The Monet Murders

your face all white and frozen. When your freckles pop out, I know you’re in distress. I hate seeing you like that, Mrs. D.”

I looked up into his face. “Say my name. You never have. I want to hear it from your lips. Say it.”

He smiled into my eyes. “Deva. Devalera.” His smile widened. “Devalera. That’s a hell of a handle, Mrs. D.”

Dammit, he’d wrecked the moment. “I happen to love my name,” I lied, wriggling out of his arms. “You’ve got some nerve, Rossi.”

“Honey, I’ve got more than nerve.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Interested?”

A challenge. “I haven’t decided yet.”

He nodded and raised his hands in the air, palms out. “Okay, play it safe. Swim in the shallow end of the pool. For a long time, I’ve been that way myself. But I think I’m getting ready to change. So let me ask you something. When’s the last time you went to the moon?”

“The moon?”

“Yeah. Since you lost Jack, that is.”

“Three, four times last week. Twice yesterday”

His jaw dropped.

Aha! A hit.

“Yup. I’ve been the town pump, Rossi.”

He waggled a finger at me. A metronome. Left, right. Left, right. “Not a chance. You loved Jack too much to sleep around.”

A surge of emotion flared through me. “My feelings for Jack are none of your damn business.”

Serious again, he looked me straight in the eye. “I know you loved him. There’s no need to erase that, ever. Or to pretend that you don’t want another man in your life. Maybe I’m the guy.” He shrugged. “Maybe not. But think it over.”

“Let me ask you something, Rossi.”

“Shoot.”

“How many times have you been to the moon?”

“You know something, Deva. I used to believe I’d been there a lot, but lately I’m not so sure. I think those trips I took were to minor planets.” He cocked an eyebrow and waited.

I smiled. Who could stay mad at Rossi?

The cell phone in his pocket began an insistent chirping. Always at the wrong time.

He fished the phone out of his pocket and growled into it. He listened for a moment, his fingers tightening on the receiver. “I’ll be right in,” he said. “Leave the report on my desk.” He repocketed the cell. “Duty calls. Have to go.” He gave me a hurried, unsatisfying peck on the cheek and was halfway out the door when he turned back, a wicked gleam in his eye. “One last question, Mrs. D. You ever hear of the Big Bang Theory?”

Chapter Twenty

At eight the next morning I woke with a start, flung back the covers and leaped up, amazed that I had slept like a baby for hours. With my life in chaos, how could I have been so relaxed? The conversation with Rossi? Maybe. The kiss? More than likely.

I stretched, long and luxuriously, reaching for the sky, then took a quick, cool shower and scrambled into some clothes…a white string sweater and a bright orange skirt. Strappy tan leather sandals with four-inch heels. In them I’d look tall and towering-to match my mood.

On my way out, I left the Naples Daily lying on the front step in its plastic sleeve without even glancing at the headlines. I knew what I’d find. Why torture myself? What I didn’t know was what I’d find at the shop-a throng, a mob, or worse, deadly, empty silence.

I found Lee alone with worry lines creasing her forehead. No wonder. Having your employer discover two murder victims in less than a month didn’t add up to job security.

“Morning, Deva,” she said, forcing a wan smile. “Daddy just left. He told me what happened. I’m so sorry.”

“Daddy?” About to stash my handbag underneath the sales counter, I straightened in disbelief and the bag fell to the floor. “Isn’t he in Alabama?”

“He’s on his way back there today. He sold his place over in East Naples and was here for the closing.”

So Merle Skimp had been in town yesterday. I doubted Merle’s presence was enough to cause the tension I had seen coiling in Rossi’s back when he answered his cell phone yesterday. But who knew? If Merle had been in Naples at the time Jesus was killed, were the cops aware of that? And if not, would pointing out the possibility be the action of a rat fink? Or the best thing I could do for Lee and Paulo? Exasperated, I retrieved the bag and placed it under the counter.

With a tired sigh, Lee sank onto the chair behind her desk. “Daddy gave me a nice check from the sale. I know he worries about me…I didn’t tell him Paulo and I are getting married.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m afraid he’ll try to stop me.” She looked down at her lap. “But I took the check anyway.”

“Of course you did. Your mother would have wanted you to.”

“That’s what Daddy said. So I took it.” She glanced up, tears brimming under her lids. “In case…in case…”

“The shop fails,” I finished.

She nodded. “There’s just no way of tellin’, Deva. I’m so scared. Paulo knew that Jesus man. They worked together. He’ll be questioned again. Under suspicion again.”

She was right, Paulo would be under suspicion again, and so would I. I could think of no words of comfort for either of us. All we could do was play the waiting game. And pray. But somehow I felt far from defeated even though the shop was dead all morning, even though by one in the afternoon not a single customer had come through the door, not a single phone call through the line.

The truth was Rossi was keeping despair at bay. I knew Jack would understand. Months earlier, in my dreams, he had told me not to let his death keep me from living. I could still hear his voice with its lilting brogue: “When life closes one door, it opens another. A pretty marvelous phenomenon, don’t you think?”

I do.

Troubled about the lack of business, yet buoyant, I was such a contradictory bundle of nerves that when the phone finally rang in the middle of the afternoon, my hand shot out and I grabbed it before the second ring.

“Deva Dunne Interiors.”

“Deva,” Rossi said. Not Mrs. D. Pleased, I pressed the phone to my ear, bringing him in a little closer.

He cleared his throat, his voice lowering. “I appreciated your honesty during my…ah…interrogation yesterday.” His discretion told me he was calling from the station.

“I would never lie to the police.”

He laughed, an honest-to-God, deep belly laugh. I held the phone away from my ear and stared at it. That was a first. Grins, yes. Smiles, rarely. Smirks, definitely. But an out-and-out laugh? Never.

I brought the phone back to my ear. “I mean it, Lieutenant. I’ll cooperate whenever I can be of service.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. In fact, I may have some further questions for you.”

“Whenever you’re ready, Lieutenant.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

I hung up positively energized. Though business was dead, killed by all the lethal publicity, I was more alive today than I’d been since Jack died. Today nothing would defeat me. Nothing.

I glanced across the shop to where Lee sat behind her desk, patiently waiting to greet the first customer of the day. It was two o’clock. We had been open since nine.

Screw it.

“Lee, how would you like to have lunch at the Ritz Carlton?”

Her eyes widened into blue pools. “Oh, my. I’ve never been to the Ritz.”

“Well, high time then. Grab your purse and let’s go. We’re celebrating.”