Deadly Night by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

vocalist—and reading the newspaper. He looked up at her, his dark eyes and half-smile filled with curiosity.
    “So you didn’t get in and out before the long-lost heirs appeared, huh?” he asked.
    “No.”
    “Details, please.”
    She shrugged. “There are three of them.”
    “Right, like the whole parish doesn’t know that. I’ve already met two of them, remember? Tell me something new.”
    “I don’t know what to tell you.”
    “What did you think they were like?”
    “The two you’ve met are nice—the third one’s a jerk.”
    “The youngest one, Zach, has given a lot of struggling musicians a break. He owns a few studios. Small places, but he lets new talent use ’em for free sometimes, and they’ve been able to get their music out there and make a little money.”
    “You know more than I do, then,” she told him.
    “Well, of course I do,” Vinnie said. “I—unlike some other people—have a life. I actually get out there and talk to people.”
    “I’m so happy for you,” she assured him dryly.
    “So the oldest brother is the dickhead?”
    “He’s…”
    “A dickhead,” Vinnie repeated.
    “Hey, they came, I left, it’s over. It doesn’t matter.”
    She pretended to busy herself, arranging a local artist’s hand-painted greeting cards more neatly in their display slots.
    “Then what’s wrong?” he demanded, then answered his own question. “Why am I asking? That place should have gone to you.”
    “I didn’t stay with Amelia because I hoped she would leave me the house,” she said firmly. “I figured it would go to back taxes, to tell you the truth. I don’t know a thing about construction, but even I know it needs big money put into it just so it stays standing.”
    “Maybe you can buy it,” Vinnie suggested. “When it’s fixed.”
    “Oh, yeah. Right.”
    She stared at the cards. “There aren’t enough tarot cards for me to read in all of New Orleans to make enough money to buy that house.” She paused, and looked at Vinnie. “I wouldn’t even have this shop if it weren’t for Amelia, although I did pay her back. Every penny.”
    “I know you did. And you did a lot more for her than that.”
    “She was like my honorary grandmother,” Kendall reminded him.
    “It’s probably because of his wife,” he said. “The brother, I mean.”
    It took her a minute to change gears. “Um, the oldest brother is probably a jerk because of his wife?” she asked. “What, is she a bitch or…something?”
    Vinnie looked at her, frowning, and shook his head. “She’s dead.”
    “Oh, sorry.” She paused. “How on earth do you know all this? The attorneys told me they were in business together, and then the lawyer called this morning and said they’d be taking possession today. And I’d heard the middle brother on the radio, but…”
    Vinnie walked over to her and affectionately brushed her jaw with his knuckles. “I’ve played with two of them,” he reminded her.
    “Then you know them—and anything about them—better than I do, and I don’t know why you’re asking me questions,” she told him impatiently.
    He laughed and shook his head. “I can’t say that I know them, not really. And I’ve never met the oldest one, but apparently he can’t play guitar. Hey, maybe that’s why he’s a dickhead.”
    “Back up, bozo,” she commanded. “What about the wife?”
    “I told you, she’s dead.”
    “But…how?”
    Vinnie brought a finger to his lips. They heard voices coming from the back. Mason Adler appeared in the hallway, escorting a small woman with a T-shirt printed with a New Orleans Saints logo. She was carrying a map of the French Quarter, sporting a sunburn and wearing sunglass with alligators encircling the lenses. If she had worn a sign that proclaimed her a tourist, it couldn’t have been more obvious.
    But she was laughing, and she looked flushed and happy. “Mason, you are just too good,” she cooed.
    Mason looked at Kendall over the