“Ciao, sono Maria.” She extended a hand to Wolf.
“Ciao,” he said. “I’m David.”
“Nize-a to meet you,” she laughed. “I am terrible Eenglish.” She pointed to herself with a red faced smile.
“Not as bad as my Italian.”
Rossi’s home office had dark green ceramic tiles on the floor, and color photos of vineyards adorning the bright yellow stucco walls. Rossi turned on the tall floor lamp and ripped open the shades, revealing the view below. The sky outside was now a dark orange, high white-stoned peaks gleaned, and the city below speckled with lights. Rossi plopped down at the dark wood desk, fired up Skype, and showed Wolf how to use it.
Rossi opened the door, letting in the loud music from the rest of the house, “Take your time. We’ll be having apperitivo.”
Wolf picked up the headset and took a seat. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Hello?”
“Hi, Mom, it’s me.”
“Oh thank God. What’s going on over there?”
“Well, I’m just taking care of everything. Getting John on a plane home.”
She paused. “So?”
“Well, I really haven’t got any news yet, Mom. I just wanted to check on how you were doing. Is everything okay?”
“Have you seen him?”
“Yes, I’ve seen him.”
A rustling sound filled the headset. “How did he look?”
“He looked good. What…how’s it going? Has Nate checked on you?”
“Yes, he was here last night. He made me dinner.” She sniffed. “Then I will probably go to dinner over there tonight.”
“Oh, good.”
And so it went.
Hey, I don’t think John killed himself, and I’m going to find the son of a bitch that murdered him
. Wolf didn’t say those words. They were well implied. The Wolf family was always more interested in results and actions, not talk.
They squirmed their way through a few more minutes of long silences and said their goodbyes. He would check in later. He would let her know what was going on.
He called Jack and left a message, disappointed, but thankful he wasn’t answering his “emergency cellphone” in class.
He dialed another number. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Wolf.”
“Hey,” Nate said. “I was wondering what this random phone number was. I hoped it was you. How’s it going over there? You find anything out?”
“Well, maybe. It’s taking some time. There’s definitely something going on that doesn’t look right.”
“Jesus, really? What’s happening?”
“Ah, I can’t talk about it now. I think we’ll find out some more stuff tomorrow though. Anyways, I talked to my mom. She says you made her dinner last night. Thanks for that.”
“Of course, man.”
“I just wanted to know if you’ve been keeping an eye on Jack? Have you seen him?”
“Yeah, he’s been here every day this week with Brian. He seems good. He keeps asking about you. Have you talked to him?”
“No, not since I left. I finally got a chance to use Skype just now. Tell him I’ll be home Sunday, and I’ll see him then, okay?”
“Yeah, sure. No problem,” he said. “I’ve been checking on things. I took him home yesterday, even though he had his bike. I insisted I drive him home. I went in and said hey to Sarah. She looked okay. Didn’t look strung out or anything. Nobody was at the house except for her. Apparently her parents were out and about doing something. Otherwise I’ve driven by the house four times. Nothing seems to be happening. But —” He stopped.
“But
what
?”
“Well, I saw her with a guy in town walking around yesterday. They weren’t with Jack, he was over here. But anyways, the guy looked, like, normal looking. Not like a junky. Had all his teeth and respectfully dressed and shit.”
“Yeah, I know. I talked to him before I left.”
“Yeah? Well so did
I,
” Nate said. “I introduced myself.”
Wolf smiled. “Introduced yourself?”
“Well, yeah. I kind of pulled him aside and talked to him a bit.”
Wolf put his head in his hands and laughed silently.
“What?”
“Nothing. What did you say to him?”
“I just told him to keep his hands off Jack, or I’d kill him.”
Wolf smiled wide, thinking of Nate’s tough-man face.
“What?”
“Nothing, man. Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“No problem.” He sounded proud. “You coming back Sunday? There’s a lot of talk around town. Apparently
Dickhead
is trying to make it sound like you jumped him the other day. I talked to Rachette yesterday.”
Wolf wiped his hands down his face, pulse quickening. “All right man, well, thanks. I’ve gotta make some more calls.”
“All right. I’ve got everything covered with your family here. Don’t worry about that,” he said. “Just get the guy.”
“Thanks. I’m workin’ on it.”
“Rocky Points Sheriff’s Department.” The connection was garbled, but it didn’t sound like Burton.
Wolf wondered if he dialed the wrong number. He thought he dialed the Sheriff’s direct line. He looked at the screen and saw he dialed correctly.
“Sheriff Burton please.”
There was a long drawn out pause. “Who’s calling?”
Who’s callink
. The call reception went back to fine. It was Connell, sounding like he had a nose plugged with gauze.
Wolf gritted his teeth. “It’s me. Where’s Burton? What are you doing answering his personal line?”
“Just covering for him for a bit, we’re a bit short handed with officers skipping town and whatnot.”
Wolf paused for five seconds. “You telling people I jumped you, Derek?”
“I’m just telling people what
happened
, Sergeant Wolf,” he said. “Doesn’t look too good what you did to me, then skipping town right before the Sheriff appointment. Not too good for you at least.”
Wolf sat silent.
Connell gave a quiet chuckle, “Damn good timing for brother John, though. I tell you what,” he said. “Aaaaaaanyways, have fun over there. I hope you enjoy your vacation.”
With a
sploosh
sound the Skype session ended. Wolf stared at the screen and ripped off the head set. He stood and flexed every muscle in his body as hard as he could, hissing through his clenched teeth.
Dinner turned out to be a needed distraction, and some of the best food he’d tasted in his life. Valerio and Maria Rossi’s two boys seemed like good kids, despite Wolf not understanding a word they said.
It was fascinating to observe the foreign tongue and animated gestures. They would all laugh, and Lia would stop to translate, and then he would laugh, well after the magic of the moment. Nonetheless, he enjoyed the company.
“Lia used to try to be one of the boys,” Rossi explained. “We would be playing
soccer
as you Americans call it, or
calcio
as we call it, and she would
insist
to play all the time.”
Lia was concentrating on her meal with a quickly ripening face.
“She, of course, was better than everyone,” he said. “Except me!”
Lia kept her gaze on her food.
“No, she really was. All the boys were so confused by her. Here is this beautiful young girl who wanted desperately to kick their butts at every chance she could get.”
Lia jutted her head forward. “I didn’t want to kick anyone’s butts. I just wanted to be treated like everyone else.”
“It is the same today. She is one of the best soldiers we have in the Caribinieri. The boys are confused by her once again.”
“They are not confused, they are…” She looked back at her meal and resumed eating. Tension fell on the table, and everyone ate in silence for a good ten seconds.
“They are confused.” Rossi used a quiet tone. “They don’t know what to do with such a talented, beautiful, strong, and vicious young woman. You have already been recognized for your talents. We have a saying in Italy,” Rossi looked to Wolf, “‘
Il tempo viene per chi sa aspettare’ — which means ‘All things come to those who wait.’ Isn’t that right, David?”
“In a perfect world, I guess.”
Rossi studied his expression. “What is your job at home? Are you an officer? A captain? How do you say?”
“I’m a Sergeant. In our town we have Officers, Sergeants, then the Sheriff.”
“Do you wish to be Sheriff some day?”
“My father was the Sheriff of the town I live in when I was growing up.” Wolf took a deep breath and rolled some spaghetti. “I would very much like to be Sheriff.”
The table went quiet again.
“I, too, lost my father,” Rossi whispered. “A few years ago. It was his time. He had a long life. Obviously your father was taken from you at a younger age than I. It must have been very difficult.”
Wolf nodded. “I’m sorry about your father,” he deflected. “I heard about it from Lia on the way up here.” He stopped himself, suddenly self conscious of he and Lia’s conversation on the way up. Like they had gone behind his back in some way.
“Yes. My father was a good, hard working man. At least that’s the way I remember him. He and my mother split when I was a child. He helped my brother’s family and my family tremendously after his death. We had no idea that he had amassed such a wealth over the course of his life. He never taught us about how to invest or save the way he did, he just quietly did it for his entire life. It was a surprise for the entire family to get such a large inheritance.” He raised his hands and looked around. “It gave us this. And gave my brother a place to call his own in Liguria as well.”
His eyes glistened as he pushed his pasta in an aimless circle on the plate. Maria rubbed his back and gently lay her head on his shoulder.
Lia reached to Wolf’s leg under the table and gave it a soft squeeze, looking at him. She pulled her hand away, rolled her eyes and resumed rolling her spaghetti on her fork. She looked up suddenly, “I’m not vicious!”
Hearty laughter burned away the tension. Rossi’s two boys joined in, giggling and staring wide eyed at Lia.
Wolf threw the tiny bag from Matthew Rosenwald’s on the table in front of Rossi. Rossi thumbed it. “It looks just like the one that I found in your brother’s apartment. The same size and look of the bag.”
They sat on the back patio overlooking the lights of Lecco, sipping a local grappa served by Rossi’s wife. Wolf felt like he was observing reality from another dimension, exhaustion overtaking his body and mind.
“I don’t know what to make of the whole cocaine thing. I’m not sure if this is even cocaine. You’ll need to test it. I don’t think my brother did drugs. He may have experimented in the past, but he never really
did
drugs. I know what people act like when they do drugs, and my brother didn’t. I need to find this Matthew guy. And something’s off about that Cezar guy at the pub, and Vlad at the observatory. They are holding things back. Something’s off about those two.”
Rossi took a sip and furrowed his brow. “What if Matthew was supplying your brother with these drugs?”
“I guess it looks that way. But looks can be deceiving. Then there is the whole thing about the belt. That wasn’t my brother’s belt that was found around his neck. There’s only two things that can mean, either he stole a belt and hung himself with it, or someone strung him up with it…or more accurately, smacked him on the head and strangled him, then tried to make it look like a suicide, and did a poor job of it, because the chandelier couldn’t hold his body weight. That’s what happened, and I’m sure of it. And it had to be at least two people who strung my brother from that chandelier. There’s no way one person could have done it.” He stood and went to the patio railing, gazing at the city below.
Valerio cleared his throat. “I think there needs to be more evidence. And until then, I don’t see what we can do. There is no name tag on that belt, there’s no way to find out whose it is, other than finding finger prints, which we’ll check. But it’s been handled by more than a few people by now.
“Secondly, we cannot bring in this Vlad character for questioning because he was sweating profusely as you spoke to him. We cannot arrest the bar owner for being rude to you guys.” He sighed heavily. “I do think that it is strange that this Matthew fellow left town immediately after your brother’s death, though. So, I think we need to find him. Paulo is working on it. He will look at the phone records, and find Rosenwald’s phone, and who knows what else he can uncover? He is a talented boy.”
Wolf yawned uncontrollably once again and nodded his head.
Lia stood up. “You need to get some sleep, David.”
“Yes, you need sleep. We will know more tomorrow.”
“We need to go over the police report,” Wolf said, sitting back down. “And I don’t know how the hell to read Italian, so I’m going to need your help.” An unstoppable yawn stretched his face.
Lia stood in front of Wolf and placed her hand gently on his. “You need sleep.”
Rossi set down his glass and stood. “David. Please. It doesn’t do you any good to not rest. We still have all day tomorrow.”
Wolf sat forward. “And if I need your help Saturday? What if I need more time?”
“Then you will have our help on Saturday as well,” Rossi answered immediately.
Wolf sat back in the seat hard. They were right. If they went over the police report now he probably wouldn’t remember it in the morning. Every cell in his body screamed for sleep. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Sleep now,” she said, like talking to a small child. She turned the key and pulled out of the gate.