I only realized that the front door had opened again because I could hear the patter of rain on the sidewalk outside. Then the waitress’s eyes focused behind me. She stepped back, propped her mop against the bar, disappeared into the kitchen. She was fast. I’d barely reached for her and opened my mouth to ask her to stop before she was gone.
And then something hard pressed into the small of my back.
“Freeze, a-hole,” said a woman behind me. “Your nuts are mine.”
The moment of paralyzing fear instantly melted away. There was only one woman that obsessed with anything below my belt, and unfortunately all she wanted to do was chew it up and spit it out.
“Suzy,” I sighed. She let me turn around. She didn’t have a gun—she had jammed the hilt of a folding knife into my back. I lifted my hands to my shoulders in a gesture of surrender and arched my eyebrows in a gesture of, Are you kidding me?
Even if she was serious, there was nothing intimidating about a five-foot-tall woman. My reach was at least twice hers. I could have knocked her out before she got close enough to stab me. Not that I would have ever knocked Suzy out, mind you—but I could have.
I liked to think that we were friends. She knew I could overpower her. She also knew I wouldn’t.
Suzy rolled her eyes and flicked her knife shut. “You’re a dumbass.”
“About so many things, yeah, but why now?”
“Because I found you here. Here, Cèsar? Really? You might as well walk through the front doors of the union offices with a sign that says ‘I’m guilty’ taped to your shirt.”
“You followed me,” I guessed.
“No, you’re pretty slick on the streets. We lost you two blocks north of your apartment. But I know you. I know what you’re doing. It wasn’t hard to guess you’d come here looking for answers.”
“And yet you came alone.”
“Guess I’m a dumbass too.” She shrugged. “You’re trying to prove your innocence, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am. But I don’t need to prove anything to you, right? You know that I didn’t kill Erin Karwell.” It seemed ridiculous that I even had to say it. Suzy should have known it. Everyone should’ve known.
There was sympathy in her big brown eyes. “Then who’s the culprit?”
“That’s the problem—I don’t know. I don’t even remember leaving the bar last night. I guess I drank too much, and then I woke up to find everything like…well, you saw it.”
Suzy’s lips pinched into a thin line. Was she thinking that meant I was guilty?
“Look, Suze, there’s no way I did it, and you know it,” I said.
“Well,” she said, “let’s finish what you’re here to do.”
She yanked the badge off of her belt and marched for the door to the kitchen. I was only a few steps behind her.
There were two women in back. They were standing beside the door to one of those big walk-in freezers. The schedule was on the wall behind them—including Erin’s name signed with a smiley heart—and shelves of alcohol to the left.
The waitress that I’d spoken to earlier looked alarmed to see me. Her body language was totally different, like a hamster about to bolt for cover. She was hiding behind her coworker even though the second waitress was six inches shorter.
Suzy brandished her badge. “Agent Takeuchi, Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
“I know who you are,” said the waitress in front. “You come here all the time with all of those guys.” She didn’t sound fond of our coworkers. Bet it was because government employees were too poor to tip well.
“What’s your name, ma’am?” Suzy asked.
“Thandy Cannon. Second shift manager.” She waved over her shoulder at the other woman. “This is Ladasha.”
“Okay, Thandy and Ladasha. I’m investigating the murder of one of your coworkers—Erin Karwell. I need anything you can give me. Whom she might have talked to last night, whom she was dating, friends and family. People with a grudge.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Oh yeah?” Thandy asked with a sneer. “You need to know who she was dating, do you?”
“This isn’t girl talk or gossip,” Suzy said. “This is an official investigation.”
“Is that why you’re dragging her boyfriend around?”
It took me a second to realize that Thandy was talking about me.
Suzy shot me a questioning look and I shook my head. No way. I was not dating Erin. Of course, that had been despite my best efforts, but Suzy didn’t need to know how roundly Erin had turned me down. My pride was already having a terrible day.