Laura smiled as she and Stevens listened in on the conversation. She could only imagine the look on Castrucci’s face.
If he’s pissed now, wait until we go into Bayshore
, she thought. Better yet, wait until he finds out that we got Artie. She wished she could be there to see the look on his face.
Chapter 18
Rheyna had no idea of what took place inside the house, but she knew it was bad and she figured it had to be from the pressure Edwards was instigating. Big Tony looked like a volcano about to erupt.
He jerked the chair back away from the table and sat down. Sonny and Henry took a seat at the table next to him. The patio table next to the pool had turned out to be Big Tony’s preferred place to discuss business and it had paid off highly for her. She grabbed the towel off the table and wiped her face and arms while glancing over at the table.
Today was a real scorcher. The thermometer outside the pool hut put the temperature at ninety-eight degrees. She looked down at her legs and was grateful for cosmetic makeup—namely, waterproof concealer. It had done a good job of hiding her scratches. Of course, Caroline had noticed, just as she had suspected she would. She felt bad for blaming it on Annie, but the explanation seemed to satisfy Caroline.
She watched Big Tony reach inside his breast pocket, take out a handkerchief, and use it to mop the sweat off his forehead. What he did next shocked her. Henry had been leering at Caroline almost from the instant he saw her. With a movement quicker than Rheyna thought possible, Bog Tony slapped Henry upside the head so hard that he nearly knocked him out of the chair. “Put your god damn tongue back in your mouth before I cut it off,” he snarled.
She tried not to laugh and actually felt a little bit sorry for the man. She knew how he felt. Her tongue fell out when she looked at Caroline, too.
“I think he likes you,” she said just loud enough for Caroline to hear.
Caroline frowned and playfully slapped her with the magazine she was reading. “Yuck. He can like all he wants.”
“He’s not that bad-looking,” Rheyna teased.
“You think so? Maybe you should take him for yourself.”
Rheyna glanced over at Henry and shook her head. “Nah. Not my type.”
A look of amusement crossed Caroline’s face. “And … what exactly is your type?” she asked.
Rheyna wanted to say, you are, but held her tongue. “I prefer blondes.”
“That figures.”
Rheyna turned over on her side to look at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Caroline shrugged. “Nothing. Just that most people like the opposite of what they look like.”
“Is that true for you, too?”
“Yep,” she answered and then ducked her face back behind the magazine.
Rheyna sighed.
She’s flirting with me again
, she thought. Come to think of it, she did that a lot these days. She heard a phone ring and looked up to see Henry talking into his cell again. She heard him say, “Yeah and okay” before hanging up. Her ear bud was useless. She hadn’t had the opportunity to get the receiver from under the table to replace the batteries, and she was not about to test fate by being careless. A few minutes later, she heard the door slide open and turned to see Terasa walk out onto the patio.
“Where’s Rosa?” Big Tony asked.
Terasa placed a tray of sandwiches down on the table. “She has the afternoon off,” she said.
“Thanks, Mrs. Castrucci,” Henry said, biting into the club sandwich.
“Thanks, Mrs. C,” Sonny said, taking a sandwich for himself.
“You’re welcome, boys,” she replied with a smile.
She’s always smiling
, Rheyna thought as she watched Big Tony half stand to kiss Terasa on the cheek.
“Is she great, or what?” he asked the two men.
Terasa picked up the tray and came over to her and Caroline. Caroline sat up and pulled one of the loungers over.
“I thought you two might be hungry,” Terasa said, placing the tray on the table between them.
Caroline nodded at the lounger. “Thanks, Mom. Have a seat and join us,” she said.
Terasa sat down in the lounger. “Maybe for a few minutes,” she said. “I can’t stay long. I have my hair appointment today.”
“Thank you, Terasa. I didn’t realize how hungry I was,” Rheyna said as she sunk her teeth into the sandwich.
“Well, if you ask me, the both of you could stand to put on a few extra pounds here and there,” she teased.
Rheyna and Caroline looked at each other and then at Terasa. They both answered with a resounding, “No.”
Terasa shook her head and laughed. “I think you two girls are incorrigible and an equally bad influence on each other.”
“Ah, Mom, that’s not fair,” Caroline pretended to be hurt.
“So, do you two incorrigible girls have any plans tonight?”
“As a matter of fact, we do. I think I’ve pretty much talked Rheyna into staying for an all-night movie marathon—unless she decides she’s not up to the challenge. She’ll probably be asleep by ten anyhow.”
Why does everyone who wants me to do what they want, always have a tendency to do it in a challenging manner? First, it was Laura, then Edwards and now Caroline. Rheyna shook her head at Caroline. “You’ll definitely go down before I do, especially after a few glasses of wine,” she teased back.
“Hey, that was a low blow,” Caroline said.
Rheyna smiled. “Well, it serves you right. You’re the one who started this. Besides, I already told you that I was up for this marathon of yours,” Rheyna said. “And I knew you wouldn’t have taken no for an answer, anyway.”
Caroline nodded her head. “This is true. I usually get what I want.” For emphasis, she ran her tongue over her lower lip, and it worked. Rheyna’s eyes were glued to her mouth.
Caroline cleared her voice to get Rheyna’s attention. When she looked up, she saw Caroline laughing at her. She has no shame. Caroline was flirting with her and she was doing it in front of her mother. Rheyna felt her face flush and quickly looked away. She was saved when Terasa stood up.
“Well, I need to get going. I don’t want to be late,” Terasa said.
Rheyna saw Vincent out of the corner of her eye, get up from the table where he and Joey had been playing cards. He followed Terasa into the house.
It was time for her to leave, too. She swung her legs off the lounger and stood to put on her robe. “I’m gonna take off. I need to get Annie and prepare myself for this movie marathon of yours.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a couple hours,” she said.
Rheyna said her goodbyes to Big Tony and the men at the table.
###
Edwards crammed his hands in his pockets and looked through the two-way window. He turned to Agent Bill Wilks. “How long’s he been in there?” he asked as Artie got up from the chair to start pacing back and forth.
“Almost two hours.”
“Did he say anything?”
Agent Wilks laughed. “He was fine until we took him to the interrogation room. He became a little hysterical and started yelling at us. For a minute or two, I thought he was gonna cry.”
Edwards picked up the folder. “Well, I might as well get this over with,” he said and then opened the door.
Artie stopped pacing and turned toward Edwards. “Oh, Kyle, thank God. I don’t understand what’s happening. Ron called and said to meet you here and then when I got here, they put me in this room.”
“Sit down, Artie,” Edwards said sternly, motioning toward the chair.
Artie reluctantly did as he was told.
Edwards sat down across from him and laid the folder on the table. “You have no idea why you’re here?” he asked.
Artie nervously fidgeted in the chair and started picking at his nails. He shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
Edwards opened the file and pulled out the bank document. “Cut the shit, Artie. You know damn well why you’re here,” he said calmly and then pushed the sheet across the table.
Artie picked up the paper. Edwards watched the color drain from Artie’s face as he read the document.
“I, I can explain,” he said, his voice shaking.
Edwards pushed his chair back and stood up. He rested his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Oh, yeah? Can you also explain these?” He threw the photos down on the table in front of Artie.
Artie’s hand shook as he picked up the photos. He frowned. “How … where did you get these?”
“It doesn’t matter where I got them. I want you to explain to me why you were talking with Marco Mancini.”
“Who?” Artie asked, frowning.
“Come on, Artie. Stop bullshitting me. It’s over. Do you understand me? It’s over.”
“But, but I don’t know who this man is. I swear. He ran into me on my way into the bank. He knocked the papers out of my hand and stopped to help me pick them up. I swear, Kyle. You have to believe me,” he insisted.
Edwards raised his eyebrows. “Believe you? You must be fucking joking.” He jabbed his finger at Artie’s face. “You’re the fucking leak. You’ve been on Castrucci’s payroll for years. You’re the reason several people have lost their lives and you want me to believe you. What about Rheyna, Artie, did you fucking tell Castrucci about her, too?”
On the verge of tears, Artie shook his head vehemently. “I swear to God, Kyle, I have nothing to do with Castrucci. I don’t even know who Marco Mancini is.”
Edwards couldn’t believe this. Even with the proof in front of his face, Artie continued to deny his involvement. Edwards slammed his fist down on the table. “Mancini is a foot soldier for the Massino crime family and this proves you took a payoff!” Edwards yelled. He picked up the bank document and slung it at Artie. “You also had direct access to the Vinci and Pisano files.”
Artie frowned. “Who’s Vinci and Pisano?” he asked, his mind moving a mile a minute as he tried to place the names.
“Yes, Vinci and Pisano. You were one of the case agents assigned to them.”
“But that was over ten years ago,” Artie said as his mind finally registered the names.
Edwards nodded. “And that shows just how damn long you’ve been at this, doesn’t it?”
Artie shook his head. “They died.”
Edwards’ eyebrows shot up. “So you admit that you had a hand in their deaths?”
“No, no. I mean they both died in accidents. One in a car crash and the other was a botched burglary.”
“Bullshit, Artie. You passed the information to Castrucci and he had them killed.”
Artie was becoming hysterical. “I swear … I swear with God as my witness, Kyle—”
“Just shut up, Artie. Just shut the hell up and how dare you bring God into this!”
Artie shrunk back in his chair. “I, I … I only stole the money,” he said finally.
The statement stopped Edwards cold. “You what?”
“I stole the money. I stole the money from the evidence room.” Artie laid his head down across his arms on the table and cried. He looked up at Edwards with puffy cheeks and bloodshot eyes.
“But why, Artie?”
Artie took his glasses off and laid them on the table. “I didn’t know what else to do. I’m $250,000 in debt. Alice maxed out our credit cards and the bank was foreclosing on our house.”