of Sudsy Robertson, then knelt down near my chair. “Let me guess. The jewel thief?” he asked.
“Yep. They’re on a roll.” I took one of the drinks off the tray. I didn’t care that it wasn’t mine. It was clear and looked like a gin and tonic, so I slugged it down. Yep, gin and tonic.
Leo smiled an I-think-you’re-cute kind of smile, and the corners of his eyes crinkled in a way that made me want to squeeze him. With my vagina.
“Have they said anything that might have a kernel of truth to it?” he asked. He was leaning so close that his forearm brushed against my leg, and I didn’t think it was an accident.
I took another drink from the tray and knocked back that one, too. Vodka and club soda. “Not really,” I answered after coughing a bit from the carbonation. “Not unless you believe that our jewel thief occasionally dresses as a woman and steals purses from people’s strollers. I heard that one yesterday from my own grandmother.”
He chuckled. “Has anyone besides you and our friend Shari actually seen that private investigator again? He’s never showed up here.”
“Judging from what I’ve heard—which is, of course, completely unreliable—I think he talked to several people the day he stopped in the post office, but it’s hard to tell. Everyone says they talked to him, but no one can quite recall where they were or what was said, and not one single person has reported anything to my father, including the investigator himself.” I shook my head as the rest of the council continued with a round of did you hear . . .
“Did you hear he used to be an acrobat with Cirque du Soleil? That’s how he’s so good at climbing in through second-story windows,” said Maggie Webster.
“Did you hear that he speaks seven different languages? He must be an international jewel thief!” That from Olivia Bostwick, because just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill jewel thief wasn’t nearly exotic enough for her cosmopolitan tastes.
“I heard he’s an identical twin, and that’s why he always has an alibi. He and his brother work as a team,” Vera said. “Of course, anyone with a discerning eye, such as myself, would be able to tell them apart.”
“You know what you need?” Leo asked, glancing around the table and keeping his voice low and husky in my ear.
“A bullhorn and a Taser?”
His laugh reminded me that this was actually kind of funny. I guess. “You need a nice dinner off the island. How about you and I take the ferry over to Manitou tonight. I heard there was a nice Italian place over there. When’s the last time you ate on the mainland?”
“Me? Um, it’s been a while, I guess.” Actually, I’d had lunch with my sister in Manitou just a few days before, but I wasn’t about to tell him that and diminish his apparent eagerness to whisk me away.
“Then you need a change of scenery.” He kept his voice low so no one else could hear, giving the whole invitation a sexy, risqué feel. “How about you meet me at the boat dock at six p.m.?”
He stood up before I had much time to ponder, so I just gave him a quick nod, then tried not to stare at him as he delivered the other drinks from the tray. My temperature jumped ten degrees when he winked at me from the doorway, as if we had a secret. But we sort of did have a secret, didn’t we?
“Hey, kid!” Dmitri called after him as Leo stepped out of the room. “Where’s my gin and tonic?”
“Ask the mayor,” Leo called back over his shoulder.
Chapter 10
The boat dock was busy with day workers heading home, but I easily spotted Leo standing near a T-shirt shop. It was colder tonight than it had been earlier in the week, and he was wearing a soft gray sweater under a leather jacket, and a pair of jeans. Like I had before our first dinner, I’d spent far too much time staring into my closet searching for something that said you can kiss me if you want to but didn’t say please, please kiss me. I’d settled on jeans and a light blue sweater, and a scarf that Dmitri said flattered my complexion. Of course, he’d been peering at me through the veil of his beekeeping hat when he said that, so who’s to say if the scarf actually did anything for me at all.
“Tiny dilemma,” I said