“We can gauge the distance using the GPS.” Mercedes leaned forward in her seat. “I’ll pull up a map of the riverfront area. Harner Street is our first destination and the Black Stallion Club is our next destination.” She grew silent as she worked on the GPS. “Shelby, you might be onto something.”
“It’s close, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s only a couple of blocks away from Harner Street.” Mercedes squinted her eyes and studied the screen. “Those four locations…the Black Stallion Club, Harner Street, the park where Shelby found Robert’s body and the Journey’s End form a square. One could easily walk to all four of them within a few minutes.”
Shelby cleared her throat. “I think I just remembered something else.”
Chapter 12
“Really?” Carlita tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “What is it that you remembered?”
“The name Pat. Robert mentioned the name Pat.”
Mercedes shifted in the seat. “Did you ask him who Pat was?”
“No. I mean, looking back I should have. At the time, my only concern was to get rid of Robert once and for all.”
“We’re getting close,” Carlita turned off the main road, onto a secondary road. They drove for another mile and then turned onto a dirt drive. The car bounced along the rutted path. “This place is in the middle of nowhere.”
“My aunt and uncle like their privacy.”
“No kidding.” Carlita crept along the drive until they reached a clearing and a sprawling brick ranch.
“This is it.”
Carlita steered the car along the circle drive and stopped in front of the garage. “Would you like us to wait to make sure they’re home?”
“If you don’t mind.” Shelby flung the door open, got out and then reached back inside for her suitcase. “Thanks for giving me a ride.” She dragged her suitcase up the drive and past the garage before disappearing around the corner.
She emerged moments later and gave Carlita a thumbs-up and a wave.
Mercedes waited until she was out of sight. “There’s something fishy going on, Ma. Shelby’s reaction makes me think maybe we’re not getting the whole story from her. Maybe she’s still in shock and slowly remembering details or maybe not.”
“Are you still thinking she may have had something to do with her ex’s death?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Mercedes said. “So now what?”
“I know I swore I didn’t want to involve Elvira, but her exterior surveillance cameras may be able to give us some clues as to who broke into Shelby’s apartment and ransacked the place.”
Carlita continued. “There was something else. The owner of the Journey’s End told us not only had the police questioned him, another man stopped by to ask questions about Robert.”
“Did he give you any indication who the person was?”
“No. He gave us a description. He said the man was kinda short, with brown hair. He was wearing jeans and a brown shirt. I gave him forty bucks and my cell phone number, and asked him to give me a call if the man came back.”
“That was smart thinkin’, Ma.”
“I come up with a good idea every once in a while,” Carlita joked.
When they arrived back home, Vinnie’s car was still gone.
Carlita stopped by the pawnshop to let Tony know Shelby was at her uncle’s house and they were going to run by Elvira’s place to see if she’d seen or heard anything around the time of the break-in.
No one answered Elvira’s door, so the two women circled around the front to the business entrance. The doors were locked and the lights were off.
Carlita peered through the front window. “That’s odd.”
“Maybe they’re all on assignment,” Mercedes joked.
“You would think Elvira would have someone here to keep the office open. I’ll send her a text.” Carlita reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. She tapped a quick message and then hit the send button. “I guess we’ll have to wait.”
“I think I’ll do a little research on the riverfront district before I tackle my new book draft.”
The women circled the block before returning to the apartment. Carlita followed Mercedes to her room. “Are you still working on your second mafia series book?”
“Yeah, and I’m bogged down in the middle. There are too many victims and not enough suspects. I need to head back to New York to dig up some really gritty stuff.”
“All you gotta do is interview your brother, Vinnie. I’m sure he has plenty of stories that involve the family,” Carlita said.
Mercedes plopped down in her chair. “Now that you mention it, Brittney did give me some ideas for a new character for the book. I could fashion the killer’s personality after her, seeing how she seems so innocent. In reality, she’s a cold, calculating serial killer, working for her daddy, the kingpin mobster. She dates men her dad wants taken out and then she does the deed.”
“Maybe that’s where you’re coming up with the idea somehow Shelby is involved in her ex’s murder,” Carlita mused.
“No.” Mercedes shook her head. “Shelby’s situation is different. Something isn’t adding up. I mean, why wouldn’t Shelby report her ex to the authorities instead of agreeing to meet him all alone? And why was she going to give him money? It would only encourage him to hang around and keep hounding her for more, even if he did agree to sign away his parental rights.”
Carlita wandered to Mercedes’ bedroom window, lifted the blinds and peered out into the courtyard. “You have some valid points.”
Mercedes reached for her mouse. “I hate to say it, but Shelby is a suspect
