good,” John said flatly. He didn’t elaborate.
We scheduled an appointment for the following week and I left, not much more enlightened than I was before. It didn’t take any leaps of imagination to guess that Frank had a pretty spotty record on the job, or that he wasn’t especially well liked by his boss. The prospect of Frank working on my office didn’t bother me. Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to happen, but if it did, I couldn’t see a problem there. He already knew who I was, so it made sense that I would choose his company for a remodeling job, and it might offer me another angle to work on Seth’s case.
I drove home and put in a little time on a standard info search I was doing for a law office, and then stretched out on the couch for a while, just to rest. Seth showed up at ten and joined me, flopping onto my chest and falling into a light snooze.
At eleven o’clock, Gigi called to say she was on her way. I woke Seth and we both started moving so we’d be alert when she got there. I put a pot of coffee on, and was pouring it when she knocked on the door. I let her in, and she set two plastic bags full of takeout containers on the counter. Seth raised an eyebrow and took an immediate interest.
“You want a cup of coffee?” I asked her. I unpacked the food and took out some plates.
“Yes, please,” she said, watching me quizzically. “This was all about bringing you a free dinner?”
“No, this is about your case. I just asked you to bring the food because Seth did most of the driving today and had to work late because of it.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, thank you, Seth.”
“Sure, no problem.” He loaded a plate with a slab of lasagna, three kinds of pasta, a piece of fish, and two hunks of garlic bread, which he took to the table. “I would have helped unload it too, but Dino wouldn’t let me.”
“There’s a reason for that,” I said. I picked up a carton with the remains of some glorious smelling puttanesca and grabbed a fork. I pulled out a chair for Gigi and we joined Seth.
“Dino, what is going on?” she asked. “You’re being very cagey.”
I took a deep breath, because I had a great plan, but I knew it wasn’t going to be well received by at least one, if not both of them.
“All right,” I said, “today’s little incident makes it pretty clear that whatever’s going on, they have someone on the inside.”
“They?” Gigi asked, eyes wide.
“Well, it still could be one person, but if so, he’s still there, because that’s where the call came from to cancel the shipment. And it had to be someone who knew there was going to be a shipment in the first place.”
Gigi said, “Maybe the guy at the warehouse was lying to us. Maybe he’s the one.”
I shook my head. “When I went back, he showed me the caller ID memory. The call really did come from Salvatore’s. I don’t think he would have gone to that much trouble to fake it, and I don’t see much of a motive there, anyway.”
“You’re just convinced it’s Marco,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Oh, don’t start with that. I have very good reason to suspect him, but I haven’t made up my mind about anything. We’re just getting started here.”
“But you’re not willing to consider any other options.”
“The hell I’m not,” I said. “I’ve spent the last two days considering all kinds of options, but the one that has someone working on the inside covers all the events better than anything else.”
Seth sighed and pushed noodles around on his plate. “I hate it when mom and dad fight.”
Gigi started to say something, but snapped her mouth shut.
“Look, I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m not just targeting Marco here. At the moment, I suspect everyone there but you. That’s why I want us to have someone on the inside too. That way we stand a better chance of figuring out what’s going on.”
“What are you talking about, Dino?” Gigi sat up straight.
Seth froze with his fork halfway to his plate. He spoke through a mouthful of pasta. “This is bribery food, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is, busboy, eat up.”
Understanding dawned on Gigi’s face. “You want me to hire Seth at the restaurant to spy on the staff.”
“That’s why you didn’t want me in the truck,” Seth said, leaning back in his chair. “You didn’t want anyone there to know I was with you.”
“Yes, and yes. We get Seth in there to find out who’s the one pullin’ strings from the inside and then we can find out what the story is.”
Gigi nodded slowly. “Okay. Yes, I think that would work. I’m willing to do it.”
Seth didn’t look so certain. “I’d love to help, but come on, Dino, I already have a pretty full workload at the shop.”
“Yeah, I thought about that,” I told him. “I can come over in the mornings and give you a hand, so you’re free to go to the restaurant.”
“I would put you on the payroll, of course,” Gigi said.
Seth made a few faces, and I said, “It’s not gonna be more than about a week, I don’t think.”
“You know, I’m not very good with authority,” he said, working hard to come up with excuses.
Gigi is a shrewd woman, however, and she leaned forward, resting her chin in her hand and grinning at him. “I’ll feed you. Every night. All you want.”
He smirked and said, “Yeah, yeah, all right. I’ll do it.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I know it’s asking a lot.”
Seth scooped more spaghetti into his mouth and gulped it down. “I’m really not good with a boss, though. I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises.”
“Actually,” I said, “that’s not gonna be a problem. We don’t want you to come across like Gigi’s pet project or no one will talk to you. Without causing any actual trouble, the bigger a jerk you are, the more likely it is you’re gonna get along with whoever doesn’t have Gigi’s best interests at heart.”
Seth considered that, and Gigi said, “Hmm. This might be kind of fun. Well, if the stakes weren’t so high.”
I felt bad for her, with that cloud hanging over her head. I hoped we’d solve the case quickly, and I hoped for her sake it really wasn’t Marco. Whatever her relationship with him, it was clear she’d be devastated if he turned out to be the one screwing with her.
“Gigi,” I said, “do you think you can get Seth in there tomorrow night without causing a lot of suspicion?”
“Sure. I have people putting in for vacation all the time, and one of our servers just told me she’s
