I walk out from behind the bar to the back where Laney Dooley is taking an order from Jesse Pike and his friends.
“Hey, Lane, I need you behind the bar. Ava’s going to take care of the tables because my dad needs to talk to me for a few minutes.”
“Okay, no problem.” She scribbles on her pad. “I’ll get this order in for you guys, and Ava will bring it back when it’s done.”
Laney follows me, and Ava takes her place waiting tables.
“Okay, Dad,” I say to my father. “I’m all yours.”
“Let’s go back to the office.”
The office—which is the size of a small walk-in closet—is behind the bar in the kitchen, which isn’t usually staffed. I do my paperwork upstairs in my place, so the office is pretty much storage right now—overflow from the stockroom where Johnny’s unloading cases of liquor.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Why did you give that guy my address?”
“What guy?”
“Pat something. Lamone.”
“I didn’t. I said you were in the book. It’s not exactly private information in a small town.”
“Yeah, whatever. He came by to see me this afternoon.”
“So?”
“He was a damned pain in the ass, Brendan.”
“Why?”
“He kept asking me about some woman named Dyane Wingdam. I’ve never heard of her. And then he showed me the same message that you and I got through Hardy’s office. The one that didn’t make any sense.”
“Wait a minute.” My mind races. “This woman he’s talking about is his grandmother, right?”
“That’s what he says. He says he has DNA proof.”
“The first message. The one about Darth Morgen. It’s an anagram for grandmother.”
Dad raises his eyebrows.
“Ava figured it out. It took her all of two seconds once she plugged it into an anagram maker on the computer.”
“And her mother couldn’t figure that out?”
“That’s the point. Ryan and Ruby are keeping something from Ava. We asked Ruby for help with this over a week ago, and she just kept putting it off.”
“Ruby Steel’s a bright woman. No way she didn’t know what was going on here.”
“Right? I think the same thing…and so does Ava.”
“That must be upsetting her.”
“It totally is. She’s not sure why her mother wouldn’t help her solve these riddles.”
“So Ruby probably knows what this other puzzle means too.”
I nod. “I’m pretty sure she does.”
“So the question is,” Dad says, “why did this Pat Lamone fellow get the same message?”
“He thinks he’s related to the Steels.”
Dad cocks his head. “And is he?”
“Hell if I know. I believe he went to school here. He’s around Callie Pike’s age. Maybe Rory’s.”
Dad clears his throat. “So you would have graduated long before he did.”
“Yeah. I don’t remember him from Adam. I don’t think he graduated anyway. They moved before or during his senior year. I might be wrong. I’d have to check with the Pikes. They’d remember.”
Dad rubs his jawline. “So he might be related to the Steels. He has this grandmother of his in the hospital. And he got the same message that we and the Steels got.”
“Right. The grandmother may be the key. Maybe this is referring to Pat Lamone’s grandmother. The woman in the hospital.”
“Maybe it is, but how does that have anything to do with us?”
“Dad, I just don’t know.”
“All right. You don’t have any more answers than I do, I guess. Let me give your mom a call and let her know I’ll be helping you at the bar tonight.”
“I appreciate it, Dad. Thanks.”
I head back out to the bar, and a few minutes later, Dad joins me.
“You know? It’s good to be back behind a bar.” He grabs a towel and wipes up some condensation on the counter.
“You want to take over?” I laugh.
“Are you kidding me? You’re so busy here, I’m surprised you didn’t call me before. Don’t you have people on standby for when you get nights like this?”
“I have Ava now. She picked up things like you couldn’t believe. She’s smart as a whip, that one. Obviously gets it from her mother.”
“You saying Ryan Steel’s a dummy?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. But Ruby has that puzzle-solving intelligence, and that’s what Ava has. It’s amazing how she can read those cards the way she does.”
“Yeah, the cards. Your mom likes those cards.” Dad’s expression remains noncommittal.
“I know she’s been to Ava for some readings. But Ava wouldn’t talk about it.”
“She shouldn’t. It’s probably very confidential.”
Very confidential.
Absolutely right, and Ava has a lot of integrity. I’d like to think I do as well. I did promise Ryan Steel I wouldn’t speak to Ava about what he and I talked about. But…some promises have to be broken. They have to be broken when the woman you love is at stake.
“How is Mom, by the way?” I ask.
“She’s good.” And again…Dad seems noncommittal.
“She hasn’t…talked to you about maybe not researching your uncle again?”
He laughs, finally. “Oh, she has.”
“That happened so long ago. I can’t believe what’s happening now could possibly be related.”
Dad fills two pilsner glasses with beer from the keg. “It’s a long shot, but I feel like it’s connected somehow.”
I open a bottle of Fat Tire and hand it to a customer. “It seems to be the only way we could possibly be connected to the Steels, for sure. But it was so long ago.”
“Think about this, Brendan. If Ava’s solution to the puzzle is correct, and it’s telling her that a grandmother is alive, perhaps it does go back that far.”
“But whose grandmother? Your mother and Mom’s mother are both gone. And Ava’s grandmothers are also both gone.”
“Which means maybe it’s referring to this Pat Lamone’s grandmother. I mean, why else would he have come to see you, and then me, about her?”
“He came because the email told him to. But I have no idea what any of that means or why we’re even involved.”
“Which is why I think it must have something to do with my uncle and his death at the wedding of Brad and Daphne Steel. That’s our only connection to the Steels, son. The only one.”
Chapter Seven
Ava
Watching my sister play pool is like watching a romantic comedy. Guys flock to her, and she gives them just enough attention so that they want her, and then she eases away.
She’s never serious.
She likes to pick up men, have some sex, and then move on. It’s her way. I sure didn’t like her coy flirting with Brendan at the bar. That won’t happen again on my watch.