Софи Райан - A Whisker Оf Trouble

“I’m sorry, Detective,” Logan said, smoothly confident. “As you can see, I’m in the middle of something. Perhaps another time.”

A flash of uncertainty passed across Leila’s face.

Michelle smiled. I’d seen that smile before. It did not mean good things were going to happen. “Mr. Logan, please stand up,” she said.

He gave a sigh of annoyance. “Look, I know I have a couple of parking tickets that I should have paid.” He held up both hands and gave her his best approximation of a boyish smile. It was pretty good. “I plead guilty to having a lead foot and I promise I’ll come by the station and pay them as soon as I’m done here.”

I wasn’t sure his charm would have worked on anyone, but it definitely didn’t work on Michelle.

“Get up, please,” she repeated, and when he didn’t she nodded to the officer beside her.

“Stand up, sir,” the young officer said, helping Logan to his feet. Michelle explained why he was being arrested while the handcuffs were snapped into place.

While all the focus was on Thorne Logan, Leila had started to back toward the door. I noticed she wasn’t at the table and turned to see Mac block her way. “Excuse me,” she said, trying to go around him.

He stepped in front of her again. “I think the police officer over there with your friend would like to talk to you,” he said.

Michelle walked over to them. “I need you to come down to the station with me, Mrs. Flaherty,” she said.

Leila pressed her lips together and glowered at Michelle. “You’re dumb as a stump,” she hissed as Thorne Logan passed her being led out the door.

“Stop talking, Mother,” he said through gritted teeth.

Michelle raised her eyebrows at me as she passed me.

“That was so cool!” Avery said, bouncing up from her seat as soon as the door closed.

“And you are so grounded,” Liz said matter-of-factly. “Two weeks.”

“You didn’t tell me I couldn’t come!” Avery scowled like a petulant child. “You just said this was no place for me.”

“Three weeks,” Liz said. “Want to try for four?”

“That’s not fair,” Avery whined.

I put a hand on her shoulder and swung her around to face me. “Avery, you scared the crap out of your grandmother,” I said.

She started to argue, but I cut her off. “You scared your grandmother. You scared Rose and Charlotte and Mr. P. and Mac.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. I could feel my hands shaking. “You scared me . And you know better.” I kept my gaze locked on her face.

After a moment her lower lip began to tremble. She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice raspy with emotion.

“We all love you,” I said. “So you can’t just do whatever you feel like doing, because if something hurts you, all of us are hurt, too.”

She swallowed again. “Okay,” she said in a small voice. Then she turned around to face Liz. “I’m sorry, Nonna,” she said.

Liz wrapped her arms around her granddaughter and kissed the top of her head. “I love you, child,” she said.

“I love you, too, Nonna,” Avery said.

“You’re still grounded.”

Avery nodded, her head still on Liz’s shoulder. “Yeah, I know.”

I felt the tension drain from my body. Mac appeared at my side. “You okay?” he asked.

I nodded.

“So Leila is that young man’s mother,” Mr. P. said.

“You were right about that,” I said, smiling at him.

Liz had handed Avery off to Rose, who was cupping the teenager’s face with her hands as she talked to her. Liz came over to me and bumped me with her hip. “Remember what I said about that woman when we were in the car?” she asked me.

I nodded. “I remember.”

“I take it all back.”

Glenn McNamara was at the counter. I caught his eye. “A refill on everything, please, Glenn,” I said. “And thank you for letting us stage this episode of Law and Disorder in here.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, reaching for the coffeepot. “I gotta say, though, it’s going to make Tuesday afternoons from now on feel pretty tame.”

I didn’t hear from Michelle until after Jeopardy! was over. Elvis had just come out of the bedroom and jumped on my lap when my cell rang. I looked over at the screen. “It’s Michelle,” I said to him.

“Merow,” he said, looking from me to the phone. Translation: Hurry up and answer.

Rose was right. Thorne Logan and his mother had sold Edison Hall all those fake bottles of wine. “They were falling over themselves, each of them trying to put the blame on the other,” Michelle said. “That’s a screwed-up family.”

But Thorne Logan wasn’t our killer. “He has an alibi, Sarah,” Michelle said. “When Ronan Quinn was killed, Mr. Logan and his mother were up in Bangor trying to scam another senior citizen in a crowded Dunkin’ Donuts with at least a dozen witnesses.”

“Son of a horse,” I muttered.

“Excuse me?” Michelle said.

“Nothing,” I said. “Thank you for this.”

“I owe you,” she said. “There are four other police departments in this part of the state alone who want to talk to Mr. Logan and his mother.”

“I’m glad something came out of all this.”

“We’re not done,” Michelle said. “We will find out who killed Ronan Quinn. We’re not even close to being done with this case.”

I said good night and ended the call. “I should go tell Rose what’s going on,” I said to Elvis. “Want to come with me?”

The cat put a paw up over his face, almost as though he were trying to tell me it was a conversation he didn’t want to be part of.

Mr. P. answered the door when I knocked. He was wearing a pair of blue knitted slippers and one of Rose’s flowered aprons and holding a dish towel. “Hello, Sarah,” he said. He studied my face for a moment. “You’re not bringing good news, are you?”

I shook my head.

“Sarah dear, come in,” Rose called.

I stepped into the kitchen. She took one look at my face, closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “I’ll be right back,” she said.

“Rosie, where are you going,” a clearly bewildered Mr. P. asked.

Rose had already disappeared, headed I was guessing for the bedroom. In a moment I heard the door close.

Baffled, Mr. P. looked at me. “Is she all right?”

I nodded. “She just went into the bedroom to swear because she didn’t want to do it in front of me.”

“Well, then,” he said. “Would you like a piece of pie? It’s lemon meringue.”

“It could only help,” I said. “Thank you.”

Mr. P. got a slice of pie for both of us and we were at the kitchen table with it when Rose came back. She joined us at the table. I told them what Michelle had told me.

“Well, at least those terrible people won’t be taking advantage of anyone else,” he said.

Rose had a look of grim determination on her face. “Tomorrow we’ll start at the beginning again. And we’ll find out who killed Mr. Quinn.”

“Absolutely,” Mr. P. said, smiling at her.

I speared another bite of pie. It was delicious. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something. I just had no clue what that something was.

Chapter 18

The Angels gathered in their office before the store opened the next morning.

“Since Mr. Logan and his mother have alibis for the time of Mr. Quinn’s death, we’re back to square one,” Mr. P. said.

“So, what do we do?” Liz asked, tapping one pale pink nail on the arm of her chair.

“We concentrate on Mr. Quinn. We take the last week of his life apart, day by day, hour by hour.” He looked at me. “Do you think the lawyer you spoke to would answer a few more questions?’