Soc Au' Lait Stiff: The Big Uneasy 9 by Pauline Baird Jones

Author:Pauline Baird Jones [Jones, Pauline Baird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781962125468
Publisher: Pauline Baird Jones
Published: 2024-03-14T05:00:00+00:00

Maia tried to remember if she’d ever felt so much like a guilty child before. Despite sitting in a chair, she had to fight the urge to shuffle her feet and it took all her control not to hang her head. What the heck? Her dad could do minatory, but then he’d move on, point made. And if she’d done something that was a little funny? The twinkle in his eye definitely reduced the guilt level.

But here she was, a month into her relationship with her mother, trying to avoid eye contact with her, the Bubbas, Aunt Zula, and Ben.

Yes, Ben.

“I didn’t do anything,” she muttered, wishing she hadn’t muttered the words, even though they were the truth. She hadn’t done anything. Well, the CIA thing might be her fault, but nothing else.

One of the Bubbas cleared his throat. “St. Cyr?”

Ben might have been happy with this opening. “There are three main crime families in New Orleans. Afoniki, St. Cyr, and,” Ben leaned back in his chair, which coincidentally gave him a chance to see all the faces without looking like he was watching them particularly, “Calvino.”

The last name fell into the silence like a rock, but Maia was impressed. No one flinched or looked guilty. But then they probably knew who and what the Calvino family were.

“You can’t have dinner with…” her mother apparently couldn’t even say his name.

“I can’t understand why him and,” Maia met her mother’s gaze, “Guido Calvino approached me in the French Quarter. Weird coincidence, don’t you think?”

She’d given her an opening. What would her mother do with it?

“Very,” her mother said. Her face relaxed and natural, she said looking at Ben. “I knew a Domizio Calvino years ago. It was after your father and I, well,” her mother stopped.

“He made a pest of himself then,” Aunt Zula said. Now her gaze met Maia’s mother’s. “I still can’t believe he had the nerve to show up here. Acting like you used to be friends. Even then we knew what he was.”

Ben straightened just a little, probably trying not to look too eager. “Did he say why he was back in the country?”

“He wouldn’t have told me anything about that,” her mother said. “I don’t know why he’d come here either.”

Maia thought she knew. Her mother was still beautiful and if she’d had the same charm back then? Creepers never seemed to get the message that they were creepers.

“I was relieved when he left,” Aunt Zula said, “and surprised. Men like that never seem to have consequences for what they do.”

“You knew he was involved with organized crime?” Ben asked.

“I knew he was…unsavory,” Maia’s mother said. She gave a small sigh. “Thinking back, he was there and then one day he wasn’t. I may have hoped he’d met someone worse than he was.”

“He fled the country,” Ben said. Maia saw him hesitate, as if unsure how much to share. “Tax evasion charges. He was a suspect in a murder, but a known Calvino associate took the rap for that.

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