Ned?
“You’re the only two in the kitchen?” Jim said.
“As usual,” Ned grumbled.
I was picturing the take-out containers bursting from the overfull garbage bag next door, where they’d been keeping Marisa. They hadn’t been just any take-out containers, but the pulpy recycled ones Alex used only to please me. All those extra meals Pascal had been concerned about—Ned had been stealing them to feed hisprisoner.
And if he’d been acting like he might walk out on the job, then I guess I knew why. Why hold out for a dollar more an hour when you could—could…
“What do youwant?” I said. “What’s all thisfor?”
“Count on Doll Devine for straight talk,” Silent Jim said. “All of your phones, now. Ned, collect them.”
Ned shoved Pascal behind the bar with Alex and Oona, took their cell phones, one, two, three, yanked the cord on the landline from the wall, and then went to Marisa and Sicily.
“You already have my phone, loser,” Marisa said.
I had never liked her more.
Sicily fumbled a bit, handing her phone over, like she wasn’t quite sure which pocket to pull from. The kid thought she’d already had anxiety.
“You’re not even collecting wallets and jewelry?” I demanded.
“Dahlia.” Oona shook her head at me.
“How much money do you think wekeepin the till?”
“Zip it,” Silent Jim said. “I could probably guess down to the dollar what’s in that register. It’s not pocket change we’re after.”
“We don’t have a safe,” I said. He’d been playing a long game, sitting at McPhee’s all this time, and for what? “The building? Is Edith working for you?”
Quin spoke up from his end of the bar. “Dahlia, be quiet and let them do what they’re going to do.”
But he didn’t know what they were going to do. Unless hedid. I still wasn’t sure I trusted him.
“Smart,” Ned said as he stepped up to Quin and held out his hand.
Quin reached into his jacket. There was a small hesitation, then he handed over his phone.
Was it an act? Was he in on it?
But the night I’d found Joey, he’d asked all those questions. What wasJoeyinto? Would Joey get involved in—
“Edith who?” Silent Jim said. “That real estate climber? I’m not trying tobuythis dump.”
“Just hold it upside down and shake it, right?” Ned said. “Your phone, Doll.”
Shake it out…
“Thetreasure?” I spat. “Are youkiddingme?”
“Dahlia,” Alex said.
“Your pops said himself it’s real,” Jim said, his voice low in my ear. “Or whatever the hell he is to you. And I believe him. He’s the expert. He’s the boss. Your phone, kid.”
“It’s upstairs,” I said. “Also, it’s a brick. Which I have beentelling…”
My heart sank. The band. The band was still back in the storeroom.
