So he wasn’t crazy—he was expecting a reporter. I was about to disabuse him when the last sentence came out. I’m as vain as the next person, but I prefer compliments on my appearance in the right context, and more aptly phrased.

“I like to get as many sides to a story as I can,” I murmured. “And Diamond Head is your first personal business venture, isn’t it? You can tell me that, can’t you, without violating the family omertà?”

He laughed again, a loud, merry peal. I was beginning to see why no one had ever married him.

“Good girl! Do you speak Italian, or did you dig that up for the occasion?”

“My mother was Italian; I’m reasonably fluent, at least through an adolescent vocabulary.”

“I never learned. My grandmother spoke Italian to us when we were kiddies, but after she passed on we lost it. Of course, Dad didn’t marry an Italian—Granny Felitti was beside herself, you know how people were in those days—but the long and the short of it was that Mother refused to learn the language. Did it to spite the old lady.”

He laughed again and I winced involuntarily.

“What made you want to buy Diamond Head, Mr. Felitti?”

“Oh, you know how these things go,” he said vaguely, looking into his glass. “I wanted to own my own business—do my own thing, your generation would say.”

I braced myself for the merry peal, but he held back this time. I didn’t really care why he’d bought the company; I was fishing around for ways to get to Chamfers and not having many ideas for bait.

“You were lucky to get Paragon Steel interested in your company,” I finally offered.

He studied my face over the brim of his glass. “Paragon Steel? I guess they’re one of our accounts. Not too many people know about them, though. You must have been doing your homework, young lady.”

I flashed a big grin. “I like to have enough background to make things interesting when I finally talk to a … uh … subject.”

His laugh came again, but this time it seemed a little forced. “I admire thoroughness. The old man was forever telling me I didn’t have it, though. So I have to confess that I leave the thorough details about the business to other people.”

“Does that mean you won’t talk about Paragon?” I kept the grin plastered to my face.

“ ’Fraid so. I expected this interview to be about personal matters and I’m all set to talk about those.” He made an ostentatious business of looking at his watch.

“Okay. If we have to talk about people and not about money, how about the guy who got killed down by Diamond Head last week? Can’t get much more personal than death, can you?”