The Missing Dough (A Pizza Lovers Mystery) Read online

  “Me?” I asked, shocked by the idea. “Why would anyone feel threatened by me?”

  “I’m afraid that our relationship has been noticed in particular circles. For the time being, we can’t be seen together, and I’m not at all sure that it’s safe for us to communicate in any way. We are going to have an apparent rift in our friendship, at least as far as the world is concerned. It pains me to do this, but it’s a necessary step for your safety.”

  “You’re not trying to ditch me, are you?” I asked. “I have plenty of friends, but I’m not in the mood to lose any of them, especially you.”

  “Your loyalty is without reproach,” he said. “This is just something that we have to do. Maddy cannot know, nor your boyfriend or her fiancé. It must be a complete break if it’s going to work at all. Will you do this, no matter how distasteful it seems, as a favor to me?”

  “Fine, but you should know something. I care more about you than this murder investigation. If I’d had any idea I was getting you in hot water, I never would have asked for your help.”

  “You can always feel free to request whatever you need from me,” Art said. “I’m just not certain that I can always acquiesce.”

  “Got it.” I noticed that we were back in front of the Slice, and I started to get out. “Call me as soon as you can,” I said.

  “Good-bye, Eleanor,” he said, and his driver quickly drove away.

  I walked back into the Slice and realized that I could find a way to tell Maddy what was happening without coming right out and saying it definitively. Art’s tone had spooked me, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it, even if it was only to myself.

  “What did he have to say?” Maddy asked me the second I neared the door. “Did he have another clue for us about Vivian?”

  “We’re not going to see each other anymore,” I said. The sadness I felt as I said it, even if it was only temporary, was real enough. Art Young and I didn’t exactly have any standing times or dates when we got together, and I never knew when I was going to see him, but knowing for sure that I wasn’t going to talk to him for the foreseeable future was pretty unpleasant.

  “What happened?” Maddy asked, the concern clear in her voice.

  “I can’t talk about it,” I replied, which was true enough. “Apparently, Vivian has something to do with it, and Art warned me that approaching her again anytime soon would be dangerous.”

  “Dangerous? Seriously?”

  “If you’d heard his warning, you wouldn’t doubt it for one second.”

  “So, what do we do?” Maddy asked. “She’s not in the clear, by any means. I don’t care if the police believe her or not.”

  “For now, we put her on the back burner,” I said. “We’ve got plenty of other folks to investigate at the moment.”

  “Like who?” Maddy asked.

  “Well, we can track down that man Grant was talking to in the shadows last night, and we can also find out where the people in that band live. That gives us three right off the bat, and who knows where all of that might lead?”

  “I don’t like this,” Maddy said.

  “Which part of it? The fact that we have only three suspects, or that somebody might be coming after us because of what we’ve done?”

  “None of that, actually. We both know that we’ve started with less in the past, and threats have never bothered us,” she said. “I just can’t imagine Art Young dumping you like that. You’ve stood by him in the past when everyone else in town thought you were crazy. It just doesn’t make sense.”

  “Maddy, I’ve told you all that I can right now. Let’s just drop it, okay?”

  “Sure, Sis. That’s fine with me, if it’s what you really want.”

  “It is,” I said, thinking about how stern Art had been when we’d spoken. “What do you say we finish our pizza prep for the day and get on with our lives?”

  “That sounds good to me,” she said. “What about the rest of the things we found at Grant’s, though? We’re still going to dig into those, aren’t we?”

  “You bet we are,” I said. “I’m more determined than ever to find out who killed your ex-husband, no matter what it takes.”

  After the dough was finished and put in the fridge, Maddy had the veggies and meat chopped up for the day’s customers. I was cleaning off the counter when Maddy brought out the papers we’d removed from Grant’s place.

  “Where should I spread these out?” she asked.

  “Bring that card table out from my office,” I suggested. “It should be big enough for what we need, and I don’t really like working at our prep station.”

  “I can do that,” she said. “Here. Hold these while I go grab it.”

  She shoved the papers into my hands and got the table out from storage. There was just enough room for it in our kitchen, and after she was finished setting the table up, I handed her half the stack as I glanced at the clock.

  “Okay, we’ve got less than twenty minutes, so we’ll have to do a quick sort first,” I said.

  “I’m fine with that. Let’s put the useless stuff in a pile over here, and we’ll keep the goodies here. Let’s get started.”

  The first things I pulled out of my pile were the phone numbers she’d retrieved from the clothes hanging in the closet. “Should we just call these and see who answers?”

  “We could, but then they’ll know what we’re up to. Let me call Josh first. I’ve got an idea.”

  Josh Hurley was one of our employees and the chief of police’s son. I knew that his family wasn’t all that thrilled with him working at the Slice for a host of reasons, but I was glad to have him on my staff. He was working part-time during his first year of college, while my other part-timer was Greg Hatcher. He worked at the Slice as well, but he didn’t have to. In fact, he had more money than I did, but he loved the place almost as much as Maddy and I did, and we were both grateful to have him. Josh was our resident computer guy these days, and he rarely showed up for his shifts without some kind of computer in his backpack.

  “Why don’t I call him,” I said as Maddy started to dial his number.

  “That’s fine with me,” she said as she put her phone away. “You do that, and I’ll keep digging.” Ordinarily, I knew that she wouldn’t give in that easily, but there were other things to examine, and my sister’s sense of curiosity was probably as bad as mine.

  “Josh, it’s Eleanor,” I said after he picked up.

  “Hey, Eleanor,” he answered sleepily. “Was I supposed to work the lunch shift today? I must have slept in.”

  “No, you aren’t scheduled until tonight. I need a favor, though.”

  “Anything for you,” he said, coming more and more awake.

  “I need you to check out some telephone numbers for me with that magic computer of yours.”

  “I keep telling you, it’s not the computer. It’s the user.”

  “Fine. Have it your way. Are you ready?”

  “Give me one second. I need to turn everything on first.” As we waited, he asked, “What’s this about, anyway?”

  “I’m just trying to track some things down,” I said. I wasn’t being vague because Kevin was his father. I hated dragging the two guys I worked with into my investigations. Sometimes it couldn’t be helped, but I never used them unless I had no other choice.

  “Gotcha. Mind my own business,” he said with a goofy little laugh.

  “That’s about it,” I said, smiling in return, though he couldn’t see it.

  “Okay, fire away.”

  “Let’s do these one at a time.”

  I gave him the first number on the matchbook, and a few seconds later, he said, “That’s Beth Anne Osler. She lives at Two-Thirty-One West Avenue in Higgins Bottom. Do you need more info about her? I can do a search in no time at all.”

  “I’m not sure exactly how much detail I need,” I said.

  “Here it is, anyway. Man, this chick should learn how to set the privacy settings on Facebook. She looks like a real party
girl, and when she’s not carousing around, she works at the power company in the collections department.”

  “That’s great,” I said as I put the matchbook aside.

  “I don’t know. It’s kind of a crazy lifestyle, if you ask me. You should see some of the pictures she has posted on her cube. Should I forward them to you?”

  “No thanks. That won’t be necessary.”

  “Okay, who’s next on your list?” he asked.

  We quickly determined that the next two numbers belonged to women who were just as vapid as Beth Anne appeared to be, and when I got to the last one, I was expecting more of the same.

  “Eleanor, this is a dude,” he said after he tracked down the number.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Bernie Maine. It looks like a new number, too. How is this guy even a part of something that has those three women in it? Forget it. Don’t answer that. I don’t want to get you into trouble with my dad.”

  “What can you tell me about Bernie?”

  “This one’s going to be a little harder,” he said. “There’s no Facebook page, and it looks like old Bernie likes to keep his secrets.”

  “It’s okay if you can’t find anything,” I said.

  “Hey, slow down, Boss. I didn’t say that I couldn’t do it. It’s just going to take a minute or two longer, that’s all.” As he typed more on his keyboard, he began to read the information out loud as he found it. Josh was so involved in what he was doing that I doubted he even realized that he was doing it. “He owns at least two businesses. There’s no love life to speak of that I can see. Okay, here’s something new. He just shut one of his businesses down completely.”

  “Can you tell me more about that one?”

  “You’ve got it.” Twenty seconds later he said, “It was called Orion Enterprises. They speculated in land development, but it looks like they never were very successful at it. It doesn’t surprise me. In my management class, the prof told us that ninety percent of all small businesses fail in the first year. This one looked doomed from the start.”

  “How can you possibly know that?” I asked, marveling at just how much information was out there about all of us if you had a wizard like Josh searching. Was there any real privacy anymore?

  “A quick glance at the company info practically shouts it.”

  “Do you know who else might have been involved with the organization?”

  “Sure. There’s a list right here. Besides Bernie, there were two other partners. One was Samantha Stout, and the other was Grant Whitmore. Hey, he’s the guy that got murdered last night! How’s Maddy taking it?”

  “She’d be better if folks didn’t suspect Bob was behind the killing,” I said.

  “Yeah, that really bites. Anyway, is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “One more thing. Can you give me addresses and any other viable telephone numbers you can find for Bernie Maine and Samantha Stout?”

  “Will do.” Less than a minute later I disconnected the call, with the requested information scribbled down on an old menu.

  “Wow, that was quite a conversation you just had,” Maddy said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given in so easily. I had time to go through everything else while you were chatting with Josh. What all did he say?”

  After I brought her up to date on our conversation, I asked Maddy, “What did you uncover?”

  “Not much,” she admitted. “Did you say that woman investor’s name was Samantha Stout, Eleanor?”

  “I did.”

  “I saw her name somewhere else this morning,” Maddy said.

  “Do you remember where?”

  She searched through one of the piles and pulled out a business card with a musical note on it. “Here it is. Southern Sky is the name of the group last night. Grant had one of their cards in his pocket. The members are listed on the bottom edge, and one of them is the lady in question. Funny, but so is one of the guys.”

  “He’s named Samantha Stout, too?”

  “Don’t be silly. Kenny Stout is listed, though, so I’m betting that he’s either her brother or her husband.”

  “Can I see that?” I asked.

  Maddy handed it over, and I flipped to the back. There was nothing but a heart drawn there. That had to mean that Grant was not only an investor with her but probably something else, as well. “I know that Grant cheated on you, but would he do it with a married woman?”

  “I don’t think he ever let the marital status of anyone involved bother him,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’m just trying to figure something out here. I need to call Josh back.”

  “Wow, he’s earning his pay today, isn’t he?” Maddy asked.

  “I’ll let him go home early tonight,” I said as I dialed his number.

  “Eleanor, if you’re going to keep waking me up, I might as well come in and work,” he said with a laugh when he answered.

  “This will just take a second. I need to know if Samantha Stout and Kenny Stout are married to each other, or if they’re just related in some other way.”

  “That I can do,” he said. After a short pause, he said, “They were married. I guess technically they still are, since they have to wait another few months before the decree is final. The cause was filed as irreconcilable differences, whatever that means these days. Is there anything else I can do?”

  “No, that’s perfect. Go back to sleep.”

  “I would if I could, but I have a class at noon, so I might as well go ahead and get up now.”

  That was also when we opened, and I saw by my clock that I had four minutes until it was time to unlock the front door. “You’d better hurry up, then. You’re going to miss class.”

  “Sorry, Mom. I’m leaving right now,” he said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

  I didn’t even get the chance to answer before he hung up on me.

  “What did he say?” Maddy asked.

  “They were married, but they’re separated now. I wonder if Grant had anything to do with that.”

  “Let me just say that it wouldn’t surprise me if he had,” she said. “What should we do next?”

  I pointed to the clock. “Sorry, but our investigating time is over. We have to open the Slice now.”

  “Don’t apologize. I’m kind of looking forward to serving a little pizza and soda. It might help take my mind off what a nightmare my life has become lately.”

  “Don’t worry, Sis,” I said as I hugged her. “We’ll figure this out.”

  “I hope so,” she said.

  “In the meantime, let’s sell some pizza. What do you say?”

  “Open the doors, Eleanor. I’m ready for whatever comes our way today.”

  Only she wasn’t.

  To be fair, neither was I, but I had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I unlocked the front door of my pizzeria.

  But it didn’t take long for me to find out.

  Chapter 7

  “I figured I’d find you hiding in here,” a woman who looked vaguely familiar to me said to Maddy as soon as we opened the door for business. She was pretty enough in an angular kind of way, and it was clear from the first moment she walked through the door that she thought she was better than anyone who dared look in her direction. The brunette brushed past me as though I were nothing but a doorman and headed straight for my sister. “Why did you have to kill him? You already got what you wanted. You somehow managed to brainwash my mother and my brother, but you never fooled me, not once.”

  “Hello, Rebecca. I’m sorry for your losses,” Maddy told the woman, who was clearly none other than Grant’s sister. There was no doubt in my mind that she was also the one who’d nearly caught us snooping around at Sharon Whitmore’s home earlier that day, but I wasn’t about to bring that up.

  “Save your phony condolences for someone who doesn’t know you, Maddy,” Rebecca snapped.

  “Listen, maybe it would be a good idea for you to leave,” I said as I started t
rying to shepherd her out of the restaurant. Even though no one was there yet, I still didn’t want her attacking Maddy at the Slice.

  “You can’t make me go anywhere,” she said angrily.

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” I said as I pointed to a sign behind the cash register. I’d had it installed after a particularly ugly visit a few months before, and it was plain and simple, declaring that I reserved the right to refuse service to anyone I chose to, whenever I pleased, without having any particular reason at all. I hadn’t had to use it yet, but I had a hunch that it was about to come in handy. “In case you were wondering who that’s referring to, at the moment it means you.”

  “Eleanor Swift, this doesn’t concern you, so I’d appreciate it if you’d mind your own business.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. When it comes to my sister, everything is my business.”

  Maddy spoke up. “Eleanor, I can handle her.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure,” I said. I took a few steps back, but there was no way that I was going to leave the dining room. It was hard to tell what might happen if I did that.

  “I’m positive,” Maddy said.

  “Don’t be so sure of yourself,” Rebecca said. “I asked you a question, and I expect an answer. Why did you kill Grant? He was out of your life. There was no need to stab him with that skewer.”

  “I didn’t stab him, and neither did Bob Lemon,” Maddy said. She was trying to keep her cool, but I could see the red coming into her cheeks.

  “If your supposed fiancé did it, it was still because of you. You might not have plunged that steel through his heart, but that doesn’t mean that you weren’t a part of it.” She fumbled into her oversized purse and pulled out a piece of paper. “For the first time in your life, do the decent thing and sign this.”

  I glanced over Maddy’s shoulder and saw that it was another quitclaim deed, just like the one Grant had forged the day before.

  “What is it with you two?” Maddy demanded, losing the last bit of her restraint. “So what if Sharon left me some slides, a few teacups, and some other knickknacks? I know she was your mother, but she was my friend, too, and if she wanted me to have some worthless dishware and a few slides that you and Grant hated, I can’t see why you feel the need to keep me from getting them.”