Finding Angelo (The Wine Lover's Daughter, Book 2)

by Christa Polkinhorn

  Sofia gave an apologetic smile. “It’s not me, this time, Adriano.”

  Adriano’s face was serious again. “I just do not know what to tell you. If this great-uncle Angelo is hiding in Italy … the question is, why is he hiding? Has he committed a crime? But you mentioned the diary and the fact that he had witnessed something and that this is the reason he disappeared. So, perhaps, he wasn’t the one who committed a crime.” Adriano sighed. “But as long as we do not know and, particularly, if you suspect that the Mafia either here or in the US is involved, you have to be very very careful. Just trying to find out his whereabouts could endanger his and your own life.” Adriano’s voice had become stern. “The mob has no conscience and if they feel threatened, they are able to kill without a second thought. Be very careful, Sofia.” He sounded truly worried.

  Sofia shook her head. “I wouldn’t do anything dangerous. But this whole story affects our family. Our neighbor blames our grandfather, Angelo’s older brother, and the police are investigating. Although the skeleton is almost twenty years old and was obviously buried long before we bought the land, still we’re involved.”

  “I understand,” Adriano said. “But that is why you should leave the investigation to the police.”

  Sofia nodded. “You’re right. I may just leave it alone. Nicholas and Grandpa Martin are worried about me, too.”

  “Yes, do not play detective, Signora Segantino.” Adriano shook his finger at her as if he was scolding her. “But I know you are a determined woman and probably will do what you want to do anyway. Just be very careful. Okay? And if you have any questions or concerns, ask me, please.”

  “Don’t worry, Adriano. I have no intention of jeopardizing my life.”

  “Good. Well, let’s talk about Vignaverde then. The estate has had a few excellent years. You should be satisfied with the proceeds.”

  They spent the rest of Sofia’s visit going over the accounting of the property in Vignaverde. Sofia had inherited two vineyards with Sangiovese and Merlot grapes. She had made her sister’s mother, Luisa, and Luisa’s brother, Edoardo, who owned the rest of the estate co-owners of her vineyards as well. They did all the work during Sofia’s stay in California. They had paid her for their share, and this way, she had alleviated their fears that she was going to sell her property, which would have been a real loss for the family and the estate.

  At around noon, Sofia left Adriano’s office. She walked to the rental agency nearby where she had reserved a car for her stay in Italy. By now, she knew her way around Florence quite well and wasn’t as uptight about driving there as she had been during her first visit. Traffic wasn’t too hectic since it was noon and people were having lunch.

  Once outside the city borders, Sofia relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful countryside. The high point in spring were the fields full of red poppies and blue cornflowers next to lanes of cypress trees, stone pines, and large stretches of vineyards and olive groves.

  After about forty minutes, the impressive Etruscan city walls of Vignaverde, a typical Tuscan hill town, greeted her. She drove past the town toward the estate Podere Francesco Ginori. Soon, the familiar buildings, the winery, cellar and storage sheds appeared around a bend in the highway. She took the narrow road up the hill to the main house, a beautiful stone house with ocher walls and green shutters. When she parked the car in the driveway, the front door opened and Julietta came rushing out. Sofia got out of the car and the two sisters hugged.

  “My God, how grown-up you look.” Sofia stepped back and looked her sister over. She had last seen her two years before when she visited her and the family a second time.

  Julietta looked radiant. She had cut her long wavy chestnut-colored hair that had reached the middle of her back when Sofia had seen her last. Now, it fell to her shoulders in natural curls and waves. It made her look a little more mature. She seemed to have grown a little. They hugged again. A few seconds later, her mother, Luisa, and Donna, Julietta’s grandmother, stepped outside. More hugging and greeting in English and Italian.

  Luisa had been the girlfriend of Sofia’s father. Henry Laverne had fallen in love with her while he was still married to Sofia’s mother. The relationship between Henry and Sofia’s mother, Cleo, however, had been faltering. Nevertheless, Henry had kept the love affair with Luisa as well as the existence of his Italian daughter a secret. When Sofia found out, she had been in emotional turmoil and shock. It had taken some time before she was able to forgive her father for what she felt was a betrayal. She didn’t fault him for his affair but for his having kept it hidden from her for so long.

  Sofia went to drop off her luggage at her own house, which was a smaller version of the two-story main house. It stood next to an olive grove and a couple of pine trees. She freshened up a little and joined the others at the main house. In the meantime, Luisa’s brother, Edoardo and his wife, Gina, had arrived. They sat down to a late lunch of roasted chicken and a plate of vegetables—tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers—and wine from their Sangiovese and Merlot grapes.

  Edoardo poured the wine and toasted Sofia. “One of the best vintages in years,” he said.

  After dessert and while sipping espresso, Sofia filled them in about her life in California. Julietta showed her the letter of acceptance from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, where she planned to study architecture and environmental design.

  “She is getting nervous,” Luisa said, chuckling.

  Julietta sighed. “Yes, I am. Do you think I shall do well?” She put her arm around Sofia.

  “Of course, you will. You have excellent grades. I bet you’ll do better than the American students,” Sofia assured her.

  They talked some more and Sofia considered mentioning the story about Angelo, but she was getting tired from the lunch and the wine. She decided to wait. All the family members took a little break after lunch and Sofia went to take a nap.

  Later in the evening, before going to sleep, she tried to call Nicholas in California, but couldn’t get a hold of him. It was morning in California, the day after they both left New York. He was probably out in the vineyards. She called Martin and Maria. Martin answered the phone. They chatted for a while and Grandpa Martin confirmed that Nicholas was working outside.

  “By the way,” Martin said. “I just want to warn you again about … you know, being careful with trying to track down Angelo.”

  “I told you I wasn’t going to do anything stupid.” Sofia rolled her eyes. Her grandfather was a little too uptight about the whole thing.

  “Well, particularly, after what happened to your house. I mean, it may be connected to the whole mess.”

  Sofia’s heart jumped. “What do you mean what happened to our house?”

  There was silence at the other end. “Oh, … I guess you haven’t talked to Nicholas yet. Oh, dear.”

  “No. We sent each other a text message right after I arrived in Florence. He didn’t mention anything. Why? What’s wrong?” Sofia’s mouth felt dry.

  A sigh. “He probably didn’t want to worry you. Everything is okay now. But here’s what happened.”

  Chapter 13

  The plane for San Luis Obispo left on time. Nicholas shook his head when the flight attendant presented him with an overpriced unappetizing sandwich. Flying has become a pain in the butt for more than one reason. Fortunately, he had bought a sandwich and some fruit in New York and proceeded to eat his small meal.

  “Good idea.” His neighbor, a young man, pointed at Nicholas’s food. “I should’ve done that. The food on the plane is not worth the money.”

  “Yes, I learned my lesson on the way over.” Nicholas offered him a piece of fruit.

  “No, thanks, I’m fine, but I’ll do the same next time.”

  The two talked for a while, then his neighbor began to read a magazine, and Nicholas, who had the window seat, looked outside. The plane’s wing sliced through heaps of clouds. Nicholas hoped they wouldn’t get caught in a storm, but after a while they rose above the clouds and were
surrounded by a pristine blue sky.

  Nicholas, however, couldn’t settle down. He thought of Sofia with longing and unease. He knew she wasn’t reckless, but he couldn’t help feeling worried from all the talk about mobsters and Angelo. Surely, though, Sofia knew better than getting herself involved in anything dangerous.

  At the San Luis Obispo airport, Nicholas’s brother was waiting for him. After hugging each other, Matthew asked him about his visit.

  “Great. We spent a few days sightseeing and finally got to meet our infamous relatives who, by the way, seemed a lot more pleasant and together than Grandpa made them out to be.”

  Matthew laughed. “So, no mobsters in the family, after all?”

  “Well, not sure about that. I do have some news about Great-Uncle Angelo. He may be in Italy, at least that’s where he was eleven years ago.”

  “Oh, yes?” Matthew glanced at him with his sharp black eyes, then focused on the road again.

  Matthew looked nothing like his older brother. He was short and muscular, had curly brown hair, and his eyes reminded Nicholas of the photo he had seen of Angelo. Matthew had inherited his looks from the Italian side of the Segantino family whereas Nicholas’s blond hair came from his grandmother’s German side.

  “I’ll tell you more at home,” Nicholas said. The car drove up the hill to their house. “Everything looks fine. Anything new?”

  Matthew cleared his throat. “Everything is fine with the vineyards. But I have some bad … well somewhat unpleasant news.”

  “Oh, what? Anybody ill?”

  “No, nothing like that … your place was broken into.” Matthew stopped the car.

  “What?” Nicholas felt his heart speed up. “Oh, shit.”

  “It’s not too bad. Nothing seems to have been stolen. Of course, we’re not sure, you’ll have to check.”

  “What happened exactly?” Nicholas got out of the car and stared at the house.

  Matthew followed. “Well, it happened three days ago. I went to check on your place and saw it. They forced one of the windows open. Inside was a mess. Some of the drawers had been ripped out. Stuff was lying on the floor. Fortunately, he or they, whoever did it, weren’t vandals. They didn’t destroy anything.” Matthew pulled out a set of keys and handed them to Nicholas. “We had the locks changed.”

  Nicholas felt faint as he unlocked the door. He walked through the house, checked a drawer in the master bedroom where Sofia kept some jewelry. It was still there. The TV and stereo were undisturbed. He hurried upstairs and looked around the den. He noticed things had been moved, but all the equipment was still there, except for an external hard drive that had been sitting on the desk. Nicholas held his breath, then shook his head. The hard drive was new and they hadn’t backed up anything on it yet, and they had both taken their laptops along, so no personal information was stolen. Fortunately, they also had taken along their cameras. They stole the hard drive but nothing else. He opened the filing cabinets and the chest of drawers. Things had definitely been disturbed but at first glance nothing important was missing.

  “This is just odd,” Nicholas said, returning to the living room. “The hard drive is gone, but all the other valuables are still here. Why didn’t they take more?” He let himself fall onto the sofa. “I assume you called the police?”

  “Oh, yes, and George Silver as well,” Matthew said. “He thinks they may have been scared away before they could steal more. Or they wanted to make it look like a burglary when in fact they broke in because they were searching for something specific.”

  “What were they looking for?” Nicholas glanced at Matthew. “Perhaps the diary? Elvira’s diary?”

  “Possibly,” Matthew said. “Silver mentioned the diary. Fortunately, we gave it to him beforehand,” Matthew said.

  Nicholas let his gaze travel around the room. “I’m surprised at how tidy everything is. I was expecting a mess.”

  “We cleaned things up a little,” Matthew said.

  “Well, thanks. I really appreciate it.” He rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. “I’m kind of shook up right now.”

  “You can stay with us or at Grandpa’s if you’re scared to be alone. But I don’t think they’ll come back. The window is fixed, and we put safety locks on all the ones on the first floor. You have new locks on the doors as well. You can always have an alarm installed. Or get a gun.” Matthew chuckled.

  Nicholas shook his head. “I hate those things, both, guns and alarms. No, I’ll be okay. I’ll unpack and check on Grandpa and Grandma. Everybody okay?”

  “Yes, everybody is fine. Okay, then, I’ll see you later. If you need anything, just holler.”

  “Okay, man. Oh, and in case you happen to talk to Sofia, don’t mention anything about this. I don’t want to scare her.”

  “My lips are sealed.” Matthew made a zipper motion over his mouth.

  After Matthew left, Nicholas went slowly through the house again, checking all the rooms. The burglary or whatever it was worried him. It was all clean now, but he still felt violated. They had gone through their personal things. They? Who were they? What did they want? All of a sudden he felt uncomfortable in his own home. He looked at his watch. Sofia was somewhere over the ocean. He missed her and at the same time he was glad she wasn’t here. She’d be worried about the break-in. He shook his head, pushing away the unpleasant thoughts. He picked up the keys, locked all the doors, and left.

  Martin and Maria welcomed him and insisted he stay for a late dinner. They all talked about the break-in. Martin was convinced they were looking for something and that it had to do with the skeleton and Angelo and the whole mess. Maria brought in some appetizers—olives and pickled mushrooms—and Martin poured them a glass of wine. Nicholas then filled them in on his visit and on the news about Angelo. He showed them the letter that was postmarked eleven years before in the Piedmont.

  “Italy?” Martin looked perplexed. “What would he want in Italy? We don’t know anybody there anymore, at least not that I’m aware of.”

  “Giuseppe said he had given him the name of an old friend of you guys’ father,” Nicholas said.

  “Good grief.” Martin stared at him. “Our father was a criminal from what my mother told us. He was killed in some mobster brawl. We never found out the details though. Mom didn’t want to talk about it. If Angelo got in touch with these kinds of people, then I fear the worst.” He scratched his forehead and shook his head, then faced Nicholas.

  “About the break-in,” he continued. “I talked to George Silver. He promised to have someone keep an eye on your place for a while.

  “Maybe it was Frank, the neighbor,” Nicholas said.

  Martin gave a quick nod. “I thought of that, too. I told him about the diary and that it had revealed that Fred and Angelo worked for the same person and saw something that worried them. He wanted the diary, but I told him I had given it to the police. Who knows, he may not have believed me. I just don’t see him breaking in somewhere, though. But perhaps he had someone else do it.”

  They were quiet for a while, then Maria told them dinner was ready. They sat down and Nicholas smiled when he saw the dish. “My favorite.”

  Maria had prepared a big plate of spinach and spicy sausage lasagna. With delicious food and wine in his stomach, Nicholas felt more relaxed again.

  “By the way, Sofia took the return envelope with the postmark from that town in the Piedmont along. She thought she could make some inquiries while there.”

  Martin stared at him. “Bad idea. Much too dangerous.”

  “She’s going to be careful. She promised.” Martin’s reaction stirred Nicholas’s own fears again.

  His grandfather gave him a stern look. “Tell her to stop snooping. Let the police handle this.”

  Chapter 14

  “Grandpa told me about the break-in.” Sofia stood by the open window of her bedroom in Vignaverde, watching the sky color pink and golden as the sun rose above the horizon.

  “
Yeah, it was quite a shock.” Nicholas sighed. He told her that only the hard drive was stolen and that it looked like someone was searching for something.

  “The diary?” Sofia mused.

  “That’s what we think,” Nicholas confirmed. “George Silver and the police are informed.”

  Sofia exhaled deeply. “This is creepy though. I guess I’m glad I wasn’t there. I would’ve gone crazy.”

  “Tell me about it,” Nicholas said. “I could barely sleep the first night. But now, it’s okay. Fortunately, they’d cleaned up everything and put things back. Matthew and the family had the door locks changed and window locks installed downstairs. The house is like a fortress now.”

  “Well, good. But be careful, Nicholas. I hope nothing else happens.”

  “I hope not either. Anyway, how are you doing? How is the family? And Julietta?”

  “Everybody is fine. Julietta is getting nervous about going to Cal Poly,” Sofia said. “By the way, I told Edoardo and Luisa about Angelo. And Edoardo gave me the address of a friend of the family who happens to live in the Piedmont, a woman by the name of Tina. She lives in a town called Pavone. It might be a lead.” She didn’t want to tell Nicholas that she was planning to drive there in a few days. She knew he’d be worried.

  “Be careful, please. We don’t know what Angelo did. All we know is that he’s hiding from something or someone.” Nicholas sounded alarmed.

  Does he suspect I’m planning something? “Well, the danger seems to be at home, not here.” Sofia gazed at the sky where the sun had now fully risen. “I didn’t get broken into, you did. I think I should be worried about you not the other way round. Nobody knows my plans here.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Nicholas promised. “Are you going to the Piedmont to see that woman … Tina?”