Well, money and power made for happy families, Monty assumed. Not that he’d ever known one, so maybe she had a point. Whoever “she” was.
“That’s why we’re here,” Mariah said patiently from Cass’s right hand. “We want to help Stacy and her family. Can you help us?”
“You will know about family,” Cass said in a slightly accented voice. “Wait until you have a babe you would protect with your life. You will see. That’s what a real mother does. She does not hire help to care for her precious child.”
Huh. Mariah was pregnant. Everyone knew that. Nothing new here.
“Peggy was Stacy’s mother, and she’s dead. She was not asked about hiring help.” Fee spoke up, interrupting.
Mariah cast her a surprised look.
Cass sniffed. “That one, a mother who works, she’s no better than my nephew or his boy. That baby needs love.”
Monty tried not to roll his eyes.
“Please, help us find Stacy. Do you know who the nanny is? Where she is? Is she with Stacy?” Mariah pleaded.
Monty hadn’t figured the anarchic computer engineer as a softy, but he supposed impending motherhood made a difference.
“My brother-in-law plays with fire,” the harsh voice said in scorn. “He has made enemies in his quest for power. He should stick with the people he knows, not disturb hornets’ nests.”
Monty tried not to shift restlessly. It was like listening to an old woman in the nursing home, one who wandered through past times and forgot where she was.
“Can you tell us how to find the hornets’ nest?” Mariah asked, evidently holding back frustration.
Cass’s chin dropped to her chest. Monty wanted to shout about the waste of time, but the women hummed, and he bit his tongue.
“The angriest hornet is in the big city.” A man’s voice emerged from Cass’s mouth. “Eduardo has something he wants, so he takes what Eduardo wants.”
Eduardo—presumably Gonzalez, the grandfather of little Stacy. The woman voice’s brother-in-law, the one playing with fire? And hornets’ nests, presumably.
Looking a little desperate, Mariah continued. “Is there some way we can find this hornet?”
“No. He is untouchable, surrounded by bodyguards.”
Not promising. Monty watched Fee’s grip turn white-knuckled.
“Who else?” Fee almost growled, causing everyone at the table to jerk anxiously. “Who else is a hornet? How can we find him?”
A low chuckle. “Anise. The big fish likes anise. He knows more than he’s telling.”
Big fish? Was the spirit—or Cass—talking Fee-type gangster fish? What was anise anyway? Monty clenched his fingers and waited for more. The women attempted to find a question Cass’s voice might answer better, without success.
Finally, Fee interrupted. “Cass smells tired and needs protein. Anyone have any almonds on them?”
Monty did. Fee, with her ultra-sensitive nose, must smell them. With a sigh, he lumbered to his feet and put the cellophane snack package on the table.
Tullah chanted what sounded like a farewell, and gestured for the others to drop their hands. Cass immediately stirred. Mariah tore open the almonds and offered them.
While Cass nibbled at the nuts, Fee pushed back her chair. “So, I just need to go to Waterville and hunt for someone smelling of anise. It’s not a popular scent.”
“No one said the fish was in Waterville.” Monty rose too. “We might want to find out what Eduardo has that hornets want.”
“Whatever is in the locker the key fits in,” Cass said stiffly, straightening to her usual steel-spine position. “Spirits don’t have all the answers.”
“So Gonzalez knows what’s in the locker. He puts the key in the collar of his granddaughter’s pet. Hornet and/or Big Fish want what’s in the locker, so one of them steals the granddaughter to force Gonzalez to surrender the key or the locker contents.” Monty summed it up with what little information he’d gleaned.
“And Gonzalez can’t give the hornet what’s in the locker because he lost Sukey and the feds now have the key,” Fee finished for him. “And presumably whatever is in there isn’t something anyone wants the feds seeing.”
“Evidence that would connect at least one of them to drugs and smuggling would be my guess,” Mariah added. “Although I don’t know why they just don’t break into the locker. I can look deeper into Gonzalez, but I have no way of finding an anise hornet.”
“Except. . .” Fee hesitated, obviously examining this new angle. “It’s the Lees who are putting up a reward for Stacy’s return, not Gonzalez. Stacy isn’t even their biological grandchild. Does anyone find this strange?”
“No,” Monty almost shouted, seeing the light of determination in Fee’s eyes. “You cannot walk the streets of Waterville in search of anise.”
She viewed him patiently. “I don’t have to. Anise is considered a mild digestive. The Romans baked it in cakes and served it at the end of feasts to reduce flatulence. It’s the origin of wedding cakes. It’s also used in ouzo and absinthe and black licorice candies.”
She started for the door. Monty wouldn’t let her pass. “And?” he demanded, knowing there was more.
“The TV reminded me of Harold Haas, the county attorney. I’m supposed to look for a Fool, remember? He qualifies, hubris and all. He ate at one of the restaurants I used to work at. I made anise seedcakes just for him. He always smelled of anise.”
Twenty-eight
Sunday, afternoon
Fee wriggled as Monty captured her in his muscled arms and prevented her from leaving. She had a goal. His tactics wouldn’t stop her from pursuing it—for long. Admittedly, she wasn’t able to escape without breaking his nose with her head.
“Wait!” Samantha hurried around the table. “Walker says you’re not to go anywhere. You’re too valuable a witness. You can’t go chasing after Fools.”
“There is more than one Fool in this case,” Fee said grimly, kicking Monty’s shin. “But how many other powerbrokers do you know who chew anise besides Haas?”
“I don’t even know Haas,” Monty said, lowering her to her feet but not letting her go.
“I do,” Cass said. “So does Xavier. They went to school together.”
Monty’s grip loosened and Fee slipped free but didn’t run. She stopped to study the older woman still nibbling almonds. Monty kept an arm around Fee’s waist, maybe to steady her because she was feeling pretty light-headed.
Everyone watched Cass, giving her time to plot would be Fee’s guess.
“Our strength is here,” Cass said slowly, almost reluctantly. “We need to bring the hornets to our territory. Teddy isn’t here to give us readings on their emotions, but Mariah might find a way of using ectoplasm to tell the truth. And perhaps Fee can help with more than locating anise.”
Cass was right. Fee already knew where to find anise. What good would it do her? She couldn’t smack a man as powerful as Haas and tell him to speak the truth. She’d let her brief moment of glory go to her head. She’d always known things. She’d never had the ability to act on them—jalapeño cheesecake and cyanide salad aside.
“We’ll get a real bad reputation if we keep having big parties and arresting half the crowd,” Monty said dryly. “If anyone is paying attention, they’ll stay clear of Hillvale after Mariah’s last little bitch-slapping session.”
Mariah offered him a half-hearted middle finger, but she waited for Fee to speak.
“We need more information,” Fee said sadly. “We need to hear from Walker about Roper and Portelli. I need to see images of any women involved in this case to match up to the one trying to steal Sukey. We probably need to investigate Haas so we have some way of luring him up here. Magic doesn’t really happen, does it?”
Monty hugged her. She didn’t want to be hugged or petted. She wanted Stacey back. She elbowed him away.
He didn’t seem to notice but said encouragingly, “I’m betting you’re further along than the feds.”
“You should have been a coach, team spirit, rah, rah.” Apparently anger and fear turned her into an idiot. She glared at him. The irritating man only grinned. She gave up. He was just too. . . confident to crush. “I wish the spirits had told us where Stacey is. I don’t care about the crooks. The one who killed Peggy is dead. I just want to rescue her little girl.” Fee broke free and headed for the door.
She’d have to believe in tarot and séances if Haas really turned out to be Amber’s Fool. She’d have to believe in a whole community of weird—who might catch crooks. And more impossible yet—she’d have to believe a wealthy hunk was really interested in pathetic her.
Monty caught up before she reached the porch. “We can do it. If the Lucys can work with Nulls, we can do it, promise. We just can’t do it right this minute.”
“Every minute that baby suffers away from her family scars her for life.” Ah, there was the source of her anger—frustration. “But I get it—no fairy godmothers, no magic wands.”
“Just hard work, using our heads, and working together. That’s where your fearless leader here steps in. Promise not to leave town while I’m on the phone, please?”
“You must learn your confidence from always getting your own way,” she decided, speaking aloud. “I’ve always been helpless, and I hate it,” she practically spat out, heading down the hill. “If Haas was here, I could feed him anise seedcake with a few added ingredients, ask questions, and maybe get some answers. But I don’t know what questions to ask! He’s supposed to bust drug dealers, not play in league with them.”
“He’s in a position to know all the drug dealers in town,” Monty said as he followed her down. “He probably knew Ramon and Ramirez.”
“He could be protecting Gonzalez,” Fee added. It was easier to theorize along with him than fight with herself. “Or he may just be taking bribes.”
“But if he’s an angry hornet and a dangerous Fool, we need to conjure real evidence, that the rest of the world will believe,” Monty said with a sigh.
Fee widened her eyes as he jarred a thought. “We have real evidence. We have the key. Would Haas know that? Or that we gave the real one to the feds?”
“We’ll ask Walker.” Monty practically sprinted toward town, dragging Fee with him.
The rest of the Lucys followed at a more leisurely pace.
Fee could see what he meant about persuading both sides to work together. They had terribly different approaches—but a common goal.
When the Lucys veered off toward the café and Monty aimed for City Hall, Fee didn’t know who to follow. She ran after Monty and tugged his coat to stop him. “How does Haas fit into any of this? Stacy belongs to Gonzalez and the Lees. Why is Haas involved at all?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.” Except he halted to think about it. “Gonzalez and Haas and the two stooges are from Waterville.”
“And Peggy and Stacy,” she reminded him as the Lucys disappeared inside Dinah’s. “Except when Stacy stays with dad in the city.”
“Dog found in Waterville. Stacy stolen from city. Nope, no connections. I’m going after a powerful attorney because Cass said to look for anise.” He rubbed his head and looked chagrined. “I’m not a detective.”
“None of us are,” she reminded him. “But we’ve identified Ramon and Ramirez and found the key. We’re doing better than the feds.”
“I’ll call Walker from Dinah’s office.” He changed his path to cross the street. “One of these days, when I’ve persuaded Dinah to retire so I can open a juice bar, I’ll have an office at this end of town too.”
Fee stumbled. Dinah—retired? Juice bar?
Despair washed over her. She was working with a man who meant to destroy her dream. She’d have to move again.
After verifying with Walker that Haas had no part in the investigation and wouldn’t know the key was in the hands of the feds, Monty strode out of Dinah’s office into the nest of Lucys. Late afternoon had filled the place with leftover wedding guests and tourists looking for a snack. The Lucys were crushed into a single booth where he couldn’t fit.
Fee wasn’t watching him but sitting in a booth with the Lucys, staring at the TV. He didn’t think this much of an improvement over keeping her head down. He glanced over his shoulder at the brightly colored weird figures on the screen. Teletubbies?
Even if Fee was ignoring him, Sam and Mariah looked up expectantly. OK, he’d play helpful mayor. “Walker says the feds haven’t identified the key. They have no interest in Portelli or Roper. They’re concentrating on the conflict between the Lee and Gonzalez families. The Lees are suspected of smuggling drugs and counterfeit goods. Gonzalez and his gang sell them. They think Stacy is the victim of a tug-of-war, possibly over territory or costs.”
Why did he care if Fee nibbled a french fry instead of looking at him? He wasn’t in high school.
“And of course they have no interest in Haas,” Mariah said with her usual cynicism. “As far as I’ve found, he’s squeaky clean, but I haven’t dug into his bank accounts yet. I need to go home and use Magic Mouse instead of my phone.”
Monty knew she meant the crystal-operated computer mouse Keegan had invented to keep her from falling into a trance and emptying the internet. Seeing an opportunity to grab a seat beside Fee, he offered his hand to help Mariah from the booth. “Go for it. The feds aren’t helping, and Walker won’t be back to interview Roper for another half hour.”
Mariah slid out without his help.
Fee followed her. “I should help Dinah. The café is supposed to be closed at this hour. She’s keeping it open for us while preparing dinner for Delphines.”
Sam departed with her, leaving Monty with the tarot dealer and thrift shop owner. “You came up with a plan while I was on the phone?” he asked.
“No. Did you?” Tullah replied.
When he shook his head, the last two Lucys left with an air of disapproval.
So much for his plan to work together. What the hell had just happened?
He glanced at the psychedelically animated creatures on the TV screen. For this, he’d poisoned his mother and not got laid? No, he was doing it for Peggy and her little girl. Feeling altruistic, he returned to his office to call his mother and wait for Walker.
“I have a lump,” his mother said coldly when he asked how she was doing. “They want to do a biopsy. Tell Francois to bring down my gold lingerie and matching robe and slippers. And why hasn’t Kurt called? We need to reschedule the wedding, unless of course, he finally got smart and called it off.”
A lump—they didn’t keep people in the hospital for a lump. He’d have to call her doctor. The doctor probably wouldn’t talk to him. He rubbed an ache forming between his eyes. “Kurt is in Hawaii. They had tickets and cleared their schedules, so they saw no reason not to keep their plans.”
“He went to Hawaii even though I’m ill?” Her screech didn’t quite hide the quiver of—fear? Monty was lousy at translating emotions over a phone.
“I didn’t tell him,” Monty lied.
Silence, followed by withering scorn. “You let them marry without me. You’ve deserted to the other side for which of the little sluts?”
She hung up before he could say there were no sluts and no sides, just hundreds of people who’d come for a wedding. She knew that anyway—and didn’t care.
He’d dated a therapist once who told him his mother suffered a classic case of narcissism. That sounded better than calling her evil.
He called the lodge to have one of the employees pick out his mother’s nightgowns and drive them down. Francois wouldn’t be doing that anytime soon.
With no desire to deal with budgets in the short time before Walker arrived, Monty strode next door to talk to Xavier. The rental agent had gone to school with Monty’s father. He’d been part of the hard-partying hippy commune back in the day. The former lawyer had burned out more brain cells than Monty had ever possessed, but he’d recovered a few these past years.
“Cass says you know Haas, the county attorney down in Waterville,” Monty said as he entered the office.
Xavier looked up from a contract he was reading. “Harold Haas? He graduated at the bottom of the class. Goes to show brains aren’t everything.”
“In politics, money talks louder,” Monty agreed. “What can you tell me about him?”
The agent studied him in suspicion. “Why do you want to know? Cass dated him a time or two when she was a kid. She probably knows him better.”
“Cass won’t talk to me. I’m hoping you will. The Lucys suspect him of being involved in the Stacy kidnapping.” Which, he knew, was totally unrealistic. He needed to stay away from the women to think straight.
Sitting back in his desk chair, Xavier shrugged his rounding shoulders. “I haven’t talked to him in decades. His father was in politics. The family had old money. Haas got by on charming people and his father’s donations to the university. Nothing new or interesting.”
“So Haas has money, isn’t bright or is lazy, or both. How’s the rest of the turpitude factor?”
Xavier unwrapped a peppermint and thought about it. “Nothing jumps out at me other than the usual frat boy drinking games. I think you nailed the lazy part. He’s the kind who slides by on charm and other people’s good will. He has everything, so why make the effort to do anything illegal?”
Monty considered that. He’d known people like Haas in school. Some of them got bored and committed reprehensible acts just because they could. Some of the stupid ones followed the leader and fell off cliffs. But Haas had been around a long time and apparently knew how to keep his hands clean. “If I need to bring him up here, will you make the call for me—old time’s sake and all that?”
Xavier sucked his candy and eyed him warily. “Should I know why?”
“Right now, only because the Lucys say so. I’m working on learning more.”
His agent picked up the contract he’d been working on. “Okay, if Cass thinks we need him here, I’ll come up with something.”
Azure Secrets Page 23
