Free Amaretto Amber (Franki Amato Mysteries Book 3) by Traci Andrighetti

repent his sins and let Jesus into his heart."
    I smirked as I took another bite. The chances of a pimp finding God were about as high as Glenda joining the Cloister.
    Eve touched my arm. "And would you believe that right after our conversation he became a minister?"
    I lowered my spoon, openmouthed. "How do you know that?"
    "Because when I'm coming to work I usually see him at the corner of Bourbon and Dumaine, preaching the gospel to passersby."
    Eve's angel status just got elevated to saint, but I wasn't so sure about the status of the pimp preacher. I planned to find that out after lunch.
    A Hispanic male who looked to be around twenty-five entered the room and removed a bowl from a cabinet. "Are the girls ready to go, Eve?"
    "Oh!" She jumped up from the table. "I'd better go see. Be right back, ladies."
    "Carlos, this is Franki, my PI partner," Glenda said. "We wanted to ask you some questions about Amber."
    He glanced in my direction. "You're talking to the wrong person. I barely knew her."
    "Any information might be important," I said in an encouraging tone. "But could I ask what time you left on Saturday night? It would help to know when the doors were locked."
    "Eugene would've been the one to lock up." His thick, black brows furrowed as he spooned gumbo into his bowl. "I had to leave at four fifteen when the club closed because Iris and I got arrested."
    "Good grief, Carlos," Glenda exclaimed. "How'd you two end up in the hoosegow?"
    He removed a spoon from a drawer and sat beside me. "Things got a little rowdy with some customers who didn't want to leave after last call. So we all went to the tank."
    By this point, I was seriously starting to wonder if I'd missed the memo about using euphemisms for "jail." "Who's Iris?"
    Glenda flipped her hair. "The bouncer, sugar."
    This Iris must be a big girl . "When did you get out of jail, Carlos?"
    He splashed Tabasco sauce on his gumbo. "At one o'clock yesterday afternoon after Eugene posted our bail."
    So, he and Iris had airtight alibis. "Did you notice anything unusual before you got arrested?"
    "Nah, it was business as usual," he replied, stirring his food. "And I haven't seen Amber around here in a few months."
    I looked up from my bowl. "I thought she quit a year ago."
    He took a bite and then shifted the food to one side of his mouth. "She did, but she came in sometimes for a drink."
    On a hunch I asked, "What did she typically order?"
    "The same thing she did when she was dancing here," he replied, resting his elbows on the table. "Amaretto, neat."
    Glenda's two-inch false eyelashes opened wide. "It wasn't Amaretto di Amore, was it?"
    He shook his head. "We don't carry that brand. Even though it's made here in New Orleans, it doesn't sell as well as Disaronno."
    As I'd suspected, there was something weird about that bottle of amaretto beside the bathtub, but I still wasn't sure what. "Is that the kind Amber drank?"
    "No, she used to tip me to keep a bottle of Lazzaroni Amaretto under the bar for her."
    "Any idea why she wanted that particular brand?" I asked as Eve returned to her place at the table.
    He smiled as though remembering something funny. "She liked it because it's the only kind made from an infusion of the Amaretti di Saronno cookies."
    I memorized the name Lazzaroni, both because it was pertinent to the investigation and because it was as close as I was going to get to cookies during Lent.
    "What are the other amarettos made from?" Glenda asked, twirling her cape tie around her finger.
    Carlos swallowed and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Almond essence or apricot pits."
    Eve rolled her eyes. "Amber definitely didn't like that kind."
    My body tensed because I sensed that she was about to say something important. "Did she talk to you about amaretto?"
    "No, but one time an anonymous admirer had a bottle of amaretto delivered to her here at the club. When she opened it, she got really mad and threw it across the kitchen. It took me hours to clean up the