Free To Thine Own Self Be True by Judy Clemens Page B

raised, but I shook my head. Gio caught my eye across the room and pointed at a loaded tray. I went up and got the food, stopping off at the drink machine to fill my cup with birch beer. I’d let the guys get their own drinks.
    Twenty minutes later we were piling our trash on the tray when Giovanni sat in the empty seat next to Rusty. The line up front had dwindled to just a few business people, and one of Gio’s relatives had taken over behind the counter.
    “You aren’t just here for lunch, I take it?” he said to us.
    Rusty jerked his head no. “Wondered if you could shed any light on Wolf and Mandy.”
    Giovanni slouched in his seat and ran a hand over a face shadowed with dark whiskers. “Wish I could.”
    “You don’t think Wolf had anything to do with Mandy?” I asked.
    He glared at me like I’d cursed in church. “No way. Stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
    “Chill,” Rusty said. “We feel the same. Just wanted to make sure you were with us.”
    The big Italian’s face relaxed again, and he pulled on his thick mustache. “Been wracking my brain, trying to imagine who would do it. Where Wolf could be.”
    “Think of anybody who had troubles with them?” I asked.
    Giovanni barked a laugh. “Lots of folks. But none who would…do what they did.”
    “Like who?”
    He shrugged and rested his elbows on the table. “Don’t know his name or his boys, but some gangbanger stopped by their place a week ago or so. Wanted Wolf to do him up a tattoo in a half hour. He was headed to jail the next day, and wanted to use up his remaining time scoring dope down in Philly.”
    “Wolf do him?” I asked.
    Rusty was shaking his head. “Couldn’t have in that amount of time. Wouldn’t have, anyway.”
    “Nope,” Gio said. “Mandy basically told the kid to go to hell. Wolf tried to calm her down, but she wasn’t having any of it. Told the guy where to go, and that’s the truth.”
    I almost smiled at the image it presented. “What happened?”
    He did smile. “Guys left. Even apologized. Guess they like strong women. But who knows? Maybe they thought about it later and decided it wasn’t cool. Be back in a minute.” He went up to the counter, grabbed a cup, and filled it with water. “Sorry.” He sat down again. “All dried up from working back there.”
    “Any other ideas?” I asked.
    “Sure. Could be somebody we don’t even know about. Like, a little while ago some guy, completely high on crack, burst into the shop, started screaming that the Warlocks had just broken him out of Norristown Hospital. Accused Wolf of stealing his money, said if Wolf would just give back the cash, he’d forget everything. Wolf and Mandy couldn’t remember ever seeing the guy before, but they were afraid what he might have under his clothes. You never know what these crackheads are concealing. They held him off long enough for Mandy to call the cops, who didn’t find weapons, but discovered a good stash of bills in the guy’s sock. Once he saw it he remembered putting it there. Had somehow fixated on Wolf and was sure he’d been robbed.”
    I shook my head. It was hard to imagine folks like that on the streets of Lansdale, but I guessed crazies could pop up anywhere.
    “What about Lance Thunderbolt?”
    Gio raised an eyebrow. “What about him?”
    “Rusty told me about the problems he caused Wolf. The detective says he was out of town the night of…the night I went to get my tattoo, but what if he came back and his family’s covering for him?”
    Gio sneered. “That wuss? He wouldn’t know to go to sleep at night if somebody didn’t tell him first.”
    Rusty laughed. “That’s about right.”
    “So you think his alibi’s for real?” I looked from Gio to Rusty, watching their eyes.
    Gio shrugged. “More believable than him actually having the balls to confront someone in person. Lawyers, sure. Rumors, trash talking, gossip. That’s his style.”
    So maybe Thunderbolt really was in the