The Mother's Day Mishap (A Tess and Tilly Cozy Mystery Book 3)

by Kathi Daley

  “I thought about inviting him, but I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  I set my slice down. “My dad?”

  Tony had been trying to help me track down my father, who supposedly died twelve years ago. For some reason, I had a feeling there was more to his death than I’d been told, so I’d asked Tony to look in to it. Not only had he found what seemed like proof that Dad hadn’t died in the fiery accident, as everyone thought, but there was every indication he could still be alive and living an alternate life.

  “No, not your dad,” Tony said.

  “Okay.” I couldn’t imagine what Tony would want to discuss with me that he wouldn’t want Shaggy to overhear if it wasn’t regarding my father and his not-so-dead state of being. “Then what is it?”

  Tony paused and made eye contact before he continued. Okay, he was making me nervous now. It wasn’t like Tony to hesitate. I watched as a myriad of emotions crossed his face. Eventually, he spoke. “Remember you asked me to check out the man who came to White Eagle to visit your mother over Valentine’s Day?”

  “I remember. His name is Romero Montenegro. He lives in Italy, where his family owns a winery. You said he checked out. You said he used to work in a museum but now teaches history at a university in Rome, although he’s been on sabbatical. You said he’d never been married or arrested, though he did have one failed engagement seven years ago. You said he seemed like a good guy. Did you find something else?”

  Tony hesitated. Oh, I didn’t like the look on his face. Tony was the sort who was always confident and sure. This look of doubt and indecision didn’t suit him at all.

  “What is it?” I asked in a much firmer tone.

  “Is your mom still seeing him?” Tony asked.

  “He went back to Italy, so I guess she isn’t technically seeing him, but they’re still corresponding. She’s even made some noises to Ruthie and me about taking some time off over the summer so she can go to Italy to visit him. I’ve been trying to talk her out of it. I mean, she’s fifty-six and the mother of two adults, and he’s a forty-two-year-old playboy. I don’t see what she sees in the man. They have absolutely nothing in common.”

  Tony raised an eyebrow. I knew what he wasn’t saying. Romero was a total babe in a cover-of-a-romance-novel way. Dark and fit, with a polished air and a wonderful accent. Of course my middle-aged mother would find him attractive. She’d have to be dead not to be. But sizzling-hot sex appeal wasn’t everything. Though in Romero’s case, it might be enough.

  “Do you think we can move on from this line of thought?” I asked. “The idea of my mother having those types of feelings sort of grosses me out.”

  “I guess I can understand that.”

  “So, what’s the deal? Why are we even discussing the Casanova who’s caught my mother’s attention?”

  Tony splayed his hands on the table, his long fingers open wide. “I’m not sure why I even continued to look into his past after that initial search, but something felt off, so when I had some free time, I poked around a bit more. Remember I told you that Romero hadn’t been married but he’d had a failed engagement seven years ago?”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “It looks like he didn’t break up with his fiancée, but she didn’t break up with him either.”

  I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. “Okay, what are you saying? Is the guy my mom has been fooling around with still engaged?”

  “No. He’s not engaged. Romero Montenegro didn’t get married because his engagement failed. The reason he didn’t get married was because his fiancée died. She was, in fact, murdered.”

  Chapter 2

  “Murdered?” I felt my heart rate quicken. “Please don’t tell me that Romero was a suspect.”

  “Okay, I won’t tell you.”

  I put my hands on the top of my head as if to prevent it from exploding. “God! I can’t believe this. My very sweet and conservative mother is having a fling with a cold-blooded killer.”

  Tony took my hands in his, lifting them down from my head. “At this point we don’t know anything for sure. All we know is that the murder is still being actively investigated. Based on what I was able to discover, it does seem Romero is considered a suspect.”

  “It’s been seven years. Why on earth hasn’t the murder been solved yet?”

  “I don’t have all the details. Yet. I’m looking in to it.”

  “Do you know anything at all yet?”

  Tony nodded. “I’ve uncovered a few facts, which will provide a place to start a more formal investigation. I’m sorry I didn’t dig deeper when you first asked me to. If something had happened to your mother, I would never have forgiven myself.”

  I took a deep breath and blew it out. “It’s okay. There was a lot going on when I asked you to run the initial search, and my mom is fine. Besides, you did ask me if I wanted you to dig deeper and I said no. We had other fish to fry. The question now is, what do I do? Do I tell my mom what you found out, even though we don’t have much, or do I wait until we have more and can assess the situation?”

  “It seems to me that unless Romero comes to town or your mother makes plans to visit him in Italy, maybe we should keep what we know to ourselves until we can find out more about what’s going on.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. That’s a good idea. What’s your next step?”

  “Just to start digging and follow whatever leads I stumble upon.” Tony picked up Tinder, who’d jumped into his lap, and set him gently on the floor. “Should we tell Mike?”

  Mike was my brother, who also happened to be a cop.

  “No. He’s so protective of Mom. He’ll probably go ballistic when he finds out she has a friend of the romantic variety in the first place. It would be better to wait until we know more.”

  “Okay. That makes sense.”

  Suddenly, it felt like the walls of my little cabin were closing in on me. I hadn’t been comfortable with my mother’s relationship with Romero from the beginning, and now I wished he’d just go away. The relationship never had made sense. Not only was Romero younger than my mom, but they lived so far apart. I didn’t see Mom moving away from Mike and me, and I doubted Romero would move away from his country, culture, and family, so what was the point of the friendship in the first place? “How about we take a walk after we finish eating? It’s a little chilly, but we still have at least an hour of sunlight. We can burn off all the calories we just consumed, and maybe you can catch me up on everything you already know.”

  “I’m done eating if you are.”

  I nodded.

  “Grab a jacket while I put the rest of the pizza in your refrigerator.”

  I did as Tony suggested and grabbed what I referred to as my spring jacket, which wasn’t as heavy as my winter parka. Tony said he had a jacket in his truck, which he’d get on his way out. I found two leashes even though we most likely wouldn’t need them and went toward the front door.

  We walked maybe a quarter of a mile along the narrow dirt trail without speaking. Titan and Tilly ran ahead, stopping to sniff every log and interesting shrub they came across. The woods around my cabin must have all sorts of wonderful smells, especially now that the spring flowers were beginning to bloom. Titan became overly interested in a nurse log to the point that he seemed to forget all about us. After a moment, Tony called him over so we could keep both dogs in our line of sight.

  Eventually, when I felt ready, I turned to Tony. “Why don’t you tell me everything you’ve learned and we can work together from this point forward?”

  “Keep in mind, what I have are random pieces of information that may not mean anything. I think it’s important we keep an open mind until we know more.”

  “Okay,” I agreed as we started walking again, meandering through the forest until we reached the river, flowing rapidly with the season’s runoff. We’d need to keep an eye on the dogs and call them back if they got too close. During the late summer and fall, the river was shallow enough to
wade through from one side to the other, but the runoff provided a significant danger to anyone or anything that dared venture into it. “Start at the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”

  “When I did the initial search into his background, I didn’t find any evidence of a marriage for Romero, though there was mention of him having been engaged to Luciana Parisi, who lived in the same region of Italy he did. I assumed the pair had ended things and didn’t think anything of it; her name didn’t mean anything to me and broken engagements are common. We were busy with something else and I didn’t see the point in digging deeper. Once things slowed down a bit, I did some additional research and found Luciana was the great-great-granddaughter of Ferraro Parisi, who at one time was best friends with Romero’s great-great-grandfather, Damico Montenegro. I later learned that while Ferraro and Damico started out as friends, they died as enemies.”

  “Enemies? Why?”

  “It seems both started wineries at about the same time, and both did well. In fact, they quickly escalated in status in the region, and the men spent their careers trading number-one and -two rankings, which seemed to create an urgency between them to gain a foothold over the other.”

  “Am I picking up on some sort of Capulets versus Montagues sort of thing?”

  Tony nodded. “In a way. The men became sworn enemies and a family feud was born that lasted for almost a century, until Romero and Luciana decided to put an end to it and became friends. Their friendship seemed to have begun when they were in high school and continued into adulthood. As far as I can tell, they began to date when Romero was in his early thirties. They became engaged eight years ago and Luciana died a year later.”

  “Wow. That’s really sad.” I ventured toward a path that led away from the river. The dogs were well trained and had stayed away from the powerful water, but I felt better putting some distance between us and the potential for tragedy. “Why was Romero considered a suspect?”

  “Initially, Luciana’s father accused Romero of using his daughter to obtain the secret blend of grapes that helped him win a regional competition five years in a row. He asserted Romero not only seduced his daughter into giving away family secrets but, once he had them, had no more use for her, so he killed her. Romero denied having anything to do with Luciana’s death, but he was unable to provide an alibi. He told the investigator he was at a retreat on the weekend Luciana died.”

  We paused to choose a route around a dead tree that had fallen across the trail. “Sounds like a pretty good alibi to me.”

  “It would have been, but he couldn’t prove he was where he said he was. It seems he’d been sworn to secrecy regarding the whereabouts of the retreat, as well as the identity of the other members of the club who attended it.”

  I frowned. “Why all the secrecy?”

  Tony shrugged as he stepped over the fallen branches, which allowed us to continue down the path. “While historically there have been secret societies with political influence in Italy, such as the Freemasons and the Carbonari, given Romero’s connection to both the museum and university, I suspect the group he belongs to is made up of academics, although that’s just a guess.”

  I raised a brow. “I was a member of a secret club with some friends when I was a kid. It certainly made us feel special. But adults?”

  “It does seem sort of silly, although I have no idea the nature of this group. The thing that’s important to our discussion is that Romero’s attendance at this retreat greatly influenced his inability to provide a better alibi. Because he couldn’t prove where he was when Luciana was murdered, the local law enforcement had no choice but to look at him as a potential suspect.”

  “But he was cleared?”

  “Eventually, a man named Angelo Longorian confessed to killing Luciana. He told the investigator assigned to the case it had been an accident and he’d never meant to hurt her. Apparently, they were both drunk, and they argued. She came at him with a statue she grabbed from a nearby table, threatening to hit him with it, he pushed her, and she fell and hit her head. The evidence at the scene of the murder supported the story Longorian told, so there was no reason to doubt him. He was convicted of manslaughter, but given his status in local society, he served very little prison time.”

  Once the trail was free of debris, Tony accepted a stick Titan brought him. He tossed it farther up the trail, and both dogs took off after it.

  “So, what happened to change the investigator’s opinion that Longorian had accidentally killed Luciana?”

  “He was killed in an auto accident. Initially, the accident was considered just that—a tragic yet random event—but after looking into things, it was determined that the vehicle Longorian was driving had been run off the road. During the investigation into his death, they found that Longorian had spent a lot of time in the United States and had, in fact, been here, not in Italy, on the weekend Luciana died.”

  Oh, I didn’t like the way this was beginning to sound. “Longorian lied. Why? Why would anyone confess to a murder they didn’t commit?”

  Titan returned with the stick. He dropped it at Tony’s feet. Tony threw it again. Titan loved to play fetch, and once he got the game started, he was unlikely to quit until Tony put an end to it. “I don’t know for certain, but I found out that shortly after Longorian confessed to contributing to Luciana’s death, he suddenly had a lot of money to burn, despite the fact that he’d previously been struggling financially. The investigator was unable to trace the source of the money, and now that Longorian is dead, he can’t ask him about the sudden influx of funds. The two events—the confession and the change in finances—might have been unrelated, but then again…”

  “But if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…” I looked directly at Tony. The sun had begun its descent behind the mountain and the low rays of sunlight reflected off his dark hair. “Does it seem odd that the investigator didn’t bother to check on Longorian’s whereabouts when he confessed?”

  “In retrospect, not digging further turned out to be a considerable oversight, but this was a high-profile murder with no solid leads, so a confession must have seemed like a blessing. Besides, the investigator most likely had no reason to suspect Longorian would confess to a murder he didn’t commit even if it was an accident.”

  Tony had a point. The investigator probably had no reason to doubt Longorian, especially if he had no other suspects. “So what does all this mean? Do you think Romero is guilty of killing Luciana, because frankly, it’s beginning to sound that way to me.”

  “I wouldn’t say I necessarily believe Romero is guilty of murder simply because he might have known the truth and lied,” Tony countered. “It does, however, cause me concern.”

  “Okay, so what now?” I asked. “We know Longorian was out of the country, so someone else killed Luciana. It may still have been an accident, but that seems irrelevant when the guilty party let an innocent man go to prison. If we can’t prove or disprove Romero’s alibi, how do we find out whether he’s guilty?”

  Tony took my hand in his and turned to head down a path that looped back to the cabin. “I’ve given that some thought. I have a friend who works with Interpol, so he has contacts in law enforcement around the world. I’ll contact him to see if he knows anything. It might take a while for him to get back to me, but there’s no urgency as long as your mom stays here and Romero stays there. And I’ll keep poking around to see what I can find. I’m not saying I’ll be able to figure this out given the limited information I have to work with, but maybe something will pop up.”

  “And maybe the friendship my mom has established with him will fade now that he’s gone back to Italy.”

  “Maybe.”

  Tony and I walked in silence for several minutes. I so enjoyed spending time at the end of the day walking through the silent forest with him, Tilly, and Titan. The simple activity somehow made me feel centered in a world that at times seemed chaotic. “As you know, I haven’t been happy about my mom’s rel
ationship with Romero, though it’s shown me something important.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “I can see she’s ready to move on with her life. My dad has been gone for twelve years, and as far as I know, before Romero showed up, she hadn’t gone on a single date. At first, I wasn’t sure I was ready to see her dating, but now, I realize she’s been lonely. She deserves to have someone to share her life with. Someone to come home to at the end of the day.” I reached down and ruffled Tilly behind the ears. I thanked God every day I had Tilly, Tang, and Tinder to come home to. “She needs someone who’s here, though, in White Eagle. Someone who can be a real partner to her. Not some playboy living so far away.”

  Tony didn’t say anything, though he put his arm around my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. I laid my head on his shoulder. I was lucky to have someone in my life who was always there for me. Someone I could count on, no matter the situation.

  Back at the cabin, I stomped the dirt from my feet before opening the front door and motioning Tony and the dogs inside. I filled the dogs’ water dishes, then slipped off my shoes and kicked them into a corner. The sun had set and the sky was beginning to darken, so I clicked on a couple of lamps. I checked my answering machine, then grabbed a couple of bottles from the refrigerator.

  “So, how about that game of Atonement?” Tony asked as I handed him a beer.

  I glanced at the game. “It seems late to just be getting started.”

  “Okay, then how about we build a fire in your pit, sit on the deck, and drink our beer tonight. We can play the game tomorrow night at my place. I’ll even make you dinner.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I’ll bring the kittens and an overnight bag in case it gets late and I decide to stay over.”

  Tony grinned. “Been a while since we had a slumber party.”

  “Been a while since you had a video game to test. Should you invite Shaggy?”

  Tony’s smile faded just a bit. “If you want. I’ll call him in the morning to see if he’s available. For now, let’s get that fire started. Been a while since we sat on the deck and watched the world grow dark.”