“I don’t think I really realized that my mother was dead until my brother and I signed the escrow papers and moved her things out of the house.”
Charlie called out from the open back door. “Hey, anybody here?”
Melanie recognized his voice and walked in the back to let him in. “Charlie, come in.”
“I took a chance on finding you here.”
“I thought I’d better get this stuff out of here as soon as possible.”
He nodded and followed her back.
“Oh, Charlie. This is my good friend, Sandra.”
The two exchanged niceties.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Charlie said. “but I need to ask you a couple of questions about Connie.”
“Sure.”
“I’ve been going through his bank statements.”
“What for?”
“Somebody wanted him dead, and until we find out why, we won’t know who.”
Melanie smiled. “Well, they certainly didn’t kill him for his money. He didn’t have much.”
“Not until recently, anyway.” Charlie said. “Was he a gambler?”
“Connie?” She said with surprise. “No. He wouldn’t even bet on the World Series. He thought gambling was for suckers.”
“Any wealthy relatives die lately?”
“Not that I know of. Why?”
“Because he deposited fifty thousand dollars cash into his account a couple of weeks ago.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“That’s strange.”
Charlie looked around the bar in disarray. “Pretty tough day, huh?”
She nodded. “I’ll get through it.”
“Well, you take care.” Charlie said and made his way to the back door.
Melanie trailed behind him. “Charlie?”
“Yeah?”
She took him aside and spoke in a low voice. “I want you to know that I have thought a lot about you over the years, and I’m really glad we’ve had a chance to know each other again. Even under these lousy circumstances.”
He placed his hand on her arm and squeezed it. Melanie gazed up at the yearning in his face, and she covered his hand with hers.
“Mel, I wan—”
Then Sandra walked in on them with a question for Melanie.
Charlie cleared his throat. “Well, thanks for the info. You take care. Uh, you too. Sandra.”
Sandra and Melanie went back to work in silence. After an awkward moment, Sandra said. “You know, I wouldn’t go out with a cop again to save my alimony, but I would kill to have Charlie look at me just once, the way he looks at you.”
◆◆◆
Two days later, Melanie’s phone rang. “Hi, it’s Charlie.”
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I came up with a lead on Adriana. You able to take a ride to Santa Barbara on Saturday?”
“Santa Barbara, huh? I’ll make time.”
“Good. Where can I meet you?”
At the McDonalds, right before the northbound onramp of the 101.”
“Ten okay?”
“Perfect.”
After picking her up, Charlie explained they were going to The Capri Deli, where Adriana had worked before showing up in San Pedro. They filled the hour-and-fifteen-minute ride with small talk, as if they both feared broaching subjects too difficult for them to handle.
They strolled into the small store, trying not to make their intentions obvious to the line of customers waiting at the check-out and deli counters. When the lines had thinned, Charlie approached a man in his fifties. “We’re looking for Mr. or Mrs. Frank Bettini.”
“I’m Frank. What can I do for you?”
Charlie explained the reason for their visit, and Frank called his wife before directing them into an office. Once inside the cramped space, Charlie brought up Adriana.
The wife, Anna, didn’t hesitate before filling them in. “Frank invited her for a vacation, and they stayed almost three months. Her and that Marco guy.”
Frank threw her an irritated look. “My cousin called from Italy and asked if her Greek husband’s niece could stay with us. I like keeping in touch with family over there, so I said sure. How’d I know she’d bring that deadbeat boyfriend?”
“What do you know about him?”
“Apparently he’s her stepbrother, Anna said. “Only I accidently walked in on them, and caught them carrying sibling love a little too far.”
“All I know is she was willing to help out around here, but he never seemed to have the time; always off somewhere,” Frank said.
Melanie spoke up. “Did they tell you where they were going when they left?”
“No. I figured since their visas were up, they went back home.”
Anna had the last word. “Yeah, with my jewelry and three thousand dollars from our safe.”
◆◆◆
After the Bettini’s officially reported the crime, Santa Barbara Police Department put a warrant out on Adriana and Marco. Charlie notified Harbor Division robbery detectives, Previn and McCall, of Adriana’s whereabouts in San Pedro. They wasted no time before arresting her and taking her to Harbor Station.
Charlie called Melanie, told her what had just gone down and asked her to meet him and Scott at the station. He hadn’t mentioned to Scott the suspect that they were about to interrogate was Adriana. So when Scott saw her sitting there with the detectives, he didn’t know what to think.
“Adriana, what are doing here?” He glared at Charlie. “What the hell is going on?”
Adriana cried out. “They want to put me in jail.”
“On what charge?” Scott said.
“Grand Theft,” Detective Previn said.
“Of what?”
Detective McCall came forward. “We picked her up on a Santa Barbara PD warrant. According to a Mr. and Mrs. Bettini of the Capri Deli, she and her friend, Marco, stole some jewelry and three thousand dollars from their safe while they were staying with them.”
Scott looked at Adriana. “Who are these Bettini’s?”
“Distant relatives.”
“This Marco guy came with her from Greece, but has kept a low profile here in Pedro,” Previn said.
McCall jumped in. “So low that we need Ms. Dimakos’s help locating him.”
Melanie slipped into the doorway unnoticed.
Scott had had enough. “She doesn’t know where he is.”
Melanie declared from the back of the room. “That’s not true, Scott.”
He spun around to face his mother.
“She’s been seeing him all this time.”
“They called you, too?”
“No, honey. I called them.”
Scott lashed out at Melanie. “You did this?” He took a breath and said to the detectives, “Can we have the room?”
Previn and McCall turned to leave.
Scott peered over at Charlie. “You too.”
Behind closed doors, Scott glared at his mother. “I should’ve known. You were determined to get rid of her, weren’t you?”
Melanie hated herself at that moment for betraying him and couldn’t speak.
He turned to Adriana. “Do you know where Marco is?”
She didn’t answer, so he asked Melanie, “How did you know about those Santa Barbara people?”
Melanie answered in a loud whisper. “Charlie ran a check on her for me.”
“Un-fucking-believable! You two are a pair.”
He eyed Adriana. “You stole money from your own relatives?”
“Marco and I were broke, and we needed to get down here.”
“When’s the last time you saw him?”
“Last week.”
“You told me you barely knew him, and you hadn’t seen him since that night we—since that night.”
Melanie wished she could wrap her arms around him and make the hurt go away. But she blamed herself, and she’d be lucky if he ever talked to her again.
“Why don’t you tell them w
here he is?” He said to Adriana with resignation. “They won’t be so hard on you.”
“No.”
“You’d take the rap for him?”
She nodded.
He rubbed his neck. “What were we all about?”
Adriana peered up at Melanie. “I had to make her pay.”
“You would’ve married me for revenge?”
She stared at the wall in silence, and Scott walked out of the room, leaving the two women alone.
Melanie stood up to leave, but Adriana stopped her. “You don’t know what it’s like to have nothing of your own, always somebody’s leftovers. To not have what’s rightfully yours.”
“Maybe not, but I do know what it is to not be able to have the thing you want most. To settle for what’s leftover. I know what it is to charm someone who loves you into making up for that, because I did it.”
“So, we are alike.”
Melanie glared at her and nodded. “That’s why you should have known I would never stand by and watch you destroy the most important thing in the world to me.”
◆◆◆
Scott took the next few days off. He had plenty of sick days available, and the way he felt, it wasn’t a lie. He likened his pain to a run-in with a Mack truck. He ignored all phone calls and tried to work it out of his system on the treadmill. Despite what had happened, he loved Adriana, missed coming home to her and having her in his bed. He tried to toss her things away, but somehow, they were a comfort, as if she were still there.
He couldn’t face Charlie and didn’t want to talk to his mother, because he was still pissed at them for conspiring against him. He didn’t even want to call his friends. How could he tell them about the humiliation he’d suffered?
By the third day, he began to realize that no one was to blame, but himself. How could I let that bitch use me? Mom and Charlie saw through her and tried to warn me, but I was thinking with my dick. After a few days of admitting he had fucked up, he went back to work and answered his mother’s calls.
◆◆◆
With no good leads to Connie’s killer, Scott and Charlie made the rounds of the local bars in search of one of Connie’s buddies. Scott spotted him perched on a barstool wearing his tattered sea captain’s hat.
He hopped up on the stool next to him. “Arthur? Recognize me? I’m Scott Swain from McNeil’s Pub. Benny’s grandson.”
Arthur turned toward him and squinted. “Oh yeah. How the fuck are ya, kid? When you gonna open McNeil’s again? This place is a dump.”
“My Mom’s selling it.”
“Oh, that’s a damn shame.”
“Yeah, it is. Hey, we wanted to ask you a few questions about Connie. That okay with you?” He pointed to Charlie. “This is my partner, Charlie Moore.”
“Sure. You arrest those mother fucking assholes who shot him yet?”
“No, not yet. We need some more information. Did Connie mention anything about coming into quite a bit of money lately?”
Arthur shifted on his stool and took gulp of from his glass.
“Scott noticed his hesitation. “No matter what you say, you can only help Connie now. You can’t hurt him.”
“Well, he said he saw something a long time ago, and some fucker was going to have to pay him some big money to keep his mouth shut.”
Scott caught Charlie’s eye. “Did he say what it was he knew?”
“No, but he said he waited a long time to be able to collect on it.”
The pair thanked Arthur and turned to walk out. “Okay,” Charlie said to Scott, “tell me what you found out about the Mancini case.
Scott filled him in on what he’d learned.
“So,” Charlie said, “what was Connie waiting for all that time?
“You got me.”
“Let’s start with the elusive Sergio,” Charlie said. “See if he even had fifty thousand to protect his ass.”
Scott’s mind had wandered. “Jesus,” he said, “I knew Connie saw something that night. Now at least I know it wasn’t Benny. And all these years Mom blamed him.”
◆◆◆
Melanie picked up the ringing phone and heard Scott say he was on his way to see her. He hadn’t said why. Why would he come all the way up here on a work day? He had sounded strange on the phone, and she worried it might have something to do with Adriana. They had only spoken briefly since the arrest, and she wasn’t convinced he had forgiven her. While she waited, she made some iced tea, his favorite soft drink, and tried to busy herself.
He came in the back door. “Mom? Where are you?” With no response, he wandered to the back of the house and found her in the workout room.
Melanie stepped down off the bike when she saw him and led him into the kitchen, where she poured him a glass of tea.
“Is something wrong? she said.
“No. Not really.”
She had to ask. “Does this have anything to do with Adriana?”
“No. Well, kinda, in an indirect way.”
She sat down at the table and motioned to him to do the same. “Well, what is it, honey? You seem upset.”
“Mom, I found out today that Connie probably knew all along who killed Mancini— and it wasn’t Grandpa.”
◆◆◆
The next day, Melanie cancelled her appointments and drove to Long Beach. She drove into the parking lot of All Soul’s Cemetery and made her way to her father and mother’s gravesites. As she placed flowers near his headstone for the first time, regret overwhelmed her. So much time wasted for what she’d thought he’d done. How could she have let him die shouldering her unsubstantiated accusations? She brushed away the tears streaming from her eyes.
“Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry.”
◆◆◆
Melanie now knew what she had to do. She had to keep her father’s bar at all costs. She called Dean and scheduled a meeting with him and a friend of hers, a notary public, at a small bistro in the Valley. Melanie arrived at the meeting with the appropriate papers to sign in order to remove her as owner of the auto dealership.
When all the t’s had been crossed, and i’s had been dotted, Melanie took some folded bills from her purse and handed them to her friend. “I appreciate your doing this for me.”
“You’re quite welcome. Have a good night.”
Dean watched her walk away and turned to Melanie. “Happy now?”
She ignored the remark. “I want any evidence showing I ever had anything to do with that dealership destroyed. My attorney will be contacting you.”
“All right, all right. I’ll take care of it.”
“And you can deliver a message to your friend, James. Tell him I have no intention of selling him my property, now or ever.”
Dean began to squirm. “But he won’t back down. I know him. He’ll do what he said he would.”
Melanie stood up and slung her purse strap over her shoulder. “Let him. Just remember, after he broadcasts what he knows, I’ll have nothing to lose—but you will.”
CHAPTER 11
Charlie and Scott’s search for Sergio began with a woman named Estella Hernandez. According to the 1973 files, she had been listed as Sergio’s girlfriend at the time of the murder. They found her still living in the area and parked themselves on her street, adjacent to her known residence.
From their vantage point, they had a perfect view of the small apartment building. After sitting there for a couple of hours, Scott saw a car pull into one of the carports outside the building.
“Look,” he nudged Charlie. “Could that be her?”
They watched an attractive woman in her forties get out and gather her bags from the trunk, and head for the building.
Charlie whistled his approval. They jumped out of their car and followed her.
“Estella Hernandez?” Scott called out.
Her head shot up. “Yes?” she said.
“Uh, didn’t mean to scare you, but—”
She shifted the bags in her arms. “Who are you and what do you want?�
��
Charlie flashed his badge at her. “LAPD.”
“What’s wrong? Is it my son?’
“Your son?” Scott said.
“No, ma’am. Nothing like that. We’re here about Sergio Oliva. Do you know where we might be able to find him?”
“You still looking for him?”
“Yeah. So you remember the 1973 case. Have you seen him lately?”
“No.”
“When’s the last time?”
“Long time ago.” She unlocked her apartment door. “We were a couple back then, but I don’t know any more now than I did before.”
She stepped inside, set the packages on the floor, and pulled the door to her.
Scott made a last-ditch effort. “Did he ever say anything about getting rid of Mancini?”
“Hey, I don’t know anything about that or Sergio. Now go away and leave me alone,” she said, as she shut the door in their faces.
Charlie shook his head on their way back to the car. “Either she was a pretty lousy lay, or he is guilty as hell. I can’t believe he wouldn’t have come back for more of that if he was in town.”
Scott smiled. “Pretty romantic notion coming from you, don’t ya think?”
Charlie shrugged. “I have my moments.”
◆◆◆
Two days later, Charlie walked up to Scott’s desk. “I just got a call from a Tony Hernandez.
“Who’s he?’
“Estella Hernandez’ son.”
Scott looked up at Charlie. “He ever hear of Sergio?”
“Sergio’s his ol’ man.”
Charlie had found out Tony was doing time at the county jail facility, so they drove there and asked to speak to him. They introduced themselves to a nineteen-year old man with a mustache and beard and asked why he’d called them.
“I can’t stand seeing my mother cry, and she was crying her eyes out yesterday.”
“That’s the reason you want to rat on Sergio? Because he made your mother cry?”
“The son of a bitch has been dropping in and out of our lives for years. He drops in when he’s horny and broke and leaves her a couple of days later with nothing but a sore back and an empty bank account.”
Charlie glanced at Scott with a smug smile.
Harbor Blues Page 9