A Thousand Tombs (13 page)

“Look, Giovanni. I think you mean well, but that’s my personal life you’re talking about and I don’t want to discuss it. Whatever did or did not happen, it’s none of Miss Salvatore’s business. And you can tell her I said to back off. Do I need to translate that phrase for you?”

“No.” There was a tinge of humor in his reply. “I understand. I apologize for intruding. And I will also apologize for my partner. It seems she has over-stepped again. Please forgive me. I will not ask you to forgive her, however.”

Gen laughed in spite of herself. “Thank you for the offer, Luciano, but I’ll pass.”

“As you wish. However, the offer stands. Please let me know if you change your mind.”

“Wait a minute. That means you haven’t been able to establish that Vitelli is guilty?”

“We are still going through the process,” he replied. “At this point, we simply want to keep a watch over anyone who could shed more light on this issue.”

Gen parked in the garage, elevatored to the lobby, then went out the front door and up the sidewalk to her office. The class had left her feeing energized, and she was humming as she slotted the key into the lock. But when a movement to one side drew her attention, the buoyant mood instantly deflated.

It was Luca.

Images of Mack filled her head like stars on a clear night away from the city lights. “Hey,” was all she could manage.

Luca replied, “Hey.” His voice was subdued; no doubt he could tell she wasn’t thrilled to see him. But he followed her in without a word and back to her office, and she didn’t try to discourage him.

He lounged in the doorway, uncertain, while she pulled two waters from the fridge and gestured toward the couch. He sat on the edge, bouncing his knee to the tock-tock beat of the clock on her desk.

She handed him a bottle, then dropped down at the other end of the couch, leaned against the cushions, and gave him the once-over. New jeans, clean hair, faded t-shirt. Apparently he preferred Mack’s clothes over his own.

Gen fought the urge to lean in and breathe deeply, just to see if his shirt smelled like its rightful owner. She’d happily give the kid a hundred dollars for it right now. “Why didn’t you just call?”

“I thought this would be better.” He was fussing with the cap, twisting it on and off. Nervous.

“How’d you get all the way into the city?”

He raised a thumb.

“Does Mack know you’re here?”

Luca shook his head.

“He wouldn’t like it,” she replied. “For a lot of reasons.”

He stared at his feet for a minute before he replied. “I needed to talk to you.”

“So talk.”

The boy looked at Gen. A frown furrowed the skin between his brows. “You’re pissed off at me, and it’s hard to get past that.”

Direct hit.

So apparently the kid could deliver on a difficult conversation when he had to. He was more like Mack than she wanted to admit.

She stood and walked to the desk and drank some water while she thought about it. This wasn’t Luca’s fault. It was a fluke that brought him down the street they were on that night. It was time to give the boy a break.

“You’re right.” Gen walked behind the desk to peruse the book titles she almost knew by heart. “You like to read?”

“I don’t get much of a chance to.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Luca moved behind her, not too close, just enough so he could look over her shoulder. He pointed at a Raymond Chandler and she pulled it off the shelf and handed it over.

He sat in the chair in front of the desk and opened the cover.

She knew the inscription inside by heart.

To Genny, from your biggest fan. Love, Ryan.

The reminder of another failed love affair sunk her mood like a yacht going down. The last year had been a bad one for her in the romance department.

“You like the classics?” she asked.

“Yeah. I like Chandler. And I like James Burke a lot.”

“Hmmm. Burke’s too graphic for me. I like my gore glossed over just a bit.” When he went to sit in the chair across from her desk, she took her own seat behind it. “You should take that with you. You have a library card?”

“Back in Jersey. Not much good here.”

“Mack would take you to get one if you asked him.”

He looked up at that and closed the book. “Did you have a fight about me?”

“Who says we had a fight?”

“Mack’s been real quiet. You haven’t been around. I’m not stupid.”

Gen thought about denying it but like the kid said, he wasn’t dumb. So she gave him the truth.

“Yeah, we had a fight about you. I heard your phone ring when I came to get your clothes for the wash. Seemed pretty unlikely to me, a homeless kid with one pair of jeans to his name but who has a cell phone hidden in his room. I told Mack and he brushed it off, but I kept pestering him. The other night he decided he’d had enough.”

Luca slid something from his back pocket and placed it in front of her. It was a Tracfone, one of those prepaid jobs. She picked it up and opened it to look at the display. It was paid through the end of the year, and there were thousands of minutes left. She snapped it closed and slid it back across the desktop.

“My Mom gave it to me last Christmas.” Luca’s voice cracked on the one word that was hardest to get out. “She wanted me to be able to call if I had to work late or something. I had a job back home. Nothing great, just bussing tables in a restaurant. But it got me out of the house, and I was saving for college.”

Gen pursed her lips and nodded. She didn’t trust her voice not to betray her like the kid’s had, but for other reasons. She’d been wrong. She had tossed her chance with Mack for nothing.

When she realized her fists were clenched in her lap, she released them. All feeling had left her fingers. They were numb, like the rest of her.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve been the stupid one, imagining bad news where there wasn’t any. I owe you an apology, so I apologize.”

“You don’t have to.” He fell silent and fidgeted in the chair.

“Was that what you came here to tell me?”

“No.”

“What then?” She glanced at the clock and had a thought. “Luca, you want an early dinner? You should call Mack and tell him where you are. We could go grab a bite, then I can drop you off at Fillmore and you can catch a ride home with him. What do you think?”

Luca hung his head, then stared at his hands as he spoke. “It’s nice of you to offer, but you might not want to after I say what I came to say.”

Something in his voice made her sit up straighter. She didn’t reply, just waited for him to spill it.

He plucked the book from his lap and put it on the desk. “I lied,” he said. “About the coin.”

Gen took in a long slow breath and exhaled, giving herself time to process. “Lied how?” Her voice was calm. No sense jumping to conclusions again, it hadn’t paid off for her in the past.

The least she could do, in this job and in her personal life, was to learn from her mistakes and then not repeat them. Although she had to admit it was damn difficult at times.

“Tell me,” she said, in the same steady tone. “No lectures, no judgment, I promise. Just tell me what happened.”

“Mr. Vitelli must have followed me when I was leaving my corner one night. He stopped me in an alley and asked if I was interested in earning some money. He’s always been nice to me, so I said maybe I was, depending on what I had to do for it. He said if I agreed, it meant I had to leave town for a while and get a room and pay with cash and hide out till he told me it was okay to come back.

“We talked about it, then I decided to say yes. I’ve been looking for my Mom’s family for three months and nothing’s come of it. So, you know. I was ready to throw in the towel.”

He stopped and squirmed in the chair again, but Gen didn’t push.

“So long story short, he didn’t accidentally drop the coins in my guitar case, he gave them to me. Four of them, not just one. He put a loose one in that velvet bag and told me to take it into the pawn shop when both guys were working. I knew the men in there by sight, saw them coming and going, so I knew what he meant.

“Mr. Vitelli said the owner would tell me it was valuable and he’d suggest maybe I stole it, then he’d say he’d call the cops if I didn’t tell him where it came from. It didn’t happen just like he said it would. I don’t think the guys he was arguing with at his house were part of the plan. I was beating feet out of town when I ran into you and Mack.”

“Why, Luca? Tell me why Vitelli would want you to do all that.”

Luca shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“The pawn shop owner says the coin is priceless. That means they all are. Why would Vitelli trust you with them? He didn’t know you from Adam, right?”

Luca held her gaze and nodded. His lips quirked up as he said, “Maybe he’s more trusting than you.”

Gen drummed her nails on the desk. Luca’s story wasn’t logical, and she’d bet he’d left a few things out. Like the real reason Vitelli would trust a kid he didn’t know with such a treasure, and why he was looking in the old man’s window.

“Why’d you go back to Vitelli’s that night?”

Luca reached into his front pocket and pulled out a small brown paper bag, then upended it. Something tumbled out. She was looking at three more coins, laid flat and encased in clear plastic.

He fingered the strip. “I changed my mind about sticking around. I decided to take a bus down to San Diego, and I wanted to give them back before I went.”

Gen picked up the sealed coins and turned them in her palm so the overhead light didn’t glare off the plastic. She’d heard some crazy stories in her line of work, but this one was right up there in the top ten. “Why are you telling me now?”

“It seems like it would be better if they were in a place that was safer than my guitar case.”

“Has something happened out at Mack’s?”

“No.”

She might have imagined it, but it seemed as though his voice made a funny not-no sound, as if he really meant to say
not yet
. And she wondered if he was right.

She’d bet a bundle that the burglars who broke into her condo were looking for the whole quartet of coins. And if they knew about the coins, they might know about the boy. If they knew about the boy, they might think he had the coins – or could lead them to where they were. Ergo, they may be looking for Luca, as well. And that meant they might also be watching her to see if he would turn up.

Luca couldn’t leave her office.

They might follow him back to Mack’s.

She picked up the land line and punched in Oliver’s cell number. “Livvie, are you at home?”

“Yes, I’m here slaving away.”

“Lucky for me. Are you in the middle of anything really important?”

“Nothing monumental,” he replied. “Still just going through clothes. What’s up?”

“I need your help.”

“With? ”

“Luca’s here. He just told me a story that makes me concerned that the guys who broke into my condo might be watching for him.”

She saw Luca’s eyes go wide at the news that her place had been burgled.

“So that means,” she continued, “that he shouldn’t walk out of here looking like he did when he walked in. It’s a longshot, but they might follow him to Mack’s, if they haven’t found the place already. The kid’s there alone during the day.”

“I think I know what you have in mind.” Oliver’s reply was matter-of fact. “Describe Luca. Height? Weight? Hair color?”

“He’s not quite as tall as Mack, five-ten or a little more, just under six feet. Luca?”

“That’s right.”

“Thinner than Mack, thirty-two inch waist jeans hang on him a little. Straight, light brown hair that’s not quite long enough to pull into a ponytail. He needs a haircut, it’s a little straggly.”

“Shoe size?”

“Luca, what size shoes do you wear?”

“Twelve.”

“I heard him,” Livvie replied. “That’s perfect.”

“I think we’re on the same page. How long before you can get here?”

“I’ll be down in fifteen minutes. Tell the kid to take a deep breath and keep an open mind.”

Gen replaced the handset, then propped her elbows on the desk and supported her chin on her clasped hands. “You heard what I said. We can’t take a chance I’m not being watched. Oliver will be down in a while, and then we’re going to dress you up like a girl so when you leave no one will know it’s you. Hopefully, anyway. Can you handle that?”

Luca shrugged. “Somebody broke into your house?”

“Yeah. Trashed the kitchen and living room pretty good. After what you just told me, I’m betting they were looking for these.” She stopped, thinking, then cocked her head and pinned him with her eyes and asked him straight. “Why did you get involved in this, Luca? Didn’t you think at any point that it might be dangerous?”

“I did it for Mr. Vitelli.” He looked down at his hands. “It seemed easy enough at the time. And I needed money.”

“How much did he give you?”

“A debit card with two thousand dollars on it.”

Gen almost choked. “Jeez Louise.”

“I hid it with the coins in the lining of my guitar case. I was going to give the coins back that night, then pull a little cash from the card and mail it back later. It didn’t work out.”

“Why bring the coins to me and not give them to Mack?”

“I don’t want him to get in trouble with his job. It’s better they’re away from his house.”

Gen nodded. That part could be true enough, the kid seemed honestly grateful. She wondered if he’d bonded with his host the same way his host had taken to him.

She hoped so, for Mack’s sake.

Oliver appeared ten minutes later, true to his word and faster than Gen expected. He was dressed in a blonde wig and wide elastic-topped pants and flat shoes and a fluttery blouse. He wore sunglasses and a hat with a floppy brim, and he carried a huge purse on his arm.

He was also wearing a grin when he came though the office door. Gen went past him into the lobby and locked up in the front. By the time she returned, Oliver had Luca standing in the middle of the room and was sizing him up.

Gen guessed at his strategy. “So we’re going to put Luca in the outfit you’re wearing, then you’ll trade clothes with the boy and leave as him. I don’t know, Liv, that might put you in harm’s way.”

“It won’t if we go someplace crowded and I change into something completely different in the bathroom and then walk out alone.”

“That would do it, you conniving devil.”

“I’ve learned from the best.” Oliver pulled a makeup bag from his purse. “Luca, are you game?”

“Sure,” the boy replied. “Why not?”

“You understand what we’re proposing you do here, right?” Gen eyed the boy. He appeared to be unconcerned about the implications. “We’re going to put what Oliver is wearing on you.”

“Look,” he replied, “rock bands wear makeup all the time. It’ll be an adventure, that’s all. As long as the shoes are flat, I’ll be good.”

“I love kids today,” Oliver said. “The gender lines have been blurred. They’re not all stuck in macho man land like older generations.”

While Oliver got to work, Gen steeled herself and called Mack’s cell. She wondered if he would let the call go to voice mail, but he picked up.

“Hey, Genny.”

His voice was bland, and she matched his tone.

“Luca’s at my office,” she said. “I won’t go into it now, he can explain later. Bottom line, he needs a ride back to your place. Can you meet us somewhere private near the bridge when your shift is over? That is, if you haven’t caught a case that would keep you late.”

His answer was smooth as a rock on the bottom of a river. “There’s an industrial complex near the last bridge on-ramp. Pull around back in the alley, and I’ll meet you there at four-thirty.”

“See you then.” Gen replaced the handset and looked at the duo in front of her.

They’d been transformed.

Luca was a replica of Oliver, and Oliver was Luca, if you saw him from a distance. He’d brought a Luca-like wig in his bag and trimmed it a bit right there in the bathroom, then styled it close enough to the real thing to pass.

Gen marveled at Luca’s apparent ease over the whole situation. “Can you walk okay in those shoes?”

He demonstrated. Straight as an arrow, not a glitch. They discussed their plan and decided on lunch at Swan’s, a madhouse even on a slow day.

Then they took a deep breath and casually walked down the block and back into the lobby of Gen and Oliver’s building. They took the elevator down to the garage, climbed into her Beemer, and headed uptown.

They waited in line for a table and took their sweet time over the food. Anyone watching would be bored stiff. When they’d finished their meal, Gen paid the bill while Liv and Luca headed for the restroom.

The plan was for Liv to slip some clothes from Luca’s massive bag when they were hidden from sight, then go into the men’s room, take off his wig and Luca’s clothes, change, slip Luca’s things back into the bag, then part company with the boy and leave through the side door.

And slick as you please, that’s exactly how it went down. Gen and Luca climbed back into her car and drove to meet Mack. He was waiting when they arrived.

“You have to tell him,” Gen said. “I’m sure you don’t want to, but he needs to know.”

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.”

“He’s a good man. He won’t think less of you. And I’ll put the coins in my safe deposit box with the other one.”

He looked at her. “Thank you, Genny.”

She smiled. “You watch your back. And Mack’s, too.”

“I’m sorry I made you and Mack fight–”

“Let it go. The argument was my fault, not yours.” She turned away and grasped the steering wheel.

“You and Mack shouldn’t split up over something I brought down on you.”

“You better go. You have my number, so use it if you need to. One more thing, Luca. Don’t tell Mack about my condo getting tossed. Promise?”

“Yeah.” He opened the door and slid out.

Gen’s eyes went to Mack. He was sitting in the pickup, one elbow stuck out the open driver’s side window. He didn’t react when he saw Luca’s clothes, just sat as stoic and expressionless as you please.

But he made eye contact with Gen and gave her a single nod that said
thank you
.

She wondered what he’d think when Luca explained; that is, if he actually kept his word and told the tale. Was this most recent story the truth?

Time would tell.

She squared her shoulders and returned Mack’s nod, then fed the car some gas and drove away.