Momma Lupe, Book 1 in the Ty Connell 'Novella Series. A Mystery/Suspense Thriller. Cooking or killing -- Momma Had Her Funny WAys Read Online Free Page B

just ."
    "O- kay ," the guy said, and laid his money
on the table. "Let's do it."
    Connell laid his bills down and walked the
table, eyeing the shot again from all sides, finally positioning
himself with the cue stick high behind and over the ball. He rammed
the cue down hard and the ball jumped the red and smacked the
black, driving it into the pocket. The cue ball followed dangerous
close to the lip, and then rolled back.
    There were a few whistles
and hoots from those watching, but he could see that the Italian
kid was not pleased.
    But rather than pick up the money, Connell
left it on the side of the table. He knew the guy's name was Tony,
because the others had addressed him as such, so he said, "Don't
worry, Tony. I'm not the kind who gets lucky and runs. I only got
one good shot, and you just saw it."
    They played another few games and Tony won
his money back and a little more, which made him a happy guy
again.
    It was soon others turn to
play, and Connell and Tony took a table nearby and called for a
couple of beers. Tony was in his late twenties: muscular, handsome,
thick black hair gelled and combed back, and vain. Connell sensed
that he was the kind who wanted you know how just well connected he
was. It turned out he worked at a fitness centre around the corner,
also did some bouncer work in his spare time at a nightclub nearby.
So he was in a position to hear things.
    Connell had the Herald laid out on the table
and he began flipping through casually, making idle comments. He
worked things around slowly from soccer to music to films to the
hit on that mob guy downtown. There was a follow-up story about it
in that day's paper. Connell stopped at the page.
    "Man, they got this guy good, eh?" he said,
tapping the article.
    "Now, that one was cool," Tony
said.
    "Cool?" Connell said, sounding a little
surprised. "They went right into the guy's garage and got him in
his pajamas. That's brutal!"
    Tony waved that off.
    "Ah, it was just business,"
he said. "Vinnie wasn't a good boy. Matter of fact, he was a
very bad boy. You
fool around with the wrong people, that's what you get."
    "Did you know this guy?"
    "Vinnie? Nah. I just heard he was way out of
line."
    Connell didn't comment. He continued to look
over the article.
    Tony then leaned forward and
looked both ways before speaking lowly, in a conspiratorial tone.
"You know they made the sucker get down on his knees and beg for
his life. And then they shot him," he said, pleased with himself for knowing this
arcane bit of detail.
    Connell knew that that hadn't made it into
any of the news reports. It was a holdback. Something only police
and the killers knew.
    Connell made a little huff of skepticism. "I
dunno about that. You can't believe everything you hear."
    Tony shrugged. If Connell didn't believe him,
he didn't care one way or the other. He leaned back and rested his
arms along the bank of the small booth.
    "It says here that it was a pro hit," Connell
said, reading from the article. "You really think they made him
kneel?"
    Tony nodded knowingly. "It's all about
revenge, my man."
    "What'd he do, sleep with somebody's
wife?"
    Tony leaned in and spoke lowly again. "He
tampered with something wasn't his. But it wasn't nobody's wife. It
was business."
    "Really? Well, I wouldn't mess with those
guys," Connell said, shaking his head and taking a long drink of
beer.
    "This wasn't even wise guys," Tony said,
continuing to lean forward and speak lowly. "This was a crazy old
French bitch ordered this one."
    Connell tried not to convey
his suddenly very keen interest. He set his beer down as though the statement
barely interested him.
    "A woman ordering a hit?" he
said, offhandedly. "Mmm, I doubt that ." He turned back to the
paper.
    Tony smiled.
    "You'd be surprised, man.
This old bat's connected . And hell has no fury, right?"
    Then Tony seemed to realize he'd said enough.
He looked at Connell a little more closely and he decided to zip
it.
    "So you want to shoot another