Azure Secrets

by Patricia Rice

  Her suspicion confirmed, Fee thought her heart did a triple backflip of fear. She retreated to her head down position, mumbled “I’ll ask,” and shoved past him a little more forcefully than was polite.

  Pulse thumping, she hastily scanned the room, looking for the best solution to this dilemma. She didn’t want the man looking for Sukey or bothering Cass. He might actually be honest about his wife, but she wouldn’t take chances.

  Monty was at the head table with his brother. He’d be giving his toast soon. Cass and the older Lucys were on the other side of the room. She didn’t want to draw attention by going directly there and starting a mini-riot. Aaron and Harvey had disappeared in the crowd. To her relief, sturdy sensible Mariah was heading her way. Fee wove through the crowd to meet her.

  “Tell me where the potties are,” Mariah demanded as soon as she saw Fee. “This kid doesn’t hold water.”

  Remembering Mariah was pregnant, although the slim silk certainly didn’t reveal it, Fee led Mariah toward the back exit. Feeling the stout broker’s eyes on her, she babbled as if she hadn’t a care in the world. “I’ve never seen potties as fancy as these. I think they must have brought them from some award show like the Oscars. They’re satin lined, with lavender candles, and lotions and sinks and everything.”

  “This, I have to see. I bet Teddy’s interior designer sister dreamed them up.” Mariah admired the heavy, floral-decorated drapery concealing the exit as she stepped through.

  Fee waited in the back hall, nervously clasping and unclasping her hands. The broker had finally returned to the main dining room—which left her feeling like a stalker. Still, Mariah was the only Lucy she knew who could be separated from the crowd. While she waited, she dug back through her memory for portly guy’s name.

  And then she remembered pregnant women couldn’t drink alcohol, so she snagged one of the waitstaff and asked for a bottle of sparkling water and a champagne glass. She had the water waiting as Mariah emerged.

  The bridesmaid beamed at recognizing the water bottle. “Brilliant. Monty’s about to start his speech.” She grabbed the bottle and glass and hurried toward the front.

  Fee ran after her. Mariah was taller than average and athletic, so it took almost twice as many steps to keep up. “If you have a minute, I think Monty said he would ask you about the investment broker he met a few days ago.”

  “Portelli?” Mariah halted. “He did, but every time I started digging into him, I got ten dozen urgent emails. I thought I’d be able to work better tomorrow, after all this is over. Why?” Her dark eyes focused on Fee as if she were the only person in the room.

  Fee dug her fingernails into her palms. This was where she made an idiot of herself, but she would simply have to learn to deal with being weird. “He smells fishy and he’s asking after Sukey. I think he believes she belongs to Cass, and I’m worried.”

  Mariah frowned and scanned the room. “I’ve found enough to know there are rumors about him, but with his name, people are going to suspect mafia for no good reason. I wanted to dig into his clientele. He manages a lot of high-profile Silicon portfolios. I would think he’d have been thoroughly vetted by that crowd. Fishy, you say? How does that translate into the real world?”

  She didn’t seem to be poking fun. Fee took a deep breath and studied the crowd as well. Portelli was watching her. Damn. “I may have to broaden my definition, but where I worked, fishy meant drugs. It could mean thieves, since the men who tried to break into my place were thieves. But I bet they were also druggies. Mostly, I’d say, it means he can’t be trusted. And he may be thinking you’re the dog’s owner since he demanded that I talk to her, and he’s watching us now.”

  “All right.” Mariah smiled brightly, as if they were just discussing the sparkling water. “Is Sukey safe for now?”

  “Locked in the pantry.”

  “Then go back and enjoy the party. Cass and I are safe in this crowd. I’ll pass word along, and Portelli won’t be coming near any of us anytime soon. Try to stay on the opposite side of the room from him until word gets around. And thanks for the water.” She departed to squeeze behind the wedding party and return to the chair beside Keegan, her giant-sized husband.

  Fee watched Mariah whisper to Keegan, who got up and talked to Walker on the other end of the table, bypassing Monty and the bridal couple.

  With no part in the toasting and speech-making, the police chief got up to casually talk to a few acquaintances, who spread across the room, presumably sharing drinks and gossip. Keegan and his friends were quietly doing the same.

  Fee watched as Hillvale inhabitants instantly grew alert, subtly changing positions so they could scan the room. The city guests cheered and laughed at Monty’s toast, unaware of anything but the fun of a good party. Fee relaxed her shoulders a little, checked Portelli’s position with Carmel’s guests on the far side from the Lucys, and made her way back to her table.

  Harvey held out a chair for her. Cass offered a polite smile and returned her attention to Monty’s speech. Fee noticed Aaron and the other men had positioned themselves evenly around the large table, leaning against the wall or just standing, watching the show. Their champagne glasses were still full.

  They were taking her warning seriously. Instead of being relieved, she prayed she hadn’t been ridiculously cautious and ruined everyone’s fun.

  Tullah leaned over and whispered, “Your guardian spirits are worried. They approve of your caution for others. It is difficult rooting out the evil among us.”

  She returned to smiling and clapping with everyone else.

  Evil? Fee supposed evil didn’t wear red and horns. Drugs could be called evil. Dog-snatching? Not so much. She shivered and put a smile on her face. That wasn’t too difficult while admiring Monty in his splendid suit drinking from a sparkly champagne glass. As he sat down and let the bridal couple take the center of attention, he looked directly at her, not completely hiding his concern.

  So, he’d managed to hear the whispers too. She lifted her glass, smiled as if she hadn’t a care in the world, and sipped. Why would the wealthy mayor of Hillvale care one iota about her welfare? He had hundreds of glittering guests to entertain. She was the least significant of them all.

  Well, maybe she was on a par with the table of lodge employees in the other corner. She recognized the officious lodge manager, who wasn’t sitting with the others, just leaning over to talk with one of them. Wearing a tailored suit and boutonniere, he moved on to talk with lodge guests as the caterers spilled around the room, delivering food.

  Fee cautiously joined the Lucy conversation while keeping an eye on Portelli. The broker sat next to a young woman who spent an inordinate amount of time flashing her cleavage at the younger man on her other side. Was that Portelli’s wife? She didn’t appear too concerned about her dog.

  “The caterers have done a fine job sticking to your recipes,” Fee said to Dinah, trying to stay calm. She’d tasted everything as it was prepared, so all she had to do was eat. “You need an official front of the house person to talk to potential clients, someone who can sell Delphines as a reception venue.”

  “You do it. I ain’t talking to those high-falutin’ sorts who sneer down their long noses.” Dinah gestured with her fork at the tables behind her.

  Until this minute, Fee hadn’t realized that Dinah had taken a seat with her back to the room, as had Amber. Interesting, but not her concern. “We probably need a high-falutin’ sort to do the talking,” Fee replied in amusement, realizing she felt the exact same way about sneering faces without the same reasons as Dinah.

  “Hillvale’s high-falutin’ sorts are otherwise employed,” Harvey reminded them. “And they know nothing of menus. Looks like you’re the front of the house, Fey-onah.”

  “She isn’t haughty enough,” Xavier, the lawyer turned rental agent, said. “She has to be able to say with a straight face that the restaurant is booked for months and that it would take a large party for Delphines to consider rearranging
their schedule. That’s how it’s done.”

  Half following the nonsensical conversation, Fee watched the lodge manager stop to confer with Portelli. It was definitely a conference, not idle party talk. Both men looked concerned. She tried to ignore the feeling that her ears were burning. She breathed easier when they both departed, presumably on their way to the open bar in the café next door.

  The musicians had returned to playing soft chamber music, hardly noticeable above the din of a few hundred people talking at once.

  In the distance, fireworks popped.

  Except Fee had reason to recognize the sound—gunfire.

  Twenty

  Saturday, afternoon

  Monty saw Fee’s face pale. He’d been enjoying her smile as she actually ate her food and interacted with others. He knew it was stupid to be watching a Lucy when he was surrounded by normal women in silks and diamonds eager for a romantic wedding romp.

  Lucys saw straight through his muddled head and rightfully dismissed him as beefcake.

  Instead of flirting with normal, he was wasting his time teasing Fee with knowing glances.

  Fee blushed every time she caught him looking, but she wasn’t blushing now. She was staring at the door as if she might be confronted with gun-toting. . .

  Gunfire. That hadn’t been the usual pyromaniac shooting off fireworks to celebrate the occasion.

  He shoved back from the table. Walker did the same. The others looked up, but Monty held up his phone. “Just checking on Mother.”

  Kurt grimaced, and the others followed Kurt’s example and returned to their food and laughter.

  Monty headed for the nearest exit, the one leading to the toilets. Walker was already there. He nodded at the front door. “Your girl is heading out with Aaron on her heels.”

  “I won’t make it across that floor alive,” Monty countered, knowing a few hundred guests and townspeople stood between him and the main door. “I’ll risk the kitchen first.”

  “Good thought. Dinah’s not back there to whack off your ears. Check on who’s in the café and doing what. I’ll meet you in the alley.”

  Setting the café up as an open bar had been a debate for months. The wall separating Delphines from the café created an unsocial barrier for a reception, but there had been no choice. Delphines simply didn’t have the space for a bar.

  Stomping through the connecting back of the restaurant as if he owned the place, forcing the waitstaff to dance around him, Monty shoved through the swinging door from the kitchen to the café.

  Dinah’s booths were half-filled with guests who preferred to drink their dinner. Others spun around on the counter stools, flirting with the bartenders and each other. Fee and Aaron weren’t here and no one seemed aware of the gunfire.

  Monty debated returning to the kitchen and going out that exit, but Fee had gone out the front. He needed to see what the Lucys were up to.

  Lucys. He was drooling over a woman who could magically potion every person in town with her food. He had to be mad. Maybe she’d dropped magic beans in his salad.

  Maybe he really was as stupid as he felt sometimes. But he stepped out on the boardwalk to regard the crowded parking lot—and instantly heard Fee’s frantic cries. Blood rushed to his head. Fingers bunched, he spun in the direction of the sound.

  He caught a glimpse of her kneeling on the ground in between two hulking SUVs, ruining her pretty blue dress as she bent over a body on the ground. What the hell had happened?

  Fee looked up in anguish and cried Sukey again, looking off to the right, where the damned dog was happily running under parked cars.

  He couldn’t see Aaron, but the man on the ground was too small to be the antique dealer. Crossing the lot in long strides, Monty had nearly reached Fee when he realized a woman was in the road, coaxing the stupid dog toward her with a treat in her hand.

  Fee sent him a helpless look. “I can’t stop the bleeding, but I think he’s still alive.” She had her new shawl pressed into the man’s shoulder. Her gown only came to her waist in back. Monty finally got an eyeful of slender curves and creamy skin when he couldn’t do anything about it.

  “Walker’s coming.” Monty glanced over his shoulder at his police chief running out of the alley. “He can radio for help. Want me to hold that?”

  She shook her head. “Someone let Sukey out. I think that woman is trying to grab her. Aaron went after some man I’m afraid might be the shooter. The place reeks of fish, and I don’t know what to do!” she wailed.

  She sat up enough for him to see that the front of the gown barely concealed nice cleavage with a spatter of freckles. His timing was really off today.

  “Crap.” Monty ducked down beside her, checking under cars for the errant dog and anywhere that wasn’t bare skin he couldn’t touch.

  Finding the mutt under an Escalade, he whistled. Sukey looked up, curly tail wiggling, and trotted in his direction. The woman screamed and more shots rang out, just as a powerful motor roared to life.

  Monty pushed Fee up against the nearest car and blocked her with his body. Walker ducked behind a rusted Jeep. Darting out from his hiding place, Aaron rolled under the Escalade to grab the dog.

  The woman stomped her foot in frustration. A long Lincoln with dark windows pulled up next to her, and she climbed in the back seat, slamming the door as the car squealed off.

  More shots rang out, but the car vanished around the bend.

  Staying low, Walker took off between the parked cars in the direction of the last volley of shots.

  While Aaron shoved the wiggly dog under his blazer, Monty gazed down at the fallen man on the ground. “That’s my mother’s chauffeur.”

  “He’s not dead yet,” Fee said in a voice raspy with screams and fear. She glanced sadly up at Aaron. “Cass will have to take Sukey again. We can’t have people being killed for her.”

  Monty wanted to weep for her. Instead, he growled agreement. “While you’re in there, send Brenda out. It may be time to hire Walker’s investigators. I’m not having shoot-outs in my town.”

  “I’ll leave,” Fee said, weeping, trying to stop the bleeding by applying pressure with her new shawl. “I’ve ruined everything by coming here. And it wasn’t even me but my dog! It makes no sense.”

  She didn’t even know the poor man on the ground or why he’d been caught up in the gunfire. Carmel’s chauffeur? Why?

  “You didn’t shoot Francois. None of this is your fault.” Monty stood over her, scanning the parking lot as if he had a gun and could shoot back if the gunmen returned.

  “Get down,” she whispered. “They’re still out there.”

  “Walker has covered the lot and not flushed them out. They could have run down between any of the buildings and escaped. Here comes Brenda.” He signaled the nurse practitioner approaching from the restaurant in her wedding finery.

  Fee hadn’t realized how badly she was shaking until Monty lifted her away from the wounded man on the ground. Strong hands on her bare skin made her shiver in longing for this shield from reality.

  Instead, she refused to let him hold her. Shaking him off, she shifted out of the way so Brenda could squeeze between the cars.

  Hanging the radio on his belt, Walker joined them. “The ambulance is on its way,” he told Brenda. Then he turned to Fee. “You were closer than we were. What did you see?”

  Fee closed her eyes and tried to picture it. Monty’s warm hands squeezed her shoulders, and she realized she was chilly. She tried to remember she wasn’t under suspicion here. “It’s all scrambled. I was fretting over Portelli wanting to be introduced to Sukey’s owner. And I was watching him talk to. . . Roper? Is that the lodge manager’s name?”

  Monty’s hand squeezed tighter. “Balding guy, boutonniere? Yeah, that’s Roper. He introduced Portelli to us.”

  Walker waited patiently, saying nothing.

  “They left, I assumed for the bar. That’s when I heard the shots. So they may have been out here and saw more than I di
d. When Aaron and I ran out, I didn’t see them. I saw Sukey running down the boardwalk and tried to catch her. But when I crouched down, I saw the man—Francois?—on the ground.”

  “You didn’t see anyone else?” Walker demanded.

  Fee shook her head. “I was looking down, at Sukey, at Francois. Aaron may have seen more. He’s tall, and he was trying to stay in front of me.”

  “What in hell made you run out at the sound of shots?” Monty asked in frustration. “That’s the last thing you should do!”

  “I told you,” she said in frustration at the tears threatening to fall. “Portelli and your manager had just walked out, and I was afraid. . .” She wasn’t sure what she’d been afraid of, except both men had smelled of fish. She finished weakly, “I was afraid they were after Sukey. It would have been silly to try to push through all those tables when I could reach the pantry easier through the café.”

  And now she would have to give up Sukey or take her elsewhere. Tears did fall then. She wiped at them angrily. “Can I go? I need to see what they’re doing with my dog.”

  She ought to care about the man on the ground, except he not only smelled fishy, but like Carmel, putrid. And then she remembered she was not only allowed but supposed to tell authorities that.

  She yanked away from Monty and glared at both men. “Portelli smells of fish.” She hesitated, then figuring she would be persona non grata from now on, she added, “And your mother’s chauffeur smells as putrid as your mother. They’re rotten.”

  She stalked back into the restaurant. A band played a sentimental slow song while Teddy and Kurt danced, surrounded by a circle of their friends, blissfully unaware of the trouble in the street. Fee wanted to weep even more when she realized the wise and loyal Lucys formed the core of that protective circle.

  She didn’t want to give them up. She wanted to stay in Hillvale with people who respected and accepted her.

  But she couldn’t abandon Sukey any more than she could risk these people she admired. Even dogs deserved a forever home. The Lucys didn’t need her. Sukey did.