The Missing Dough (7 page)

“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.

“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 trying 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.”

“Don’t try to act stupid, Maddy. It doesn’t become you.”

“I just wish I
was
acting,” my sister said, the exasperation thick in her voice. “Rebecca, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“My mother, either through coercion on your part or senility in her old age, left you a third of everything she owned. Now that Grant’s dead, I guess it’s half.” Rebecca took a step back as she asked, “Do I have something to worry about now? Are you after
all
of it?”

“All of what?” Maddy shouted.

“We’ve all known for years that there’s over a quarter of a million dollars in all of my mother’s holdings,” Rebecca said, “but don’t think for one second that you’re ever going to see one penny of any of it.”

“That is so utterly ridiculous that I don’t even know how to respond to it,” Maddy said.

“Then sign this, and I’ll get out of your life forever. Put your signature where your mouth is.”

“I won’t give you the satisfaction,” Maddy said.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Why am I not surprised that you’d say that? That’s a nice little righteous indignation you’ve got going there, Maddy. Too bad it’s not going to do you any good. You’re nothing but some kind of worthless scavenger.”

“You’re the only vulture I see in this room,” Maddy said, finally letting her temper loose completely. “If she wanted me to have something, then I’m going to see that I get it.”

“I won’t take that, especially not from you!” Rebecca yelled as she reached for the nearest weapon in sight, which happened to be a full napkin holder. The weight of it was bad enough, but it also had several sharp edges, and I knew that if she hit my sister with it, it could do some real damage.

“What’s going on here?” Kevin Hurley asked as he burst through the door. He looked at Rebecca and saw her makeshift weapon. “Put that down, and I mean right now.”

Rebecca seemed to fold under the police chief’s stinging words, and she put the napkin holder back on the tabletop where it belonged. “I wasn’t going to do anything with it.”

“Sure you weren’t,” Maddy said.

“Chief, I’d appreciate it if you’d do us a favor and escort Ms. Whitmore off the property,” I said.

“Hang on a second,” Rebecca said. “She can’t just throw me out, no matter what that sign says.”

“Ma’am, maybe it would be for the best if you came with me,” Chief Hurley said as he gently put his arm in Rebecca’s. “There are a few things we need to go over at the police station, and I know that you want to take care of them as soon as possible.”

“What kind of things?” she asked.

“There’s paperwork to be filled out, and you’ll need to contact a funeral home to take charge of your brother,” Kevin said, his words both soft and urging at the same time. I forgot sometimes just what a charmer our police chief could be when it suited him.

“Fine. I’ll come with
you,
” she said, and I thought for a second that we were going to get rid of her without any more commotion. But, of course, that wasn’t about to happen. Rebecca hesitated at the door of the pizzeria and then turned back to face Maddy. “This isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

“I’m here every day we’re open,” Maddy replied, “so you always know where to find me.”

“Go on,” I said, urging her to get out before things turned nasty again.

Rebecca clearly didn’t appreciate that, though. “I’m not about to forget the way you’ve treated me, too, Eleanor. You’d both better be careful.”

“Come on,” Chief Hurley said, this time putting a little more force into his voice.

“No need to push. I’m leaving,” she said, and the two of them walked out together.

“We’d better be careful,” Maddy said as she shook her head. “That threat sounded pretty serious. I’m not usually worried about people like Rebecca, but there was a crazy glint in her eyes.”

“We’ll be extra careful from now on,” I answered, thinking about what Art had said.

“Can you believe that woman?” Maddy asked as she straightened the skewed napkin holder.

“Was she serious about the inheritance? Could Sharon have really left you an equal share of all that money?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Maddy said. “She always told me that I was the perfect daughter. It was something that used to steam Rebecca to no end. I didn’t do anything to encourage it, but Rebecca always thought I was behind it. I could maybe understand it if Grant and I were still married, but you know as well as anybody how ugly our divorce was. What was she thinking, leaving me anything that substantial?”

“Maybe she just never got around to changing her will,” I suggested.

Maddy smiled at me briefly. “Does that mean that you don’t think she was that enamored with me, either? Why not? I’m adorable.”

“Of course you are,” I said, “but it could explain why she kept you in her will after all these years. Were you serious about what you said to Rebecca?”

“Which part?” she asked.

“That you are going to fight for what is rightfully yours. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got your back either way. I’m just curious, I guess.”

“I guess that depends,” Maddy said. “If Sharon wanted me to have such a healthy chunk of what she had, I’d be betraying her by refusing it, at least in my mind. On the other hand, if she simply forgot to change her will and take me out of it, how can I accept anything in good conscience?”

“I totally get what you’re saying, but how can you possibly ever know?”

“I have no idea,” she said as she shook her head. “But I’m not touching a dime of any of it until I can figure it out one way or the other.”

 

“Are you open?” a man asked as he and his teenage daughter came into the Slice.

“Come on in,” I said. “Welcome to the Slice.”

“Thanks,” he answered, though he looked a little shaky as he did so.

Maddy seated them, but before I could make it into the kitchen, he rushed over to me. “I understand that you’re the owner.”

“I am,” I said.

“Listen,” he said, his voice softened so that his daughter couldn’t hear, “I was wondering if you had anything a little stronger than soda that you could slip into my Coke.”

I’d heard the request before, though not often. “I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t serve mixed drinks here.”

He frowned a little and then asked, “Is there any place around here that does?”

“Not at this time of day,” I replied. There was a bar on the outskirts of town, but I knew from general knowledge that they didn’t open until three. This guy had to be some kind of alcoholic. “Excuse me for saying so, but should you really be drinking with your daughter in the car?”

“Why do you think I need one?” he asked. “I’ve never had a drink in my life, but I’ve been teaching her to drive for the past two days, and suddenly I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.” He glanced back at his daughter, gave her a little wave, and then said to me, “Look at her, sitting there all innocent.”

I glanced in his daughter’s direction and saw a petite brunette who still had braces shining from her smile. “She’s adorable,” I said.

“You’d think so, but the truth is, she’s trying to kill me.” He said it with such complete sincerity that I had a hard time not believing him.

“Are you sure you’re not just exaggerating?”

“I’m positive. At first she was going for a heart attack, tailgating other drivers, running red lights, and generally being a hazard on the road, but when that didn’t work, she became a little more proactive. I swear, she claims she didn’t see the bulldozer, but it was clear enough to me to read the T-shirt on the guy who was driving it. If I hadn’t screamed in time, I’d be on the side of his blade instead of here with you.”

“Maybe someone else could teach her?” I suggested.

“Would you?” he asked as I saw a flicker of hope come across his terrified face. “I’d pay you, and I mean well. How much is it worth to you?”

“I didn’t mean me,” I said hastily. “But surely there are instructors at her school.”

He shook his head sadly. “None of them will ride with her. And before you suggest it, I tried private lessons, too. The word is out in this part of the state to watch out for her, and I can’t blame them one bit.”

“How about her mother, then?”

He looked visibly shaken by the suggestion. “Are you kidding? Where do you think she gets it? If one of them doesn’t get me, the other one will. Are you sure you don’t have anything strong to drink?”

“Sorry I can’t help you,” I said.

“That’s okay. I was foolish enough to believe that I might have a chance at all.”

Josh came in as we were talking, and the man focused sharply on him. “Could he teach her, do you think?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “but maybe you should . . .”

He never waited to find out what I was going to suggest, but he probably wouldn’t have liked it, anyway. I was going to say that it might do to wait a year or two, but it was clear by his daughter’s intent expression that she wasn’t about to take no for an answer.

“How would you like to make a hundred bucks?” the man asked as he approached Josh.

“Who do I have to kill?” Josh asked with a smile.

“Nobody. At least I hope not. Come over here. I’d like you to meet my daughter.”

Josh took a step back. “Mister, I don’t know what you have in mind, but I don’t want to be any part of it. I’m not going to date your daughter for money.”

“Date? Who said anything about dating? She’s too young for that.”

Maybe in her dad’s eyes, but it was clear that the young lady was instantly smitten with Josh, if the way she was looking at him was any indication.

“What do I have to do, then?”

“Can you drive?”

“Like a pro,” Josh said proudly.

“Then teach her.”

Josh looked at me and asked, “Is he serious?”

“He is, but you might want to think about it before you say yes.”

Josh turned back to the man. “You don’t even know me. Why are you willing to entrust your daughter to me?”

“I recognized you the second you walked through the door. You’re the police chief’s son,” the man said quickly. “I’ve heard good things about you.”

I was willing to bet that he would have let Rasputin teach his daughter if it meant that he didn’t have to. “You can always say no,” I told Josh.

“I don’t think so.” He stuck a hand toward the man and said, “Mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“Excellent. Here are the keys. Don’t worry about me. I’ll get a ride back home on my own.”