by Keene, Susan
Sophie didn’t seem to think it was a good explanation for what happened to us. “How did that warrant what you two did to us?”
Dominic leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “You have always been impatient Sophia. If we don’t tell you what led up to our decision, you will never understand. Kate, are you as impatient as your sister?”
When I didn’t answer he continued, “When my sisters came home from Vegas, they were terrified. I found a dead girl’s identity for Louise, and Margaret chose Roxy Watkins. She was a flamboyant and reckless young woman. There were thousands of Watkins in the world, Roxanne was common.”
Louise interrupted. “Our sister was always enamored with the arts. Roxy came from Roxie Hart in the play Chicago. She knew every Broadway play. That’s how she met Jonathon Gaddu. Once the Ricoh Crime family found out she was one of us, and what we did, it was all out war. We faked my death. My sister would not do that, she changed her name and made a permanent move to New York, where she met and married Gaddu. She kept him in the dark about who she actually was.
The movie came out. The Ricoh family found out who she was and came after her. She was pregnant but didn’t know it was twins. Once when she was alone in St. Louis she was gunned down on Laclede’s Landing. She was shot five times. They took her to Missouri Baptist Hospital where she had twins. You were almost two months old when she was well enough to leave the hospital.
“To save her and you, we only told her about one baby. We planted in the news that she didn’t survive her wounds.”
I was livid. “Who decided who became a De Marco and who stayed with my so-called mother?”
He glared at me but answered. He pointed to Sophie. “She was hardy. It was iffy as to whether you would live. Louise always wanted a baby and was willing to make the sacrifice to put in the time it would take to get you well―if you did get well.”
“So in essence, you threw one away and kept the other? I guess you believe in survival of the fittest.” Ryan put his hand on my knee, and I stopped talking.
Ryan shook his head. “This is unbelievable.”
My sister looked at me. “It’s believable from a man who kills people, sells drugs to children, and puts three men in a car and sends them to their death so he can escape.”
Dominic leaned back and looked relaxed. I doubt anyone had talked to him like that for years. “Let’s not get hostile. I ‘m not required to tell you anything.”
“No, you aren’t. Your hospitality is humbling,” Sophie said.
Dominic got up. “I’m done with this for now. I need something to eat. Anyone want to join me?”
He and Louise went into the kitchen. Ryan and Tony followed.
Tony turned back toward me. “The De Marco’s always like to stay in control, even if they’re sinking in quicksand.”
When the four of them came back into the room, Louise and Dominic’s attitudes had changed. Neither of them spoke a word. Ryan stood directly in front of Dominic. “I don’t know what you think is going on here, but you had best finish your story.”
Dominic stood nose to nose with Ryan. “You can’t talk to me like that. I’m a powerful man and you don’t want to anger me. I can ruin you.”
Tony stood next to Ryan. “Sorry big man, but you’re no longer on top. What you are is a kidnapper, murderer, and drug dealer who would get five or six life sentences in Joliet.”
“Tony, you and your lover would be in the next cells. Everyone knows you’re a made man in one of the nation’s largest Mafia families. And you, my dear niece, have been involved your entire life.”
Sophie walked over and stood between the men. “I’ll take my chances. I have a signed affidavit that Daniel Lombardi was murdered by Johnny Danko, not Tony. We all know it’s down in the books as the killing that allowed him to take the Omerta.”
The Mafia boss clinched his fits. Ryan pushed him back into his seat. Everyone turned around when I addressed Louise. “You’re no better, kidnapping and pretending to be a mother.”
She plopped down.
Everyone returned to their original seats. I tried to get the conversation started again. “Listen, we don’t want to be here any more than you to do. Fact is, no one is going anywhere until I’m satisfied I know the story of my life. Dominic, you can move on to where you were going before we found you. And mother you can go back to teaching, your bridge club and tell the lies about the achievements of your only daughter.”
Ryan stopped me again. “Let’s pick up where we left off.”
Dominic let out an audible huff. “Your mother was afraid to be away from the Compound. She came every day until you were about eight, Sophie. I’m surprised you don’t remember.”
“I remember. But I don’t ever remember a time when she was there in the evening.”
“We put her in a guest house four miles from the Compound. She had more guards than the President. One day she decided to go for a walk. It was foggy, two men went with her, but they lost her. She was found three days later floating in the river. She had been shot in the head. So first we buried Margie and then Roxy. That’s about it.”
“Who was cremated when our mother was supposed to have died the first time?”
Louise answered in a broken voice as if she were crying. “No one, that’s why we had her transferred to Honor.”
Sophie paced. I smiled because that’s how I did my best thinking. “Did it ever dawn on you in all of those years to tell us about one another? Once our mother was dead, what possible difference could it have made?” She looked at Louise. “And if you loved Kate so much, and she was not involved in crime, why didn’t you tell her?”
Louise answered first. “I lived the lie so long, I believed it myself.” She leaned so she could see me. “I gave you every advantage.”
I tried not to let the emotion that had welled up in me come out in my voice. “Except the right to my heritage and the decision to decide for myself what I wanted to do with the truth about who I am.”
Dominic addressed Sophie. “You had everything, and when I left, I made you nearly a billionaire.” He also looked at me. “I left you a millionaire. I can’t be all bad.”
My sister had a lightness in her voice. “I have set up a foundation. All your money will go to the homeless, drug rehab and hungry children. I kept only what I earned and was in my personal savings. Thinking you were dead, I turned all my journals over to the FBI. I hope it stops all the other criminals you associated with.”
“And I tore up my check. You can’t put a dollar amount on what you did to us.”
Dominic was done. He stood and no one tried to stop him. “You are foolish women. We have told you the story of your lives. Now get out. I hope never to see either one of you again.”
We left. No one offered a goodbye. No one turned around. I heard the door close and lock behind us.
CHAPTER 34
W e went back to the motel. Ryan notified the pilot we would fly out the next morning. We had a great dinner and planned to retire early.
“Kate. Want to walk on the beach with me?”
I grinned. “Sure sis. Guys, we won’t be long.”
Sophie took my hand. We walked to the beach and sat in the sand. “Now that we’re alone, I want to know your feelings about what we’ve learned in the last few months.”
I had to take a moment. “I feel hurt and betrayed. On the other hand, I have you.”
“I feel blessed to have found you also. But I mean how do you really feel about Dominic and Louise?”
“I think they are the scum of the earth. They lied for almost thirty-five years without taking anything into consideration but their own goals.”
She turned toward me and took a piece of paper from her pocket. “I made a list of all the lies. He claimed to be my father. She claimed to be your mother. They lied about the circumstances of our birth. They kidnapped two children. Dominic has no redeeming qualities.”
“I know. Mother let me think all our money ca
me from her job at Honor. In reality it came from organized crime. She fabricated a father and made up elaborate stories about him and his parents. She even went into great detail about the difficulty of her labor when I was born.”
Sophie shook her head. “What do you think we should do?”
“The same thing you do.” I handed her the throwaway cell phone Amy had given me when I was kidnapped.
She made the call. “ Hello, is this the FBI? I saw that Mafia boss from New Jersey, Dominic De Marco.
He is not dead. I had a conversation with him. He is staying at 2020 Sunshine Way in St. Petersburg, Florida. His sister, Louise, who is supposed to be dead, is with him. She goes by the name of Denise Madison. Dominic is only here long enough to get new credentials. It doesn’t give you much time.”
We locked arms and headed back to the motel. On the way, I smashed the phone with a rock. We put parts of it in several different trash receptacles along the way.
THE END
THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF IVY TUCKER
The Kate Nash Series
Book 3
Copyright © Susan Keene
All cover art copyright ©
The Untimely Death of Ivy Tucker - All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, businesses, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
Publishing Coordinator – Sharon Kizziah-Holmes
Published by Bent Willow Books
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the Pen Gypsies, Sharon Kizziah-Holmes, Tierney James, and Shirley McCann. These fantastic friends and writers are always there to help work out a plot problem.
Thanks to the FBI, US Marshall Service, local law enforcement and of course, my family.
Other Publications by Susan Keene
Kate Nash Series
Finding Lizzy Smith, Book 1
Who's Roxy Watkins? Book 2
Stand Alone
Tattered Wings
The Twisted Mind of Cletus Compton
Small acts when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
CHAPTER 1
K ate, tell me one more time what happened.”
I became more frustrated by the moment. I cried before the police arrived and held back tears since. “Roger, what more can I say? I came downstairs, opened the door to step out and pick up the Sunday paper. As I opened the door, the body fell inside.”
Roger Simon, lead detective from the St. Louis Homicide Division knelt next to the body on our stoop for the third time. “She looks so young and little. There isn’t a mark on her body.”
Ryan, my boyfriend of many years, stood quietly off to the side of the porch. “Call your CSI team so we can go inside. We’re drawing a crowd.” Roger looked up and around as if he hadn’t noticed. Ryan put his hands on his hips. “You can’t barrel down the street in a quiet neighborhood that has virtually no crime, sirens blasting, and not draw any attention to yourself.”
I was Roger’s old partner and friend of fifteen years. His inability to accept the dead body half on the porch and half in our foyer agitated me more and more as he went over it again and again. I no longer tried to hide my irritation. “Roger, I know it is your job to be thorough, but as I told you before, we didn’t hear, see, or smell anything. My guess is, someone put her here early this morning before the neighbors were up and about. I think whoever killed the girl wanted her found. Why else dump her on someone’s front porch? We both know there are a million empty fields and isolated areas where they could have put her.”
The detective unfolded to his full height of six-feet-six and stretched. “Okay, I’ll call― Kate, you can go inside. I’ll be in as soon as the crew gets here and we square this away.” I started to walk toward the door but turned back to talk to him. “If you’re coming in to visit or have coffee, you’re more than welcome. If you’re intending to ask more redundant questions, you can mosey on. Our day has already gone in a different direction than we had planned. But do let us know who she is and how she died.”
I knew I sounded cold and unfeeling. It was far from the truth. The girl couldn’t have been over twenty-five. Her long auburn hair lay around her face. She looked radiant even in death, but I spent enough time in the limelight to last me a lifetime and people had begun to gather.
Roger looked from me to Ryan and back. “That’s a bit curt don’t you think? Come on guys. I’m not accusing you of anything. Don’t you think it’s strange a young woman happened to pick your front steps to die on?”
Before we could answer, an ambulance, a crime scene van, and three more patrol cars rolled up, sirens blasting, and lights twirling red and blue. Roger talked to them. “Bag her hands and feet. Take her in. Block this yard off as a crime scene. Make sure you rope off the entire front. I don’t want anybody stepping on clues.
I reached up and tapped him on the shoulder. “Roger. We’ve only lived here a couple of months. I’m sure you remember the big scene when we were arrested in front of this very house before we moved in. The neighbors would be within their rights to go before the Association and ask us to move. We love this place.”
Ryan, who stood with his arms crossed, spoke up. “Come on. We’re all adults here. We’re not expecting company, and we don’t know the people on the block. No one will contaminate your crime scene. By the time you leave your men will have combed this place three times. Can’t you just take the body and go? We’ll be here all day, alone. Call us later.”
Roger turned his attention to the two men who put the body on the stretcher. “This was under the body, Captain.” One of them handed him a piece of folded paper.
He put on a pair of surgical gloves before he opened it. “It says, Kate Nash, Private Investigator and your address here and at the Clayton office. Folded with it are a couple of articles. One about how you found Lizzy Smith and the other about discovering you had a twin sister. Looks like you had a fan.”
Ryan and I stood close to him so we could see the items for ourselves. “I haven’t got a clue,” I said, “there is always the chance she died of natural causes, although I doubt it.”
“Me either.” Ryan echoed.
Roger refolded the note and newspaper stories and put it inside an evidence bag. “I guess I’ll come in for that cup of coffee.” He turned around to the team. “Tape off this yard, the entire front of the house from the driveway to the sidewalk out front.” He glanced back toward Ryan and me but didn’t look us in the eye.
I knew he had a job to do and he would do it to the best of his ability, by the rules. The tape off the crime scene rule was a biggy.
Ten minutes later the doorbell rang. Ryan went to answer it. He came back followed by my business partner and best friend, Amy Perkin and her boyfriend Nathan, who was Ryan’s second in command. Digger, Amy’s dog, lounged in her arms.
Chili, my mini dachshund, who had been asleep on my lap, jumped down to greet her buddy.
We were at the dining room table. Amy pulled out a chair and sat next to Roger. Nathan sat on the other side of Ryan.
So much for salvaging any part of the day to spend alone with Ryan. I tried to sound cheerful. “I didn’t expect to see you two until tomorrow. Is anything wrong?”
Amy poured herself a cup of coffee from the carafe on the table and gestured toward Nathan to see if he wanted one. “We heard the news and thought we should come over to make sure you’re okay.”
“What news?” I asked.
Nathan reached for a cup. “The dead girl on the porch, it’s all over the radio and TV. You’re famous. You know you can’t go anywhere
without the paparazzi on your tail. You definitely can’t find a body on your stoop and not have it all over the news.”
Ryan, Roger, and I all said, great, in unison.
Roger shook his head. “So much for my crime scene not being contaminated. Did you guys jump the tape?”
No one answered him.
Amy reached down and picked up Chili who jumped at her legs to get attention. “What do you know about the dead girl?”
“She’s young, dead, and there’s not a mark on her visible to the naked eye. She had a note, it said if anyone could help her, I could, and it had this address and the office address. She also had some stories cut from the newspaper about two of our past cases. Her name was Marie. You answer the phone more than I do. Did anyone named Marie call the office?”
Amy reached down again to pick up Digger. Now she had two puppies in her arms but didn’t seem to mind. “No one by the name Marie called.”
I had a twinge of sadness, to die so young, and alone.
Roger’s phone rang; he left the table to answer it. When he came back, he asked for a glass of water. “She had a driver’s license in her pocket issued to a Marie Ann Ripley. There’s no record of a Marie Ann Ripley anywhere near her age, no social security number, no record of birth― nothing. There’s no such address as the one listed on her ID. It is an empty lot on the bad side of Granite City. The men are checking with the Illinois authorities to see if they have a missing person who fits her description.”