Chapter 10

Iglance up and, sure enough, I see Detective Cooper Knox frowning at me right here in the middle of a makeshift graveyard out on the patio of the Tavern of Terror.

Coop looks lean and mean in a dark inky suit. His facial scruff and slicked-back hair are on point, and just about every ovary in the vicinity has been put on notice. Especially mine.

Both Watson and Spooky perk up at the sight of him and he quickly offers them both the scratches and pats they're looking for.

"Ladies." Cooper nods to the three of us.

"We were just leaving," I say, jumping out of my seat and he motions for me to sit back down.

"Please stay," he says. "Lunch is on me. It's my treat."

"Hear that?" Niki elbows me in the ribs and nearly takes a lung out. "We don't have to stock up on cannolis. We're getting a free lasagna out of it, too."

"Good thing," I say, giving Cooper a look. "We never did get around to diving into it last night."

"We should get extra," he says with a nod. "We can take the rest home and finish it for dinner."

"Your place or mine?" Niki is quick to accept his offer.

"Mine." I swat her. And I'm nearly tempted to swat Cooper as well, but he's clear across the table next to his name-calling sister.

Why is he suddenly so gung-ho with our relationship? It's as if we've gone from zero to hero in just one night. Although we did share a rather steamy smooch a couple of weeks back.

Hey? I bet he wants a repeat and figures he'd better butter me up to get it. Cooper's no fool, but apparently I am for not realizing it sooner.

The waitress comes by and we put in an order that could double as a catering menu for a football team.

"I'm glad you brought your appetites, ladies." He gives a malevolent smile, and I'm not sure what's going on, but something is definitely percolating under the surface of those baby blues of his.

However, one mystery at a time.

I clear my throat as I shed a forlorn smile in Loretta's direction.

"I'm sorry about your loss," I tell her and, sure enough, Cooper's eyes widen a notch in my direction.

It's clear he's just now realizing that my visit to the Tavern of Terror had very little to do with cannolis—but not entirely nothing to do with them. I still plan on inhaling a platter of them and I don't care if they happen to be surrounding Naomi Turner's head.

Come to think of it, I might enjoy them better that way.

"Yeah." Loretta glowers out at the water. "It seems Sal's luck ran out just like his sausages." She shrugs my way. "I do the orders around here. In fact, it was my idea that he and his brother buy this place. It was my idea to have the haunted house and the free cannolis for those in costume." She points from me to Niki. "Silly ears don't count. Anyway, this is my brainchild and my baby, and Sal had to go and muck everything up." She's back to glowering at the water.

Cooper lifts a brow my way then to his sister. "Loretta, what's going on? What do you mean muck everything up?"

She turns his way with wild eyes. "What are you, a stuggot?" That would be Italian for idiot. "Is this skank eating your brain cells for breakfast?" she barks right at him.

I wouldn't be too offended if I were him. Sometimes we Italians can get a little loud. My mother likes to say that yelling is her love language.

She sure loved us kids a lot growing up.

"Sal is dead," Loretta thunders. "Morella is a mess. Johnny is a wreck. He's at the funeral home with the rest of the family making arrangements. They're already going through heck and it hasn't even been twenty-four hours. I'm taking over this place until Johnny gets back on his feet."

"So who's Morella?" I ask and elicit a frown from Cooper.

What? She practically offered up the information.

"I'm so sorry about everything," Cooper says as he wraps an arm around his sister. "What can I do to make things better? You want me to hire someone to take over this place while you catch your breath?"

"Aww," both Niki and I coo in unison. He really is a treasure.

He shoots us a look just as the food lands on the table.

Cooper says grace and impresses the heck out of us, and most likely the Big Guy Upstairs, too.

"I'm fine." Loretta shakes off her grief as best she can just as we all dig in. "And to answer your question"—she stabs a knife in my direction with nothing short of a threat—"Morella is Sal's widow. She's also my best friend in the whole wide world. I'd do anything for her, including kill." Her shoulders jump for a second. "Of course, I didn't kill Sal," she's quick to tell her big brother. "But whoever did this is still out there. And you better believe I expect you to lock them up and throw away the key forever." She winks his way and Niki and I exchange a look.

I'll bet dollars to cannolis that Loretta is pulling the wool over her brother's eyes. And knowing how highly Cooper regards his black widow of a baby sister, he'd gladly let her get away with murder.

And I bet that's exactly what Loretta is banking on.

But I forget all about Loretta and her murderous ways as soon as I sink my teeth into that lasagna.

"Holy wow," I moan through a bite. "This has got to be the best lasagna I've ever tasted. I quickly shoot Niki a look. "Don't you dare tell our mother."

She shrugs. "Deal. But it'll cost you a cannoli. I might be bursting at the seams once I polish off this masterpiece, but there's always room for dessert—mine and yours."

I growl her way and the dogs join in the growling choir.

"Oh hey." I look over at Cooper. "Watson's look-alike may not have an owner, but we gave him a name. It's Spooky."

"Aww, go on and tell him," Niki says. "The man inspects dead bodies for a living. I doubt you'll be able to scare him."

I cast yet another side glance her way. "It's Spooky. That's his name."

Loretta grunts, "Come here, you little love bug." She picks up Watson and he proceeds to make a lunge for her lasagna. "Is the mean old lady calling you names?"

Who is she calling a mean old lady?

"You're not so spooky," she coos right at him and he licks her silly. "That's right. She's spooky."

"He's not spooky and neither am I," I'm quick to tell her and shoot a dirty look at Cooper for not coming to my spooky defense. Things are about to get spooky, all right. "That's the wrong dog."

"Oh." Loretta tosses Watson to the ground and scoops up Spooky, who does look rather spooked to be in Loretta's arms. Can't say I blame him. He saw the way she dropped his brother like he was a sack of potatoes.

That's it. She's crawled along my last nerve.

"So if you didn't kill Sal, who did?" I get right to the point and freeze because in no way did I mean to say that out loud. Not in front of Cooper anyway.

I plunge a heaping bite of lasagna into my mouth to keep from saying anything else I might quasi-regret.

Loretta shoots daggers my way with her eyes reduced to slits. "I don't know nothin' about nothin'. If you want to know about Sal, you should probably ask his brother." She turns to Cooper. "I'm innocent in all this. You got that?" She points a glossy red fingernail right at him. "Get this straight. Someone else is going to pay for this." She jumps out of her seat and dumps Spooky into Cooper's lap. "And leave a good tip. It will be mine." She darts off for the house of horror and the three of us wait a beat before continuing to inhale the lasagna. Sadly, there won't be any for dinner.

And as soon as we're through, a platter of cannolis arrives and we dive in headfirst, leaving nary a crumb behind in our wake.

"So that was fun," Niki says, patting her belly as she looks to Coop and me. "Where are we off to next?"

A tall, shirtless man slathered in green body paint struts by and Niki sits up at attention.

"Well, if it isn't the ogre of my dreams. You kids have a good time." She bolts after the jolly green giant and it's just Cooper and me.

One of us happens to be glowering at the other. I'll let you guess which one.

"Please tell me that my sister is nowhere near your suspect list," he growls.

"She's off my list if I'm off yours."

He gives a lopsided grin. "You found the body. I can't exclude you. It's strictly procedural."

I pick up my fork. "I'll give you a procedure."

A dull chuckle strums from him. "Remind me to watch out for you in the dark."

"We've never been in the dark."

"Maybe we should change that?" he says just as his phone chirps. He glances at the screen and sighs. "Coroner's office has Sal's report ready for me."

"I can abbreviate it for you," I offer. "He was shot with two bullets."

"True, but this will let me know if he had anything in his system. Every piece of information counts in a case like this." He gets up and I do the same.

Cooper wraps his arms around me and touches his forehead to mine. My heart pumps like mad at the thought of sharing another kiss right here under his sister's nose. And if we do, I should probably be on the lookout for stray bullets myself.

"We'll talk," he says as he takes off.

Talk?

In the dark? One can only hope.

I bite down on a smile because I do believe Cooper Knox Lazzari and I are going to find a few more things to do when the lights go out.

But for now, I'd better hightail it down to Leeds and talk to my Uncle Jimmy before my own lights go out for good.

Because as it stands, if I don't off Cooper, then it's lights out for yours truly.