Worth Dying For (5 page)

The thought of getting out of Washington and moving to a new location was a welcoming thought. For the past three years, she had been safely coasting through life, not really living, and this assignment was her chance to start over.
 

She went into the bedroom and changed into an old pair of sweat pants before grabbing the folder and brown bag filled with cheeseburgers and fries off the counter. She laid the folder on the coffee table and unwrapped one of the burgers. She didn’t realize how hungry she was until she sunk her teeth into it.

As she ate, she looked around the room. Her thoughts turned to Jenny, and how she had traded in the efficiency apartment for the little white house and picket fence. Well not exactly—the house was actually a two-story yellow row house in the 1700 block of Seaton Street near DuPont Circle and the picket fence was only twelve inches tall, and six feet long, counting all four sides. Jenny had used it to enclose a tiny flower garden she had planted in the backyard. Overall, the house was quite small, considering its hefty price tag. Hell, you could fit the whole house inside the Castrucci garage with room to spare.

The decision to purchase it was made six months after the two of them had met, and Jenny had been the love of her life for twelve wonderful years. They were introduced after Jenny had helped Stacie organize a gay fundraiser.

Stacie was Laura’s better half, and the two of them had secretly conspired to fix Rheyna up with Jenny at their annual barbecue. She and Jenny had hit it off immediately, went on their first date shortly thereafter, and were inseparable from that day forward. She laughed aloud as she thought about lesbian dating etiquette. First date was dinner; second date was picking up the U-haul truck.

She lost Jenny to breast cancer three years ago. By the time they discovered the cancer, Jenny was already in the final stage of the disease. She would never forget the day Jenny died; it was the most excruciating pain she had ever felt in her life, and a part of her died that day as well.

She remembered it as if it were yesterday. Jenny had laid her hand on Rheyna’s cheek and said, “I know this will be hard for you, Rheyna, but I want you to promise me you won’t give up on love. Promise me that you will be open to loving someone else. You are the most wonderful woman I’ve ever known, and it’d be a shame for someone else to not know what I have known for all these years.”

Rheyna didn’t know who was crying harder—her or Jenny. With tears running down her cheeks, she had promised. She laid her head across Jenny’s stomach. Jenny had stroked her hair and told her how much she loved her. She told Rheyna that everything would be all right, and then she was gone.

That was three long, hard years ago. After Jenny’s funeral, Rheyna was so devastated she completely lost track of time. The next six months were and still are a haze. She went through life on autopilot. She had taken the obligatory three-day leave of absence for bereavement.

Laura had suggested she take a few weeks, or even a month off. She couldn’t do it—she needed to work. It was her only solace. It offered her a temporary reprieve from her thoughts, and it kept her out of the house—Jenny’s house and hers.

She was not sure what would have happened if it hadn’t been for Laura and Stacie. They each took turns stopping by to look in on her. They made sure she was eating properly and getting enough sleep, but mostly, they stopped by to be her friend. She knew she made Jenny a promise that day and sometimes, she felt guilty because she didn’t keep it. She tried at first, went out on a couple of dates, and finally gave up when she realized she was looking for Jenny in those women. It wasn’t fair to them or her.

She looked around the room, at the pictures on the wall, and all she saw was Jenny. She hadn’t changed anything in the house since Jenny died. Her clothes were still on the hangers in the closet, just as she left them. She also stopped sleeping in their bed. It was just too painful, so eventually, she moved her things into the spare bedroom. On most nights, she slept on the couch, finding comfort in the small consolation of having something familiar up against her back.

Laura dropped down on the couch beside her. “I can’t believe you started without me,” she said, the sound of her voice jarring Rheyna from her thoughts.

“Huh?”

“Dinner,” Laura said as she took a sandwich from the bag.

“Oh, that. Sorry. I guess I’m a little preoccupied.”

Laura dipped a fry in a blob of ketchup. “I have no idea why,” she teased.

Rheyna finished her sandwich and went over to the fireplace. She busied herself with igniting the logs while Laura continued eating. She stared at the fire, mesmerized by the multicolored flames shooting up toward the flue, each fighting, and straining to drink the last bit of oxygen in the air. She personally thought that curling up on the couch with a book by Karin Kallmaker in front of a roaring fire was the ultimate in relaxation.

When Laura finished eating, Rheyna cleared the trash off the table and opened the folder. “Okay, let’s see what we have here,” she said and spread the contents out. She put the documents in one pile, photos in another, and the miscellaneous items off to the side.

Taped to the inside cover was a set of keys to her new home, along with a white envelope. She removed the keys and envelope, and laid them to the side. She picked up the set of photos and glanced through them before handing them to Laura. The photos were exact duplicates of the ones they had seen earlier.

Laura looked at the photo of Salvatore Anastasia’s funeral and shook her head. “It must have been really bad.”

“What?”

Laura tossed the photo down on the table. “The reason Massino skipped the funeral,” she answered.

“Yeah, I’d like to know his reasons myself.”

“Maybe you’ll get a chance to find out.”

Laura picked up the photo of Terasa and Caroline and shook her head. “She’s just too God damned hot. Women who look that good should be illegal. If I were a few years younger, I’d—”

Rheyna laughed. “If you were younger, you’d what? You’re happily married and you’re not supposed to have thoughts like that.”

“I’m not dead, you know, and I can still dream, whether I’m married or not.”

Rheyna laughed at the expression on Laura’s face and then snatched the picture out of her hand. She looked at the photo. She was instantly captivated by Caroline’s eyes. “I wonder if there’s such a thing as being too attractive.”

“I don’t know. I’m sure it has its perks, especially when you have brains and money to boot. I think I read somewhere that she’s a doctor. She have her own practice yet?” Laura asked, reaching across the table to grab several sheets from the stack.

Rheyna rummaged through the documents she set off to the side. She pulled out the one with Caroline’s information. “It says she graduated nine months ago and opened her own clinic one month later.” For some reason, Caroline being a veterinarian didn’t surprise her in the least. If anything, it made Caroline more attractive, if that was even possible.

“Okay, how you wanna do this? Do you want me to just go down the line and explain the terms, or would you just rather read them yourself?” Laura asked.

Rheyna looked at the document in her hand. “I’m pretty comfortable with most of them, but I think you giving me a verbal refresher will be good.”

“Okay, next question. You want technical or laymen’s terms?”
 

“I’ll take laymen’s terms for five hundred, Alex,” Rheyna said in a deep voice.
 

“Very funny,” Laura chuckled.
 

“Funny ‘ha ha,’ or funny ‘queer’?” Rheyna asked.

Laura shoved her, almost knocking her off the couch. “You’re not right, but since you asked, funny ‘queer’.”

“Lay it on me, teach,” Rheyna said, pulling herself upright.

“Okay, here is the simplest explanation I can give you. You can sum up the entire organization’s hierarchy by comparing it to a corporate business and the United Nations. The Boss, which would be Massino, is the CEO. Next is the Under Boss, who we think will be Failla, and he’s the President or Assistant CEO. The Consigliere, that would be Valachi, is the In-House Counsel. The Capo, which would be Castrucci, is the Manager. The Soldiers and Associates are the worker bees—these guys are the nobodies, drug dealers, loan sharks, etc.—and the Picciotto, referred to lovingly as a hitman, is Farino, who we all know as Human Resources,” she said with a laugh.
 

“As for the world famous Commission, they’re like the United Nations, with each crime family boss equaling a foreign country. Is that simple enough for you?” she asked as she stood to stretch her legs.

Rheyna nodded. “I think that sums it up pretty well.”

“Good. I’m gonna get another beer; you want one?”

“Yeah,” Rheyna said as she picked up several documents and glanced through them. She skimmed over the detailed reports and tossed them into a pile.

Laura came back with two beers. She twisted off the caps and handed a bottle to Rheyna.

“Thank you,” Rheyna said without taking her eyes off the photos.

Laura was silent as she watched Rheyna systematically go through each one and commit the faces to memory. After several minutes, Rheyna tossed everything into a neat pile.

Laura walked over to the fireplace. She bent down and picked up a piece of wood from the brass log holder, pulled back the fire screen, and tossed it in. She turned to look at Rheyna. “I wish I had that gift of yours.”

Rheyna leaned back on the couch and took a long drink from the bottle. “Trust me when I say having a photographic memory isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. More times than not, you remember things you’d just as soon forget.”

Laura eyed her without commenting. There was no need. She knew exactly what Rheyna meant. She sat down on the couch, and laid her hand on Rheyna’s knee. “How are you doing?”

Rheyna looked at her. “You know, Laura, I’ve always known that La Cosa Nostra was run like a well-oiled machine, but—”

“I’m not talking about the mob, Rheyna.” For emphasis, she poked Rheyna in the chest with her finger. “I want to know how you are doing and I want the truth and—”

“I’m fine, Laura.” Rheyna laughed at the expression on Laura’s face. “Why do you always do that?” she asked.

“Do what?” Laura asked, her right eye narrowing, her left eyebrow shooting upward.

Rheyna pointed at Laura’s eyes. “That eyebrow thingy you do.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, whatever, and you don’t need to worry about me so much.”

“I always worry about you, and if I didn’t care so much, it wouldn’t matter—now would it?”

“I know you do, and I love you for it, but believe me when I say I’m fine. To tell you the truth, I’m actually looking forward to a change of scenery.” Rheyna reached over and pulled the envelope out from beneath the keys. She raised the flap and pulled out the contents. She looked at the copy of her new California driver’s license. “This isn’t too bad. At least they let me keep my first name, and I’m only twenty-eight.”

Laura snorted. “In your dreams, you’re twenty-eight. How old are you, anyway?”

Rheyna tossed her the driver’s license. “Thirty-five and holding with a birthday coming up in May, smart ass.”

Laura did a mock salute and curled her upper lip, doing her best Elvis impersonation and said, “Thank’ya, thank’ya very much. I’ll be here all week.”

Rheyna shook her head and laughed. “You’re just not right. That’s all there is to it.”

Laura glanced at the driver’s license. “That’s not too bad, considering what name they could’ve given you. What’s left?” she asked.

Rheyna skimmed through the other documents. “A college transcript from Oklahoma University for a B.A.S. in Photography and a Chequotah, Oklahoma police report showing that I was arrested as a juvenile for petty theft and vandalism.” Rheyna felt the color drain from her face.