2 Lady Luck Runs Out by Shannon Esposito

while I waited. A shadow soon stood over me and, smiling, I turned to greet Will. Only it wasn't Will.
    "Dining alone?" Zach Faraday asked. His eyes were masked by dark sunglasses.
    I turned away from him, ignoring my traitorous heartbeat. "Waiting for a friend." Please go away. Pretty please with sugar on top.
    No such luck. He came around and took the seat across the table from me.  
    He slid his glasses off, and we stared at each other for longer than I was comfortable with. I folded my arms finally. "Is there somethin' I can help you with, Mr. Faraday?"
    His eyes darkened and I felt a rush of scalding air blow through me. "Yes. Actually there is." He leaned back in the chair and folded his hands. "You were the reason the police came to discover my mother's body."
    I blinked. This didn't sound like a question. More like an accusation.
    "Okay," I said. What else did he expect me to say? I pulled my sweater tighter around me. "And?"
    "Can you take me through how that night unfolded?"
    I stared at him over my teacup. What was he after? Surely, the police gave him all the information about that night? Finally I shrugged. No harm in telling him, I guess. After all, it was his mother. Maybe Landon was wrong about Zach's and his mother's relationship? Maybe they were close.
    "All right. My sister and I were on one of those walking ghost tours and found Lucky in the Traveler's Palm Inn conference room. Actually, she kinda jumped on my sister and held on for dear life. She seemed really traumatized so we decided to find her owner. Not that tough, since your mother's address was on her collar." Okay, so I was leaving out the vision with the shadow person. He wouldn't have believed me anyway. "We knocked, but there was no answer so we went around back. The lanai screen was ripped and a broken potted plant lay busted on the tile. Seemed odd so I called my detective friend. He didn't think anything was suspicious until he talked to the neighbors and no one had seen your mother for a few days. Plus the next door neighbor mentioned an odor. That, along with Lucky normally being an indoor cat, well... he decided to call for back up and enter the condo. Where they found your mother."
    I glanced around. Where the heck was Will?
    "And the snake that bit her, it was still in her home?"
    "Yes." I snuck a glance at him while he stared out at the backed up traffic on Beach Drive. Why did he make me so uncomfortable? It was like watching a volcano, all hard rock on the outside, bubbling molten lava beneath the surface ready to erupt at any moment. Was he suspicious of her death, too? "I'm sorry for your loss. Were you and your mother very close?"
    His jaw twitched and he brought his intense gaze back to me. "We hadn't spoken in awhile. I'm out of town a lot." His eyes dropped and he sighed. "You know how it is. Two different worlds. Makes it hard to communicate."
    I blinked. Two different worlds? Was he talking about my father again?   His confiding tone threw me for a loop.
    He continued quietly, almost like he was talking to himself. "My mother, she was a nineteen-year-old gypsy when my father found her. She became his prisoner. Unlike your father, mine didn't break the rules for love. He wasn't that noble." His eyes flashed and then cooled as he smiled at me. "I always reminded her too much of my father."
    Okay. Wow. I was really starting to feel in over my head here. I didn't want to know this much about him. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop myself or my curious nature. "Um, so that's why you two didn't speak?"
    "Yes." He shrugged. "She was a very stubborn woman. Viciously so at times."
    He was being so open here, I had to ask. "Zach, do you know of anyone that might have wanted to harm your mother?"
    His attention was fully on me now. He tilted his head slightly and leaned forward. In the bright afternoon sun, I could see flecks of red glinting in his dark eye. They were mesmerizing. "You are suspicious of her death?"
    I swallowed. "Yes."