* * *
Nonna goes to the market the next day without mentioning one word about the night before. I sit in the living room, eating chips and flipping through channels on our television, wondering if it’s a good idea to stay here anymore. If the money I’m making from selling Brice’s charms continues at the rate it’s going, I can easily afford my own place. I don’t like the idea of leaving Nonna completely alone, however. Still, if I’m mixed up in things like shooting people, maybe it would be safer for her if I wasn’t around. I don’t know what to do.
Almost as if it’s on cue, there’s a knock at my door. I take my bag of chips to the door and open it. It’s the police woman from last night. She’s dressed about the same. I’m so surprised to see her here, I drop my bag of chips.
“Olivia Calabrese?” she asks.
I nod.
“Mind if I come in?”
I step outside the house and close the door. The police can’t come in unless they have a warrant. If they ask a question like that, you can always say no. I fold my arms over my chest. “What can I do for you?”
“Just some questions.” She mimics me, folding her arms over her chest. “You’re not in trouble or anything.”
We are like mirrors of each other, both in sloppy ponytails, both not wearing makeup. She is like my dark twin or something. “Why would I be in trouble?”
“You’re not. Would it be okay if I came inside now?”
“You can ask your questions out here, can’t you?”
She sighs. She turns and looks out over the neighborhood. I follow her gaze. There are a few people out walking or jogging. One woman pushing a baby stroller. She looks back at me. “Tressa Calabrese was your cousin, right?”
I nod.
“Were you two close?”
I shrug. “Close enough. I was pretty wrecked when they found her body.”
“Who wouldn’t be? She was pretty banged up. It definitely wasn’t an accident. Someone killed her and then threw her body into the water. Anyone who’d do that is scum, don’t you think?”
Oh, God. I see where this is going. And she has the nerve to tell me I’m not in trouble? I can’t believe this lady. “Absolutely,” I say. “Scum.”
“Luckily for us, the guy was pretty sloppy,” she says. “He left his DNA all over the place. Even the water couldn’t wash it all away. So, it should be pretty ironclad. Open and shut thing, you know? But we can’t seem to find him anywhere.”
I am stone. I refuse to have an expression. I refuse to react. “That’s too bad.”
She shrugs. “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. In a case like this, a guy like this, sometimes the law can’t find something bad enough for him. You know what I mean?”
I see what she’s trying to do. She’s trying to pretend like she’s on my side. She thinks I’ll just admit everything to her if she makes it sound like she agrees with what I did. Does she think I’m an idiot? I shake my head. “Not exactly, no.”
She smiles grimly at me. “Well, people in families like his and like yours, they sometimes just disappear. They fall off the face of the earth. You haven’t seen Joey Ercalono, have you?”
“No,” I say. “I can’t say that I have.”
“Well, like I said, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
I press my lips together. I don’t say anything.
“Maybe someone just took care of him, if you know what I mean.”
I don’t like her innuendoes. I don’t like her at all. “Is there anything else I can help you with, Officer?”
She drops her arms and turns to go. Then she stops. She looks back at me. “Calabrese, right? Gianna Calabrese your mother?”
My heart stops. She knows about the file. She knows it was me. How can she know this? “Yes,” I say, and my voice sounds shaky.
“I was thinking about your mother last night,” she says. “She’s another one, you know. Someone who just dropped off the face of the earth.”
I can hardly breathe. What is she talking about? Why is she asking me about this? Is this about Joey or not? “My mother died,” I say in a strangled voice. “I went to her funeral.”
She nods. “Yeah. Funny thing about that. I was looking into it last night. Like I said, I started thinking about her. There was no announcement in any of the papers about her funeral. No obituary. And I swear to God, I looked all over, and I couldn’t find a death certificate. I made a couple calls, and the funeral home around here has a record of burying her. Someone made her a tombstone, even. But...it all just seems a little strange to me.”
I dig my fingernails into my arms to try to keep from shaking. What is she saying? Is she saying my mother isn’t dead? My mother doesn’t have a death certificate? What could this possibly mean? I feel terrified.
She looks over her shoulder again, surveying the joggers and wanderers in the neighborhood. “You sure I can’t come inside and talk to you, Olivia?”
I back away. “Now isn’t a very good time,” I say hoarsely. I feel behind me for the doorknob.
“Okay, then. Another time, maybe?”
“Maybe,” I say, yanking the door open. I back into the house and slam the door in the woman’s face. Why did she come here? What does she want? I’m frightened.
The Toil and Trouble Trilogy, Book One Page 14