The Missing Dough (2 page)

“That’s the work of a master,” I said. “You can taste the smoke in every bite, can’t you?”

David nodded, sampled a small bite of baked beans, and then asked me, “I heard you ask for bark. Is that the dark piece right there?”

I picked up the bark-edged piece of pulled pork with my fingers and smiled. “It’s from the outside layer, and it’s where the smoke and flavor are concentrated the most. It’s not for everyone, but there’s nothing like it as far as I’m concerned. Want a taste?”

“Sure. Why not?”

I offered a bit to David, who took it and took the smallest bite possible. “Wow, that’s intense.”

I had to laugh. “Hey, I told you that it’s not for everybody.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll stick with this,” he said.

After we finished eating, we found a trash can and tossed away our plates and cups. “How about that dance now?” David asked.

“I thought you were going to leave it up to me to ask the next time.”

“I lied,” he said with a grin.

“You’re not going to stop asking until I agree to a dance, are you?”

“What can I say? I was born to boogie,” he said with a smile.

“Then lead on.”

We moved toward the crowd of dancers, and I had to admit, it felt good being in his arms once we carved out a place for ourselves. I’d missed that close contact with someone after Joe died, and it had taken me a long time to allow myself to enjoy it again.

I was just getting into the rhythm of the music when I heard a commotion not far away from us. The second I heard Maddy’s voice, I broke free of David’s grasp and started toward the ruckus.

Clearly, there was trouble, and if my sister was involved, I wasn’t going to let myself be very far away.

When we got to Maddy, I saw that the crowd had parted and that Bob and Grant were in some kind of standoff, while Maddy was trying to get in between them.

David stepped forward, and asked Bob intently, “Do you need any help?” as he stared at Grant. I’d neglected to tell my boyfriend about my sister’s ex, and I was beginning to regret the lapse.

Bob’s face was flushed, but he shook his head at the offer. “Thanks, but he’s not worth the effort from one of us, let alone both.”

“What happened?” I asked Maddy, who for once looked positively flustered by what was going on.

“Bob and I were dancing when Grant tried to cut in,” she explained. “At my urging, Bob refused, but Grant wouldn’t take no for an answer. He pushed Bob in the back, and my fiancé pushed him right back.”

“I never laid a hand on him. That was someone else shoving him in the back. I was minding my own business when he assaulted me,” Grant complained loudly to the audience we were all attracting. “I’m going to have this man arrested for it, and I expect you all to be witnesses.”

He couldn’t have broken up the crowd any more effectively if he’d used tear gas on them. Soon enough, it was just the five of us standing there, and when I got closer to Grant, I could easily smell the liquor on him. I knew that they sold beer in some of the tents to fairgoers, but it seemed to me that he’d been drinking something quite a bit harder than that.

“You’re drunk,” I said. “Go back to your hotel room and sleep it off. Nobody’s going to say a word in your defense.”

“You think you’ve won,” Grant said as he glared at Bob and shook a finger in his face. “But you’re wrong. She was mine before, and she’ll be mine again.”

“Over my dead body,” Bob said.

“If you insist, that can certainly be arranged,” Grant said, being careful not to slur his words, though he had a bit of difficulty with
certainly.

“Is that a threat?” Bob asked as he looked up at Grant and took a step closer to the man. Maddy’s ex had a good six inches on Bob and at least thirty pounds of muscle. It was clear that he was in much better shape, but that didn’t deter Bob in the least.

“It’s a promise,” Grant said.

David somehow managed to step between them and faced Grant. “Maybe you ought to just move along. It’s pretty clear that nobody wants you here.”

“And who exactly are you?” Grant asked as he focused on my boyfriend.

“Me? I’m nobody, just someone trying to make the peace. We don’t want to ruin this evening for all of these other folks, now, do we?”

“I don’t give a rat’s left whisker for the lot of you,” he said, some of his words now beginning to slur in earnest. “Butt out, bub.”

Grant suddenly made a lunge in David’s direction, and Bob pulled David back half a step. As he did, Grant had no one to support him, and he suddenly fell forward on his face. He was so sloshed that he hadn’t had the foresight to break his fall with his hands, and when he stood up again, his nose was bloody from its impact with the bricks of the promenade. “He hit me!” Grant screamed to no one in particular.

“I did no such thing,” Bob said calmly, though he didn’t look displeased that Grant had managed to bloody his own nose. “You can ask anyone.”

“Why should I bother? You already told me that they’ll all just lie for you.” Grant spotted Police Chief Kevin Hurley just then, who was making the rounds of the fair and had no doubt heard the disturbance. “Officer, arrest that man,” Grant said as he pointed to Bob.

“Why on earth would I do that? What’s going on?” Kevin asked. “Is there a problem here?”

“That man struck me,” Grant said, his voice slightly muffled as he held a handkerchief against his nose, trying to stop the bleeding.

Chief Hurley looked at Bob as he raised one eyebrow. “Counselor, is that true?”

“He was taking a swing at David, so I stepped in,” Bob explained.

“To hit him?” the chief asked, a little surprise slipping into his question as he asked it.

“Of course not,” I said. “Grant fell down all by himself. We all saw it. He didn’t need any help from any of us. He’s clearly plastered.”

“Eleanor, I don’t believe I asked you for your take on this,” the chief said.

“No, but I’m sure you just hadn’t gotten around to it yet,” I said. The chief and I had had more than our share of problems in the past, dating back to our high school years when we’d gone out briefly, but I wanted to make this go away quickly so we could enjoy the rest of the night. “This is Maddy’s ex-husband,” I explained, “and he’s been blustering around town all day that he’s here to get her back, something she continues to tell him is impossible.”

“Is that true?” the chief asked Maddy.

“I couldn’t have said it any better myself,” Maddy said. She looked at me and grinned as she added, “And you know that I would have done it if my big sister had been able to let me have a chance on my own.”

“Sorry about that,” I said with a smile of my own that showed I wasn’t the least bit repentant for my actions.

“You’re forgiven,” she replied with a nod.

“Okay, I’ve heard enough.” The chief turned to Grant and said, “You’ve got two choices, the way I see it. You can move along peacefully right now and leave these good folks alone to enjoy the celebration, or you can spend the night sobering up in one of my jail cells.”

Grant snapped out, “Why am I not surprised that you’d side with them? Are you in their pockets, too?”

“Excuse me?” the chief asked in the near silence that seemed to surround him for a moment. Though the question had been posed in a restricted voice, all of those around us knew that Grant was on dangerous ground at the moment.

“Never mind,” Grant said as he started away. Before he could fade into the crowd, though, he said to the group of us, “This isn’t over.”

“For your sake, it had better be,” the chief said.

After Grant had disappeared into the crowd, Bob spoke up. “Thank you, but I had things under control here.”

Before Chief Hurley could respond, Maddy said, “Of course you did. Now, are we going to finish our dance, or am I going to have to ask the chief of police instead?”

“It would be my pleasure,” Bob said as he took Maddy into his arms.

Chief Hurley looked at me, shrugged, and then went back to his rounds of the festival.

David said, “Our dance wasn’t finished either, as I recall.”

“Then by all means, let’s dance,” I said.

As we moved in time with the music, David whispered in my ear, “Why do I have the feeling that this isn’t over?”

“Probably because you’ve been around Maddy and me too much lately,” I said.

“Too much? Never. I dispute your claim that there could ever be too much contact with you.”

“And Maddy, as well?” I asked softly, for his ears only.

“Let’s just say that I’m glad I chose the right sister,” David answered. When I didn’t respond, he leaned back and asked, “Are you telling me that you’re going to let me get away with that?”

“What can I say? I’m feeling pretty forgiving all the way around tonight. Now, are we going to talk, or are we going to dance?”

“Yap with you or hold you in my arms? That’s not even a fair fight,” he said as he pulled me a little closer. After that, I didn’t spend too much more time worrying about Grant and why he’d reappeared in our lives.

For now, for that moment in time, I was just content being exactly where I was, keeping the company I was keeping, and being a part of the life of Timber Ridge, North Carolina.

“T
hat band is really good, isn’t it?” David asked me a little later as we took a break from dancing and stood near the group currently playing onstage. I’d been on my feet all afternoon at the Slice, and while I loved to dance just fine, it was nice to rest every now and then.

“They are,” I agreed. “The lead singer’s really pretty, isn’t she?”

“I guess so, but she’s still not as pretty as you are,” David answered.

“That’s the perfect response; you know that, don’t you?”

“How so?” David asked, his attention rarely leaving the stage.

“If you’d said you hadn’t noticed her, I would have known you were lying, and if you’d agreed too enthusiastically, then we would have had a problem there, too.”

“Hey, what can I say?” he asked as he turned to look at me. “I just got lucky.”

I laughed as I turned my attention back to the stage again. The singer
was
good, a sultry brunette who hit all of the right notes, and the guitar player backing her up had a knack as well. The drummer was holding them back a little, at least in my opinion, but they were still a cut above our usual town offerings when it came to music on the promenade.

I was still watching them play when David touched my arm lightly. “Eleanor, look over there.”

“Where?”

I followed his pointed finger to an area of trees on the outside of the promenade. At first I couldn’t make out who was arguing, but it took me just a second to realize that one of them was good old Grant. He seemed to have a nose for an argument tonight, the pun fully intended. He was with another man, and it was pretty clear they weren’t happy with each other at all. Heated words were exchanged, and then the stranger walked away. Grant tried to follow him, but he gave up when the female lead singer said from the stage, “We’re going to take a little break for the fireworks right now. We hope you grant us the time and enjoy the show.”

Grant’s head snapped around when he heard a variation of his name coming from the stage, and I could swear that I saw the singer nod and motion for him to come backstage when they made eye contact. This clearly upset the guitarist, and I wondered what was going on.

I was about to see if I could find out when Maddy came over to us, Bob in tow.

“After the fireworks are over, what do you think about the four of us buying more food and eating it on your front porch, Eleanor? This crowd’s getting to be too much for our tastes.”

“It sounds great to me. That snack didn’t fill me up. What do you think?” I asked David.

“I’m all for it,” he answered, just as a cup of beer came flying straight for us out of the crowd. It managed to spill onto each of us a little, but Bob took the lion’s share of the liquid barrage.

“I’ll kill him,” Bob said uncharacteristically as he started off into the crowd.

“Hang on a second. Who exactly are you going to kill?” David asked as he put a hand on Bob’s arm. The two men had become friends after being in such close proximity because of us, and I loved how they looked out for each other.

“You know as well as I do that Grant Whitmore threw that beer at us,” Bob said as he tried to pull his arm free.

David wasn’t about to let go, though. “I don’t doubt that you’re right, but we can’t prove it, can we? Bob, think it through. He
wants
you to come after him. Don’t give him the satisfaction.”

Bob looked hard at David for a full second, and then said, “Do you think I’m afraid of
him?
”

“Of course not. But you know as well as I do that you’ve got to pick your battles, and this isn’t one of them.”

Bob thought about that for a moment longer, and when he pulled his arm out of David’s grip, my boyfriend didn’t fight him on it. He could see that the fight had gone out of him, at least for now.

“I have to go home and change,” Bob said a little sullenly.

“We all do,” David answered with a laugh, trying to make light of it. He turned to Maddy and me and said, “Tell you what. Why don’t you pick up the food, and we’ll all meet back at Eleanor’s place. How does that sound?”

“Great,” Maddy said quickly. “Bob, you don’t mind if I ride with Eleanor, do you?”

“What? No, not at all,” Bob said. “David, do you need a ride?”

“I drove over here by myself, but if you’d like some company, I can always pick my car up tomorrow.”

“Nonsense. No one has to babysit me. I’m over that fool. I’ll see you all later.”

After the men were gone and Maddy and I were standing in line for food, my sister said, “Eleanor, I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I should have gone with him.”

“You can probably still catch up with him, if you really want to,” I said.

She thought about it and then finally said, “No, he wouldn’t like that. Bob’s got a great deal of pride, and sometimes I have to tiptoe around his ego so I don’t accidentally bruise it. It may not show, but the man does have his flaws.”

“Unlike the two of us,” I said with a laugh.

“We
are
pretty perfect, aren’t we?” she asked.

“We are as far as I’m willing to admit to the outside world,” I answered. “Don’t worry. Bob and David will be fine.”

“I’m sure you’re right. I just don’t like the way Grant threatened us all.”

“Do you think he’d actually follow through with it?” I asked. “He never seemed like the dangerous type to me when you were married.”

“No, but he’s always had a bit of a cruel streak in him, and who knows how much he’s changed since we were together?”

“Maddy, we can call Kevin Hurley if you’d like.” I knew that Grant, and her marriage to him, were both sore spots for her.

“No, I’m just being silly. I’m sure that they’ll be fine.”

It was our turn to order next, and we ended up buying enough food to feed an army. I was happy that Manny was used to cooking in such large quantities. After all the food they’d served that evening, there was still plenty left over for our little impromptu late-night picnic.

But if I were being honest with myself, I’d be relieved once we were all together again, sitting on my front porch and enjoying the meal, away from the crowds and, more importantly, a pushy ex-husband.

As a matter of course, Maddy and I kept clothes at each other’s places in case we had one of our impromptu overnight visits, so we went straight to my place so we could shower and change. The remodeled Craftsman-style bungalow where I lived was home to me for so many reasons. Joe and I had invested a great deal of sweat equity into it, bringing it back to its former glory one step at a time. It was the one place on earth, even more than the pizzeria, where I still felt his presence the most, and that was a very good thing indeed.

 

After Maddy and I had showered and changed, we set up a small table on the porch, reheated the beans and barbeque, and then added the potato salad and slaw to the offering. The table seemed to groan under all the weight on it, but I knew that wouldn’t last for long.

David’s headlights finally illuminated the porch, and he joined us.

“Where’s Bob?” he asked as he looked around.

“He’s not here yet,” Maddy said. “Should we be worried about him?”

“No, of course not. I’m sure he’s fine,” David said as he glanced in my direction and raised a single eyebrow out of Maddy’s line of sight.

“Of course he is,” I said. “So, what do you think? Should we wait or go ahead and grab some plates and start eating?”

“We should wait,” Maddy said at the same time David answered, “I say we go ahead and eat.”

We all laughed as Maddy reached for her cell phone. After a minute, she closed it abruptly. “That’s odd. He’s not answering.”

“Maybe he’s too busy driving over to pick up his phone,” I said.

David shrugged as he put the plate he’d grabbed down on the rail. “There’s no use standing around here speculating about it. I’ll go see what’s keeping him.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I said, but Maddy put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks. I would really appreciate that.”

“I’m happy to do it.” David was two steps from his car when another set of headlights started down the street toward us. Was it Bob or someone else? As the car approached, it slowed down, and I was more than a little relieved when I saw that it was indeed Maddy’s fiancé.

As he got out of his car, David grinned at him. “I was just about to start up a search party for you, buddy. Where have you been?”

“I had to take a really long shower to get all of the beer out of my hair,” he said. “I still can’t believe what a jerk your ex-husband was tonight, Maddy. What did you ever see in the man?”

“Things that clearly were never there,” she said as she put her arm in his. “Bob, I’m really glad you’re here.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” he said as he patted her arm. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starving.” He looked at the still-empty plates and asked, “You didn’t wait for me, did you?”

David replied quickly, “I didn’t want to, but they made me. You know how these two ladies are when they stand united.”

“They are indeed a formidable force,” Bob admitted. “Well, now that I’m here, let’s eat, shall we?”

We took turns dishing out our plates, and Maddy went around pouring servings of sweet tea. It was the perfect combination of good food and fine fellowship, a night to be cherished and savored like the best of wines. I loved the memories we were creating tonight, adding to the ones I cherished as the best times of my life; this was fast becoming a real keeper.

“Does anybody want any more food?” I asked as I got up to survey what was still left. There was probably just enough barbeque and slaw left over to make one small sandwich; we’d really done a fine job of demolishing nearly all of the food we’d bought at the fair.

“I’m full,” David said, and the rest of us agreed with him.

“Then I’ve still got a late-night snack after you all go home,” I said as I started to collect the containers so I could pop them in the fridge.

“Can you honestly eat after all we’ve just had?” David asked.

“Maybe not right now, but give me enough time, and I’ll manage just fine.”

“Ladies, why don’t the two of you keep your seats? David and I will clean up,” Bob announced. “You two deserve a break.”

I grinned as I quickly sat back down. “That’s one order from a man that I’d be delighted to obey. Should Maddy and I supervise you, or should we just enjoy the evening while you two take care of things?”

I don’t know what Bob’s answer might have been had we not been interrupted just then, but suddenly it didn’t seem to matter one way or the other about his generous offer.

A police cruiser came down my street in an awful hurry, and though there were no sirens wailing or lights flashing, it was clear that something was not entirely right with the cozy little town of Timber Ridge, North Carolina.

The second Chief Hurley got out of his car, I knew that something bad had happened, and worse yet, there was no doubt in my mind that it involved the four of us.

“What’s going on, Kevin?” I asked as I hurried down the porch steps toward him. “Did something happen?”

“Why do you ask that?” he asked as he stopped in his tracks.

“You’re clearly a man on a mission,” I said, “and it’s pretty obvious that something’s wrong.”

“I wish I could say that you’re wrong, but I can’t. How long have the four of you been here on the porch?”

“You’re not going to tell us what happened first?” Maddy asked.

“If you have any hope of getting anything out of me, you’ll have to answer my questions first,” he said in a voice that offered no compromises.

“Hold on there just one second—” Bob said, but I interrupted him. I knew the attorney would want to control this situation, but it wasn’t the time for us to dig our heels in.

“We won’t gain anything by holding back.” I turned to the police chief and said, “After we left the fair, we came here and had a little impromptu picnic right out here in front of everybody. We don’t have anything to hide.”

Was it my imagination, or did he look a little relieved by my admission? “Let me ask you this. Did the four of you come here together, or were you each in separate vehicles?”

“Maddy and I came together, but David and Bob drove their own cars. We all had to shower and change because someone in the crowd at the celebration threw a cup of beer on us as we were leaving.”

“So, you two alibi each other,” Kevin said to Maddy and me, and then he turned to Bob and David. “How about the two of you? Is there anyone who can confirm that you did exactly what Eleanor just claimed you did?”

David shook his head, as did Bob. The attorney said, “Chief, we don’t have airtight alibis, if that’s what you’re asking. No matter what Eleanor says, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to insist that you tell us what this is about before we answer any more questions.”