Rags to Witches by Colleen Cross

Author:Colleen Cross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal cozy mystery, cosy mysteries, witch cozy mystery, Westwick Witches cozy mystery series, witches ghosts, witch cosies
Publisher: Colleen Cross
Published: 2019-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Despite my best intentions, I stayed at the funeral reception. I stood in a corner of the room with Rocco. I couldn’t help myself. I felt myself drawn to him again. Maybe Aunt Pearl had renewed the spell. But it wasn’t just my physical attraction that drew me to Rocco. Now I truly felt sorry for him.

Once the guests had paid their respects, things began to get a lot more interesting. Everyone was basically getting drunk at the bar.

Aunt Pearl and Mom didn’t seem to mind. They both wavered unsteadily on their feet from too much wine.

“See that guy over there?” Rocco pointed to Aunt Pearl’s boy-toy. He had left the bar and stood at the buffet table, loading his plate with a second helping of dessert. “That’s Manny ‘The Man’ La Manna. He’s trying to get rid of the competition and move in on our business.”

La Manna wasn’t much of a mover, even in the buffet line. He was barely over five feet tall and not enough of a physical presence to intimidate anyone, let alone move in on anyone’s racket. But I supposed he probably got others to do his dirty work for him.

“That’s him?” I nodded, not wanting to let on that I already knew who Manny was. I watched as he licked his fingers, then wiped his hands on his pinstriped suit. I failed to see what Aunt Pearl found so attractive about him. Aside from his dubious occupation, he had poor etiquette, something Aunt Pearl was, strangely, a stickler about. Her involvement with a crime capo freaked me out. “You think he was involved?”

“No doubt.”

“What’s with the all weird nicknames?”

We both watched as Manny headed back over to the bar with a heaping plateful of tiramisu.

“Everyone has a nickname. It’s for protection, in case of eavesdroppers or police surveillance.”

That pretty much confirmed their criminal activities, which, since this was Vegas, probably involved something like match-fixing, illegal gambling, or money laundering. It seemed insensitive to press Rocco for details at the moment, so I asked about Manny La Manna’s business instead. They had to be in the same line of work, given Manny’s hostile takeover plans. “What’s his racket?

“Loan sharking, extortion, money laundering, you name it. Pretty much everything that goes on here behind the scenes.”

I refocused on Manny, who had stood by the bar. He attacked his tiramisu with such relish that I almost expected him to lick the plate.

The man standing next to Manny suddenly caught my attention.

"I know that man." I pointed at Christophe, who stood at Manny’s elbow. "I’m surprised to see our butler at the funeral. But I suppose that makes sense. After all, he was Carla’s butler.”

"Butler?" Rocco frowned. “Grandma never had a butler.”

"He’s included with the suite. At least that’s what he told us.”

Rocco gave me a blank stare. "Crisco has no business being in the suite. He sure as hell ain’t no butler.”

“Crisco? What kind of name is that?”

“You don’t want to know. Crisco works for Manny. He does all the stuff no one else will touch.

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