A Secondhand Murder (15 page)

“
Well, no, but—”

“
Look, I'll try to get a table close to yours so that I can listen in on the conversation.”

“
There's another thing.” I told her my suspicions about the knife.

She shook her head after I suggested that she get a search warrant.

“
I can't see any judge granting that request on such flimsy information. Cannot do. Sorry. We'd need a lot more to get into that house.”

“
Hey, that knife belongs to the consignment shop. If it's in the Sanders' kitchen, it's stolen property.”

“
No, no, no. What if the knife is in the house? What does that prove?”

“
The murderer put it there so there'd be a full set of knives. So you wouldn't think the knife came from the Sanders' set. So the murder weapon wouldn't be traced to the their household, implicating someone there—a family member.”

My logic was impeccable.

“
Eve, all the members of that household—Sanders, his stepson, Valerie's daughter, and her husband—are already implicated, don't you know that?”

“
This is additional implication.”

“
No.”

“
Okay, but could I have another look at the knife that killed Valerie?”

“
Why?”

“
I don't know. Maybe I'll know when I see it.”

Frida scrutinized my face as if to find an answer she could believe. She waited a moment, then nodded her agreement.

“
Tomorrow morning. Stop by my office before you open the shop. You only get to
look
at it.”

Fine. I'd find another way to examine the second knife, the one I was certain had found its way back into the Sanders' kitchen.

I entered the dining area of the Biscuit and looked around at the diners. Two men wore boots and cowboys hats. Not them. Another man sat with a woman. The attire of both screamed TOURIST—shorts, shirts with fish and palm trees on them and sandals. White socks on the guy. A lone diner sat in the back of the room. It had to be him. I was aware of Frida entering after me and taking the table to his left.

I headed that way. He rose from his chair, smiled, and shook my hand. Then he held out a chair for me.

“
Something to drink?”

He had dark hair, which he wore long, but that was the only characteristic that might have marked him as an Italian crime boss. No shiny black suit, no black shirt, no white tie. He wasn't short and fat. He was clean-shaven and was wearing gray pants, a red polo shirt and an expensive-looking ecru silk-blend jacket that he had tossed over the back of one chair. And he was handsome, very handsome.

I stared at him. Not at all what I expected.

“
I've been wanting to meet you,” he said.

“
Me
?”

“
Yeah, Jerry has told me a lot about you. I couldn't believe most of it, so I had to see for myself.”

“
Look, I signed the divorce papers yesterday, so in my mind Jerry is free. Now, about the loan. I can pay him back on some kind of graduated schedule, if that's—”

“
I don't care about that.” He reached into his pants pocket.

I jumped, expecting him to pull out some kind of weapon. Instead, he extracted a roll of Life Savers and offered me one. Poison? I shook my head no. He took a cherry one, looked at the candy and sighed, then put the roll back into his pocket.

“
My favorite is pineapple,” he said.

“
What?”

“
My favorite Life Saver is pineapple, but there aren't many of them in a roll.”

He sucked quietly on his candy and continued to stare at me.

“
If you don't want the money, what then?”

“
Just tell me about yourself.”

“
What do you want to know?”

“
Oh, the usual stuff. Where you were born and went to school, your family, your work, stuff like that.”

I was so relieved I wasn't going to be killed in my favorite cowboy bar that I began to babble about myself and continued for the next half hour. His eyes never left mine, but they did seem to twinkle a little brighter when I mentioned my grandmother. “Is that enough?”

“
So you're Sarah Armitage's granddaughter. Very impressive.”

“
You know my grandmother?” I was surprised.

“
Anybody who's anybody in Connecticut knows of your grandmother. In her day, she was by far the smartest, most beautiful woman in the state. Then she ran off with some sea captain and cheated us all of the joy of her company. Connecticut's been a little dull since then. No, I never met her, but I heard tell of her from my father.”

I looked at him with suspicion. “They didn't date, did they?”

“
Oh, no, no. She was already married when he met her. I heard a story about trouble in Connecticut. She left to escape some sort of suspicious controversy. That was a long time ago, and I never heard the details.”

“
Well, me either, but I know the trouble had something to do with Valerie Sanders and her relatives. I sure would like to know if Valerie's death is somehow related to me and my family.”

“
Well, you may not know it, but your meeting me here tonight has helped me immensely. If there's anything I can do to return the favor … I do have connections.”

“
I don't understand. What did I do? Why are you being so nice to me after you went to all the trouble of blowing up my car?”

“
I'm sorry?
I
blew up your car? No, no. I wouldn't do that.”

“
Somehow, after meeting you, I can't believe you would, either. Now, back to how I helped you.”

“
My daughter is hell-bent on marrying your ex-husband.”

“
I know. I can't figure that out.”

“
Well, I can't either. Jerry seems like a boat without a rudder, or motor, or sail, or paddle.”

“
Not a lot of ambition. He does get ideas every now and again. Not much carry–through, though.”

“
My daughter thinks I can help him with that,” he said.

If anyone could do it, it would be him. After all, he had the two things that Jerry craved most—power and money. Who knows, maybe becoming part of the Napolitani Family would be his making.

“
Meeting you makes me realize Jerry can't be all bad, not if you married him. You're quite a gal. I like what I see, so, like I said, Jerry can't be all bad.”

What could I say to that? “Don't give Jerry too much credit because he was drunk when we said our I dos.” I didn't think that was what he wanted to hear.

“
Um.”

He reached across the table and took my hand. “Anything I can do for you, I will.”

Fine then. I had just the thing. “I'd like help breaking into someone's house.”

He offered me another Life Saver. It was lime. He got the pineapple one, finally. We plotted so quietly that even Frida couldn't hear us.

M
r. Napolitani and I left the restaurant together. Frida followed a few steps behind. “Goodnight, my dear.” He shook my hand and then turned to face Frida. “There's no need to worry about your friend, Detective. I mean her no harm.”

“
She told you I was shadowing you?” Frida shot a look of disgust at me. I shook my head.

“
I have a keen nose for the law. How could I believe that a woman of your good looks and deportment would be dining alone?” His smile displayed some very expensive white teeth.

Frida's mouth formed a round “O” of amazement, and, when the compliment finally penetrated, she smiled at Napolitani and chuckled. “You rogue.”

He drove off in his black Escalade, probably heading back to the coast to settle into the condominium in West Palm he had told me about.

“
What about your loan?” Frida asked.

“
Oh, I arranged a payment schedule.”

“
That's what you were whispering about?”

“
Yeah, sorry. He didn't want anyone to hear the details.”

“
You're going to tell me, right?”

“
Oh, sure. I pay Jerry monthly for the next two years and then we're good.”

“
That's a big secret?”

I tried to look insulted. “Look, if Mr. Napolitani doesn't want anyone to know our financial arrangement, then I'm good with that. Don't say anything. Okay?”

“
I don't get it, but fine. See you tomorrow at the office. About seven or so? I'll have the knife for you.”

Grandy was asleep in the spare bedroom when I got home. Madeleine had left, and Alex was sitting in the living room in front of my television.

“
You can go home now.” I tried to make the suggestion sound as if it was his choice, but I knew it came out as a demand. “Sorry, but I'm beat.”

“
I can see that. I wasn't going to hang around. I just thought I'd let you know that Jerry called and wants you to call him back. Something about his father-in-law.”

“
You could have just left a note.”

“
I'm not stupid. I know who his father-in-law-to-be is. Not the kind of man you want to do business with. What's your interest in the man?”

I didn't like Alex's inquisition. He and Jerry had spent too much time together the other night bonding, regardless of whether one was a great guy and the other a bum. Boys will be boys, and they can find something in common, even if it's just testosterone.

“
Alex, I really appreciate your, uh, friendship and support, but right now the only thing I want is a close encounter with is my pillow.”

“
Sure. How about dinner tomorrow night then?”

“
Uh, I've got a meeting.”

“
Neighborhood watch?”

“
Right.”

“
I'll call you.”

“
Great.”

“
You can tell me how the meeting went and how you like taking a leading role in making your neighborhood safe.”

Was he being a smart ass?

“
You and Frida, taking a bite out of crime.”

“
Get the hell out of here.”

“
You're a bad liar, Eve.”

Grandy insisted on coming with me to police headquarters the next morning. Honestly, I liked the plan, because the only food I had in the house was some leftover pizza from the night before.

“
I'll take you out for breakfast after, and I'll show you our shop,” I said on our drive over.

“
Breakfast first, then we buy some food for the house. Don't you ever eat in?”

“
We ate in last night. It's only called ‘takeout' because you take the order out of the restaurant and then eat the food at home.”

“
Right,” she said. “I like Alex.”

“
Oh, I like him, too.”

“
Not as much as you should.”

“
I got divorced two days ago. Give me a break, will you?” I swung into the left lane to pass a trailer with two horses in it.

“
Watch your driving. I think you scared those horses.”

“
Nothing scares cowponies. They're fearless. They share pastures with bulls and alligators.”

She continued to watch the country go by. “This is a whole new world around here. I didn't even know that this part of Florida existed.”

“
Rural Florida's beauty won't exist for long if the developers and big agribusiness players have their way.”

“
Money talks.”

I nodded.

When we walked into Frida's office, the knife was laying on her desk.

She gestured to the chairs across from hers. “So, look, although I can't see what's so interesting. It's just a kitchen knife that was used for something that kitchen utensils shouldn't be used for. This is the murder weapon, the knife we thought came from your store. Now you're saying that it's not the right one, that you discovered
that
knife when you were throwing away packing material yesterday. But
that
knife somehow disappeared.”

“
I told you. I was crumpling up packing material and cut myself with a knife. When I examined it, I realized it had to be the knife that belonged to the set in our store. This knife, the murder weapon, wasn't from our set, but from another. Perhaps Valerie carried it into the store to defend herself. Maybe she knew her life was in danger.”

“
A lovely theory, but where is the
other
knife, the one that actually belongs to the set? Who took it? You say someone came into the shop besides Alex.”

I leaned forward and bent over the knife, examining the rivets in its handle.

“
Um,” I said.

“ ‘
Um' is all you have to say after making such a fuss about seeing it?”