Rheyna counted fourteen chairs and then turned toward the marble-encased gas fireplace. She thought it added a homey feeling to the room. Her eyes fell to the feast lying on the table and her mouth watered. Terasa finished what she was doing and smiled.
Now I know where Caroline gets it from
, she thought as she looked at the older woman.
Terasa walked over to them and took Rheyna’s hands in hers. She surprised Rheyna by kissing her on the cheek and then she knelt down to Annie’s level, just as Caroline had done. She held her hand out for Annie to smell. “And who do we have here?” she asked, smiling at Annie.
“Mom, this is Annie.”
Terasa took Annie’s head in both hands and planted a kiss on top of her head. The act of kindness caught Rheyna off guard. It was obvious that Annie was enamored as well. She kissed the older woman back before she had a chance to get out of the way. Terasa laughed and kissed Annie on top of the head again. It thrilled Annie so much, that if she wagged her tail any faster, she was certain to dislocate something.
“Caroline said you were a cutie, and I can see that she’s right.” She turned to face Rheyna. “I’m glad you decided to come for dinner, Rheyna. I hope you’re hungry.”
“I’m starving,” she said, and she wasn’t lying. The smell was killing her.
“I’m glad to hear that. Do you like Italian?”
“It’s my favorite.”
Terasa walked around the table and took a seat at the far end. She motioned for Rheyna to take the seat to her right. “Caroline, will you please pour us something to drink?”
They waited for Caroline to fill their wine glasses and then Terasa spooned a huge slice of lasagna on each of their plates.
Caroline came around and took the seat next to Rheyna and as she did, her leg slightly brushed against Rheyna’s outer thigh. Terasa was speaking, but Rheyna found it hard to concentrate. Thank God for Annie. She wiggled her way in between their legs.
“Caroline tells me that you’ve only lived here for a couple months,” Terasa was saying.
Rheyna nodded, taking a sip of the wine. “I just couldn’t take the cold.” She took a bite of the lasagna and thought she had died and gone to heaven—it was fabulous.
“What about your family?” Terasa asked.
“I don’t have any,” she managed to say between mouthfuls of lasagna. “At least none that I’m close to, my parents were killed in a car wreck when I was twenty two,” she lied. She felt bad about deceiving this wonderful woman and her daughter, but she had no choice.
“I’m so sorry, you poor dear,” Terasa said with sincerity, making Rheyna feel worse, if that was possible.
“Thank you. It’s not as bad as it used to be,” she lied again. She wanted to change the subject. “This lasagna is delicious, Mrs. Castrucci.”
“Please, Rheyna, call me Terasa.”
“Are you an only child?” Caroline asked.
Rheyna nodded her head. “Yes, I am.”
Caroline’s face flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Rheyna. I invite you for dinner and Mom and I give you the third degree.”
“It’s all right, I don’t mind,” she said, although she wanted to talk about something else besides her life. She knew when it came to telling lies, less said was the route to go. Otherwise, the risk increased of adding too much—or worse, leaving something out.
“Do you have any brothers or sisters, Caroline?” Rheyna asked the question, although she knew the answer.
“Nope, I’m an only child, ” Caroline answered, then added, “but I’m sure my Dad wishes that I had been a boy. You know, to carry on the family name and all.” There was no mistaking the sarcasm in her voice.
“Caroline, you know that your father loves you just the way you are,” her mother interjected.
“Loving me and wishing I were his son are two different things.”
For the next half hour, they chitchatted about the weather and the new stores that had opened in Palo Alto. Rheyna learned that the Palo Alto stores were Terasa’s favorite shopping grounds. Terasa stood and gathered up the dishes. Rheyna stood to help.
“Oh, no you don’t, you sit there and relax,” Terasa scolded as she continued to clear the table. “Did you two save room for dessert?” she asked.
Caroline’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you make what I think you did?”
Terasa nodded her head. “Of course I did.”
Caroline grinned. “Oh … my … gosh … her tiramisu is to die for.”
“If it’s going to kill me, I probably shouldn’t have any,” Rheyna said half joking, half-serious.
Caroline laughed. “You know what I mean.”
“In that case, I guess I have no choice, then,” Rheyna said as her thoughts turned to Caroline’s comments regarding her dad. “Do you really think your dad wishes you were a boy?” she asked.
Caroline laid her fork down and picked up her wine glass. She thought about the question for a minute before answering. “Yes, especially where the business is concerned.”
Rheyna could see the hurt in Caroline’s eyes, and it made her dislike Castrucci all that much more. “What does your father do for a living?” she asked, just to see what Caroline would say.
“A little bit of everything.” Caroline paused to take a sip of wine. “You know where Palo Alto is, right?”
Rheyna nodded her head.
“He owns a little eatery downtown called Pal Joey’s plus several import and export warehouses down by the docks.” She was silent for a moment. “I’m sure there are others, some that I don’t know about.”
Rheyna found it hard to believe that Caroline would be so ignorant as to not know the extent of her father’s business dealings. However, it made all the sense in the world to her that Caroline wouldn’t be inclined to share that information with a stranger and although Rheyna was having dinner with Caroline and her mother, she was, in effect, still a stranger.
“He sounds like a very busy man. Is that why he’s out of town?” she asked.
Before Caroline could answer, Terasa walked in carrying a tray with the most delectable dessert Rheyna had ever seen. Terasa placed a huge plateful in front of her.
“Wow … I think I’m about to put on an extra ten-pounds,” she laughed.
###
Clarence leaned back and stretched his legs lengthwise across the front seat. He skimmed through the pages of the Playboy magazine. The men had been inside the house for almost two hours.
It’s a good thing I get paid by the hour
, he thought as he flipped to centerfold layout.
If he were more observant, he would have noticed Artie and another FBI agent sitting in a black sedan parked less than a hundred-yards away. The sedan was the same one that had followed them from the airport to Commission member, Don Vitto Lucchese’s lavish estate.
###
Don Vitto sat next to the warm fire, a cigar between fat, stubby fingers. He contemplated Big Tony’s request.
Sitting in the chair across from him, Big Tony continued to plead his case for support. Don Vitto looked at him curiously. His words were slow and measured, his voice thick with an Italian accent. “What you ask Anthony … could be misinterpreted as betrayal … in the strongest sense of the word and punishable by death.”
“I don’t mean any disrespect to the family, Don Vitto. I only came for your support,” Big Tony said.
Don Vitto tapped the end of his cigar against the ashtray. “You do know that it would be a grave mistake to make a move without the full approval of the Commission.”
“Damn it! His disrespect to Anastasia is unforgivable to me!” Big Tony’s voice raised several octaves. Don Vitto cocked his head sideways and Big Tony immediately regretted the outburst. It was disrespectful, and he had done it without thinking. He patted nervously at his brow with a handkerchief.
Without a word, Don Vitto stood up from his chair, and Big Tony knew their conversation was over. He got up from his chair and walked over to Don Vitto. He took Don Vitto’s hand in his, bent slightly, and kissed the top of it.
“I will discuss your concerns with the other members of the Commission, Anthony,” Don Vitto said, dismissing him with a wave of his hand
“Thank you, Don Vitto. That’s all I ask.”
Don Vitto waited for Big Tony to close the door behind him. He shook his head in disgust and then went over to his desk. He sat down in the oversized leather chair and looked at the phone, contemplating whether he should make the call or not. After a few minutes, he lifted the phone from its cradle.
###
After a fabulous dinner and delicious dessert, Caroline and Rheyna sat in the dining room, drinking coffee. She learned that Caroline’s birthday was in December and that she had just turned twenty-eight, something she already knew. That her favorite color was blue,
Beaches
was her favorite movie, she didn’t have a boyfriend, and much to Rheyna’s delight, was not planning to get one anytime soon.
Rheyna walked around the room, looking at the paintings hanging on the walls. She came to an abrupt stop in front of one in particular. She knew immediately that it was a van Gogh. It was the real deal and probably cost more than she would make in her lifetime. She could feel Caroline watching her as she continued to make her way around the room.
“Would you like to see the rest of the house?” Caroline asked.
“I would love it. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen such a beautiful house in my life,” Rheyna said as she followed Caroline up the staircase in the foyer. Her assumptions had been correct. All of the bedrooms were on the second floor, all seven of them. They were massive and decorated just as expensively as the downstairs rooms. She hadn’t expected anything less. What she didn’t expect was to see the spacious bathrooms each had. The enclosed metallic showers were at least seven feet long with jet showerheads strategically placed up and down the walls. She imagined that taking a shower in them would be like taking your body through a car wash.
The two back bedrooms were the best. Each had its very own veranda overlooking the pool and ocean. The view was stunning. She also learned that one of the rooms was Caroline’s, which didn’t surprise her in the least. The other belonged to her parents.
Before she knew it, they were almost back where they had started. The house was huge. In addition to the upstairs bathrooms, there were also three more located on the first floor. All in all, the house had fifteen rooms, counting the seven bedrooms upstairs, and three down in the finished basement. The foyer alone was the size of Rheyna’s entire house. She stopped at a small table just outside the kitchen and picked up a small angelic figurine.
“Mom got that on her trip to Greece a few weeks ago.”
“It’s beautiful. Does she travel a lot?”
Caroline smiled lovingly as she thought about her mother. “She goes in spurts.” She made a waving gesture with her hand. “All of the pieces you see in the house, including the artwork, she’s picked up somewhere or another.”
Rheyna set the piece back down on the table and continued to follow her. She had made mental notes of the layout, counting each step in her head as she toured the house.
Caroline stopped abruptly outside a room that, oddly enough, had the door closed. Out of all the rooms they had been in, it was the only one she remembered having a closed door. It sat directly across the hallway from the dining room and to the left of the kitchen. Caroline pushed the door open, and Rheyna thought it strange that she didn’t go in. She joined Caroline in the doorway.
“This is my dad’s cave,” Caroline said, acknowledging what Rheyna was thinking. The room was dark and cold, nothing like the rest of the house. The first thing Rheyna noticed was the absence of windows. She looked around the room, not impressed by the décor in the least. Two of the four walls were lined from floor to ceiling with red cherry book shelving.