Silent Night Man. Diana Palmer

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      Frank actually winced when Tony told him how he’d treated Millie when he’d seen her at the funeral home earlier.

      “Good God,” Frank said heavily. “That poor woman. How could you, Tony?” he asked accusingly.

      Tony grimaced. “I didn’t know any better,” he defended himself. “All I had to go on was the letter John sent me and the memory of those visits I made home, when he’d cry on my shoulder about how bad she was treating him. I was sure that she’d killed my friend with her heartless behavior.”

      Frank sighed heavily. “I wish she hadn’t gone to the funeral home early.”

      “Yeah. Me, too,” Tony replied. He was never going to be able to forget Millie’s mad dash out the door. It would haunt him. “Look, that friend of yours at the precinct,” he said. “Could you get him to ask around and see if there’s any word on the street about a potential hit?”

      “I could do that,” Frank said, and brightened a little.

      “Maybe John just left a lot of money to an animal shelter and made the threat to scare her,” Tony said.

      Frank gave him a sour look.

      Tony held up both hands. “Sorry.”

      “It won’t matter what he finds out,” Frank said. “There’s no budget for protective custody on supposition, no matter how educated. They won’t be able to assign anybody to protect her.”

      “I’m off until the new year,” Tony said. “I can handle that.”

      Frank blinked. “I’m sure she’ll welcome having you around, after the warm reception you gave her at the funeral home.”

      Tony flinched. “Yeah. Well, I’ll have to apologize, I suppose.”

      Frank didn’t say anything to that. Privately he thought Tony was going to find it difficult to bend enough to convince Millie that he was sorry. His friend had spent most of his life in violent surroundings. His social skills were a bit rusty, especially around women like Millie. Tony’s taste was the brassy, forward sort of females he could find in bars. Millie was both refined and reserved. It would be a tough combination to crack for a hard nut like Tony.

      * * *

      The next morning, a penitent Tony joined Frank at the funeral home for John’s last rites. There was a very small group of people there, mostly family. A couple of rough-looking men were sitting in the back, looking around constantly. Tony wondered if they might be John’s gang friends.

      After the brief service, Tony drove Frank and himself to the cemetery for the graveside service. It was equally brief.

      Tony noted that the rough-looking men had also come to the cemetery. One of them was intent on Tony and Frank, as if he found their presence suspicious.

      “We’re being watched,” Tony told his friend as they walked back toward Tony’s sports car.

      “I noticed,” Frank replied. Working as a bouncer had given him a sixth sense about trouble. Tony, in his line of work, also had developed it. They pretended to talk casually, without making it obvious that they saw the two men.

      When they got to the car, and were seated and ready to travel, Tony looked in the rearview mirror and noted that one of the men was unobtrusively writing down his license plate number. He started laughing as he pulled the car around two of the family’s vehicles and exited the cemetery road.

      “What’s funny?” Frank asked.

      “They’re cops,” he said.

      “What?”

      “They’re cops,” Tony repeated. “Gang members wouldn’t give a hoot in hell about my plate number. They want to know who I am, and what my connection is to John.” He glanced at his friend. “How about asking your contact in the police department what they want to know about me? I’ll phone him with the details.”

      Frank chuckled. “Fair enough. I’ll call him when I get home.”

      Tony grinned. It amused him to be viewed with suspicion. He mostly was these days. He kept a low profile and never talked about his job.

      He dropped Frank off at his apartment, and promised to meet him the following day for lunch. Then he went back to his hotel.

      He noted that he was being followed again. He gave his car keys to the valet who handled the parking, walked into the lobby and slowed his pace as he went toward the elevator. He felt eyes on his back. Someone was following him. This was amusing.

      He got into the elevator and pretended to be disinterested in his surroundings. A man whom he recognized as one of the two strangers at the funeral got in with him and stood apart, also pretending unconcern.

      When Tony got off, on the wrong floor, he noted that the man remained behind but jotted down a number.

      He took the staircase down, and was waiting in the lobby when the man following him got off the elevator. He looked up into Tony’s black eyes and actually jumped.

      Tony gave him a worldly look. “If you want to know who I am and why I went to John’s funeral, come on in the bar and I’ll buy you a drink and give you the lowdown.”

      The man raised his eyebrows, and then started laughing.

      “How did you figure it out?” he asked, when they were seated at the bar.

      “I’ve СКАЧАТЬ