“My surveillance cameras have come in mighty handy if I do say so myself.”
“Yes, they have.”
Elvira looked disappointed as Mercedes and Carlita stepped into their building.
“Are you sure you wanna snoop inside Shelby’s place, Ma?”
“I don’t, but I also don’t see where we have a choice.”
Mercedes waited in the upper hall while Carlita dashed into their apartment to retrieve her set of master keys.
“There you are.” Vinnie emerged from their temporary abode at the same time his mother stepped into the hall with the keys. “We wondered what happened to you.”
“Mercedes and I had to take care of something.” Carlita quickly changed the subject. “How was your morning of sightseeing?”
“Eh.” Vinnie shrugged. “I’m not much into seein’ the sights. Brittney enjoyed it. We took the trolley tour and a ride on the paddleboat. That was cool. We grabbed a bite to eat in the City Market district and then did a little shopping before heading back.”
Vinnie nodded to his sister. “You still gonna take Brittney shoe shopping in the morning? I got a little business to take care of and figured while you girls are maxing out my plastic, I could take care of my stuff.”
“Yes, I’ll take Brittney shoe shopping in the morning,” Mercedes said. “If I remember correctly, the new mall has several designer shoe stores. Brittney should have a field day.”
“Thanks, Mercedes. I owe you one. I guess now that I’ve given Savannah a chance, it’s not such a bad place to visit,” Vinnie said.
“It’s also a great place to live. You should consider it if you get tired of Atlantic City,” Carlita hinted.
“Not a chance. This place is nice enough, although a little too low key for my tastes. Speaking of tastes, Brittney and I would like to treat the family to dinner tonight.”
“That would be nice,” Carlita said. “Have you asked Tony?”
“Yeah, we just came from there. He told me he had a few things to take care of after work, but said he could be ready by seven-thirty. We’re gonna meet downstairs near the back door.”
“Seven-thirty is perfect. It will give Mercedes and me time to take care of a couple of things ourselves. Do you have a restaurant in mind?”
“Brittney spotted a tapas restaurant she wants to try, if you don’t mind.”
“Tapas?” Carlita lifted a brow.
“You know, those cutesy little food dishes people share at the table. I wouldn’t mind checkin’ it out since we’re thinking of closing one of the bakery restaurants in the casino and opening something new and fresh. According to Brittney, tapas are all the rage.”
“I’m game. Tapas sounds good to me.”
Vinnie and his mother agreed they would all meet at 7:30 and then Vinnie headed back inside his apartment.
Mercedes motioned to her mother, and the two women tiptoed to Shelby’s front door. Carlita stuck the master key in the lock and unlocked the door. “Are we sure we want to do this?”
“Do we have a choice?”
“No. As much as I’m against invading a person’s private space, we have to get to the bottom of what is going on.” Carlita eased Shelby’s door open.
The interior was dark, with only a small amount of light beaming through the slits in the living room blinds.
Mercedes reached for the light switch.
“Wait.”
“What?” Mercedes lowered her hand. “We can’t snoop if we can’t see.
“True. Go ahead and turn the lights on.”
Mercedes flipped the switch and bright light illuminated the tidy space.
Carlita took a step back to ease the door closed when she heard a sharp voice ring out from the hall.
“Hey!”
Chapter 16
Startled, Carlita spun around, coming face-to-face with Elvira. “What are you doing in here?”
“I forgot to ask you when you wanted to plan a visit to the Black Stallion. Your back door was locked, but it wasn’t latched. You might wanna get that fixed. I pushed it open and walked right in.”
“Great,” Carlita grumbled. “Remind me to have Bob Lowman take a look at it, Mercedes.”
Elvira craned her neck, peering over Carlita’s shoulder. “You find anything yet?”
“We just got in here.”
Elvira slipped past Carlita and entered Shelby’s apartment. “This is a nice apartment. It looks bigger than my old apartment.”
“All four of the apartments are identical with the exact same square footage.”
“Huh.” Elvira nodded. “I know you haven’t asked for my opinion, but if I was going to search the place, I would start in the desk area, filing cabinets, something like that.” She pointed to a small desk, located between the living room and the kitchen area.
“I’ll do it.” Mercedes hurried to the desk. On top was a vertical divider with several bills sticking out. Next to the desk was a file box. She lifted the lid. “There’s nothing out of the ordinary in here, utility bills, bank statements, that kind of thing.”
“Junk drawers can be goldmines.” Elvira approached the kitchen cabinets. “I’ll take a quick peek inside here for you.” She pulled one of the drawers open. “Silverware.”
“Oh brother.” Carlita shook her head.
It was too late. Elvira was in her element as she began digging through the kitchen drawers. Carlita was certain it would take longer to convince her former tenant to leave than it would to quickly search the place and get out.
“Don’t destroy anything,” Carlita warned.
Mercedes continued searching the desk area while Carlita headed to the small hall and the bedrooms in the back. There was a good chance they wouldn’t find anything since Mercedes and Carlita had helped Shelby clean up earlier and hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.
Carlita did a quick visual search of Violet’s pink and pastel princess bedroom before she moved on to the
