BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2

by Mallory Monroe

  Charles looked around. His green eyes were blazing with worry. He was in full panic mode now.

  Until he looked again. That was when he saw, through the smoke and the chaos, his son Donald coming out of the Drug Store on the far end of the street. He didn’t understand why Donald would be there at all. It seemed like a mirage to see Donald at this scene.

  But then he realized Jenay was with him. And she had a child in her arms. Their child!

  He ran. He ran through all of the noise and confusion and smoke and fire. He didn’t have running shoes on, but that didn’t slow him at all. All he saw was his wife, his son, and his baby girl, and he couldn’t get to them fast enough.

  When Jenay saw Charles, she started running too. Little Bonita was bouncing in her arms, but Donald was running with them, holding Jenay and Bonita in his arms as a brace in case they fell. It was the most beautiful sight Charles had ever seen in his life. His heart ached for Tess. It was an awful thing. But his wife, his son, his baby girl were alive. And he couldn’t suppress his gratitude.

  “Thank-you God,” he was saying as he ran. “Thank-you God!”

  He could tell Jenay had been spooked. Her eyes were as big as a pair of Kennedy Fifty Cent coins, and she was talking wildly without realizing Charles could not hear her. He immediately grabbed a hold of her, and his baby, when they met. Donald was concerned too. He didn’t let them go.

  Charles finally could hear what Jenay was repeating over and over. “I thought she was in the car,” Jenay was crying. “I thought she was in the car!”

  “They killed Tess, Dad,” Donald was saying. Tears were in his big blue eyes. “They killed Tess.”

  Charles nodded and ran his hand along his sons’ hair. “I know son,” he said. “I saw her.”

  “She was with Bonita,” Jenay said. “And when I saw that explosion, I thought she and Nita. I thought she and Nita. I thought Nita. . .”

  Charles pulled her and their baby into his arms. Bonita was crying. Even she knew this was no laughing matter. But she was alive. Jenay was alive. His family was intact. That was all that mattered to Charles.

  They arrived at their father’s house at nearly the exact same time. First, it was Brent’s police cruiser. It swerved along the circular driveway and stopped at the steps, just behind his father’s pick-up truck.

  Then it was Robert’s Corvette. It nearly ran into the back of Brent’s car as it came to a screeching halt behind the patrol car.

  Then it was Tony’s old Jeep, a Jeep he’d owned since he was sixteen years old and earned the money working in his Dad’s property office. It drove onto the grass and parked beside the front lawn’s waterfall.

  And they all got out, Brent, Robert, and Tony, and ran up the steep steps, past the coliseum-styled columns, and through the thick double doors of their father’s house.

  They ran down the long hallway that led into the huge Family Room. That was when they saw Charles and Jenay seated side by side on the sofa, with Bonita in Jenay’s arms and Donald seated beside his father. All three brothers were surprised to see Donald. But they were too thrilled to see Jenay and Nita.

  They hurried to them, hugging Jenay and kissing Nita. Bonita, playing with her toy, wiped away the saliva with each one of her brothers’ kisses. They all found it hilarious. Then they all sat down, Brent, Tony, and Robert, not in the chairs and the other sofa in the room, but on the coffee table directly in front of Charles and Jenay.

  “We’re under siege,” Charles said with a smile.

  “What in the world happened?” Tony asked. “I’m minding my own business at the barbershop, getting a haircut, when this guy comes in and ask if I heard the news. I said what news. Your stepmother’s car exploded, he said. I jumped from that chair so fast the barber almost clipped my ear.”

  They laughed.

  Then somberness returned. “It was a terrifying thing to hear,” Tony added. “And poor Tess.”

  They all nodded their heads. It was an awful thing.

  “I spoke with Chief Joffee,” Brent said. “He’s the one who told me what happened. He said you guys gave a statement at the scene.”

  “That’s right,” Charles said.

  “Where were you?” Tony asked Brent. “You’re usually first on the scene. Then it’s your family, and you’re nowhere to be found.”

  “Sure you wasn’t with Miss Denise?” Robert asked with a smile.

  “I was in Lewiston picking up an armed robbery suspect,” Brent responded. “I don’t fuck around on the job,” he added.

  “What happened, Jenay?” Tony asked. “Did you and Nita get out of the car, and Tess was still inside?”

  “Nita was still in the car with Tess when I got out,” Jenay said and a gasp of surprise filled the room.

  “Nita was still in the car?” Tony asked. “Good Lord!”

  Jenay held Bonita tighter. She refused to let her go ever since she discovered that she was still alive.

  “But how did she get out?” Robert asked.

  “I got her out,” Donald said.

  “You?” Robert asked. “You were there too?”

  “I was walking by when I saw Jenay’s car,” Donald said.

  “You were walking by?” Robert asked. “Why weren’t you driving?”

  “I was driving,” Donald said with exasperation in his voice. “I left my car around the corner and was walking, okay? Why are you making a federal case out of somebody walking down the street?”

  “Just tell us what happened, Don,” Brent said.

  Donald exhaled. “That’s when I saw Jenay’s car parked on the side of the road and then I saw that Tess and Nita were waiting in the car. So I picked up Nita and was playing around with her, then I told Tess I was going to take her with me down the street.”

  “Down the street?” Robert asked. “Down the street where?”

  “Down the damn street, Bobby, why you keep asking me all of these questions?”

  “Go on,” Brent said.

  “So I went down the street with Bonita, and then the next thing I know I hear this loud explosion. So I’m trying to run and get away, I’m trying to protect Nita. I didn’t know what that explosion was.” He frowned. “Then I found out.”

  Jenay reached over and squeezed Donald’s hand. “Thank-you,” she said. “You saved Bonita’s life. I will never be able to thank you enough.”

  Donald smiled and squeezed her hand too. He’d never felt closer to Jenay. “I’m just glad I was there,” he said. “I only wish I could have gotten Tess out of there too.”

  Jenay nodded her head. “I know. I just don’t understand what happened.” She looked at Charles. “Who would want to do something like this?”

  But Charles wasn’t talking. His brain was too busy thinking about the who and the why of the entire episode. He snuggled her closer against him, but he wasn’t talking.

  The doorbell rang as they sat there. Tony got up and answered the door. When he saw that it was his father’s sister, Jacqueline Gabrini, better known as Sprig, he opened the door further. “Hey, Aunt Sprig,” he said.

  “Where’s Jenay and the baby?” Sprig asked.

  “In the den,” Tony said. But just as she was about to hurry to the den, Tony took her by the arm and pulled her back.

  “What is it?” Sprig asked, looking at his arm and then up into his green eyes.

  “I can smell the liquor a mile away. Dad’s not going to be happy.”

  “Fuck your daddy!” Sprig blared. “I’m not his damn child. I can drink anytime I want. Just because I can hold my liquor and he can’t doesn’t make me a bad lady.”

  “Nobody said you were a bad lady,” Tony responded. His aunt used to be a beautiful lady before she married Benny Gabrini. Now she had left him and didn’t want to have anything to do with him nor their two sons, Tommy and Salvatore. Sal never gave up. He kept trying to have a relationship with her. But she wasn’t interested. All she wanted to do was drink her life away. Her looks, along with everything else
, was going steadily downhill with each passing day. She was the town lush now who refused to get help, who refused to sober up, who refused to do anything but continue to drink and party. Charles had tried everything. He gave up too.

  “Why don’t you sober up first?” Tony suggested to his aunt.

  But Sprig wasn’t trying to hear any suggestions. “I am sober,” she responded. “What are you talking about? I’m as sober as you are. More so because I don’t give a damn what you or your daddy and anybody else says about me. I’m the most sober person in this entire town,” she added.

  Tony knew his father was in shock as it was, and he knew he didn’t need the stress of Sprig and her alcoholism too, but Nita was her niece and she and Jenay were on good terms. She was family too. She had every right to be there.

  Tony released her arm, and let her go.

  Sprig made her way to the family room as if she knew it by hard. Because she did. When she first arrived back in Maine, after running away from Benny Gabrini, she lived with her brother and his sons in that very house. Charles protected her then. Until her drinking and partying got out of hand. Until he realized she wasn’t interested in getting her life on track. Then she was on her own.

  “Jenay! Bonita!” Sprig cried when she saw Jenay and the baby. She ran to them and leaned over, placing her arms around them. Although the stench of alcohol was overwhelming, Jenay gladly hugged her.

  Charles stood up, and Sprig sat down beside Jenay.

  “Thank-you for coming, Sprig,” Jenay said, holding her sister-in-law’s hand.

  “Don’t think me! You’re my sister. Nee’s my niece. I love y’all!”

  “We love you too,” Jenay said.

  Sprig held onto one of Bonita’s feet. Bonita stopped playing with her toy, and was looking at her. Was undoubtedly smelling her too. “When I heard what happened,” Sprig said, “I thought I was going to have a heart attack! They were telling me the baby got injured.”

  “She’s fine,” Jenay said. “Thank God she didn’t get hurt at all. Thanks to Donald.”

  Sprig looked sidelong at her nephew. “Donald? Don’t you mean Brent or Tony? Donnie and Bobby ain’t worth sweeping out the door!”

  “That’s enough, Sprig,” Charles said in defense of his boys. “You will not come into my home disrespecting my children.”

  “I’m just telling it like I see it,” Sprig said, looking at her brother. “They ain’t shit and ain’t gonna never be shit. You know why? Because their daddy ain’t shit either. That’s why!”

  Charles stared at her. Everybody expected him to throw her out on her rear, but he didn’t. He just stared at her.

  Sprig then closed her eyes and shook her head, as if that alcohol was swimming in her brain. Then she opened her eyes again. “I didn’t mean all of that,” she said. Then she frowned. “But whatever.” She looked at Jenay. “I’m going. I’ve got places to see and people to be.” She smiled. “I mean, I’ve got people to be, and places to see. I mean---”

  “We understand what you mean, Sprig,” Jenay said. “You’d better go.”

  Sprig looked sidelong at the little baby, and then at Donald again. And then she stood up. Only she flopped back down when she attempted to stand up. Brent helped her to her feet.

  “You aren’t driving, are you, Aunt Sprig?” he asked.

  “No, son, I’m not driving. Mikey’s out in the car. You remember Mikey, don’t you, Brent? He’s my boyfriend.”

  “I remember him,” Brent said.

  “You would,” Sprig said. “You and Tony still give a damn. Jenay and Nita are new to the family, I don’t hold it against them. But the rest of these clowns, from your daddy on down, can kiss my ass.”

  “Come on, Aunt,” Brent said, as he began helping her toward the exit. Brent glanced back at his father. He was always amazed at how much restraint he showed whenever Sprig showed her behind. If that had been one of them behaving that way, he would have stomped them through the floor.

  Jenay was amazed too. But she knew the story. She knew how Charles allowed his sister to call him every name in the book when he was only trying to help her. He allowed her to lie on him and scandalize his name around every bar in town. But when she needed to get away from Benny Gabrini, Charles was the one who went and got her. When she needed a place to live, Charles was the one who took her in. He was the one who used to beg her to get some help, and attempted to force an intervention on her numerous times. But it did no good. She wasn’t interested in being cured. Her pain was apparently too great to face, so she decided to bury it beneath an avalanche of alcohol and men. And Charles stopped trying. He couldn’t want her cured more than she wanted it herself.

  When she left, a kind of terse peace descended on the room. It remained there even after other people came, offered their comforting words, and left. People like Denise and Norm, and the pastor of their church, and friends in the community. But there still was that feeling of what could have been. How easily it could have gone the other way. How suddenly their grateful day could have been the most tragic day of their lives. And they mourned Tess too. It was a tough day.

  But it got even tougher when Chief Joffee came by.

  Especially when his visit was less about telling Charles and Jenay what he believed might have happened, and more about questioning Donald.

  Joffee sat on the coffee table, in front of Jenay and Donald. Tony had managed to pry the baby out of Jenay’s arms, and was standing nearby bouncing her in his own arms. Brent and Robert was still in the den too, sitting in the flanking chairs. Charles was standing up, leaned against the wall beside the window, and he was staring at Joffee. He was wondering what in the world was Joffee trying to imply.

  “So what you’re telling me,” Joffee said to Donald, “is that you parked your car around the corner and decided to walk all the way up Harvey Street to the drugstore?”

  Donald nodded. “That’s right.”

  “Why?”

  Donald hunched his shoulder. “Because I wanted to.”

  “Even though that was a long walk up Harvey Street?”

  “So,” Donald said. “I like to walk.”

  “So where were you walking to?”

  “The Pharmacy,” Donald said. “Why you keep asking me that? I told you I went in the drugstore to pick up my prescription. That’s when I heard the explosion.”

  Joffee looked at Charles. Joffee was acting as if nobody deserved an explanation but Charles. “Whoever planted that bomb in Mrs. Sinatra’s car,” he said, “had to have still been in the area in order to detonate it. According to our experts, it was the kind of bomb with a stopgap. In other words, they couldn’t press a button and the bomb immediately blew. There was a delay. There was a built-in delay from the time the remote control button was pressed, to the time the bomb would actually explode.”

  “What are you saying, Chief?” Brent asked.

  Joffee answered Brent’s question, but he directed his answer at Charles. “The fact that Mrs. Sinatra and Reuben had stepped off of that curb and was heading to the car,” he said, “was probably when the button was pressed. But their progression was suddenly interrupted by that reckless driver who almost ran them over. That’s why she wasn’t at the car when it exploded. That reckless driver saved her life. TO be clearer, we believe the perp saw your wife and Reuben stepping off of the curb and heading for the car. The remote control button was pressed at that time.”

  “But why so soon?” Brent asked. “I understand about the built-in delay, but why couldn’t the perp wait until Jenay was inside the car?”

  “Because whoever the perp was didn’t want the car moving where it could kill others. It needed to be stationary. Because of the delay factor, the perp couldn’t wait until Mrs. Sinatra got into the car. She might have cranked up and took off and put too many others at risk. Maybe even the perp himself would have been at risk with that scenario, since he or she still had to have been in the area. He or she was protecting him or herself. So no, the pe
rp had to press that button when they thought Mrs. Sinatra and Rueben were walking across the street. The fact that they were almost hit by that reckless driver changed the entire equation.”

  “What does any of this have to do with Donald?” Charles asked.

  Everybody looked at Joffee. “That’s a fair question,” Joffee said. “It’s no secret around town that your son and your wife aren’t exactly bosom buddies. It’s a known fact that they have had a lot of tension lately, including rumors that Mrs. Sinatra recently fired Donald from working with her at Jericho Inn.”

  “I fired Donald,” Charles said. “But go on.”

  Joffee exhaled. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy. “We checked out Donald’s story,” Joffee said.

  “And?” Brent asked.

  “It didn’t check out,” Joffee said.

  Jenay frowned. “What didn’t check out?”

  “Everything,” Joffee said to her. “He claimed that he parked his car right around the corner. He didn’t. Surveillance footage showed that he parked his car nearly two blocks away.”

  “So?” Donald asked. “Is that a crime now?”

  “No,” Joffee said to Donald, “but lying to a police officer is.” Joffee exhaled again, and looked at Jenay. “He further said that he went into the drugstore to pick up a prescription.” He looked at Donald. “That was a lie too. We checked. The pharmacist had no such prescription waiting for Donald Sinatra to pick up.”

  Jenay, Brent, Tony, and Robert looked at their father. But Charles continued to stand against the wall and stare at Joffee.

  “Furthermore,” Joffee said, “surveillance inside the drugstore showed where Donald entered with Bonita in his arms, that was true. But then he started heading for the very back of the store as soon as he got in there. Before the explosion occurred. Then, when the explosion rocked everything, he went out the backdoor. Which was understandable when you hear an explosion up front. But he was already near that exit before the explosion occurred, as if he knew what was coming.”

  “I didn’t know what was coming!” Donald yelled. “What are you saying?”