09 Dead Man Running, page 21
“Carmine was the golden boy of the de Luca family. The de Luca family were a neutral family in the early sixties,” he said. “Then they aligned themselves with our enemies.”
“The Baiettos,” I said.
“Very good,” he said. He waved a gun at us and made us start walking behind the pile of wood and cement that would someday be my house. A house I might never get the chance to actually live in. Only the moonlight illuminated our path. “But Carmine had fallen in love with my aunt, my father’s sister, Lily. It was impossible for them to be together, but Carmine wouldn’t listen.”
I found it hard to imagine Carmine—Bill”—in any romantic entanglement whatsoever, but I’d go with the moment. What choice did I have? But I still didn’t understand why anybody would want him.
“He got my aunt pregnant,” Tito said. “My grandfather went nuts. Here his daughter was not only pregnant without being married, but she was pregnant by a man who was now our sworn enemy.”
I could see where this was going, but I’d just let him keep talking because we were running out of time and I still hadn’t figured out a way to get us out of this whole mess. I glanced into the darkness of the woods. There was nothing there but owls and hawks and deer. Maybe a coyote. The only out I could find was to run. The terrain was unfamiliar, and Tito would most likely start shooting, but being shot while running away seemed better than being shot while looking at the barrel of the gun. I think my logic may have been flawed there, but I was fairly hysterical.
“My grandfather sent my aunt back to the old country to have her baby, because he wasn’t about to let them get married. The baby was put up for adoption somewhere in Florence. Where I’m assuming it is still living.”
“Okay,” Collette said. “So how did all of that end up with Carmine becoming our mayor?”
“Well, as you might expect, the Baietto family told Carmine to get out of town and never come back,” Tito said. “But Carmine couldn’t just leave. He couldn’t let my grandfather win. So he managed to steal four million dollars from my grandfather. In the process, there was an accident and several of my father’s top men were killed. My grandfather swore revenge and put a warrant out for Carmine’s death. Warrants don’t expire when the head of the family dies or retires.”
“So all of this time you’ve been looking for Bill?”
“Not actively looking, but we all knew what had to be done if we ever did find him,” he said. “I know four million doesn’t seem like that much money nowadays, but back then it was significant. It was the death of my grandfather’s men and the … deflowering of his daughter that signed Carmine’s death warrant.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Where does Tiny Tim fit into this?”
“Yeah,” Collette said. “What about Tiny Tim?”
Apparently she was aware of the fact that I was trying to buy us time. Little did she know that I actually was just that nosy and couldn’t die without knowing the truth. Because I was fairly certain that there wasn’t a way out.
“Tiny Tim works for the Baiettos. Evidently there was some sort of sworn allegiance to Carmine. In other words, if Carmine got in trouble, they’d send somebody to help. Tiny Tim was sent to help.”
“And the dead guy on the paddle wheel?” I asked.
“He was sent to help Carmine as well. I took him out.”
“So who did I see Bill arguing with that night?” I asked, confused.
Tito shrugged. “It might have been Tiny Tim trying to talk Carmine into leaving town.” He raised his gun. “All right, Torie. You got your answers. Tell me where Carmine is.”
“I can’t believe you can just kill a person,” Collette spewed at him.
“It’s nothing personal,” he said.
“It is personal!” Collette said. “Only God has the right to give and take life.”
Tito hesitated for a moment. “A little late for that, I’m afraid,” he said.
“No, wait!” I said. “You still haven’t answered one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“How did you guys find out that Bill was in New Kassel?” I asked.
“Oh, good question, Torie,” Collette said.
“That stupid Web site,” Tito said and laughed.
“Huh?” I asked.
“My mother wanted to take a little vacation,” he said. “She was surfing the Net looking at places to visit. The Chamber of Commerce Web site for New Kassel has a picture and a link to Carmine’s site. My mother saw the picture of Carmine and recognized him.”
“Oh,” I said. Bill’s arrogance wouldn’t let him become completely invisible. Guess that just proved that the Internet really did make the world a smaller place. Twenty years ago, probably nobody would have ever found Bill hiding out in this tiny town.
“So all of this was about a thirty-year-old grudge?” I asked.
“Most things are about old grudges, Torie,” he said. He waved the gun at me, and Collette started crying. My breath caught in my throat. “Now, where’s Carmine?”
“If I tell you, you’ll kill us.”
“I’m going to anyway,” he said. “This will just make my job easier.”
“Well, then,” I said, sobbing, “you can go straight to hell and look for him yourself.”
Out of nowhere Eg Hanshaw came running from around the edge of my new house. He had a big old rifle in his hands. He never even hesitated. He took the rifle, aimed, and shot the gun right out of Tito’s hand. Immediately Tito fell to the ground, screaming. Collette collapsed onto her knees, and all I remember about the next ten seconds is wondering if my heart was ever going to beat again.
Eg ran over and put one leg onto Tito’s abdomen. He lay writhing in pain on the freshly turned dirt. “Don’t move,” Eg said to Tito. Then he took his cell phone off of his hip holster, flipped it open, and called the sheriff’s department.
“Tell him to send an ambulance to Bill’s house. Lou Counts is there unconscious,” I said.
Eg nodded and repeated what I said to whoever had answered the sheriff’s department phone. I also heard him tell the dispatcher to send an ambulance to the construction site. Finally I could stand no longer. All of the energy seemed to flow out of my fingertips, leaving me feeling like I was near death. I fell to the ground and landed on my back, staring up at the stars. Sobs came in waves, and my heart did little flip-flops. From off to my right, I felt Collette’s hand reach over and squeeze mine. I squeezed back and just cried, turning the stars into twinkling lights that fused together.
Twenty-five
I stood in my attic office staring out the window at the snow. Several months had passed since I had almost died in my new backyard. We’d moved into the new house. It was wonderful, but it hadn’t started to feel like home yet. I took solace in the horses in the backyard and the family of hawks that seemed to hunt perpetually in my back field. There was no more river out of my window. No more neighbors for me to spy on.
And no more Colin as sheriff.
The phone rang, and I picked it up. It was my mother. “Torie,” she said, “I want you to come out to the house, if you can.”
“Sure,” I said. “I have a few errands to run in town first.” Town, of course, meant New Kassel, not Wisteria, where she lived. I was already dressed. I’d been ready to go to town for a while. I’m not sure why I had stood in my office staring out at the snow-covered pasture for a half hour. I suppose part of it was the fact that I love snow. Part of it, I knew, was that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. I felt like a stranger in my own house.
I got in the car and drove toward New Kassel. It was a Saturday. Rudy had taken the kids to the movies in Wisteria and left me alone to try to get some work done. I arrived in town, and just the sight of the skyline and the river behind the town seemed to soothe me. I parked at the Gaheimer House and walked down to Debbie’s Cookie Cutter and stocked up on chocolate chip cookies. Comfort food.
I was in desperate need of comforting. Collette had taken the job in Tucson, so who knew when I’d see her again? It’s not as though she’s sentimental and would come home for holidays. No, Collette would just pop into town when I least expected it. I missed her already.
I nearly ran into Sam Hill as I was leaving the Cookie Cutter. “Torie,” he said.
“Hi, Sam,” I said.
“You ready to give me that interview yet?”
“No,” I said.
“Lotsa rumors swirling around,” he said. “You could help end that.”
“Talk to the new mayor,” I said.
“He won’t talk to me.”
“Sorry.”
“Are you coming to the grand opening?” he asked.
“Of what?”
“The microbrewery,” he said.
“Oh.” I had forgotten that he’d gone ahead with his plans. “When it is?”
“February twentieth,” he said. “So you’ve got a few weeks to clear your calendar. I’ll buy you a beer.”
“Thanks. I’ll be there.” I said. I moved past him and out into the snow-covered street. Big, fat, heavy flakes seemed to fall to the ground with a purpose. I love the snow. I looked up the street to where the Murdoch Inn stood at the bend of the creek that shoots off the Mississippi. It was postcard perfect in the snow. Then I glanced back down the street in the other direction. The direction of my old house.
I walked up the road, staying close to the railroad tracks. When I reached the spot, I stopped and turned to look at my old home. There was a new family in there now. There was also a new family in Bill’s old house. I stood there long enough to see a little girl run out of what had been the Castlereagh house and meet a little girl from my old house in the front yard. They started building a snowman, and a lump rose in my throat. These neighbors, at least, would be friends.
I swiped at a tear and looked out at Old Man River. The snow dissolved into the gray of the water, floating southward.
Rudy had been right. Bill, or Carmine de Luca, had hated me for a good reason. He knew he was living right next door to the very person who could have destroyed him. I could have discovered his secret at any time if I’d studied his charts long enough, and he knew it. If only he’d let me help him! I knew I could have helped him. If his wife had heeded my warning that very first day, she’d still be alive. Bill would most likely still be sitting in his jail cell, but at least his wife would be alive.
I couldn’t believe Bill was in jail, but I guess you can’t just steal somebody’s identity and get away with it. Not to mention there were things Carmine de Luca had done that Bill would be paying the price for. Some things the statute of limitations did not run out on. Of course, most of that hadn’t even gone to trial yet.
The sheriff’s car pulled up just as I swiped at the last tear. Mort Joachim got out of the car and walked up next to me. “Mrs. O’Shea,” he said and tipped his hat. Mort is younger than I am. It’s unsettling when your doctors and law enforcement officers were born when Nixon was in office. In fact, the sheriff standing in front of me was born after man walked on the moon, and somehow that just didn’t seem right. He has blond hair and piercing violet eyes. I’d never seen violet eyes on a man before. He looked so wet behind the ears I felt compelled to offer him a towel.
“Call me Torie,” I said.
“Look,” he said, “I’ll get straight to the point.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve got a missing person down in Meyersville,” he said. “I think you might be able to help me on this one.”
I was stunned. “What?”
“I’m at a loss. Mayor Brooke told me to ask you for help,” he said.
“H-he did?” I asked.
“He said it sounded like something you’d be able to solve.”
“Oh,” I said.
“I can make you a special consultant to my office,” the new sheriff said.
“You’d do that?” I asked.
“Your track record is pretty impressive.”
“How is Lou?” I asked.
“She came back to work last week,” he said, and glanced out at the river.
“Do you think that might be a problem?” I asked.
“I’ll keep you two separated,” he said and smiled.
“Well, I don’t know what to say …”
“Think it over. In the meantime, remember that I’ve got an eighty-year-old woman who just vanished into the night,” he said.
“No,” I said. “I don’t need to think it over. I’ll help.”
“Good,” he said. “Come by my office and I’ll fill you in.”
“I will,” I said.
He left, and I went back to staring out at the giant body of water. I could barely see to the Illinois side now, the snow was so heavy. I must have stood there for fifteen more minutes when I heard shoes behind me. I turned to find Colin standing there.
“Thought I’d find you here,” he said.
I said nothing.
“I wanted to let you know that I visited with Bill in jail. Or Carmine, whichever you want to call him. He said to tell you that Sylvia had helped him with his five-generation charts,” Colin said.
I closed my eyes. The woman had been dead for a year now, and yet her presence was still felt throughout the entire town. “Why?”
“He said he threatened her. She believed him, evidently, and helped to create a fake pedigree for him,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I sort of expected that was the case. Now I even wonder if Sylvia made it too perfect so I would notice.”
“Which you did,” he said.
I said nothing.
“Torie, look, I’m sorry,” he said. “About … You know, what I said about you to Mort. And for the things I said about you to other people that you don’t even know about. You’re my wife’s daughter, and it was inappropriate, regardless.”
“You’re damn right,” I said and smiled.
“The deeds that you found led us right to Bill. Once again, you found what I should have found.”
I said nothing, because what did a person say to something like that? That was a pretty hefty concession.
“So, are things okay between us?” he asked.
“Things will never be all right between us,” I said and laughed. “I hate you, remember?”
“And I think you’re a nosy know-it-all.”
We laughed together for a moment. “Seriously, Colin. You and Rudy ganging up on me like that. I can’t tell you how badly that hurt me.”
“I know,” he said. “Why do you think I dropped the charges for breaking and entering? Figured I owed you that much.” He turned to go, then stopped. “You gonna stare at that river all day?”
“Maybe,” I said. He took about ten steps back toward the main part of town. “Colin.”
“What?”
“Things are okay.”
He smiled and kept walking, and I kept staring out at the river. I went by the Gaheimer House a little while later and talked with my sister for a bit. She was supposed to be giving tours, but with all of the snow, there was no business. She was pregnant again and confused as to how it had happened. I seem to recall feeling that same way when I got pregnant with Matthew.
I ran by my mother’s house and visited with her. It seemed as though I was just whiling away the time because I was unsure with what to do with myself. Mom sent me home with lasagna pesto roll-ups and a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. More comfort food. I love the fact that my mother knows me so well that I don’t even have to tell her when something’s wrong. She just knows when comfort food is required and delivers.
I pulled my car into the driveway of our new house. It’s a beautiful house. A large oak tree stands in the front yard, its tiny top branches stretching into the cotton-stuffed sky. When we’d picked the spot for the house, I had told Eg that I wanted the tree to remain in the front yard. They’d managed not to destroy it during the construction. I sat in the car for a minute, staring up at my new world. Moonstone, the butter-colored horse, came galloping along the fence. He knew I was home.
Somebody tapped on my window, and I jumped. It was Riley. I shut off the car and got out. “Hey, Riley,” I said.
“Hi, Mrs. O’Shea,” he said. “Can I talk to you?”
“Sure,” I said. We started walking toward the house. He seemed nervous.
“I wanted to ask you … Well, I sort of bought Rachel a promise ring.”
I stopped. “You did what?”
“It’s nothing, really. It’s not like we’re engaged.”
“You can’t be engaged. I think you have to be of legal age and be able to vote to be engaged. I’m pretty sure that’s a requirement somewhere,” I said.
“Calm down, Mrs. O’Shea,” he said. “It’s nothing serious. I … I’m just promising to get her an engagement ring … someday. That’s all it means.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Like, years down the road. After college,” he said.
“Oh,” I said, feeling better. College was still in the plans. That was good. “You like her that much?”
“She is the greatest girl I’ve ever met. I swear, her smile fuels the sun,” he said.
I stopped and stared at him. Wow. If he had felt one ounce less for her, he wouldn’t have been worthy. But he was worthy. I draped my arm around his shoulder. “You’re all right, kid.”
We opened the front door, and Matthew came running toward me. “Mommy!”
Rachel met us at the door, and Mary came through the living room carrying a big basket of eggs that she’d just gotten from the chickens. They all dispersed, and I stepped into the kitchen, where Rudy had made a salad and bread to go with the lasagna roll-ups that my mother had sent home. “I hear you got a new job,” he said, smiling.
“Huh?” I asked.
“Special consultant to the sheriff’s department,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said and smiled. “You all right with that?”
He glanced around the room and finally stepped over and hugged me. “Yeah,” he said. “I think I am. Are you?”
