Free Death Under the Venice Moon by Maria Grazia Swan

staring at me like I had announced I was about to give birth to triplets or something. "Kyle, relax. It's no biggie; it comes and goes. It's the coffee." I patted his hand.
    The door flew open, and a small man with a full head of glossy black hair blew in like a hurricane. He paused, eyeing us, one at a time. His glance seemed to linger on me an instant longer, but it could have been my nervousness playing tricks. Behind him stood a gorgeous blonde. She stood a full head taller than the man I assumed to be De Bernardi. When he stepped toward our table, the blonde creature looked in our direction and smiled. Her well-defined lips shone beneath a rosy gloss.
    I followed her gaze. My son appeared to be the intended recipient of her attention. The two had entered so quickly I hadn't even had the chance to swallow my previous bite of that marvelous Italian bread before De Bernardi walked up to the table and stopped, the four of us caught in his sights.
    "Where is that son of a bitch?" His fist hit a spot on the table close to Roberto.
    A telefonino rang. We all turned as the blonde by the door spoke softly into her cell. She exchanged a look with De Bernardi, turned, and left the room without closing the door.
    I sent mental thanks it wasn't my phone that went off in the middle of all this high drama. That would have been so awkward. Who was there to call me anyway? Flash? Larry would be over the ocean right now, nowhere near Innsbruck and probably not bent on making phone calls.
    The small, angry man hovered over our heads, perhaps enjoying the advantageous position of looking down on us. A few dark chest hairs played peek-a-boo from where the top two buttons of his light blue shirt were undone.
    Really?
    How long was he going to play thug? When he sat, he angled his chair so he could stare straight on at Roberto. He even stretched his neck to inch closer to the agent's face.
    "Where the hell is he?" De Bernardi enunciated each syllable, the voice low yet threatening.
    Kyle gripped the armrest of the plastic chair before sighing and leaning back. I tried to chew quietly to avoid attracting attention. The nervousness had sent my hot button into overdrive, and my blouse was soaked in perspiration.
    "I don't know where he is." Roberto didn't sound intimidated in the least. "This is not reflecting well on my agency. He could be dying in a ditch beside some deserted road for all we know."
    "His Ferrari is in Chioggia, and so is the boat. I checked," Kyle said.
    "Good man." Coming from De Bernardi, that sounded like a high compliment.
    "I also checked his room when I picked up my mom." He patted my arm. I guessed that was as close to a formal introduction as I was going to get. "While I couldn't tell much about what clothes might have been taken from his closet, his cell phone was definitely missing, along with the phone charger. Whatever he decided to do, he knew he would be gone long enough for his phone to need recharging. What I can't figure out is how he got out of Chioggia. This late in the season, taxis are hard to get. It may be worth checking into that."
    Both De Bernardi and Roberto nodded.
    "He has never, ever missed a media opportunity, good or bad. As long as his name comes first, he is always there." Roberto might have been the one with the most to lose, but he kept his cool. "You all know that."
    De Bernardi's voice was strident. "What he did or didn't do doesn't matter. The whole crew is sitting around waiting for him to show up. Come morning, they'll have to go back to Rome. We have wasted enough time and money. I suggest you pray he is indeed in some ditch, because if he's out carousing as usual, every cent wasted due to his negligence and lack of responsibility comes out of his contract. Capito ?"
    Roberto met De Bernardi's hard stare but didn't answer.
    Carolyn finally spoke. "You think he's shacked up somewhere with the forbidden apple?"
    Forbidden apple? Were they quoting the Bible or something?
    "We checked."