Final Justice, page 14
So when Brattini asked him to keep travel tabs on anyone named DeLuca, or a dame called Rebecca Sherman, he could easily comply.
In appreciation for his assistance, he received cash gifts every month, a new car every two years, and a two bedroom condo in Miami Beach.
“Mmm, nice view,” mumbled Matthew as he looked out of the hotel window. “Grey and drab.”
The suite consisted of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large living room. There was a small refrigerator set into one of the cabinets and Matthew opened it, looking for a Coke.
“Want anything Mom?” he called out to Elizabeth who was unpacking in the next room.
“No thank you dear,” she said just as there was a knock on the door.
When Matthew opened it, the hotel’s concierge was standing there holding a huge bouquet of white gardenias wrapped in plastic and ribbons. The envelope pinned on the outside was addressed to his mother.
“Oh Mother dearest,” Matthew called out, a teasing lilt in his voice. “There’s something here for you!”
Elizabeth tried to keep her face expressionless as she opened the envelope. The card was simply signed, “Say it with flowers, Michael DeVillers.”
“What a thoughtful gesture,” she said to her son. “He really shouldn’t have done it.”
“What does this mean?” asked Matthew, enjoying the look of discomfort on his mother’s face. “Is he your beau?”
“Matthew, that’s ridiculous!” snapped Elizabeth. “Michael is in Toronto quite often for business, so when I told him that we were coming up here this weekend, he asked to take us both out for dinner. Someplace called Rodneys. Tomorrow night.”
“Well, you’ll have to brave it on your own,” answered Matthew. “The Bruins are in town to play the Maple Leafs and I’ve got two seats in the Reds.”
“When did you arrange that?” she asked wistfully, remembering the one and only hockey game she’d ever attended. It had been in Boston many years ago and the Bruins were hosting the New York Rangers. She quickly pushed the memories away.
“Peter got them for me from one of his friends before he left for Killington,” he answered. “I made him feel guilty about getting to spend a week skiing in Vermont while I got to spend the weekend babysitting you.”
The grin on his face was as wide as a cheshire cat’s, and Elizabeth couldn’t help smiling as she threw a cushion at him.
“Maybe I’ll call Meghan Lyons,” he continued. “She was such a cute kid, and I did promise to take her to a hockey game.
Elizabeth didn’t answer as she unwrapped the ribbons on the bouquet of gardenias and went looking for a vase.
Larry—do I want to open that door again?
“Matthew, I’m not sure you should call Meghan Lyons,” she said. “After all, her father is in some kind of law enforcement and our family should really keep its distance.”
“Oh come on Mom,” answered Matthew impatiently. “Those days are over. Besides, the kid is only eleven years old, and I hardly think she’ll turn out to be an undercover agent.”
He found the phone number in his jacket pocket.
“Hello, my name is Matthew DeLuca. I’d like to speak to Miss Meghan Lyons please.”
“Matthew!” Meghan cried out after her mother handed her the phone. “You remembered! Oh, I knew you would. I told my Daddy that you would. Ooh, I’m so excited!”
“Ah Meggie,” said Matthew laughing, “if only all the girls were as excited and enthusiastic at the sound of my voice as you.”
“Well, wait until I get my Mom back on the phone,” said Meghan. “She wants to speak to you herself.”
Elizabeth walked into Matthew’s room just as he put the receiver down.
“Well, it’s all arranged,” he said. “Meggie’s Dad is dropping her off here at four thirty tomorrow afternoon even though it’s his weekend with her. The kid and I are going to have a bite together before the game.
“Now, let’s you and me go and get a steak,” he went on. “I’m starving. It will be my treat.”
“Great idea,” answered Elizabeth. “But first I want to call Lisa Jacobs. I promised Rebecca that I’d see her while I was here.”
When they returned from dinner Matthew changed his sweater and then took off to meet some of his former school chums from his days at Upper Canada College.
“We’re going to hop around to a couple of bars,” Matthew called out as he opened the door. “Don’t wait up for me. See you later.”
There was a message from Lisa, and when Elizabeth called her back, they arranged to meet for brunch on Saturday.
So, everything I need to take care of is in place, thought Elizabeth. Everything, except my head.
The phone rang, jarring her.
“Well, I’m glad you arrived in one piece,” said Michael. “I’m in the car en route from the airport. Would you care to meet me for a drink?”
“Oh Michael, you are so thoughtful,” answered Elizabeth. “The flowers are exquisite. But I am really so tired that I just want to take a hot bath and crawl into bed. I’ll look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening”
“Right,” he answered. “I’ll pick you up at six-thirty. Bye now.”
Fifteen minutes later, just as she was beginning to unwind in the Jacuzzi, Elizabeth heard a persistent knock on the door. She pulled herself out of the tub, wrapped a large towel around her body and padded barefoot to the door. She assumed that it would be Michael DeVillers. It wasn’t.
“Larry! What are you doing here?”
“You and I have some unfinished business,” he answered moving past her into the foyer and putting the dead bolt on the door.
“And considering that I’ve been waiting for you for only fifteen years, I think that my patience deserves a medal.”
He took her in his arms and pressed his lips on hers. To her surprise, Elizabeth responded, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his.
“Elizabeth, Elizabeth,” Larry whispered in her ear. “You’ve been in my head for all these years.”
Elizabeth didn’t care when the towel wrapped around her body slipped to the floor. Larry’s eyes were full of passion and desire as his hands moved up the sides of her legs and around her buttocks. His caresses felt so gentle on her skin and when his hands reached her breasts, her nipples were already hard in anticipation of his touch. He lowered his head and began to lick them as shudders of ecstasy pulsed through her body.
She ran her hands through his hair and her lips along his shoulders as he continued sucking and nibbling on her breasts. His hand slid up between her legs and even before he slipped his fingers inside her, she knew how wet he’d find her.
Oh, this feels wonderful, she thought. It’s been so long.
Elizabeth gave into the sensations that were overwhelming her. Her hands moved around Larry’s waist and unclipped his belt and then the buttons on his pants. She slipped her hands inside his underwear as he groaned in response to her fingers stroking his penis. They stood locked together, their hands and fingers stimulating each other to the point of explosion.
Suddenly, Larry pulled her down onto the floor and spread her legs, leaning over her face, kissing her eyes, her lips, her neck, and then back up again to her lips.
“I want you so much,” he whispered, gazing into her green eyes. As his fingers stroked her clitoris, her body writhed underneath his hand. “And you’re so wet.”
“Now!” she cried out at him. “I want you inside of me now!”
He tore off his pants and pushed himself deep into her, his hands grasping her buttocks as he pulled her closer to him. She wrapped her legs around his back and pulled his mouth down to hers, giving herself up to the tremors that pulsed through her body.
“Yes! Yes!” she cried against his lips. “Don’t stop what you’re doing, please don’t ever stop!”
Twenty minutes later they were still lying in the middle of the floor, wrapped together inside the damp bath towel.
She spoke first. “Okay, what happened here?”
He burst out laughing and pulled her closer to him. “Oh Elizabeth, you are so adorable.”
“I’m a little old to be called adorable,” she answered, cuddling up to him. “But seriously, what do you think made me do that?”
“The devil?” he answered, still laughing.
She looked at him for a few minutes before her luscious green eyes began running up and down his body. He felt himself getting hard again.
“Care to join me in the Jacuzzi?” she asked. She fluttered her eyelashes at him and a giant grin filled his face. “Might as well go all the way now that I’ve lost my mind.”
An hour later she said, “I’m hungry.”
“Mmm, does this mean.”
“No, no, you jerk,” she laughed. “I mean I’m hungry for food.”
She got out of bed and peered out the window.
“Look, everything’s lit up down there,” she said. “It’s not quite eleven o’clock and Matthew won’t be back for a while. Let’s go and have a hamburger and chunky fries at Toby’s. I’ll worry about my diet tomorrow.”
Over coffee, Elizabeth gave Larry a selective synopsis of her life for the past fifteen years.
“So, it looks like life is going to be a lot different for me once San-tino’s estate is settled,” she said at the end. “And to be quite honest, I’m almost looking forward to going it alone. It’s about time I joined the real world.”
Larry wasn’t so sure that the widow of one of the most powerful crime bosses in North America could ever slip into a life of anonymity and normalcy.
“Elizabeth, until I met you, I never believed in love at first sight, or any of that other romantic stuff in books and love songs. But I do now. I’ve loved you from the moment you flung your arms around me on that airplane so long ago.”
Elizabeth put her hand gently on his lips. “Larry, before you say anything more, I’d like an explanation about who you are now, and who you were back then,” she said.
“In 1980 I was an FBI agent working out of Washington, D.C.,” he answered. “I was part of the joint FBI/RCMP task force of which you are very familiar.”
“Yes,” she answered coldly. “No need to rehash any of it.”
“I was on that plane to follow Santino DeLuca,” he said. “I’d never seen him in person, only in pictures. That’s why I kept walking up the aisle to the bathroom. I was looking for him. I had no idea who you were; I give you my word. But once I realized that DeLuca wasn’t on the plane, I allowed myself the luxury of concentrating on you.
“When we landed in Boston, I contacted headquarters from a pay-phone in the terminal with my report,” he continued. “Since therewas nothing more I could do, the rest of the weekend was strictly personal.
“I didn’t learn who you were until almost a year later when I was reading an article about socialites and their causes on the plane to Toronto and it included a picture of you. I nearly croaked when I saw it. By then I was coming up to Toronto on a regular basis.”
“Is that because you were still following my husband?” Elizabeth asked, her eyes glued on his.
“No,” he answered. “I’d already been transferred to another department. I was seeing a nurse who worked at Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital. Actually, I’d been seeing her for a while before I first laid eyes on you. After Boston though, my relationship with her was put on hold.”
“Did you tell her about me?” asked Elizabeth.
“No, I didn’t,” he answered. “But she knew something had happened. She never pushed it and neither did I. Besides, a relationship between you and me had nowhere to go, at least not at that point in time, and I wanted a family of my own.”
Elizabeth smiled into his eyes. “We’ve talked as much as we can tonight,” she said. “I need a mind rest. It would be foolish of me to deny the strong attraction I felt when we first met, and now that you’ve made love to me, it’s even stronger. But so much is going on in my life right now that I can’t think straight.”
“But I still haven’t told you who I am now,” Larry said as he paid the bill.
She smiled at him and shook her head. “No more,” she laughed. “Unless you can sum it up in two sentences.”
“I can sum it up in one,” he answered. “I’m Director of Communications for the combined police forces in Ontario, responsible for improving the image of the cops.
“Now, do you want me to call us a cab or shall we walk the couple of blocks back to the hotel?” he asked.
“Let’s walk,” she answered. “It will help clear both of our heads.”
As they turned on Yorkville Avenue towards the hotel, Elizabeth stopped.
“Fifteen years ago, I took you on a tour of some of Boston’s most interesting shops,” she said. “Do you remember?”
A smile lit up his face along with his dimples.
“How could I ever forget?”
“I’m having brunch with a friend’s daughter on Saturday, but after that, I’m free. Let’s spend the afternoon browsing in Hazelton Lanes and then I’ll take you out for dinner, and Matthew and Meghan too.”
Elizabeth was thankful that Matthew was still out when she let herself into the hotel suite a little after midnight. She picked up the damp bath towel still lying in the middle of the floor and felt the blush filling her face as she looked at the dishevelled bed in her room. She walked over to a chair, sat down, and then opened her purse. She pulled out a snapshot of Santino and the boys that she always carried with her. It had been taken two years ago up at Harvard and he was standing between his sons, his arms around each of their shoulders, with a wonderful smile on his face.
“Rest in peace my darling,” she whispered out loud, gazing at the picture.
Then she got up and walked over to the window that was twenty stories over the city.
Who am I? I’ve become controlling and manipulative, seemingly able to put my guilt on hold. Was I always like this? It’s such an unappealing trait in a woman, and yet, I feel happy and confident. Life has become a challenge and I’m not afraid.
And it does feel so wonderful to be wanted again.
Then Elizabeth walked over to the bed and turned back the covers.
My poor mother. She’ll never know what she missed.
Chapter 15
Killington, Vermont.
Peter and Angela decided to go and see MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS at the movie theatre in Woodstock, some twenty minutes away from Killington. Despite his innate cynicism and contempt for the contrived hokiness that he saw as typical Hollywood happy endings, Peter had a few choked up moments himself during the film, especially during the scene at the School for the Deaf.
When Angela burst out crying, Peter put his arm around her shoulders and she buried her head there trying to choke back her sobs.
“Oh, wasn’t that wonderful?” she sniffled into a kleenex as they stepped out into the icy night. “A movie like that leaves such a happy feeling.”
“If that’s how you cry when you’re happy,” he said, “I’d hate to see what happens when you’re sad”
They walked along Woodstock’s main street towards Jack’s Emporium that served homemade cookies and pastries, ice cream, hot soups, and espresso/cappuccino combos. It was a little after nine o’clock and the place was full, mostly college kids down for reading week.
“Hey DeLuca, you dago prick!” shouted a vaguely familiar face standing outside the bistro with two other young men. “When didthe mob start coming to Vermont? There’s lots of snow in New Jersey. Why don’t you go there?”
Raucous laughter erupted from the threesome as they swigged from the bottles they were holding.
“Come, let’s go in,” Peter said in a quiet voice as he took Angela’s arm and opened the door. “Look, there are a couple of your girlfriends.” He walked her over to the group and sat her down, ignoring the stricken look on her face.
“Peter, what are…?” she tried to ask before he put his fingers on her lips.
“Shh, don’t worry,” he whispered. “Not to worry. Just a couple of drunks.”
He turned to look around the restaurant and saw Perry Manolo sitting off to the side with a group of guys he knew from Andover. Included in the group was Yuri Latchman. When Perry looked up, Peter nodded his head towards the door. Perry got out of his seat without a word and started towards it. Latchman followed.
“I’ll be right back,” Peter told Angela, leaning over to brush his lips with hers. “Order me an apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream and a Cappuccino.”
Less than ten minutes later, he was back, charming and attentive, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, though he did keep his heavy ski jacket on. Perry Manolo slipped back to his own table and resumed eating his cake and drinking his coffee. Yuri Latchman didn’t return.
After another half-hour of socializing with the group, Peter and Angela got up to leave. Just then, the sounds of sirens filled the night. Once outside the restaurant, Peter took her arm and they moved briskly towards their car.
“Hold it you two!” bellowed a voice over what sounded like a foghorn. “Police investigation. Stay where you are!”
They stopped. Across the road, just up the street, an ambulance was parked with its sirens still wailing. Several of those who had been in the restaurant came out and gathered around, including Perry Manolo and another of Peter’s fraternity brothers, Jerry Freedman, who was an exchange student from Oxford.
A huge cop with a thick black moustache and curly black hair approached them.
“Any of you kids see anything?” he asked harshly, his eyes glancing over the well-dressed group.
Heads shook. “What happened?” asked one of the girls.
“Some guy just got his face smashed in,” answered the cop. “Looks like a Mack truck ran over it. We’re looking for any witnesses.”
