CHAPTER ELEVEN
The next morning, the ladies rehashed the funeral during breakfast. Remembering when she’d passed out the Old Crow to strangers on the street got Lucy smiling. “Did you see their faces?” she asked.
“Hell, I’m surprised your parade didn’t throw Mardi Gras beads,” Vivien said with a giggle.
“That’s right. I gave the people something useful,” Lucy said. “Good old whiskey.”
“Your dad would have been pissed.” Wanda laughed. “Giving away his favorite.”
At that point, Lucy knew she’d done the right thing. She’d given him a send-off she’d remember and had paid for it with the money he’d left behind.
It was a few minutes after opening when Mario DeLuca walked in with his perfectly pressed police uniform, looking as sharp as ever. Lucy gave him a look. If she had any interest in men, she’d have made the six-year difference in age work. He’d make some woman a happy wife.
“Ms. Jones, I was in the neighborhood. How are you doing?” Mario asked.
“Much better now,” she said, rubbing the cut on her forehead. “It’s healing well. The doctor said it shouldn’t leave a scar.”
“Well, that’s good,” Mario said, talking to Lucy like no one else was around.
She asked Mario to walk her to the bank. It was time to make her first two-thousand-dollar cash deposit to her new account.
“For you? Yes, right this way,” Mario said, tipping his hat.
They strolled two blocks down to the bank. Coming toward them was Felipe Cruz, dressed in his usual red shirt and cap sporting a black CG on top, a bold move he used on collection day, letting everyone know he ran the Cornerview Gang. Felipe showed his daring arrogance, giving Lucy a wink and pointing at her as he passed. Mario stopped him.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Cruz?”
Felipe hesitated, then said, “Of course not, Officer.”
Lucy gave Felipe a look to kill. There was no doubt in her mind that Felipe had given the order for Picklehead to attack her. With a cop at her side, she felt safe—for now.
She made her transaction at the bank, and they were on their way back when Lucy saw a crowd of people in front of the salon. Then she spotted Wanda, saw the look on her face, and knew something was seriously wrong. Lucy took off in a full sprint, leaving Mario standing.
When Lucy got closer, Wanda pointed to the salon and shouted. “Someone attacked Vivien!”
Lucy grabbed a handgun that was kept at the register and darted to Vivien’s room, arriving just as a man ran out of the bedroom and into the alley. Lucy stopped briefly beside Vivien, who lay bleeding on the floor, and screamed for someone to call an ambulance. Then she took to the alleyway. The guy looked like Felipe without the hat, running full tilt with a red shirt flapping in the wind. She gave chase, but he had a good head start on her, and after he cleared a fence, he disappeared through a courtyard, and she lost him.
Lucy went back to the bedroom. Exhausted and breathing heavily, she saw Mario on the floor kneeling over Vivien, his back to Lucy. He called out some code numbers through his radio and dispatch responded with “Copy, 10-4.” Holding a bath towel tightly to Vivien’s neck, Mario tried to control the bleeding. Her throat had been cut, and judging from the amount of blood loss, it was a severe injury.
Vivien’s face turned a pale white. She was losing the battle to stay alive and faded into unconsciousness. “Stay with me, Vivien. Help is on the way,” Mario said.
Lucy stood, disoriented, while Mario kept the pressure on Vivien’s wound, but he couldn’t stop the blood from gushing. Lucy looked down at her shaking hand, still holding the gun she’d chased Felipe with. She quickly stuck the weapon under the mattress before Mario saw it.
Sirens approached, and a police car arrived first and cleared the area for the ambulance.
“What happened?” Lucy asked a tearful Wanda, who was standing in the doorway staring at Vivien’s motionless body on the floor.
“Someone must have come in from the alley entrance,” Wanda said. “No one came in or out the front door.”
“Clear the area,” the emergency crew shouted, rushing to Vivien’s side.
A few moments later, Vivien was placed on a stretcher and rolled out to the ambulance, cutting through the crowd of onlookers. Behind a police escort, the ambulance rushed down the street to Charity Hospital with full lights flashing and sirens blasting.
At the salon, the police scrambled, blocking off the walkway and securing the inside of the building. They outlined the perimeter with yellow tape, marking it a crime scene.
Mario gathered the ladies into a room while investigators combed the area for clues. When the attack had occurred, only Wanda and two customers had been in the building. Like Wanda, the customers didn’t know much other than that they’d heard a scuffle, shouting, and one scream. Mario released them after questioning, then focused on Wanda.
“Can you think of anything that would have sparked the attack?” Mario asked, flipping a page of his notebook.
Wanda eyeballed Lucy, and Mario noticed. “What?” he said, looking from one to the other.
Wanda let out a groan. “Vivien told me last week that Felipe Cruz was harassing her for more money. Only a month ago, he increased his demands from three to four hundred, and now he wanted five hundred a week. Her words were clear: ‘He’ll have to kill me before I hand over more money.’ I have no doubt Felipe attacked her.”
“She owed this thug money?” Mario asked.
“Protection money,” Lucy said.
“I thought the Police Gang Unit closed that
