The Wages of Cin (Cin Fin-Lathen Mysteries Book 4)

by Alexie Aaron

  He laughed. “Sorry, but I’m way out of my depth here.”

  “Me too. Shall we talk about the weather?”

  “It’s Florida in the summertime; it’s always the same.”

  “True. But I love it in November. The sky is so big.”

  “I know what you mean, and the streets are empty.” He stacked the blotted bacon on a plate and brought it into the living room. “Sorry, but I don’t have a kitchen table. Bachelors eat everything in front of the television.”

  I followed him out and found he had set up the coffee table with plates and napkins. He dropped the bacon off and opened up the front door to retrieve the paper. “I thought I’d look and see if the concert was reviewed.”

  I sat down and drank my coffee while munching on a strip of bacon.

  Sidney sat down and flipped through the paper until he found the leisure section. “Here it is.” He read it and put the paper down and looked at me. “The reviewer liked the new songs. Your son was a hit. And…”

  I put out my hand and said, “Either read me the review or hand the paper over.”

  “Tough crowd,” he said and handed me the paper.

  There, under a picture of the band, was the headline: Ely’s Coming Came and Conquered. “Dandy headline,” I commented. I scanned the article, and it was mostly positive. It did mention Simon’s accident but lauded his fill-in player. The interview also complimented how the band played through while the roadies fixed the light issue. “Light issue,” I said, shaking my head. I handed the paper back.

  “It’s not Rolling Stone, but it’s a start,” Sidney said.

  “Who knows what will happen as you continue to tour.”

  Sidney looked sheepish.

  “I know you’re leaving soon. Don’t worry,” I said. “And you’ve got a bucket list to finish.”

  “You’re amazing. You’re so confident.”

  “It’s an act.”

  “It’s a damn good one. How did you get into detecting?”

  “Accidently.” I told him about the trip to England to do a favor for a symphonic band associate, becoming embroiled in a mystery over the death of a US airman and missing musical manuscripts. “I killed two people. One was an accident, and the other was self-defense.” I told him about Ivana Penny and Michael Sherborn. “I think I was seconds from dying when Father Michael came to my rescue. Then the bastard got the upper hand. I wasn’t thinking. I just took out two little knives and stuck him under the arms and pulled him off the priest like he was a bale of hay. I didn’t think about where I stuck him or that the man would be fool enough to remove them. He bled out in seconds. The scars you saw in the shower came from that day. The scars from having killed are still healing,” I admitted.

  Sidney didn’t say anything for a while; he just pulled me closer as if his hug could push away the nightmare.

  “Your partner Harry wasn’t there.”

  “No, Harry came into things later. There was a duo of serial killers working their way through my band and…” Talking about horrible Harry helped to brighten the mood. “He wants us to become a team of private detectives, but I can’t see myself following errant spouses around for a buck.”

  “Being consultants puts you in a different category. It’s cool, Cin. I didn’t realize what an amazing woman you are. I’m quite shocked you even looked my way.”

  “It was your remembering me at the Zgap concert that attracted me first.”

  “I was attracted by your taking my chemo in stride. No pity, but yet you didn’t ignore it either. You told me to call you, so I did.”

  “Amazingly fast too,” I teased.

  “Early bird…”

  We ate in companionable silence and fought over the crossword puzzle after.

  “If they wanted you to ignore grammar rules, why didn’t they just say so?” Sidney pouted when I guessed a word that should have been hyphenated.

  “Don’t look at me; do I look like a sixth grade teacher?”

  “No, you are a beautiful woman who I enjoyed a wonderful night of making love with. I crossed that item off my bucket list this morning.”

  “Really? Cool. Anything else I can help you with?”

  Sidney lifted the newspaper off his lap. “I seem to have a problem here.”

  I didn’t mean to laugh, but I couldn’t help it.

  “Well, that’s one way of deflating my ego,” he said sadly.

  “I’m sorry, you were just so cute.”

  “Last night I was handsome,” he said.

  “And I was oh baby, oh baby…”

  His eyes flashed. I backed up. I had gone too far. He got to his feet. “Come here,” he said, pointing to the ground next to him.

  I turned and trotted down the hall. He caught me and carried me to the bedroom and tossed me on the bed.

  “Oh baby, oh baby,” I cried as he kicked the door shut.

  ~

  Sidney dropped me off at noon. I did the walk of shame past Harry who was washing my car. I didn’t stop to ask why it needed to be washed. A, I didn’t want to know. B, I didn’t want to explain why I didn’t come home last night. I went to my room and changed into my bathing suit. I needed to cool off. My internal thermostat still craved the attention Sidney gave me.

  I waded into the cool pool water and started to do laps. I was well-winded before I chose to float. I grabbed a raft from the side and, after two tries, managed to mount it and lay on my back.

  I heard Alex come home. Harry must have said something smart because Alex told him to eff off. He stuck his head out the patio door and said, “Mom, I’m home.”

  “Thanks, Alex,” I said, shading my eyes to see him better.

  “I’m in need of a hangover cure.”

  “Eat something greasy. I had bacon.”

  “We have bacon?”

  Shit, I forgot we didn’t have bacon. “There’s sausage in the meat bin.”

  His pounding head had bought the explanation.

  “If you wait, I’ll make it or…”

  He turned and yelled into the house, “Harry, Mom says for you to make us sausage.”

  “What’s she doing?” Harry asked.

  “Swimming.”

  “She’s exercising?”

  “Yeah, she’s on her 50th lap,” he lied and shut the door.

  I heard another door slide open. This sound came from the poolside apartment that was being used by my ex-husband, Luke. Long story short: he left me for the pickle heiress he was flying, and she dumped him. He was living here until he could get a decent deposit together for a place of his own, or find another woman to live with.

  “What’s all the shouting about?” he asked.

  “Friday night concert equals Saturday hangovers,” I said. “I didn’t know you were back?”

  “One of our passengers missed the flight to the mountains. We turned around and will be taking her there this evening,” he explained.

  Luke Lathen was a corporate pilot. He flew the rich and richer anywhere and at any time. He had landed another Florida-based situation, much to my disgust. True, he could now resume the tuition payments for the kids, but our jointly-owned property gave him the right to the pool house.

  “How was the concert?” he asked.

  “Great, your son was marvelous.”

  “Was it his band?”

  “No.” I filled him in on Alex’s temporary position and Harry’s and my job.

  “Gee, that sounds interesting.”

  “I have to have a meeting with Harry and share notes sometime today. I was just relaxing first. Getting the kinks out.”

  “Don’t stay out too long. It looks like your neck is getting a little red,” he warned.

  I put my hand to my neck. “I’ll go in now,” I said, sliding off the raft and wading towards the stairs. “Harry’s making sausage if you want to join the boys.”

  “Nah, I’m going to get something to eat at the airport.”

  This was code for: he was going to lunch wit
h a woman. He was dressed to the nines, and he had on cologne. I now understood the clues that I should have picked up on years before our divorce.

  I toweled off and entered my suite of rooms, making sure to lock the door after me. The men in my house had the tendency to just walk in without knocking. I walked into the bathroom and saw what I had suspected outside. My sunburn was actually beard burn caused from Sidney and my lovemaking this morning. I was lucky my face wasn’t all red too. I got in the shower and turned the water a bit colder than I was comfortable with. I had to calm myself down. Damn, that Sidney had done a number on me.

  ~

  Harry and I sat together, he at the desk (he got there first) and me on the small sofa facing the desk, in the den.

  I gave him all the information I learned from Sidney. He, in turn, gave me the gossip he learned last night at the party. “I concentrated on learning as much as I could about Meyer since he was the target of the falling light.”

  “But he’s not the target of the saboteur,” I corrected.

  “Last night he was.”

  “Granted. I have a theory that whoever is sabotaging the band doesn’t want to physically hurt Elijah, just keep him in line and away from touring.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Aside from being set up for Karen’s murder, Elijah’s been out of the fray.”

  “How would dropping a light on Meyer stop the tour? Elijah would just get another drummer to fill in.”

  “I don’t really think he would, but if he did, no insurance company is going to insure the concerts. I bet a dollar that the next concert is going to be postponed if not canceled. I’m surprised that Simon’s accident hadn’t already nixed the tour, insurance wise.”

  “Their manager has deep pockets,” Harry said. “Perhaps he paid to have the agent look the other way. Didn’t Sidney take the blame for the power surge?”

  “Yes he did. Do you think the manager paid him to take the blame?” I asked.

  “Seems to fit.”

  “I have to disagree. Sidney really seems to think he was to blame.”

  “You could be too close to see the truth of this,” Harry commented. “Perhaps Sidney wants the tour to fail.”

  “You may be right that I could be too close, but I’m also in a unique position to judge his character, and sorry, Harry, Sidney’s not ‘in on it.’ He has a percentage of the profits if the tour is successful. Why would he sabotage that?”

  “Okay, let’s table that for now. Mandy’s mother was there last night. Did you run into her?”

  “I may have in the restroom by the stairs, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I didn’t talk to her. Why?”

  “I kept hearing about an ‘effing redhead’ who was after Elijah. Evidently, Caroline saw the two of you together.”

  “Not last night. Wait, Elijah kissed my cheek in the lizard lounge. I thought that was out of character for the man I went to dinner with.”

  “Lizard lounge?”

  “Band suite.”

  “Oh,” Harry said and started laughing. “I do see what you mean, all the booze and the flirting going on. I swear that Manuel’s fiancée is younger than I am.”

  “There were two coked-up young women in the suite’s bathroom before the concert. I wonder if one of them was Manuel’s fiancée?”

  “There were a lot of drugs making the rounds after you left. Caroline Broadhurst was definitely on something.”

  “I guess it goes with the territory, and it worries me.”

  “If you’re talking about Alex, forget it. He may have smoked a bit of weed in his younger days, but he’s been towing the sober trail these last few years.”

  “Sober people don’t get hangovers,” I commented.

  “I meant sober in reference to drugs, Cin.”

  “Harry, I think in order to figure out who’s sabotaging the band, we have to look at the murder of Karen, the groupie.”

  “That’s a long way back.”

  “Still, I think it’s connected. I think we can weed the suspect pool of anyone who wasn’t around then.”

  “Sidney’s out then.”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “He said he met Elijah when the band was touring.”

  “Find out where he was when the band was in Kentucky, Cin.”

  “Give me the date, and I’ll ask.”

  “Gee, I thought I had lost you to love.”

  I blushed. “I just met the guy. No matter how much we click, the truth has to be drawn out.”

  “Did you have a good time?”

  “Harry, I enjoyed being with Sidney. I’ll not deny that. But I also know that he’s got a bucket list to go through, whether he’s at death’s door or not. He’ll be leaving for the first part of the tour soon.”

  “You’re pretty calm about this.”

  “I have no other choice,” I admitted. “I’m not sure when I’ll see him again anyway, so I’ll just wait and see.”

  “The last few days you’ve been acting a bit reckless.”

  “I’m always reckless. That’s why I agreed to have you living with us.”

  “Please don’t take this as a criticism,” he started and put a hand through his hair before he spoke again, “You’ve been pretty much a nun with your personal life. Then you go off kilter and end up in bed with, essentially, a stranger.”

  I thought about what he was saying. He was right. It wasn’t normal for me. “I think I just got caught up in the scene. It kicked me into my teenage years, and gone was the part of me that knows better. But, Harry, there was instant chemistry with Sidney. I can’t really explain it, but for the first time in a long time, I felt desired and, well, beautiful.”

  “Phew, I thought that maybe I’d got you into a situation, or you were going skank on me.”

  “Skank?”

  “You know, floozy.”

  “I know floozy.” I blushed. “Let’s get back to work. Maybe I can redeem myself.”

  “We need access to the band, their spouses and their entourage,” Harry said.

  “That’s going to be tough.”

  The phone rang. Harry picked it up. “Lathen residence.”

  “Yes, Mr. Richards.” Harry proceeded to fill the man in on what we found out so far without mentioning how we got our information. “We need access to these people. Do you have any ideas?” Harry listened for a while, and I saw a smile fill his face. “That sounds excellent. How are you going to put it together so fast? Your missus must be a social dynamo. She’s here. Okay…” Harry handed the phone to me, saying, “He wants to speak with you.”

  “Mr. Richards,” I said a bit too energetically. Harry gave me the calm down sign with his hand.

  “Tom, please call me Tom. Harry will give you the details, but I’m giving a party tomorrow evening to celebrate the success of the concert.”

  “That’s so timely.” I explained, “Tom, Harry and I need to interview some suspects. Could you extend the guest list to include anyone who would have been with the band in Kentucky when the groupie was killed?”

  “You found out about that, did you?”

  “There’s not much that gets by my associate,” I said, winking at Harry. “Also, is there a way to talk to Gareth Goodbody?”

  “He’s going to be at the party.”

  “I don’t understand. If he’s around, why didn’t he play last night?”

  “He’s contracted to the cruise line.”

  “Still…”

  “I asked the same question. One night, what would it hurt? But he insisted that he signed an exclusivity contract. His lawyers are looking for a loophole.”

  “I’d love to get a look at that contract.”

  “You’re not the only one,” he said. “Before I forget, your son did us a solid last night. I intend to help him out if he wants to further the exposure of his band.”

  “I appreciate that, Tom.”

  “Oh, make sure he shows up at the party.”

  “Since I’ve not been to one
of your wife’s parties, can you help me out with what I should be wearing?”

  Tom told me that it was casual which actually meant, in wife-speak, tea with the queen. “Make sure Alex wears long pants even though it’s summer.”

  “You seem to know my son well.”

  “I raised two teenagers and lived,” he said. “I gave Harry the particulars. I appreciate what you did last night.”

  I admit that part of me worried he wasn’t talking about the light tower, but I shook it off. “I got lucky. Sidney actually orchestrated the rescue. He’s amazing.”

  “I get the sense that you’re a bit smitten with him, Cin. Be careful, and don’t get your heart broken,” he warned in a fatherly fashion.

  “I hear you loud and clear. Thanks for caring.”

  “It’s the job. Now come and Miss Marple my party.”

  I laughed and handed the phone back to Harry to hang up. I looked at him and said, “We’ve got to go shopping. Alex has to wear long pants.”

  “What are you going to wear?”

  “I haven’t a clue. You?”

  “I have a few ideas.”

  The phone rang again. Harry answered it. “Hang on,” he said and put his hand over the receiver, whispering, “It’s lover boy.”

  I got up and grabbed the phone. I pointed to the door. Harry got up, and I answered the phone. “Hello?”

  “Cin, it’s Sidney.”

  “Hello, you,” I said, holding on to the phone with one hand and grabbing Harry with the other. I pulled him out of the chair and pushed him towards the door.

  “I just got an invite from Mrs. Richards. Evidently, there’s a party tomorrow at their beach house.”

  “I heard.”

  “Really? Oh yeah, you must have heard from Alex.”

  I didn’t want to correct him, but neither did I want to lie to him. “Actually, Tom called Harry and me. We’re going to be working the crowd.”

  “I was hoping you’d be my date. I’d like to arrive with you. I’m shallow and want to show off my conquest,” he confessed.

  I was oddly touched and annoyed at the same time. “I have to mingle.”

  “No problem. I can introduce you to the people you didn’t get to meet last night.”

  “I’m going to have to put you on the payroll, Sidney.”