Craving Vengeance (12 page)

“Yep.”

“We need to ask you a couple more questions.
We’ll be there shortly.”

“Do what you gotta do. I’ll be here.”

Spinelli and Walker loaded into their
unmarked. Shannon rode along as well. Spinelli wasn’t about to let
her out of his sight. Spinelli caught a glimpse of Shannon in the
backseat. He’d debated sitting back there with her when they
climbed into the car. Part of him wanted to hold her, comfort her.
She looked confused and exhausted. He could tell by her silence
that the day’s events had taken their toll on her; she was rarely
ever quiet. But another part of him was still angry with her, and
this kept him at a distance. He still wanted an explanation as to
why she’d kissed Meyers the way he’d seen her kissing him; all
lips, teeth, and tongue. A friendly peck on the cheek he could have
understood.

Walker parked on the street in front of
Sonny’s bar. All the bars and restaurants up and down the street
looked busy. Full of patrons enjoying their Valentine’s Day,
Spinelli suspected.

They entered the establishment. It was busy.
A wiry young man tended bar along with Sonny. He was tattooed and
pierced. Looks wise, he couldn’t be more opposite of Tony
Rosso.

Sonny waved them over to the far end of the
long worn wooden bar. There were fewer patrons at that end.

Spinelli pulled a photo of Mike Carter from
the manila folder he carried and handed it to Sonny. “Do you know
this guy?”

Sonny nodded. “Yep, he comes in pretty
regularly. Never stays very long though.”

“Did he and Tony know each other?”

“Yeah. He’s been in while Tony was working. I
don’t know that they were buddies or anything, but I would imagine
Tony talked to him like any other customer.”

Spinelli set that photo down, grabbed one of
Chad Williams, and handed it to Sonny. “Do you know this guy?”

Sonny nodded. “Yep. He comes in for lunch a
couple times a week.”

“I take it Tony knew him as well.”

“Yeah. Hang on a second,” Sonny added as he
took a few steps toward the middle of the bar and tapped a beer for
a young woman who’d set her empty mug up on the counter.

Spinelli glanced about the bar. An older
woman sat to his left. One empty barstool separated them. She
looked like a typical barfly. He figured her to be in her early
sixties. Her dark copper hair was accented with a streak of blue in
the bangs. Her makeup was painted on thick. She wore a tight red
sweater and leaned forward with her boobs propped up on the bar.
Maybe at her age, and considering the size of them, she didn’t have
the strength to hold them up on her own for too long a period of
time.

She turned her head, checked out Spinelli,
smiled, and leaned toward him. “I couldn’t help but notice your
photos. I’ve seen them both in here. They worked for Tony, you
know.” Her harsh, smoker’s voice did not match her fine facial
features.

“Excuse me?”

She lifted her glass, took a sip of her
drink, and set the glass back on the cardboard coaster. Bright red
lipstick coated the rim of her glass. Her gaze never left him. Her
strong rose scented perfume caused his nose to itch. He fought the
building sneeze.

“I’m pretty sure they worked for Tony. Don’t
get me wrong. Tony was a good person, and I really liked him.” She
paused and sucked in a breath. Her eyes watered. “I warned him that
his lifestyle would catch up with him someday. I’m sure he pissed
off a lot of husbands and boyfriends through the years.” She shook
her head and took another sip of her drink.

“What exactly did Tony do for a living,
Ms...”

“Barnard. I’m Judy Barnard,” she filled in as
she extended her hand.

He shook her hand. Her long slim fingers were
cold. Her wiry bracelets clinked together, and he couldn’t help but
notice the large sparkling rings on her fingers. Some stones were
clear, some were green. He wondered if the jewels were real.

“So Ms. Barnard, what did Tony do for a
living besides bartend?”

She shifted her gaze about the bar before
returning it to him. She paused briefly and leaned closer to him.
“He ran a male escort service.” Even her whisper was raspy.

“Why did he work here then?”

She looked surprised by his question. “This
bar is in the professional district. I would imagine he picked up
some clients here. You know, when they stopped in for lunch or
after work for happy hour.”

He kept his gaze on her. Her voice seemed to
soften. A hint of sadness passed through her dark eyes. Was she
speaking from experience? He wondered how well she knew Tony.

“Were there any others?” Spinelli asked.

Judy frowned. “Others?”

He wondered if there were any more dead
cupids they hadn’t discovered yet or if there were more at risk on
this fine Valentine’s Day. “Do you know of any other escorts
working for Tony?”

She thought for a moment. “I can’t say for
sure, but I’d guess there were a few more.”

“How do you know?”

She glanced down at her hand and eyed her
rings. “Tony likes fine things and somehow seemed to be able to
afford them. The more staff you have, the more money you make.
Plus, I’d see well- kept, handsome men come in and out of here.
Sometimes they’d just come in to talk with Tony for a moment, and
they’d leave without getting anything to eat or drink.” She paused,
looked down, and twisted her bracelets around her wrist. “And
sometimes I’d see them pass an envelope between one another.”

“What was in the envelope?” Spinelli asked,
already knowing the answer.

“Cash, I suppose.”

Spinelli nodded in agreement. “Do you know
the names of the others who came in to see Tony, or where I can
find them?”

She shook her head.

“It’s important. Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I’m sure. Sorry.”

He believed her. He also believed she mourned
Tony’s death more than she let on, and he understood.

Sonny made his way back to their end of the
bar. “Sorry, it’s kind of busy in here tonight.”

“No problem,” Spinelli cut to the chase, “any
chance you know anything about the escort business Tony was
running?”

Sonny shot Judy a sideways glance then he
looked back at Spinelli. “I’d heard rumors.”

“So you don’t know for sure?”

Sonny shook his head. “Not my business. I
hired him to tend bar, and, as far as I’m concerned, as long as he
did that well, we had no problem. If you don’t need me for anything
else, I’ll get back to waiting on my customers.”

Spinelli was confident Sonny knew something
about Tony’s extracurricular activities but probably not much. He
seemed like the kind of guy that would just look the other way as
long as it didn’t affect him, and evidently from Sonny’s abrupt end
to their conversation, he was done talking about it.

Spinelli, Walker, and Shannon climbed back
into the unmarked. Spinelli and Walker debated what to do next.
Perhaps if they talked with Mike Carter’s sister again she could
shed some more light on what he’d been doing with his time lately.
At least they could now link the first three cupids together, but
there was still no link between them and Joshua Meyers.

Walker signaled and pulled into traffic.
Spinelli glanced down at his watch; it was nearly 10:00 p.m. He’d
call Cindy Carter first thing in the morning.

Shannon sat silent in the backseat. She’d
hardly spoken a word since they’d left the precinct.

This wasn’t at all the Valentine’s Day
Spinelli had planned. He thought about the ring in his pocket. He
thought about Shannon kissing Dr. Joshua. His chest hollowed as he
recalled the sight of her soft sweet lips touching those of another
man. He squeezed his eyes shut hoping to extinguish the unbearable
image in his mind. Her lips were meant for him, and only him, as
his were for her. He believed her when she said she told Joshua she
was seeing someone else, yet his heart still ached at the thought
she’d been engaged before. Why did it bother him so much? After
all, he had a life before he met her as well.

Spinelli’s cell phone buzzed, knocking him
out of his trance. He pulled it from its holder on his hip. Marsh’s
face flashed across the screen. “Spinelli here.”

“Yeah, Spinelli, I think I found a connection
between Carter and Rosso,” Marsh said in a proud tone.

“We got lucky on this end as well. Both Sonny
Tomes and one of his regulars have seen Carter and Williams at the
bar talking with Rosso at one time or another.”

“Oh,” Marsh responded with a tinge of
disappointment in his tone.

Spinelli figured Marsh was hoping he’d be the
hero.

“We’re only a couple of minutes out. We’ll
talk when we get back.”

“Okay.”

Walker glanced over his shoulder. “You’re
kind of quiet, Shannon, you doing okay?”

Spinelli turned his head slightly and caught
a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye. She looked pale,
sad, and exhausted. He knew he was being a dick and should have
been the one to ask her if she was okay, but he just couldn’t seem
to bring himself to do so. He caught a sideways glance from Walker,
confirming his dick status.

Shannon sighed. Her shoulders slumped. “I’m
fine. It’s all just a bit overwhelming.”

“Yeah. Try not to worry. We’ll get to the
bottom of this,” Walker assured, beating Spinelli to it again.

Big fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky as
Walker parked the unmarked. The second Spinelli slid out of the
car, the crisp, cold, raw wind picked up and slapped him in the
face, sending the falling snowflakes sideways and into his eyes. A
small set of hands wrapped around his bicep. He didn’t need to be
able to see to know whose they were. An electrical sensation shot
through his arm and then whipped through the rest of his body,
instantly warming him in the blustery wind and twenty-degree
temperature.

He looked down, catching a glimpse of
Shannon’s tall red boots, sexy as all get out, but not really made
for walking on ice. He slowed his pace to help steady her. He
wished he could erase this day and start over. He imagined she
wished the same.

Marsh looked up from his table full of
laptops when they pushed through the door of the precinct.

“What did you find?” Spinelli asked as he
shrugged out of his coat and flung it on the back of his chair.

Marsh pointed at some papers on the table.
“Lisa in the IT Department actually found it. After she ran the
keystroke program on Chad Williams’ computer, she decided to add
some sort of filter or query to look for repeat words. Evidently,
the word ‘angelfish’ kept showing up. She traced the word to
several email files addressed to ‘Angelfish.’ Now, the emails are
pretty vague, almost as if the people were typing in code or
something, but every email seems to reference dates and times. So
then I checked Carter’s laptop for similar emails, and voila, he
had some email correspondence with this ‘Angelfish’ as well. And in
the last email between the two, ‘Angelfish’ told Carter to dress as
cupid for his meeting.” Marsh sighed. “Oddly, Rosso’s laptop shows
no emails to or from ‘Angelfish,’ but maybe he has another computer
or device we didn’t find.”

Marsh paused and looked at Spinelli as if he
should know exactly about what he was talking.

“How exactly then are you tying Rosso into
these emails?” Spinelli asked.

Marsh rolled his eyes. “For crissake. Don’t
you get it? He’s ‘Angelfish.’ It’s so evident.”

“Enlighten us.”

“Remember the fish from Rosso’s
apartment?”

“Yeah.”

“Those were Resplendent Angelfish,” Marsh
stated with confidence.

“Okay?”

Marsh sucked in a breath of annoyance.
“Resplendent Angelfish are hardy fish that adapt well to aquarium
life; however, they’re semi-aggressive and tend to form groups
comprised of one male and several females. Who else would be
‘Angelfish’ other than Rosso?”

Walker nodded. “It all seems to make sense,
between this and what we found out at Sonny’s.”

Spinelli filled Marsh in on the conversation
they had with Sonny and Judy. “But we still have a few missing
links. How does Meyers tie in? Who contracted with Rosso’s service
to kill four cupids? Furthermore, only cupids Shannon once dated.”
Spinelli’s gaze shifted to the wings, bow, and quiver full of
arrows on his desk. “And who in the hell had enough control of the
situation to get me to dress as cupid as well?”

“Don’t forget about Lady Lily.” Marsh
added.

“Who?” Spinelli questioned.

“Lady Lily. The person Williams emailed and
agreed to meet with at the Morgan Bank building this morning.”

Walker nodded. “Oh yes, the flower of death
person.” His comment evidently conceded that his earlier
recollection of the orchid being the flower of death was
incorrect.

“Actually, as it turns out, not only are
lilies the flowers of death, but they are also known well for their
use in aquariums,” Marsh added.

“And how is that pertinent?” Spinelli cut in,
wanting to kick himself the second the question came out of his
mouth because he knew, rather than just cutting to the chase, Marsh
would probably embark on some sort of long drawn-out useless
explanation as usual.

“
Well, you see, the lily’s broad leaves
produce shaded areas in the aquarium which encourage shy or
reclusive fish species to actively forage in open view. But the
problem with planting lilies in aquariums is that if they are left
unattended, their leaves will grow large and block all the light
from the understory and kill those plants. One of the most common
lilies offered for aquarium use is the dwarf lily. Go figure.
Dwarf.”

They all just stared at Marsh.

The silence encouraged him to continue. “You
know, dwarf lily and dwarf angelfish. And think about it. She sucks
the men out into the open, then wham, kills off everything in her
path.”