The Missing Dough (A Pizza Lovers Mystery)

by Chris Cavender

  “I am, but for more reasons than that, though.”

  “I still don’t get the friendship you two share, but I know that it’s genuine. If you’re that worried about him, why don’t you call him?”

  “He asked me not to, and to be honest with you, I’m not even sure the number I have for him will work anymore,” I said.

  Maddy looked at me for twenty seconds and then asked, “Are you just saying that because of what you’re afraid you’ll hear? If he’s in trouble, and he’s the friend you say he is, you should call him.”

  I thought about it and then nodded. “You’re right. The least I can do is try.”

  I took out the number I had for Art and dialed it.

  To my surprise, Art himself answered.

  “Is that you?” I asked.

  “Eleanor, how did you know that I was just about to call you?” He sounded genuinely puzzled by my call.

  “I’m sorry. I know that you’ve got a lot of things going on in your life right now and I’m not supposed to contact you, but I’ve been worried about you.” I just got what he’d said, so I asked, “Why were you going to call me?”

  “Everything has been taken care of,” Art said, the relief clear in his voice. “Our friendship is in full force again, if you’re interested. Feel free to speak with Vivian Wright, or anyone else you’d like to grill. The storm has passed.”

  It was great news; there was no doubt about that. “Wow, that was fast. Does that mean you’re coming back to Timber Ridge?”

  “In due time, but right now I have a friend who needs me on the West Coast, so I’m flying out tonight to see if I can lend him some aid.”

  “What kind of help are you giving him?” I asked him, afraid that he might give me an answer that I didn’t want to hear.

  “His wife just died of cancer, and he needs me with him. I’ll be back in a week, and when I do get back to Timber Ridge, I’d love one of your pizzas.”

  “You know that all you have to do is ask,” I said. “Have a safe flight, and tell your friend I’m sorry for his loss.”

  “I will do just that. Good night, Eleanor. It was good talking to you.”

  “You too. Good night,” I said.

  “What was that all about?” Maddy asked me as I put my phone back down on the kitchen counter.

  I thought about explaining to her what Art had shared with me, just to make sure that she realized that there was more to my friend than she could ever know, but then I decided that it was something that would be better just between the two of us. “We got the all-clear sign to talk to Vivian.”

  “He’s okay, then?” Maddy asked me softly.

  “He’s just fine. Thanks for asking,” I said.

  “Hey, no matter what, you’re my sister. I don’t have to like everyone you do, but I’m such a big fan of yours that I’m inclined to, anyway. I was going to confront her tomorrow, anyway, but I’m glad that we got the green light to talk to her from Art. What are the odds we’re going to be able to track her down, though?”

  “Hang on a second,” I said as I dug out my telephone book. I found the dry cleaner’s number at the shop, dialed it, and listened to the machine as it gave me the shop hours and the day’s special. “They’re still open.”

  “Unless they forgot to change the outgoing message on their machine before all of this happened,” Maddy said.

  “There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there? We need to head back to Cow Spots in the morning and see if we can get anything out of Vivian.”

  “We’ve been there so much lately, I’m thinking about looking for an apartment.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” I asked. I loved having my sister so close, and the thought of her living somewhere else, even if it was just the next town over, was too much for me to take. Apparently, I leaned on her more than I’d realized.

  “Don’t worry. I was just kidding. Can you imagine ordering the return address labels? Timber Ridge is bad enough, but Cow Spots is just an open invitation for ridicule.”

  “I don’t know. I think it’s kind of cute.”

  “Well, you can’t move, either.”

  I touched a nearby wooden column, carefully restored during our rehab. “Sis, we both know that I could never leave this place. There’s too much of Joe in it.”

  “Even if you and David got married somewhere down the road?” she asked. “Would you still live here?”

  “It’s my home,” I said.

  “I’m not saying that it’s even on the horizon, but let’s play what-if for a second. Do you think David could live here, what with Joe’s ghost around every corner?”

  “Joe isn’t haunting me,” I said.

  “Not now he’s not, but then again, David’s not here now, either.”

  “Maddy, if there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that Joe would approve of me moving on with my life. He loved his life too much to deny anyone else happiness if they had a shot at it.”

  “He was a pretty special fella, wasn’t he?” she asked.

  “Golden,” I said as I yawned. “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”

  “You never really answered my question, though, did you?” she asked as I walked toward the master bedroom.

  “Didn’t I?” I replied with a grin.

  As I got ready for bed, I realized that the reason I’d avoided Maddy’s question was that I didn’t know what the answer was. Could I invite someone else into the home that Joe and I had created together? Or, even worse, could I leave this place in order to live with someone else? I honestly didn’t know, and since David wasn’t about to propose and I knew that I wasn’t going to do it, I was pretty safe just ignoring it for the moment. I planned to enjoy my relationship with David for as long as I could, and if it eventually grew into something deeper, I’d make that decision then.

  “Can I help you?” Vivian asked as we walked into the Clean Break the next morning. She didn’t even look up from her newspaper to see who was in her shop.

  “I’m glad to see that you’re out of jail so fast,” I said brightly.

  No one else was around, but as she looked up at me, she said urgently, “Would you keep your voice down? How did you know about that?”

  “It’s not supposed to be some kind of big secret, is it?” Maddy asked. “If it is, you’ve got a problem. We found out an hour after you were arrested. How long do you think it’s going to take the citizens of Cow Spots to find out? If they’re anything like the people who live in Timber Ridge, it’s already common knowledge around here.”

  “It was all just a misunderstanding,” Vivian said.

  “Really? Is that how you’re going to try to spin it? Vivian, you were booked for soliciting gambling and released on a higher bail than I could have scraped together in a year. That doesn’t sound like a misunderstanding to me,” Maddy said.

  “My employer has hired an attorney for me,” she said.

  “Once he’s got this all straightened out, it’s not going to matter.”

  “Don’t kid yourself,” Maddy said. “Even if they did try to forget about it, a new murder charge will remind them pretty quickly.”

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” she said flatly.

  “Hey, I can understand it,” I said. “It couldn’t have felt good when Grant dumped you like that and decided to chase back after his old girlfriend.”

  “Do you honestly think that he’d dump me for a run-down old hag like you?” she asked Maddy.

  My sister didn’t blow up, which might not have been a good sign, but I was going to pretend for the moment that it was. Instead, she said, “We weren’t talking about me. Besides, I was married to him too, remember? Why on earth would I want to have leftovers after I didn’t really enjoy the meal in the first place?”

  “Who are you talking about, then?” she asked petulantly.

  “Samantha Stout,” I supplied.

  “There was no way that was going to happen, either. Grant told me he was done with her when s
he lost her faith in his money-managing skills.”

  Now, that was a spin if I’d ever heard one. “He stole from her, Vivian, and then he begged Samantha to take him back, but she wouldn’t do it. How’s that fit into your skewed little view of the world now?”

  “Grant was cheated right along with everybody else,” Vivian said. “Bernie Maine took it all himself and then blamed Grant for it so people wouldn’t lynch him instead.”

  Was there any chance that had a hint of truth in it? If I hadn’t heard Chief Hurley’s story about Grant’s massive bank account withdrawal, I might have even believed it myself. “Then why did Grant suddenly have so much in his bank account, and more importantly, where did it go?”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked. “Grant was extremely well off. He always had been.”

  “Is that what he told you?” Maddy asked her. There was more than a hint of condescension in my sister’s voice, but I couldn’t blame her. After all, Vivian had already taken a fair number of shots at my sister. “And you believed him? You poor thing.”

  “He showed me his checking account,” Vivian said triumphantly.

  “How hard could that be to fake?” I asked.

  “And a bank statement, too,” she added.

  “We’re not saying that the money wasn’t there at one point. The fact is, he pulled every last dime out of his account right before he died, and now it’s all disappeared.”

  “He scammed me,” Vivian said with a hiss, the air deflating out of her. “I can’t believe it. What a jerk he was, and what an idiot I was for believing him twice.”

  “If it’s any consolation, he fooled more women than you, and that includes me,” Maddy said, softening toward the woman suddenly. My sister was a mass of conflicting actions and beliefs, but I knew that in the core of her heart, she cared about other people, no matter how much she protested at times that she didn’t.

  “Vivian, is there a chance he gambled the money away before he died?” I asked. “We found a slip in an envelope from the dry cleaner.”

  “Sure, maybe twenty bucks on a pony that couldn’t run, but nothing over that,” she said, and then Vivian realized just what she was admitting to us. “I take that back. I’m not admitting that I ever did anything but take in laundry here,” she added quickly.

  “Understood,” Maddy said, “but how can you be so certain he didn’t just bet it all away with someone else?”

  “Nobody around here could cover that kind of bet, especially without me knowing about it. But none of that matters. Grant quit gambling after he crossed the wrong guys in Vegas last year. They made a very convincing argument, and he was afraid to flip a coin after that. Or didn’t you know about what happened there?”

  “Thankfully, our ex-husband didn’t share his later adventures with me,” Maddy said. “How sure are you that he wouldn’t gamble?”

  “As sure as I can be,” she said.

  “So, if he didn’t gamble it away, where did it all go?” I asked. “A hundred and fifty thousand dollars doesn’t just vanish into thin air.”

  “You’d be surprised by how fast someone could spend it if they were determined enough to do it,” Vivian said.

  “That sounds like the voice of experience,” I said.

  She shook her head. “The most I’ve ever had at one time to blow was three thousand dollars. Granted, I went through it pretty quick myself, but it was bush league compared to what some folks have done.” She paused and then added, “Listen, I was told to cooperate with the two of you if you ever came back, but there’s nothing more to tell, and that’s the honest truth.”

  “Vivian, we need to contact your alibi,” I said, “and the exact times you were together. If everything checks out, we’ll promise to leave you both alone.”

  “I can’t tell you where he is,” she said. “I’m really sorry. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

  “Then I’m afraid we aren’t finished here yet,” Maddy said. There was an edge of determination in her voice that was unmistakable.

  “Hang on,” she said and then dialed a number. “I need more instructions,” was all that she said. After a moment, she whispered into the phone, waited, and then spoke again. The next second, she was handing the telephone to Maddy.

  My sister took it and said, “Hello?” After a pause, she added, “No. One second.”

  She thrust the telephone at me. “He wants to talk to you.”

  I took it from her, identified myself, and then listened.

  “Vivian was with me from six to eleven fifteen the night Grant Whitmore was murdered.”

  “No offense, but why should I believe you? I don’t even know who this is.”

  “You might not, but we have a mutual acquaintance, and I promised him on my mother’s eyes that I’d tell you the truth. If you don’t believe me, then I guess you’ll just have to believe him. We both know that it would be foolish for me to lie to you at this point.”

  For some reason, I believed him. It was nothing I could take to Chief Hurley, and now, more than ever, I was determined not to even mention it to him.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  I handed the phone back to Vivian and then turned to Maddy. “Come on. We’re leaving.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked me, still staring at Vivian.

  “I’m positive. Whoever was on the other end of the line might not have a problem lying to me or even the police, but I know that he would never mislead my friend.”

  “Okay. Got it.”

  When we left Vivian, I could swear there was a look of respect in her eyes, as if the fact that my connections were deeper than hers gave me something in her eyes. It was not something I wanted, but it had been useful, and I hadn’t regretted using it.

  At least Maddy and I could strike one name off of our list of suspects, and that was real progress in my mind.

  Chapter 15

  As I drove back to Timber Ridge, Maddy asked me, “Who do you think killed Grant, Eleanor? Don’t try to tell me that you don’t have any idea, because I know you better than that. You’ve got to have come to some conclusions by now.”

  I thought about her question for nearly a minute before I answered her. “Maddy, it’s like asking a mother of twelve who her favorite child is. Who knows? They might even have one, but I doubt they’d ever admit it out loud. If I guess right now, there’s a nearly certain chance that I’d be wrong. How about you?”

  “I was hoping you had something more than I did,” she admitted. “What’s going on with us? We usually have a lot more luck with these cases than we seem to be having right now. Or is it just me?”

  “I guess that it’s still just too early to say. You’ve got to remember that Grant has only been dead a few days. Most likely, it’s going to take quite a bit longer before we figure this out, if we ever do.”

  “Don’t even think that,” Maddy said, the angst in her voice coming through loud and clear. “I don’t know how Bob is going to handle this if the killer isn’t caught soon.”

  “Has he said anything to you about how this is affecting him?” I asked her.

  “He called me last night on my cell phone after we went to bed. He was troubled by all of this and wanted to talk, and I was up half the night with him trying to calm him down.”

  “You didn’t say anything to me about it this morning,” I said.

  “Bob asked me not to, and since it concerned him, I didn’t see how I could refuse the request, you know?”

  “But aren’t you breaking that right now by telling me about it?”

  “He knows that when my promises concerning you are the subject, he’ll be lucky to get an hour of silence out of me.”

  “If that,” I said with a slight grin.

  “What can I say? I tell my sister everything.”

  “And your sister appreciates that,” I said. “How bad is it?”

  “He’s considering packing up his practice and moving somewhere else
if things don’t get better soon,” she explained.

  “Is he serious? Does that mean that you’d go with him?” I couldn’t stand the thought of Maddy leaving Timber Ridge. Not having her in my life would make my existence a pretty bland experience all in all.

  “I don’t even want to think about it right now. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said.

  That was not the answer I’d been hoping to get. I had to let it go, though. “Then we need to work harder at finding the killer, and fast.”

  “What more can we do that we haven’t already done?” she asked, the exasperation clear in her voice.

  “We need to keep digging, keep poking around, and get as many people off balance as we can,” I said. “Somebody’s bound to snap.”

  “That sounds like a recipe for our own lynch mob,” Maddy said with a smile.

  “Hey, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to drive the killer out into the open,” I said.

  I was about to say something else when I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw a black BMW following us five or six cars back. “You are not going to believe this.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “Don’t look behind us, but I think I just found Bernie Maine.”

  “Are you kidding?” Maddy asked. She started to turn in her seat, but I put a hand on her shoulder.

  “What did I just ask you? If you have to look, use the vanity mirror on your visor.”

  She did as I requested and then slowly nodded in agreement. “It’s Bernie, all right, unless somebody else is driving his car. What’s he doing following us?”

  “I don’t have a clue. If he’s tailing us, he must be lost. Could he honestly believe that we’re a threat to him?”

  “He must. Why else would he risk being caught following us? That’s not exactly an inconspicuous car he’s driving. What are we going to do?”

  I had taken my phone out and had put it on the dash between us. “I’m going to call Chief Hurley,” I said.

  “He’ll see you making a call, and we can’t afford to spook him,” she said. “Let me do it.”

  “Go on, then. Grab my phone and try to get him,” I instructed her. “He’s on my contact list.”