Sonnie aimed an elbow at his ribs, but she also grinned. “I didn’t suspect it was you, Aiden. The disguise is fabulous.”
“He’s like a kid,” Chris said. “Halloween is his idea of heaven. But you’re right, he’s dam—darned good at it.”
Aiden knew better than to persist with the ribbing—at least not at a time like this. “Thanks. And don’t worry, Sonnie; I rarely choose something this flamboyant. For the past couple of days I’d definitely have been missed in any crowd.”
Bo and Roy arrived with drinks that hadn’t been ordered. Oysters followed, and baskets of French fries and onion rings. “Just to keep your strength up,” Bo said, sliding several pieces of Key lime pie on the table. “Nibble here and there. That’s what I do when I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
“Thanks,” Aiden said, and refrained from mentioning that nothing Bo ate went to his waist.
Bo hung around.
Roy returned with a bottle of champagne and five glasses. “What the hell’s that for?” Chris asked.
“Language,” Roy said. “It’s just in case we might want to celebrate something. Okay if we join you?”
“Hell, no,” Chris said.
“Hell, yes,” Sonnie said, and Bo laughed, slapped his knees, and cackled.
“This is business,” Chris informed everyone. “There isn’t goin’ to be any celebration today, and the fewer people who know what’s goin’ on here, the better.”
“Ooh, but he does get so Carolina when he’s mad,” Bo said. “I love that lazy sound.”
Roy looked at the ceiling. “In case you haven’t noticed, bro, you seem to need our help. Bo’s and mine, that is. Is it just possible we’d get better at making decisions where Sonnie’s concerned if we knew more? Hey, say the word, kid, and we’re outa here. We’ll still do our best because she’s our best girl, but it might be nice not to be handicapped by ignorance.”
Enjoying himself thoroughly, Aiden slipped all the way into the booth and slapped the seat beside him. “You’re right. Sit down. Maybe we’ll celebrate a little common sense around here, huh?” He looked very deliberately into Chris’s hard hazel eyes. At the moment they were real hard and showed the shade of green that got mixed in when he was boiling at being crossed.
At last he said, “Pull up a chair, Roy. Don’t take what I say too personally.”
“Never have,” Roy said comfortably. “Υοu always were a pigheaded little varmint. I don’t know how anyone could stand being your partner anyway.”
“Drop that,” Chris said. “Fill us in, Aiden. Everybody keep both eyes open for approaching ears.”
“Gotcha,” Roy said, and Aiden took great pleasure at the sight of Sonnie pressing her lips together to stop herself from grinning again.
Chris jabbed a forefinger at Aiden. “Before you wow us with your incredible detective efforts, answer me a question or two. It took a bit, but I finally got a call back from Ballsy in Records.”
‘Ballsy?’ The chorus went up from everyone but Chris and Aiden.
Chris waved a hand. “Don’t ask. If he weren’t invaluable, he’d have been out on his ear years ago. You, Mr. Flynn, are on an indefinite leave of absence. I told you to get lost, and you promptly got the sergeant to believe you’re all stretched out and need a looooong break. Now, if I’d asked him for that kind of privilege, he’d have laughed me out of his office. But good ol’ Flynn doles out a sob story and he gets all the time he wants. How come? Something between you and the sarg Ι don’t know about?”
“Watch him, Aiden,” Bo said. “I know it seems unlikely, but this guy might be questioning your sexual preferences. Now, I’d be one of the first to welcome you to the family, but if that isn’t your scene, I’ll get the ice bags and you can flatten him.”
“I won’t need the ice bags,” Aiden said, chuckling. “He likes to push. If he pushes too far, he’ll get his, but I won’t be offering TLC. I got the leave. End of story.”
“Where have you been?” Chris said. “I even went out to look over that blot on the landscape you call a vintage automobile. I figured you might have been sleeping in it and I just didn’t notice. It leaks so badly it’s always fogged up anyway.”
“Oh, no.” Aiden covered his mouth. “Don’t tell me I forgot to make the bed.”
Sonnie turned a slice of pie around and around and finally attacked it with a fork. She rolled her eyes with ecstasy and got real serious.
Aiden couldn’t resist revealing his latest personal acquisition. “I’ll be putting the pink pony in mothballs soon. Just wait till you see my new baby. I got a ‘fifty-nine Cadillac Sixty Special four-door hardtop.” He actually clapped his hands.
“Cadillac?” Chris said.
Flynn nodded. “Time I got versatile. Bought it at auction. Sight unseen, but who cares? One-hundred-thirty-inch wheelbase. Overall length”—he paused—”two hundred twenty-five inches. Torpedo-shaped dummy air swoops. And those fins. It’s got to be taken all the way down, but—”
“Paint it chartreuse,” Chris said, rubbing his head.
Aiden pointed at him. “You’ve got it. Chartreuse. I love it.”
“A zoo,” Chris said. “We’re supposed to be conducting an investigation, and the rest of you are having a party.”
“Got to eat sometimes,” Sonnie said around a mouthful. “Congrats, Aiden.”
“Thanks,” Aiden said. “All right. Down to business. I’ve lucked out, Chris. First, I don’t think Sonnie is delusional.”
“Thanks,” she said without looking up.
“Sorry if I gave that impression,” he said, and he was. “It was just that there didn’t seem anything to substantiate your claims. Cops are boring about stuff like that. Judges don’t listen to hunches, so we’ve got to keep going after evidence that can be seen, heard, and preferably touched.”
“Like dead bodies,” Chris said. Apart from the occasional French fry, he was too engrossed in Aiden to eat or drink. “Any idea why KWPD’s so nonchalant about Edward’s death?”
“They’ll probably get less nonchalant in time. Especially now. One of my visits yesterday was to the funeral home. The assistant medical examiner’s a nice guy. Very professional.
“There’s no doubt the tissue and blood samples turned up heavy doses of local anesthetic. But there’s something else. And this is really stupid on behalf of whoever did it. Edward was unconscious when those shots were administered. Speculation is that he was stuffed into his sleeping bag. He tried to get out and hit himself a good one on the side of the head. There was a nasty hematoma and a lot of swelling. He would have been unconscious. So giving him those shots was a piece of cake. But they really screwed up using the backs of his arms. Somewhere he’d have been capable of reaching himself would have been so much better. Then there would have been some thought about suicide. Good news is that he was out cold before the fire started. He had some nasty moments, but not as nasty as they could have been.”
“Thank God,” Sonnie said quietly.
Roy and Bo said, “Amen,” in unison.
Chris said, “If I could be sure the bastard didn’t intend to do something to Sonnie, I’d be lighting candles to him. The jury’s out on that. What else?”
“Moving right along,” Aiden said mildly, picking up his beer and taking several hefty swallows.
“Why don’t you have a meal before we go on?” Sonnie said. “I’m so grateful for everything you’re doing. So’s Chris. Aren’t you, Chris?”
He looked sideways at her and Aiden’s jaw tightened. His old buddy had a bad case. Now they’d better pray the bottom didn’t drop out.
“I’m grateful,” Chris said finally. “You want to eat, Aiden? It’s okay with me.”
“I’m doing fine, thanks to Bo and Roy.”
“This is dangerous stuff, isn’t it?” Roy said. “You’re right to be closemouthed, bro. But don’t think you can’t trust us to be careful.”
“I don’t. Aiden?”
“I’ve been polishing up m
y pilot’s license. Got to get in my annual hours.”
The expression on Chris’s face showed that he expected this announcement to have bearing on the case.
“Went up with a guy from Island City Flight Service. Nice folks. Casual but good. And helpful. The first guy I went up with didn’t respond to any of my hints. The second guy was full of information. Sure as hell doesn’t like the Giacano brothers. Said they were assholes—”
“Language,” Roy said predictably. “And you’re talking about Sonnie’s relatives.”
Aiden smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, Sonnie. This guy said he knew someone who was at the field the night you had the big bang up. Evidently there was a miniexodus afterward. Several guys left for various reasons, so there aren’t many people to talk to.”
“Come on, come on,” Chris said, beckoning with four fingers. “What about this guy who had all the information?”
“I’m getting to that. He said this other guy, the one who was at the field that night, said he couldn’t figure out why Romano went back to the airport after the accident—on foot—and rented a moped when he had that fancy Jag. Romano said he’d left the Jag where it was because the police didn’t want anything moved, but he had to get messages out to Sonnie’s family, and do a whole lot of other things.”
This time it was Chris’s turn to pour down some beer. “Unless the Jag was involved in the accident, there’d be no reason for it to be kept there. Romano would have to testify to what he saw, but that…well, maybe there’s something we don’t know. I’ll get out there and talk to the moped outfit. Could be something that’ll help. Where do I find the loudmouth? The guy who talked about Romano renting the moped?”
“We’re not having a lot of luck with witnesses,” Aiden said with that old frustrated sensation he knew so well. “Deep-sea fishing was his thing. Matter of days after Sonnie’s accident, the man drowned in high seas. They never found him.”
Every time the phone rang, or someone came through the door of the Nail, Sonnie jumped. Roy had insisted on opening the champagne and pouring each of them a glass. “To celebrate that they were alive and kicking,” he’d said. Sonnie was alive, but kicking might be out this evening.
Another customer walked out of the sultry evening, and Sonnie jumped yet again. She was still expecting Mr. T-Shirt to pop up again. He troubled her, and she knew he troubled Chris, too.
The man approached her directly and she rubbed her eyes. How could she have failed to recognize Romano immediately? “Hello, little Sonnie. How is my girl doing?”
“Fine.” Snapping back that she wasn’t his girl would be childish. “How are things at the club?”
He wrinkled his very straight nose. “Frankly overwhelming. Seems Cory Bledsoe has taken lessons from the previous golf pro and ducked out. Not a word. Just packed up his things, put them in his car, and left. Which means that since I have a sense of responsibility, I’m doing my poor best to fill his place, too, and I’m interviewing prospective replacements. I’m not having any luck. But that isn’t what I came here to talk about.”
I’m sure it wasn’t. Sonnie was too tired. The day had been long and tense, and she didn’t like it that she couldn’t be sure where either Chris or Aiden had gone. Mostly she just didn’t like Chris being gone at all.
“Roy,” Romano said suddenly. “I am Romano Giacano. Sonnie’s brother-in-law.”
Dislike thinned Rοy’s mouth, and his expression turned flat. “Is that so?”
“Yes. We have been a very close family but we have suffered a great deal. Did Sonnie tell you that we have had word that my brother Frank—her husband—is dead?”
Roy made sympathetic noises.
“I haven’t spoken of it,” Sonnie said, disturbed at the realization. She hadn’t as much as considered telling Roy and Bo about Frank’s death. “There hasn’t been a right moment.”
“Αh, I see. But Chris did explain what happened—my call to him? You think highly of him, and I thought he would break the news kindly.”
“Yes.” She looked away. “He did.” Her mind revisited the upper hallway at the Truman Avenue house and she felt muddled.
Romano took something from his pocket and slid it across the counter toward her. “Would you wear this? It was Frank’s. But you know that. I know he would want you to have it.”
Frank’s medal. He never took it off. “Where did you get this?” she asked.
“I…” Romano fumbled to sit on a stool and closed his eyes. He propped his elbows and buried his face in his hands.
“Romano?” She no longer knew what to believe about him, whether he was friend or foe, but she knew he was suffering now. “This hurts so much, doesn’t it?”
“It was delivered to my room at the club. Can you imagine that? They must have been afraid it would be traced if they shipped it to me. It was on the floor outside the door. Just like that.”
“I’m sorry,” Sonnie said, and she was sorry for his pain. “I’m sorry for both of us,” Romano said. “We both loved him. How will we go on?”
Guilt made an ugly companion. “I wish I could say something to make you feel better.”
“You make me feel better just by caring. Wear his medallion, Sonnie.”
Sonnie picked up the heavy gold chain with a religious medal attached. Frank had been his own god. Just touching the gold sickened her, but to let her true feelings show might be very unwise. Keeping her eyes lowered, she put the chain over her head. She was careful to wear it on top of her cotton shirt rather than against her skin. “Thank you,” she said. After all, Romano would expect her to find his gesture touching. “I’ll look after it.”
“He may come back, Sonnie.”
“You’re the one who said he’s dead.” He could only be speaking his longing aloud, and she pitied him.
“I had to report what I’d been told—and what that medal signifies. But in my heart”—he looked up and beat his chest—“I feel my brother is still alive. You and I need to talk. You are the closest I shall ever come to having a sister of my own, and I need you. Will you help me through this? As I will help you?”
“If I can,” she said without thinking. “Yes, of course I will.”
“Thank you.” He bowed his head again. “Thank you, my dear sister. I haven’t always been as understanding as I should. Forgive me for that, please.”
“Forget it.” The least she could do was comfort him. “I’ll never forget how kind you were to me at the hospital. We’ve got to put the past behind us.”
He nodded slowly, but his face remained strained. “Will these gentlemen allow you to leave for a few hours? I need you, Sonnie.”
The thought of Romano smothering her with his emotional outpourings terrified her. “Ι’m working.”
“Roy,” Romano said promptly. “I should like to take Sonnie with me and to have an opportunity to talk things through with her. Would that be agreeable?”
Roy and Bo glanced at each other. “Sonnie,” Roy said. “You know what Chris said.”
Sonnie looked from Roy to Romano, who clung to the edge of the bar and pleaded with his eyes.
“We’d better see if we can get Chris,” Bo said. “Make sure he isn’t coming back for you like he said he might.” The lie didn’t sound comfortable on the man’s lips.
“Of course,” Romano said. “You have other arrangements. Forgive me for intruding.”
She felt trapped. But perhaps she could turn the time into something useful. She’d talk to Romano about the night she’d been injured. He’d explain about his reason for walking back to the airport—and he might well tell her other things that would be useful. “I’ll come, but only for an hour or so,” she told him. “Roy, if Chris calls, tell him I’m with Romano and we’ll be back in two hours at the outside. Will that do?” she asked Romano.
“A great deal can be accomplished in two hours, my dear.”
The last prop plane from Miami set down late after its twenty-five-minute flight to Key West. It arrived just b
efore midnight. Chris was aboard. Zipped into the inside pockets of his jean jacket were sheets of papers, copies of documents. He’d sweet-talked a medical records clerk out of them at the hospital in Miami where Sonnie had fought her way back to life.
He ran down the rickety metal steps from the plane and hurried to the arrivals and departures building, where an illuminated sign announced that he was back in “The Conch Republic.”
He barely made it inside one of the doors when Billy Keith popped in front of him. “Hi,” she said, showing a lot of white teeth, and a lot of other things. “Isn’t this great? I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw your Harley out there.”
His Harley wasn’t where the casual onlooker would stumble over it. “Hi to you, Billy.” He made to move on. His bike was inside the tall wire fence at a separate area of the airport, an area used by the passengers and crews of light planes.
Billy showed no sign of going on her way. “I came out to pick up an Airborne shipment.” She brandished a pack as proof. “But you’re a big bonus.”
Moments when Chris became aware of a woman looking him over—the way Billy Keith looked him over—were rare. Sizing him up was the right term. The sensation wasn’t flattering. “Nice to run into you, Billy,” he said. “I’d better go bail out my bike.”
Still she didn’t move. Her gray linen dress might be minimalist, but it was perfectly cut—for a perfect figure. He was no sartorial expert, but the lady knew how to put herself together. Low-heeled gray sandals showed off bright red toenails that matched her lips and fingernails. She’d pulled her hair away from her face into some sort of sleek thing at the back of her head.
Yep, Billy Keith was a showstopper, but Chris avoided women he couldn’t like.
He looked past her toward the street side of the building. “Well, nice to see you, Billy. I’d better get on.”
The big smile disappeared. “Running into you like this is a sign. I’ve got to talk to you and I can’t put it off any longer.”
Chris wanted to get back to Sonnie, and he wanted to make some plans with Flynn. “It’s late, Billy. Don’t think me rude, but I’ve got to get some sleep before I try to make sense talking to anyone.”
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