Well Read, Then Dead(76)

            Bridgy finished serving a takeaway order and joined me.

            “Whew, busy afternoon. Season is moving into high gear.”

            “And thank heavens for that. The snowbirds go a long way toward paying our bills.” I sat back in my chair, took a long sip of tea. “I heard something interesting today. Tighe Kostos and some group of wreckers are in competition for Delia’s island.”

            I told her what Alfie overheard. She looked to heaven.

            “Poor Skully. He doesn’t even know what he has and folks are plotting to take it away from him.”

            I disagreed. “Poor them if they come up against him.” I amended with an idea that just occurred to me. “Unless he wants to sell. Lots of money involved, according to Rowena.”

            “Nah. If he knows Delia’s wishes, he’ll honor them, money or not. Where’d you hear this anyway?”

            I told her about my conversation with the Canadians and the description of Kostos in the club bar. “As soon as they said the watch face was blue I knew it was him. Remember when we saw him in Times Square, he made a show of looking at it twice to make sure we’d see it? According to Connie’s husband that brand of watch is super pricey.”

            “I guess he thinks it goes well with his Saint Laurent suit.”

            I gave her a look filled with question marks.

            “I love when you look at me like that. Makes me feel so smart. Anyway, I forgot you weren’t with us in the church parking lot when Rowena introduced us to Kostos. Ophie, fashionista that she is, admired his suit and asked if it was a Kenzo. He blanched at the thought and opened his jacket to show her what he called the ‘extraordinarily fine stitching’ and managed to display the Saint Laurent label.”

            I shrugged. “You lost me at Kenzo. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen to his fancy clothes and watches when his boss dumps him and he’s living on the beach collecting shells.”

            “He’d probably be happier,” Bridgy observed.

            “That’s how we see it. Him? Not so much. Listen, as soon as we close I’m going over to the library to do some research on sunken ships and then I’m going to find out if wreckers are really after Delia’s island.”

            Bridgy hesitated. “Sassy, you do realize that we don’t know if there is an island.”

            “Oh, there’s an island, maybe more than one. What we don’t know is whether or not Delia has legal ownership or only a collection of ancient family papers.” I started ticking questions off on my fingers. “Where is Delia’s island? Did she really own it? Was she murdered by someone over possession of the island? And the most important question”—I added my pinky to the three straight up fingers—“who killed her?

            “I have an appointment with Sally at the library research room. She said she’d help me find the latest on any current or future salvage operations. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to track down Bucket Hat and have it out with him once and for all.” I hoped I sounded braver than I felt.

            “No you don’t. If you get a glimmer of where he might be, don’t run off. Call me, I’ll go with you.” Bridgy started nibbling on her lower lip, a clear sign she was fretting.


* * *

            Sally Caldera pushed her eyeglasses to the top of her head, bunching her long russet curls into a crown-like mass. She was patiently explaining to a crotchety man that, no matter what his reason, books in the reference collection cannot leave the library. He continued to say “but” and she continued to explain. Finally he stormed off in a huff, but not before assuring Sally, and everyone else in the building, that he’d have her job.