Grace” on their bagpipes, and I felt unexpected tears prickle behind my eyelids.
“Bridget would have loved this,” Gigi said with a sigh, gazing up at the pale sky. “She always did love a good funeral. She said black made her look taller, and damned if it didn’t.”
“She loved sparkly pinks, too,” Gloria whispered loudly from behind us. Her voice trembled, and Tiny pulled her closer to his beefy side. They’d been dating since last summer, ever since my sister had encouraged Tiny to invite Gloria to a square dance. Ever the attentive boyfriend, he dutifully took Gloria’s wadded-up tissue and handed her a new one. “I really loved that old bitch,” she gurgled, and burst into a full-blown sob. The bagpipe music moaned to a pitchy halt, and Clancy McArthur called out, “First drink at the Palomino Pub is on the house! Time for a right proper wake.”
Like thirsty lemmings, we followed. We were the world’s least organized parade, or perhaps the world’s least threatening gang. Somewhere near the corner of Perkins and Main, someone started singing “O Danny Boy,” and so it went as we strode purposefully to the pub. Bridget O’Malley was most certainly sitting on a cloud right above us, singing along.
“Why, hello, Madam Mayor,” Leo said, smiling broadly as I walked into the pub a few minutes later and wound my way up to the bar. His presence caught me off guard. With all the funeral and mayor-ing stuff over the past few days, I’d kind of forgotten about him, but one look at that face and it all came back to me. Handsome, helpful Leo Walker who now worked at Clancy’s pub, and who looked right at home with his shirtsleeves pushed up to his elbows and a beer in each hand. Trigger the fluttering.
“What can I do for you?” he asked.
Realistically there were a couple of different answers I wanted to give him. Seduce me. Marry me. Help me forget that everyone on this island seems to be having sex except for me, including my grandmother and the ancient O’Douls. But I opted for a straightforward and non-flirtatious response instead. “I’ll have a vodka tonic, please.”
“Coming right up.” He quickly filled a glass with ice and pulled a bottle from the shelf behind him. “Take a seat. Talk to me for a bit.”
I suppose it’s the least I can do, what with him not having any friends on the island. I am the mayor, after all. “Okay.” I settled onto a stool and watched as he expertly filled the glass. Not that filling a glass is all that complicated, but he held the bottle up high and then gave it a little flip when he was done. This is not a skill that is remotely useful unless you are a bartender, but still, I was impressed.
Someone jostled me and Dmitri appeared, nudging a few people aside to settle himself on the barstool next to mine. He’d attended the funeral service without his beekeeping hat, but now it was back in place, with the netting pulled up around the brim. He’d taken off his dark suit coat and replaced his dress shoes with hiking boots. An odd pairing with his dress slacks, but I’d seen him in stranger outfits.
“So, tell me about this FBI agent you and Shari talked to,” he said. His voice was loud over the din of the crowd, and Leo turned to stare.
“FBI agent?” Leo said.
I shook my head at them both. “He wasn’t an FBI agent at all. He was some skeevy private investigator from Florida with some ridiculous story about a jewel thief hiding out on this island.”
“A jewel thief?” Leo’s brows rose with interest as he set my drink down in front of me on a little cardboard coaster.
“Gin and tonic, kid,” Dmitri said, then turned to me. “What makes you think it’s so ridiculous?”
“It’s ridiculous because we know every single person who lives on this island, and we know the regulars who just come for the summer, and not a one of them is a jewel thief.”
“How do you know?” Leo asked, scooping ice into a glass.
I resisted rolling my eyes. “I just do.”
Dmitri leaned forward, toward Leo. “Well, I’ve heard some things. Some mighty interesting things.”
I took a gulp of my drink. “Of course you have, Dmitri, but that doesn’t make any of them true.”
Actually, the only thing I knew to be true at this moment was that Dmitri was always hearing mighty interesting things, and