Leona fluttered her fingers in the air. “Oh, who knows.” She touched the jeweled necklaces at her throat. “Although it might have had something to do with pets.”
“Pets?” I really needed to stop echoing what people said to me, or I might end up being known as the Mirage’s resident parrot.
“Yes, I think that’s it.” Leona’s forehead twitched, as if it would have scrunched up in thought if not for her most recent dose of Botox. “They argued several times, you see. I remember once Freddie was upset that Rosario had more than the allowed number of pets in her unit.” Her attention drifted across the room, and she squeezed my arm with her clawlike fingers. “Excuse me. I promised I’d tell Yolanda about the time I had a guest role onMiami Vice.”
She glided across the room, leaving me alone with my pathetic piece of evidence shut away in my clutch. Leona’s eyelashes were about as real as the color of her violet eyes, but had she lied out of vanity or because she’d guessed where I’d found the clue?
Agnes had moved on from the bar to chat with a small group of residents gathered by the dining table, which held an array of finger foods, including some dainty petits fours and chocolate-topped profiteroles, which I suspected had been provided by Agnes and her daughter.
I smiled and said hello to several people as I slowly cruised past the dining table, snatching up a petit four on my way by. The delectable, two-bite dessert was long gone by the time I reached the bar.
“Quite the shindig, huh?” Bodie leaned his muscular forearms on the counter as he spoke to me. “Goes to show that nothing draws a crowd better than free food and booze.”
“Yolanda and Minnie are providing the drinks?”
“They supplied a few bottles of champagne. When those are empty, the bar closes.”
“It was nice of you to help out with the party.”
“Don’t go thinking too highly of me,” he warned. “Yolanda’s paying me fifty bucks to hang out here for an hour or so. I’m still paying off my student loans, so even with two bartending jobs, I’ll take any extra money I can get.”
“I hear you,” I said. “My life lately seems to be all about finding a job and paying bills.”
And now, apparently, solving a murder.
Bodie filled a champagne flute. “Then you’d better make the most of the free food and booze while you can. Besides, you deserve a break. You work too hard.”
I bit back a sardonic laugh. “I don’t even have a job.”
“At life,” he clarified. “You’re always working hard at life. Taking care of Livy, looking out for your friends and neighbors.”
“Thank you.” My words came out quietly as he handed me the flute, but I was thanking him for far more than the drink. He viewed me in such a positive light. I wasn’t sure I deserved it, but I appreciated it all the same.
I leaned against the bar as I took a sip of champagne and surveyed the room, remembering why I was there. “Do you think Freddie had any real friends?”
While a few people present, like Theo’s grandparents, wore suitably somber expressions, most seemed to be enjoying themselves, as if they were at a festive gathering rather than an event held in honor of a man who’d been murdered.
“Maybe down at the pool hall,” Bodie said with a shrug. “He hung out there a lot. I only know because it’s two doors down from the bar where I work.”
Across the room, Rosario tipped her head back as she let out a loud laugh in response to something Carmen had said. She certainly didn’t seem to be in mourning. Even more interesting was the fact that I could tell from across the room that she was wearing false eyelashes.
“How’s everything?” Minnie asked Bodie as she joined us at the bar.
“All good,” he assured her. “We’ve still got two bottles of bubbly.”
Minnie patted his hand. “Thanks so much for your help, Bodie.”
He flashed her a grin. “My pleasure.”
“Did you know Freddie well, Minnie?” I asked before she could drift away.
She fiddled with the gold cuff bracelet on her left wrist. “Oh, no. I never spoke to the man. Well, except to say hello maybe.” A slight smile wavered on her face before she scurried off to Yolanda’s side.
“Did you talk to Freddie much?” I asked Bodie once we were alone.
He leaned his forearms on the counter again. “From time to time. We weren’t buddies or anything, though.”
I wondered if I was being too obvious about my questioning. I didn’t think I should advertise the fact that I was investigating the murder. Although Agnes had probably announced the news to half the building already.
