“No,” I shake my head. “I know he did in prison, but only to protect himself.”

“Then tell me why you feel that way, let’s work through this so you can get that evil thought out of your head.” She takes two bags of green tea from the pantry, positions each in a mug filled with water, and warms one in the microwave. It’s the appliance that’s used more than anything else in our place. She places the warm tea in front of me then heats the second as she waits for my response. Her foot taps in anticipation. I take a sip and point to the jar of honey on our counter. She sighs and passes it along, then taps her foot again.

“He won’t tell me where he was this afternoon,” I answer while stirring a spoonful of honey into my mug.

“So, that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Well it does to me, Soph. It’s a red flag in my book. Why do you think we all lie anyway? I’m referring to you, my father, and myself. Why are we afraid to tell one another what’s happening in our lives?”

She turns away and wraps the potatoes in waxed paper then puts them in the microwave for fifteen minutes.

“Sophia?”

She shrugs and hesitates for a moment. “I think the three of us want to protect everyone else from harm, but none of us are very successful at it,” she pauses. “And I believe we don’t want to disappoint one another, so we keep information hidden away. It’s out of love, not malice.”

I nod as she sits next to me at the kitchen island with tea in hand.

“I’m also confused as to what David was doing behind the Scarlett. Any person with an IQ the temperature of this room could tell you it’s connected to someone in this family. No one else from the Scarlett knows who he is.”

“Are we sure about that?” she asks.

I watch the potatoes move in a circle inside the microwave. The wax paper flaps like a flag in the wind. I try to think of anyone else besides the four of us who could possibly have contact with David. Our workers are all young twenty-something college students. The only other person is Haverty. Fuck.

“What’s going through your head?”

“Haverty,” I say in a dry voice.

“My father told me when you and I first met that he was an inside man who kept an eye on me my first night at your bar.”

“My inside man, Sophia. Not your father’s. I made sure of it.”

“How sure. Maybe he knew my father and David.”

“No. I trust him.”

“Do you trust him more than your father?”

I trace the rim of my mug with my finger and sigh. No one seems trustworthy to me right now. Not even Sophia. Jesus, I’m a fucking dickwad. I can’t believe I keep having these rotten thoughts about my family.

“Okay, that answers my question. Silence is always telling with you,” she says.

“I’m just thinking... Haverty was at the Scarlett when I arrived. He had Prudence and Max with him. He could have been taking them for a walk; he’s only a few blocks from there, but still. It seemed odd.”

“We’re all just a few blocks from the Scarlett, Cove.”

“I know,” I reply and take another sip of tea. “I’ll find out where my father was, and I trust my mother, so that’s not an issue.”

“You trust your father too.”

“Yes,” I say softly. “I do.”

“I left a little before two and was back by four from my shopping trip.”

“That time frame doesn’t put me at ease.”

“Well, you don’t think I shot the bastard, do you?”

“Of course not, I’m referring to what the police may think.”

“Babe, they said it was a suicide, perhaps they know more than we do. It’s their job.”

“I’m sure they do, or they will,” I mutter. “I sat in a coffee shop from one to two; trying to chill out for my first meeting. My appointment was from two to three. Then I stopped by a realtor’s office and got some information on homes in the neighborhood we like, and I set up a time for someone to give us an estimate on our loft.”

“Stop fretting. We’re fine.”

“It helps if I clock it. I was home around four.”

“I know. I didn’t have enough time to change into any of my new things for you. I wanted it to be a surprise, so I hid it all in the closet when you walked in.”

“Then I changed into comfortable clothes and we both read until I decided to check on the Scarlett close to six. So none of us were together during that time frame.”

“You don’t even know when he was shot. Maybe he was lying there all day.”

Sophia puts plates on the kitchen island, then takes a stick of butter and a container of sour cream out of the fridge. She pours two glasses of water and opens the microwave to check on our meal. I watch her elegantly slice the potatoes and place a small pat of butter inside each one. She folds them back together with the butter trapped between, and sets the timer for another five minutes.

I go over the times again in my head. It’s gonna eat away at me until I hear more from the police, or read about it in the newspaper. I wonder if I can call the police and ask them questions. Yeah, that would be dumb. Talk about looking suspicious.

Did someone hear a gun shot? Was there a silencer on the gun? No, couldn’t have been. Who commits suicide with a silencer? The cops would have noticed that right away. Fuck.

The two closest residential areas are a few blocks down on either side of the bar. Our loft building is South and Haverty’s place is somewhere North. Everything else is commercial and most of the businesses are restaurants open in the evening. God, David. What the fuck were you doing back there?

“Cove, you listening, or are you zoning out again?”

“Sorry. What did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything, your cell’s ringing.”

Damn, I’m really out of it. Totally stressed.

“Yeah,” I answer.

“Hey fucker, let’s get a beer. We need to talk.”

“Haverty,” I mouth to Sophia. She nods and continues setting up the meal.

“Did the police leave?” I ask.

“No, probably not for another hour or two. I’m just hanging back on the side street, watchin’ and waitin’. So that beer? How about eight?”

“No alcohol. But we do need to talk. Just in case the cops haven’t left yet, I’ll meet you there. I have a few things to take care of in my office before tomorrow anyway. Still have those fucking dogs with you?”

“Alyssa picked them up.”

“Did you clean up the dog shit?”

“I thought you’d want me to leave it for the cops to step in.”

“Not funny, Hav.”

“I was only pulling your nut sack, I took care of it.”

“Eight.” I hang up and shake my head at Sophia. “He sounds awfully nonchalant about all of this. I don’t like it.”

“Do you think he did it? I mean; you did hire him to protect us. Maybe Haverty knew David had something planned, or he found David hanging around our business and the two got into an argument.”

“David had to have fired the gun for this to be a suicide. None of that makes any sense.”

“Well, I guess what you said to your father earlier was correct, we can’t sit around and make up stories. It will drive us crazy.”

The microwave dings and Sophia does a silly dance around the kitchen. “Yay! Potatoes!” she calls out while looking like some hippie chick flinging her hair around with her arms floating through the air. “Potatoes!”

My wife is a pain in the ass, and sometimes I think she’s somewhat bipolar, but she’s also fucking spectacular.

CHAPTER TEN

The Dark Scarlett was a dream my mother and I had a few years back, a door to a new life, and an exodus from the porn industry. We had hoped to make enough money from the bar, “clean” money I should add, for my mother to be able to quit as head photographer for Jameson Industries. Paul Jameson’s death took care of all of that, and we were both able to break away and start anew. Except for my drinking, we had an innocent, and more importantly, a lawful life. But now, the past has come back to haunt us, affecting not only our personal life, but our business as well. I’m sure the morning papers will have David’s death as a front page headline, and the Scarlett mentioned along with it.