Free Enemies Closer by Ava Parker

details slide for the moment.
    “She must like you; once or twice a month is a big commitment for my sister. Did you ever date?”
    Ben smiled again. He had a great smile. “No. We didn’t have that kind of chemistry at all.”
    Embarrassed to feel relief, Clara could feel her cheeks grow hot. She was attracted to this guy!Even though every instinct was telling her Ben had nothing to do with Maddy’s disappearance, she couldn’t believe she was distracted by lust at a time like this.
    “In fact,” he went on, looking down at his empty coffee cup, “she said that one day she would introduce me to you and we would sail off into the sunset.”
    “Oh,” said Clara, realization dawning, “ that’s how you know what I look like. She showed you pictures.” When he saw her, he must’ve thought Maddy was finally setting them up .
    “A few,” he admitted, changing the subject by waving down their waiter and ordering more coffee. While they waited, the awkward pause lengthened. “Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Maddy and Jack fizzled out around Halloween, probably. He was disappointed and I think she was too, but she didn’t talk to me about it, I think because Jack is my friend and business partner. Didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable.”
    “How disappointed was Jack?”
    “Not that disappointed, I promise.”
    Clara decided she would make that determination herself. “What’s his last name?”
    Ben studied her. Finally he said, “Duvall. Jack Duvall. Our company is called RD Investments for Radcliffe Duvall – not very clever, but easy – and I’m sure you’ll find that he is totally above suspicion.”
    She shrugged. “Gotta rule everyone out.”
    “Shouldn’t the police be ruling people out?”
    “They are, but I can’t just sit around and wait. My sister is missing.” Feeling her voice rising, she took a deep breath and a drink of water. “You mentioned she had business concerns. About Dovetail, I presume?”
    “Maybe,” he said a little uncertainly.
    “What does that mean?”
    “Maddy didn’t confide in me completely. She gave me a few details but was really general about other things. So I’m extrapolating when I say ‘maybe,’ but I think the truth was yes, she was talking about Dovetail.”
    “I thought the restaurant was doing really well.”
    “I think it’s really busy. But success in the restaurant business is complicated. There’s a lot of overhead interfering with profits. So a place that gets rave reviews and is always busy could be going under because they spend too much on Kobe beef and fine bone china. But that’s just one example of how a successful restaurant can lose money. In this case, I think the only thing they spend an unusually high amount of money on is rent, and for that kind of high-end cuisine, the location is worth the extra cost.”
    “Did Maddy say what she thought it was?”
    “No, that’s where she got squirrely. I think she was trying to find out where the profits were going without causing too many waves.”
    “So Dovetail is making money, but then losing it? Seems like Maddy would have gotten to the bottom of that pretty quickly. She must’ve talked to Michelle about it.”
    “Maybe. Maybe not. Like I said, your sister wouldn’t even say it was Dovetail. It could have been the friend of a friend’s carwash in the Ozarks for all I know.”
    Clara shook her head. “Did she say it was the friend of a friend’s carwash in the Ozarks?”
    He smiled. “No.”
    “Then it was Dovetail. The only other thing she owns is her apartment.”
    “I know,” he agreed. “She never said outright that anyone was losing money. It was more like ‘hypothetically speaking, what are the most common ways a business loses money?’”
    “And?”
    “What are they? Like I said, high food and liquor costs, staff, rent, menu pricing, restaurant and bar business, including table turnover and average ticket.”
    “But not at Dovetail. So what else could