Flawless (New York Confidential #1)(74)

“That’s what I’m here for,” she said.

Kevin eased back in his chair. “I’m trying to get the quarterly taxes ready for the accountant,” he said. “And I just got a call. A commercial for a dating service. I get to be a real person in this one. With a hot date,” he added. “I don’t even have to audition. But I feel guilty saying yes when Declan asked me to handle this. And now we’re all looking after Bobby, too—which is a pleasure, of course.”

Kieran smiled and sat down in the chair across from him. “It’s the curse,” she said. “Feeling that you were born guilty. The Irish-American curse, and it affects all thirty-five million of us with Irish lineage. Did you know at one time in the 1860s a quarter of the population of the city was Irish?” She grimaced. “I listen to Danny too much, huh? All that trivia rubs off.” She squared her shoulders. “Okay, how can I help?”

“The pub does well. I know that at first, after Dad died, Declan was careful not to hire anyone because we desperately needed the income ourselves. But now...we have to hire more help. You and Danny and I all have other jobs, and I’m worn out, frankly. I don’t know about your social life, but I’m glad about this commercial, because that’s all the dating I’m going to be doing for a while.”

She smiled. Sure, Kevin was her twin. But he was tall and smart and considerate, not to mention good-looking. He could have a dozen dates a week if he wanted to.

“We’ll talk to Declan,” she said. “I’m sure he’d be fine with hiring a few more people.”

Kevin laughed. “Trusting anyone outside the family is not in our big brother’s nature,” he reminded her. “Hiring even one more server is going to be torture for him.” He took a deep breath, then met her eyes, his expression serious. “I’m not sure he should be trusting family, either.”

She stared at him. “What are you saying?”

“Everything that’s going on,” Kevin said quietly. He lowered his head. “I pray Danny isn’t involved.”

“Danny would never be involved in murder,” she said.

“Not intentionally. You’re right on that.”

“I should call Julie and check on Bobby,” Kieran said.

“I just called. He’s in a new room, out of critical care. Julie and he are doing fine, and there’s still a cop outside his door.”

“Good,” she murmured. Yes, good. Things were going well on that front.

There were other problems, though, other situations that could possibly be solved. Situations that also seemed to revolve around the events occurring far too close to them and Finnegan’s.

There was the problem of possible danger to Tanya, who had risked a great deal to speak with Kieran.

She didn’t want Tanya to end up in a hospital like Bobby—or worse.

She considered suggesting they could all pool their resources and put up bail for Tanya Lee Hampton. But that didn’t seem like a good idea anymore, not with so much already going on with her family and the pub and their financial concerns.

But she knew who else might be able to help Tanya.

“I’ll be back. I need to make a phone call,” she told Kevin.

Outside in the hall, she looked through her phone contacts, hoping she had a number for Simon Krakowsky. To her relief, she did. She must have gotten it from Julie or Gary at some point. She was afraid it might be the store phone, but it went straight through to him.

Now she just hoped he felt grateful enough for her help catching the thieves that he would be willing to do her a personal favor.

She identified herself, and he immediately said how pleased he was to hear from her. She drew a deep breath and explained her call.

“She really needs help, and I know she’ll appear at her trial and that you’ll get your money back. I’d stake my reputation on it. In fact, I am staking my reputation on it,” she told him.

“I’ll take care of it—anonymously,” he promised her.

“That easily?” she asked.

“Absolutely. I owe you,” he assured her.

“You don’t owe me,” she told him.

“Then just think of me as a humanitarian. Either way, consider it handled.”

She thanked him and rang off, then headed back into the office. “Day job,” she said to explain her absence.

“I rest my earlier point,” Kevin said.

She nodded. “Point taken. For now, I have to start looking for Joes,” she said.

“Joes?”

“Yep. Declan told me to go through the receipts and find anyone named Joe or Joseph.”

“Okay. Go for it.”

She booted up the second computer and had already found eleven possibilities when there was a knock at the door. It was Declan, escorting Detective Mayo.

She handed Mayo the list of what she’d found already. She’d annotated it with all the information she had, adding a note if it was a regular, even about how old they were and what they did for a living, if she knew.

“Excellent work,” Mayo said. “And I’ve brought my laptop, so if you’ll log me on, I can help.”

Declan left them to it, and for the next hour the three of them worked in near silence, except for the occasional pertinent comment.