That gave Finch pause. “There’s no need to be dramatic, Hudson,” he said after a moment, but he said it more kindly than anything he’d said so far. “I’m sure there must be some expla?—”
Next to Finch’s hand on the desk, close to his abandoned flute of sparkling water, his cell phone started to ring. Even upside down, Hudson could read the name of the caller.
Luca.
Luca D’Amato, the Morelli Don, had already been to Kismet briefly tonight, to see in the new year with Finch. But he’d left about thirty minutes later to finish up what he called “a work project,” and had promised to be back to pick up his husband at closing.
Now Finch held up a finger. “No one talk,” he said, and answered the call. “Hi, baby, where are... Oh, seriously? Shit. Yeah… No, I understand. Mm, we’re still finishing up here… No, no, you stay there in the warmth, it’s fine. I have Gio. Okay… Love you, too.”
He ended the call and placed the phone down on the desk again carefully. “Luca’s caught in traffic,” he announced. “The snow’s really bad and there’s been an accident a few blocks up. Roads are all closed. So he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to get here.” He looked around the room. “I suggest we clean up this messbefore he gets here. My husband is unlikely to be as forgiving as I am.”
There was a soft susurration through the room, like every man there had taken in a deep breath.
CHAPTER
FOUR
“Well?”Finch demanded. “Ideas? Notions? Confessions?”
“I don’t know what you want us to say, Mr. D,” Brady protested. “Seems to me there’s only one guy had the opportunity to take that cash.” He shot Hudson a dirty look.
“Maybe,” Finch said. “But that’s not the only mess we have here, is it? Or have you forgotten about the corpse in the bathroom downstairs?”
Hudsonhad, actually. He’d been so focused on his own fear that his brain hadn’t really kicked into gear, but now it did. “Maybe they’re connected,” he suggested. Everyone looked at him again, but with less suspicion this time. They were just waiting to hear what he had to say. “I mean, it’s a big coincidence, don’t you think? The one night some guy comes back for his coat and dies in the bathroom, is the same night the cash goes missing?” He warmed to his theme. “Mr. D said himself it might be a distraction. Maybe whoever took the cash killed that guy downstairs, too. Or maybe—maybehetook the money.”
Dino put up his hand like he was in a classroom. “The timeline doesn’t fit,” he said, when Finch nodded at him. “I saw that deaddude—I mean, he wasn’t dead then, but whatever—he came in when these two were arguing,” he thumbed at Brady and Ziggy, “and I was in the cloakroom trying to find this coat the guy was so worried about. So the dead guy had no access to the break room from my side, and Hudson and Art were at the other door.”
Hudson’s spirits dropped again.
“Hudson’s right about one thing, though,” Finch said, looking between Brady and Ziggy. “We only have your word for it that the cash went in that box.”
“I swear on the life of my daughter,” Ziggy said forcefully, “the money was in that box when we came out of the room.” He sounded as convincing as Hudsonshouldhave sounded when he’d first denied it. Ziggy jerked his head towards Brady. “And Mr. D, you know I’d give this guy up if he’d done it. There’s no love lost between us.” He stared hard at Finch.
“Fuck you,” Brady said, then added, “But what he says is true. We locked that money in the box, just like we were supposed to. And anyway, where else would we put the money? You’d hear us rustling if we’d shoved it down our pants or whatever. And the only doors in and out of that room are the one Hudson was in front of, and into the cloakroom, where Dino was. But you can go search the break room, see if we’re lying.”
Finch’s eyes narrowed. “He’s not wrong. The money has to be somewhere.” He looked at Gio. “Go check the break room, see if the money’s still there.”
But Gio hesitated. “Mr. D, I’m not supposed to leave you.”
Finch opened his desk drawer again and pulled out his SIG Sauer. He checked the clip, slotted it back in, and then took off the safety. “I think I’ll be alright for a few minutes,” he said.“And you’re the one who insisted on being on duty with me for New Year’s Eve. So you’remyman for the night. You do what I say. Besides, if anything happens to me, you all know what Luca would do.”
Hudson shuddered. Yes, he knew what Luca would do. So did everyone else, apparently, because they took a collective step back from the desk where Finch sat, as though to show that they meant no harm.
Gio was only gone for a few minutes, as Finch had predicted. He came back with a serious face and gave a quick frown at Hudson as he went past. “Nothing, Mr. D,” he told Finch as he arrived back at the desk.
“You’re sure?”
“I turned that room upside down. You want I should swear on my mother or something, like everyone else is doing?” The look Finch gave him made Gio clear his throat and add, “Sorry, Mr. D. But the money ain’t in that room.”
“Pity,” Finch said, tapping a finger on the desk, next to where he’d laid his gun. “So now what? Anyone remembered something they suddenly feel compelled to mention?”
They looked between each other. Hudson was unhappily aware that he needed the bathroom badly.
And then it occurred to him. “Iknow!” he exclaimed. “I bet I know what happened.”
“Well?” Finch asked impatiently, but Hudson paused.
“I—I can’t say in front of everyone.”
