The commissioner was cold and ruthless to his family, too: when his sister had married a Jewish man, he and the rest of his family had turned their backs on her. And he hadn’t shown any interest in her child, Leo, until that child was grown up and useful to him. Leo had been a supplier in Chicago when his uncle finally reached out, offering work rather than affection.
He still didn’t acknowledge his nephew as family. But he paid Leo well when the police needed someone who could work outside the law, or who knew firsthand the intricate web of loyalties and rivalries that connected the city’s mobsters and bootleggers.
Vivian suppressed a shiver. That work had brought Leo back to New York a few months before, and she had come face-to-face with his uncle on the worst night of her life. He wasn’t a man she had any desire to see again.
But she was willing to use the particular set of connections that he provided—if Leo was willing to help out.
Leo shrugged. “Sometimes for my uncle,” he said. “I’ve gotta findother work when he’s not knocking.” He grinned. “Sometimes it’s even honest.”
Vivian snorted. “Color me skeptical.”
“But I hope you’re not here to talk about my uncle, sweetheart.”
“Not directly.” That made Leo’s eyebrows rise, and Vivian took a deep breath. “Do you know anyone in the coroner’s office?”
“The coroner’s office?” Leo’s eyebrows were nearly at the brim of his hat now. “And here’s me hoping you’d come to ask me out for dinner and dancing. You sure know how to keep a fella on his toes, Viv.”
“Do you?” she pressed.
“I might,” he said after a long pause. “Why? Don’t tell me you’re mixed up in something—”
“No, it’s not like—”
“Because after what happened last time—”
“It’s just a favor for a friend,” Vivian said firmly, shaking her head.
Leo scowled. “This isn’t for Honor, is it? Because doing favors for her got you in a whole mess of trouble before.”
Vivian rolled her eyes. He wasn’t wrong, but there was still a hint of jealousy in his voice. Another time, she might have liked hearing it. But right now, she was only thinking about her friend. “It’s for Bea. Her uncle offed himself, except she doesn’t think that’s the whole story. And she doesn’t think the medical examiner will look closely at the body of a broke joe who killed himself unless someone tells him to.”
“She’s not wrong,” Leo said cynically, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the door.
“Never said she was. But I figured if you knew someone, we could ask him to be a little more thorough. Then when he comes back and says yes, it was a suicide, she’ll maybe be able to move on.” Vivian smiled hopefully at Leo, but the angle he was leaning at had pushed his hat down over one eye, and the shadows it cast across his face made it hard to read his expression. “Nothing to it. So what do you say? Be a pal and help me out?”
He didn’t reply for several moments, and her heart began to sink. She didn’t want to go back to Bea and admit that she couldn’t help after all.
“What’s in it for me?” he asked at last.
Vivian scowled, crossing her own arms in imitation of his posture. “Didn’t know things were so tit-for-tat between us.”
“If word gets back to my uncle that I’m calling in favors with the medical examiner, he might get testy. And the last thing I want is to be on the outs with the man who has every cop in the city at his beck and call.”
“So we won’t let word get back to him,” Vivian suggested, uncrossing her arms and sliding close enough that she could nudge him with her shoulder. “You just pointed a gun at me, Leo, the least you could do is help a girl out.”
Leo grimaced, looking embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to.”
“I know.” Vivian was struck by a sudden thought. “Tell you what. Why don’t we get Bea to take us to her uncle’s place? She can tell you herself why she thinks there’s been some funny business. You can see if there’s a good enough reason for it to be worth sticking your neck out.”
“And if I’m not buying it, case closed, no favor?” Leo asked. “And no looking sour at me next time I ask you to dance?”
“You got it.” Vivian smiled up at him. “But I think you’re going to say yes, just to set her mind at ease.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because there might still be a hell of a lot I don’t know about you, Leo, but there’s one thing I do know.” Vivian poked him playfully in the chest. “You’re a big softie underneath that tough-guy attitude. You won’t be able to resist helping out once you see the state she’s in.”
Leo shook his head, but he was smiling at her again. He caught her hand before she could poke him a second time and pulled her close enough that he could brush a quick kiss against her cheek. The briefspark of contact left her skin tingling, and she had to stop herself from raising her fingers to the spot where his lips had been.
