AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shane held the ladder steady as Xavier climbed down, tackle box in one hand, but when he got to the bottom, he ignored the center of the room to detour over to the ancient bar, nodding to the mildew-speckled Venus as he passed her.
Shane pointed at the concrete floor. “The boy hit there.”
Xavier nodded. “Thank you, son. My concern today, though, is what happened twenty-five years ago in here.”
Fucking Joey, Shane thought as he watched Xavier open up the tackle box. “Twenty-five years ago?”
“Long ago in the mists of time, son, your uncle ran arm in arm with the man who owned this house, one Frankie Fortunato.” Xavier took out the can of luminol and began walking slowly around the room, spraying. “Who subsequently disappeared. As mobsters are sometimes wont to do. You do know your uncle Joey was once with the mob?”
“Yep. But he left that behind a long time ago. He’s an honest man, my uncle.” Maybe.
Xavier laughed with genuine amusement as he sprayed. “Joey the Gent? He’s got more stories than the library. And most of them are indeed fiction, but I’m interested in the nonfiction ones.” He put the luminol can down on the old bar and reached into the kit and pulled out a bulky light, which Shane recognized as infrared. “Care to turn off the overhead?”
Shane flicked off the light as Xavier flipped on his own.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Xavier said.
No, you won’t, Shane thought, looking at the dragged blood trail that led straight into the wall. But Joey might well be.
Agnes listened to Lisa Livia’s cell phone ring as she put the pancake platter on the table, the phone crammed between her ear and her shoulder.
Doyle said, “This lad who is now my assistant?”
“I know,” she told Doyle. “I’m grateful. And I don’t think you’ll really have to?—”
“H’lo?” Lisa Livia said, her voice slurred with sleep.
“I know, I know,” Agnes said to her. “I know it’s way too early, but I thought you should know, you were right, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong.” She took down a frying pan, unwrapped the ham, and dropped the slices into it to fry, then turned back to pour more batter on the griddle, lowering her voice. “Brenda is swindling me on the house.”
“Well, duh,” Lisa Livia said around a yawn. “You couldn’t wait until noon to tell me that?”
“There’s more,” Agnes said, and then Three Wheels came back in. “Hold on.” She looked at Three Wheels. “Did you wash your hands?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Pancakes are on the table,” Agnes said. “Maple syrup’s in the pitcher. Butter’s in the dish. Ham’s coming right up. Are you allergic to nuts?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Because there are pecans in the cakes and I don’t want you swelling up and turning blue on me.”
“No, ma’am.”
“Do you swear on the Bible you washed your hands?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Eat.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Agnes turned back to the phone and began to slice more ham. “So there’s more.”
Lisa Livia said, “Tell me that wasn’t Shane you were talking to.”
“That wasn’t Shane.”
“Are those your sour cream buttermilk pancakes?”
