by Keene, Susan
I petted the dog. “I wouldn’t say badly. It was nerve-wracking to pretend to be someone else. She uses the opposite hand, has an accent I wasn’t sure I could mimic, and Dominic is overbearing and cold.”
He reached over, pushed my hair away from my face and kissed me gently. “I love you, Kate. I would like to make a lifetime commitment to you.”
I didn’t often get overwhelmed. My take-a-step-back-and-breathe method usually worked. It didn’t work this time. My head pounded and sweat ran down my face and pooled on my neck. I’d never had a panic attack, but it was that or malaria.
Ryan must have sensed my distress he went into the bathroom and came back with a wet rag. He put it on my forehead. “Relax; it isn’t every week you interact with a person who orders people killed. A sister who you didn’t know about for thirty-four years, a partner who breaks up with her guy after years together and a boyfriend who wants you to move out of your safe place and marry him. Let’s forget it for tonight. I’ll ask again at a more appropriate time.”
CHAPTER 23
I woke to thunder and lightning. Heavy rain hammered the roof. I never liked storms with high wind, but I loved to watch the lightning and listen to thunder.
Ryan and Chili were gone. It was after eight. I hoped they had their walk before the rain. I didn’t hear anything in the living area so I took a shower, put on some comfy clothes, my fluffy bedroom slippers, and padded to the kitchen to make a cup of latte. Sophie sat on the love seat staring out at the storm.
I made my drink, went in, and sat beside her. She put her hand on mine. “Do you believe this?”
“It’s difficult. I’m glad to have a sister, and a twin is a plus, but I can’t help but wonder if there’s some secret that can destroy our lives.”
She stood and walked closer to the balcony door. “I don’t think there is. Dominic‘s a self-absorbed, self-centered, narcissistic, and evil man. The only reason he does anything is to advance his own agenda. He would have married me off to a nasty man almost twice my age. I’m convinced the reason he shot Johnny was because something changed and having Johnny dead turned the situation to his advantage.”
“You really hate him. When he thought I was you, he indicated the marriage would be temporary.”
“Hate is a strong word. Let’s say I wouldn’t waste tears over him if I never saw him again, and he would say or do anything to get what he wanted.”
Tony walked in. He looked different. I’d only seen him in a suit and tie. He had on a muted orange Polo shirt, khaki pants, and loafers. He didn’t have his usual slicked back hair. It was dry, unruly and attractive. He looked much younger. “Hi ladies, any plans for the day?”
Sophie looked at me. “I’d like to research the hospital and the De Marco family history. There are some things we know are true. We have the same mother and father, and our birth certificates were signed by the same people. “
“Working in investigation so long, I know there is always someone willing to tell the story. We need to find them. I do have information about Dr. Signorelli, Denise’s background, and our so-called mother, Julie Lombardi.”
Tony got a cup of coffee and walked back to the couch. He turned on the TV along the way.
A picture of Dominic stared back at us as we listened to the anchorman. Mob boss, Dominic De Marco, and two associates were killed in a fiery car crash on the GWB. Witnesses say the car was traveling at a speed of over one hundred miles an hour. The car exploded which damaged the guardrail. The driver lost control of the 2016 Cadillac. It went airborne and landed in the cold waters below. Divers are searching for the bodies.
Traffic on three lanes on the upper deck was closed and two on the lower deck due to debris. Authorities say traffic will have to be routed around the damaged lanes for several months.
Sophie got up and walked toward the kitchen. “Isn’t it convenient the bodies went into the deep waters?”
I followed her. “You think the story’s not true?”
She stopped to put cream in her coffee. “Oh, I believe three poor souls perished in the accident. I would bet everything I have that none of them was Dominic. Unfortunately, it was three people he thought were expendable. He was good at deciding who was good enough to live and who wasn’t.”
I reached for a K-cup when she stepped away from the counter. “Is he that ruthless?”
She gave me a flat-eyed stare. “To run a mob family one has to be cutthroat. I’m sure his father before him taught him the ends justify the means.”
Tony laughed. “I don’t want this to sound sexist but I’m glad a woman has never taken over a Mafia crime family.”
Sophia walked over and looked out the window. “If he faked his own death it was because he knew he was about to be arrested, or someone threatened to kill him and he believed they could do it.”
I had gone closer so I could hear her. “So, you think he faked it?”
Tony joined us. “It doesn’t matter. Once they declared it was him, whether it was or not, he can’t come back. We haven’t been there. We don’t know if the walls were closing in on him or not.”
“As a child, I daydreamed about what I could do with all that money. It’s a vast fortune. While he was alive, he had control, but on his death, it automatically transfers to me. He couldn’t take too much money or everyone would know he’s around and never stop looking for him. He kept a couple of million dollars in a safe in his room.”
“I went to his apartment and looked around. All of his personal things were there, even cufflinks.”
“The safe’s built into the floor under his dresser. I don’t know if you noticed, but it would take at least three men to move it.”
I was intrigued. “How could he get in it without help?”
“The back slides up. Once he moves it, he can access it from the bottom drawer. He carries the key in his pocket.”
Tony clasped his hands behind his head. “I doubt if he could move more than two million. One million weighs twenty-two pounds if it is in hundred dollar bills. He’s either leaving the country or having a new identity fabricated.”
“How do you know what one million dollars weights off the top of your head?”
Tony looked at Sophie for what looked like a signal as to whether he should proceed with his opinions. She smiled and nodded her head. “Without going into great detail about Mafia hierarchy, the soldiers, mostly hired thugs to enforce the rules. They beat, kidnap, or kill whoever they have to in order to make sure the business owners and drug dealers give them the money they went to collect. They don’t take anything but cash. Each group has a Capa over them. The Capas handle nearly all of the money.”
Sophie shook her head. “It wasn’t unusual for fifty to a hundred thousand dollars to come in each week. Except for a select few, everyone was paid in cash.”
“How does it get from cash to the bank without someone questioning it?”
Apparently Tony enjoyed his job as a teacher. “They used crooked bankers, lawyers who set up Delaware corporations and through the trash company, rental buildings, and the fruit warehouse downtown, all businesses owned by De Marco Enterprises.”
Chili jumped on my lap. Ryan stood behind me. We were too engrossed in the conversation to hear him come in. “Hi, you were gone a long time.”
“It doesn’t appear anyone missed me.”
“Sure we did. Have you heard the national news?”
“Yes, what happens now?”
“I’ll catch you up later. As knowledgeable as you are about organized crime, you probably know anyway.”
“Dominic signed everything over to me when I was eighteen. If he was arrested, he didn’t want to lose it due to the forfeiture laws.”
Ryan sat next to me. We all four settled on the couch and love seat. Chili was busy taking her toy from person to person to have them toss it so she could retrieve it.
Ryan inquired. “I bet you weren’t prepared for this, Sophie. Any idea what you will do?”
&nbs
p; She sat across from me. “Yes, I would sell the mansion, liquidate the holdings, take all the money and set up a foundation. I can’t undo all of the horrible things Dominic De Marco did, but I can try to help more people than he destroyed.”
I heard my stomach growl. “My belly is reminding me we haven’t eaten. Anyone hungry?”
We headed for the kitchen. I pulled sandwich items from the refrigerator and set them on the counter. It might have been a little early for lunch, but no one complained. The food must have perked everyone up because the conversation flowed. I filled Ryan in on the parts he missed.
We ate at the bar. “I don’t know whether to give you my condolences or congratulations.
While I was out I went to the office and got these.” He handed each of them a card. “They say Meade Enterprises on them. You only need to show this for identification.” He handed them another card and laid two envelopes on the table. “Each of these has money in it. Use what you need. If you run out, let me know.”
Sophie smiled. “It seems funny for us to take anything from you since we’re sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Tony added. “Thank you. It might be awhile before we get any money. At least until we find out what’s going on and if any of the organization is intact. We’ll pay you back.”
Ryan stood. “It’s no big deal. I’m an optimist. I’m sure something wonderful will come out of this.”
Amy called to say Jake was in town and his afternoon game had been canceled. She wanted to take the day off to straighten things out between them. Who was I to say no to someone who had been doing all of the work?
I longed to get back to private investigations and my life. It wasn’t going to happen anytime soon if we didn’t figure out the mystery that was us.
We were no closer on day one than on day three. Tony and Sophie let us know their concerns. “I’m restless without any information from home. By now everyone knows Tony and I are missing. If I don’t show up there soon, other lawyers will get involved and muddy the waters.”
Amy showed up the next morning, she looked like she had been crying. I couldn’t get her alone long enough to ask her about it.
She, like the rest of us, was frustrated by the lack of progress on our real identities. “The biggest problem we have is that the Mafia, Cosa Nostra, and Dominic, nor any of his family has a Facebook page. Let’s face it. The entire world is online. Our information is in cyberspace; theirs isn’t.”
Ryan laid a booklet on the table. “This is something Neil, my tech guy, came up with. It’s how to find anyone using the internet, even if our subject doesn’t use it.” He looked to me and Amy. “I know you have found hundreds of lost children, wayward husbands, and runaway wives over the years. The reason we haven’t tried the same procedures you use in the office is because it’s too personal.”
We all agreed. Neil’s resources were the same as we always used. What we needed to do was make a list of everything we all knew about the Mafia of New Jersey, my mother, Honor Hospital, our lives, Dominic’s life and on and on. The key was to stop making it complicated and use buzz words.
I put my feet on the couch.“Buzzwords are a good idea.”
For the next ten minutes we gave every word we could. Ryan put them down on his cell phone and sent them to Neil.
Ryan stood. “Let’s get out of here for awhile. Anyone like ice cream?”
Sophie and I said, “I do,” at the same time.
We drove to Ted Drew’s and ordered decadent treats. It was an unseasonably warm night, so we sat on the curb like little kids.
Ryan handed Sophie a banana split. “Did you get much ice cream as a kid, Sophie?
She looked from one of us to another, stopped when she got to Tony and laughed. “No, nothing was normal or common about my life. When I left for college they sent Tony to protect me. It was equivalent to sending a fox to guard the henhouse.
“To give you an example of my childhood, Dominic agreed to let me try out for the senior play in High School. We put on Peter Pan and I was Tinkerbelle. It meant practice every evening after school. One of his men sat in the back row of the theater every night to watch me. It was dark back there and hardly anyone noticed him.
“I loved it, the freedom and the action―until opening night. Here came my father with three SUV’s, six armed bodyguards, and the biggest bouquet ever put together. He held it all evening.
“Hardly anyone watched the play. They stared at Dominic, the flowers, and the guards. I was humiliated. The students, who worked hard for months, were angry. When I didn’t think it could get any worse, his cell phone rang in the middle of the last act. He left before the end of the play. I didn’t get the flowers.”
Amy put her hands up to cover her mouth. “That’s awful. What did you do?”
“I laughed. I saw the irony of it. It was ludicrous. “
We sat for awhile longer and talked about Ryan’s work and why I became a detective. By the time we left, we were tired, stuffed, and ready to settle in.
Amy and I stayed outside the Penthouse and talked about our business. We decided to take another case to keep the cash flowing. Since my brain whirled around the events of the last two weeks, we agreed she would pick one.
Tony and Sophie were in their room when I got off the elevator. Ryan sat on the couch and grinned at me. He patted the cushion next to him. “I have a present for you. It’s something I’ve wanted to give you for weeks.” He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a thick heavy envelope.
“What is this?”
“Look at it and you’ll know. I don’t want to spoil the surprise after all this time.”
I had butterflies. I took it in both hands and turned it over twice. There were folded papers inside. They looked like legal documents. I opened it and freed its contents Ryan Russell Meade, and Kathleen Madison Nash, joint tenants with right of survivorship. “Ryan, I don’t know what to say. You bought our arrest house.”
“I did. We loved it before that horrible ordeal took place. I made an offer and they took it. We are proud homeowners.”
“I’m embarrassed. Do you think they’ll remember us and what happened?”
He took the papers, laid them on the table and pulled me to him. I snuggled my head against his cheek. “Even if they remember, an evening with you and they’ll realize it didn’t make a difference. There were three homes for sale on Lafon Place when we looked at that one. It was the only one left. I couldn’t let it get away. Houses changing hands in that neighborhood is rare. How many couples can say they were arrested outside their home before they owned it?”
“I haven’t had time to think about it, but now that we have it, I’m excited. Tell me there is no need to move right away. You haven’t rented this apartment out have you?”
“Before it’s officially ours, you’ll have to go to the Title Company and sign the papers. And no, I thought if Sophia and Tony stayed in St. Louis, they could live in it until they decided what to do with their new lives’”
Chili had been asleep on the floor at Ryan’s feet. She jumped up, ran to the elevator and barked. Ryan scooped her up. “I’ll take her.”
“Are you spoiling her? She just came in, but it’s a gorgeous night, I’ll go with you.”
CHAPTER 24
I put on a jacket and got my Glock. I wore it so much I was naked without it. Ryan had Chili’s lead. The night air was a bit cooler than earlier, Chili loved it. Ryan let her stop and smell every bush and light post.
She did her business in front of a keep the city clean can. They were wonderful. Each held a little bag to pick up after your canine and a trash receptacle to dispose of it.
I jumped when a man I hadn’t seen coming, yelled at me. “Sophia. It would be best if you stopped searching for answers and let sleeping dogs lie.”
He had gotten out of the black SUV like the ones at the Compound. Ryan shielded the dog in his arms and stepped in front of me. “Who are you? Who sent you?”
The man didn’t answer; he walked to the far side of the car and got in. The driver put his window down. “Some people care what happens to you, Miss Sophie. The only way to stay safe is to let the past go and build a future.”
They drove off. The car had no plates or identifying characteristics. We turned toward home. “What do you think of that?”
Ryan put Chili on the ground. “The gist of it was they’ll leave Sophie alone if she lets her past go and focuses on the future.”
“That’s pretty much what I thought. It also tells me Dominic is alive and well.”
I would have told Sophie and Tony what happened, but when we got back they were still in the bedroom with the door shut. It could wait until later.
Chili danced around the floor, turning in circles to beg for treats. Ryan indulged her.
“If you give her a treat every time she does something cute, her belly will drag the ground and we’ll have to put her on a skateboard and pull her around.”
He picked her up. “Did you hear what she said about your figure? She said you would get fat. I bet you’re not over eight pounds.”
We laughed.
These days of intrigue and mystery wore me out. I got ready for bed and snuggled with the dog as I waited for Ryan. I must have fallen asleep. When I awoke, the sun shined through the bedroom window. I went to the kitchen area. Tony had cut bananas, strawberries, oranges, and grapefruit. The platter was beautiful. “You have an eye for that.”
He looked up and presented the tray to me so I could choose something. “I helped my mom cater dinners at the Compound on many occasions. There’s no doubt in my mind I could pull off a four-course meal without a hitch.” He grinned at me.
“Good to know. Ryan can cook better than me.”
Sophie sat on a stool. “I have never cooked a thing in my life.”
We ate and laughed. I had never had family other than Michael and my mom. It made me happy all the way to my toes to have a sister.