Elizabeth Street - Laurie Fabiano [143]
“Okay.” Domenico put on his most innocent face.
“Some of the detectives have noticed that things aren’t so normal around your aunt’s house.”
“What do you mean, detective?”
“One of your cousins is missing, the others were taken out of school—and your aunt seems to be walking all over the city.”
“It’s nothing, detective. Angelina is in Italy with her grandparents. My aunt was having a hard time with the new baby so they sent her there. And my uncle, he thinks everyone should work,” explained Domenico dismissively.
“Good job, Domenico. You just might become a detective.”
Domenico looked down to hide his smile.
“Look, son, you tell your aunt that I’m here for her if she needs me.”
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1909
Hours before she expected him, Domenico burst through the door. “Zia! Manzella didn’t show! It was a mistrial.”
Giovanna shook her head, understanding Manzella’s fear and hoping that it was fear, not death, that had kept him from the courthouse.
“Lupo got up from the defendant’s seat the moment the judge said, ‘You’re free to go,’ with a huge smile on his face. Then Lupo is surrounded by cops, including Detective Fiaschetti, and they walk him away in handcuffs. The reporters told me he was arrested again on counterfeiting charges.”
Domenico’s tone changed. “But, Zia, this reporter started asking questions about Angelina. He said, ‘I heard your cousin is missing.’”
“How does he know?” Giovanna gasped, gripping Domenico’s arm.
Domenico let out a yelp and rubbed his arm. “When I told him it wasn’t true he said a librarian told him you were looking for articles on kidnapping.”
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1909
“Come, Giovanna. Teresa is making an American turkey; you need to get out,” pleaded Lorenzo.
“No thank you, Lorenzo. I’ll stay here.”
“Giovanna, I wish there was a way to help you.”
“You’ve done what you can.”
Lorenzo rubbed his face as he often did when he was nervous. “Sometimes I think I should have found a way to send you back.” He paced the tiny kitchen. “We forced you to stay here with Rocco.”
“Go back? So I could have been killed in the earthquake? So I could scratch plaster from the walls to add to the flour? It’s not your fault, Lorenzo. And besides, I wouldn’t have had Angelina and Anthony.”
Lorenzo shuffled around awkwardly. Giovanna tried to ease his guilt.
“It was the money I sent to Scilla. Someone told them. But even so, they blackmail people with nothing. There is no understanding evil.”
“Are you sure you won’t come? Please?”
“No, no. Lorenzo, how many pounds is the turkey?”
“I don’t know, I think fifteen,” answered Lorenzo, puzzled.
Giovanna calculated. Turkey was expensive this year, thirty-two cents a pound. That was nearly five dollars that could have been ransom money.
“I’ll send Rocco and the children,” replied Giovanna, thinking she would at least save money on their own supper and her family would eat a little meat.
“Va bene, but I wish you would come,” said Lorenzo, kissing his sister and the top of the baby’s head good-bye.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1909
“Release Lupo,” ordered the lieutenant.
Fiaschetti rolled his eyes. “Why?”
“There’s not enough evidence. It was a flimsy arrest in the first place.”
“Then why did we do it?”
“Look, we know Lupo’s involved in counterfeiting, so the police chief wanted to prove he was doing something about it to impress the feds. But his friends in City Hall said to let him go.”
“He’s a wolf, but he’s slippery as an eel. We’ll never keep him more than a couple weeks,” moaned Fiaschetti.
“I don’t know,” reasoned the lieutenant, “it seems different now. The chief announced today that any cop who uncovers evidence of Lupo’s counterfeiting will be made a first-grade detective.”
Fiaschetti whistled. “Murder, extortion, that’s one thing, but when you start messing with the money, that’s serious.”
“Come on, get Lupo out of here.”
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1909
“I got the money,” said Rocco, coming in the door.
Two weeks before, when Rocco said he would get the money, Giovanna believed him, and something in their relationship changed.