Christmas Family Style in Savannah: A Garlucci Family Saga Novel (Made in Savannah Mystery Series Bo by Hope Callaghan (summer reading list txt) 📕

child to leave the room and close the door behind them before addressing her son. “How bad is Mariani?”

“Bad,” Vinnie said.

“I mean, is he going to start shooting and ask questions later?”

“Not quite, although he’s been known to use some unconventional and mostly painful methods to try to extract information.”

“Seriously?” Elvira pressed a hand to her chest. “We’re dead.”

“Stop saying that!” Carlita stepped into the kitchen to gather her thoughts and call Pete. She took a deep breath, reassuring herself everything was going to be all right before dialing his cell phone. Thankfully, he answered right away, and she got right to the point by briefly explaining what she had learned.

Pete promised he was on his way before ending the call.

Vinnie woke Mercedes to tell her there was an emergency family meeting before heading to Luigi’s apartment. He returned with Ricco and Luigi in tow.

Tony was the last to arrive. “Tell me you got some good news.”

“Unfortunately, we have the exact opposite,” Vinnie said.

“Roxy’s dead,” Elvira blurted out.

Tony calmly nodded. “I figured as much. I got up early and checked the news. I saw the picture the cops released.”

“What else do we know?” Mercedes asked.

“I would like to hold off discussing a plan until Pete gets here. He’s on his way,” Carlita made another pot of coffee while they waited. After he arrived, she carried the cups into the crowded living room, mentally noting who was on hand. “The only one missing is Dernice.”

“She had an early morning security gig,” Elvira explained.

“Now that everyone is here, I’ll let Vinnie fill you in on what has happened.”

“Where do I start?” Vinnie asked.

“At the beginning. Tell them everything, from the moment we locked Roxy up until now with what Elvira and Tony heard.”

While Vinnie filled them in, Carlita made her rounds passing out cups of black coffee.

“If I go back to the beginning, Roxy was gettin’ on everyone’s nerves as soon as she boarded the ship and started nosing around.”

“Then, she started hitting on Sam and ticked me off,” Mercedes said. “It’s all my fault. I shoulda let it go instead of taking a swing at her.”

“She coulda let it go too,” Luigi said. “You can’t take all of the blame.”

“And I checked her pockets to make sure she was weapon-free before locking her in the bathroom,” Pete said.

“So,” Carlita picked up, “the last time anyone saw Roxy was when Pete placed her in the bathroom. She had no weapons on her and no way to open the door.”

“The bar that secured the door could not have been removed by Roxy. Someone let her out,” Pete said. “The best guesstimate is whoever let her out was also her attacker and possibly responsible for her going overboard.”

“We need to know how she died,” Mercedes said. “Did she die from injuries before going over? Did she go overboard and then get run over by another boat?”

All eyes turned to Elvira.

“You have an inside track on this stuff,” Carlita said. “Can you find out the cause of death from one of your sources?”

“I’ll try. I left my cell phone at home.” Elvira exited the apartment.

Carlita watched her leave and then tapped Pete’s arm. “There’s one more thing.”

“More good news?” Pete joked.

“It depends on what you consider to be good news.”

“My father-in-law is sending someone down,” Vinnie said. “Jersey Joe Mariani, to be exact.”

“And Jersey Joe won’t be coming here to offer us his assistance,” Pete guessed.

“He’ll be here for damage control and to get to the bottom of what happened to Roxy by whatever means necessary,” Vinnie said quietly.

“So, not only do we have a potential killer on the loose, we’ll have a potential hitman breathing down our necks.”

“In a nutshell. Mariani is working on booking a flight now. At best, we have until mid-afternoon to get a jump start,” Vinnie said. “In the meantime, I’m gonna go talk to the cops. Roxy didn’t have any identification on her, and they’re asking for anyone who knows her to come forward.”

“Which means we need to,” Mercedes said. “If not, the authorities are going to wonder what took us so long.”

“Bingo,” Carlita said.

“I think that me, as the owner of the ship,” Pete pointed to Vinnie, “and you, as her employer, should be the ones to go.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

Elvira burst into the apartment, waving her cell phone in the air. “I talked to my contact. Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse.”

Chapter 8

All eyes were on Elvira.

“Well?” Tony finally asked. “How did Roxy die?”

“The cause of death has not been officially determined. It may have been drowning, or it might have had something to do with the stab wound in her neck.”

“Stab wound?” Mercedes’ hand flew to her mouth. “Someone stabbed Roxy? Wouldn’t she have screamed and someone have heard her?”

“With all the noise of the fireworks and the band playing,” Carlita wrinkled her nose, “maybe not.”

“So, here’s where we’re at,” Elvira summarized. “Luigi, me, Dernice, Mercedes, Pete…we’re all suspects. We were all seen arguing with Roxy before Pete locked her in the bathroom.”

“And there are a lot of witnesses to the incidents,” Tony pointed out. “Cool Bones and his band, the restaurant employees, the ship’s crewmembers, the guests.”

“What’s the plan?” Paulie asked. “You go down and tell the cops we have a name for the victim, and then we sit back and wait for Jersey Joe to show up and start knocking some heads together in an attempt to get to the truth?”

“I think that while Pete and Vinnie head to the police station, a few of us should search the ship for clues,” Carlita said.

“Before the cops hop on it and are crawling all over the place,”