the porch before she paused to say, “I have to confess. Vanessa Connolly, the owner, is my aunt. She and Dad are brother and sister.”
Nick smiled and politely held the door for her to pass. “Why am I not surprised?”
“There’s one more brother in that generation, too. Remember? I told you Uncle Mickey is the fire chief.”
“Right. Guess I’d better behave myself, then. You’ve got me surrounded. I think I’m going to need a program to keep all the players straight.”
“You’ll catch on. All you need to remember to stay out of trouble with my relatives is to assume everybody in town is kin. Well, except for the Hennessys and a few other families. Burke Hennessy will probably be Dad’s chief rival for the mayor’s job now that my grandfather has announced his retirement.”
“Hennessy. Hmm. That name rings a bell,” Nick murmured, outwardly directing his attention to the eclectic decor of the restaurant. It was New England kitsch and then some. Nets draped in the corners were dotted with blue-and-green antique glass floats. Harpoons hung crossed on the walls below paintings of whalers in longboats. The jawbone of a whale was suspended above the dining area and the tabletops were reminiscent of the worn plank decks of sailing ships.
“That’s probably because Burke Hennessy was the first one to insist we should blame Charles for Olivia’s murder and he hasn’t shut up about it since,” Keira said softly. “Don’t believe a word that man says. I don’t care what kind of political connections he claims because he’s a lawyer—I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.”
She cupped a hand around the side of her mouth to add, “It might be best if you didn’t repeat what I just said. I’m supposed to be impartial.”
“Yeah. We all are. It’s just not that easy, is it, rookie?”
“Nope. The more I learn about this job, the harder it gets, and the more I appreciate other officers. It’s tough out there, especially when you can’t tell the good guys from the rest.”
“Welcome to the club.”
Her pretend pout was so cute and so appealing he had to chuckle. Keira Fitzgerald might not be nearing the kind of job perfection she’d strove for but there were other aspects of her persona that were certainly endearing.
Not that he’d dare come right out and tell her so. By the time he was through working in her hometown, his name would be mud. In the long run, it didn’t matter whether he judged her department to be innocent or guilty. He’d still be the undercover investigator who had had to lie to them all in order to do his job and that was the criteria they’d judge him by. In their place he’d have felt exactly the same way. Betrayed.
He breathed deeply, turning an intended sigh into a feast of the marvelously enticing aromas that surrounded them.
Keira stood on tiptoe to wave hello to a middle-aged woman with an infectious grin.
“This is Vanessa Connelly,” Keira said as soon as she joined them. “Aunt Vanessa, meet Nick Delfino, a detective from Boston.”
The older woman shook his hand firmly and regarded him as if he were an interesting specimen caught in one of the fishing nets adorning the walls, although he wasn’t sure what he might be a specimen of. The minute she spoke, however, he got a pretty good idea.
“So, Aiden paired you two up, did he? My, my. Maybe he’s finally taking some of my advice. It’s about time.”
“Nick and I are just working together for a few weeks,” Keira insisted, “so don’t start in on us the way you did with Douglas and Merry O’Leary, okay?”
“Hey, I didn’t do anything. The good Lord made those two compatible, not me.”
“Right.” Keira rolled her eyes. “I’ve been telling Nick how great the food is here so we’d better grab a table. You never know when we might get a call and have to leave in a hurry.”
“I’ll take your order myself and put a rush on it,” Vanessa promised. “The special today is clam chowder and crab cakes. How does that sound?”
Nick nodded and grinned. “If it tastes half as good as this place smells, it’ll be the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Bring it on.”
“Me, too. And iced tea, please,” Keira said. “We’ll sit right here.”
Nick reached to pull out a captain’s chair for her but she was already plunking down in a different one. Edging his own chair around slightly so that his back wasn’t to the door, he joined her.
“Still nervous?” Keira asked.
“Still careful,” he replied with an arched brow and a half smile. “I try to never sit where I can’t see what’s coming. It’s an old habit.”
“And probably a good one.” Keira shifted slightly to make more room for him on her side of the small table. “This is the kind of thing I meant when I said I wanted to learn from you. My brothers and the rest of the officers in Fitzgerald Bay are much more relaxed than you are and I want to be prepared for anything.”
Nick noticed her barely perceptible shiver. “Good. That means you’re still open to new ideas. A lot of cops are so set in their ways they refuse to learn.”
Leaning her elbows on the table to come even closer, she lowered her voice. “Actually, I want you to think out loud when we’re going over evidence together. Ask me anything you want, no matter who it involves. Please?”
“If you’re sure that’s what you really want.”
“I’m sure. It’s possible that you and I can put our heads together and come up with another suspect, or at least eliminate Charles.”
“And if we can’t?”
“We will. I know we will. There must be something we’re missing. Something that points to the real killer. You brought the murder weapon and the other evidence back with you since the lab was done with them, didn’t you?”
“The bloody rock? Yes. And the victim’s shoe. There were no usable prints on any of that stuff.”
“What about the dolphin charm found near her body?”
“That may have been lost on the beach months ago, maybe last summer. There’s no way to tell. And no, it didn’t have any fingerprints on it, either.”
Keira straightened to make room for the bowls of steaming chowder Vanessa was placing on the table in front of them and thanked the older woman.
Nick was glad they’d been interrupted. Of the two blood types found on the rock, only one had belonged to the victim. If Keira had read the lab reports she knew that, too.
Until he’d had a chance to interview more townspeople, he figured it would be best to limit their discussion of those particular clues. They led straight to her brother Charles.
Because her partner had grown so quiet and subdued while they ate, Keira decided to try to draw him out with questions. “I’ve been thinking,” she began.
He slowly lowered his soup spoon. “Uh-oh.”
“Very funny. I just wonder if maybe those guys in the trucks were only passing through. Either or both of them could have been criminals, of course, but maybe they had nothing to do with ransacking your room.”
“Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy, too?”
“Okay, okay. You don’t agree. Am I right?”
“For a change, yes.”
His lopsided half smile pleased her beyond anything she’d expected and encouraged further banter. “For a change, huh? You sound more and more like my brothers every minute and you’ve only been here a few days. I hate to think what you’ll be like after a month.”