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“You got it,” Lily said. “Sheldon and I can take care of it. You two go do what you do. If you see Cole tell him I’ll meet him back at his place and we can trade massages.”
“Not it,” I said, touching my finger to the end of my nose and looking at Jack.
“Real mature,” he said, but I could tell he wanted to laugh. Then he looked at Lily. “How about I don’t tell him that and you can surprise him. Men love surprises.”
Jack put his hand on my back and led me away before she could respond.
“What if Cole hates surprises?” I asked.
“Then they don’t know each other as well as they thought they did,” he said. “This is a growing opportunity. Let’s talk to Denaro. I don’t see the woman in the red dress.”
“Maybe she’s in the back,” I said. “What about that woman talking to Cole? She was at the victim’s table. Maybe she knows something.”
Jack grunted and headed toward Denaro. He was on the phone and just hanging up as we approached.
“Insurance guy is on the way,” he said. “I guess we’re already on the news. He was the one who called me.”
“Sounds like good service,” Jack said.
“Not in my experience, but maybe this place is different,” he said.
“You know anything about our victim? Ever seen him before?”
Alex nodded and said, “Sure, every Friday like clockwork. The rich junkie. I caught him doing lines in the bathroom once and told him to keep that stuff out of my place or he’s not welcome back. He got all puffed up about it and started using a bunch of legal terms, but I pulled Karen out from behind the bar and told him this was my place and my rules and that my next call would be to the cops.”
“Who’s Karen?” I asked.
Alex smiled and reached under the bar for a Louisville slugger that looked like it had made impact a time or two with a ball or a skull. “Meet Karen. She was a gift from my grandfather when I turned thirteen. You can take the boy out of the mob, but not the mob out of the boy. Know what I mean?”
“Sort of,” Jack said. “What about the girl? He ever come in with her before?”
“Just the last two weeks,” Alex said. “I’d never seen her before then. I thought she might be his daughter at first, but then…well, obviously she wasn’t. I carded her but license said she’s legal, so we served her.”
“You think it was fake?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m pretty good at spotting them. Hell,” he said, grinning, “I used to make them. I’ve made it a point to card her each time she’s ordered though. It’s our policy, even if we recognize the customer. She’s shown the same license each time.”
“You remember her name?” I asked.
“Bethany Wildes,” Alex said. “But the dead guy called her Bethie.”
“He bring a lot of young girls in like that?” Jack asked.
“He always brought somebody,” Alex said. “Not that young, but always younger than him. And usually with his same crew of people. They always sat at that front corner table. I’ve seen a couple of them walk over from the courthouse a time or two.”
“But not the victim?” Jack asked. “He never walked across?”
Alex snorted. “Nah, that guy is all about the show. Liked to drive his fancy Porsche and flip the keys to one of the valet guys. And then he leaves here loaded and high every week and squeals out like a maniac. It’s a miracle he hasn’t killed anyone.”
Another score for Lily, I thought to myself.
“Have you seen the girl around here?” Jack asked. “We’d like to ask her some questions.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Alex said, raising his brows. “I haven’t seen her around. No one is in the back but some of the kitchen crew cleaning up.”
“Thanks,” Jack said. “You’ve been a big help.”
Cole was still talking to the victim’s friend, so we headed in that direction next, but we ran into Officer Jackson on the way.
