Murder By the Glass Page 18

  Marco leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You be careful, Bellisima.”

  She wasn’t certain if he meant be careful of getting her heart trampled on, be careful of having too good of a time, or be careful of the bad guy or guys out there who wanted her to stop playing amateur sleuth.

  The boys teeter-tottered away and an awkward silence ensued between Nikki and Derek.

  “You decided to come,” she said.

  “I did. I, uh, actually have some accounts here that could use some attention.”

  “I could’ve handled that for you.” She shrank back a bit.

  “I know. I thought personal attention from me was needed.”

  He’d come here for business and not at her behest. This man caused her nothing but confusion and, to be honest, it was getting tiring. “Right.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. I’m sorry, Nikki. I also, I mean I really came up here to talk to you. The business is a side thing. A good excuse to take off for the weekend.”

  Good excuse. Well, excuse me.

  “I felt bad about the other night. I was rude.”

  “It’s not a big deal. I do wish you would’ve let me explain.”

  He shook his head. “There’s no need. It’s none of my business why you canceled dinner and what you did with your time.”

  “Maybe not, but I think you thought I was out with Andrés, and I wasn’t.”

  She could tell he wanted to ask her more by the way he shifted on his bar stool and casually sipped his drink, one eye trained on her.

  “I was out with Deirdre Dupree. I’d run into her earlier that day in Sonoma Square. She was distressed over Susan Jennings’s murder. She once had a thing for Kristof, and so I suggested we meet for dinner. At the moment I was caught up in her drama and I wasn’t thinking about the fact that we already had plans. I’m sorry about that.”

  He set down the mojito. “I would’ve understood that.”

  “You didn’t give me a chance to explain.”

  “I guess I didn’t. Can I ask you, if you were with Deirdre, how is it that you came home with Andrés?”

  Cough it up. It was shameful to her to have to tell Derek this. “Honestly, I drank too much over dinner, and he called me while I was at dinner. I knew that getting a cab that late over in Sonoma might be difficult. I told him my predicament and he came to get me.”

  “You could’ve called me. I would’ve come.”

  “I was embarrassed. You’re my boss. I didn’t want to bother you so late. Besides, I thought maybe you’d be miffed at me for canceling dinner, especially since it was supposed to originally be a business dinner, and then going out with Deirdre.”

  He laughed. “Nikki, what kind of guy do you think I am? I’m not an ass. We’ve all had too much to drink when we shouldn’t have. At least you had the smarts to get a ride. I only wish you’d called me. Boss or not, I’m also your friend and I would’ve understood. But I’m glad that you and Andrés are such good friends, that you were able to turn to him.” He took another sip of his drink. After setting it down he asked, “So are you two seeing each other, you know, dating?”

  “No. We’re not dating. I told you that the other night, and it still stands. We are not dating. I am spending more time with him lately because of Isabel’s situation. He needs a friend right now.”

  “You don’t think she did it, do you?”

  “No way. I know Isabel. She’s got a good heart and wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “Are you snooping around in all of this, Nikki? Is that the reason for your dinner with Deirdre? I never knew you two were close. Not to mention, what about your sudden trip here? Is there some lead you’re following?”

  “Do you really want to know?”

  “Yes, I do. At least, I think do.”

  “Fine. I’ll tell you, but over dinner. My treat. That’s what we agreed to, and since I already explained myself about the other night and I was supposed to do that over dinner, I think I still owe you dinner. Besides, didn’t you tell me that there was something you wanted to discuss with me?”

  He hesitated for a moment. “Yes, there is.”

  “Shouldn’t I change?” she asked. She was still wearing the turtleneck and jeans from early that morning.

  “You look great.”

  After so many hours and a rough day, she doubted it, but what the hell? The way he said it to her, Nikki couldn’t help but believe him. Besides there was the plus that he couldn’t see the bad scrape on her arm. If he did, she knew that he’d have questions and she also knew that he wouldn’t like the answers.

  They headed out the lobby doors and caught a cab. With Derek at her side Nikki wasn’t looking over her shoulder like she had been earlier. But, she refused to entertain the thought that Isabel could truly be the killer as Simon and Marco had suggested. Still, the suggestion did nag at her, as well as the idea that maybe someone was still watching her.

  Chapter 22

  Derek and Nikki wound up at Antoine’s down near the embarcadero. At first Nikki didn’t make the connection, she was just happy to be with Derek, and didn’t pay too much attention to the restaurant and the surroundings, other than it was old-world Italian and candlelit. She opened the menu and then the realization hit her.

  “Antoine’s?”

  “Yes, the one you made such a nice fat sale to the other day. I’m really pleased that you got the account back for us. Right before Antoine passed away he cut off his business with us.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “We weren’t the only ones. Antoine was having some serious money troubles, and at first he tried cutting back on his more expensive vendors, then his wait staff. He even sold off his restaurant in Chicago, hoping it would give him the cash to jump-start the rest of the restaurants.”

  “But it didn’t?”

  “No. Because he’d cut back on the better vendors and rumor travels fast in this industry. His business started to suffer.”

  “Is that why he had to sell off his business to Daveed and Roman?”

  Derek nodded. A waiter appeared and he ordered a very nice bottle of Meritage.

  “You were aware that Pamela Leiland, Susan’s maid of honor, was married to Antoine, weren’t you?” Nikki asked, perusing the menu and finally settling on the brie Toscano with sun-dried tomato pesto for the appetizer.

  “I knew that. I’d met her once when we were still doing business with Antoine. She seemed like a nice lady. Sure, there was a lot of speculation about the age difference and everything, but I have to tell you that I really think those two were in love.”

  “You think so?” Nikki figured that Pamela was probably as shallow as Susan. Didn’t birds of a feather flock together?

  “It may not have started out that way. Who knows? Antoine was a good man, very generous, almost too generous with his kids and everyone else. It’s no wonder he wound up having financial troubles. I figure it’s probably what killed him in the end.”

  “That’s a shame.”

  “It is. He was the kind of man who cared about the people he dealt with. He felt terrible having to sever ties with us, but he claimed that he needed to start saving cash rather than spending it. That he and Pamela were trying to have a baby and he wanted to make sure the kid had all the advantages his older kids had.”

  “That obviously never happened.”

  “No, it didn’t. I’d bet he was probably a great dad.”

  “Did you meet his kids?” Nikki asked.

  The waiter came to the table and opened the Meritage, which, after smelling and tasting it, Derek approved. The red wine with both tobacco and black cherry notes complemented the brie nicely.

  “I actually met them the weekend I came to try to save the account with Antoine. They live here in the city, too, if I remember right. Nice people. Their mother died when they were little. Antoine hadn’t remarried until he met Pamela.”

  “And they liked her?”

  “It really did seem like one big happy fa
mily.”

  “Did the kids work in the restaurant business?”

  “No. I think they did for some time, but they’d each gone their own ways. The son was involved in theater. The daughter, if I remember right, went to work with her husband in his family business.”

  “What was that?”

  But before Derek got to answer her question, an over-the-top Daveed dressed in a white silk outfit rushed to their table. “I thought that was you, you devil, you.” Daveed pointed at Derek.

  Derek shook Daveed’s hand. He picked up the bottle of wine Derek had ordered and called over the waiter, and handing him the wine bottle, whispered something in his ear. Daveed pulled up a chair next to them. “And you, aren’t you the one who tapped us out the other day?”

  Nikki mustered a smile for the obnoxious man. Not easy to do. He’d single-handedly pretty much just rained on her parade of candlelight and romance with Derek. Or at least there was the hope of romance. Not anymore.

  “She is good, my friend, really good. No wonder you sent her my way. If Angel hadn’t been hanging with me that day, well, this one here, she’s a sweetheart. You two are obviously hanging together. You are the bomb, G.”

  There was nothing more annoying than a middle-aged man trying to recapture his glory days by acting like inner-city youth gone bad.

  “Hey, look, here comes my sweet thang, now.”

  Nikki and Derek turned to see Angel, strutting over on four-inch heels, a shirt that just covered her boobs and a pair of hip-hugger white pants that didn’t leave much to the imagination. Her blond hair was down around her face, and the makeup was done up sixties style, complete with shell-pink lipstick and false eyelashes.

  Angel sauntered up to Daveed and planted a kiss on his cheek. She pointedly looked at Nikki and smugly smiled at her. Did she really think that Nikki cared that she was sleeping with the Hugh Hefner wannabe?

  “Gang, dinner is on me. I am so excited and totally thrilled that you came in. We’ve done some posh things with the menu since taking over the place. I brought in Luis de Carlino from New York. He puts the old Antoine’s to shame.” Daveed looked skyward. “Hope he didn’t hear that. He was a decent dude.”

  Derek looked at Nikki. “You don’t need to buy us dinner, Daveed,” he said.

  “Of course I do. I want to. You can give me a cut on my next wine order.” He winked at Nikki.

  “You sell wine?” Angel asked.

  Instead of going into it and reminding Miss Angel that she’d actually been to the Malveaux Winery, tasting wines and being served by Nikki less than a week ago, she simply replied, “Yes.” She was getting the picture that these two weren’t going to take off nicely and crawl back under the rocks they’d come out from.

  The waiter brought back a bottle of Dom Perignon. “No, no. We’re good with our wine,” Derek said.

  “I insist. Your lady here was so killer to us the other day and I want to repay her. It’s all good. I love being able to talk shop with like-minded individuals.”

  Yeah, cause he wasn’t talking shop, religion, politics, or even Cartoon Network with the booty call.

  “When was she nice to you?” Angel asked.

  Derek rolled his eyes at Nikki, who stifled herself to keep from laughing out loud.

  “You’re so sweet,” Daveed said to Angel.

  Nikki didn’t know if she could eat anything. However, the night went on in that manner and by the time the evening came to a close, Nikki and Derek consumed quite a few bottles of wine with their host and hostess, ate more than a small country might, and tried to contain themselves from cracking up at the stupid remarks Angel and Daveed made often.

  Walking out the front door and across the street to catch a cab, they finally let go with some bellyaching laughter. The combination of too much wine and the relief of being out of the restaurant caused the shared laughter to go on for several minutes.

  Nikki finally caught her breath. She rubbed Derek’s arm. “I don’t get it. How can a nine by thirteen pan, be the same as a thirteen by nine pan,” she said, mocking Angel from a conversation that had occurred over dinner, when the young woman tried to explain her attempt at making brownies yesterday for her lover. “I had to throw it all away, because the pan I had was a thirteen by nine inch, and I couldn’t, like, lick the bowl because I’m a vegetarian.” Nikki batted her eyelashes and fell against Derek. They both started laughing again.

  “Poor kid. She pretty much takes the cake for dumb blondes,” he said.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it, if I hadn’t see it and heard it with my own eyes, and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of dumb people in my day.”

  Derek opened the door to the cab and they slipped in the back seat. They sat very close together—touching. Nikki wanted to put her head on his shoulder and close her eyes, never leave this cab. He faced her and grew serious. “I’m sorry they interrupted our dinner and time together.”

  “No apology necessary. It was free entertainment.”

  “You still have that great sense of humor. I love that about you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I wanted to talk to you tonight a bit more about you and your snooping into this murder investigation,” Derek said.

  “I have to prove that Isabel didn’t kill Susan.”

  “I know.” He patted her knee. “But shouldn’t the police be doing that?”

  “How could they? They’ve stopped investigating. They believe that the killer is behind bars and I can’t stand by and let my friend, whom I know is innocent, take the fall.”

  He nodded. “I’m worried about you. It’s dangerous, what you’re doing. I believe that Isabel is innocent, too, but you’re putting yourself out there and whoever the killer is could come after you. I could probably pull some strings over at the station and see if somehow they will reopen the case.”

  “You know they won’t. I’m being careful. Trust me.” The phantom stalker from the night before came to mind, but she wasn’t about to mention it to him. “I have to do this for her. Tell me that you understand. It’s not going to interfere with my work and I promise I’ll be careful.” She faced him and smiled. “I didn’t know you cared so much.”

  “Of course I care. I do understand.”

  It grew quiet inside the cab. Nikki didn’t say anything until she looked up and saw that the cab driver was watching them in the rearview mirror. He, too, was apparently waiting to see what would happen next. “I know that you had a purpose for our dinner. What was it?”

  He shook his head. “You know what, you’re not going to get off that easy. Daveed bought our dinner tonight. I’m thinking you still owe me.”

  “You do, do you?”

  “I do. I also figure, it’s a good way for me to get to have another dinner with you.”

  There he was, flirting with her again. “You’re not going to tell me what you wanted to talk about tonight, until I take you to dinner again?”

  “Nope. But I’m actually going to take you out. Then you will still owe me, and I’m guaranteed a third dinner with you.”

  “Won’t people start to talk?”

  “Let them.” He leaned in, and Nikki knew this was it. He was going to kiss her. She closed her eyes, and then nearly went through the windshield as the cabbie slammed on his brakes and started yelling obscenities. Nikki’s eyes popped open to see a half-naked Marco running across the street, drunk and crazed. He was wearing some type of white balloon looking pants and no shirt—a surreal, gay I Dream of Jeannie. Nikki had to blink her eyes several times to make certain she was really seeing what she thought she was.

  Derek flew out of the car. They were in front of their hotel. “What the hell is going on?” He grabbed Marco by the shoulder.

  “Derek! Oh no, it is terrible. I’m so glad you’re here. I tried to call you on your cellular phone, but couldn’t reach you.”

  “What’s the problem, Marco?”

  Nikki stepped out of the cab.

  “It’s Simon. We
were down at Club Townsend having a beautiful evening, when a young man started to talk with me. I didn’t do a thing. I would never betray Simon. I love him.” He sobbed and threw his bare arms in the air.

  “Marco, what happened?”

  “I tried to get Simon to stop. I had thoughts that after all of our Zen meditation, and the studying of and with Guru Sansibaba, that he would have been rid of his temper and jealousy. I am afraid that he is not. He hit the poor boy and started a fight at the club. He is downtown in the jail. Can you get him out, please?”