Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
She groaned. “He can’t be.”
“I’m sorry, Nana. He is.” I told her about the day’s events, including that he’d tied me to an armoire at the antique store.
“That jerk,” she muttered. “I’m going to go borrow Nonna Albertini’s spoon and have a little talk with him.”
That would be a disaster. “No, Nana. You can’t tell anybody. Pierce hasn’t found him to arrest yet. But I wanted to let you know all the facts in case he contacts you. If he does, you need to call me or Detective Pierce immediately. Okay?”
“I promise,” she said. “I am so disappointed in Lenny.”
I winced. She’d put a curse on him, although he would deserve it. “As am I, Nana. I’ll talk to you later. Okay?”
“All right. Love you.” She hung up.
I settled myself back on the pillows and called Pierce for an update, but he didn’t answer. I wasn’t surprised.
I heard a knock on the front door before it opened.
“Yoo-hoo,” Nonna Albertini called out.
“Hi, Nonna. I’m in the bedroom.”
She shut the door and moved through the house to reach me, wearing her fairly new trench coat, dark sunglasses, and a wide, pink purse. Nonna was all Italian, with dark hair peppered with gray and sparkling brown eyes. She was a stunning woman. I’d always thought she could have been a movie star.
I tried to smile. “Nonna, what are you doing here?”
She also carried a pan that no doubt held her famous lasagna. “I’m going to put this in the fridge.” She disappeared in a rustle of her detective getup.
Maybe I shouldn’t have given her the code to the front door, but she was my grandmother.
She returned and removed her coat, draping it over the lone chair by the dresser. “Are you all right? I could not believe that Tricia held a gun on you.”
“I’m fine, Nonna,” I said. “They were actually a lot of help in calling the police after the robbery. How do you know Tricia, anyway?”
“She and her sidekick are from Sandpoint. Sometimes their mah-jongg group and ours get together and play. We’ve known each other for years. She’s all right, but honestly, I can’t believe she held a Smith & Wesson 500 on you. I mean, give me a break, right?”
I nodded. “It was a huge gun, especially in her hands.” We laughed together.
She sobered, looking intense. “I thought since my two partners are in the Caribbean, maybe I should take this case myself.”
I refrained from banging my head against the wall. “Nonna, I don’t think we need Three Hens Investigations on this.”
Nonna, Thelma, and Georgiana had recently created their own detective agency, and they vacillated between calling it Three Hens Investigations. They were Hawk Investigations until my nonna joined. Thus far, they’d solved cases involving lost animals. Which was wonderful, but I didn’t want the Cupids hurting her.
“Oh, no, I’m in this,” she said. “Nick Basanelli is joining this family. He’s Italian, Anna.”
I winced. She loved Aiden, but he was all Irish, and she really wanted more Italians in the family. “I understand.” A sudden idea grabbed me. “In fact, why don’t you help me set up my murder board?” Aiden wouldn’t. However, Nonna was fair game.
“I would love to,” she said, coming to assist me by removing the ice from my knee.
I wore a long T-shirt and thick socks, so I figured that was enough. She helped me out of bed, and I tried to put a little weight on my leg. It was better, definitely better. Even so, I let her hold some of my weight as we made our way into the laundry room.
She looked around. “The laundry room, huh? Aren’t there two other bedrooms in this place?”
“Yeah, but I think better in here.” My heart warmed when I saw that Aiden had already placed regular and colored tape on the washing machine. The man really did know me. I reached for a file folder. “I printed the Basanelli pictures from Facebook. We just need to tape them up on the wall.”
“How exciting.” Nonna flipped open the file folder. “I see. We have Sandrine and the three Basanelli boys.” She looked at me. “You should probably sit down.”
I put my hands behind me on the washing machine and hefted myself up.
“Much better,” Nonna said. “Okay, direct me.”
“Put the Basanellis over to the left, please,” I said.
She taped their pictures together.
“Okay. Now, Wayne and Spencer Wilson. While Spencer had an ironclad alibi back then, it doesn’t mean he didn’t know something or even help his brother after the fact.”
She taped their pictures up.
“And now, Ryan and Lisa Robinson.” I needed to buy some markers or pencils, at the very least.
While Lisa’s picture had been easy to find on Facebook, I’d had to scroll through many years of memories to get a picture of Ryan. He’d been a decent-looking guy. “Then just the blank,” I said.