Penne Dreadful

by Catherine Bruns

  “I hope Butchy’s been taking good care of you,” she said.

  Puzzled, I stared at her. “Excuse me?”

  She gave me a little, playful nudge. “Well, since you are his employee.”

  “Oh, right.” The poor woman was clearly delusional.

  Mrs. DeNovo patted my hand again. “I’m going to tell him to give you a raise. I’m sure you’ve earned it.”

  “He’s the best boss I’ve ever had.” Good lord. Why was I playing along?

  “I’m so glad Anthony promoted him. I always knew he was management material. Plus, we do need the extra money he’s bringing in.”

  I nodded and then paused, absorbing Mrs. DeNovo’s words. Wait—where was Butchy getting the extra money from? Then it dawned on me. This wasn’t only about Anthony, Izzy, or Vince—it involved all of them. Every person at Slice had something to hide.

  Mrs. DeNovo prattled on. “I’m so glad he quit that other job. Not that I have anything against mechanics, mind you. But who could turn down a job as a manager?”

  I glanced at her in surprise. “Butchy was a mechanic? At the Car Doctor?”

  “Oh no. He worked for Central Motors in Albany. That boy does such good work,” she said proudly. “He always tells me that he never met an engine he didn’t like.”

  Twenty-Two

  I didn’t even remember what I said to my mother after Mrs. DeNovo’s revelation, but I shuffled the women out of my house as fast as possible. My mind was racing in a dozen different directions. After they departed, I tried Gino’s cell, but he didn’t pick up. I left a message, asking him to call me back immediately.

  The pieces were starting to fit together. I didn’t have solid proof that Butchy had killed Dylan, but he had jumped to the top of my suspect list. Butchy could have easily tampered with Dylan’s car, thanks to his past experience. But what was the motive? Anthony’s like a father to me, he’d said. His own father had died years ago, so perhaps that part was true. Maybe he’d resented Dylan and Anthony’s close relationship. If Dylan had taken on a bigger part in Anthony’s drug business after he was fired, he could have stepped on Butchy’s toes in the process.

  Then there was the matter of Eric’s death. He had wanted to tell me something that night in the car, right before he was shot. Could he have seen Butchy tamper with the car?

  A half hour passed with me doing little else but pacing back and forth. I tried Gino again, but there was still no answer. I sent him a text. Call me asap. Why was there never a cop around when you needed one?

  It was almost nine o’clock, which meant that Slice would be deserted soon. Gino might cuss me out later or even arrest me, but I didn’t care. If Anthony and company got wind that the police were on to them, the drugs, or any evidence of them, might disappear from Slice forever. If I could get inside the restaurant and find something incriminating, though, one of the employees might crack in an attempt to save their own skin.

  I hunted through the junk drawer in my kitchen until I found a flashlight, then went upstairs to my room to get changed. My plan was crazy and dangerous, and a mental image of Gino yelling at me passed before my eyes. But if I was right and the information Matt relayed had been truthful, everything might finally fall into place.

  I threw on my jacket and gathered up my purse and flashlight, opening the front door to find Gabby on my porch, her hand raised in the air as if to knock. I let out a small squeak of alarm.

  “Holy cow.” I placed a hand over my heart. “I didn’t even see you drive up. You scared the daylights out of me.”

  “Obviously. I parked at the curb.” She narrowed her eyes. “And where are you off to this time of night, sweet cuz?”

  I hesitated. “Taking a walk.”

  “Right.” She pushed past me into the living room. “At nine o’clock when it’s twenty degrees outside? Puh-leeze.” Her eyes took in my getup—black leather jacket, black jeans, and low-heeled boots. “Looks like you’re going on a stakeout or something.”

  Damn it. I’d never been able to hide anything from my cousin. She could always read me like a book. I shut the door behind her. “Well, what are you doing here at this hour?”

  She placed her hands on her hips. “I didn’t hear from you all day, so I thought I’d stop by and make sure you were okay. Something’s up, and I want to know what. I texted you earlier, and you never responded. What’s going on?”

  I reached into my purse for my phone. Sure enough, there were texts from Gabby and one from my mother but still nothing from Gino. “Oh. Sorry about that.”

  Gabby continued to watch me, her dark eyes filled with doubt. “I went into the pizzeria today to pick up a pie and asked for you. Sexy Vince said you didn’t work there anymore. I tried to reach my brother, but he’s not answering his phone. Lucy said he had some kind of emergency call. I thought I was your partner! Tell me what’s going on.”

  Of all days for her to go into the pizzeria, it had to be today. “I hope you didn’t tell them that you were related to me. I don’t want you involved in this, Gabs.”

  “Involved in what?” she demanded. “What else is going on that I don’t know about?”

  Defeated, I threw my car keys and purse back on the coffee table. “Yes, I was fired. They were getting suspicious. I also discovered that Dylan was sick, which might have been his reason for joining forces with Anthony.”

  Her eyes widened in horror. “Hang on. Dylan was sick? What do you mean, joining forces? I don’t see you for one day and all hell breaks loose. Talk to me!”

  “Gabs, I don’t have time for this. I think Anthony was selling drugs at the restaurant, and Dylan was involved.” My voice started to falter. “I also have an idea who might have rigged Dylan’s car.”

  Gabby brought a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God, Tess. Was it Anthony? They could be coming after you next. What did Gino say?”

  “I haven’t been able to reach him either.”

  She snorted and echoed my earlier thoughts. “Yep. That figures. He only shows up when you’d rather not see him. Tell me who rigged Dylan’s car.”

  I was anxious to get going but needed to tell someone my theory. “I think it might have been Butchy.”

  She swore under her breath. “Shut up. The DeNovo kid? Your mother always talked about that family like they were saints.”

  “I’m not positive,” I admitted. “But it would fit. If Dylan was involved with the drug dealings, Anthony or Butchy might have wanted him out of the picture. Eric may have been blackmailing whoever rigged Dylan’s car, so someone took him out as well. I’m going to Slice to see if I can find anything—drugs, money, whatever. I’ll start my search in the cooler, where I found the bag of cocaine. I have a feeling there’s more in the boxes, unless someone’s cleaned them out already. Don’t waste your time trying to talk me out of it either.”

  Her eyes almost popped out of her head. “Are you nuts? You’re going to break in? What if you get caught?”

  “Remember, I still have the spare key from the other day. As long as Anthony didn’t change the alarm code yet, I’ll still be able to get in. So it’s not really breaking and entering.”

  Gabby grinned. “I do like the way you think. But what if one of those creeps happens to come back to the restaurant and finds you there?”

  “I’ll tell them I forgot something at work yesterday.”

  She looked at me like I was a moron. “You can’t be serious. You think they’re going to believe that?”

  I shot her a death glare. “You don’t understand what this is like for me. I can’t reach Gino, and I’m tired of waiting. I want answers now. Dylan might have done some terrible things, but he didn’t deserve to die because of them. I know this is risky, but I’m willing to take that chance.”

  “Darn right it’s risky,” she agreed. “What if something goes wrong with the alarm or the police are already the
re watching the place? Do you really want my brother carting you off to jail?”

  “I’ll deal with it when or if it happens.”

  Gabby held up her hand. “Well, you see, I kind of have a problem with that.”

  Ugh. Not her too. Gabby was the one person who I thought would understand, and now she was giving me grief as well? “Forget it. You’re not going to change my mind.”

  “Who said anything about changing your mind?” She shot me a sly grin. “I want to go too.”

  “Absolutely not.” I should have realized that Gabby would have demanded to be let in on the action. Even though I was scared to go alone, involving her in this mess was not an option. “Your brother will go ballistic if he finds out that I dragged you into this.”

  “You didn’t drag me into anything. I applied for the job as your assistant, remember? I’m the Ethel to your Lucy. So if you don’t take me along”—she shrugged, then drew her cell phone out of her jacket—“I’d have no choice but to tell Gino. He might not be reachable, but I can always leave a message. So you see, there’s no winning for you.”

  “Well, gee, thanks for making this so easy for me.”

  “Not a problem.” Her tone became serious. “Tess, if you think for one minute I’d let you go there alone, then you really don’t know me at all. Besides, I’m kind of intrigued by this. It’s like going on a scavenger hunt or something.”

  “Okay. First off, this is not the land of pretend, like in those Harry Potter books you love so much. This is real life, cuz.” And a scary one at that.

  Gabby’s full red lips formed a delicate pout. “Forget it. And for the record, some of those books are pretty damn scary. I’m going with you, and that’s the end of the discussion.”

  Having no choice, I grudgingly relented. “Fine, but you’re to wait in the car for me. If Gino arrests us, no complaints from you.”

  Gabby winked. “Hey, being arrested might not be so bad. My brother works with some hot-looking cops.” She stared at the leather jacket I was wearing. “It’s freezing out. You’d better get something heavier.”

  “Maybe you’re right. Be right back.” Upstairs in my bedroom, Luigi was curled up on the quilt, sound asleep. How I envied his simple, comfortable life. I grabbed my wool coat and searched through the pockets for my gloves. Not there, but I did find some tissues, a tube of lip balm, and my license that I’d shoved in there after the car accident the other day. Scooping it all back in, I slid the heavy coat on and went back to the landing.

  “Hey, Gabs? Are my gloves in the living room?” I shouted down to my cousin.

  There was no answer. “Gabs?” I switched off the light and hurried down the stairs.

  Gabby was standing in front of the couch, flanked by Butchy on one side of her and Anthony on the other. Butchy had a gun pointed at the side of her head. She stood there motionless, staring straight ahead. Her eyes shifted slightly when she caught sight of me, and the panic in them must have mirrored my own.

  “Well, well, Mrs. Esposito,” Butchy greeted me. “Where are you off to so late at night?”

  Twenty-Three

  It took me a moment to answer. “How…how did you get in here?”

  Butchy held up my house key. “I made a copy of this little gem the other night after I found it in your coat pocket at Slice. Guess I’m not the only one good at detective work, huh?”

  Anthony held out his hand. “The journal, honey. We know you’ve got it.”

  There was no choice but to try playing dumb. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Anthony rolled his eyes, a clear indication that I wasn’t fooling him. “There were two reasons I hired you. One, because of your sauce, which is going to make me a nice little profit once I start selling it to distributors. The other was to get my journal back. At first, I thought maybe you didn’t have it after all, but then you called one of our customers today—a Mr. Sobato. He had your number traced and then reported it back to me.” He made a tsk-tsk sound. “Not a smart thing to do, Tessa.”

  Another moment when I’d acted without thinking first. “He… I thought he was a client of my husband’s,” I lied. “Dylan was doing his taxes, right?”

  Butchy laughed. “Oh, he was a client all right. But he belonged to us, not your greedy old man.”

  “What Butchy means,” Anthony said quietly, “is that all those clients belonged to me.” He took a step toward me. “But you’d already figured out that your loving hubby was in on my family operation. Did you also know that he decided to make his own deals and eliminate us from the equation? Real nice, huh?”

  When Anthony had first offered me the job, I’d been struck by his eyes—caring and kind, big pools of warm chocolate. Now they were as dark and cold as an abyss.

  Anthony kept his voice low and on an even keel. “I don’t want to hurt you or your friend, Tessa, but you aren’t giving me much choice here.”

  “I threw it away,” I lied. How I wished I’d given the journal to Gino, but I hadn’t known exactly what it was. Now it was too late.

  “The jig is up, doll,” Butchy said. “I admire what you did though. Really, I do. Trying to find out who did your man wrong. It gets me”—he patted his chest—“right here.” A sadistic smile played across his lips while his amber eyes shone like a cat’s, rendering Butchy almost unrecognizable. He was clearly enjoying this. With a twinge I thought of his poor mother and what the truth would do to her. “Now that you know our secret, we’ve got to take care of you.”

  Gabby’s eyes met mine, full of terror. How were we going to get out of this one? There was no doubt in my mind that they planned to kill us. They couldn’t afford not to. I knew a little about guns from a self-defense class I’d taken and this one didn’t appear to have a silencer. Still, I had no idea if my neighbors would hear the weapon should Butchy try to use it.

  My phone was inside my purse on the coffee table. If I could distract them for a second, maybe I could dial 911, or if Gino had texted back, I could easily alert him.

  Butchy grabbed Gabby’s arm and twisted it behind her back as she yelped in pain. “Hand over the journal and we’ll let your friend go. If not, you both die. Simple as that.”

  “No need to get rough with the girl,” Anthony said quietly. “Not yet. You’re too high-strung, kid.”

  “Don’t call me kid, old man,” Butchy retorted.

  Anthony shook his head at him. “You’ve got a lot to learn. You can’t go around killing people whenever the mood strikes. It doesn’t work that way.” He kept his voice calm and steady, as if he’d asked me to whip up a batch of sauce.

  My initial emotion of fear gave way to anger. “Let Gabby go. She has nothing to do with this. You can take me instead.”

  Butchy shot me a sly wink. “Looks like your friend was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you don’t cooperate, she’s going to end up dead like your husband.”

  “Why did you rig Dylan’s car?” I asked hoarsely.

  Anthony held out a hand calmly. “The journal, Tessa. My patience is wearing thin.”

  “Okay.” I blew out a sharp breath. “I’ll get it.” There was no way I would risk Gabby’s safety. The nose of the gun followed my every movement as I lifted my purse off the coffee table. With shaking fingers, I grabbed the journal and defiantly threw it on the floor.

  Muttering under his breath, Anthony snatched up the leather book and began flipping through the pages. I kept a hand inside my purse until my fingers connected with the phone.

  Butchy kept the gun pointed at Gabby as he leaned over Anthony’s shoulder to read along. “All that time wasted looking around in here the other day when she had it on her all along.” He glared at me with obvious contempt. “Your husband had no right to try cutting us out of these deals. He stole thousands from us! His death was karma, pure and simple. Put down the purse, sweetheart. No need to mak
e yourself pretty where you’re going.”

  Anthony looked up from the journal at the same moment, and our eyes met. In desperation, I stared down into the purse, intending to press the 1 on my phone. My finger never made it. Anthony lunged forward and shoved me backward. I lost my balance and fell as both the purse and phone shot out of my hands.

  Terrified, I lay there for a moment, unsure of what he might do next. Anthony reached down and roughly yanked me to my feet. The room started to spin as I tried to maintain my balance. Anthony pushed me again, and I fell against Gabby, who wrapped her arms around me in support.

  “Are you okay?” she whispered in my ear.

  I managed to nod. Neither one of us was okay, but telling her that solved nothing. We had to get away from them.

  “Enough of the small talk.” Anthony walked over to my phone and stared down at it. We all watched mystified as he slammed the heel of his black leather shoe down on its surface, resulting in a definitive crunch. My heart sank as he grunted in satisfaction. “There. Now you won’t be tempted to do anything else stupid. Looks like we’re ready to go, ladies.”

  “Where are we going?” Gabby asked, her eyes large and round with terror.

  The two men exchanged a knowing look, and then Butchy flashed us an evil smile. “It’s a nice night for a drive.”

  Panic seized me. “You promised to let Gabby go.”

  “Forget it, Tess! I’m not going anywhere without you,” she said.

  Anthony shook his head sadly. “I’m very disappointed in you, Tessa.”

  How was this even the same man that Dylan had always spoken so highly of? Anthony had sent flowers and food after my husband died. He’d offered monetary support at his wake. Now I knew why—it was an attempt to ease his guilty conscience. If he even had a conscience, that is.