Dead Man's Hand

by Lorraine Bartlett

  She drove to the food pantry and arrived just as Jimmy was locking the door for the day.

  Rolling down her window, she said, “Mr. Solero, hi.”

  Jimmy turned, bent at the waist to get a better look inside her car, and then walked forward. “Oh, hey, Ms. Bonner. Sorry, but we’re closed.”

  “That’s all right. I really wanted to speak with you. May I buy you dinner at that diner across the road?”

  “Um, yeah, okay. I’ll meet you there.”

  Katie pulled across the road and parked in front of the restaurant. She locked her car, went inside, and snagged a table by the window. If Jimmy decided to bail on her, she could see him leaving the food pantry. He probably believed she was crazy for wanting to talk with him out of the blue like this. But, instead of going in the other direction, he drove to the diner. Katie took that as a good sign.

  He slid into the booth across from her. “This is a surprise.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry for being so direct, but I need your advice.”

  Raising his brows, he asked, “You need advice from me? This ought to be good.”

  Before Katie could respond, the waitress came over and asked for their drink order. Both asked for sodas, and the waitress hurried off to get them.

  “I didn’t mention it the first time I met you because I wasn’t sure who you were,” Katie said, “but I’m acquainted with your sister-in-law, Gina.”

  His face was an inscrutable mask. “All right.”

  The waitress returned with their drinks. “Have you made up your minds, or do you need another minute?”

  “Give us another minute,” Jimmy said. “I’m not sure I’ll be staying.”

  “Okay.” With a worried glance at Katie, the waitress walked away.

  “I’ll get straight to the point,” Katie said. “When I met Gina, I was pretending to be someone else.”

  Jimmy froze. “You’re a cop?”

  “No,” she answered quickly. “But if you read the newspapers, then you know that a man died outside my tea shop on Victoria Square not long ago. With that incident so fresh in people’s minds, I didn’t want to go into a poker game filled with strangers and have them all judge me based on that single episode.”

  “That, I understand.” He took a sip of his cola.

  She sighed. “I wanted to be someone other than Katie Bonner, so I registered at the poker game under a false name. They didn’t seem to care as long as I had the buy-in money.”

  “Makes sense.”

  The waitress, apparently sensing that things were amicable between Katie and Jimmy now, returned to their table. “Have you made up your minds about what you’d like to eat?”

  “Sure,” Katie said. “I’d like the chef salad please.”

  “And bring me a burger and fries,” Jimmy said. “Thanks.”

  “Thank you,” the waitress said. “I’ll get your food out to you as quickly as I can.”

  “Did you win?” Jimmy asked Katie after the waitress had left.

  “What?” she asked.

  “At the poker game—did you win?”

  “I did,” she said. “No way near as much as the guy who died outside Tealicious, but I did okay.”

  “Seifert, right?” he asked. “Wasn’t he accused of cheating?”

  “I believe so, but nothing was proven.” Katie sipped her ginger ale. “I do know the dealer was fired, though.”

  “Was he in on it?”

  Katie shrugged. “I heard the guy had a partner, but I don’t know enough about poker to understand how you could cheat like that. Counting cards, maybe? Who knows? I just got lucky.”

  “Good for you,” Jimmy said. “My brother and I aren’t tight anymore, but I wouldn’t want to be the guy who cheated him at cards, that’s for sure.”

  “I’ve heard Tony has a bit of a temper,” Katie said. “That’s one reason I never told Gina the truth about my identity. I was afraid they’d both think I was a big phony.”

  Jimmy nodded but said nothing.

  “Anyway, I really like Gina, which is why I came to you.” She leaned forward slightly. “Do you think Gina would understand and forgive me for lying to her when we first met?”

  “No way. You’d be better off cutting ties with Gina altogether,” he said. “Once your trust is broken with the Solero family, it can never be mended. Trust me, I know.”

  Katie wasn’t easily frightened, but the menace in his voice made her hackles rise.

  Jamie was dead. Had he crossed Tony Solero?

  Suddenly sleuthing for his killer seemed downright dangerous.

  Maybe it was time to let Carol Rigby finish the job.

  Again, Katie lamented the loss of her friendship with Ray. And yet.…

  The waitress arrived with their meals and Jimmy dug in. He charged on, and Katie poked at her salad, only half-listening to his tirade against the family that no longer welcomed him.

  Katie knew what it felt like to feel abandoned. And now Margo had declared her her sole heir.

  Life had sure taken some strange turns during the past few weeks.

  Katie stabbed a grape tomato with her fork and thought about the past. What would she have changed if she could? It was a useless thought. The past was the past, and right now she felt the future was uncertain.

  She didn’t like that feeling. Not one bit.

  Chapter 34

  Feeling rattled after her dinner with Jimmy Solero, Katie remembered the specially blended tea Moonbeam had given her that was supposed to induce a feeling of calm. Brother, did she need it just then.

  Upon her return home, Katie removed the pink sachet from her purse and put the kettle on, putting some of the vile-smelling tea into a diffuser. Hopefully, it wouldn’t taste as bad as it smelled.

  As Mason wound around her ankles, Katie opened a can of cat food and fed him and Della. Then she went into the living room and turned on the television. She used the remote to flip through the channels and stopped on a sitcom she’d already seen. Tonight, she preferred mindless entertainment to anything educational—and she certainly steered clear of the news.

  The kettle whistled, and she returned to the kitchen to pour water into the cup. She bobbed the diffuser a few times before letting the brew steep for five minutes. Once she’d removed the diffuser and placed it into the sink, she took her tea into the living room. Curling up on the love seat, she took her first tentative taste of the murky beverage. It wasn’t the best tea she’d ever tasted, but it wasn’t bad—nowhere near as dreadful as she’d anticipated.

  Katie drank the tea while watching the sitcom and listening to the canned laughter—sometimes smiling at the jokes, sometimes not. She felt so very weary.

  Upon finishing the tea, she stood to take the cup back to the kitchen. The room spun, and her vision blurred. She sank back down on the love seat and put the cup on the table before it dropped from her fingers.

  Obviously sensing her distress, Mason crawled onto her lap and gave a plaintive meow. Katie raised her hand to pet him, but her limbs felt as though they were made of lead.

  “What…what’s…wrong with…me?” she wondered aloud, her voice sounding strange and far off.

  She managed to retrieve her phone from the table beside her. Opening her contact list, she called the first name: Margo Bonner. Katie was fortunate that her former mother-in-law was currently right across the Square.

  Margo answered her phone with a cheery, “Hey, there!”

  “I…need…help,” Katie said. “I feel.… Something is really—”

  “I’ll be right there.” Margo ended the call.

  Katie was still sitting on the love seat with her phone in her hand and Mason curled protectively on her lap when Margo and Nick rushed into her living room. For a second, the question of how they got into her apartment ran through her mind, but then she remembered she’d given Nick a spare key in case of emergencies. It was a good thing she had because this definitely qualified as an emergency.

&
nbsp; Mason knew Nick well enough that he didn’t growl or hiss when Nick hurried over to the love seat to take Katie’s hand.

  “Girl, you’re clammy,” he said.

  “I feel so dizzy,” she said. “And it’s…hard…to breathe.”

  Margo noticed the cup, picked it up, and smelled it. “Phew! What have you been drinking? Sludge?”

  “Tea…Moonbeam made….”

  “Oh, Katie, you should never straight up trust anything that woman gives you,” Margo said. “Doesn’t she practice the dark arts or something?”

  Katie was too weak to defend Moonbeam, but she did try to shake her head.

  Nick plucked Mason off Katie’s lap. “We’ll take it from here, buddy. You did well.”

  He and Margo got on either side of Katie and helped her to her feet. They led her to the door, and Nick grabbed her purse on the way out.

  “She’ll need this,” he said. “It has her insurance card in it.”

  Together, they got Katie down the stairs and into Margo’s rental car.

  “I’ll keep you posted,” Margo told Nick.

  “Are you sure you don’t need me to go?” he asked.

  “No, Don needs you this evening,” Margo said. “But thank you for all your help.”

  Nick kissed Katie’s cheek. “If you guys need me, call me and I’ll be right there.”

  Once settled in the car, Katie closed her eyes. Margo kept up a steady stream of conversation, but Katie couldn’t seem to concentrate on the words. She felt so…lousy.

  At the hospital, Margo had an orderly come out and help Katie into a wheelchair. Katie tried to protest but quickly realized it was for the best—she was too lightheaded to walk into the emergency room under her own power.

  Unfortunately, there were already two people in line in front of the reception desk and it took nearly ten minutes before Margo retrieved Katie’s driver’s license and insurance card from her purse to hand to the woman manning the computer.

  Once in the treatment bay, Margo paced while a technician took Katie’s vital signs. The pacing wore on Katie’s nerves, but she had to admit it was rather sweet—she hadn’t been mothered since before her Aunt Lizzie had died.

  Finally, a woman in a white lab coat entered the cubicle. “I’m Doctor Nakamura. How are you feeling?”

  “Awful,” Katie said, still feeling woozy.

  “Have you eaten or had anything to drink that you’d never tried before?” the doctor asked.

  Margo jumped in with an answer. “Yes, she has. She drank some kind of unpleasant-smelling tea.”

  “I had dinner in a diner a few hours ago, but I only had a salad. I felt fine until after I drank the tea. It was a gift from a friend who blends her own leaves and flowers.”

  “When was that?”

  “An hour or so ago,” Katie answered.

  “From your symptoms, it’s likely you had an allergic reaction. Tea made with hibiscus flowers is known to cause a drop in blood pressure. We’ll give you something to counteract that and hopefully, you should be feeling better in no time. If, however, you don’t, contact us right away.”

  After administering a shot, the doctor instructed Katie and Margo to wait a few minutes to make sure Katie was indeed feeling better while she signed the release papers. “A nurse will be in to check on you soon.”

  It wasn’t long before Katie felt distinctly better and well enough to leave and, shortly thereafter, she and Margo were on their way back to McKinlay Mill.

  When the women returned to Katie’s apartment, they found a police cruiser parked outside. A uniformed sheriff’s deputy got out of the car as Katie and Margo were getting ready to climb the steps to the apartment.

  “Are you the owners of this place?” the deputy asked.

  “I am,” Katie told her. “Why?”

  “While I was patrolling this area earlier this evening, I saw someone with a crowbar at your door.”

  Margo gasped. “A crowbar?”

  “Yes,” the deputy said. “I believe this person was attempting to break into the apartment. I turned on my lights and siren, and the person—whom I believe was a male—fled the scene. I pursued but lost the suspect. I’ve been patrolling the area since searching for him.” She gave an apologetic shake of her head. “No sign. Have you had trouble with anyone—ex-boyfriend, ex-husband, or other family members?”

  “No, I haven’t,” Katie said. “Although there was a break-in at my office in Artisans Alley across the Square this morning. I don’t know if the two incidents are connected.” Of course, they were. They had to be. These kinds of coincidences didn’t occur—not in her world.

  “Please exercise extreme caution and call the Sheriff’s Office if you encounter anything unusual,” the deputy said.

  After the deputy returned to her car, Margo complained the entire way up the stairs about how the woman could have caught the suspect had she not immediately hit her lights and siren.

  “Good grief,” Margo grumbled. “She might as well have gotten on the loudspeaker and announced, ‘Ready or not, here I come!’ Of course, the suspect fled the scene. What did she expect—a complete surrender? She’s probably a rookie. I have half a mind to report her.”

  “Please don’t,” Katie said. “I’m sure she was doing her best.”

  “I’m sure she was, too. That’s what worries me.” Margo looked over her shoulder at the deserted parking lot. “Why don’t we go inside and pack you a bag, and you can stay at Sassy Sally’s tonight?”

  “No, thank you. I refuse to be scared out of my home.” She unlocked the door, and they went inside. Katie was glad they’d left the living room light on. “I have excellent locks and will call the Sheriff’s Office at the merest hint of trouble—I promise.”

  After fussing over Katie for a few more minutes and ensuring she was well enough to be left alone, Margo returned to Sassy Sally’s. Katie hid by the window and watched Margo leave to ensure she was okay. The truth was that she wouldn’t have minded staying at Sassy Sally’s that night in case she had another episode of lightheadedness, but she was afraid doing so might endanger her friends.

  Katie undressed and got into bed, but sleep didn’t come easily as she wondered who had broken into her office and then had tried to force his way into her home only hours later. The light had been on, and Katie’s car was parked in the small lot behind Tealicious when the intruder had tried to enter her apartment. That meant the person who’d tried to break in that evening had believed Katie to be home. It wasn’t her belongings the intruder wanted—it was her. Katie was the target. But why?

  Was it Tony Solero? Given the fact that she’d had dinner with his brother, Jimmy, earlier that evening made it a possibility. Despite Jimmy’s complaints of how his family had treated him, he could have used Katie’s identity deception as a way to get back into Tony’s good graces. But that didn’t explain the break-in at Artisans Alley—that incident had occurred before Katie had spoken with Jimmy.

  If Phyllis had known who Katie and Ray were from the very beginning, other people at the poker game might have known as well. Maybe Tony and Gina had discovered Katie’s true identity from someone other than Jimmy. But even if that was the case, why would the Soleros want to break into Katie’s office and home? She had nothing to incriminate them or anyone else for Jamie’s death. What else could anyone want from her?

  Money.

  Could it really be that simple? It made sense, or at least as much sense as any other scenario she could imagine.

  Jamie had won big at the poker game, and now he was dead. Katie had won a substantial amount of money at an event sponsored by the same group, and now she had a target on her back. It had to be the money. Did the intruder truly believe, though, that Katie had so little sense that she’d keep a large amount of cash in either her office or her home, rather than putting it in the bank?

  Someone that stupid was probably more than willing to make other foolish choices.

  And possibly more deadly.


  Chapter 35

  Katie awoke Wednesday morning with her mind on a mission. Knowing Brad could handle the Tealicious desserts fine without her, she quickly took care of the cats, bathed, dressed, and headed for Artisans Alley.

  Once in her office with a hot cup of coffee, Katie called Ted Roberts, the dealer for Jamie’s table who’d been dismissed from his position at the Alexander Street poker club.

  “Hi, Ted. This is Katie Bonner,” she said when he answered. “I’m sorry to call you so early.”

  “Not a problem. I’ve been an early riser all my life. What can I do for you?”

  “Could you tell me how much money Jamie Siefert won on your last night at the poker club?” When he didn’t answer her right away, she pressed on. “The reason I’m asking is that I know how much Jamie deposited into a new bank account he opened. I want to know if he split the money with his partner before he died.”

  “How much did Seifert deposit?” Ted asked.

  Katie told him.

  “Nope. That was the full amount,” he said. “I imagine he was going to settle up with the partner later. Maybe he was calculating taxes first or something—I don’t know. What difference does it make? Did someone come forward to claim a share of the money?”

  “No, but I won around twenty-thousand dollars when I played, and yesterday someone tried to break into both my office and my home,” Katie said. “I’m guessing it has something to do with the money that I took home from that game.”

  “It might. Were you also accused of cheating?” he asked.

  “No. But I think it’s common knowledge among the other poker players that I had a connection to Jamie.”

  Ted blew out a breath. “Be careful, Katie. There’s nothing more dangerous than a sore loser, especially one who believes he’s been cheated.”

  After talking with Roberts, Katie called Luther Stapleton at Lamberton Conservatory. She realized the conservatory didn’t open until ten a.m., but she thought maybe he got there early. He apparently did not, and Katie left him a message to call her.