Dom scoops three pancakes off the top of the stack and plops them on my plate. The next two go to Izzy. Dom takes the last one for himself and settles in beside me. “Do tell,” he says. “Was this a date?”
I cut a pat of butter from the stick on the table and start painting my pancakes with it. “Not really,” I say. “Turns out he wanted to tell me they’d found Erik’s gun.”
Izzy asks, “Where?”
“It was under some sheets in a linen closet in the radiology department at the hospital.”
Izzy grimaces and gives me a sympathetic look.
“I know, I know,” I say with a sigh. “It doesn’t look good for Erik. But until the ballistics report comes in, I’m not convinced.”
“All right, enough,” Dom interjects. “Quit talking shop and let’s get back to the making out part.”
Now that my pancakes are thoroughly coated in melted butter, I grab the warm syrup Dom has on the table and bathe my stack with it. “We had a couple of beers and played some darts,” I tell them. “Then, when we left, he walked me to my car.”
“Wait, you have a car?” Izzy says. “Did you actually buy something?”
“Not officially, but I’m thinking I will. Bobby Keegan is letting me test drive it for a day or two to help me decide.”
“Is it something reliable?” Izzy asks. Dom gives him an exasperated look. I know Dom could care less about the car; he wants the smooch scoop.
“It seems to be,” I tell Izzy. “But it has . . . other issues.”
Izzy frowns and I take advantage of the moment to have my first bite of pancake. As I chew, the flavors of maple, pancake, and blueberries start a small orgy in my mouth.
“Get to the kissing stuff,” Dom says, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Was it good? Did he use tongue? Did you share any, um, friction?” The expression on his face is devilishly delighted.
I smile enigmatically and wiggle my eyebrows at him. “You could say there was some friction, but we were interrupted before things could get too heated.”
“Interrupted how?” Dom asks.
“That shrink, Luke Nelson, was there. He looked pretty smug at finding the two of us in a clutch and made some innuendos about how our pairing up might be a conflict of interest.”
Izzy frowns at that. “That’s ludicrous. Besides, what difference would it make to him? Didn’t Hurley say Nelson had been cleared with regard to Shannon’s death? As I recall, his alibi was pretty solid.”
“It is,” I admit. “But there’s something about that guy that bothers me. I can’t put my finger on it but I get the distinct feeling he’s hiding something.”
“Well, he is. Or was,” Izzy says. “He had all those women he was stringing along.”
I nod thoughtfully, enjoying a few more bites of breakfast heaven before I speak again. “I’d like to talk to one of the patients Nelson saw the day of Shannon’s death, Carla Andrusson. She’s my dentist’s wife and I’ve socialized with her a few times in years past when David and I attended some parties. I plan on going into the office first thing this morning, but do you think it would be okay if I took a little time away later today to do that?”
Izzy shrugs. “If there aren’t any autopsies pending, I don’t see why not. But what do you hope to accomplish? Hasn’t Hurley already verified all the appointments?”
“He did. But I just can’t let go of this nagging feeling I have that something is off. Maybe it’s just my dislike of the guy, but I want to look into it.”
Izzy stares at me with a worried expression and shakes his head. I know he wants to say something but I refuse to take his bait. We both go back to eating and the room is utterly silent for a few minutes other than the noise of forks scraping against plates. As I stab the last bite of my pancakes and let them melt in my mouth, I have to resist the urge to run my fingers around my plate so I can snag the remaining few crumbs. “Dom,” I say, once I have swallowed and dropped my fork onto the empty plate with a clatter, “that was heavenly.”
Dom beams and his lily-white skin blushes an adoring shade of pink. “Thanks.” He hops up and starts clearing the table, carrying the dishes to the sink. As soon as he starts loading the dishwasher, Izzy leans toward me and says, “Be careful, Mattie.”
“Of what?”
“Losing your objectivity. I know you haven’t taken a liking to this Nelson guy but don’t let a first impression override your common sense. It could get you into trouble. And the same thing goes for Erik.”
“What do you mean?”
“The evidence against him is pretty strong. I think you need to start entertaining the idea that you might be wrong about him.”
I shake my head vehemently. “I don’t believe Erik did this.”
“No, you don’t
“We don’t know if that gun was the murder weapon yet,” I say irritably, hearing how feeble it sounds even to me. “Can we at least wait for the ballistics report before we convict him?”
Izzy doesn’t answer. He just sighs and gives me a sympathetic look that sucks all the wind from my sails.
“Okay,” I say, feeling defeated. “I realize it’s not looking very good for Erik, and I admit that if the ballistics report comes back showing that the gun they found was the murder weapon, it will be pretty damning. But let me have my presumption of innocence until all the evidence is in, okay?”
Izzy smiles and pushes back from the table. “Okay. Now let’s go take a look at this car of yours. Dom, are you coming?”
Dom turns off the water in the sink and grabs a dish towel. “Right behind you,” he says. I lead the way to the back door and as soon as I open it, there is my car, displayed in all its morbid glory. Dom and Izzy stand quietly for several seconds taking it in. Izzy’s face slowly breaks into a wide grin. Dom clucks his tongue and tosses his towel over his shoulder. “Well, hell,” he says. “There goes the neighborhood.”
Chapter 35
After thanking Dom again for breakfast and hearing Izzy say he’ll be right behind me, I drive into the office, one of three places in town where the sight of a hearse pulling in doesn’t raise an eyebrow. As soon as I verify that there aren’t any autopsies pending, I head for the library and take out the phone number Hurley gave me for Carla Andrusson. I get an answering machine and leave a vague message stating who I am and that I want to talk with her about something important.
As I’m doing so, the door to the library opens and Arnie walks in.
I finish my message and then give Arnie a cheery “Good morning” as I hang up.
“You’re sounding chipper today.”
“I had breakfast at Izzy’s this morning. Dom made blueberry pancakes.”
“Ah,” Arnie says, nodding knowingly. “Being the recipient of anything Dom cooks is enough to cheer anyone up. That man should have been a chef.”
“Tell me about it,” I say, starting to drool again from the memory.
“Where is Izzy?” Arnie asks. “In his office?”
“I guess so. He said he had a bunch of paperwork to catch up on.”
“Well, then, you get to hear the news first,” he says, smiling enigmatically. I see that he’s holding some papers behind his back and he looks like a cat inside a room filled with clipped-wing canaries.
I brace myself, thinking he is about to pound another nail in Erik’s coffin by sharing the results of the ballistics report with me, but instead he says, “You’ll never guess what I found in that briefcase we retrieved from the Heinriches’ car.”
I think for a moment, trying to guess what kind of find would have Arnie looking so excited. “Proof of alien life?”
“Nope.”
