The problem was, I wasn’t sure what he was trying to tell me. Did I need to get rough or did I need to get going? And then I realised it didn’t really relate to me, because I wasn’t tough at all.
***
‘Leo the Lion’s missing.’ Jim said it between one mouthful and the next. If it wasn’t for the crazy look in his eyes, it could have been considered a normal dinner conversation.
Of course my first response was Leo the Lion? I mean seriously, who made up these names? He sounded like a kid’s cartoon character. And then the meaning of what he had said sunk in.
Gone missing. Presumably dead by torture was the unspoken part of that sentence.
‘We’ve got a watch on the warehouse, but nothing’s showed up so far.’
With amazement I watched my fork ascend to my mouth. Not even a tremor.
‘Does Rach know?’ Harry picked up his glass and took a sip of wine.
‘She’s the one that called it in. This lamb really is delicious. How’s yours Tess?’
Yep, nothing untoward happening here. Just a quiet discussion about the latest kidnapping and murder of a colleague. I’m sure this sort of table talk was happening all around The United States.
‘Delicious thank you.’ I wasn’t lying about that. It was tender and cooked to perfection. ‘Please give Rosella my compliments.’
We were in Jolly Jim’s penthouse at the top of the Pink Flamingo. Rosella was his cleaner/cook/personal slave. A little Italian woman who didn’t speak English, but chattered away continuously about goodness-knew-what. It didn’t seem to matter though. Her smiles and her continued need to pat me on the cheek let me know that she liked me.
I wanted to ask what they were going to do about this? Why were they sitting on their hands while one-by-one they were being plucked off the street and killed? Surely there should be a plan of action, a call to war?
‘Hopefully he’ll find out where the money’s gone soon.’ Jim plucked a toothpick out of a small crystal stand and started to clean between his molars. ‘This is getting inconvenient.’
Inconvenient? I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be inconvenient if it were Harry or me that was taken.
Jim pushed his seat back and walked over to the long, burnished-wood sideboard. He opened a drawer and pulled out a revolver. Flicking the cylinder to the side, he spun it around before snapping it back into place. ‘Here.’ He placed it on the table in front of Harry. ‘It’s loaded.’
I stared at it in horror, waiting to see if he would pick it up.
‘Dad, I….’ Harry pushed it back towards Jim and I felt a moment of quiet relief.
‘Keep it son. I’ll sleep better knowing you have it. You need a way to protect that gorgeous wife of yours.’
I knew as soon as those words were out of Jim’s mouth that Harry would take the revolver. He had married me because he wanted to protect me, to look after me. Well that, and because he loved me.
He stared at the gun for a second more and nodded his head. Then he looked over at me as if seeking my approval, but I knew in his mind he had already accepted it. When I didn’t say anything, he reached out and picked it up, slipping it into the pocket of his jacket.
Christ, my husband had a gun in his pocket, and it wasn’t because he was happy to see me.
Jim thumped a box onto the table next to Harry and said, ‘Refills.’
Harry pocketed them without a word and then resumed his meal. Rosella entered holding a baked cheesecake and an envelope. She placed the cheesecake on the table and handed the envelope to Jim. Then she came around to me, patted me on the cheek while she chattered in Italian before taking my empty plate.
‘She said it’s nice to see a girl with a healthy appetite,’ Harry translated.
‘I got ya somethin’.’ Jolly Jim held the envelope out to Harry.
‘Dad, you’ve given us enough.’
‘Nonsense.’ He flapped his hands at Harry. ‘Actually, Tess can open it.’
Harry handed the envelope to me. It was flat enough that I didn’t have to worry about any stray body parts having found their way inside. I flipped up the flap and pulled out two airline tickets. One was in Harry’s name, the other was in mine.
‘Thought you might want a honeymoon,’ Jim said. ‘They’re fully transferable so you can go wherever you want, whenever you want.’
‘Oh.’ My breath caught in my throat. ‘We can go anywhere?’ Spain, Egypt, Australia. There were so many places I wanted to visit.
‘Anywhere ya heart desires.’
I pushed back my chair and I did something I never thought I would do in a million years. I hugged Jolly Jim. When I finally let him go he had a look on his face that I could only call bashfully pleased.
On the drive home we talked about all the places we could go. Harry already had a passport, so my mission for the next day was to apply for one and to pick up travel brochures on all the countries we were thinking about. But as we walked up the stairs to our bedroom my thoughts returned to darker things.
Harry hung his jacket over the back of the chair and sat on the edge of the bed to remove his shoes. I could see the bulge of the gun and bullets in his jacket pockets.
‘I want to see it,’ I said.
He grinned and, standing up, undid the zip on his jeans.
‘Not that,’ I said. ‘Well, not yet anyway. The gun.’
‘You sure?’ He said the words slowly as if he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.
I nodded. He might not be the only one who had to use it.
He took it and the box of bullets out of his jacket and brought them back to the bed. ‘The bullets go in here.’ He showed me how to flick out the cylinder.
‘What do you do after that?’
‘Aim and fire.’
‘That simple?’
‘It’s not an automatic. You need to pull the trigger for each bullet. This is the safety.’ He pointed to a lever on the front of the handle. You squeeze it as you shoot.’
‘Have you ever fired one?’
He nodded and then laughed. ‘You should see the look on your face. I’ve never shot anyone. Dad took me to the range a few times when I was younger.’
I stuck my tongue out at him. ‘Where are we going to keep it?’
He smiled and reached out to stroke my face. ‘Thank you.’
‘What for?’
‘For using the word ‘we’. You don’t know how much it means to me that we’re in this together.’
I wanted to argue that we didn’t have to be in this at all. That we could leave now and never come back. We could use those tickets and disappear. But I knew he wouldn’t. So instead, I kissed him.
Before I could totally distract him he broke away. ‘In my bedside drawer,’ he said, reaching over to place the gun and the bullets in it. ‘Now, where were we?’
***
A couple of nights later we found out what had happened to Leo the Lion. I was singing in Vegas Ladies, and Jolly Jim had joined Harry in the front booth. I was trying to freeze the warming feelings I had towards the crazy bastard. My father-in-law, not Harry. It seemed he might have our best interests at heart. Even if he showed it in a funny way.
I would never, however, warm towards Lou the Brain. So when he and Hillary, my next favourite person in the world, scuttled into the club, I tensed, but I kept singing. I was a professional after all.
Lou whispered in Jim’s ear while Hillary shot me looks-that-could kill. When they left, Jolly Jim had his legendary crazy eyes strapped in place. I was guessing either somebody else had disappeared, or Leo the Lion had shown up.
It turned out it was Leo. Shot in the head like Dick and Silent Sal. Execution style.
‘So not Giuseppe,’ I said as I folded back the sheets on our bed.
‘Doesn’t seem like it.’ Harry climbed in next to me and pulled me into his arms.
I didn’t know if I was ever going to get used to how good that felt. ‘He got too close to the killer.’
&n
bsp; ‘You mean the thief.’
‘I’m thinking we can call them a killer.’
He ran his fingers down my arms as he kissed me on the neck. ‘Thief, killer, whatever.’
I turned towards him. ‘Thief schmief,’ I muttered as I nibbled on his bottom lip. After that I didn’t think of anything else until the morning.
***
‘Tess, we’re going to be late.’ Harry’s voice carried up the stairs to the bedroom where I stood frozen in front of the mirror. ‘He’s five. He won’t even notice what you’re wearing.’
We were going to meet Billy. Well in truth we were meeting his mother, Cindy. Billy would be with her. She wanted to get to know me a little before she consented to let Billy stay with us.
I knew how important this was to Harry and had spent an hour the night before trying to find the perfect outfit for the meeting. It was hard to find something to wear that said, ‘I’m responsible yet fun.’
This morning I wasn’t so sure if my choice of navy skirt and white blouse said that. I mean what was fun about a white blouse? Nobody wearing a white blouse would dare go near mud. And from what I knew of little boys, they liked mud.
So I’d changed to a black blouse, but had looked like I worked in a department store. So the skirt had become khaki pants but I wasn’t sure how responsible they made me look.
Harry’s voice called out again, the agitation becoming more evident. We were both going to look irresponsible if we were late. The khaki pants were going to have to do.
I grabbed my handbag and trotted down the stairs.
Harry had the engine warming by the time I closed the passenger door. He looked sideways at me and smiled. ‘You look nice.’
I returned his smile with one dusted with nerves. I was sure my eyes looked as tight as they felt.
‘He’s going to love you.’
My smile became more brittle. I hadn’t had much to do with small children, not having any younger siblings or relatives to speak of. Mom had been an only child and her parents had died well before Hillary and I were born.
I stared out the window all the way to the park where we were meeting them. Apparently five year old boys weren’t good at staying still.
They were already there when we arrived. Cindy watched a group of children throwing a ball between them. She was everything I’d prayed she wouldn’t be. Big hair, big eyes, big lips – in fact everything about her was big, except her waist and butt. Those were tiny and pert, in that order.
‘He makes friends easily,’ Harry said as we approached Cindy.
I studied the group of boys until I spotted him. He still looked like the same gregarious boy Harry had shown me in the photo. It must have been a recent one.
‘Dad.’ Billy let out an excited shout and ran towards us. ‘Dad.’ He threw his arms as far around Harry as they would go and Harry lifted him up and swung him around. Tears pricked my eyes.
Harry placed him back on the ground and brought him towards me. ‘Billy, this is my wife, Tess.’
Billy looked me straight in the eyes with his molten-chocolate ones. His expression was serious as he held out his hand. ‘How do you do Tess?’ He had enough of a lisp to be cute.
I took his little hand in mine and shook it. ‘Better for having met you,’ I said.
His face broke into a broad grin. ‘You want to play catch?’
‘Now, now Billy,’ Cindy said. ‘I’m sure Tess has other things she would like to do than play catch.’
His smile quavered and I knew that I would do anything to put it back where it had been. ‘Actually,’ I said, glad I had gone with the khaki pants, ‘catch is one of my favourites.’ I’d only met him a minute ago but he already had me wrapped around his little finger.
He beamed at me and grabbed my hand, dragging me across the grass to meet his friends. ‘This is Tess,’ he yelled. ‘She’s gunna play too.’
‘Going,’ Cindy called out. ‘The word is going, not gunna.’
He shot me a grin and whispered, ‘I say it like that because I know it annoys her.’
‘Got to keep her on her toes,’ I said. ‘Don’t want her slacking off on her mothering duties.’
He nodded his head. ‘Exactly.’
Harry joined us a few minutes later and the game quickly degenerated into a game of catch and tickle. After that had left me breathless and giddy from being caught so many times, we made our way to a café. Billy walked between Harry and me, holding both our hands.
I made small talk with Cindy while we waited for our coffees and Billy’s chocolate milkshake to arrive. Her blue eyes initially observed me warily, but after ten minutes or so I could see the small lines of tension around them relax.
By the time we left, arrangements had been made for Billy to stay with us in the next school holidays. Both he and Harry were ecstatic and so was I. It seemed it was not so hard to win the affections of a small boy after all.
***
The phone rang as I picked up my handbag to head for the front door. I was due at the club in an hour and I wanted to get there early to see Liss. I missed not living with her.
I stared at the receiver as the shrill cries rang out through the kitchen. Did I dare pretend I hadn’t heard it? Only the thought that it might be Harry ringing from college made me pick it up.
‘Harry,’ the voice on the other end rasped.
‘I’m sorry. He’s not here at the moment.’ The receiver was halfway back to its cradle when the voice said, ‘Tess.’
‘Who is this?’ I hoped it wasn’t some sicko. I was still recovering from the finger episode, I didn’t need any more excitement at the moment.
‘Jim.’ There was a thudding, crashing noise and then silence.
‘Jim?’ His words had been so garbled I almost couldn’t understand them.
Scrabbling. A moan. Gurgling.
Christ something was happening to Jim. Was Giuseppe there? Was I listening to Jim being killed?
I dropped the receiver, grabbed my bag and sprinted for the door. I had to get to the Pink Flamingo and I had to get there five minutes ago.
I flagged a cab heading down the street, threw myself in the back seat and barked out my destination. I only had a twenty, so when we got there I threw that at the driver and jumped out, sprinting for the door and the concierge I could see floating near the front desk. His name tag said Tom.
‘There’s something wrong with Jim.’ My voice was barely controlled hysteria.
‘I’m sorry, is Jim a guest at the hotel.’
Resisting the urge to shake him I said, ‘Jolly Jim. Mr Milano.’
That got his attention.
‘He rang me. I think he’s collapsed.’ Or missing a limb or two.
‘Sally,’ Tom barked, ‘call an ambulance. Send them to the penthouse.’ Then he grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the elevator. He swiped the card necessary to access the penthouse level and then also inserted a key. ‘Prevents the elevator from stopping at any other floors.’ He nodded at the key.
‘Great.’ I could feel my heart thumping in my chest. What if Giuseppe was up there? I should have grabbed the gun.
Even without having to stop at any other floors it seemed to take forever to get to the top. Finally, the doors started to creep open. I threw myself at the widening gap and squeezed through, making it to the entry door a few seconds before Tom.
He knocked on the door and called out, ‘Mr Milano?’
Oh great. So much for the element of surprise.
‘Open the door,’ I hissed. ‘And do it quietly.’
He gave me a strange look as he complied. That look was nothing though compared to the one he gave me when I dived commando style through the door and crouched behind the entry wall.
‘Get down.’ I flapped my hand at him and he scuttled to my side. Pulling my compact mirror from my bag I held it around the corner and peered into it down the hall. There was nobody there.
‘Quick.’ I jumped up and raced down the hall stopping
to do the same thing at the entry to the lounge. I could see Jim, lying with his head away from me, but I couldn’t see all of the room in my mirror. What if Giuseppe was hiding around the corner?
I looked back at Jim. All of his legs and arms were still connected to the rest of his body. There was no blood on the silk rug. Giuseppe would have had plenty of time to work him over in the time it had taken me to get there – which meant he probably wasn’t there.
I dropped my mirror back in my bag as I climbed to my feet and rushed into the room. ‘Jim,’ I shook his shoulders. ‘Jim, can you hear me.’
He let out a low moan but his eyes remained closed. I almost cried with relief. He wasn’t dead. Yet.
‘I’ll wait for the ambulance,’ Tom said.
I nodded my head but didn’t respond. I felt helpless as I watched some saliva bubble out of his mouth. That couldn’t be good. How could he breathe with that in his mouth?
I rolled him onto his side and turned his head down so that the saliva dribbled out. He took a big shuddering breath and his body relaxed. I supported him against my leg as I waited for the ambulance.
This was the man who had instilled fear into the hearts of the other Mafia bosses. Rumour had it that he was called Jolly Jim because he laughed while he killed people. I looked down at his overweight body, his little balding patch on the top of his head and the drool coming out of his mouth. He didn’t seem so scary now.
His eyelids fluttered and his hand scrabbled at the floor.
‘Shhhhh,’ I crooned, stroking him on the head. ‘I’m here. Help is on the way.’
It seemed like forever since I’d arrived. Each second that passed was ticked off by a huge grandfather clock. Where were the paramedics?
Tick, tick, tick. Please don’t die. Tick, tick, tick. What was taking them so long?
I stroked his hair as I sung him the first thing that came into my head.
‘Hush little baby don’t you cry, Momma’s gonna sing you a lullaby.’
Finally I heard the front door of the apartment open. A man in a paramedic’s uniform carried a large bag into the room.
‘We’ll take it from here love,’ he said.
Tess's Tale (The Chanel Series Book 3) Page 8