Murder Takes to the Hills (39 page)

“Hi, you two. How goes it? Mind if I have a beer?”

“It goes fine,” I answered. “Help yourself.”

He joined us at the table. “Cindy not here?” he asked.

I looked at the clock. “She’s running a little late. She should be here any minute. Can I help with something?”

He sipped his beer. “Well, maybe…”

Before I learned how I might be of service to my brother, a car door slammed and Cindy caromed through the back door, kicking off her shoes as she came. She fell heavily into the fourth chair and picked up my bottle of beer. She took a healthy swig directly from the bottle, and reached for my cigarettes. Sonny and Harmon sat wide-eyed and shocked.

But I knew the symptoms. “Bad day at the bank?”

“Well, I ask you, how am I supposed to run a department and maintain customer trust in us when the accounting people have a combined IQ about as high as the speed limit?”

“What happened?” I prompted.

“We have a customer named William Lawrence. Coincidentally, we have a customer named Lawrence Williams. In their infinite wisdom, accounting decided we had accidentally opened two accounts for one man, so they combined them. William Lawrence got a statement showing him with about double the money he really has, while Lawrence Williams got no statement at all—he doesn’t exist.”

“But you fixed it.” I guessed.

“Oh, sure, but what a mess! I’m going to change clothes. Could I have a beer all my own and in a glass? I’m going to change clothes…oh, I told you that. Excuse me, gentlemen. Hello, darling.” She left me with a kiss on the cheek. Typical bad-day explosion—short and snappy and all gone.

“Whew.” Sonny exhaled. “I’m glad I’m not a bookkeeper at Fisherman’s.”

“Aren’t we all. What was it you started to ask?”

“Oh, yeah,” he replied. “Next week is Trish’s birthday. I thought Cindy might suggest something I could get her. I’m no good with presents.”

That was certainly true. When I moved into this house several years back and had to learn a little simple cooking, he had given me a black organdy apron perfect for a French maid in a house of ill repute.

Harmon spoke up. “You know, Sonny, I ran into Trish the other day and I noticed her with one of them big apache cases all the lawyers carry around. One of the handles was almost worn through—bound to break soon.
 
How about a new one for her?”

“Perfect!” Sonny beamed. “A monogrammed attaché case. Harmon, you’re a genius!”

“Well, I don’t know about that.” He smiled, almost demurely. “But there is something I wanted to tell you. There was this cruiser I noticed tied up at one of the docks in the bay…expensive-looking twenty-eight footer. There seemed to be just one
fella
aboard and he was going over some kind of list—marking some things out and adding other things. Now, Sonny I was just thinking…”

“Yes, Harmon?” Sonny sounded weary.

I wasn’t. Life was back to normal and it was just fine.

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