Jimmy shrugged. “He said she had a fit because he forgot to feed her dogs. That’s not exactly a hanging offense.”
Kieran decided that it wasn’t worth trying to explain how he’d left the animals in their own filth and without food or water, much less that he’d found it amusing to leave other women’s panties in Julie’s bed.
“I’ll get you that Irish coffee,” she told him.
She was in the area, so she decided to check on the married couple and then the musicians after she brought Jimmy his coffee.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked.
“No, we’re good, thanks,” said the one with the full beard.
There was definitely something odd about the man.
Could he have something to do with the robberies? Or the murders?
Was he watching her, waiting to hire another contract killer to do her in?
She smiled. She hadn’t really heard him speak much before, but now she had an opening. “You have an interesting accent,” she told him. “Where are you from?”
“Georgia,” he said. “The country, not the state.”
“Well, welcome to Finnegan’s.”
She walked away, still disturbed.
Then she reminded herself that they ran a pub. She didn’t have to like every customer. And it was unlikely the two men were involved in any way with the robberies or her own troubles. For one thing, she’d never seen them before yesterday.
Still...
She was telling herself to forget them when she saw that Jimmy had left his table to speak with them. Strange, but hardly proof of anything.
She headed back to the office, where Kevin was seated in front of the computer. He looked up at her and shook his head. “We need help.”
“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.