Mona Lisa Eyes (Danny Logan Mystery #4) (6 page)

After lunch was served and the ceremony concluded, we were
standing outside in the Spanish Foyer when I noticed Ron
Bergstrom walking toward us. Accompanying him was a trim Asian
man in a medium-colored gray suit with salt-and
-pepper hair.

Ron smiled as he approached. “’Pon my soul
, it’s Danny Logan.” He extended his hand.

We shook
hands. “Ron Bergstrom,” I said. “It’s good to see
you again. Thanks for meeting with us.” I turned and
put my hand on Toni’s arm. “You remember my
partner, Toni Blair, don’t you?”

He smiled. “I may
not be the sharpest chisel in the carving chest, Mr
. Logan, but there are some people even I don’t
forget.” He shook Toni’s hand. “Ms. Blair, charmed.”

“It
’s very nice to see you again, Ron. But please
—call me Toni, okay?”

Ron nodded. “Toni it is, then
.” I think Ron was probably fifty years old. He had
very short reddish-brown hair that was starting to turn
gray, worn in a short, near-military cut. He was
a stocky, muscular guy—looked like he might have been
a rugby player at one time. He wore a black
sport coat over a white shirt and blue striped tie
, along with gray slacks.

“This handsome guy here,” he pointed
to the other man, “is
my
partner, Yoshio Hinari.”

The
man smiled broadly. “Just call me Yoshi. Everyone does.”

I
nodded. “Okay, I will. Good to meet you, Yoshi.” We
shook hands.

“So what’d you guys think about that
lunch, eh?” Ron asked. Eh? I wondered if he was
originally Canadian.

“Outstanding.”

“I thought it was very nice,” Toni
said. “And that room is spectacular.”

“It is,” Yoshi said
. Then in a gallant voice, he added, “Best I’ve
seen, ma’am. Hardly any rats.”

Toni clapped her hands
together in delight. “Perfect! DiCaprio.
Titanic
.”

Yoshi beamed. “Excellent! A
most astute observation.”

“Why, thank you, sir.”

“And there you
have it,” Ron said. “Just like that. The bonding of
kindred spirits.” He shook his head and turned back to
me. “So, Logan, while these two regale each other with
sappy movie lines, what say we dispense with the chitchat
and head off to the lounge—have ourselves a little
shoptalk over a cold libation—it’s Saturday and, technically
, we’re off duty. We can catch up on old
times, shoot the breeze, that sort of thing. Sound okay
?”

I nodded. “Good idea, but we have to say hello
to the Wards first. They sprung for the tickets, after
all.” Ron looked at me funny, like he was about
to protest, but he never got the chance.

“Oh! Mr
. Logan? Mr. Logan?”

I turned and saw Cecilia Ward striding
full-steam across the lobby as if she were on
a life-or-death kind of critical mission. Oliver and
Eric Gaston hustled to keep up, while Nicki Thoms lagged
well behind as she worked on her text messages, ignoring
people as they tried to get her attention when she
passed. Cecilia started to decelerate a couple meters before she
reached us, and when she reached a full stop right
in front of me, she held out her hand and
gave a polite smile. “Thank you both so much for
coming this afternoon.” She turned to Ron and Yoshi, and
the look on her face instantly changed. The smile disappeared
, replaced by the stern visage of a schoolteacher who’s
just caught the class clown red-handed in a stunt
. She nodded curtly to them. “Lieutenant. Detective.”

They smiled and
nodded curtly back. “Mrs. Ward,” Ron said, politely.

I shook
her hand and pretended not to notice the contrast in
the greetings. “Thank you for inviting us. It was a
very impressive event.” I reached over and shook Oliver’s
hand as well, and then I turned to Eric Gaston
. “I think your words about Sophie were amazing—quite touching
.”

“Thank you,” he said with a warm smile. “I meant
’em. I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m
Eric Gaston.” He stuck his hand out. “To tell the
truth,” he said in a jovial manner, “I was actually
nervous as a virg—well, let’s just say I
was nervous.” He laughed. “I was doing my best not
to make a horse’s ass out of myself in
front of a group of very influential donors.”

“You did
well,” I said, shaking hands. I turned and introduced him
to Toni. He shook hands with her, and then he
said hello to and shook hands with Ron and Yoshi
, apparently already having met them. Whatever Cecilia’s hang-up
was with the detectives, Gaston didn’t seem to share
it as he greeted them warmly.

“And,” Gaston said politely
, turning to Nicki just as she walked up, “in case
you’ve not already had the pleasure, please allow me
to introduce you to Nicki Thoms, Sophie’s sister.” Nicki
looked up from her texting. She was even prettier up
close and, judging by the confident, even smug look in
her eyes, she knew it. Her gleaming hair was long
and dark, nearly black. Her eyes were brown and her
skin tanned (the result of either genetics or a serious
tanning bed, given that we live in Seattle). She was
an inch or so shorter than Toni and equally shapely
, which is saying something. She wore a black knit dress
and black tights. She slid her phone back into her
purse.

As Nicki reached to shake my hand, Cecilia said
, “Nicki, Mr. Logan and his partner, Ms. Blair, are the
private investigators I told you we’d engaged on behalf
of the family.”

I smiled at her. “Hi, Nicki. I
’m glad to meet you. I wish it were for
a different occasion.”

She quickly looked me over, still holding
my hand, and then gave me a coy little flirty
smile as she looked straight into my eyes. “Thanks.” She
paused, then added, “Me too.” She held my hand just
a moment too long, letting go just as I was
starting to feel uncomfortable.

Good thing too. I wasn’t
certain how Toni would react to Nicki giving me goo
-goo eyes so blatantly, and I had no wish to
find out, either. If we were going to take this
case, I didn’t want to start out on the
wrong foot. I turned and looked at Toni and immediately
knew that I needn’t have been concerned. Toni smiled
at Nicki—a smile that anyone else might interpret as
friendly but that I recognized had strong undertones of amused
in it as well.

She stepped up to Nicki and
offered her hand. “Hi. I’m Toni.” She nodded toward
me. “I’m his partner.” Nicki measured Toni up quickly
, the shape of her eyes and mouth changing ever so
slightly to a little amused look of her own. The
two strikingly beautiful women shook hands politely. Nicki took a
breath and was about to speak when Toni abruptly ended
the confrontation by releasing her hand and turning to face
Cecilia. “Well, Cecilia,” she said, “it looks like Sophie’s
memorial fund is off to a rousing start.” I don
’t know if Toni’d cut Nicki off like that
on purpose, or if she just hadn’t noticed Nicki
about to say something. I have my suspicions. Either way
, Nicki was left with a word frozen on the tip
of her tongue and a slightly embarrassed look on her
face—from which she quickly recovered.

Cecilia smiled, either unaware
of the low-intensity sparks flying beside her or maybe
just choosing to ignore them. “Let’s hope that’s
the case.” She looked over the room. “Judging from the
reception, though, I believe Sophie would be pleased.” She turned
to me, staring at me hard for a moment. “Mr
. Logan, you promised me an answer this morning. So what
’s it to be? Are you prepared to accept our
case?”

“Fact is,” I said, “we were just about to
go have a little conference with Lieutenant Bergstrom and Detective
Hinari here. I’ll be able to give you an
answer right after we’re done.”

Cecilia looked at Ron
, then back at me. She looked a little miffed about
being put off, but in the end, I guess she
sensed there wasn’t anything she could do about it
. She nodded. “Fine, then. I’ll expect your call later
this afternoon. Let’s say, by three o’clock?”

I
nodded. “That’ll work. If not sooner.”

“Splendid.” She broke
into a smile, business apparently over. “That being the case
, I know you’re busy—I don’t mean to
take up too much of your time. But while you
both are still here, I wanted to take the opportunity
to formally introduce you to Nicki and Eric. I imagine
you’ll want to speak to both of them as
part of your investigation.”

I smiled. “We’d hoped to
, assuming, of course, that all goes well with our conversation
with Detectives Bergstrom and Hinari.” I turned to Gaston. “Mr
. Gaston, if that turns out to be the case and
we end up on the job, I’d like to
give you a call in the next few days so
that we can set up some time to chat. It
’s actually going to be important for us to schedule
time with you and probably with the other employees at
the Foundation. Will that work for you?”

“Call me Eric
,” he said, nodding. “Anytime you want to meet, I’ll
be available. And I’ll make certain you have access
to all our personnel plus any of our records that
you’d like to examine—anything you want, you’ve
got. We all want to see whoever did this caught
and strung up.”

I nodded. “Good. Thank you.” I turned
to Nicki. “Nicki?” She’d been looking around the room
as I talked to Gaston, but she turned back to
me when I spoke.

“We’re guessing that you are
the one who was closest to Sophie. Even before we
talk to Eric and his people, though, we were wondering
if you might have some time to talk to us
, maybe on Monday? We’d like you to help us
fill in our knowledge gaps.”

She looked at me for
a second, and then she gave me a little half
smile. “Of course. Where would you like to meet?”

“How
about your place, Monday morning. Does ten o’clock work
?”

She looked surprised. “Ten in the morning?” She thought about
this for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, then. I’m
afraid I don’t have an address card handy. Do
you have something you can write on?”

“That’s okay
,” Toni said cheerfully. “We already have it.”

Nicki glanced at
Toni, then back at me. “Excellent, then,” she said. “Monday
morning it is.”

“Wonderful,” Cecilia said. “Everything’s arranged, then
. We needn’t keep you any longer.”

We said our
good-byes and watched them work their way back into
the crowd, Cecilia leading the way, working the crowd, shaking
hands with the new donors. After a few seconds we
turned toward the entry hallway toward the lounge.

As we
made our way, Ron started laughing quietly.

“What’s so
funny?” Toni asked.

“Wasn’t that just a little slice
of fun?”

“What do you mean?”

“What do I mean
? You and Nicki playing some nasty chick stink-eye.”

“I
’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking
about,” Toni said, all sweet and innocent.

Ron laughed. “Course
not.” He turned to Yoshi. “Yosh, this one’s smooth
. We’re going to have to watch out for her
.”