Death Drops (24 page)

“Stay here,” Jackson said. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

Allie nodded toward Jackson as he walked away. “Not to repeat myself, Willow, but yum-
my
.”

She was absolutely right, of course. His butt looked fantastic in his jeans, and his broad shoulders were to die for. I felt a buzz of electricity as I watched him climb the stairs and go inside. Allie gave me a pointed look and I felt myself blush. “He’s very helpful. And very nice.”

“He’s nice all right,” Allie said, and drank some of her wine.

Hector nodded and gave me a knowing smile. “Yes, very nice.”

We continued our discussion about the ins and outs of our new business venture until Jackson returned five minutes later carrying a glass of what looked like seltzer and lime.

“That was quick,” I said as he sat down again.

“They gave me lots of attitude but no info,” Jackson said. “I’ll have to go another way.”

“Another way?” I asked.

“Let me worry about it,” he said.

I was about to say that I’d shared all my info with him and he needed to reciprocate so we were on the same page when Simon rounded the corner.

“Willow!” he yelled as he came through the gate. Dressed in a Greenport T-shirt, khaki shorts, and Jack Purcell sneakers and wearing retro Ray-Bans, he made a beeline for our table, carrying a thick sheaf of papers. His nose was black-and-blue and still swollen, but he seemed in good spirits, surely due to the painkillers he was taking. He dropped into a chair on the other side of me, pushed his sunglasses up onto his head, and put the manuscript and a copy of the
New York Times
and
Newsday
down on the table.

“You come here to work?” I said. “Starbucks seems like a better idea.”

“That’s what you say,” Simon said. “This is more fun.” He said hi to Allie, whom he knew from her visits to L.A., then looked at Hector and Jackson. “So, introduce me.”

“Simon, this is Hector Solo and Jackson Spade,” I said, gesturing to them. “Jackson’s helping me look into Aunt Claire’s murder.”

“Oh, that again,” he said. “I hope you can convince her it’s not her job to get involved. She doesn’t know anything about running a store, let alone solving a murder.”

“I think McQuade can do whatever she sets her mind to,” Jackson said.

I savored the gooey, warm feeling his compliment gave me. The fact that he believed in me was definitely a huge plus in his favor.

Simon, on the other hand, didn’t seem to like it at all. Instead of responding, he pointed to the newspaper. “That cop
Koren told a reporter that they didn’t think the events were random and that there was a personal motive. He said that the public shouldn’t be alarmed. That they had it all under control. It sounds like they know what they’re doing.”

“We’re not sure about that,” Jackson said. “As a former cop—”

“You said it, buddy,
former,
as in not now,” he said in a snarky tone. “You two better leave it to professionals.” He opened the wine menu. “So, what are we having, kids?”

I pointed to my glass of wine. “We’re all set. And I’m not sure you should be drinking while you’re on those painkillers.”

He waved that suggestion away and called over a short, stocky busboy with a peach fuzz beard who was clearing an adjacent table. His name tag read
Tad
and I wondered if this was Dan and Sue’s son. I’d pictured him as a young, innocent boy, but he was anything but. He looked dark and brooding, menacing even.

“Excuse me,” I said anyway. “Is your last name Polumbo by any chance?”

The kid shoved the cleanup rag into the front pocket of his apron. “Yeah, I’m Tad Polumbo. Who’s asking?”

Simon stiffened. “Is your father Dan?”

“Yeah, so?” He started to clear the table next to us.

“You see this?” He pointed at his nose. “Your father did this to me.”

“You’re lying!” Tad yelled, throwing the rag on the table. “He wouldn’t.”

“He did,” Simon said, gesturing to me. “I was trying to defend her aunt Claire.”

“Oh, her,” Tad said, like he was describing the dregs of the earth. “Serves her right she ended up dead. She almost killed me!”

I shook my head no. “My aunt didn’t know your entire medical history. Your mother didn’t tell her you had asthma. She would have been more conservative in her approach. I know that.”

“That’s BS. My mom and dad said it was all her fault!” His voice got even louder, and I wondered if he should be on the suspect list, too. He was big enough and angry enough to have killed Aunt Claire.

“Let’s all calm down now,” Jackson said. “Take it easy, Tad.”

“Yeah, kid. Get me a waiter,” Simon said, waving him away. “Make yourself useful.”

“I oughta slug you, too.” He lurched toward Simon. “My old man had the right idea.”

Simon put his hands up to defend his nose, and Hector jumped up and grabbed Tad. Hearing the commotion, the pet shop boys exited the Vine Bar and marched over to us.

“You got trouble, Tad?” the unpleasant man from the pet store asked.

“Yeah, Lenny, I got trouble,” Tad said, spitting the words out. “These people are all in with that Claire Hagan broad. She hurt me, she hurt my family.”

“Oh, we know all about her, don’t we, Billy?”

“Bitch makes it hard for us to do business,” Billy snarled.

“This is her niece,” Tad said, and pointed to me.

“Oh yeah?” Billy came around the table and put his face in mine. I made the connection, finally remembering where I knew him from. He’d been two years ahead of me in high school. Constantly in trouble, expelled three times. And obviously still a menace.

Jackson got up. “Let it go, Billy. Back off,” he said, and pulled Billy away from me.

“You back off.” Billy swiveled and smashed his fist into Jackson’s face. Jackson hit the ground, hard, and I cried out as Lenny started kicking him in the stomach. Hector lurched over and grabbed Lenny by the collar, pulling him away and tearing his shirt, but Billy immediately jumped on him, pounding him with his fists. Tad turned and ran inside to get some help while Simon gathered his manuscript and took off like a jackrabbit. Allie and I stood helplessly by, watching the madness.

Jackson managed to get to his feet, charged like a bull, and knocked Billy backward across our table. The glasses of wine and cheese platter shattered on the brick patio. Billy landed on the ground with an
ooomph!
while Lenny went after Jackson again, but Hector knocked him down with a good right. The two pet shop boys writhed and groaned on the ground.

Action over, Jackson slumped into a chair, all the adrenaline gone and the pain back, a grimace on his face. Hector grabbed a napkin to clean the blood off his bleeding knuckles as the sound of police sirens filled the air, blotting out everything else. All in all, this sure hadn’t ended up being the relaxing, quiet night out I’d envisioned.

Dear Dr. McQuade,

I just got back from a visit to my doctor and she gave me the results of my bone scan. She told me I have osteoporosis. Can any natural remedies help?

Signed,

Boning Up

Dear Boning Up,

I applaud you for wanting to use natural remedies to help heal your osteoporosis. Even though our bones take a beating as we get older and are also affected by smoking, caffeine, alcohol, and soda, which can leach calcium, our bones are living tissue and can regenerate with the right help. One of the best things to do is to aim for an alkaline diet by eating lots of leafy, green veggies and foods that have a pH higher than 7. You can supplement this with a good powdered green-food drink. Weight-bearing exercise is important, too. Calcium gets a lot of buzz, but strontium is more effective. Research shows it builds better bones and helps reduce the pain of osteoporosis.

Signed,

Dr. Willow McQuade

When they heard the sirens, the pet shop boys pulled themselves together, jumped the picket fence, and beat it across the street and behind the IGA grocery store. A cop car zoomed in and stopped at the curb, a dirty blue Ford sedan right behind it. Two uniformed officers got out of the cop car, while Detectives Koren and Coyle stepped out of the Ford. Coyle, dressed in a cheap-looking blue seersucker suit and wearing shades, and Koren, in a tailored Brooks Brothers suit, took their sweet time as they walked to the entrance to the patio, opened the gate, and came over to us.

When they did, Koren arched an eyebrow and said, “Getting into trouble again, Dr. McQuade?”

“They’re getting away,” I said, and pointed across the street.

Koren put his hands on his hips and pushed back his jacket so we could all see his gun in its holster. “Don’t tell me. Janice. Again.”

I shook my head, frustrated. “No, not Janice. Lenny and Billy, the pet shop boys.”

“The pet shop boys?” He blew out a breath. “Explain, please.”

I told him about the fight. When I finished, he looked at Jackson. “Thought you had a bad back. How did you manage to get into a fight?”

“It’s called fight or flight, officer,” I said. “He sensed danger, his adrenaline kicked in, and he was able to act. He was trying to help us.”

Koren considered this. “Yes, I’ve heard he’s been helping you. The coroner told me he called about the time of death for Sean Nichols. You’re a bit off your patch, wouldn’t you say, Spade?”

“I’m trying to help a friend, Koren. That’s all.”

“Dr. McQuade?” He nodded to me.

“Claire Hagan.”

“The disability board might be interested in your extracurricular activities when your case comes up for review next month,” Coyle said.

“How do you know about that?” Jackson asked.

“We know everything,” Koren said, sounding smug. “And I’ll be happy to let them know that you’re doing quite well. Hell, maybe you don’t need that disability after all, Spade.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “He’s not doing well; he’s in constant pain.”

Jackson put his hand on my arm and said, “McQuade, I can handle this myself.”

“You can if you get smart and stay out of this case,” Koren said. The two detectives headed up the steps and went inside.

“What absolute asses,” Allie said. Such a comment was big for Allie, who rarely had an unkind word to say about anyone.

We watched Koren and Coyle as they talked to Tad and a woman I presumed was the manager. Tad waved and gestured. The woman remained calm.

Jackson groaned as he sat down. “I’m going to pay for this big-time.”

“He can’t touch you,” I said, concerned about what Koren might do now. “He’s bluffing.”

“I meant my back,” Jackson said. “It’s already in spasm. Those two bozos don’t worry me.”

Hector sat down next to him. “I can help you. The B-fifty-four acupressure point behind your knees can relieve back pain and pressure. But I’ll need to get you on the table. We can go after this.”

“I’ll follow up with a massage,” Allie said.

“Hopefully we can wrap this up quickly,” I said. “And get out of here.”

A few minutes later, Detectives Koren and Coyle trotted down the steps and came back over to us. “You’re very lucky, Dr. McQuade, you and your friends,” Koren said. “The manager doesn’t want to press charges. She doesn’t want any negative publicity. We’ve also got more important things to do.”

“Like find Sean Nichols’s and Claire Hagan’s killers?” I asked.

Koren pulled me aside and lowered his voice. “Sean Nichols had in his possession an envelope with Claire’s name and
Fresh Face
written on it. Know anything about that, Dr. McQuade?”

I played dumb. “He did? Does that mean he stole the formula and killed my aunt?”

Koren’s phone buzzed. “That would wrap things up nicely for you, wouldn’t it?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the message. “No, we don’t think it’s that simple. You’re still on my list of suspects.” He eyed Jackson and dropped the phone back into his pocket. “Stay out of this, Dr. McQuade, and you, too, Spade. Let us do our jobs.” They slipped through the fence and headed to their car.

The four of us hurried
back to Nature’s Way and helped Jackson upstairs so he could begin his acupuncture treatment. “Since it’s late, I’ll do an abbreviated session, but it will still mitigate the tumble you took tonight,” Hector said. “We’ll follow up tomorrow and Allie can give you a massage then, too.”

“I appreciate this,” Jackson said.

“Not at all,” Hector said. “Now please take off your T-shirt and lie down.”

It took some effort, but Jackson managed to pull it over his head. His chest was buff and muscled, with a few distinguishing
scars that looked like they could be bullet wounds. Definitely super hot.

He got onto the table and lay on a special body-sized heating pad. Once he was settled, Hector said, “Since you have acute lower back pain, Jackson, we’ll want to invigorate your chi and blood to remove the stagnation and unblock the channels, which will stop the pain.” He looked at Allie and me. “Do you mind if they watch? Willow is interested in seeing my technique.”

“Have at it,” he said, turning his head and giving me a deep, penetrating look. “Thanks for the help.”

“Quid pro quo, remember? I promised.”

“Indeed you did, McQuade.” He closed his eyes. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

We watched silently as Hector inserted various super-thin, pliable needles into Jackson’s skin. I glanced at the chart on the wall. For acute lower back pain, the first distal acupuncture point he targeted was Liver 3 on the foot, one of the most important acupuncture points. Jackson winced slightly as he inserted the needle. Next, he inserted LI 4, Du 26, (N-UE 19), and finally BL 40, and then said, “That’s enough for now. We’ll do more tomorrow.”

He adjusted the temperature of the mat and dimmed the lights. “This BioMat is something you might want at home, Jackson. It’s a special heating pad that has far infrared healing rays, amethysts, and negative ions. Very therapeutic. A far infrared sauna is also good for detoxification afterward.”

“Hmm-hum,” Jackson said sleepily.

“We’ll leave you now for about twenty minutes. It’s okay if you fall asleep.”

“Hmm-hum,” Jackson repeated.