Part 17 (2/2)
”She'll keep you in line, all right,” he said. ”She was out here earlier giving the feds what for.”
Saint Peter's Polyps! Why did he have to go and say that?
”The feds?” Mari's cheery look faded for an instant. ”What was that about?”
”Just part of their drug patrol. They always stop by and ask if we've seen anything in the neighborhood.” I'd have to find a way to thank Bo for that cover story. In the meantime, a change of subject would be nice. ”You guys need a hand with the roof? Mari's an old pro.”
”She's not kidding,” Mari answered, back to her jovial self. To my undying relief.
They chatted a couple more minutes and Nick headed back to the house.
Mari took my empty tray and dropped it in a plastic bag. ”I'll dispose of this properly. Don't want any more trouble with the litter police. How about dinner tonight? There's a new Peruvian restaurant in the Design District.”
I'd never be able to keep my secret, especially now that I'd figured out it was all a mistake. I wanted to blurt out everything and tell her to get as far away from Pepe as she could.
”I'm starting to feel a little sick, like I'm coming down with something.” It couldn't be the stomach flu, not after I'd scarfed down a pound of Cuban rice. ”Achy all over...probably just a bug.”
”You should go home and take it easy.”
”Yeah, I think so too. Can I get a rain check on dinner?”
”Rain check, nothing. I'll pick something up and bring it over about six.”
Fabulous. At this rate I'd be locked up by midnight.
Chapter Nineteen.
Edith and Mordy's sliding gla.s.s door banged open the second the sun went down. Whatever they were arguing about, I hoped it wasn't Cubans, because Mari was stretched out on the chaise lounge beside me texting with Chacho about Talia's new boyfriend. I was pretending to nurse a headache, but a fight right now between Edith and Mordy could trigger a real one.
That the Osterhoffs were now a part of this investment scheme was surreal. If Pepe could use my neighbors that way, all my friends and co-workers were vulnerable. It was some comfort, however, to imagine ways I could entice him to drag Emily into his scheme as well.
”You should come out here, sweetie. It's nice and warm.” Edith's voice had never sounded so sweet. Either her new anti-psychotic medication was working, or she'd finally offed Mordy and was talking to his bullet-ridden body. ”Daphne, are you over there?”
”Yeah, I'm sitting here with Mari.”
”That was Mari! I didn't even recognize her.”
I lowered my voice so Edith couldn't hear. ”They look through the peephole every time the elevator dings.”
”You two should come over for some wine,” Mordy called from behind the divider.
”Thanks, but I'm not feeling so hot. We're just going to hang out and take it easy.” I whispered again, ”They only drink Manischewitz. It's awful.”
Mari smiled, flas.h.i.+ng her adorable dimple. She had to be innocent. This person beside me-a woman who only today had talked about giving back to her community-wouldn't do what Agent Diaz said she'd done.
Not only that, I was having trouble believing the man who had taught her to be a good person would run a multimillion-dollar scam on his clients. But there weren't any other explanations, and Pepe had done some things lately that painted him as desperate for an influx of cash.
Poor Mari had no idea her world was about to come cras.h.i.+ng down. It would break her heart to find out what Pepe had done. Their whole family would come apart. h.e.l.l, the whole city of Miami would be upended with a scandal like this one taking down one of the pillars of the Cuban community. People like Mordy would go on and on about how corrupt the Cubans were.
People like Mordy...
Only a few short weeks ago, I'd sat right out here on this very porch and taken his side in an argument with Edith over how the Cubans did business. I'd painted the whole lot of them as a network of patronage and nepotism, and railed at how they'd inflicted their culture and language on ”real” Americans.
Mari was a real American and so was Pepe, at least in the values he'd taught his family. For that, I hoped the feds would show leniency.
The bigger question for me was if Mari would show understanding once she found out I'd helped set her up. I was no better than Delores, but they hadn't exactly given me a choice. Five years in prison for obstruction of justice was a formidable threat, though probably not as much as that conspiracy charge would have brought.
Wait a minute...
The conspiracy charge was no good. They knew that. The obstruction of justice was only if I tipped Mari off that they were closing in. That didn't mean they could force me to serve her up on a silver platter. It wasn't like I was breaking any laws by refusing to cooperate with their little sting at the Chamber meeting. I could just call in sick tomorrow and tell Agent Diaz she'd have to do it without me. Maybe by the time she figured out a new avenue into the investment fund, Pepe might have a change of heart and move all the money back around to where it was supposed to be.
Mari suddenly laughed. ”Chacho's a riot. I asked what he wanted for his birthday and he said cerveza with a smiley face.”
”He wants you to buy him beer?”
”Yeah, but he's only nineteen. Pepe would stuff me in a cardboard box and send me back to Cuba.”
That didn't mesh at all with the kind of man who would bilk his investors. Everything I knew about Pepe-and Mari as well-ought to have both of them vying for sainthood.
”Mari, what's the worst thing you ever did?”
”You mean besides getting arrested for dumping trash behind Delores's car? I sneaked out once in high school and met my friends on South Beach. We were trying to get into a club with fake IDs and all of a sudden, Pepe's car stopped right there in front of us. He got out and opened the back door. That's all. He just stood there without saying a word. Needless to say, I got in, and I never tried it again.”
”How did he even know?”
”The man has eyes and ears everywhere. He's like the unofficial G.o.dfather. People call him all the time about stuff so he'll use his influence to get others to do the right thing. He's always taken it seriously that he's considered one of the leaders in the Cuban community. I remember even as a kid him saying everything any of us did reflected on all of us.”
She wasn't talking directly to me, but I heard her message just the same. I was guilty of blaming a whole ethnic community-the whole city even-when just a handful of people ran afoul of whatever I thought the proper standard ought to be. All the while, I never gave credit to the folks who stood up for their communities and families, who gave back the way Pepe and his family had, and who gave this place its character and verve.
Now that I understood, it was impossible to believe someone like Pepe would do what the IRS said he'd done. I just hoped he had eyes and ears all over this.
”Give this to Daphne,” Mordy said to Edith. Then he yelled, ”I'm sending over two gla.s.ses of wine.”
I made a gagging gesture to Mari, who was already on her feet to take the gla.s.s Edith was handing around the divide.
”Oh! Wha-” Edith stammered. ”No wonder I didn't recognize you. I could have sworn the woman I saw going into Daphne's had short hair.”
Christ on a Crepe! Only one tall Hispanic with short hair would have let herself inside my apartment-Agent Diaz. She probably had it bugged and was listening to every word we said.
Mari didn't seem alarmed by the gaffe, but when she came back with the wine, she was definitely perplexed. ”What was she talking about?” she whispered. ”Short hair?”
”Who knows? She's on a new medication but I thought she was better.”
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