“Good,” Lo Manto said. “I like him already.”
They fell in a heap onto her bed, shedding clothes as if they were on fire, releasing the grip they had both kept on their passion for so long, across so many empty and often violent nights, free at last to love and be loved. Afterward, they fell into a deep and exhausted sleep, arms gripped tightly around each other, breathing and moving as one, both having found the missing piece to the puzzle that was their lives.
And when they woke, both Jennifer Fabini and Giancarlo Lo Manto knew they would be in each other’s life forever.
EPILOGUE
LO MANTO SAT on a lounge chair near gate 44A at John F. Kennedy International Airport, waiting for a seven-forty night flight to Italy to begin boarding. His niece, Paula, sat next to him, her head buried in an Andrea Camilleri novel, a stuffed backpack jammed next to her feet. “Are you happy to be going home?” he asked her.
“It’s been an interesting summer, Zio,” she said. “But it will be nice to see the family again. Work with Nonna in her garden. Be with my friends.”
“And school is just a few weeks away,” he said. “That should keep you plenty busy.”
“How much do you want me to tell my parents?” she asked. “About what happened?”
“Whatever makes you feel comfortable,” he said. “And on your own time. It’s not something you should be forced into doing.”
“What do they know?”
“That you were never in any danger,” Lo Manto said. “That the man who took you didn’t mean you any harm.”
“What has Nonna been told?” she asked.
“Pretty much the same,” Lo Manto said. “She just knows more than the others. It will be easier for her to put the pieces together.”
“Has it changed, the way you feel about her?” Paula asked.
“Yes, it has,” her uncle said. “It’s made me love her even more.”
“I guess you had no plans to say good-bye,” Jennifer Fabini said. She stood above him, Felipe next to her, his arms filled with magazines and candy bars.
“I thought I did,” Lo Manto said. He stood and reached out for her hand and held it, glancing at Felipe and his haul. “But I’m happy to see you all the same.”
“I’m actually here on a police matter,” she said, her warm eyes betraying the harsh tone of her words.
“Let’s hear it,” Lo Manto said.
Jennifer reached into the right rear pocket of her jeans and pulled out a boarding pass and a passport. “This ticket and passport is made out to Felipe,” she said. “Both of them courtesy of the New York Police Department. It’s good for a three-week visit, then he has to haul ass back here to start school.”
Lo Manto nodded. “I don’t suppose he has a place to stay?” he asked.
“He’s got no home here,” she said. “What are the odds he has one in Italy?”
“Did you pay for any of those magazines and candies?” he asked the boy. “And tell me the truth.”
“No,” Felipe said. “I lifted them when the lady cop was in the bathroom. She’s not on me as much as you are.”
“She doesn’t know you as well,” Lo Manto said, smiling. He pointed to the girl next to him. “This is my niece, Paula. They just called our flight. The two of you get on the plane and try not to steal anything on the way there. I’ll just be a few minutes.”
The two teens nodded at each other awkwardly and walked together toward the open gate of Flight 614 direct to Rome. Lo Manto and Jennifer stood close to each other, watching them hand their tickets and passports to an airline representative. “She might teach him how to speak Italian,” she said. “He’s a smart kid, he might pick up a lot in a few weeks.”
“And he might teach her to steal and not get caught,” Lo Manto said with a smile. “Life lessons learned on both ends.”
“You going right back to work, or you going to take some time?” she asked, standing close enough to smell the rich Italian cologne he wore. It was the same as that worn by his brother, Pete Rossi.
“I have a month,” he said. “I thought I’d spend a week of it with my mother, help her sort out whatever she wants to touch. Then, if my luck holds, I’ll finally get a crack at that Capri vacation. Nothing but good food, great beaches, and a lot of sun.”
“I’ve never been to Capri,” Jennifer said, staring into Lo Manto’s eyes. “Is it as beautiful as everyone says?”
“It’s the people on the island who make it beautiful,” Lo Manto said, his right hand brushing against the side of Jennifer’s arm. “You should see for yourself and then decide. You’re not the type of woman who makes up her mind based on what everyone else says about a place or a person.”
“I have three weeks’ vacation due me,” Jennifer said. “The captain said I could take them any time I want.”
“Then you should take them,” Lo Manto said. “Go someplace warm. A place with great food, a hot sun, and long white beaches. A place like Capri. You think you’ll be able to find it okay? It’s pretty far away.”
“I’ll find it,” Jennifer said. “I’m a cop. It’s what I do. Remember?”
“You’re a great cop,” Lo Manto said. He picked up his gray leather duffel bag and moved toward the check-in counter. “The best I’ve ever known.”
“Have a safe flight, Gianni,” she said, giving him a slight wave. “And try not to get shot for a while. It might do you some good.”
“I’ll see you on the beach, Detective,” he said to her as he turned away. “I’ll keep a chair waiting and the wine chilled.”
Giancarlo Lo Manto handed a dark-haired woman in a blue starched suit his boarding pass and then quietly disappeared down the walkway of flight 614.
The cop from Naples was going back home.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LORENZO CARCATERRA is the author of Street Boys, Gangster, A Safe Place, and the New York Times bestsellers Sleepers and Apaches. He is a writer and producer for Law & Order, and he has also written scripts for other television series and motion pictures. Learn more about his work at www.LorenzoCarcaterra.com.
ALSO BY LORENZO CARCATERRA
A Safe Place: The True Story of a Father, a Son, a Murder
Sleepers
Apaches
Gangster
Street Boys
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 2004 by Lorenzo Carcaterra
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of
The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Carcaterra, Lorenzo.
Paradise City: a novel / by Lorenzo Carcaterra.
p. cm.
1. Italians—United States—Fiction. 2. Police—Italy—Fiction. 3. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.
4. Missing persons—Fiction. I. Title.
ps3553.a653p37 2004
813′.54—dc22 2004054455
eISBN: 978-0-345-48044-6
v3.0
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