Ninang June cut in. “From what I know, labs test for the most common toxins in a case like this. If there was something else in his system, then it was a substance they hadn’t tested for.”

“But why wouldn’t they test for everything? This is a murder!” Ninang Mae exclaimed.

Ninang June shrugged. “We share the facilities with the entire county and there’s limited resources. Plus they found drugs and arsenic in the initial screening, so why waste taxpayer time and money?”

“But do you think there’s enough evidence to convince the lab to test for anything else?” I was desperate for anything to turn the case in my favor.

Ninang June nodded. “I think so. If Detective Park won’t run it, I could pull some strings, but it’s best not to go behind his back.”

Marcus pulled out his phone. “You’re right. Should I tell him what we talked about?”

I shook my head. “You’re not supposed to be involved in this, remember? I don’t want you getting in trouble. I’ll tell Amir and he can pass it on. I don’t think the detective will take it very seriously if I tell him.”

I left to go make the call, then went to go check on Tita Rosie after I’d finished. She’d disappeared into the kitchen pretty early on and hadn’t come back. “Tita? Are you OK?”

She was at the kitchen counter kneading dough. “Of course, anak. I just needed to get started on the ensaymada for church tomorrow. You know it takes a long time to let the dough rise, and then we have to rest it overnight.”

The brioche-like bread covered with butter, sugar, and occasionally cheese was my favorite treat and one of the few things I looked forward to every Sunday. “Wait, I thought that was Lola Flor’s job? Where is she anyway? I haven’t seen her all day.”

My aunt blew a puff of air up at her bangs. “You know how your lola is. Not like she tells me anything. Anyway, I have a lot to do right now, anak, so go keep mga ninang company.”

I nodded and went back out to the living room at the same time Amir called me back with an update.

“Hey, what did the detective say?”

He laughed. “Told me to mind my own business and stick to defending criminals. However, he’s a fair man. He really does care about doing the right thing, so he’s going to ask the medical examiner to run tests for basically any poisonous substance in the database. It’s going to take time, though.”

“I’ll take what I can get. Thanks, Amir.”

We hung up and I grabbed the cookie I’d abandoned earlier. This time I savored it. I had a chance now. The medical examiner would prove that someone else killed Derek and this was one big frame job.

Ninang June coughed. “Lila, didn’t you say you talked to two suspects on the list? You told us about Stan and his wife, who was the other one?”

“Yuki Sato. We actually shared a jail cell for a while last night. Marcus, anything you can tell us about why Mrs. Sato was brought in?”

He started to laugh again but cut himself off. “Sorry, that was messed up. It’s just hard to picture that tiny woman getting into such a loud screaming match with her husband.”

I held my hand up to my cheek, which was covered with an extra layer of concealer and powder to hide the souvenir from my run-in with Yuki. “Don’t let her size fool you. That woman has a temper and packs a wallop. Felt like that time Ate Bernie ‘accidentally’ hit me in the face with a tennis racket.”

“Oh, is that why you quit playing? She told me you were banned from the junior league for chucking your racket at a ref.”

“He made a bad call! The ball was clearly in bounds, and I should’ve won—OK, you know what, not important.” I took a sip of tea to calm myself down.

Ninang June tried to hide a smirk as she said, “Let’s get back on track. So Mrs. Sato was brought in for a domestic dispute? Did her husband call the police?”

Marcus was working on what must’ve been his tenth cookie. He wiped some crumbs from his mouth before saying, “No, a neighbor called it in. Disturbing the peace, since they were having this fight on the sidewalk outside their restaurant. The neighbor tried to ignore it, but eventually they got tired of the Satos scaring away customers.”

“Do you know what the cause of the fight was?”

“They were speaking in Japanese when they got to the station, but I managed to pick up the gist of the conversation,” Marcus said. “She accused him of hurting someone, and he said it was her fault. Or something like that.”

I raised an eyebrow, impressed. “Since when do you know Japanese?”

He ducked his head, not meeting my eyes. “I, uh, watch a lot of anime. Like, a lot. I can’t speak it or anything, but I can understand a basic conversation.”

Ninang Mae smacked him again. “Oh, so you can learn a new language from watching your stupid cartoons, but you can barely speak Tagalog? Your own language? Gago.”

I ignored Ninang Mae’s rant as I put two and two together. “Oh my gulay, did they get into a fight because she accused her husband of killing Derek? She didn’t come out and say it while we were talking, but those two were definitely having an affair.”

“Oh, that’s what I wanted to tell you! Derek came into the station awhile ago to charge Mr. Sato with assault, but he never filed the paperwork. Said he changed his mind and that it was just a disagreement between men.”

“Well then, I know where I need to go tomorrow. Yuki told me to stop by her restaurant sometime and I think I’m going to take her up on that. In the meantime, I’m getting dinner at that Mexican restaurant. What was it called again?”

“El Gato Negro!” Marcus said. “I love that place. And the waitress is really cute. Can I join you?”

“Well . . .”

I tried to ignore the laser-eyes Ninang Mae was shooting me, but it was tough. She’d been trying to set me up with her bevy of sons and nephews my entire adult life, and I just knew she was going to start pushing Marcus on me as well. He’d filled out nicely, was rather cute, and a sweet kid, but too young for me. Though if he knew the waitress, maybe that’d provide an in at the restaurant.

To clinch it, he added, “Actually, I should introduce you to the waitress. Her family pressed charges against Derek, so she might have some information for you.”

“That would be great! Adeena will be there, too, but the more eyes and ears we have at the restaurant, the better.”

I purposely didn’t bring up that Dr. Jae would also be there since I didn’t need the aunties grilling me about him and his potential dateability. Romance was the last thing on my mind, but the aunties’ need to matchmake and meddle overthrew any of my particular wants or needs.

Marcus looked excited at the thought of a night out. “Great! Want me to pick you and Adeena up so we can ride together?”

“No, thanks, I need to run a quick errand later and can pick up Adeena on the way. How about we meet at the restaurant at eight o’clock?”

Marcus grinned. “Awesome! See you there.”

Ninang Mae, who only ever heard what she wanted to hear, clapped her hands and literally squealed. “You’re going on a date! I can’t wait to hear all about it!”

Dear Lord, why did this keep happening?

Chapter Twenty

I repeated, “This isn’t a date, this isn’t a date, this isn’t a date,” over and over to myself like a mantra as I cleaned up the house. I took Nisa out for a quick jog and chanted it as we ran, matching the rhythm of each footfall. I even said it as I took my third shower of the day, singing it out like a show tune.

But as I blow-dried my hair, applied makeup, and stood in front of my closet to figure out what to wear, I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

I knew this wasn’t a date, though imagining a romantic night out with my dentist and Ninang Mae’s son while Adeena chaperoned was both hilarious and horrifying.

Problem was, it was stirring up memories of the last time I actually had been on a date. It was with Derek, shortly after I’d broken up with my ex-fiancé and moved back to Shady Palms. We’d run into each other one day while I was brooding on the riverwalk, and I’d thought it was a sign.

I’d been leaning against the railing, looking out over the frozen river, two weeks after I’d walked in on Sam and known that my life in Chicago was over. It was the first time I’d been out since returning home, the first week of January being particularly frigid here, but I needed to get out. After years of being away from my family, I couldn’t deal with the constant supervision and questions about where I was going and with who and what time I’d be back. So I’d slipped out without saying anything and went to my favorite place.

“Lila? Is that . . . is that you?”

A chill ran through me when I heard that voice, a chill that had absolutely nothing to do with the weather. How his voice could still have that effect on me, after all this time and after the way we’d ended things . . .

“Hello, Derek,” I’d said, turning around. My first love stood there grinning at me, looking just as gorgeous as he had a decade ago.