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

The employee, who stood watching them, cleared his throat.

Carlita motioned to him. “You go on, Pete. I’ll look at my pictures from last night and let you know if I find anything. If you could send me a copy of the guest list, that would be helpful.”

Pete promised he would and then thanked her before heading inside.

“So, I was thinking.” Elvira motioned for Carlita to climb into the van. “It’s probably gonna be in our best interest to start our own investigation into Roxy’s death. Not that I wouldn’t like to get rid of Luigi, but I don’t think it’s fair for him to get hung with Roxy’s death, especially when he jumped in to stop her from attacking Mercedes.”

“Not to mention you two had words.” Carlita remembered something Luigi had alluded to…some sort of “project” Elvira was working on. “What’s this about some super-secret project you’re working on?”

“I can’t discuss it.”

“Can’t discuss it with me or can’t discuss it with the world?”

“Both. I signed a confidentiality agreement, and so did Luigi. He shouldn’t have even brought it up. We could both get into a lot of trouble.” Elvira made a slicing motion across her neck. She turned onto their street and circled the block.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking it out.”

“Checking what out?”

Elvira sighed exaggeratedly. “Seriously? I’m looking for cops and the ‘family,’ someone besides your suit guy.”

“Joe Mariani,” Carlita said.

“The guy who’s here from up north to bring the hammer down on us.” Elvira shot her a quick look. “You’ve always struck me as a little naïve. How did you manage to get caught up with the mob?”

“I married into it. And it appears once in the ‘family’…always in the ‘family.’”

Elvira eased into an empty parking spot and shut the van off before meeting Carlita near the back. “The black cloud family. I’ve never seen someone with as many crises as you. I’m surprised you’re not in therapy.”

“Maybe I should be. Although I have to say half of my crises directly involve you.”

“When?” Elvira demanded as they began walking.

“Are we going over that again? The time you went missing, the time you were arrested, not to mention just recently when I had to track you down in Florida after a woman was found dead inside your building.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t want me to start on your list.” Elvira’s hand shot out. “Hang on. You feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“Like someone is watching us. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. It’s coming from that direction.” Elvira jabbed her finger toward Cool Bones’ window.

“Cool Bones is watching us?”

“It’s coming from the general vicinity of your building. I’ve felt it before – like I’m being watched.”

“It’s called paranoia,” Carlita joked.

“Very funny.”

They began walking again. When Carlita headed toward her apartment door, Elvira stopped her. “You want to start our investigation in your apartment?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“What if Vito’s guy, Mr. Suit, bugged your building and your apartment?”

Carlita hadn’t considered the possibility, but Elvira was right…and she would know. “Then let’s go to your place.”

Elvira unlocked her backdoor and waited for Carlita to step inside. “We’ll go over the pictures from last night first. Maybe there’s a clue that will help us figure out who found her.”

“The hippopotamus found her.”

“Hippopotamus? Yeah, a wild animal found Roxy.” Elvira pressed a hand to Carlita’s forehead. “Are you feeling all right? You’re not running a fever. Maybe you’re stressed out from the fact your boyfriend and your daughter are about to become murder suspects. Or it could be the stress of having your whole family under the same roof.”

Carlita swatted her hand away. “A passenger or passengers on the hippopotamus float boat were the ones who found Roxy’s body. They were a couple boats ahead of us on the first leg of the trip, and a couple boats behind us during the return trip.”

“Which means they found Roxy shortly after she fell off.” Elvira peered into the alley and then closed the door behind them.

“It stands to reason.” Carlita followed her through the apartment and to the front, where both EC Investigative Services and EC Security Services command center was located.

Dernice was seated at the security services desk. “Hey, Carlita. I got Pete’s text. I’m sorry to hear about Roxy’s death last night.”

“Me too.” Carlita glanced around. “Is Luigi working?”

“No. He was summoned next door by Vinnie.”

“That’s right. I’m sure Joe is grilling him about his involvement.”

“Joe?” Dernice gave Carlita her full attention.

“Luigi’s ex-employer, who also happened to be Roxy’s employer, sent him down to find out what happened.”

“I figured he was gonna be in the hot seat since he and Ricco jumped in to help Mercedes.”

“Let no good deed go unpunished,” Elvira said. “Have a seat.”

Carlita rounded the desk and noticed the new front entrance door. “I like your new door.”

“Thanks to Dernice. I took it out of her pay since she’s the one who blew it off.”

Dernice shot her sister a death look. “It was an accident.”

“Well, it looks very nice.”

Elvira removed a laptop from the drawer and set it on her desk. “Send me copies of the pictures you took last night. While you’re doing that, I’ll try to find out who had the hippo parade boat.”

“The hippo did Roxy in?” Dernice asked. “I remember seeing a hippo on one of the boats.”

“Whoever was on board that boat pulled her from the water,” Elvira reached for the mouse. “It makes sense. Roxy was being detained in the back of the ship, which is where she went over.”

Dernice picked up. “Which means, chances are, she didn’t go over until after we turned around for the return trip.”

“So, maybe someone on board the boat saw or