With Private Eyes Part 15

"No, that's still disgusting."

Claudia laughed. "All right, then. Chocolate."

"Mimosas."

"Charm bracelets."

"Shoes."

"Speaking of which..." Claudia glanced down. "Are these yours?"

Stacy peered over the end of the bed at Claudia's feet. "I think so."

The doorbell rang. Claudia looked at Stacy in sudden distress. "Why am I going out with Neil?"

"Because you said you would," Stacy said gently. "Go on, let him in. But you'll have to tell him soon that you can't see him anymore."

She sighed unhappily. "I know."

Ethan stared out at a gray, overcast day. The sky was the same color as the street. Even the traffic lights seemed subdued.

Claudia would be here soon. She had some kind of charity deal to attend this afternoon-a board meeting, so she couldn't put it off. They'd arranged for her to meet him at his office at nine o'clock.

That was why he'd be leaving at eight-thirty. If his cousin ever showed up.

The stairs creaked. A heavy, familiar tread. The office door opened. "Why so glum?" Rick asked.

Ethan continued to study the gray day outside. "You've been studying those 'expand your vocabulary' lists again."

"You look like your last lead just fell through. Must be a personal problem. I know it's not the game. The Patriots won."

Ethan grunted. "Not by enough."

"I thought you never bet on the point spread."

"Look, I didn't ask you to come in so we could discuss my mood. You mind if we talk business?"

Rick spread his arms. "Go right ahead. Though you briefed me last night, so it shouldn't take long."

"Something new came in." He crossed to his desk and picked up the report that had come through on the fax machine last night.

Rick took it and started reading. His eyebrows drew together in a frown. "Some of this should not be available to private citizens."

"Can I help it if people like to tell me things?" Actually. Ethan used an I.B.-an information broker-for this sort of thing. As Rick knew very well, but he pretended not to. I.B.'s sometimes took a casual approach to the legalities involved in gathering information.

Rick snorted and kept reading. Ethan moved behind his desk and sat, still facing the window. His chair creaked as he leaned back and propped his feet up on the s.p.a.ce heater. Rick would go with Claudia to talk to Norblusky's sister today while Ethan went to a part of the city no woman in her right mind would want to set foot in.

Not that Claudia was necessarily in her right mind. Ethan contemplated how to make sure she went with Rick if she showed up ahead of schedule. Best if he could convince her it was her own idea. Should he forbid her to talk to the sister, or was that too obvious?

Rick put the faxed report back on Ethan's desk. "This Derrick Barone-he's Claudia's brother?"

"Yeah."

"He's been spending a lot lately, even for a lad with a trust fund. Yet he isn't in debt. Not far enough in debt, anyway." He paused. "He could have been bailed out by his father or his uncle."

"Or any of several other relatives. But I don't think so."

"You having one of your feelings?"

"I don't get feelings," Ethan said irritably. "A hunch is a perfectly logical process. The subconscious puts together clues the conscious mind isn't aware of."

"Whatever you say. But you think Derrick's involved in either the arson or the gelato tampering. Or both."

Ethan sighed. "Yeah." That was what his gut kept insisting-that Claudia's brother was in this right up to his white-collar neck.

"The police are concentrating on Norblusky."

So was Claudia. "He makes one h.e.l.l of a great red herring."

"He makes a pretty good suspect, too." Rick ticked points off on his fingers. "He was driving the truck when the gelato was tampered with. He shot off his mouth about the Barones after being fired. And he's disappeared. Also, he worked at the plant long enough that he might have known how to circ.u.mvent the security."

"Sure, Norblusky's a fine suspect, if you're willing to believe he's bright enough to have pulled off the gelato tampering. I'm not."

Rick sat in the chair across from Ethan. "You think he could have burned down an ice cream plant, but messing with a tub of ice cream was beyond him?"

"The arson seems to have been a pretty straightforward business. I'm not sure how the perp got in, but once in he just had to splash around a lot of gasoline, leave some trailers and light a match. But the gelato tampering was set up by someone who's watched too many Mission : Impossible reruns."

Rick's lips twitched. "A complicated operation, huh?"

"Someone arranged for a produce truck to lose its load on a street the Baronessa truck would take, causing a traffic jam. Someone climbed into the back of the truck and poured pepper juice on the gelato while the truck was stopped. That's two or three people involved. There's the driver of the produce truck, whoever actually poured the pepper juice, and probably Norblusky. The produce truck," Ethan added, "was rented, using a bogus driver's license. Its driver has vanished, just like Norblusky."

"Norblusky's not the Mission : Impossible type, I take it."

Ethan snorted. "More the Homer Simpson type." He paused. "As far as I can tell, only three people knew the route the truck would take. Norblusky, who was driving it. His immediate boss, a guy name Aaron Fletcher. And his boss-Derrick Barone."

Rick shook his head. "For your sake, I hope it's Fletcher. You've checked him out?"

"I'm working on it." Without telling Claudia. It was getting tricky, keeping her aware of only half of what he was doing.

"Hmm. Makes things touchy for you. Is that why you want me to go with Claudia today?"

"Partly. I'd like to find Norblusky. If he thinks he's been set up to take the fall for arson, he might be willing to talk about who paid him to disappear."

"Ah ... I guess you've considered the possibility he could have been permanently 'vanished'."

"G.o.d, I hope not." Ethan ran a hand over his hair. If Claudia's brother was implicated in murder, she'd be devastated ... and it didn't matter if she hated him for uncovering the truth, he told himself. They weren't involved. Once this case was closed he'd never see her again.

Ethan grimaced. "I have to proceed on the a.s.sumption he's still alive. If he isn't, your brothers on the force are a lot more likely to turn up his body than I am."