“Over what?”
Gabriel gave me a long look. “You’re doing it again, chérie.”
“Doing what again?”
“Getting involved in something you should leave alone.”
I made a face at him. “You’re the one who brought it up.”
“I asked you about the van that nearly hit you. You went straight from there to Destiny’s death and you’re trying to turn it into a murder without even pausing to take a breath.”
“Oh, come on,” I joked. “I’m almost positive I’ve been breathing the whole time.”
“It’s not funny,” he said, and to my surprise, he didn’t even crack a smile. “Why don’t you tell me what to expect, Rita. Will you be putting yourself in danger again?”
I like the guy. I really do. But sometimes he can be completely unreasonable. Like now. “I wouldn’t have to do anything if Detective Winslow wasn’t accusing me of selling drugs.”
“And you just can’t trust the police to get it right, can you?”
“Have you met Winslow?” I could feel the heat of anger rushing to my face. “On second thought, forget I asked. Because if you’d spent even thirty seconds in his company, you wouldn’t have to wonder whether or not he’d get it right.”
Everybody in the bar turned to look at us again—at least the good old boys did. I couldn’t actually see Pearl Lee and Scotty.
Gabriel moved around behind the bar, putting some distance between us. “Why can’t you just let the police do their jobs?”
“Why can’t you understand that the police aren’t interested in doing their jobs?” I snapped. I had one nerve left, and Gabriel was standing right on it. I pushed my glass out of my way and stood. “You know what, Gabriel? It’s been a bad week and I don’t have the energy to argue with you so why don’t we just agree to disagree?” I dug out a five and slapped it on the counter. “Keep the change.”
He shoved the bill back at me. “It’s on the house.”
He looked so smug, my last nerve snapped, and resentments I thought I’d buried bubbled to the surface. I tucked the money into my pocket. “Great. Thanks. It means so much more now that I know the Dizzy Duke actually is your house.”
Gabriel groaned aloud. “Are you still upset about that?”
“Me? Upset? No! Why would I be upset about the fact that you lied to me for nine months?”
“I didn’t lie,” Gabriel growled. “How many times do I have to say that?”
I held up both hands in surrender. “So sorry. You’re right. Let me rephrase that. Why would I be upset about the fact that you ‘neglected to tell the truth’ for nine whole months?”
He rubbed his face with one hand. “Fine. I’m sorry, okay? It just didn’t seem like a big deal.”
“Such a heartfelt apology,” I said. “I feel so much better.”
“At least I know how to apologize.”
Okay. That did it. I had a pithy comeback on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it when I realized that I was looking at an empty table where Pearl Lee and Scotty used to be.
“What . . . where . . .” I searched the nearly empty bar to see if they’d moved to a different spot. They hadn’t. “Where did they go?” I demanded.
Gabriel turned away and pretended a sudden interest in something on the counter behind him. “Who?”
“You know exactly who I’m talking about. Where are they?”
He looked over his shoulder and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
He looked innocent. Too innocent. Slowly, realization began to dawn on me. “You did that on purpose!”
“Did what?”
“You started an argument with me. You distracted me so they could sneak out. And don’t even try to deny it. It’s written all over your face.”
Gabriel treated me to another of his sexy Cajun grins. “What can I say? I’m a sucker for romance.”
“Romance? Please! Scotty’s in mourning and they’ve known each other for all of five minutes!”
“And the lady wanted to talk with him alone. Was that too much to ask?”
“Yes!” I said, pointing an accusing finger at him. “Miss Frankie is going to kill you.”
“Relax, chérie. It’s not the end of the world.”
“You’d better hope you’re right,” I said, slinging my purse over my shoulder and rushing toward the door. “Because if you’re wrong, I’ll kill you myself.”
• • •
I was outside ten seconds later, but Scotty and Pearl Lee had already disappeared. I swore under my breath and tried to decide on my next move. Maybe I should just go back to Zydeco and let Pearl Lee surface when she was ready. Just because Miss Frankie wanted me to keep her under control didn’t mean I had to break my neck doing it. Pearl Lee was an adult, fully capable of making her own decisions. Even if Miss Frankie didn’t agree.
But this wasn’t only about Pearl Lee. I also had to think about Scotty. He was vulnerable. Grieving. Not thinking clearly. Probably looking for comfort wherever he could find it, and Pearl Lee seemed only too ready to oblige.
I stood there battling indecision for a few minutes, then picked a direction and started walking. I didn’t really think they’d gone to the Chopper Shop, but it was worth checking there to be sure. With Destiny’s death so recent, Moose was probably at home attending to details. The empty building might give Juliet the privacy she wanted with her intended Romeo.
Halfway there, I called Ox on his cell phone. I gave him a rundown on Pearl Lee’s disappearance and asked him to let me know if she showed up at Zydeco. He fussed a bit about all the work we had to do before the end of the business day. He was absolutely right, but I was in no mood for a lecture. I promised to be back in an hour and hung up before he could argue with me.
Thirty seconds later, my phone chimed Miss Frankie’s ring tone. I contemplated answering for roughly two seconds, but quickly decided that ignoring the call would be the safest course of action. I could always return the call once I had Pearl Lee back.
To my surprise, I found half a dozen motorcycles in the parking lot when I reached the Chopper Shop, all three service bays open for business, and a Bob Seger song blaring from a set of loudspeakers. There was no sign of Scotty or Pearl Lee, but I could see Moose inside, perched on the corner of the desk and talking with a couple of long-haired biker dudes. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, and they all fell silent at once when they realized they weren’t alone.
Moose blinked a couple of times, as if he was having trouble focusing enough to see me. “Hey, Rita,” he said when he finally figured out who I was. He asked the other guys to give us a minute, and motioned me toward an old wooden chair when they were gone. “You’re looking a little better today. How are you feeling?”
I gave my standard answer. “A little better every day. I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t expect you to be open.”
His head dropped and he kicked the desk softly with the heel of his boot. “I had to do something besides make funeral plans. I was starting to go crazy just sitting home and staring at the walls.”
“I understand that,” I said. Grief is a strange thing and different for everyone. If he needed to keep busy, who was I to judge? “How’s Scotty holding up?”
Moose wagged his massive head slowly. “As well as can be expected, I guess.”
“I’m actually trying to find him,” I said. “Have you seen him?”
“Not lately. He went out a while ago. Hasn’t come back yet.” He looked at me strangely. “I’d ask if I could help, but I’m guessing you’re not here to get your bike serviced.”
“And you’d be right. He . . . uh . . .” I hesitated, unsure how to explain my problem. “Do you have any idea who he was meeting?”
“Friends. I’m not sure who. He didn’t say. Do you want me to have him call when he comes back?”
That might be too late. “The truth is, I last saw him with someone,” I said. “A woman. She’s the one I’m really trying to find.
”
Moose’s leg stopped swinging. “A woman? Anyone I know?”
“I don’t think so. She’s a cousin of mine, I guess. In a roundabout way. Anyway, she just got to town and she’s supposed to be working with me at Zydeco. We were out picking up a few things and we ran into Scotty. The two of them took off somewhere. I was hoping maybe they’d come here.”
Moose glanced around the cluttered and greasy office. “Not many places for them to go unnoticed around here.”
“Right. I realize it was a long shot, but I really do need to find her.”
“Where were they last time you saw them?”
“At the Dizzy Duke. That was about fifteen minutes ago. They snuck out while I was distracted. Do you have any idea where Scotty might go if he wanted to . . . spend time with someone?”
Moose snorted a disbelieving laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right? That’s what you think they’re doing? Well, I know damn well Scotty’s old enough to make his own decisions, so unless this cousin of yours is underage—”
“Good grief, no!” I said before he could finish that thought. “She’s definitely old enough. And if it was up to me, I’d just let them go and do their thing. But my mother-in-law—” How to explain Miss Frankie? I decided to skip that part. “And what about Zora?”
Moose’s head snapped up and his brows formed a V over the bridge of his nose. “What’s she got to do with it?”
“Well, you know, she and Scotty—” I broke off, figuring he could fill in the blanks on his own.
He just shook his head and looked confused. “What about ’em?”
“They’re together, aren’t they?”
“Scotty and Zora?” Moose actually laughed. “Um . . . no.”
Now I was confused. “Oh, but I thought—that is, I assumed—she just seemed so—”
“She’s a nice lady,” Moose said. “She came over to help out after Destiny died. But that’s all it was.”
Wow. Talk about reading a situation wrong. My cheeks burned with embarrassment, but underneath that was a strong wave of relief. I felt better knowing that at least Pearl Lee wasn’t currently wrecking Zora’s home sweet home.
“Well, then,” I said, eager to get out of there before I put my foot in my mouth again. “I’ll just go back to work and wait for her to show up.” I stood and turned toward the door.
“Hey, Rita?” Moose said before I could get away. “One question?”
I turned back and nodded. “Sure.”
“You said that Destiny showed up at Zydeco to help collect supplies for the cleanup, right?”
I didn’t want to talk about that, but I couldn’t just dodge the question so I dipped my head and said, “Right.”
“You said she wasn’t feeling well.”
“Right.”
“What was wrong with her?”
I didn’t want to answer that question either, but he deserved the truth. “I think she was on something,” I said reluctantly. “She was having trouble walking and her words were slurred, and she was behaving strangely.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought you were gonna say.” He rubbed his face and let out a sigh that seemed to come from the bottoms of his feet. “She swore to me she was clean. She swore she wasn’t using again.”
“And you believed her,” I said gently, “because she was your wife. Anybody would.”
His eyes burned with sudden searing anger. “She lied to me. It wasn’t the first time either. Every word that came out of her mouth was a lie.” He stood and took a couple of steps away, then turned back and slammed his fist onto the desk. Everything on the desktop jumped and so did my heart. “She lied and I was such a damn fool I believed her.”
I was in way over my head, and I didn’t want to call attention to myself when he was smashing things, so I didn’t say anything at all.
“Felix tried to warn me, you know. I told you that. He saw it.”
“You loved her. You wanted to believe her,” I said. “That’s understandable.”
“Yeah.” He snorted softly and turned away again. “Yeah. I wanted to believe her. And the whole time she was robbing me blind and using the money to get high. What else did she do? Was she sleeping around? That’s what Zora thinks, you know. I heard her telling Scotty last night. She thinks that Destiny was sleeping with Edgar.”
Zora’s not the only one, I thought, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him.
“Was she?” he demanded.
Crap. He was staring at me, waiting for an answer. “Edgar denies it,” I said. “He says they were just friends.”
“Yeah, well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”
“It could be true,” I pointed out.
“And it could be another lie.”
He had a point. I’d taken Edgar’s story at face value, but what if he was sleeping with Destiny? He’d seemed determined to convince me they were just friends. But were they? Or had their relationship been much more? And how far would he go to hide the truth?
“Did he know she was using?”
I nodded slowly. “He denied it at first, but then he said she was struggling to stay clean and that he was trying to help her.”
Moose’s face crumpled. “She told him and not me?” He dropped into a chair so hard it creaked in protest and buried his face in his hands.
I watched his shoulders shake and heard the heart-wrenching sounds of him sobbing. I stayed there, patting his massive shoulder and making “there-there” noises until he finally calmed down and I felt comfortable slipping away.
But as I crossed the parking lot, I wondered, who was this guy? Was he a tenderhearted teddy bear or a killer moose? I couldn’t get a handle on him. I couldn’t get a handle on any of them.
I just hoped I wouldn’t end up paying for something one of them had done.
Fifteen
I’d lost track of time while talking to Moose, but as I started past Second Chances on my way back to work, I realized that though I’d talked to Isaiah the other day, I still hadn’t asked Aquanettia or Keon about the accident. I glanced at my watch, convinced myself that I had a few minutes to spare, and decided to take a chance on finding at least one of them at work.
I’m not a fan of the thrift store experience. After my parents died and I went to live with Uncle Nestor and Aunt Yolanda, money was tight. Adding another mouth to feed and body to clothe—a girl in a family of four boys—had taken a toll on a budget already stretched to the breaking point. Aunt Yolanda had been a genius at stretching a dollar, and I’d spent more weekends than I wanted to remember helping her look for clothes and household items amid the junk other people had no use for.
Losing my parents had turned me into a surly young woman determined to find fault with the world that had betrayed me. Wearing secondhand clothes had only added fuel to the flame. I’d vowed that when I grew up and ruled my own world, I’d never buy secondhand anything.
To psych myself up, I stopped in front of the gate and took a quick look around. I’d been here before, but only to attend alliance meetings. Going inside as a customer was a whole ’nother story. Like Zydeco, Second Chances occupied an old house that had been repurposed as a business. But while Zydeco’s renovation was recent, Second Chances had undergone its change of life at least a decade earlier, and some of the improvements were already showing signs of age.
Five short steps led from the front walk to a long front porch, where two windows flanked the center entry. A well-tended hedge separated the shop from the street, and only a carved wooden sign discreetly wired to the front gate identified the old house as a business.
Inside the yard, however, the illusion of grandeur vanished. Old patio furniture and lawn ornaments lay all over the grass, and uneven stacks of terra-cotta pots lined the fence on one side. A long cracked driveway stretched along the other side, separating it from the Chopper Shop.
I opened the door and the familiar musty odor of old, used items assaulted me. I tried not to wrinkle my n
ose as I stepped inside, where a mishmash of items covered every imaginable surface. Aisles, narrow and mazelike, curved haphazardly through the mess.
I found Keon, a kid of about twenty with a bored expression, stocky build, and mocha skin sitting with his feet propped on a long glass counter and playing a handheld electronic game. He didn’t even glance away from his game, acknowledging me only with an irritated, “Yeah?”
Killer work ethic, dude. Your mother must be so proud.
Keon didn’t seem interested in small talk, so I tried to ease into the conversation with a little white lie. “I’m looking for a crib set for a friend. Do you know if you have one in good condition?”
Still not looking up, Keon gave a lazy shrug. “No idea.”
Well. That was helpful. “Do you have an inventory list or something? I’m kind of in a hurry.”
Keon punched a few game buttons with his thumbs. “Nope. You want to look around? Knock yourself out.”
Okay then. Obviously I’d have to try another tack. “It’s such a shame about Destiny from next door,” I said. “Did you know her?”
Keon’s eyes finally flickered up from the game. “Kind of. Not really.” Now that he was actually looking at me, his eyes lingered on the bruises on my face. “You’re the lady who almost got hit with our van.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Rita Lucero. I work at Zydeco a couple of blocks down.” I held out a hand.
He stared at it for a long time and then looked back at his game. “You ain’t here for a crib, are you? What do you really want?”
I leaned against the counter and tried not to look annoyed by the snub. Maybe I wasn’t as slick as I thought. “Okay. You got me. I’m trying to find out anything I can about the accident. Were you here on Monday night?”
Keon shook his head. “Not me. I heard about what happened when I got home.”
“So you didn’t see anyone outside near the van? You don’t have any idea who might have stolen it?”
He curled his lip in what I thought might have been a smile. “I don’t know nothing about that. Why are you asking anyway? Isn’t that a job for the cops?”
The Cakes of Wrath (A Piece of Cake Mystery) Page 13
