Page 13 of Family Ties and Alibis

He started to walk away, and Carlita stopped him. “Hey! Luigi!”

Luigi waited for the couple to catch up. “Good morning, Mrs. Taylor, Pete.”

“Morning. We saw Vinnie with the cops.”

“Sal’s body was found washed up on shore not far from here.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. “He’s dead?”

“I overheard the cop saying he drowned.”

“And they think Vinnie had something to do with it?” Pete asked.

“He was one of the last people to see Sal alive.” Luigi told them he’d been eavesdropping and the cop mentioned that Vinnie had been recorded accompanying Sal off the property. “The cop claims Vinnie was roughin’ him up.”

Carlita’s heart skipped a beat. Vinnie had confessed pretty much the same thing the previous night, how he’d been tempted to punch Sal in the face and had to “convince him to back down,” whatever that meant.

“They’re probably in his office getting copies of the video recordings of what happened yesterday when Sal was in here.”

“I’m sure,” Pete said. “Although Vinnie has potential motive, I wouldn’t call it a slam-dunk case against him.”

“Let’s go over the facts.” Carlita lifted her finger. “One, the guy has been in trouble here before. Two, he was trying to pass counterfeit money. Three, he was trying to cheat at the tables, and four, Sal argued with Vinnie shortly before his death.”

“Plus, he threatened to burn the casino down,” Luigi reminded them.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the officers heading in their direction. They passed by, making their way toward the exit.

Vinnie appeared a short time later. He stopped to chat with a pair of security guards. He finished his conversation and strolled over. “How’s it going?”

“Great up until a few minutes ago,” Carlita said.

“Didja get your massages?”

“We did. They were wonderful. I fell asleep.”

“It was a treat,” Pete added. “Thank you for kicking off our AC vacation on a high note.”

Carlita wagged her finger at her son. “You didn’t need to pay for them.”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

She quickly changed the subject. “Luigi mentioned Salvatore, Sal Tomaria, was found dead this morning.”

“I told the cops what went down, how I escorted him off the property and banned him from the place.”

“Did they tell you how he died?”

“He drowned.”

“So, maybe it was an accident,” Carlita theorized. “He could’ve passed out and fallen into the water.”

“I doubt it, considering he had visible injuries on his neck.”

Luigi tipped his head toward the rear corridor. “Cops get a copy of your surveillance?”

“The whole enchilada, from the moment Sal entered the casino until the time I escorted him off the premises and scuffled outside.”

“Surely, they don’t think an upstanding citizen, a local businessman, would stoop so low as to kill a known troublemaker,” Carlita said.