Red Picket Fences

by Daphne McLean

  “Wait,” Jennifer said. “He’s claiming responsibility? Do people go around admitting to murder like that?”

  “From what I understand, he’s not outright bragging about it,” Jimmy said. “It’s more like people are assuming, and he’s just not clarifying.”

  Jennifer turned to Peter. “Pete, are we sure Ethan borrowed money from Vinny?”

  “Well, Ethan said he had some business to talk to him about. So, I’m not one hundred percent sure,” Peter replied. “What are we looking for out here, anyway?”

  The truth was, neither Jennifer nor Jimmy knew.

  “I guess I just wanted to see Vinny in action,” Jennifer said. “Maybe he’ll do something, or someone will stop by who could give us a clue. Maybe he’ll drop an important document. I don’t know. I guess this trip is a waste.”

  Jennifer started to feel foolish. What was she doing? This wasn’t television, it was real life, and she wasn’t a trained professional. She had to keep reminding herself of that.

  Jimmy sat silent for a moment. Then he said, “I’m just relieved someone sees this whole situation the same way I do. I really wanted to catch a glimpse of Vinny, hoping I could tell just by looking at him if he did it. I guess from a police standpoint, it’s useful to get to know people’s routines. Heck, this might be one of many stakeouts, unless the autopsy confirms the chief’s findings. That report should be complete soon. Sarah’s and Ethan’s bodies were released just yesterday, in time for the funerals. We should hear something by Monday.”

  “That’s tomorrow,” Jennifer said. The thought that all of this could be wrapped up by tomorrow saddened her. That would mean Ethan was guilty, and she wasn’t quite ready to face that yet.

  Just then, an elderly woman with rollers in her hair emerged from Vinny’s house.

  “Who’s that old lady?” Peter asked.

  “Shhhhhh!” Jennifer and Jimmy said in unison.

  The woman shuffled slowly across the porch and scooted down the front steps, gripping the black wrought-iron banister. She made her way to the end of the walkway and squinted at the van.

  Everyone ducked down. Jennifer managed to peek her head over the window just enough to see the woman, who was wearing pink slippers and a floral zip-up housecoat, bend down to pick up the newspaper, turn and shuffle back towards the house.

  The front door opened again, and out came a stocky, olive-skinned man wearing a white t-shirt and athletic shorts.

  “Ma! I woulda got the paper for you. It’s freezin’ outside. C’mon, let me help you in.”

  Vinny looked across the street at the van, also squinting. His gaze lingered for a moment, but he then turned his attention to the woman, who was apparently his mother, as she made her way back up the stairs. He looked back one last time before closing the door.

  Jennifer, Jimmy and Peter all let out a sigh of relief.

  “Well, we saw him,” Peter said.

  Jimmy sat staring in disbelief. “Our potential suspect helps his elderly mother up the stairs?”

  “Our potential suspect still lives with his mother,” Jennifer said.

  “So, what do we do with this information?” Jimmy asked.

  Jennifer had begun to say that she wanted to go home when the door to the van swung open. There stood Vinny, looking very angry, holding a baseball bat in his hand. The trio had been so distracted by their conversation that they must have missed the fact that he had come back outside.

  “You didn’t lock the van, Jimmy?” Jennifer asked incredulously.

  “Jimmy, eh? Is that your name?” Vinny asked.

  “Uhm … no,” Jimmy replied. He was nervous, and everyone knew it. He held his hands up in surrender.

  “Okay, tough guy,” Vinny replied. “You have one minute to explain why you’ve been sitting outside of my house all day in a van with a fake business logo on it. This is the age of Google, people. Get smarter.”

  “Don’t whack us!” Peter shouted.

  Jennifer looked at her two protectors and shook her head. “Put down the bat and we’ll talk,” she said.

  Vinny looked at the two men in the car, who were practically cowering, and put the bat down. “Tough broad,” he said. “Start talkin’.”

  Jennifer would usually mind being called a broad, but for some reason, maybe since it was coming from a man wearing Adidas sandals and socks, she didn’t mind so much. She didn’t know where to begin, because she had to play this smartly, but she had no idea how. So she muttered the first thing that came to mind.

  “Word on the street is, you took care of a guy and his wife in New Jersey for non-payment. Is that true?” She was apparently going for the direct approach.

  Vinny puffed out his chest, tilted his head and smiled slyly. “Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t,” he said. “What’s it to you? Are you wired? Are you a cop?”

  “He is,” Peter said, sheepishly pointing to Jimmy.

  Jennifer held her breath. She knew this could go very bad very quick. She reminded herself to never let Peter come on another stakeout.

  “I’m off duty, and I’m here on my own,” Jimmy said. “I’m not even in your jurisdiction. I can’t arrest you for anything.”

  “That’s right, tough guy,” Vinny said. “You can’t do squat to me. One, because I have a bat and you don’t, and two, because I didn’t do nothin’. I’m off to call my lawyer now. Ciao.”

  Vinny turned to leave.

  “Wait!” Jennifer yelled. “Please, don’t go. We’re not here to make trouble. We’re just looking for the truth. Did you know Ethan Ashton?”

  She knew he did. If he lied, then he had something to hide. If not, then maybe Vinnie wasn’t their guy.

  “I did,” Vinny said. “Are we done here? Actually, I’m gonna need your badge number, tough guy.”

  Jennifer knew in that moment that Vinny hadn’t murdered Ethan or Sarah. She decided to try one last test on Vinny just to make sure. She looked at Jimmy and Peter.

  “Guys, we’re wasting this guy’s time,” she said. “He doesn’t know anything.” She made sure to speak loudly enough for Vinny to hear. “We’re going to have to prove Ethan is innocent some other way. Let’s pack it up.”

  Vinny turned around. “Youse guys think he was framed?”

  They all nodded.

  “Are you friends of his?” Vinny asked.

  “We didn’t know him long, but I think we were on our way there,” Peter said. Jennifer gave his shoulder a squeeze.

  “Any friend of Ethan’s is a friend of mine,” Vinny said. His tone softened. “Wanna come in? I think we’ve got some things to discuss.”

  The trio were still unsure, and looked at each other.

  “Ma’s makin’ her famous Sunday gravy. She cooks for an army.”

  All at once, they got out of the van and walked towards the house.

  Chapter 13

  “Oh, that poor boy,” Mrs. Malone (who insisted on being called Mama) said as she stirred the sauce on the stove. She tapped a well-loved wooden spoon on the side of the pot and placed it on the spoon holder. Then she made the sign of the cross and kissed her hand at the mention of Ethan’s name.

  Vinny was sitting at the table with his hands folded, looking down. He just shook his head sadly at his mother’s remark.

  “So, you think Ethan is innocent as well?” Jennifer asked.

  Mama shuffled around the group, putting pasta bowls and wine glasses on the table.

  “One hundred percent,” Vinny responded.

  Mama poured two boxes of rigatoni pasta into the salty bubbling water.

  “Can I help you with anything, Mrs. Malone?” Jennifer asked.

  “Sit, sit, sit!” Mama said. “You are my guests. Please call me Mama. Everyone does.”

  “Pete, here, mentioned that youse guys didn’t know Ethan all that long,�
� Vinny said. “What makes you think he’s innocent?”

  “Honestly?” Jennifer said. “It may sound weird, but my intuition is telling me that he wasn’t capable of murder.”

  “It’s a gut feeling,” Jimmy said.

  “It also doesn’t hurt that there was fresh blood found outside the house,” Peter said as he was stuffing his third piece of crusty buttered Italian bread into his mouth.

  “Peter!” Jennifer and Jimmy scolded.

  “What?” Peter asked. He was clueless.

  “I must ask you to please refrain from disclosing that information to anyone, Mr. Malone,” Jimmy said. “We haven’t gotten the results back yet from the lab, and we don’t know if the blood is linked to the crime scene. Plus, we don’t want to spook any potential suspects, if there are any.”

  “Understood,” Vinny said. “I knew Ethan for years. Him and his best friend Joey were good buddies with my kid cousin. I don’t know anyone who would want to hurt him. I was real happy to see he started running on the straight and narrow.” He leaned in and whispered to the group, “That’s what I’m tryin’ to do.”

  “I heard that, Vincent,” Mama said as she stirred the pasta.

  Jennifer made a mental note to check out Ethan’s best friend Joey. “If you knew Ethan so well, then why would you claim responsibility for his murder?” she asked.

  “Vincent Anthony Malone! What have you done?” Mama yelled, smacking Vinny with the dishtowel that had been slung over her shoulder.

  “Ma, quit it! I didn’t do nothin’!” Vinny yelled.

  “You better not have! You may be forty-seven years old, but you’re never too old for this!” Mama waved the wooden spoon around.

  “Lemme talk,” he replied.

  Jennifer straightened in her chair and was eager to listen.

  “Like I was sayin,” Vinny continued, “I knew Ethan when he was a kid and was getting into trouble. I used to help him out now and then with money, but he always paid me back with interest. Joey contacted me a few months back about some job he wanted me to help out with. He needed me to front him some cash for it. I honestly didn’t want to know much. Joey’s a good kid who makes bad choices. He stiffed me on small amounts a few times, and I let it slide because he was good friends with my cousin. He told me that he tried unsuccessfully to rope Ethan back in, and he was angry with him. Being the older and wiser individual that I am, I talked to him about it. I explained that Ethan had a family to worry about now, and that changes things.”

  “I would love for you to have a family to worry about,” Mama chimed in.

  Vinny rolled his eyes at her and continued. “Where was I? Oh, so I basically told Joey to take a chill pill, and it seemed like he understood. I also reminded him that I was trying go legit as well. Joey mentioned Ethan’s app, and I said that if Ethan ever needed an investor, to send him my way.”

  “That doesn’t explain why you took responsibility for his murder,” Jimmy said.

  “Oh, that.” Vinny waved his hand dismissively. “I’ve never really been an enforcer. I guess that’s why I stayed under the radar the way I did. I kept a handful of longtime clients to float me until I decided what I wanted to do next. One client in particular thought I was a softy and refused to pay. I let him think I did the murder, hoping he’d be scared enough to cough up the cash he owed me. Lo and behold, the next day there’s a bag of cash on my front step. Paid in full.”

  “I knew it!” Jennifer said as she smacked Jimmy on the shoulder in excitement. “I told you!”

  Peter smiled lovingly at his wacky wife. Jimmy let out a little laugh and put his hands up jokingly as if he were surrendering for the second time that evening.

  “Ethan mentioned that you two had business to discuss the last time we talked. Did you end up investing?” Peter asked. He was finally catching up.

  “I did,” Vinny said. “Apparently, Ethan had a big meeting with some investors from California. He blew it big-time in front of them and spoke to Joey about it. Joey mentioned that I was interested in investing, so I talked to Ethan that night. Bada-bing, we were in business.”

  “So you were an investor. You must have lost a bundle when he died,” Jimmy said.

  “Money’s just money,” Vinny said. “I know that sounds crazy coming from a washed-up old loan shark, but I did lose a lot when Ethan died.” He paused, and his eyes welled up with tears. “I lost a friend.”

  Mama gently patted her son on the back. “You’re a good boy, Vinny,” she said, and kissed him on the head.

  Vinny took a breath to shake off the grief, clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Pasta ready yet?” he asked.

  Jennifer took that as a cue to change the subject. She stood up and helped Mama bring a huge platter of meatballs, sausage, pork ribs, and braciola to the table. They all passed their bowls around, and Mama served them steamy, delicious pasta. Vinny poured the red wine and raised his glass for a toast.

  “To Ethan and Sarah, may they both rest in peace,” he said.

  “To Ethan and Sarah,” the rest of the group replied, raising their glasses. They took a sip of their wine, and then began to dive into the deliciousness before them.

  “Speaking of legit,” Peter said. “This sauce is delicious!”

  Jimmy and Jennifer nodded in agreement, their mouths full of meatballs.

  “You should sell this! A sauce like this would be a godsend for busy moms like me,” Jennifer said.

  Mama pretended to pass out, and Vinny laughed.

  “This old broad ain’t never gonna spill her secret recipe. Would you, Ma?”

  “Never,” Mama replied. “Save room for dessert! I have cookies and cannoli!”

  The day hadn’t quite played out how Jennifer had thought it would. She wasn’t even sure what she had expected, but she had hoped she would find something out to help her case along. She prepared herself that she’d likely go home empty-handed. She certainly could never have imagined herself sitting at the table of a man she had suspected of murder one short hour ago. It was insane to think that she and Peter were here together following their hunches.

  Hearing what Vinny had to say had only fueled her desire for the truth. She wanted to talk to Joey, but as far as Jennifer knew, he was a suspect as well. She wasn’t sure if she would end up this lucky twice. She decided to leave her number with Vinny, and he could pass it along to Joey.

  It didn’t matter right now, anyway. There was no real proof that Ethan was innocent. So far, Jennifer’s intuition was serving her well. Only time and an autopsy report would tell.

  Chapter 14

  Jennifer was in a deep sleep. It was the most peaceful sleep she’d had in a long time. In fact, she was sleeping so soundly that the fire trucks she was dreaming about were really the sound of Peter’s alarm going off.

  Peter never slept through his alarm. When Jennifer finally realized it was the alarm and not fire trucks, she groggily rolled over to nudge Peter.

  She nudged him, and then did it again, but he snored away. Finally, she raised her voice and said, “Pete, wake up!” and he finally roused.

  “Ugh … So — much - wine,” he muttered.

  “And bread, and pasta, and cannoli,” Jennifer replied. “I’m so happy William was asleep when we came home.”

  She was still feeling full and slightly hung over from the night before. She didn’t drink all that often, so the few glasses she’d had had gone straight to her head.

  She replayed the evening in her mind to make sure she hadn’t said or done anything too foolish. After a quick scan of her brain about the evening, she concluded that everyone had behaved, and just then it hit her.

  “Pete, was I at some point wearing Jimmy’s police hat?”

  Peter let out a laugh. “Ohh, yeah. You were flashing his badge and swinging around his handcuffs while you were talking like a detecti
ve from an old movie.”

  “It was pretty hysterical!” said a voice from the living room.

  It was Suzanne. Jennifer hopped out of bed and walked into her living room to find her friend, who had slept on the couch. It all came back to her: the hat, the badge, the handcuffs, and the fact that she had begged Suzanne to stay because she wanted a sober person in the house.

  “Thanks for staying. I appreciate it,” Jennifer said.

  “No problem. Your couch is pretty comfy.” Suzanne paused. “Are you going to tell me why you two came home a bit tipsy with an out-of-uniform police officer as an escort?”

  After her talk with Vinny, Jennifer had already decided to tell Suzanne everything.

  “Let’s go for a walk, and I’ll fill you in,” she said. “I need some fresh air, but first, William needs breakfast, and we all need some coffee.”

  “Agreed,” Suzanne replied.

  Jennifer walked into William’s room to find him just starting to wake up. He had the sweetest sleepy face on the entire planet. She scooped him up, smelled the top of his sweet little head, and hugged him tight.

  “I missed you, buddy. Want some breakfast?” she asked.

  “Pan-takes, Mama!” William replied.

  Pancakes it was. Jennifer changed his diaper, set out some blocks and started mixing up a batch of big fluffy pancakes.

  “Are you nuts? You went on a stakeout?” Suzanne shouted. “I’m dumbfounded, gobsmacked, bewildered, and flabbergasted.”

  “Aren’t those all the same thing?” Jennifer asked.

  The women were now on their third lap around the neighborhood, on their way to taking their fourth. Jennifer had told Suzanne everything, from her arson theory, the blood on the fence, and conspiring with Jimmy, all the way through to the stakeout and her conversation with Vinny.

  “I suppose they are,” Suzanne replied. “I just can’t believe you kept this all from me.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry,” Jennifer said. “I just didn’t think you were ready to hear all of it. Especially the part about Ethan potentially being innocent.”