answered. “Thanks for coming back so quickly.”
“That’s my job, to serve and protect. Seriously, though, call me if anything comes up, no matter how trivial it might seem to be to you.”
“We’ll do our best,” I said.
He let that slide as he got into his cruiser and drove away.
“Still feel like making pizza?” I asked Maddy.
“Now more than ever. A little normalcy would be nice right about now.”
Unfortunately, that ended up being the last thing we got.
Chapter 16
“Eleanor, Maddy says she needs you up front,” Greg said as he came into the kitchen a little later. He was working double shifts to make up for his absence lately, and we were glad to have him. “She said to tell you that it’s important.”
“Tell her I’ll be right there,” I said as I slipped the final pizza order onto the conveyor. Peeking in through the other side of the oven, I saw that I had around five minutes before the first sandwich on the conveyor was due to come out.
I walked out to the dining room, wondering what was so urgent, and that was when I saw my sister talking to Rebecca Whitmore.
As I approached them, Maddy said, “Okay, she’s here now. Now go ahead. What was it that you wanted to tell me?”
“I found some money in the hidden drawer, just like you said, and I thought that it was only fair to split it with you,” she said as she started digging around in her purse.
“That’s really nice of you,” Maddy said, “but if it’s a lot of money, you don’t have to give me half.” We both knew that ten thousand was substantial, and it was odd that Rebecca was being so generous.