Murder on the Rocks (12 page)

“I’m doing fine.”

“Looks like it’s been a busy night.”

“That it has, which has me both delighted and exhausted.” I blew a stray lock of hair
off my face. “I think we’re caught up at the moment. Want something to eat?”

“Absolutely,” Zach said, patting his stomach. “I haven’t had dinner and we’ve been
running hard all day.”

“Come on and I’ll fix you something.” I took him by the hand and led him into the
kitchen. Though I don’t allow customers into the kitchen, Zach was more than a customer
and in his case I made an exception. Helmut gave us a cordial nod as I led Zach over
to the sink area. Once we got there, Zach pulled me to him with the hand I was holding,
and turned me so my back was against the sink’s edge. He moved his body in front of
mine, leaving the two of us in full frontal contact, his face inches away from mine.

“I was worried about you all day,” he said, his breath warm on my face.

“You were?”

“I was.”

“I was fine. I still am. Honest.”

“Glad to hear it.”

With that his face closed the gap between us and our lips met. It wasn’t our first
kiss by any means, but it was the first of its kind. There was a heightened level
of intensity that triggered a vivid burst and flow of colors in my mind, like a spectacular
display of the Northern Lights.

It was as if some invisible barrier between us had unexpectedly disappeared. I felt
this sudden compulsion to open myself up more, to let other people in, to once again
risk an emotional investment. And I sensed it wasn’t just me; Zach seemed more earnest,
too. Was it some strange affirmation of life triggered by his fear earlier in the
day that I might have been the victim he heard about on his scanner? Or was it something
else?

I barely had time to process these thoughts when someone cleared their throat nearby,
forcing Zach and I to break apart. I assumed it was Helmut, but when I looked I saw
Duncan standing there staring at us with an expression of consternation. I heard a
noise that sounded like a schoolgirl giggle and I wasn’t sure if it was a synesthetic
experience or a sound I’d actually made.

“Who are you?” Zach asked Duncan.

“New employee,” Duncan said. “I’m a friend of Mack’s from way back when we were kids.
She’s been kind enough to give me a job until I get back on my feet.” Duncan then
shifted his attention to me. “I didn’t realize you allowed non-employees to come into
the kitchen,” he said as I hid what felt like bruised lips behind the back of my hand.
“Isn’t that a health violation or something?”

Helmut snorted a laugh. Something in Duncan’s tone irked me and I shot back with the
first thing that came to mind. “I don’t think so since this is a family-owned business
and Zach is a part of my family.” Even as the words came out I wished I could take
them back. Yes, I felt a new willingness to explore and be more open to emotional
connections, but I didn’t want to mislead Zach, and I still felt confused about exactly
where our relationship stood, or where it was going. Calling him family was a bit
of a stretch and judging from Zach’s expression, a surprise to him, as well.

“I see,” Duncan said. “Sorry to interrupt your family moment, but there’s a cop out
front who wants to speak to you. He says he has some new info. I put him in your office.
I hope that’s okay.”

“That’s fine,” I said with a sigh.

Duncan switched his attention back to Zach. “Have the cops talked to you yet?” he
asked.

If he meant the question to rile, he succeeded. “Me?” Zach said, looking askance.
“Why would they want to talk to me?”

Duncan shrugged. “Did you know the murdered woman?”

“Well, yeah, but not very well and—”

“So far everyone seems determined to lie about, or minimize their connections to this
woman,” Duncan said, interrupting.

Zach looked at me. “Is that true? Are people lying about knowing Ginny?”

“Some have, yes.”

“And you have an apparent connection to Mack and the bar,” Duncan continued. “Based
on what I’ve seen so far, that’s all it takes to get your name on the cops’ suspect
list.”

“Suspect list?” Zach said, sounding incredulous. “That’s just ridiculous.”

“Maybe not.” Duncan went on. “Is today the first time Mack has allowed you back here
into the kitchen area?”

“No, but what’s that got to do with anything?”

“The cops said the knife that was used to kill Ginny might have come from Mack’s kitchen.”

Zach looked alarmed. “Is that true, Mack?”

“Apparently,” I said, shooting Duncan a look of irritation.

Helmut, who was doing an admirable job of looking disinterested up until now, stopped
what he was doing and turned to face us, clearly interested.

Zach pondered things for a few seconds and then gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“Wow, you really have had a hell of a day, haven’t you?” I didn’t answer, figuring
the question was rhetorical. “I don’t mind talking to the cops and I’ve got nothing
to hide.” Zach went on. “But it
is
late and I have to be back on duty at seven in the morning. I don’t want to get tied
up here by some condescending detective conducting a shot-in-the-dark interrogation.”
I felt, or rather sensed Duncan tensing up and bit back a smile. “So I’m going to
scoot out of here.”

“Are you sure?” I said, feeling more relief than disappointment, though I wasn’t sure
why.

“I’m sure. I’ll check with you tomorrow, but in the meantime, I want you to be careful
and watch yourself.” Then he turned to Duncan and said, “Keep an eye on my girl here,
okay?”

“You bet I will. I’ll be watching her like a hawk,” Duncan said, and I could tell
from the hint of a smirk on his face that he was enjoying the irony of the moment.
If the smirk on Helmut’s face was any indication, so was my cook.

Zach took hold of my shoulders then and pulled me closer. I knew he meant to kiss
me and, very aware of Duncan’s presence, I turned my head to the side, offering up
my cheek. My brain felt scattered and in an effort to center myself, I focused on
a spot on the sleeve of Zach’s shirt, near the shoulder, where there was a small,
dark red blotch amidst the otherwise pristine white.

Zach, however, refused to be deterred. He took hold of my jaw and gently turned my
face back to his. Resigned to his kiss, I didn’t turn away again. I just closed my
eyes to shut Duncan out of my mind. But as Zach’s lips touched mine, I caught a whiff
of a slightly foul, almost earthy smell and I pulled back away from him, blinking
in confusion.

“Mack? What’s wrong?” Zach asked, sounding both concerned and impatient. “Are you
upset about something?”

As he spoke his breath came to me smelling faintly minty. I realized the other smell,
which was already fading, had to have been a synesthetic reaction. And it was a smell
I felt certain I remembered from that morning, from out in the alley where I found
Ginny’s body.

“I’m sorry,” I said, taking a step back from him and giving my head a shake. “I felt
light-headed all of a sudden. It’s probably just low blood sugar. I haven’t eaten
anything in a while.”

Looking reassured by my explanation, Zach released me. “Well, you need to take care
of that before you do anything else,” he said. “I have to run, but I’ll stop in after
my shift ends tomorrow night, okay?”

Zach left and Helmut turned his attention back to his food duties, or at least that’s
how it looked. I suspected the old man heard a lot more than he let on.

Duncan said, “How long have you been dating Zach?”

“Several months. We met not too long after my father’s death.” I started to explain
how the timing and my emotional state had kept the relationship on a slow track but
Duncan stunned me into a momentary silence with his next question.

“Are you in love with him?”

I thought about it for several seconds before I answered him. “I care about him, I
like him, I have fun with him, but it’s too early for me to say that I love him.”

“Does he like the fact that you own a bar?”

I stared at him with a mixture of confusion and awe, wondering if he could read my
mind, or Zach’s. “No, not particularly,” I admitted. “His objections stem mostly from
how much of my time the bar consumes, though he also gets a little jealous at times,
even though I’ve told him any flirtatious banter I engage in is just to create atmosphere
and keep my customers happy. He understands that but still doesn’t like it.”

“I don’t blame him. You’re an attractive woman and I’m sure some of the men have more
than banter in mind when you engage them.”

“I can handle myself,” I said, blushing and tasting sweet chocolate.

“Yes,” Duncan said, raising his brows. “I’ve seen that you can.”

“Anyway, Zach has suggested several times that I should sell off the bar and do something
else that would give me more free time to explore life and our relationship.”

“And you continue to tell him no, yes?”

“Yes,” I said with a cautious smile. “How did you know?”

Duncan shrugged. “I have something of a sixth sense when it comes to reading people.
You’re not the only one with freaky superpowers, you know.”

I laughed. “Superpowers? Hardly. But freaky . . . I’ll concede that one. Now I best
go and see what this cop wants.”

“Aren’t you going to eat something first?”

I shook my head. “I had a sandwich about an hour ago. I’m fine.”

Duncan narrowed his eyes at me. “I thought you were feeling light-headed.”

“Oh, that,” I said with a dismissive wave. “I’m better now.”

“You had one of those things, one of your experiences, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but as I told you before, I have them all the time. It was nothing.” He continued
to scrutinize me and I could tell he was skeptical, so to avoid any more questions
I headed for the kitchen door, pausing just before I went through it. “Are you coming
with me?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Of course I am. I made a promise to watch out for you, remember?”

“So you did.”

“And I intend to keep it. I’ve got an eye out for you, Mackenzie Dalton.”

I realized I kind of liked that idea.

I
t turned out the cop in my office didn’t want to speak to me at all. He was merely
there to relay information between Duncan and Jimmy without either blowing their covers.
In order to do so, Duncan had escorted the cop to my office and come to fetch me,
making it appear as if I was the one the officer wanted to see.

Instead, I stood by the door to my office while the cop and Duncan huddled in the
back corner exchanging hushed whispers. When the officer finally left, Duncan walked
over to me, reading over some notes he’d written down. I was anticipating him offering
a suggestion as to who I should talk to next, but of all the people I thought he might
mention, the Signoriello brothers weren’t among them.

“The Signoriellos?” I said askance. “Why? You can’t seriously think they’re suspects.
Those two old coots wouldn’t and couldn’t hurt a fly.”

Duncan looked apologetic. “Their names were on Ginny’s client base list, and they
are
regulars here at the bar, so they might have seen or know something helpful.”

“Still, what possible reason could anyone have to suspect either of them?”

“Like I said earlier, criminals often like to inject themselves into the investigation
of their crime, to keep tabs on what the cops are doing. And if I recall correctly,
the officer posted by the door this morning reported that the brothers appeared here
shortly after we did, eager to see what was going on.”

I dismissed this with a
pfft
and a wave of my hand. “You’re really reaching. They were worried about me, nothing
more. Besides, that was the time of day when they normally come in.”

“Do they usually show up here in the evenings?”

“No.”

“So why have they been here tonight all this time?”

“Because they’re curious, like everyone else,” I said, punctuating my comment with
an exasperated sigh. Then, realizing I wasn’t going to win this argument, I said,
“Do what you have to do. But talking to Frank and Joe is a complete waste of time.”

Duncan briefed me on what to ask them and then said, “Go ahead and invite them in.
One at a time, please. I don’t care who goes first.”

I didn’t want to. It made me feel like I was in cahoots with the cops, which I suppose
I was in a way. But I didn’t want my customers to question my allegiance to them,
especially Joe and Frank, who truly were like family. I reluctantly agreed but not
without first giving Duncan a look that let him know how I felt about the whole idea.

I walked over to where the brothers were seated and explained to them that I wanted
to talk with them in private about Ginny’s murder and some information the cops had
shared with me. I expected them to be hesitant or resistant, but apparently I didn’t
know the brothers as well as I thought. They both jumped at the idea.

“Hell, yeah!” Joe said, sitting back and puffing out his chest, his thumbs hooked
into his suspenders. “We’d be happy to give you the benefit of our vast knowledge
and experience.”

“And I assume we’ll get a free drink out of the deal just like Tad and Kevin did,”
Frank said.

“Of course.” It was a small price to pay for customer loyalty, though I suspected
the brothers would keep coming to my bar whether they got a freebie or not. Still,
I was chagrined to learn that word of my little chats and their attached reward was
spreading amongst my customers.

“Just lead the way,” Joe said, pushing out of his chair. “Come on, Frank. This will
be fun.”

“Wait!” I said. “I’d prefer talking to you one at a time.”

Frank and Joe looked at one another for a nanosecond and then they both shook their
heads. “Nope,” Frank said. “We go together or we don’t go at all.”

“That’s right,” Joe said. “We’ve been a team for seventy-two years and we ain’t about
to break it up now.”

“Yep, it’s both of us or nothing,” Frank said. He remained standing, staring at me
expectantly and waiting for a decision . . . like I had the right to make one. Then
I realized I did. It didn’t matter what Duncan wanted. These guys were my friends,
my extended family, and I was going to support them.

“Okay, you can be together,” I said.

“Atta girl,” Frank said, stepping away from the table as Joe stood again. “Lead the
way, Mack.”

As I threaded our little caravan between the tables and toward my office, I saw that
Billy and Gary were watching us intently. When we finally entered the office, I half
expected Duncan to raise some objection, but he said nothing because he was on his
cell phone, listening intently.

The brothers stood side by side behind the chair on one side of the desk, while I
went around and sat down in my chair on the other side. “So do the coppers have any
ideas about who did it yet?” Joe asked.

Duncan disconnected his call and stood behind the brothers with a thoughtful expression.

“I think they are trying to narrow down their field of suspects,” I said. “That’s
why I wanted to talk to the two of you. Your names popped up—”

“As the local experts on insurance fraud and crime,” Frank finished for me. “We know.
We’ve been consulted before. What kind of policies did Ginny end up getting? Did she
go for the business insurance like we recommended?”

I looked from Joe to Frank with an expression of confusion. “You talked to Ginny about
insurance?”

“Hell, yeah,” Frank said. “Who else would she go to? Joe and I got more than eighty
years in the biz between us. We’ve seen it all and we know it all.”

“What, specifically, did you talk to her about?” I asked.

“She wanted to know what the best option would be to make sure her kid would be taken
care of and could inherit her money with the least amount of hassle.”

It took me a second to register what Frank had just said and when I did, I shot Duncan
a look. He shook his head. I looked back at the brothers and said, “I wasn’t aware
Ginny had a child.”

Frank and Joe looked at one another, then back at me, and then they shrugged in perfect
time with one another. Frank said, “She must have a kid somewhere because she was
very specific about her needs. Apparently she had a business partner at one time but
went out on her own eight years ago. She wanted to make sure her ex-partner couldn’t
claim anything and that her kid could sell off the business and inherit her earnings
without any hassle.”

I shook my head, partly out of confusion, partly out of denial. “Ginny never talked
about any kids and I never met any. My father never mentioned any either, and I’m
sure he would have if he’d known.”

“Did the cops say whether or not they found any insurance policies?” Joe asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, shooting Duncan another look.

“Check with Harry Winters over at Fidelity Mutual. That’s who we told her to go to,”
Frank said.

I saw Duncan scribble down the name and said, “Did you two have any other business
dealings with Ginny? The cops said they found your names in her database.”

Joe answered. “We talked to her six years ago about selling our condo but we decided
to stay put.” Then Frank added, “Nothing since then except for the insurance advice.”

“And when did you have this insurance discussion with her?”

The brothers looked at one another, squinting in thought. It was eerie the way they
seemed to be communicating without speaking because a few seconds later they both
looked back at me, and then Joe said, “It was about a year ago, give or take a month
or two. Look into the insurance angle because I’m betting it has something to do with
her murder.”

“Anything else you need from us, Mack?” Frank asked.

I shook my head and smiled. “Not right now, but thanks. You’ve been very helpful.”

“Helpful enough to get a couple of free drinks?” Joe asked.

“Absolutely.” I walked the two of them out and on a whim I asked, “Did my father ever
mention Al Capone to you guys?”

“Al Capone, the gangster?” Frank said, and I nodded. “Why? Do you think the mob killed
your dad? Did Ginny have mob connections?” Frank went on, his eyes growing big.

“No, no,” I said emphatically, fearing I’d started a whole new rumor for the mill.
“Just something I was curious about.”

We were at the bar and I told Billy to give the brothers whatever they wanted on the
house. When I went back into my office, Duncan was writing something down in his little
notepad—the same one he’d been using to write down notes about bartending. I imagined
it would make for an entertaining report if he ever had to type any of it up.

I shut the door to the office and said, “Well, that was certainly more informative
than I expected it to be. But I don’t know if I buy it. I can’t believe Ginny had
a kid that I knew nothing about.”

Duncan said, “I’ll have someone track down this insurance guy, Harry Winters, first
thing tomorrow. If there was some big insurance payout for Ginny’s death, finding
out who the beneficiary is might clarify things and go a long way toward solving this
case.”

“What about this ex-business partner they mentioned?” I asked.

Duncan shook his head. “We already looked into that and we’ll take a closer look if
need be, but the guy lives out in California now and is worth several million on his
own, so I don’t see that panning out.”

I wanted to talk more about the idea of Ginny having a child but Duncan was all business.
“Would you go out front and work your magic on Cora by asking her to come back next?
I need to make a quick phone call.”

I left the office, looked around for Cora, and found her sitting at a table near the
far end of the bar among a group of other regulars, including Tad, Kevin, and the
just returned Signoriello brothers. The brothers were at a table with Cora, while
Kevin and Tad were seated at the bar, turned around so they were facing the table.
They were all talking together while Cora made notes on a notepad.

I figured there was no need to rush, so I walked over and stood nearby, trying to
look busy by wiping an already clean area of the bar, curious about their conversation.
I could tell Billy was trying to eavesdrop, too, letting Gary wait on everyone at
the other end of the bar. My efforts to remain invisible didn’t last long. Cora saw
me hovering and called me to the table.

“Hey, Mack, you’re one of the potential suspects, right?”

“I am.”

“Well, help us out here. It seems a bunch of us are on that list and we’re trying
to narrow it down by wading through all the evidence, and looking at who had motive,
means, and opportunity. If we can come up with some reliable investigative information,
we might be able to clear some names and eliminate some of us from that list.”

Missy had walked up to the bar to fill some drink orders and she overheard Cora’s
explanation. “That’s just silly thinking any of you guys could have killed Ginny,”
she said. “She wasn’t even here last night, and once the bar closed, none of you were
either, so how could any of you have killed her out in the alley?”

Everyone seemed to sense that Missy’s grasp of the timing and circumstances wasn’t
spot on and since most of us also know that Missy’s grasp of anything isn’t always
the tightest, there was an awkward moment of silence while we all tried to figure
out how to respond. Before anyone could, Missy shot me a horrified look and said,
“Oh, I guess that’s not true. You were here all night, Mack.”

“Yes, I was. But I didn’t kill her.”

“The cops were here this morning and they questioned you,” Frank said to me. “What
did they come up with for a motive?”

“They thought I might have been upset with Ginny for taking my father away from me.”

“This Ginny woman kidnapped your father?” Missy said, looking confused and incredulous.

I laughed. “No, she didn’t kidnap him. She was dating him.”

My explanation just made Missy look even more confused. “So you supposedly killed
her so she wouldn’t date your dead father anymore?”

I sighed and saw the others shake their heads. Fortunately Billy had finished filling
Missy’s drink orders so she took her tray and her skewed view of the world off into
the crowd.

“Anyway,” Cora went on, “we just learned from the brothers here the stunning news
about Ginny having a kid, so that puts a whole new spin on things. And since the cops
have shared some of their information with you, and you’ve been having these talks
in your office, we were thinking you might have some insider information we could
use.”

“I’m happy to try to help,” I said, knowing I did have insider info but unsure how
much of it I was at liberty to share. “But first I’d like to have a private chat with
you, Cora.”

“I wouldn’t do it, Cora,” Kevin warned in a joking tone. “It doesn’t seem so bad until
you get in there, but then she starts twisting things around and before you know it,
you find yourself wondering if maybe you did do it and just don’t remember.”

“I’m not afraid of Mack,” Cora said. “And I’m kind of looking forward to spending
a little more up-close time with that new friend of hers. He’ll be in there too, right?”
she said, looking over at me.

“Yes, he will. He’s providing me with a more objective perspective on things.”

“Oh, good,” Cora said with a little shivery shake of her shoulders. “I do love spending
time with a good-looking man.” Then she leaned toward me and in a hushed aside she
added, “Though to be honest, I’m not too picky about the looks these days. As long
as they have two legs and can walk upright without scraping their knuckles, I’m good.”

I laughed and led the way into my office. Cora entered with her usual flirtatious
flair: a slight flip of her red hair, an added sway in her step, and a sultry smile
on her lips. After giving Duncan a brief wink, she settled into the closest chair
while I went around the desk to my usual spot.