Dina Santorelli

by Baby Grand

  "Where's the governor?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

  "He's on his way to the hospital. He asked me to bring you there to meet him."

  Katherine stopped rubbing. "Why didn't he wait for me?" she asked.

  "I don't know, Ma'am. He was very excited, and agitated, upon hearing the news and said he needed to get there right away. He made it clear that I escort you there myself immediately. If I may?"

  Wilcox helped Katherine up from the seat.

  "But..."

  "Please, we'll talk on the way." Wilcox led Katherine toward the main hallway where dozens of agents were congregating. Maddox was talking into his cell phone near the front entrance. When he saw her, he waved and rushed over.

  "Lenny, did you hear?" Katherine asked.

  "Yes, yes, I know," Maddox said. "They say she's all right. Some cuts and bruises, but all right." He took Katherine's hand and squeezed it.

  Outside the Executive Mansion, the media was in a frenzy, buzzing outside the gates like agitated bees in a hive. At the sight of Katherine Grand within the narrow front door opening, they looked as though they were ready to attack. Katherine thought there was something different about the crowd, and she realized that virtually all of the picketers were gone.

  "What time is it?" she asked. "Did the execution...?"

  "Please, talk and walk, talk and walk," Wilcox said, ushering Katherine out the front door. When she stepped onto the front porch, there was an immediate roar:

  "Mrs. Grand?"

  "How do you feel now that they've found your daughter?"

  "Where do you think she was all this time?"

  "Are you going to see her now?"

  "Can you give us a statement?"

  Katherine felt a hand on her shoulder.

  "I got this," Maddox said. "Go to the hospital."

  "Mrs. Grand, please, quickly, we need to go." Wilcox hurried down the pathway toward a waiting sedan and several agents.

  "I'm coming," she said. She turned to Maddox. "Lenny, the execution, Cataldi..."

  Maddox nodded. "Done."

  "Oh." She had missed it. For the first time since she and Phillip had been together, she was not by his side when a capital-punishment case had come to a close.

  "Katherine, are you all right?"

  "Yes, I'm... I'm fine."

  "Are you going to the hospital, First Lady?"

  "Is the governor there?"

  The crowd surged against the iron gates, outstretched arms holding microphones waving through the bars.

  "Jesus," Maddox said. "Bunch 'a animals."

  "Mrs. Grand," Wilcox called. He was holding open the passenger's-side door to his sedan.

  "Yes, I'm coming," she yelled. She turned toward Maddox and instead banged into Henry, who seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere.

  "Henry!" Katherine was confused. With the blaring lights of the news media, it was easy to forget what time it was. Henry normally didn't work at night. "Why aren't you with Phillip, I mean, Governor Grand?"

  "One of the men, down over yonder," Henry pointed to Wilcox, "that one there, he said one of his men was going to drive the governor to the hospital." Henry had a very slow way of talking, and Katherine felt her anxiety ratchet up a few notches. She had no idea how Phillip put up with it. Maddox was rolling his eyes.

  "Then what are you doing here?" Katherine said.

  "Well, I had been hanging around to see if Governor Grand needed me, you know, just in case. But seein' as he's got a ride, I figured I'd go home and come back tomorrow morning." Henry shuffled his feet. "I also wanted to tell you that I heard the news about Charlotte and how very happy I am that she is okay."

  "Thank you," Katherine said.

  "No, I mean, I am really, really happy." Henry looked as if he was going to lean in for a hug until Maddox put a hand on his shoulder.

  "Yes, she heard you," Maddox said. "That's awfully nice of you."

  Katherine thanked Maddox with her eyes, as Henry nodded and shuffled off down the path toward the parking lot.

  "What the hell is he doing here, anyway?" Maddox said. "Isn't Big Bird looking for him somewhere on Sesame Street?"

  "I don't know. I can't think right now, Len."

  Katherine was dizzy. The camera lights. The yelling of the press. The guilt over Don Bailino and of not having told Phillip the entire truth. The news that he had left without her. She held onto Maddox's arm to steady herself.

  "Are you sure you're all right?" Maddox asked. "Maybe I should meet you at the hospital. It might be a madhouse there."

  Katherine knew she should have told Maddox to go home and get some sleep—he was as tired as anyone. But for the second time in a few hours, another person had volunteered to help shoulder some of her burden, and she was relieved once more. "Would you mind?"

  "Not at all."

  "Lenny..."

  "I know... What would you do without me? Now go."

  "Thank you," Katherine called, as she ran down the path and stepped into the waiting sedan. She watched Maddox stride toward the hungry crowd as a cacophony of flashbulbs lit up the night and followed their car halfway down Eagle Street until it sped away.

  Chapter 59

  When Phillip arrived at Albany Memorial Hospital, a horde of press people already had assembled outside the main doors under the large overhang, the television camera lights illuminating the building's stately marquee.

  "Drive around back," he told the federal agent.

  It had taken them more than forty-five minutes to reach the hospital for a ride that was normally less than half the time. Between the flooding and the blackout, there were accidents all along the main roads, holding up traffic for miles and forcing them to take side roads, which weren't much better. Originally, Phillip had wanted to drive himself, but Special Agent Wilcox wouldn't hear of it. "This isn't over, Governor," he'd said—a grim reminder of what Phillip knew to be true. His daughter had been saved, but Don Bailino was still at large. What that meant, Phillip wasn't quite sure, but for now he knew he needed to get to his daughter.

  The agent parked next to a pair of ambulances, and Phillip got out and rushed through the automatic doors.

  The bustling emergency ward was crowded with strange, foreign faces, and the thought that Bailino could be inside the hospital suddenly crossed Phillip's mind. He looked behind to see if the federal agent was in tow. He was.

  "Governor!" a nurse said, snapping to attention. A hush fell over the room.

  "My daughter, I'm looking for my daughter."

  "Yes," the nurse said, placing a handful of files onto a desk. "I'll bring you to her. Come this way."

  The nurse pushed a large button, automatically opening two swinging doors that led into an empty side corridor, which spilled into a large room filled with hospital workers as well as uniformed police and other plainclothes officers. Phillip recognized many of the men and women as agents from the mansion, which put his mind a little more at ease, until from the corner of his eye he saw a dark-headed figure start toward him.

  "Governor Grand!"

  Rosalia came running with outstretched arms, but was stopped by one of the officers.

  "It's all right," Phillip said.

  "Is it true?" Rosalia asked, her angelic, worn face fervent with anticipation. "On the news, they say Charlotte is okay."

  "Yes, she is. I'm going to see her now."

  "Ay! Dios mío!" Rosalia said. Her children, Rikki and Terry, appeared behind her, along with Pedro and Ricardo; all four were drinking sodas and were looking frantically around the room until they spotted Rosalia.

  "Mama, I told you not to leave the chair," Rikki said, but then noticed Phillip and her demeanor softened. "Oh, I'm sorry, Governor," she said and curtsied.

  "¡Ella está aquí!" she told them. "Carlota."

  "Sí?" Pedro asked.

  "Your nephew is a hero, Rosalia." Phillip put his hand on her shoulder. "Where is he?"

  "What do you mean?" she asked. "Rey?"

/>   "They said there was a car accident," Pedro said. "He's in the emergency room, but they won't let us in yet."

  "Sir?" the nurse interrupted. "Right this way."

  Phillip nodded. "I have to go, Rosalia. I will be in soon to see Reynaldo." He started toward the nurse, but on the other side of the room Katherine appeared in a doorway escorted by Special Agent Wilcox.

  The animated buzz died down slightly at her entrance, and Katherine nodded at no one in particular, as if to give the illusion that someone had gone out of his or her way to greet her. She scanned the large room until she saw the tall frame of her husband sticking out among the swarm of people.

  "Katherine!" Phillip called. "Here!"

  Katherine made her way through the crowd. She was still wobbly from the ride over when Wilcox had filled her in on the details of what had happened, that Charlotte had been found in the hands of a woman from Long Island as well as the nephew of her housekeeper. Katherine was about to pronounce a hearty "I knew it" when she was told that the pair had saved Charlotte, not snatched her, and that as far as they could tell the kindly, sweet old housekeeper was just a kindly, sweet old housekeeper, and that the man they were looking for, the one who had masterminded the entire kidnapping, had been identified as Don Bailino.

  The name was still ringing in her ears when Phillip reached for her hand. "Are you okay?" he asked.

  She nodded, wanting the first words out of her mouth to be "why didn't you wait for me?" but instead only asked, "Have you seen her?"

  "No, not yet."

  "Oh, Mrs. Grand..." Rosalia pounced on Katherine, throwing her large arms around her with glee. "Our little girl is safe!"

  "Yes, yes," Katherine said, standing stiff while the housekeeper slobbered all over her. Rosalia bounced around the hospital room, her joy palpable, believable, causing smiles everywhere she turned, even among the usually grim federal agents. Katherine could already feel the conflict building up inside from the moment Wilcox said in his sedan, "You must be so happy to know that Charlotte is safe." And there it was, the expectation of a big, emotional reunion between grieving mother and lost child, the coming together of the most natural pair in the history of the world. For a woman who could turn any situation into a public-relations event, and probably had, Katherine didn't know how to be, what to do, and being face-to-face with the woman who made her feel most inferior as a mother was not helping bolster her confidence. She was relieved to see Maddox walk into the room.

  "Lenny!" she waved.

  "Where the hell is hospital security, that's what I want to know," Maddox said in a huff. "I could barely turn into the ambulatory lot, and are those reporters supposed to be so close to hospital grounds like that? Where's Charlotte?"

  "Come, we're going now," Phillip said.

  Phillip, Katherine, and Maddox followed the nurse away from the busyness of the main room to a private examination suite guarded by two officers. Jamie was sitting at the far back on a cot with Charlotte on her lap, and she was stroking her hair as a doctor pumped up a blood pressure band around the little girl's arm. Charlotte had a bag of potato chips hanging from one hand and Miss Beatrice from the other. When Jamie saw the governor and Mrs. Grand approach, she stood up.

  "Hi," Jamie said, and for the first time in several days, she felt awkward holding the little girl. "She's okay, I think... I wouldn't give her to anyone else."

  Charlotte's eyes grew wide upon seeing the governor.

  "Da Da Da Da," she said, dropping the potato chips onto the floor and reaching out her arms, Miss Beatrice dangling by a single strand of yarn from between two of Charlotte's grubby fingers.

  "My girl..." Phillip swooped down and swung Charlotte in the air and then brought her down into a giant hug. She felt wonderful in his arms, like a radiating ball of love. "Look at you." He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her neck. "You look so big. Doesn't she, Katherine?"

  And filthy, Katherine thought, nodding. A half-hearted sense of relief settled upon her, seeing her daughter once again in her husband's arms and knowing that Charlotte was, indeed, safe and seemingly unharmed, but Katherine still felt as if she were atop a rocky precipice. One false step...

  Sensing her ambivalence, Phillip took Katherine's hand, placed it over the little girl's hand and cupped his on top, reminding her of a huddled football team strategizing before a big play.

  "It's going to be okay," he whispered, taking Charlotte's hand and slapping it lightly against Katherine's cheek. "Ma Ma Ma Ma," he said, making Charlotte laugh.

  "Phillip, stop," Katherine said quietly, embarrassed. "Not here."

  "Mo Mo Mo," Charlotte said, bringing the fingertips of her hands together.

  Phillip leaned in so that Charlotte could tap Katherine's cheeks and then wrapped his arms around his wife as the others in the examination room smiled.

  "Hello, I'm Leonard Maddox, Governor Grand's press secretary." Maddox said, walking over to Jamie and breaking the silence.

  "Jamie Carter." Jamie shook his hand.

  "Jamie Carter, you saved my daughter's life," Phillip said.

  "I don't know. I'm starting to think she saved mine."

  Looking at the little girl happy in the governor's hands, Jamie felt a pang of bereavement. She wondered how Charlotte would remember her one day, if at all: Jamie had gone from being a protector in an awful circumstance to being a reminder of it now that it was over, and while she felt sad at the prospect of never seeing Charlotte again, she could understand if that was what the governor decided was best for his daughter. Bailino had been right: loyalty wasn't as clearly defined as she once thought.

  The doctor stepped forward. "Governor, my name is Doctor Tucker."

  "Yes, doctor, how is she?" Phillip extended his hand.

  "Well, I did a preliminary exam of Charlotte, and, frankly, she seems fine. It's quite remarkable, actually, after all she's been through. A little dehydrated and undernourished, but other than that, I'd say she's perfectly healthy."

  "That's wonderful news!" Phillip said, lifting Charlotte into the air and eliciting a string of tired giggles from the little girl. "We can take her home then?"

  "You sure can."

  "What about Ms. Carter?" Katherine asked.

  "Yes, I'm okay. Thank you." Jamie touched the bruises on her face. "They look worse than they are."

  "The man who... had Charlotte..." Phillip started.

  Jamie shook her head. "I don't know what happened to him. He's gone." She tried not to think about that and just revel in the happiness of the moment, a reunited family, a safe place, but there was something hidden in the governor's gaze that brought to the surface what she had spent the last few hours trying to suppress—the prospect of a future where Don Bailino could jump out from any corner.

  "Have you spoken to the police?"

  Jamie had. She told them everything she knew. She thought about what Joey had asked her, if she could keep quiet, and decided that she couldn't. "They want me to come down to the station for more questioning and, well, because they're worried about my safety... You know, since they can't seem to find him, Don Bailino."

  Katherine flinched again at the mention of his name, when Special Agent Wilcox came into the room.

  "Any news, Agent Wilcox?" Phillip asked.

  "We sent agents to his house, Don Bailino, the log cabin. He wasn't there, which really wasn't a surprise." Wilcox shook his head. "But we found the body of Detective Mark Nurberg at the side of the house, in front of his car. He had been shot in the forehead."

  Small gasps filled the room as the governor bowed his head, his thoughts turning to the boyish face of the detective. He wished he could take back the hostility he had felt, and inadvertently showed, toward Nurberg, who had only been trying to do his job when it was Phillip himself who had been the one with something to hide.

  "Why would he be there?" Katherine asked.

  "I don't know," Wilcox said. "There were two other men found at the scene as well. Also killed. Based on Ms. Car
ter's story, we've been able to identify them as Tony Seti and Benjamin Bracco."

  "But I don't understand. I had just spoken to..." Phillip remembered the phone call to Nurberg, the silence on the other end. His heart sank.

  "Sir?" Wilcox said.

  "When Reynaldo called me, I called Detective Nurberg to ask him what to do, where I should have Reynaldo take Charlotte."

  "You called him before me?" Wilcox asked. "Nurberg had been taken off the case."

  "I know, I know... I guess I wasn't thinking clearly. And I thought we had a bad connection, and I gave him the location of Reynaldo's car."

  "Do you think Nurberg could have been working with... Don Bailino?" Katherine asked. It was the first time she had uttered his name; it felt sour on her tongue. "And perhaps they had a falling out?"

  Phillip again thought about the earnestness of Nurberg's face in the Drawing Room when he had questioned Phillip about his little trip to Taryn's Diner. He found it hard to believe that Nurberg had been involved.

  "We just don't know yet," Wilcox said.

  "Bailino left every day," Jamie said. "But I can't say for sure who he was meeting with."

  "His nephew—or whoever he is—Joey Santelli, Gino Cataldi's grandson, is here at the hospital." Wilcox said. "He's being guarded on the off chance Bailino tries to visit him."

  "What happened to him?" Jamie asked. During the police officers' questioning, she had faltered somewhat when they had asked about Joey, not knowing exactly how to explain his involvement. Children, of course, couldn't help the families they were born into, but did that excuse his complicity? And while she knew that it was, at least in part, because of Joey that she had made it out of the river alive, was that enough for her to keep quiet?

  "He was found by the river, a few miles down from the log cabin by some vacationers who got stuck out in the water when the rainstorm started. The doctors said he was in bad shape when he got here, but he's in stable condition now."

  Det. Grohl of the Albany Police came into the room. There was a sadness in his eyes that hadn't been there when he had questioned Jamie earlier that morning; she imagined it was a result of hearing the news about the detective in his department. "Excuse me, Governor, Mrs. Grand, I need to take Ms. Carter to the station for additional questioning."