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“Fuckin’ A. Where we taking this?”
“I don’t know. I thought I’d check in with Grandma.”
“I like that idea,” Lula said. “There’s an added advantage of getting lunch.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Just the person I want to see,” Grandma said when I walked into the kitchen. “Are you going to the Mori viewing tonight? I could use a ride.”
“Is it really necessary to go to a viewing tonight?” my mother said. “Can’t you let things calm down a little after last night’s scandal?”
“What scandal?” I asked.
My mother laid down two more place settings at the little table. “Everyone’s talking about how you took Bella out in handcuffs.”
“She insisted,” I said. “And the funeral director begged me to remove her from the building.”
“It’s true,” Grandma said. “I was there. I saw it all. Bella needs to have her head examined.” She looked at Lula. “What about you? Are you going to the viewing tonight?”
“No way,” Lula said. “Dead people give me the creeps.”
“Dead people are okay,” Grandma said. “They always look their best at a viewing. It’s a good way to remember them… all dressed up with their hair done. It’s like they’re big dolls that are still in their box. It’s the live people that give me the creeps. What’s new in your world?” Grandma asked me.
“The three men involved with Paul Mori’s Knights Templar coin, Beedle, Benji Crup, and Melvin Sparks, have disappeared.”
“Like snatched?”
“I don’t think they’ve been snatched,” I said. “I think they’re hiding out somewhere. I ran them through some search engines but didn’t turn up anything useful.”
“I don’t know any of them,” Grandma said. “Do they have family in the area?”
“Beedle lives with his mom on Maymount,” I said. “She hasn’t been helpful. The other two have family scattered around the country. None of them are married.”
“Maybe they’ll show up at the viewing tonight,” Grandma said.
I didn’t think Beedle, Benji, or Sparks would show up at the viewing. I thought it was possible the kidnappers might be there. They really wanted the coin, and my efforts weren’t getting results. They might be reaching the point of going proactive on their own. And Paul Mori was the last person they knew who had the coin before Vinnie lost it.
We had egg salad sandwiches for lunch, and Grandma brought out a plate of pignoli cookies for dessert. I cut my eyes to her, and she smiled at me. They were the cookies she’d swiped from the viewing. Bella’s cookies.
“I met Shirley Weingarten at the bakery this morning,” Grandma said. “She lives next door to Manny Tortolli, and she was in the backyard when the Tortolli garage caught fire. She said it wasn’t kerosene in the can Bella was holding. It used to be a kerosene can, but Bella used it to get hooch from Tortolli. He had a still in his garage. Shirley said they had a big argument because Tortolli raised his price and Bella wasn’t having any of it. Shirley said there was a lot of arm waving and yelling and there was a crash and that something got knocked over and next thing the garage was on fire.”
“So, it wasn’t arson?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Grandma said. “Nobody wants to say anything because they all get hooch from Tortolli. They figure nothing’s going to happen to Bella on account of everyone knows she’s a crazy old lady.”
“She gets a lot of mileage out of being crazy,” my mother said.
“Yeah,” Grandma said. “I gotta admit, it works for her.”
I pushed back in my chair and grabbed my messenger bag. “Things to do,” I said.
“What kind of things?” Lula asked.
I took my plate and put it in the dishwasher. “Things!”
We got into my Honda and Lula buckled herself in. “What things are you talking about?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “There has to be something. I can’t just sit around in my mom’s kitchen while Connie is held hostage somewhere.”
