(the new man apparently pulled down in a month what a veteran detective made in a year), and Mike was living alone in Alphabet City. He’d taken a one bedroom rental, not that I’d seen it.
I’d had a brief summer fling with Jim Rand, but we’d parted ways at the start of September. Now he was scuba diving thousands of miles away, although it might as well have been millions. Jim was the kind of peripatetic lover of adventure who couldn’t stay in one place long enough to let a tomato plant take root, let alone a relationship, and I’d had his number from the moment I’d met him.
The attraction between me and Mike was something else, something more. Over the past year, we’d flirted regularly, laughed at each other’s jokes, and shared many a long, quiet conversation. But as long as Mike was trying to make his marriage work, there was no way I was going to allow us to cross that platonic line.
Things were different now... and yet they still weren’t right...
My ex-husband’s little prediction about the man “making moves” on me was quaint, but I didn’t believe it for a second. Mike Quinn had “gun shy” written all over him—and it had nothing to do with the .45 peeking out of his shoulder holster.
Although he was separated, he wasn’t legally divorced, and he was obviously still stressed and disturbed about the end of his marriage. When would he be ready to move on? I didn’t know. I couldn’t even be sure he’d want me when he
Grabbing the portafilter handle, I gave it a sharp tug, unlocking the basket from the espresso machine. “So what’s new tonight?” I asked, knocking the cake of used grounds into the under-counter garbage.
“You tell me.”
I glanced up at him.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“You’re such a terrible liar, Cosi.”
I looked away, noticed Joy’s pot of decaf, and moved to pour myself a cup.
“You know...” Mike said lazily sipping his drink, “Tucker told me what happened.”
I froze, midpour.
When Mike had come in earlier, he’d sat down at the coffee bar and made small talk with Tucker. Until now, I hadn’t considered what they’d been talking about. Obviously, Matt hadn’t either or he never would have made a deal with me.
I threw out the cup of decaf. For this, I’d need caffeine.
I dosed grounds into a portafilter, tamped, clamped, and pulled two shots. Then I poured the double into a cup and took it with me to face Mike across the marble bar.
“What...
“That someone mugged your ex-husband’s friend in your back alley. Why didn’t you call the police?”
“You’re the police. And you’re here.”
“But you didn’t call me.”
“Matt’s friend... he didn’t want to report the incident.”
“Why?”
“There are issues.”
“What issues?”
I took another hit of caffeine. “I don’t know yet, but Matt promises he’ll tell me later.”
Mike’s gaze didn’t waver. “Be careful, Clare.”
“Of what?”
“A man who doesn’t want to report a crime is usually a criminal himself.”
I folded my arms. “Ric’s the victim here, not the criminal.”
Mike didn’t try to argue; he simply continued drinking his coffee.
“We’re going into business with this man, you see? He’s the one who made that breakthrough with the decaffeinated plant I mentioned....” I was trying to project confidence, but I could tell I was coming off defensive. “It’s really an amazing thing, you know, for the trade? And Matt’s known Ric for almost his entire life.”
Mike glanced away. “Matt’s not exactly pure as the driven snow.”
“That’s not fair. I mean, okay... I wouldn’t call him an innocent lamb, but Matt’s definitely no criminal. And I don’t appreciate the snow crack.” I closed my eyes and held up my hand. “Don’t say it. I already know...
Mike drank more latte. “So what do you think happened?”
“I’m not supposed to discuss it with you.”
“Solve a few homicides and you’re flying solo, huh?”
“I made a deal with Matt. He agreed to take Ric to St. Vincent’s ER now and tell me everything later—”
“—as long as you keep the details from me.”
“What are you, a mind reader?”
“Some people are an open book.”
“Meaning me? Now you sound like my ex-husband.”
“Ouch.”
“Listen,” I leaned on the coffee bar, closing the distance between us. “Since you already know the basics, I don’t see any harm in talking hypothetically.”
“Hypothetical is my middle name.”
“I thought it was Ryan.”
“Aw, Clare... you remembered.”
“Have you ever heard of a mugger using a prerecorded message?”
The detective put down his nearly empty latte glass. “You’re not kidding, are you?”
I shook my head.
“I’ve had voices mechanically distorted in extortion cases, but never a street mugger. Not in my experience.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Mike’s lips twitched. “What else do you think?”
“If the mugger didn’t want his or her voice recognized, then Ric might have recognized it, right? Which means—”
“Ric already knows this person.”
“Or...” I murmured, “he’s about to know this person.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Ric’s in town for the ICGE—it’s an international trade show for the coffee industry. Later this week he’s announcinghis horticulture breakthrough, and it’s going to shake up a lot of people.”
“What does ‘shake up’ translate to? Will it ruin them?”
“No... at least not right away. Ric’s deal is exclusive with the Village Blend, and we’re a premium product. Something like this won’t change the mass market for years. This discovery shouldn’t be a total shock, either.”
“Why not?”
“People have been working on creating a viable decaffeinated plant for a little while now—the interest was negligible at first but the percentage of decaf drinkers has skyrocketed in the last fifty years. It was something like three percent in the sixties, now it’s close to twenty, and—”
“You don’t have to tell me. It’s a very old song, where there’s a market, there’s interest in exploiting it.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Love it or hate it, so goes the capitalist formula for progress.”
“So who’s competing with your friend?”
“Some scientists in Hawaii are doing field tests on a genetically engineered decaffeinated plant. And back in 2004, there were rumors that Brazilian scientists from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas had identified a naturally decaffeinated Ethiopian coffee plant.”
“What happened there? Why wasn’t that a success?”
“Ethiopia supposedly raised issues over the ownership and that was the last anyone heard of it—the quality of those beans is still an unknown.”
