“I’ll give him three hours of searching for a hundred and seventy-five dollars.” Dani narrowed her eyes at Kipp. “But I want the cash up front, and if I find the book sooner, I still get to keep the full amount.” She stared at her ex. “Is it worth that much money to you?”
“I’ll go to the ATM right now,” Kipp snapped. “I’ll be back in half an hour.”
“Fine. I’ll wait with Dani.” Spencer stepped around Kipp to stand by Dani. His smile was predatory as he lifted the leg of his jeans to show an ankle holster. “I can use the time to clean my Glock.”
“You do know that firearms kill people.” Kipp’s tone was condescending.
“If guns kill people”—Ivy moved next to her uncle and stared down Kipp—“then pens misspell words, cars cause accidents, and forks make people gain weight.”
Kipp opened his mouth, then closed it and stomped away.
Once her ex was gone, Dani glanced at Spencer. Why had he stopped by? A part of her would like to ask his help looking into Regina’s murder, but she wasn’t sure if that was a good idea or not.
After hugging Ivy, Spencer looked at Dani and asked, “Who was that guy?”
“Dani’s creeper ex.” Ivy pretended to gag. “He’s an ER doc and thinks he’s irresistible.” She made a face. “He hid that he was engaged to someone else the whole time he was dating Dani.”
“Your uncle isn’t interested in my history with an old boyfriend.” Dani’s cheeks burned. Could she look like any more of a loser? “When his mom died, Kipp gave me a book from one of her boxes, which, it turns out, was promised to a relative. I told him he could have it back, but since I haven’t completely unpacked from my move, I don’t know where it is and—”
“And, big surprise, Dr. Dipstick thinks his needs and wants are more important than anyone else’s.” Ivy finished Dani’s sentence.
Spencer grinned at his niece, then turned to Dani and said, “All the more reason for me to stick around until that bozo gets back with your money.”
“There’s no need. As I said before, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” Dani ignored the little voice in her head screaming at her to shut up. “I’m sure you have better things to do than making sure Kipp comes through with his part of the bargain.”
“Nope.” Spencer took a seat on the wicker rocker and set the chair in motion. “It’s a nice night and I can’t think of any way I’d rather spend it than with my favorite niece.”
Dani shuffled from foot to foot before she decided to go with the flow and asked, “Would you like some coffee and dessert?”
“One of your mocha cupcakes?” Spencer arched a dark brow.
“Not this time.” Dani grinned at his hopeful expression and said, “But I have homemade banana pudding.”
“Wow. I haven’t had homemade since I was in grade school and Mom discovered store-bought pudding cups.”
Dani smiled and hurried into the house. Emerging a few minutes later, she heard Ivy telling her uncle about their evening.
As Dani put the tray of coffee and dessert on a table next to Spencer’s chair, he said, “So you had Regina’s fiancé to dinner?”
“It seemed like the least I could do since he was nice enough to return Ivy’s necklace.” Dani joined Ivy on the porch swing.
“And you could pump him for info about his dead wife-to-be.”
“We chatted about her a bit.” Dani couldn’t tell if Spencer was amused or annoyed. “But mostly, Laz apologized about his own behavior during the party.”
“Oh?” Spencer picked up the bowl and dipped his spoon into the pudding.
“He explained, but I’m not sure that I should share his personal information.” Dani watched as Spencer ate the entire dessert in three or four huge bites.
“Laz said it in front of all of us.” Ivy glanced at Dani. “So I really doubt he’s trying to keep it a big secret or anything.”
“He’s an alcoholic who fell off the wagon and got blitzed.” Spencer licked his spoon, then leaned back in his chair.
“How did you know?” Ivy demanded, stopping the swing’s movement.
“Because your uncle found out that Laz was in rehab.” Dani shot Spencer a knowing look. “I thought you were only looking into Detective Mikeloff. Did you investigate all the partygoers’ backgrounds?”
“Just the ones that you all told me were close to Regina.” Spencer poured sugar in his coffee, stirred, and took a cautious sip. “The intimate method used to kill her leads me to believe the murderer was someone in her immediate circle of friends or a relative. And Regina doesn’t have any family within a thousand miles of Illinois.”
Dani was silent. She’d bet her brand-new Vitamix blender that Spencer had also run her name past his resources. She really didn’t have anything to hide. Well, except for the Homestead Insurance incident. And none of that mess was her fault.
“Did you find out anything else interesting, Uncle Spence?” Ivy asked.
“Mikeloff has a reputation for being mean.” Spencer paused, then added, “He likes having people in his debt and gets off on exacting revenge if he feels like he’s been betrayed. Rumor has it he’s framed a few people to get payback.” Spencer looked at Dani. “Is there any reason he would feel the need to retaliate against you?”
“I never met him before yesterday,” Dani said.
Her mind flashed to the detective’s resemblance to someone she knew. She really needed to find out who he looked like. If it was someone from her previous job, she’d have to come up with a way to tell Spencer about the detective’s conflict of interest without violating the contract she’d signed.
“I also heard that Regina’s ex-boyfriend went to prostitutes for drugs and rough sex,” Spencer said staring at his niece.
“What? Vance? Ew!” Ivy wrinkled her nose and held up her hand to Spencer. “I don’t even want to know how
