Avery switched her attention to her brother. “Just so you know what’s going on, Paul, we’re all aware that you’re the person who invaded Kate’s home and made those terrible threats. I also know you forged the documents so that you could take out an illegal three-million-dollar mortgage on my penthouse.”
“No, you’re wrong—”
“Paul, save your energy. I don’t believe your denials.” She looked directly into his eyes. “I’m also sure that you killed poor George Klein. What was his offense, Paul? That he’d found Ron and was about to tell all of us how to contact him?”
“Don’t know…what you’re…talking about.” But she’d seen the horror in his eyes when she mentioned George’s murder and knew he was lying.
“There’s probably no way for the police to make a case against you for George’s murder that will stand up in court. But I can provide the evidence that will enable the state’s attorney’s office to charge you with fraudulently obtaining three million dollars in loans on my penthouse. That should get you at least a couple of years behind bars, and rest assured, Paul, I’m going to make it my personal mission to see that you get them. With any luck, they’ll throw in another couple of years for threatening to kill Kate. It’s not much in payment for George Klein’s life, but it’s something.”
“You can’t send…your own brother to jail.”
“Watch me do just that. You’ve had your run, Paul, but now it’s over. You…Ron…the whole sordid web of lies. It’s finally over.”
Epilogue
December 26, 2007
T he marriage of Luke Savarini to Kate Fairfax took place on the day after Christmas, a traditional date for Savarini weddings. Their wedding celebration also followed tradition by providing the guests with lavish and wonderful food, catered in this instance by the groom’s own restaurants. The dazzlingly gorgeous wedding cake, baked by the bride herself, was acknowledged to outshine those even at the best of previous Savarini weddings.
The attendance of 302 out of a possible 314 Savarini uncles, cousins, aunts and assorted in-laws marked a new record. Copious numbers of Savarini children were in attendance and spilled the usual number of drinks in a variety of extraordinary places. The band was one of Little Italy’s best, and thirty of the male relatives, aspiring Andrea Bocellis to a man, got together and delivered the usual impassioned but slightly off-key rendition of “O Sole Mio.” Not to be outdone, Luke’s brothers delivered the requisite doses of sentiment and embarrassment when they made their toasts to the happy couple.
It was impossible to avoid noticing, however, that not every aspect of the wedding was entirely in keeping with the best Savarini traditions. To start with, the church service had been private, with only the parents of the groom and the mother of the bride in attendance. Although the bride was wearing a lovely white lace gown in a traditional style, she’d arrived at the party from the church wearing a cloak of scarlet velvet.
The Savarini clan considered themselves tolerant folks. The scarlet cloak could be considered a fashion statement, or even an acknowledgment of the holiday season, but there were a few of the cousins who wondered if it might not have been Kate’s way of metaphorically flinging down the gauntlet.
There was no getting around the fact that Kate had some mighty strange relatives, and she’d invited several of them to the wedding. Liam Raven, her half brother, was there, along with his new wife, the notorious Chloe Hamilton. Chloe was the widow of the murdered mayor of Denver. She’d only lost her first husband sometime in August and here she was, married again. While it was true that Chloe had been officially exonerated of any suspicion that she was responsible for her husband’s murder, it was too much too expect people to ignore the titillating truth that she had originally been arrested for the crime.
Another interesting guest was Megan Raven, the bride’s half sister, who was married to Adam Fairfax, the bride’s uncle. This complex relationship caused several elderly Savarinis to scratch their heads and mutter dark comments about incest and other undesirable practices. The actual truth was less Gothic—there was no blood relationship at all between Megan and her husband, not even a distant one—but the Savarinis decided not to let truth get in the way of entertainment.
These two notorious marriages were merely line items among the many fascinating scandals clinging to the bride’s family. Avery Fairfax, the bride’s mother, could lay claim to being one of the leading lights of the Chicago social scene. However, she had for twenty-eight years been the bigamous wife of Ron Raven, a man once proclaimed dead, who was now wanted by the police for skipping out on his bail. It was rumored that Ron Raven was hiding out in Central America, in one of those countries nobody ever heard about until the army marched into the presidential palace and everyone had a revolution before taking the weekend off for another fiesta.
As if that weren’t enough, Ron Raven’s other wife, the one he’d kept hidden away somewhere out in the Wild West, was already remarried—to the local sheriff of all things! The Savarinis had always suspected that law enforcement out on the range was more about protecting your own than bringing criminals to justice, and this seemed to prove it.
To crown it all, the bride’s uncle, Paul Fairfax, had died recently in mysterious circumstances. Details about that particular event were really hard to come by, suggesting it might be the most interesting gossip of all. Bruno Savarini, who seemed to know more than most people about the event, insisted there was no mystery at all about Paul Fairfax’s death. He’d died of heart failure following a car crash in Virginia. Since Bruno lived in Virginia, this seemed to add weight to his pronouncements. Other Savarinis, however, muttered about suicide in the face of pending felony charges for grand theft and attempted murder.
Be that as it may, Kate’s Fairfax grandparents had nothing to look so darn snooty about, all the Savarinis agreed. They might be blue bloods, but they were darn lucky to have their granddaughter marrying into solid Italian immigrant stock. Apparently blue blood after a while needed to be mixed with ordinary red if you didn’t want to create a heck of a lot of problems. And since Luke was about as red-blooded a man as you could find, Kate should count her blessings.
If Kate’s relatives were cause for gossip, it had to be admitted that Kate herself was just about the most beautiful woman any of the Savarini cousins had seen outside the pages of Playboy or Bride magazine. The cousins’ choice of comparison depended, naturally, on whether they were male or female. When you saw the way Luke looked at her, not to mention the way she looked back at him, you could almost believe the two of them loved each other enough to make the whole unlikely union work. And their children would probably be gorgeous, as Luke’s mother made sure to tell anyone who cared to listen. The Savarini clan hoped that Kate would set about the business of having babies as soon as possible, and leave the scandals to the other members of her family.
Mellowed by champagne and the best handmade chocolates they’d ever tasted, the Savarinis waved goodbye to Luke and Kate as they left the reception for the start of their honeymoon. Rumor had it that they were flying to an island in the Caribbean where the entertainment consisted chiefly of sailing during the day and long walks on the beach at night.
The Savarini clan hoped the newlyweds would have a wonderful time. One thing seemed clear. With nothing better to do for ten days than walk and sail, Luke’s parents should be able to count on another grandbaby by next October.
The clan looked forward to the christening.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0784-8
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Copyright © 2007 by Jasmine Cresswell.
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