The Missing Dough (A Pizza Lovers Mystery)

by Chris Cavender

  My sister promptly put them both down on a nearby table without signing anything. “Sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be able to sign anything without knowing what you’re offering me in return.”

  Rebecca started to pout a little and then shrugged. “Fine. Spoil the surprise.” She opened the envelope again and pulled out five one-hundred-dollar bills. “Think about what you could do with that money.”

  “This is half of what you found?” Maddy said as she looked at the anemic pile of cash.

  “Right down the middle,” Rebecca said, averting her gaze for a moment as she said it.

  Maddy shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks. I wouldn’t take it if it were ten times that much.” I echoed her smile, since we both knew that the real amount from an equal split would be exactly that, five thousand dollars.

  Rebecca glanced at me quickly, and I did my best to kill my smile.

  “You’re making a huge mistake,” she said to Maddy.

  My sister picked up the waiver and the pen and handed them back to Rebecca. “Maybe so. It wouldn’t be the first time, and I’m pretty sure that it won’t be the last. Have you decided what you’re going to do with the house?”

  “I’m moving in, at least for now. I managed to scrape up eight grand to pay off most of the bills, including the second mortgage, so I’ll be okay for a while.”

  What a coincidence. After taking eight of the ten grand from the drawer to pay off the second, she still wasn’t giving Maddy half of what was left. I wouldn’t trust the woman to count my fingers for me.

  “Funny, I wouldn’t think you’d choose to live there after what happened to your brother and mother,” Maddy said.

  “Mom died at the hospital, and Grant was murdered over there across the square,” she said as she pointed to the spot on the promenade. “Besides, it’s going to take a long time to go through everything at the house, and it will be quite a bit easier if I’m staying there to do it. I wouldn’t want to miss anything. It was important to my mother, you understand.”

  Maddy shrugged. “Whatever you say. Let me know when you’re ready to file for probate. I have a vested interest, you know, and I want to be there.”

  “Of course,” Rebecca said through gritted teeth. Maddy was playing with fire. If Grant’s sister was indeed the murderer, my sister was adding her name to the list of those most likely to be killed next.

  As Rebecca started to leave, Maddy called out, “And don’t forget to include the thousand dollars you found in your assessment.”

  “What thousand are you talking about?” Rebecca asked curiously.

  “Well, that’s how much you found in the drawer. That’s right, isn’t it? Half of a thousand is five hundred, and that’s what you just offered me.”

  “Certainly,” Rebecca said, and then she was gone.

  “My, that was fun,” Maddy said.

  “Would you come into the kitchen with me? The next sandwich should be ready to serve now.”

  She followed me in, and the second the kitchen door was closed, I asked her, “Did you enjoy yourself just now?”

  “I’ve been wanting to tweak her since the day we met quite a few years ago. Yes, I’d have to say that as amusements go, that was right up there.”

  “Maddy, we both know that she was lying about the money she found, but what good did it do to let her know that we were aware of the fact that she was cheating you?”

  Maddy frowned. “Okay, maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing that I could have done, but I couldn’t let her think that she had outsmarted me. You know why she’s staying at the house, don’t you? Sentiment has nothing to do with it.”

  “Obviously, she wants to find every last dollar Grant hid,” I said. “And that’s going to take some time. She probably will, too. A hundred and fifty thousand dollars can’t be that easy to hide, don’t you think?”

  “If Grant had an entire house to do it in, it just might be, but she’s got time on her side, and if it’s stashed there, she’s bound to find it eventually.”

  “Not if we find it first,” I said.

  “How can we do that? We don’t even have access to the place anymore.”

  “I don’t know, but I hate the thought of her getting away with it.”

  “Murder or theft?” Maddy asked me.

  “Well, we know she’s a thief. We just need to figure out if she’s a killer or not.”

  I took the sandwich out, slid it onto a tray, and then cut it in half.

  “When you know how we can do that, be sure to let me know,” Maddy said as she picked the sandwich up and left to deliver it.

  Josh came into the kitchen ten minutes before we were set to close for our own lunch break. Maddy and I had been discussing all afternoon what we were going to do to investigate, but so far we hadn’t come up with anything concrete.

  “You aren’t due to start your shift until we get back from lunch,” I said. “Greg’s working a double shift, so we don’t need you until then.”

  “I’m not here to work,” Josh said. “I was digging around on the Internet, and I found something I thought you’d like to see.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He handed me a printout from his computer, and I saw that it was an announcement. Samantha and Kenny Stout were playing an afternoon show in Grayson’s Corners, not too far away from Timber Ridge.

  I read it and then handed the printout back to him. “Surely they canceled it. Samantha can’t even stand to be in the same town as her ex-husband, let alone share a stage with him.”

  “I just called, and they started playing ten minutes ago.”

  “Both of them?” I asked, having a hard time believing that Samantha would play with Kenny after what she’d told Maddy and me earlier.

  “Both of them,” he said. “If you close the Slice now, you can get there before the fireworks start.”

  “Why would anyone have fireworks in the middle of the afternoon?”

  “I didn’t mean literally,” he said, “but just because they started their show doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily finish it.”

  There was nothing in the oven, so it was an easy decision to make. “Come with me,” I said as I flipped off the conveyor.

  There were two single diners in the Slice, so I walked to the door and flipped the sign that told our customers that we were closed. After locking the door, I told our remaining diners, “Take your time. I’m not trying to rush you. You still have ten minutes.”

  Maddy and Greg walked over to us. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re going to Grayson’s Corners right now,” I explained, “and the boys are going to clean up for us as soon as our patrons leave. Right, guys?”

  “We’d rather go with you,” Josh said. “What if there’s trouble?”

  “If there is, we can handle it,” I said. “What do you say? Will you do this for us?”

  “Of course we will,” Greg said.

  “Why exactly are we going to Grayson’s Corners?” Maddy asked as she took off her apron. “Are we eating lunch at Mama Mia’s?”

  “Not today. Samantha and Kenny are playing on an outdoor stage there right now, and if we hurry, we might just get a chance to grill them a little more before they’re both gone for good.”

  “What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go,” she said.

  I unlocked the door, and Greg closed it behind us.

  As we walked through the shortcut, Maddy said with a grin, “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t I drive?”

  “You are so funny,” I said deadpan.

  “Have you heard from Bob Pickering yet?”

  “He says that a wire came loose somewhere,” I said, “and that I was probably driving too fast on a bad road.”

  “That sounds like a really technical diagnosis. It’s a good thing he’s such a veteran mechanic,” Maddy said. “Why hasn’t he brought it back over here yet?”

  “He found a few other things wrong when he was poking around under the hood,” I admitted.
“I should have it by this evening.”

  “I’m glad you can trust Bob. Otherwise, it would sound like too big a coincidence that he found other problems while he was under the hood, you know?”

  “Sure, but he’ll do right by me. He always has.”

  “Let’s go,” Maddy said as she unlocked her car. “Just a warning, but I might speed a little.”

  “Be my guest, but you’re paying for the ticket if you get one.”

  “Me? Didn’t you know, Eleanor? I’m too charming to get a speeding ticket.”

  “Just keep telling yourself that, and maybe someday it will be true.”

  When we got to the outdoor stage, though, it appeared that we were too late. No one was playing, and the people who had gathered for the show were milling about as though they were waiting for something that might not happen. The band’s logo from the notice I’d seen, STOUTER THAN MOST, was on the stage, but neither performer was there. In the crowd I spotted Jenny Wilkes, the woman who ran the flower shop in town, but she didn’t see me. It was just as well. I didn’t really have time to stop and chat.

  “We missed it,” Maddy said, dejected that another lead had dead-ended on us.

  I was about to agree when I saw a flash of something backstage. “Follow me,” I said softly and tugged lightly on Maddy’s arm.

  As we neared the back area, I could hear a loud conversation going on. Argument was probably more like it. Kenny was clearly angry about something, and Samantha was doing her best to hold up her end under the attack from her ex-husband.

  “I’m not going to do it, and I don’t care what you think,” I heard Samantha say.

  “If you don’t now, then you’d better start,” Kenny said as he moved closer to her. “Neither one of us can afford to have those two nosy sisters keep digging into our business. You’ve got to stop going to them every time we have a little spat.”

  “That wasn’t a little spat,” she countered.

  “Do you want to know something? That’s your problem, Samantha. You blow everything out of proportion and read things into the simplest actions. You’ve got to stop and think about what you’re saying before you open your mouth,” he said with an ominous pause.

  “It sounds like there’s an ‘or else’ somewhere in there,” Samantha said.

  “There you go again. I know how important it is to you that you’re the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral, but the world doesn’t spin that way.”

  “I’m not like that,” she said defiantly.

  “Try telling that to someone who was never married to you. The more I think about it, the more I realize that was probably the biggest mistake I ever made in my life.”

  “Me too,” she said so softly that I could barely hear her.

  “What was that?”

  Instead of answering, Samantha pointed to her watch. “Our break is over. We just have to go on for fifteen more minutes, and then we’re finished. This is my last show with you, Kenny. After today I never want to see you again.”

  “You don’t really mean that, do you?” he said, his voice getting low and mean. “How are you going to avoid it? We both know that I am going to be in this area forever, and so are you.”

  “I can do whatever I want to. You don’t own me. The days of you telling me what to do are long gone.”

  “Do you honestly believe that’s true?” he asked, and I saw Samantha step back just a little. When she didn’t answer his question, he added, “Remember, no more talking to anyone about anything that concerns me. I have some errands to run after the show, but we’ll discuss this later, I promise you.”

  “Whatever,” she said shakily.

  “Do us both a favor and try not to cause me any more trouble in the meantime, okay?”

  As they headed for the stage, I pulled Maddy back behind a bush so they wouldn’t see us. They walked past us and mounted the platform to the cheers from the crowd. As they started to play, Samantha’s voice was a little shaky at first, but she quickly got it back.

  “And I thought I had some bad ex-husbands,” Maddy said. “He’s really not a nice man, is he?”

  “Kenny’s not my favorite guy in the world, there’s no doubt about that,” I agreed. “Why do you suppose he was so upset that she’d been talking to us?”

  “Think about it. Would you want someone sharing their opinions of you if you were that guy? I know I wouldn’t.”

  “No, there’s got to be more to it than that. It was almost as though he was afraid she’d tell us something that would incriminate him, you know?”

  “It’s possible. If we’re lucky, we’ll find out, anyway.”

  “Hey, ladies, did we miss anything?” Josh asked from right behind me, nearly scaring me out of my shoes.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Greg’s with me, too. He’s finding a parking space, but he’ll be here in a second.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

  “We were worried about you,” he admitted. “Hey, don’t be mad.”

  I couldn’t really be after he admitted that. “Thanks, but I’m afraid the two of you wasted a trip.”

  “We don’t mind,” he said as Greg rushed up to join us.

  “What did we miss?” Greg asked, nearly out of breath.

  “They were just fighting backstage,” Maddy said.

  Greg listened to the music for a second. “You’d never know it right now.”

  It was true. As I listened to them play, it was clear that they’d found their way again, and it was impossible to tell that there was an ocean of tension between them.

  “What do we do? Just hang around and wait for them to finish?” Maddy asked. “I’ve got a hunch that after what we just heard, neither one of them is going to be in any mood to talk to us.”

  “We can go back if you want, but it’s just going to be another ten minutes,” I said. “What could it hurt to try?”

  “Let’s wait and see what happens,” she said.

  “Hey, I’ve seen that before,” Greg said as he pointed to the band’s logo onstage. “I parked behind an old station wagon with a decal of that on the rear window. You don’t think that was Kenny’s car, do you?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “He must be doing some gardening. When I peeked in through the back window, I saw a pick and shovel in there.”

  “What makes you think he was gardening? Was there anything else in there, like potting soil or lime?” I asked.

  “No, just the tools. Why? Do you think it means anything?” Greg asked.

  “Whatever it is, I doubt that it’s good news for Samantha. I hate to leave her alone after the show,” Maddy said.

  “Do you think he’s going to kill her and then bury the body somewhere?” Josh asked. He had an overactive imagination as a rule, but this time, my thoughts had followed an identical path to his. “We’ve got to do something to stop him before it’s too late.”

  “What can we do?” Maddy asked. “We have a pizzeria to run.”

  I had a sudden inspiration. “Josh, how would you and Greg like to do a little detective work? You’ll still get paid, but you’d be helping us out a great deal.”

  “Name it,” Greg said, and Josh nodded. It wasn’t often that they were able to participate in one of our investigations, especially Josh, but I was going to have to take whatever grief there was about it that Kevin Hurley might dish out later. I needed them right now.

  “As soon as they split up, I want Greg to follow Kenny in his car, and, Josh, you can take Maddy’s car and follow Samantha. Don’t be obvious about it, but don’t lose them, either. Can you do that?”

  “Sure we can, but there’s just one problem,” Greg said. “How are you two getting back to Timber Ridge?”

  “I spotted Jenny Wilkes in the crowd, so we’ll catch a ride back with her.”

  “What if she’s not going straight back to Timber Ridge?” Maddy asked.

  “Then we’ll find some
other way home. We’re a pair of resourceful women. We’ll manage somehow, even if we have to call David or Bob to come pick us up.”

  From the stage, I heard Samantha say, “Thanks for coming, and have a nice day. We’re out.”

  “Hurry,” I said. “Maddy, do you mind if Josh drives your car?”

  “Why should I?” she asked as she handed him her keys. “After all, he’s a certified driving instructor now, right?”

  “Right,” Josh said, completely missing the sarcasm in her voice.

  “What should we do if there’s trouble?” Greg asked.

  “Call the police chief, and don’t interfere unless it’s bad, and I mean really bad. Do you both promise to do your best to stay out of trouble?”

  They nodded and then split up. Greg went back to his car, while Josh hung around, waiting for Samantha. As we walked past him to where the audience was just breaking up, Maddy pointed and said, “I’m parked over there.”

  “I already spotted it on the way in,” Josh said with a grin.

  We couldn’t find Jenny at first, and I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of calling David or Bob to come get us, but then Maddy spotted her approaching her floral delivery van.

  “Jenny, wait up,” we both called out to her as we saw her getting out her keys.

  She stopped and then turned and grinned at us. “I didn’t know you two were Stout fans. They’re pretty wonderful, aren’t they?”

  “This is the second time we’ve seen them play this week,” I said. “Is there any chance we could catch a ride back to Timber Ridge with you?”

  “Where’s your car?” she asked.

  “It’s in the shop even as we speak,” I said.

  “Sure, hop in. There’s just one problem, though,” she said.

  “Do we have some deliveries to make?” I asked.

  “No, the truck’s empty, but there’s just one extra seat. One of you is going to have to sit on the floor in back.”

  Maddy laughed. “I’ll do it. It’ll be just like a hayride on the back of a tractor flatbed.”