Polkacide (17 page)

Father Speedy squared his jaw and met
my gaze. "Polish Lou made a lot of enemies around this town. You'd
be surprised."

Before I could say another
word, he stepped back through the doorway. "Thank you ever so much
for stopping by, child. I look forward to the spectacular new
Polkapourri at Valhalla Ski Resort."

A wily sneer flickered across his
face, and then he was gone. The door closed, and I heard the lock
clack into place.

Leaving me standing there as
I realized, in spite of my coming on strong, that Father Speedy had
won this first bout between us.

Chapter 26

It was after five o'clock by
the time I got back to Polka Central. Peg was still in the office,
working on the new laptop with a bottle of water and a bag of
pistachios at her side.

Her eyes flicked up from the
screen when I walked in. "How'd it go, Lottie? Did you make Father
cry 'uncle?'"

"I'm working on it." I smiled and
tried to sound blasé about the whole thing. "I've got him on the
ropes."

"Do you know how great that
is?" She looked back down at her computer. "Father Speedy
always
gets what he
wants."

"Not this time, Peg." I
clapped my hands together. "This time, he gets
nothing
. I told him we're moving
Polkapourri to a new location."

"You told him we're moving?" Peg
looked stunned behind her polka dot glasses. "You mean you lied to
him?"

"Nope." I didn't have the heart to
tell her that Father Speedy had called my bluff and Polkapourri was
now homeless. It was easier for now to bluff her, too, and hope
things worked out for the best in the long run. "I mean I've made a
deal to move Polkapourri to the Valhalla Ski Resort."

Peg frowned. "Why is this
the first I'm hearing about it? You're not the only one who should
be making decisions, are you?"

"I'm sorry." I shrugged. "I
actually thought it would make him back down right away, so we
wouldn't have to commit to the move at all. But he
didn't."

"I should be in on all decisions." Peg
nodded sternly. "From now on, okay?"

"Yes." Even as I said it, I
wasn't sure I could keep my word. "I'll bring you in on everything
from now on."

"Still..." Peg smirked.
"Nice job, Lottie. This could be just the shakeup we need to stop
Father Speedy's demands. And if he won't back down, we'll have a
great Polkapourri at Valhalla. I think we could actually draw a
much bigger crowd out there."

"I think so, too." I smiled and
planted my hands on my hips. "Look how many people they get for
Oktoberfest, right?"

"So what's your next move,
Intimidator?"

Call Valhalla Ski Resort
before Father Speedy beat me to it. Try to sell them on becoming
the new home of Polkapourri. "Play the waiting game," I said. "Let
Father Speedy sweat till he finally comes crying to us."

"That's my girl." Peg typed
something on the laptop with rapid-fire keystrokes. "I
knew
you'd be perfect for
the job."

"So did I." It was possible
that things would still work out. Maybe Father Speedy would blink
first and fold his hand, leaving us to rake in the pot. But I was
determined not to worry about it for now.

Not when I had other
problems on my mind. "Did Dad have a lot of enemies in this town?"
I said it as I sat on the corner of Peg's desk. "Not counting the
anonymous death threats."

She looked up from the laptop and
shrugged. "Define 'a lot.'"

"I don't know. More than a few." I
held up the fingers of both hands. "How about ten?"

Peg scowled. "Probably. Who
said so?"

"Father Speedy. Who, by the way, said
he was one of them. He said Dad tried to get him fired three
times."

"He's still fixated on
that?" She sighed. "Get
over
it, right?"

"Maybe we've been going
about this all wrong." I patted the laptop screen. "Maybe we need
to make a list of Dad's enemies and see who had the most to gain
from killing him."

Peg leaned back, tapping her
forefinger against her lips. "So we've got Father Speedy
Nowakowski, Eddie Kubiak, Sr..."

Just as she said it, the front door of
Polka Central banged open, and we heard footsteps.

"It's me!" The voice from
the gym was Eddie Jr.'s. "I found my dad!"

"Speak of the devil." Peg
said it for my ears only, then raised her voice for Eddie Jr.
"Where was he?"

"Poker game at Nunzio's," Eddie
shouted as he stomped up the stageside steps.

Peg's eyes widened. She
poked me in the back with a finger and whispered, "There's one for
the list. Nunzio Caputo."

I nodded. Nunzio was another
one I didn't know personally, though of course I knew the name. He
was the most powerful politician in town--city council chairman and
head of the local Republican party. He had a reputation for dirty
dealing but was popular anyway and had never been
caught.

Eddie Jr. burst through the curtains,
looking flushed. "Joe Hammershek gave him a lift from the doctor's
office." Eddie threw his hands up and shook his head. "Which
would've been
fine
if Dad had remembered to call and
tell
me where he was
going
."

"Parents. You can dress 'em
up, but you can't take 'em out." Peg chuckled. "At least he's okay,
Ed."

"Not for long." Eddie Jr.
pounded his fist into the palm of his hand.

"Just don't mess him up too
bad for Polkapourri," said Peg. "He's our biggest draw
now."

I wondered if she was going
to ask him about Eddie Sr.'s fight with Lou. Maybe now, when he was
relieved about finding his dad, wasn't the right time.

Sure enough, she avoided the
subject. "Did you hear the big news?" She clapped her hands three
times fast. "We're moving! Lottie found a new venue for
Polkapourri."

"Where?"

Peg nodded in my direction,
leaving it up to me to break the big news.

I tried not to let on that
it was only
fake
news. "Valhalla."

"The ski resort? Woah yeah!"
Eddie Jr. pumped his fist in the air. "We'll bring in that whole
Pittsburgh polka crowd!"

"I knew she could handle
Father Nowakowski." Peg beamed and patted my leg. "She's our very
own Intimidator."

"How awesome is this?" Eddie
Jr. marched over and swatted my upper arm. "Father Speedy tried
bleeding us dry, and you told him to take his festival grounds
and
shove
'em."

I shrugged. "Pretty much,
yeah."

"Father Speedy played
hardball, didn't he?" Peg looked at me, and I nodded. "Apparently,
he has a real axe to grind with Lou."

Eddie Jr. snorted. "Some
people can't handle being almost fired, can they?"

"At least your dad let
bygones be bygones." Peg smiled at Eddie Jr. "He and Lou feuded for
years, but they finally got over it."

"Life's too short, right?"
Eddie Jr. nodded and smiled sadly.

"Lou told me many times how
glad he was that they'd made amends." Peg frowned. "But right near
the end, he seemed to get upset again, didn't he,
Lottie?"

It wasn't hard to see where
she was going with this. I knew what she wanted me to say. "My
sister saw Dad and Eddie arguing outside the Falcons. Really going
at it. I guess the fight had something to do with 'strikes,'
whatever that means."

"Really?" A deep frown
etched itself into Eddie Jr.'s features. "'Strikes?'"

Peg got up from her chair
and faced him with arms folded across her chest. "Any idea what
that's all about, Eddie?"

She and I both stared at him intently.
He rubbed his chin and thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"Not a clue, sorry."

"You don't know why they
might have been arguing?" said Peg. "He didn't mention any problem
between them?"

"Nope." Eddie Jr. ran his
fingertips along the fine line of his sidemusgoat. "This is the
first I've heard of it."

He looked and sounded
perfectly convincing. Totally at ease with the truthfulness of his
story and genuinely sorry he couldn't be more helpful.

I might have believed him if I hadn't
known him so well.

Something about his face and voice
tipped me off, something I remembered from when he was my
boyfriend. Something I'd learned long ago to recognize as a matter
of self-preservation.

I could tell he was lying about his
dad.

"Well, that's good to hear." I nodded.
"I'd hate to think Dad died with anything like that hanging over
him."

"I don't think you have to
worry about it," said Eddie Jr. "They were cool as far as I know.
They were even talking about working together again."

Peg scowled. "You're kidding
me."

"Nope." Eddie Jr. sighed.
"Can you imagine, after all that time? Eddie Kubiak and Lou
Kachowski performing together again? The Polish Princes
reunited?"

"This is the first I've
heard about it." Peg looked troubled.

"They were considering
playing together at Polkapourri," said Eddie Jr. "They wanted to do
something special for the twenty-fifth anniversary. That would've
been something to see, huh?"

"It sure would've." I looked
from Eddie Jr. to Peg. The only thing more interesting than the
revelation about a proposed reunion was her reaction to it. Why
would Dad have kept it secret from his soul mate?

Peg stared into space a
moment, then shook her head. "I think we should call it a day." She
closed the laptop, unplugged it, and tucked it under her
arm.

"If you say so." Eddie Jr.
gave me a funny look.

"We'll have a busy day
tomorrow." Peg slung her polka-dotted bag over her shoulder. "The
Polkateers just dropped out. We need to find a replacement and
revise the entire Polkapourri schedule."

Eddie Jr. grimaced. "They
dropped out last year, too, didn't they? They
begged
you to take them back this
year."

"Tell me about it." Peg
shrugged. "It wouldn't surprise me if they try to get back in at
the last minute."

"Me either." Eddie shook his head
disgustedly. "Remind me again why we do this, boss?"

"'Cause polka's in our
blood." A half-smile was the best she could do. I could tell, as
she walked past me, that she was upset.

"Wait a sec," I told her. "I'll walk
out with you."

She didn't turn back. "Thanks anyway,
but I've got to get going. See you both tomorrow." There was a
slight hitch in her voice. I thought maybe she was about to
cry.

"See you then," I said as she pushed
through the gray curtains.

Eddie Jr. walked over and
peeked out, watching her leave. When the front door of Polka
Central banged shut, he turned to me. "What's going on here,
Lot?"

I froze. Should I tell him about our
suspicions regarding Lou's death? Should I let on that he might
have been murdered?

Not yet. Not without
clearing it with Peg. "She's still pretty messed up," I said. "She
tries to keep it bottled up, but sometimes it just breaks
loose."

Eddie walked back from the
curtain. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually feel
sorry for her."

"You and me both." I sighed and got up
from the corner of the desk where I'd been sitting. "The more I get
to know her, the less I hate her guts."

"It's not just that." Eddie shook his
head. "She's changed since Lou died. Like she's toned down her
inner nutcase."

I scooped up my butterscotch
leather purse from the back of a desk chair and hung the strap from
my shoulder. "I guess losing someone will do that to you." It was
time for me to leave; the longer I stayed, the greater the chance
I'd let something slip about the murder and Eddie's dad.

Eddie walked with me to the gray
curtains. "So you're sure there's nothing going on,
Lot?"

"Nothing I'm aware of." As I
met and held his gaze, I wondered if he could tell when
I
was lying as easily as
I could tell when
he
was. It was possible; we'd been pretty close once.

Eddie Jr. nodded. Either he
accepted what I'd told him, or he was letting it slide for now.
"All right then."

"See you tomorrow, Eddie." With a
half-smile, I walked past him and pushed through the
curtains.

But Eddie followed and
headed me off on the other side. "Wait up, Lot." He hesitated,
rubbing the back of his head. "I was just wondering." He actually
seemed nervous.

"Wondering about what?"

"Well, uh..." Eddie Jr.
looked away and shuffled his feet on the stage. "Do you want to,
uh...go get a beer somewhere?"