Elizabeth C. Main - Jane Serrano 02 - No Rest for the Wicked by Elizabeth C. Main

”
    “ Apology accepted, ” I said. “ Also, the offer of tea. ” Alix sat down across the table from me and we watched in silence as Bianca poured water into the tea kettle and rescued several packets of Tazo tea from her fashionably slender wallet on a chain.
    “ You have room for tea in that tiny thing? ” I deliberately made idle conversation to give Alix time to collect her thoughts.
    “ Always room for tea. ”
    Bianca moved around the room with swift, sure motions, setting out three oversized white mugs decorated with abstract patterns, pouring soy milk into a squat pottery jug. I couldn’t imagine Alix buying soy milk, so Bianca probably had contributed that to the kitchen supplies. Bianca didn’t offer sugar, of course, as she was on a permanent campaign to wean me from its non-nutritional grasp.
    “ A matter of priorities. You drag that suitcase of yours around to make sure you have a can opener, while I stick to essentials like green tea. ” The kettle whistled and she poured steaming water into our cups. “ Okay, ready. ”
    Alix sat silently at first, turning her cup around and around. Without looking up, she said, “ I don’t know where to begin. ”
    “ His real name, ” Bianca said. “ What was it? ”
    “ That’s your first question? ” Alix and I asked in unison.
    “ Well, I have a bunch of them, but that seemed sorta basic. ”
    “ Martin Selway. ”
    Bianca made a face. “ No wonder he changed it. ”
    Alix nodded. “ Yeah, later, after we split. ”
    “ Then you were actually Mrs. Martin Selway? ” Bianca’s tone left no doubt as to how she felt about that concept.
    “ Yep, briefly. I was eighteen. ” Alix went silent, perhaps searching her memory for clues to an earlier self. “ I bailed, once I got the stars out of my eyes and found out what he was really like, crooked as they come. ”
    “ And that was what … fifteen years ago? ” I prompted. “ So why’d he have your phone number? ”
    Alix crossed her arms over her stomach, almost as though in pain. “ Look, I didn’t kill him. ”
    “ We know that . ”
    Alix looked everywhere but at us before she shrugged, seeing no way out. “ He was hoping to shake me down again. ”
    “ Again? This happened before? ” Bianca was incredulous. “ You actually paid him? ”
    “ Just a couple of times. ” Wincing at the disappointment on Bianca’s face, Alix turned to me, as though maybe I’d understand better. “ I knew he’d be back—the proverbial bad penny—but it was a short-term fix. ”
    “ Why pay him at all? ” Bianca asked. She was getting a crash course in a world she knew nothing about. “ He sounds like a creep. ”
    “ He was, but he could have made life embarrassing for me. ”
    “ That’s just wrong. ” Bianca was red with youthful outrage. “ You should have stood up to him, not let him get away with that. ”
    “ I was hoping he’d just go away. Didn’t work out that way. ”
    “ So you saw him the day he was killed, and Arnie knows it , ” I said.
    Alix nodded. “ I assumed someone would have seen us talking . Thought it would be better if I admitted it up front. That was hours before he died anyway , according to the paper. ”
    “ It’s good that y ou told Arnie yourself . Shows good faith , ” I said. I hoped Arnie would look at it the same way. Talk about taking lemons and mak ing lemonade.
    “ I was hoping … I don’t know … for a miracle or something. Maybe they’d find the killer right away and no one but Arnie would have to know I’d seen him. I thought maybe if I had time to think, I’d be able to come up with something to help. I’m sure Arnie’ll keep me in mind if he doesn’t find the killer . ”
    “ And then he’ll come right back to you , ” Bianca said. So much for putting a positive spin on things.
    “ The fact that I’m innocent ought to slow him down at least a little bit. ”
    “ You don’t have an alibi, ” I stated . S he would have