by J. D. Griffo
“I don’t think this is the kind of word-of-mouth that increases a product’s demand,” Joyce said.
They all looked at Rudy’s motionless body lying at their feet.
“Sadly, this isn’t going to deter anyone from trying the drug for themselves,” Vinny said. “When you get to the point where you’re addicted to drugs, you’re no longer choosy. In fact, your ability to make any kind of rational choice is gone.”
“All you want is your next fix, consequences be damned,” Helen said.
“Vinny, could we have a moment?” Alberta asked. “I’d like to say a prayer for Rudy.”
“I’ll give you some privacy,” Vinny said. “I see Pedro over there. I asked him to come and look at the body.”
While Vinny went off to confer with the medical examiner, Alberta led the ladies in a series of prayers. Lisa Marie was astonished to see that all three women carried rosary beads with them. She, like the rest of her family and everyone else she knew growing up in Hoboken, had been raised Catholic, but as she got older, she left the old traditions behind. Until now she hadn’t questioned her decision.
At first, the chaos of daily life had gotten in the way of maintaining any kind of religious order, and later the not-so-saintly revelations of the Catholic Church made her distrust the institution. Lisa Marie had raised her children Catholic out of habit, not due to any sense of belief in the religion’s sacraments. She remembered Alberta telling her that the building might be corrupt, but the ideals that built its foundation were pure. Lisa Marie didn’t want to hear that kind of rationalization and proudly considered herself a lapsed Catholic.
Now, watching her mother and her aunts joined in prayer, asking God to have mercy on the soul of this young man they barely knew, made her realize her mother may have had a point. Having spiritual beliefs, loving mankind, and embracing all of the teachings of Christianity did not bind a person to a building. Spirituality was not only available to those who worshipped in a church on Sunday mornings, it lived within every one of God’s children and could be practiced independently. By the time the women said “Amen,” Lisa Marie had lent her voice to the group.
When Pedro addressed the women his tone was much more somber than the last time he met Alberta. He might be a man whose colleague was Death, but he was a man who also understood his colleague could often be cruel. Taking the life of a young man before he could truly live was devastating. It was also happening much too frequently these days.
Pedro skipped the formalities and dove right into explaining what kind of foe they were facing.
“From the burn marks on the corners of his lips and his swollen neck, I can tell you that he died from an overdose of Flower,” Pedro said.
“Flour?” Alberta repeated. “He didn’t die from too much cake, he died from too many drugs.”
Pedro allowed himself a smile. “Not the flour that you cook with, Alberta, flower like a rose. That’s the name of the drug.”
“How’d such a deadly drug get such a pretty name?” Joyce asked.
“The components that make up the drug give off a foul odor during the chemical process,” Pedro explained. “The heinous among us do have a sense of humor, so they called it Flower.”
“Anche il male ride,” Alberta said.
“Very true, Alberta,” Pedro said. “Evil does like to laugh, and make a mockery of what we hold most dear, which is life.”
“Wherever this Flower comes from, it’s more powerful than Molly, which, before you ask, is another street drug, and it’s just as addictive as meth,” Vinny said. “To sum it all up, nothing about this new killer is good.”
“Pedro, you said that there were traces of a drug in Natalie’s body,” Alberta said. “Do you think it’ll turn out to be Flower?”
“That’s my assumption,” Pedro said.
“Even though Natalie didn’t have the same burn marks and swollen neck?” Alberta asked.
“She probably died from the stab wound before the drug could take any real effect,” Pedro said. “Whoever’s making Flower is tweaking it almost on a daily basis, causing the physical side effects to vary slightly from person to person.”
“Or in this case corpse to corpse,” Joyce said. “What a tragedy.”
“It’s like that Whac-A-Mole game,” Vinny said. “The minute we think we have one drug under control another one pops up, it’s a never-ending cycle.”
“An indiscriminate one too,” Helen said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, how rich, how poor, how successful, you can get addicted to drugs no matter what walk of life you come from.”
“The only thing all those people have in common is that they all seem to end up the same way,” Alberta said. “Dead.”
The evening had put things into perspective and the next morning, when Lisa Marie with Alberta and Jinx by her side went to see Sergio off to the Keogh-Dwyer Correctional Facility, the women were much calmer, optimistic even. They might be saying good-bye to their son, grandson, and brother, but they weren’t saying prayers over his dead body. Hope was not yet lost.
Neither was the impact that family could have.
Lisa Marie was sitting in the meeting room waiting for Sergio to be brought in, Alberta and Jinx on either side of her. Someone had put an old-fashioned Christmas decoration on the otherwise bare walls, a 3D poster of Santa Claus smiling and holding a bottle of Coca-Cola. Instead of making the room look cheerier, it had the opposite effect. Good ole Kriss Kringle couldn’t make the bleak room appear any less dreary. By the confident smile on Lisa Marie’s lips, however, it looked like she wasn’t going to give in to her surroundings.
“Thank you,” Lisa Marie said.
“Thank you for what, honey?” Alberta asked.
“For being here,” she replied.
“Where else would we be?” Jinx asked.
Lisa Marie smiled wearily. “A thousand miles away.”
Alberta understood what her daughter was trying to say. For the past fourteen years whenever Lisa Marie had faced a crisis, she only had Tommy by her side. If Tommy had been the one in danger, she faced it alone. After handling one emergency after another with Tommy as her only support system, Alberta knew that Lisa Marie must be greatly relieved to be surrounded by family. It made dealing with emotionally draining situations less exhausting because the pain and stress could be shared. Alberta smiled, knowing that despite all the turmoil and separation, she had definitely raised a practical child.
When Tambra brought Sergio into the room he looked like he did back home in Florida, bright-eyed, smiling, his curly hair unkempt, the only difference was that he was wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs instead of jeans and a T-shirt. Nothing was perfect.
Tambra unlocked the handcuffs and removed them from Sergio’s wrists. They dangled from her hands and clanged together as she addressed the women.
“Bruno will be here in a minute, but take as long as you need,” she said. “I’m going to be the one to transport Sergio to Keogh-Dwyer and I’m not in any rush to go out in that cold.”
They understood Tambra was extending them this favor not out of professional courtesy, but because they were friends. Alberta didn’t know if Tambra believed in Sergio’s innocence or not, but she did know that the cop believed in fair treatment and helping out a friend whenever she could. If she ever got around to Christmas shopping again, Alberta would have to remember to find something special for Tambra.
“You look good, honey,” Lisa Marie said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Like a baby,” Sergio replied. “I guess I was exhausted from everything that happened and, you know, fighting back every step of the way.”
“I assume you mean punching Bruno in the face,” Alberta said.
“Not something I’m proud of,” Sergio admitted.
“You should be ashamed, honey,” Alberta said, not mincing words. “Bruno is a good man, and he hasn’t stopped fighting for you even though you’ve given him every reason to walk away and let you be someo
ne else’s problem.”
Sergio nodded his head and spent a few seconds examining the table. “I was a jerk and I’ve learned my lesson. Bruno and I had what Dad likes to call a man-to-man chat and straightened everything out.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Lisa Marie said.
“Where is he, by the way?” Sergio asked. “Is Dad talking to Bruno?”
Alberta was about to speak but bit her tongue. She knew if Sergio needed to hear bad news, it should come from his mother. Lisa Marie grabbed her son’s hands, and when she spoke it was evident that she was working hard to make her voice sound light and matter-of-fact.
“There was an emergency with the Crystal Lake job, your father’s biggest account, and he tried to get someone down there to fix it, but Hector is out in Coral Gables handling another problem and he couldn’t find anyone else,” Lisa Marie said.
“Dad went down there to solve the problem himself,” Sergio said, finishing her sentence.
“Yes,” Lisa Marie confirmed. “He had to hop on the next flight.”
“Sloan had to speed the whole way to the airport to get him there on time,” Alberta said.
“He wanted to say good-bye, but there just wasn’t time,” Lisa Marie said. “He did want me to tell you that he’ll be back as soon as he can and that he loves you.”
Sergio beamed. “Like I don’t already know that.”
“If there was any way to avoid going, he would have, but you know how important the Crystal Lake account is,” Lisa Marie said.
“I get it, really I do, and I’m not upset,” Sergio said. “There’s nothing Dad could do here for me anyway except worry, and you’re doing enough of that for everybody, Mom.”
“We’re all worried,” Jinx said.
“I know you are, but there’s really nothing to worry about,” Sergio said. “I’m in good hands.”
As if he had been waiting for the perfect entrance line, Bruno opened the door and walked into the room. Despite it being a snowy day in mid-December and his being indoors, Bruno was sporting a pair of dark-lensed sunglasses. When he took them off his Scandinavian good looks were only slightly marred by the black-and-blue shiner he was sporting.
“Ouch!” Alberta cried. “Madona mia! Does it hurt as bad as it looks?”
“It’s fine,” Bruno said. “On-the-job hazard.”
“I’m so sorry, Bruno,” Lisa Marie said. “I can’t thank you enough for not bailing on us.”
“Sergio and I had a heart-to-heart, and he now understands that his emotions are the enemy and not me,” Bruno explained. “He also realizes that anger management therapy will be part of his future as well.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Alberta said. “The only way to fight your demons is to own them.”
“I know that now, Gram,” Sergio said. “I wish I had figured that out before I whacked my lawyer.”
“How are you going to explain that shiner when you stand in front of a judge?” Jinx asked.
“That’s also something else Sergio and I discussed,” Bruno said. “If I’m asked, I’m going to have to tell the truth because I will not lie in a court of law.”
“But it won’t look very good for Sergio if you explain that your client answered a difficult question by punching you in the face,” Alberta said.
“That would be like admitting to the judge Sergio is violent,” Jinx added.
“I volunteered to step away and have my assistant handle all court proceedings, but Sergio refused that strategy,” Bruno explained. “He wants me to be in the courtroom with him.”
“Then what’re you going to do?” Lisa Marie asked. “Get a makeover to hide the evidence?”
“Present it in a different light,” Bruno said. “The black eye is a result of Sergio passionately defending the honor of the woman he loved. He believes in her good character so deeply that words failed him, and he protected her the way he wished he could have protected her when she was attacked.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?” Alberta asked.
“It will present Sergio as a man who is in emotional turmoil because of the murder of his girlfriend and, hopefully, cast enough doubt that such a man, with no documented history of violence, would be able to brutally kill someone he loved,” Bruno said.
“Won’t they just say it was a crime of passion?” Jinx asked. “Sergio flipped out, grabbed a knife, and stabbed Natalie.”
“Most crimes of passion happen face-to-face,” Bruno said. “Natalie was stabbed from behind, which is unusual, because there are no indications that there was a struggle. If Sergio did kill her, there most likely would have been a fight preceding the murder, then Natalie got turned around, and Sergio killed her from behind, but there’s no forensic evidence to support that theory and it doesn’t fit with the profile.”
“By the time you have to present your case we’ll hopefully have more evidence you can use,” Alberta said.
“If I know you, Mrs. Scaglione, you’ll have tons,” Bruno said. “First, we need to deal with what’s going to happen today.”
Bruno explained that Sergio would be transported to the Keogh-Dwyer Correctional Facility in Newton in a van with two other prisoners. He would go through all the typical procedures of admittance, be given a brief introduction to the rules of the institution, and be assigned his own cell. At some point after that was completed, he’d be able to meet with Bruno to discuss the pretrial hearing.
The women had no idea what to say because they couldn’t find any reassuring words to give what Bruno had just described an optimistic spin. Luckily, they didn’t have to because Sergio spoke for them.
“I know that all sounds really bad and trust me, I am freaked out and scared,” Sergio admitted. “But if I’m going to survive this, I can’t let my emotions get the best of me. Like Dad always says, it’s time for me to man up.”
“You will get through this, honey, and when you get out of that place, you’ll be tougher and stronger than before,” Lisa Marie said.
“Ma, I need you to understand that there’s a chance I may not get out,” Sergio said.
“Don’t think like that, Bruno has never lost a case,” Alberta said.
“There’s always a first time,” Sergio replied.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t plan on breaking my winning streak,” Bruno said. “My hope is that Sergio’s stay at Keogh-Dwyer will be a short one.”
“I checked it out, Serge, and it isn’t that bad,” Jinx said. “Your cell has a window and you’ll have access to television, a library, the bathrooms aren’t private, but . . .”
“It is jail after all,” Sergio said, finishing Jinx’s sentence for her.
“As far as prisons go, you could do a lot worse,” Lisa Marie said.
“It could be like the one on Rikers Island,” Alberta said. “Ah Madon! Now that’s a prison.”
“You’ve been to Rikers Island?” Sergio asked.
“Only once to, you know, pay someone a visit,” Alberta said.
“I was there too,” Jinx added. “Believe me, the facility they’re putting you in is like Disney World in comparison.”
“Is this when I can finally admit I never liked Disney World?” Sergio said.
“Sergio Samuel Maldonado, that is a lie!” Lisa Marie cried. “You loved going to Disney World and you know it.”
“I only loved it because it made you and Dad so happy,” Sergio confessed. “The rides always made me a little sick. I don’t have a strong stomach like you do and especially not Gram.”
“My stomach’s no stronger than anyone else’s,” Alberta said.
“Yeah right! You need an iron stomach to be a badass lady detective,” Sergio said. “I think the word in Italian is cazzuto, isn’t it, Gram?”
“Between you and your mother, you’ve chosen some very special Italian words to add to your vocabulary,” Alberta said.
“If anyone is going to get me out of here and find Natalie’s real killer, it’s you and your poss
e, Gram,” Sergio said.
“We are making some headway,” Alberta said.
“I have complete faith in you,” Sergio said. “You too Jinx.”
“What about me?” Lisa Marie said. “Am I chopped liver?”
“You’re my mom,” Sergio said. “You don’t have to do anything else but that.”
Lisa Marie didn’t try to hide her emotions, she couldn’t if she wanted to, and why should you try to hide your emotions from your family anyway? She reached out to hold her son’s hand and cried.
“I’m so relieved to see you calmer today, Sergio, more at ease,” Lisa Marie said.
“It isn’t the way I want to spend the holidays, but I need to stop being my own worst enemy,” Sergio said. “Had I only trusted you from the beginning, I might not be here. From now on I’ve decided to knock it off and be the good boy everybody says I am. Whatever is thrown my way, I’ll cooperate.”
Alberta thought it might be wise to challenge her grandson’s sudden change of heart. She might not get a chance to speak with him again without guards listening in to their conversation and other inmates causing a distraction. Tambra had given them the gift of time, Alberta thought, she should take advantage of it.
“Did Natalie ever wear a wig?” Alberta asked.
“That’s like a super random question, Gram,” Sergio replied.
“Not random at all,” Jinx said. “Strands of blond hair were found on Natalie’s body, but not of the natural variety, synthetic, from a wig.”
“Why would Natalie wear a wig, she has beautiful hair,” Sergio said. He then corrected himself. “Had.”
“What about what Bruno asked you about before, did Natalie ever do drugs?” Alberta asked.
“No, Gram, at least not that I know of,” Sergio replied.
“Think hard, Serge,” Jinx said. “Did she smoke pot, take pills, anything?”
“Nat wasn’t like that,” Sergio said. “She worked around hospitals and she went to that school in Pensacola for a while to study to be a lab technician.”
“The FORTIS Institute?” Alberta asked.
“That’s the one,” Sergio said.
“Which is where she met Rudy,” Alberta added.