else get you to calm down and see that you’re wrong.
Vicki nodded enthusiastically. I didn’t know yet what I was going to do, but seeing the relief on the girl’s face made me believe I’d at least said the right thing.
As I gave her another hug, I glanced at the occupied tables around us. Professional journalists regularly canoodled with their laptops in coffeehouses all over this city, and mine was no exception. The accusations Vicki made—naming Linford so loudly as her dad’s killer, pleading with me so emotionally to get involved—weren’t exactly the kind of thing I’d want to read about in tomorrow’s tabloids.
But the few people with laptops were absorbed in their work, and I knew them as regulars—two NYU undergrads, a young lawyer from a nearby firm, and a doctor from St. Vincent’s Hospital up the street. There was only one person looking our way: that gorgeous thirtysomething redhead who’d nearly run me over the previous night at the Blend’s front door.
She was sitting alone, a few tables away, nursing a latte, her scarlet curls framing high cheekbones draped in porcelain, her doll-like eyes staring openly at me. She was studying me with such intense interest that I wondered if she wanted to talk.
Maybe she actually wants to apologize for her rude behavior?
I deliberately met the woman’s eyes to see if she would gesture me over—but she immediately looked away.
I let it go.
I doubted very much that she was any kind of writer or reporter. The previous times I’d seen her in here it was never with a laptop, PDA, or work of any kind. Travel brochures, exclusive catalogs, and high-end fashion magazines were all I’d ever seen her paging through as she nursed a drink.
Socialite. Trust fund baby. Trophy wife—any or all of these ungenerous labels were what I affixed to the woman in the banks of my memory, and I dismissed her interest as either boredom or some sort of imagined vendetta she now had against me for our momentary confrontation the night before.
Great, that’s all I need in my life: an aging Paris Hilton with a sociopathic grudge.
Meanwhile, Vicki was explaining to me that she had to leave. “I have to meet with Brother Dominick about Dad.”
“Alf had a brother in the city?”
“Not that kind of brother. My dad didn’t have any siblings. His parents are dead, too. Brother Dominick was Dad’s boss at the Traveling Santa headquarters—”
“He’s a Catholic monk?”
“He used to be. His first name’s really Pete, but all the guys playing Santa call him ‘Brother,’ even though he left the order years ago. Anyway, Brother Dom is the one making arrangements for my dad’s funeral.”
“Why isn’t your mom doing that?”
“Mom doesn’t want any part of it,” Vicki said, a little bitterly. “I doubt she’ll even show.”
“Oh,” I said, pausing as that sank in. “Well, don’t be too hard on her, Vicki. When a marriage breaks up, it can be painful. Your mom’s probably still focused on her anger, and she may even be in denial. The grief for your dad will come in time.”
Vicki’s mouth tightened, and her hazel green eyes went cold. “You don’t know my mother,” she said, and then she rose and grabbed her coat. “Well, thanks for doing what you’re going to do, Ms. Cosi. You have my home phone number, and Esther has the number for my cell. Call anytime.”
We hugged again, and then Vicki headed for the door. When she was out of earshot, Esther turned to me. “I don’t know if she’s paranoid about this neighbor of theirs or not, boss, but I’m sure Vicki will appreciate anything you can do.”
“What do you mean, anything I can do? We’re going to be working together on this one.”
Behind her black glasses, Esther’s eyes went from their typical, world-weary squint to freak-out wide. “Excuse me?”
I bolted back the remains of my mochaccino and set down my cup. “I just decided. You and I are going to start investigating Alf’s death right now.”
“What?!”
“Listen up, Esther. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to need a partner—and tonight you’re it.”
NINE
“WHAT are you wearing?” Esther whispered fifteen min utes later.
“For what we’re about to do, I needed something black and grungy.”
“Well, boss,” she said, making a theatrical show of looking me up and down, “you scored.”
In the apartment upstairs, I’d shed my pressed slacks and sweater, replacing them with scuffed black denims, a navy turtleneck, a faded Best Mom in the World sweatshirt, and worn hiking boots leftover from