Joan felt nervous and light as she walked up Cranberry Street. Crossing Willow Street and then Hicks Street with a glance at the tavern, she felt her smile widen at the happy shouts of children playing in the playground of the Plymouth Church School. Her fingers trailed along the chain-link fence around it. Two elderly women sat on one of the benches laughing. Brooklyn Heights was one of her favorite places in New York. Walking on, she passed several brownstones in differing shades from brick to terracotta to mauve before reaching the gray marble façade of the building that held the restaurant. Pairs of ornate green birds that might be peacocks adorned the mosaic mantels over the doors. She was a few minutes early so she waited by the Link NYC street-kiosk. She looked up at the alternating tan and weathered brown bricks that striped the façade above the gray marble. The smell from the restaurant made her stomach growl. She already knew what she would order. She had Bevacco's menu memorized.

"If your stomach is snarling then I must feed you soon," Thane whispered in her ear.

Joan giggled when she turned her head; their faces were only inches apart. "I hope you brought an appetite; their food is to die for." Joan froze as she remembered when she said that before. "I mean... not like then... I... uhm mean there."

"I solemnly swear I am not here to collect anyone from eating the shrimp." Thane grinned.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm Hades, like death, remember, Joan of Arc?"

Joan burst out laughing as he guided her inside. They were seated in the outdoor dining, under a tree. When the waiter came to take their order, Thane looked at her instead of the menu and asked her, "So what are you having?"

Smiling brightly, Joan revealed, "Well, I always start with the Farro, it's our favorite asparagus, with wild mushrooms, pecorino, and dill, then I skip the salad because I am not a salad kind of gal. I go straight to the Hanger Steak with parmesan string beans and, new potatoes."

"And for dessert?" He asked with a flirty, wicked look.

"The Sheep's Milk Ricotta Cheesecake, of course." She grinned.

Thane returned her smile then looked at the waiter, "We'll each have the same and a bottle of the Puni Italia Malt Vina with ice and two glasses."

"Sir, it's..."

"I know what and how much it is, but I promised the lady a double malt with this meal," Thane answered smoothly, handing over a sleek black credit card.

Joan reached into her purse, and he clicked his tongue to get her attention. "Don't you dare. My mother would kill me if I let a lady pay for her meal when I picked the restaurant."

"Very good, sir." The waiter left and Joan eyed him.

"I can pay for my own dinner."

He inhaled and narrowed his eyes at her, then he smirked and for a moment she thought she would swoon. "I'll let you pay for breakfast. Deal?"

"Breakfast, really?"

Their flirting turned more serious as the waiter set the bottle of expensive whiskey on the table with two glasses, and an ice bucket with tongs.

"Mr. Hades, are you trying to take advantage of me?" Joan teased but his suddenly serious expression took her breath away as he poured them each a glass with three ice cubes.

His voice was sincere as he vowed, "I would never take advantage of anything you offered, Miss Hannah. I've been praying you would call, or I would run into you after you grieved for the one who did not cherish you."

She felt flushed and nervous, so she sipped her whiskey and hoped for the food to come, but she needed to ask, "Why were you there, Thane? No one with your last name was on the attendee survivor list. Does your father have another last name?"

"No, his last name is Hades too, but he wasn't there."

"Your sister was, I met her. Persephone. We talked about... things."

Hades shifted almost nervously, and leaned back, holding his whiskey. "We weren't on the list because we didn't donate to that con artist. My father arranged for me to be there to observe and collect... data. Some businesspeople can't be trusted. In your business, I am certain you see a lot of people who skirt the line between wrong and right for selfish reasons or to benefit themselves without regard for who they harm."

She sighed almost in relief, that he wasn't involved with Langston in anyway. "Yes... And it hurts my heart every time I have to prosecute a case with a death."

"People dying bothers you, doesn't it?" Thane asked as he looked into his glass at his melting ice.

"It does when it is senseless, when someone dies for a stupid mistake." Joan looked out at the street then murmured, "I shouldn't be here."

"What? Why? Don't you want to be here with me?"

Laughing sadly, Joan shook her head, "No, I want to be here with you, but I am not in a good place mentally or emotionally."

"What happened today to make you so sad?" Thane asked sincerely.

Joan inhaled and exhaled slowly before she started telling him about her cases and the deaths. She told him about advising on the criminal case and the lawsuit for the Appalachian conference disaster. He listened quietly while they ate, and she talked.

He was such a good listener, asking questions about her job, and how she got the house. Understanding as she revealed that she was desperately sad that she would not see Catherine again. Sighing she begged, "I'm tired of hearing myself whine... Tell me about you and your sister? Did you have a happy childhood?"

"We did." Thane grinned and talked through the rest of the main course, dessert, and the bottle of whiskey. "She's my best friend and worst enemy sometimes. Always pushing me but sometimes she meddles with what I want. When we were little, she could charm the birds to come out of the trees and sit in her hands. Our pets always loved her more and thrived under her care, but the ones I loved seemed to die. Sometimes it felt like everything I touched ended up dead, she assured me death was a part of life. She is the best twin sister anyone could have."

"I'm glad you have her," Joan admitted with a twinge of envy. She would have loved to have a sibling, but she had Olivia and that was just as good. She went to the ladies' room while Thane paid for dinner. Then he excused himself to the men's room, she noticed how politely he held the door for a heavy, elderly man to enter ahead of him.

When he came out, he insisted, "I should walk you home."

They walked arm and arm down Cranberry Street toward her home. She stopped waiting to cross the intersection, not quite ready for the evening to end. Flashing lights caught her attention with the chirp of a siren. Over her shoulder, she saw an ambulance stopping in front of the restaurant they just left. Thane turned her face toward him and kissed her.

"Sorry," he said, "You're just so beautiful."

She tipped her head at him as they crossed one street, and then the next. He seemed perfectly relaxed, as they wandered toward the house. She stopped at the gate. She didn't have the courage to ask him to come in for a nightcap, but she didn't want the evening to end. "Have you seen the view across the harbor at night?"

"Yes, but not with you." He smiled at her, his teeth, forehead, and prominent cheekbones seeming lighter in the darkness. "And not tonight. We have both had too much whiskey to be wandering willy-nilly in a park a night."

Impulsively, she kissed him again. "My roommate wanted me to invite you in for a nightcap. She probably has a pitcher of Sangria made."

"Well, it's good that I don't care for Sangria like my sister does. I prefer my wine in a glass and my fruit from the hand or lips of my lover." Thane looked back down the street toward the restaurant where a police car joined the ambulance.

To resist dragging him inside and seducing him on their first date, she looked toward the flashing lights too. "If you go back the way we came and turn right on Hicks, you'll only be two blocks from St. George Tower," Joan revealed.

"Thank you, Joan," Thane whispered huskily, then he kissed her with entrancing gentleness. "You make me feel alive... And I should go before we are tempted to do something I won't regret."

"Okay. Goodnight." Breathlessly, Joan backed through the gate and went inside. She saw his card sitting on the sideboard table and rushed back out again. "Thane?" He was gone. She looked in both directions. "Thane? How in the hell?"

"Joan?" Olivia's voice scared her, and she jumped with a shriek.

"Don't do that. You're going to give me a heart attack." Joan hissed as she locked the gate and followed her roommate inside.

"So, what happened? How was your date?" Olivia grinned, laughingly adding, "With Death?"

"He isn't death, there's no such person. Thane is very nice and had a lovely childhood with his sister." Joan slipped off the heels and handed them over to Olivia. "I'll get this cleaned." She indicated the dress.

"But what about his business card?" Olivia demanded.

Rolling her eyes, Joan shook her head. "It's probably a joke card because of his name, and if his dad named their investment acquisitions company Afterlife Unlimited, Death Inc, then he gets props for marketing cleverness." She started toward her bedroom. "Goodnight, Liv."

"I still think you're dating Death," Olivia called after her, but Joan answered, giggling, "There's no such thing. The personification of Death is just a card in your tarot decks."

In her bedroom, Joan dropped the dress on a chair with her bra and crawled into bed almost naked. Her giggly drunk settled into a pleasant buzz. She could still smell his cologne as she closed her eyes and whispered, "Goodnight, Thane."

A shadow shifted and deepened. As her breathing settled into the rhythm of one deeply asleep, a bone-hand reached out and brushed a lock of hair off her forehead.

"Goodnight, Joan," Thane's voice came from a skeletal face.

She murmured and rolled on her side as he faded into the shadows.

~~~~

Two weeks later...

Joan was surprised when Sam showed up at her house early in the morning. Sam held out his phone with a picture obviously taken from a security camera. "Don from homicide came to ask me if this was you. You clean up nice, sweetie, but who is that with you?"

Grateful that Thane left early to go back to his hotel so he could change for work, Jane stared at the picture. "It's Thane Hades, he is a director with Grimm Acquisitions."

"Hmmm," Sam hummed then asked, "How well do you know him?"

"Sam, what is going on?"

Her friend and investigator scowled in the way he always did when he didn't want to tell her something.

"Just spit it out," Jane demanded. Instead of answering, he swiped through three pictures from restaurants and one from the Harbor View lookout of she and Thane talking and one of him helping up a fellow runner at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

"This guy has been seen at the sights of six unusual deaths. The coroner can't find the cause beyond they appear to be natural deaths, but Don doesn't believe in coincidences, especially not when the same guy is seen with all the victims within a few minutes of their deaths... So, I am asking you, as your friend, who is this guy to you and what do you know about him?"

"Uhm, we're dating. He's Greek and grew up in Tarpon Springs, Florida. He got a business degree from the University of Tampa. He has a twin sister named Persephone after their mom, but she goes by Seph and is a horticulturist who specializes in Mediterranean plants... He's a gentleman, Sam. He wouldn't hurt me. He saved my life in Appalachia."

Sam's eyes narrowed. "How did he save your life?"

"I couldn't eat the food from the buffet, and we were assigned to sit at the same table. He offered me a bottle of water and a protein bar." Joan chewed her lip for a moment then asked, "What does Don think he's done?"

"We aren't certain, but you need to be careful, he might be some kind of hitman. The Greek Mafia has been trying for years to increase their hold on New York and everyone who has died has ties to the Italian Mafia or Irish Mafia." Sam shook his head, holding his hat. He hadn't even taken off his trench coat which dripped on the entryway mat. "You said he works for Grimm Acquisitions."

Nodding stupidly, Joan couldn't wrap her mind around the idea that Thane might be a killer as she searched for the business card.