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“I never said Mack Mack was going to be the victim. But the killer might surprise us yet.”
“What makes you think there’s going to be a homicide there tonight?” My heart jumps into my throat just saying the words.
“Didn’t you hear me when I came in? I said I was tired of hearing the dogs barking.”
“You said my dogs and then you took off your shoe. I thought you meant your feet.”
“Nope. There’s been a tiny menace barking up a storm all afternoon and I got sick of hearing it yapping. The thing is, no one else around me can see the tiny terror.”
“You mean…?”
I’m too terrified to finish the sentence.
“That’s right, Lot. The tiny barking menace is back from the other side. And you know what that means.”
I nod. “It means murder.”
LOTTIE
Judge Essex Everett Baxter stands in the middle of the room looking like heaven on a stick.
His dark hair is slicked back, his piercing blue eyes light up the dimly lit place like bejeweled beacons in the night, and that hardened expression on his face only adds to his handsome appeal. He’s clad in a dark suit, dark tie, and an overall brooding dark attitude—again, which only adds to his arrestingly handsome appeal.
All of the above would explain why a flock of women, both the living and the dead, have glommed onto him.
Yes, the dead.
Come to find out, Rizzo’s is a popular haunt among dead mobsters and their honeys. But then, Carlotta, Charlie, and I are the only ones who can see them.
Carlotta nudges me in the ribs. “You’d better go after him, Lot, before one of those beauties hauls him off to a corner and has her way with him.”
I huff at the thought. “In those women’s dreams. Everett knows what side his Baxter bread is buttered on. He’d never stray on me. I have complete faith in my husband.”
Everett catches my eye, and I offer a flirtatious wink his way as Carlotta and I step deeper into Rizzo’s Trattoria.
Last month, when the Rizzo sisters’ will was read, we discovered that they left their family restaurant to Carlotta Sawyer, of all people.
It might have seemed like a suspicious move, considering the fact they both outright hated Carlotta, but as it turns out, both Ninetta and Rosa Rizzo saw this place as one big fat curse.
I happen to agree with them on that front.
The establishment sits in the center of Leeds, a seedy town just south of Honey Hollow that happens to be infiltrated with every dark element you can think of, including two rival mob families who are constantly warring for turf.
Rizzo’s is a plain brick building with a neon sign that boasts its name—or at least it tries to with every other letter blinking out of turn. The inside is expansive with dark wood tables and floors. Sinatra blares through the speakers, and the scent of heavenly lasagna lights up our senses this evening.
Apparently, the Rizzo sisters were notoriously bad at dishing out the Italian food this place promises to its customers. Right after both sisters were killed, the manager, who was running this place, hired a frou-frou chef who really knew his way around an Italian kitchen. But once Carlotta took over, and we found out the chef demanded a king’s ransom, we had to boot him out on his frou-frou rear.
Thankfully, Charlie offered to step in.
Scratch that.
Carlotta made loose threats, and Charlie was forced to step in with half her crew from the Honey Pot Diner which she owns and runs. I happen to be a silent partner in that endeavor, seeing that our grandma Nell left it to me along with half of Honey Hollow.
And, well, now both Charlie and I are working at two restaurants in hopes to breathe some life back into this place.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for my desire to nab the dealer running drugs through this place, I wouldn’t have lifted a finger at Rizzo’s, and I would have stopped Charlie from doing the same.
“Remember”—I say to Carlotta as we make our way through the crowd—“as soon as we whip this place into shape, I’m going to help you put it on the market.”
