Free Cappuccino Twist by Anisa Claire West Page A

intruders.  Maybe she had recognized my face and didn’t want to be subject to my interrogation.
    “Yes, Jacinta is the granddaughter of Jorge, Sr .  And Jorge, Jr. is her father,” Detective Mendez explained the lineage that was becoming more complicated by the second.  In my mind, I sketched a family tree and saw the branches blowing wildly in the wind.
     

    Chapter 10
    “I guess we can go,” Eduardo said softly to me as I was still mentally compiling a family tree.  “I think the case is in good hands now.”
    “Thank you, young man,” Detective Mendez said with a modest bow of his head.  Yes, the investigation was in the best hands it had been in for half a century.  I felt sure of that.
    “Thank you so much, Detective Mendez.” Taking a slip of paper out of my purse and scribbling some digits on it, I requested, “Please call me on my cell phone as soon as you find out anything.  Even the tiniest detail.  I want to know about it.”
    “Keep that ringer on high.  I will definitely be getting in touch with you.  Even if I don’t have much to report, I’ll be in touch within 24 hours just to touch base,” the benevolent detective promised.
    “I really can’t thank you enough,” I said solemnly.
    “Well, I hope you’re going to have real reason to thank me soon.  I’m going to make it my business to get this case cracked once and for all.” He assumed a peacock stance, and I could tell that Detective Mendez’s male ego wouldn’t let him abandon the case until every detail had been deciphered.  “By the way, don’t go back to work at the coffee shop right now.  Just lay low while I’m investigating Jorge Canton, Jr.’s connection to all this,” he advised firmly.
    “Okay, I was supposed to work tomorrow, but I won’t go…”
    “Don’t go back there at all right now.  Just heed my warning on that,” the detective’s tone turned paternal as I softened and nodded.
    “I won’t go back there,” I assured.  So what if I would have to dip into my savings to support myself? With a competent investigator on the case, I estimated that I might only need to spend about a month’s worth of savings until I could fly back home to New York.  Or at least that’s what I hoped.
    The detective shook my hand and Eduardo’s as we turned to leave.  “Should I take you back to the inn now? Or did you have a change of heart about lunch?” Eduardo asked once we were out in the fresh air.
    “You’re very sweet.  And persistent.” I grinned at him.  “But I’m beat.” It was true, although I didn’t know which type of exhaustion I felt more: mental or physical.
    “No problem.  I should get back to the office and enter the new petition signatures into the computer,” Eduardo said with a groan.
    “You have an office?” I joked.  “You mean you don’t just roam the streets of Barcelona like a nomad with a clipboard?”
    Chuckling, he replied, “I wish I did.  Being at the office is such a drag.  What I’ve really always wanted to do is open a coffee shop.  Green, of course.  Solar powered.  With recyclable cups and the whole deal,” Eduardo revealed as my eyes brightened with surprise.
    “Wow, really? Do you make a good cup of coffee?”
    “The best,” he bragged charmingly.  “I would just need a business partner to handle the financial end of things.”
    “Then maybe we should go into business together,” I drawled.  “I was a sales VP back in New York, you know.”
    Eduardo looked at me intently and said, “Then we would make a great team.”
    “I was just joking, Eduardo! I love my coffee, but the last thing I want to do is run a business where I have to wake up every day while the moon is still out!” I laughed as Eduardo half-heartedly joined in.  Did he really think we would make a good team?  We hardly knew each other, although I did have that inexplicable d éjà vu sensation with Eduardo that I had heard people talk about but had never personally