Read One O'Clock Hustle: An Inspector Rebecca Mayfield Mystery (Rebecca Mayfield Mysteries Book 1) for Free Online Page B

shrugged. “Nobody saw him, which was weird. He's always there Saturday night.” He faced Rebecca. “Did anyone see him?”
    “You're talking about Danny Pasternak, the bookkeeper?” she asked, putting together the talk about horse races and the money man.
    “Yeah. Sure.”
    “No one saw him. And I was told he didn't work nights,” Rebecca said. The way the three looked at her, she knew she had been lied to in more ways than one. “So Danny's not a bookkeeper, he’s a book ie ?”
    Shay and Vito looked at Richie. He nodded. “Well, I guess, yeah, you could say that.”
    Rebecca threw up the one hand not manacled to Richie. “Great. I'm going to talk to him today. I guess now, my questions will be a bit different than what I had planned as I try to find out why Meaghan Blakely, or whatever her name was, went into his office.”
    “That wasn't her name?” Richie asked.
    “I doubt it. No one with that name came close to fitting her age or description.”
    “Shit,” Richie muttered.
    Vito nodded.
    Shay said nothing, but looked from one to the other without expression. She had seen eyes that cold only once before, on a known psychopath. What was with him? she wondered, and then, as if he were reading her mind, he gazed at her so intently he seemed like some alien creature intent on turning her into a pod person. The man gave her cold chills. She wondered how she ever found him handsome.
    Richie glanced at his watch. “Look at the time.” He again eyed her small television. “I don't suppose it's hooked up to a satellite, right, Inspector?”
    “Are you joking?”
    “DirecTV. Dish. What's to joke about?” His voice became increasingly more desperate as she stared steadily at him. Then his shoulders slumped. “Christ, I don't understand people who don't watch TV properly.”
    Vito shook his head sympathetically.
    Shay abruptly changed the subject. “Why her?” he asked, his thumb pointed towards Rebecca. She realized he must have taken as much of a dislike to her as she had to him.
    “She'll have access to stuff we don't,” Richie said. “Besides, she knows I didn't kill that woman. She'll work with us.”
    “Is that so?” Rebecca asked, stunned by the man's arrogance.
    “You know I didn't kill anybody,” he said.
    “I know no such thing.” She lifted her handcuffed wrist. “Seems to me you're capable of it.”
    “You two,” Richie said, pointing to Shay and Vito, “find out what you can from Harrison Sidwell and his bouncers. For sure, they know more than they let on to the cops. And I want to know who handed me the note to go see Danny.” He turned to Rebecca. “You got the note, right?”
    “No one found a note, Amalfi,” she said coldly. “And none of the staff admitted to any contact with you other than bringing the drinks you ordered. None of them admitted to seeing Pasternak in the club last night. That part of your story has more holes than Swiss cheese.”
    Richie shook his head. “If I didn't get the note, I never would have found Meaghan! I wouldn't have been blamed for offing her! Who is she? Why did anyone want her popped? Why hire some hit man to whack her? And where the hell was Danny last night?”
    “Wait— hit man?” she asked. “Where did that come from?”
    “One shot, through the heart. Quiet. Ski mask. Looks like a button with a contract to me.” Richie turned towards his friends for confirmation and both nodded as if no sensible person would have thought otherwise.
    “Or a very lucky shot,” she tossed back at them.
    “Right,” Richie said, not bothering to hide his contempt … again.
    Richie turned back to his buddies. “Talk to Danny. If he's not home or at work, he could be holed up with his goomar . Carolina Fontana. He set her up in an apartment near North Beach. That's all I know.”
    “ Goomar ?” Rebecca asked.
    “His mistress, what else?” Richie said.
    Rebecca had to admit it would probably have taken her a while to find anyone who'd reveal