My mother’s face was almost as gray as my dad’s. She stood up, smoothing out the black wool skirt of her suit, and smiled weakly.
“He’s in surgery.” Her voice was almost a whisper as she pulled me into her arms. I started to cry, and I felt her hand stroking my hair. “He’ll pull through this. He’s tough, you know that.” Her words wrapped themselves around me as we sank into the stiff chairs in the waiting room.
I forced myself to stop crying and pulled a tissue out of my pocket. “Who called you?”
“Your detective.”
“Tom?”
She nodded. “I was at the courthouse, with Mickey. For the arraignment. One of my colleagues was there on another case, and he offered to take over for me.”
“Mickey’ll be out soon,” I said, and I went into the whole story, reciting it the way I’d write it, without emotion, without judgment. She listened, frowning at times, especially when I told her about the shooting at Dominic Gaudio’s, but didn’t say anything and sighed when I finished with my father getting into the ambulance.
“Mickey thought LeeAnn was killed by the Mob.”
“Why?”
“Mickey found out in Boston that LeeAnn had been delivering Sal’s payments. She made a payment when they were up there. He’d followed her, then confronted her. She told him it was no big deal, really downplayed it, but he knew better.”
So he wasn’t stupid.
“They had a big fight, and she took off. When he got back and found out she was dead, he got nervous. He found out from Mac that your father was in town, and he tried to get him to tell him what was going on.”
I remembered how he’d found me that day after the diner and asked where my father was. “Why would he talk to Dad?” As soon as I asked it, I mentally kicked myself. That was a stupid question.
My mother thought it was a stupid question, too, I could see that from the look on her face.
Another thought seeped into my head. “Tom’s looking for Vinny. He’s not home and not at his office.”
“He was at the courthouse. I saw him when I got there.”
“He’s not answering his cell phone.”
“That’s odd. He was talking on his phone when I saw him.”
Pete was already following me to the ice rink when my mother saw Vinny at the courthouse. So Vinny must be okay. But where the hell was he?
“You didn’t see him when you left to come here?” I asked my mother.
She shook her head. “I don’t think I noticed anyone on my way here. I just had to get here.”
I smiled involuntarily, and her eyes narrowed. “Don’t think it’s because I’m still in love with your father, Annie. I do love him, but I’m not in love with him. I can’t erase twenty years of marriage, raising a child with him. Of course I had to be here.”
“Did you call Suzette?”
“Yes. She’s going to call when she gets a flight, and I’ll get a car to pick her up in Hartford and bring her down here.”
Just then the door at the far end of the room slammed open, and I saw Paula walking toward us. Vinny was right behind her.
“Tom told us you were here,” Paula started, but before she could finish, I was standing with Vinny’s arms wrapped around me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded, then pulled back. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick.”
He nodded his head at Paula. “Blame her. She picked me up in front of the courthouse before I could even go in to Mickey’s arraignment.”
Paula stared at the floor for a second, then looked up at me. “We found out your father had been at Dominic Gaudio’s, but no one was there when we got there this morning. We thought for sure Vinny knew where he was.”
“So you were going to try to strong-arm him into telling you?” I asked.
Her face turned pink. “We had no idea what was going down.”
“I told them our suspicions about Pete,” Vinny said. “I didn’t find out too much from the computer, but there was a lot of money being deposited, then taken out in cash. I knew you’d come to the courthouse and we could figure out a game plan from there.”
“I tried to call your cell phone,” I said to Vinny.
He glanced at Paula. “Blame her. They turned it off when they questioned me.”
“Where are the rest of your G-men?” I asked Paula.
She snorted. “They said I could handle this. Yeah, now that they have egg all over their faces.” Her eyes darted around the room. “I didn’t say that.”
Vinny squeezed my hand. “How’s your father?”
“We haven’t heard anything yet.”
“He’s going to make it. He’s strong,” Vinny said, echoing my mother’s words. I knew that, I just needed to hear it.
I sat next to my mother and noticed for the first time the two cops on the other side of the room.
“They have to be here. They have to talk to him after the surgery,” my mother said.
I knew Tom would be back. This time he would be the one asking the questions, and I’d have to answer. I couldn’t get away with “No comment” in an official police investigation.
Which also meant, yes, there was Dick Whitfield loping through the doors toward us. He had no business being here.
But I wasn’t in the mood for a fight. Or an interrogation from the boy wonder. This one I could say “No comment” to. I braced myself, tightening my grip on Vinny’s hand as Dick stood before me.
“Hey, Annie, I’m sorry,” he said.
I would’ve done the same thing. Play on the emotions, get those barriers to go down. He had to have known I knew all the tricks, all the ways to get the victims to talk.
“Tell Marty I don’t have anything to say, okay?” I said, my voice hard.
He shrugged. “I’m not here to write a story, Annie.”
The look on my face and the fact that I couldn’t say anything invited him to continue.
“Marty thinks I have a conflict. You know, because of the shooting last night and the restraining order threat and all. He’s putting Renee on the story. I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am about your dad.”
I finally found my tongue. “He’s not dead, Dick. He’s just in surgery. How the hell did you get up here, anyway?”
“I know someone at the desk downstairs.”
He knew someone? Oh, God, I didn’t want to think about it. He actually had a source at the hospital. Which was a fucking smart thing.
“And what’s this about Renee? Christ, she’s good for the soup kitchen stories, but this? How the hell does Marty think she’s going to be able to handle this?” I found myself standing face-to-face with Dick.
He shrugged again. “I don’t know, but he’s got Kevin down at the courthouse dealing with the Mickey Hayward angle, and Renee’s talking to the cops about Pete Amato.”
I was going to have to tell Marty what happened. The cops wouldn’t tell Renee anything, and I didn’t want the story fucked up.
Vinny’s arm was around me. “Annie, I think maybe you need to relax a little.”
I snorted. “Relax?”
“Forget about the paper for a little while and be here with your mom. I have to get going.”
And with his words, I forgot about the paper, I forgot about Marty, and I forgot about Dick Whitfield, even though I could still smell the McDonald’s French fries scent emanating from his person. I looked at Vinny. “You have to go?”
He walked me away from everyone and to the doors that led back into the hallway. “I have something that can’t wait.” He put his fingers under my chin and lifted my face toward his. “I’ll be back.” His lips brushed mine, and he left me standing there.
MY MOTHER WAS touching my arm, asking me to wake up. I squinted and caught the blue scrubs of a masked doctor standing in front of us.
“He’s still critical, but he’ll pull out of this,” the doctor was telling my mother.
She nodded, smiling, tears in her eyes, and she pulled me up and hugged me.
“It’s going to be a bit of a recuperation. I understand he lives in Las Vegas?”
I didn’t hear anything more. The doctor spoke softly to my mother, and I glanced around and saw Tom leaning against the wall across the room. I went over to him. “Hey,” I said. “Doctor says he’s going to be okay.”
He nodded, smiling, but something was missing, something I’d gotten used to seeing and was gone for good now.
“Do you need my statement now?” I asked.
“We can go across the hall and do it there, okay? Paula’s coming along.”
I noticed her then, still waiting, like the rest of us. “Sure.”
Something else, or rather someone else, was missing, too. Vinny hadn’t come back yet. Had he said he was going to?
The questions just kept coming and coming. I told them everything I knew. My father would have to fill in the holes when he woke up. I still couldn’t believe that Pete Amato had tried to kill both of us. Had killed LeeAnn.
But then I remembered Amber.
“Did you find my neighbor, Tom?”
Tom and Paula exchanged a look.
“What?” I asked.
“This isn’t the first time she’s been involved in something criminal,” Tom said. “Six years ago, she was living in Virginia and a farmer got killed. Seems he owned a chicken farm, but he wasn’t looking to sell eggs. He was raising chickens to be slaughtered for one of those fast-food chains. They found him with his throat slit and the chickens were gone.” He paused. “Amber’s boyfriend is serving a life term. She was never charged. She testified against him, but he claims it was all her idea. So it’s he said/she said. Jury bought her story and locked him up.”
“And she moved here,” Paula said. “One of the cops down there called us when she moved, said we might want to keep an eye on her. He thought she had more to do with it but couldn’t prove it. But she kept her nose clean here. She still protested the treatment of chickens, but the protests were uneventful. We stopped paying attention to her, especially after 9/11. We just didn’t have time for someone like her.”
“So did you find her?” I asked.
Tom nodded. “She admitted everything. I think she’s trying to be some sort of martyr. It was her you saw in the restaurant. She’d been snooping around and saw Sal kill the chickens.”
“She just so happened to have a gun on her?” I asked.
“She’s had a permit for years.”
“And she left when she heard me come in.”
Jesus. Amber. And I thought the worst thing she was doing was leaving me those stupid vegan recipes.
Tom had a funny look on his face.
“What?” I asked, not sure I really wanted to know.
“We found Pete Amato’s body.”
Shit. “Where?”
“In the woods in North Madison off Route Eighty.” He paused. “We got a tip. Pretty damn accurate. Can’t trace the call, though.”
My breath caught in my throat.
“We can’t find the truck he was driving.”
And they probably never would. A chop shop would destroy any evidence that might have been lurking there.
“Did anything else happen out there at the ice rink, Annie?”
I wanted to tell him, I really did. But I couldn’t. It was too fucking crazy anyway, and if I said anything, who knew who’d be after me? I just shook my head and shrugged. “I told you all I know.”
Tom mulled that over and nodded slowly. “Okay. I’ll see what your father says when I can talk to him. And we’ve already got Dominic Gaudio at headquarters.”
I suppressed a smile. Tom didn’t have a goddamn prayer.
They were finished with me, and I just wanted to see my dad. But he was still in recovery, and it would be a while.
The rest of the day melted into the night. Suzette showed up, her usually bright green eyes dull.
“Have you seen him?” she asked.
I shook my head, and tears cascaded down her cheeks. I put my arm around her and was surprised to see my mother on the other side of her, helping her to a chair.
“He’ll be okay,” she said.
“You must be Alexandra,” Suzette said.
“I’m sorry we have to meet like this,” my mother said, squeezing her hand.
I glanced at my watch and looked at the door. Where had five hours gone? And where was Vinny?
The doctor came out to tell us my father probably wouldn’t be awake for another few hours, but we could go in one at a time to sit with him for a few minutes. Suzette glanced at my mother, who waved her off. Suzette got up and followed the doctor through the doors.
“Why don’t you go home and get some rest?” my mother asked. “You’ve had a difficult day.”
“But I want to be here.”
“He won’t wake up for a few hours, you heard the doctor.”
“I don’t have my car.” Not to mention my driver’s license. But she didn’t know that.
My mother produced her keys. “Take mine. It’s on the second level, row B.”
She pushed the keys into my hand, and they felt heavier than they should have. My shoulders sank with weariness, and the thought of my soft, warm bed was lulling me into saying yes.
“Okay,” I said, standing. I put on my puffy coat. The tape had come off partway, and some feathers floated by my face.
“I’ll get you a new coat tomorrow,” my mother promised, always concerned about how I looked and not bothering to notice I didn’t care too much.
I nodded mutely and walked toward the elevators.
He was waiting by the door, his hands stuffed into his pockets, his head wet with snow.
Oh, shit, it was snowing again.
“Come home with me,” Vinny said simply.
I held up my mother’s keys. “I need to get some sleep.”
He leaned toward me and kissed me. “Come home with me,” he whispered.
I pulled back, suddenly wide awake.
“Okay, if it makes you uncomfortable to go to my place, we’ll go to yours,” he said in response to my silence.
The butterflies started crashing into one another in my stomach.
“You broke up with Rosie?”
“She wouldn’t give me the ring back.”
“Neither would I.”
He looked up at the ceiling. “What the hell am I getting into?” he asked no one in particular before looking back at me.
“Are you sure?” I asked. I still hadn’t smiled.
“Hell, Annie, I’m not sure about anything except that since I met you, I want to be with you.”
He leaned over and kissed me again. It was a long, slow kiss that made my toes curl.
When he pulled away, I smiled.