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My work was done.
Lee granted me A Smile. It was small but it was meaningful.
“You’ve always been a lucky fuck,” Eddie murmured to Lee.
The waiter came and took our orders. I got my usual, a Café Fantasia—hot chocolate at the bottom, espresso at the top separated by a slice of orange and topped with whipped cream that had teeny sugared-orange sprinkles. Lush.
I ordered a bowl of water for Chowleena.
“You have anything for me?” Lee asked Eddie when the waiter walked away.
“Yep, word is Rick was done by someone from out of town,” Eddie answered.
Lee sat back and his mouth got tight again. “New York?”
“Yeah, but not in the family. An independent contractor. Coxy’s havin’ to hire his guns these days. Gary couldn’t put a bullet in someone’s brain if he had the barrel restin’ against his forehead.”
I thought this was good news. Goon Gary seemed less of a threat if this was true. I was taking my good news as it came these days, no matter how freakishly scary it was.
“There’s talk that there’s two names on his list. Rick was only one of them,” Eddie went on.
“Teddy?” Lee asked.
“Nope. Coxy wrote Teddy off, or at least he did until Teddy hit the street an hour ago.”
“Who’s the name?” Lee asked.
“Coltrane,” Eddie answered.
Oh no, Rosie.
All the breath went out of my body and I stared at Lee. I was wearing shades too. Mine were huge, shiny, rock ’n’ roll black, kind of a hybrid between Jackie O and Bono. I thought the lenses would melt with the heat from my stare.
The waiter brought our coffees, Chowleena’s water and left.
“We have to find him,” I told Lee.
“We’ll find him,” Lee replied.
I wasn’t entirely sure how we’d find him considering we were sitting in the sun enjoying coffees.
As far as I could tell, there wasn’t much to this PI stuff. In fact, it was more dangerous facing down the Rosie Riot than doing Lee’s job.
Lee seemed completely calm about this news. This news did not make me calm. There was a hired hit man after Rosie. I was pretty angry at Rosie, but I still liked him enough to want his brains to remain in his skull for the foreseeable future.
“You should know bookies are takin’ bets. You against Coxy. Who’ll win Indy,” Eddie told Lee then looked at me.
Oh…my…God.
“Really?” I asked.
“Who’s got the odds?” Lee asked.
My mouth dropped open and I stared at Lee. Was he nuts? Who cared? People were betting on us!
Eddie turned back to Lee. “You.”
“You’re joking, right?” I put in.
