The Italian Affair (11 page)

Carefully, holding the envelope by its outer edges, he held it up to the light to get a closer look. His eyes narrowed. ‘It’s been posted locally. I’ll let Brougham know about this. He’ll want it sent down to the station so they can test for fingerprints.’ After a quick phone call, within minutes someone appeared at the door and he handed them the letter he’d slipped into a plastic bag.

Gina shivered, feeling sick inside. Did someone hate her that much? She went outside on to the deck, knowing that anyone on the hillside or down on the beach could be watching her through binoculars. Her chin lifted defiantly.

Well, they weren’t going to scare her.

That evening Rick received a call to say his father had had an accident and was in hospital. A ladder had slipped while he was clearing the gutter on the roof of the house. He had fallen onto the concrete injuring his leg.

‘Damn it, why didn’t Dad ask me to help him?’ Rick said worriedly, as he spoke at length to his mother on the phone.

‘He knew you were busy with the Rosselini case. He didn’t want to bother you,’ explained his mother.

Rick sighed with frustration. ‘I’ll head over to the hospital as soon as I can.’ He hung up.

‘I’ll come with you,’ offered Gina, overhearing the conversation.

‘That’s not necessary,’ he replied sharply. ‘I can arrange for a colleague to take over while I am away.’

‘That’s true,’ she reasoned, ‘but I could visit Maria while you’re busy with your father.’ Her face took on that stubborn look Rick recognized immediately. ‘And it’s not as if you are leaving me alone,’ she argued, ‘there is a police officer on duty outside Maria’s room, so I’ll be quite safe.’

After a moment’s hesitation he agreed. He could see the sense in what she suggested. ‘All right then. I don’t want you moving from Maria’s room until I get back.’ He wagged a finger at her and she smiled again, giving her promise so willingly Rick almost had trouble believing her.

When they arrived at the hospital, Rick delivered her into the care of a uniformed constable while he set off in search of his father in the surgical ward. It was an ironic situation. Both of them had close family in hospital. He only hoped he could trust Gina to keep her word and stay with the police officer. Rick took the lift to ward nine and enquired from a nurse which room his father was in.

She pointed. ‘Room five.’

Rick’s father was propped up in bed. He looked up when his son entered and his face broke into a smile. ‘Rick, at last … what took you so long?’

‘
Mi scusi
. I got delayed with work.’

‘Ah, I know. It’s the Rosselini girl, eh?’

Rick gave a wry smile. ‘Yeah, that’s right.’ He drew up a chair and faced his father. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘A bit sore. Aghh, it shouldn’t have happened,’ Mr Caruso said, shaking his head in disgust. ‘The ladder slipped and I fell.’ He shrugged his thin shoulders. ‘It was bad luck. Look at my leg in plaster. Luckily, it was only one leg I broke. It could have been worse.’

Rick thought so too, but refrained from saying so. In his estimation, his father ought to have been taking it easy at his age after a lifetime of hard work in the tomato-growing business. Unfortunately, Rick’s father’s work habits were deeply ingrained and it hadn’t been so easy to convince him.

He swapped glances with his mother sitting opposite. He could tell she was thinking the same thing from the disapproving look on her face.

‘Maybe we should sell up,’ she said. ‘That real estate man called in again. He says we’d get a good price for the property.’

Rick agreed. ‘It would be easier for all of us if you would consider selling. You could have a nice little cottage in the country. Why don’t you think about it?’

Mr Caruso looked thunderstruck. ‘No, no, no. I have worked too hard. All these years doing back-breaking work to get the place established.’ He jabbed his finger in the air. ‘Others might want to sell up. But we are here to stay.’ His father set his mouth determinedly, not willing to discuss the issue further. ‘Another thing, if anything happens to me, the business is yours, so don’t forget it, eh?’

Rick knew his father had hopes he would take over the business eventually, but he certainly couldn’t envisage it. That wasn’t to say he couldn’t put a manager in if he had to. If anything did happen to his father, his first thought at one time would have been to sell the property, but lately he hadn’t been so sure. Could he really destroy what his mother and father had taken a lifetime to build up? There was more than just money at stake; it was a lifetime of passion and hard work and sacrifice.

Rick patted his father’s arm. ‘OK, stop worrying. We’ll get someone in to help you until you’re back on your feet again. I can do the odd thing around the place to keep things ticking over.’

His father looked relieved and sank back into the pillows exhausted. Shortly afterwards, the nurse came in to check on him.

‘Your blood pressure is a little high. I think you should rest now, Mr Caruso,’ she advised.

‘
Grazie
,’ he said gratefully.

Rick’s mother got to her feet reluctantly. ‘I’ll go back to the house, Enrico.’ Concern was etched on her face. She leaned over and kissed him on his weathered cheek. ‘You sleep now. Don’t worry about things.’

‘I’ll try,’ he mumbled tiredly, as his hand clutched the sheet. ‘Don’t forget the sprinklers need turning on tonight. The tomatoes need water. And check number one greenhouse, there’s been some bugs lately. I don’t want them spreading.’

‘I’ll see to it,’ promised Rick. Once outside the room, he whispered to his mother, ‘Don’t worry about him, he’ll be fine. He’ll have those nurses wrapped around his finger in no time.’

Within minutes, Rick had picked up Gina from her sister’s room. ‘I hope I wasn’t too long,’ he said apologetically.

‘Not at all. I’m only too glad to spend time with Maria.’

‘Any change?’

‘She came round briefly, but didn’t say anything.’

Side by side they walked down the corridor and down the stairs until they reached the car-park.

‘I’ll drop you off at home first, then I need to call in to my father’s place. There’s some urgent matters to see to.’

‘Why don’t we call in there first? It would save time.’

She was right, he thought. ‘You don’t mind?’

Gina shook her head. ‘Of course not.’

Within half an hour, Gina was sitting in the kitchen having a cup of tea with Mrs Caruso discussing an Italian recipe while Rick offered to check on the greenhouses.

‘Well, if you’re sure you can spare the time,’ his mother said, looking relieved. ‘Maybe I should ring Mark, your cousin. He’s back home at the moment. He doesn’t go back to sea for six weeks.’

‘That might be a good idea; I can’t be in two places at once. And I have to finish this case I’ve taken on,’ Rick replied, glancing at Gina.

‘I’ll come with you,’ offered Gina, standing up.

‘No, that’s OK. But thanks anyway.’

After an hour, Gina, feeling restless, had finished her cup of tea and told Mrs Caruso she’d find Rick. She could do with some fresh air anyway. She had just entered one of the greenhouses when she heard Rick’s voice. ‘Do you make a habit of making life difficult?’

She jolted. ‘Why would I want to do that?’

‘Because you never do as you’re asked. You said you’d stay in the house.’

‘I just needed some fresh air,’ she explained.

‘OK, So how about giving me a hand?’

‘Depends on what it is?’ she said warily.

He gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Nothing strenuous. Just turn on some taps.’

‘OK. Even I can manage that.’

Once inside number two greenhouse, he asked her to walk towards the far end.

‘The taps are near the floor. I’ll be nearby,’ he told her. ‘Just holler out if you have any trouble.’

Helping out in the greenhouse wasn’t something she had exactly planned on doing. But she had been adamant about accompanying him, so she’d have to go along with it. Gina turned on the first tap.

‘That was easy,’ she murmured.

Water whispered, then whooshed as five sprinklers came on automatically. Gina fought her way through the foliage until she came to the next one. It was like being in the tropics, it was so hot. She could feel herself starting to perspire and her mouth had gone dry. When she reached the next tap, she tried to turn it on but it wouldn’t budge. Dropping to her knees, she twisted and strained, leaning with all her weight, still to no avail.

Without even hearing him approach, Rick leaned forward across her shoulder, his muscled arm touching hers. Gina startled, twisted around, and looked right into his eyes. She saw the warmth but it was tempered with wariness. A trickle of sweat ran down his temple but he brushed it away with his arm. The extra few seconds he took to turn on the tap, enabled her to observe him more closely. His nearness was disconcerting, she couldn’t deny that. But there was fascination as well and it held her long enough to notice the density of his muscles and the way they moved as his grip tightened on the tap. She kept completely still, watching and waiting. His arm flexed, shoulders lifted. The sheer power of his maleness sent her into spirals of panic as she realized how attracted she was to him. And, what was more, it seemed to her, he was quite unaware of it. But she was quickly to change her mind when he gently helped her to her
feet. The soft regular whooshing of the sprinklers pulsated with a hidden energy matching the rate of her heartbeat.

His finger slipped underneath her chin, tipping her head upwards.

‘Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea coming in here, after all,’ he said softly, looking down at her.

She couldn’t help the smile tugging at her lips. ‘Afraid, Caruso?’

‘No,’ he mused. ‘What gave you that idea?’

‘No particular reason.’

‘We’ve another three greenhouses to check. We’d better go.’ His hands dropped to his sides.

Go where, Gina thought? For a wicked moment, she had an image of Rick lying tangled amongst silk sheets, his sleek body naked with hers. Shocked at her thoughts, she stared at him harder than she meant to. Finally, she managed to get the words out, ‘So have we finished in here?’

His voice deepened. ‘Actually, I don’t think we’ve even begun.’

Gina, feeling like a kid out of school and not like the sophisticated woman she always made out to be, couldn’t make up her mind if he was talking about them or the taps they were supposed to be turning on. She took a deep breath to steady herself. What was it about this man that left her feeling so uncertain about herself?

‘What’s next?’ she asked.

‘That depends,’ he answered enigmatically. Then he gave her a smile. ‘How about dinner out tonight?’

Asking Gina out to dinner had been on impulse, but Rick really didn’t think it would do any harm especially if they took extra security guards with them for added protection. He flicked his wrist to look at his watch. There was time to visit Brougham beforehand. Earlier on, he’d received a call from the detective. A psychiatric report from the rehab clinic had arrived on Gina’s ex-husband, Jason Gallagher, and he wanted to discuss it.

Rick took a seat opposite Brougham. ‘I’m surprised the clinic released the report,’ stated Rick.

‘They refused at first, so we reminded them about the Freedom of Information Act. And that it could be a matter of public safety.’ Brougham opened the file and took out a document.

‘Take a look at this. Gallagher’s got mood problems. Big ones. His psychiatrist informed us he was obsessed with Gina. He would do anything to get her back.’

‘Even commit murder?’

‘That’s what we want to know. There’s another thing. Jason Gallagher is a crack shot with a rifle. If he’d wanted to kill Maria, he could have.’

‘So where did he learn to shoot?’

‘A stint in the army. Dishonourable discharge.’

‘Do we know where he is?’

‘Nope. The forwarding address he left at the rehab clinic doesn’t exist.’

Rick frowned. ‘He’s lying low. He’ll know you’re looking for him.’

‘That’s what I thought. Also, we checked Gina’s bank account. The money she gave him is still in there. According to the bank, Gallagher went in to cash the cheque, but he was told the cheque had been cancelled.’

Rick frowned. ‘That’s strange. Gina never mentioned anything about cancelling the cheque after she’d written it out.’

‘She didn’t, the bank manager did. He contacted Anthony Monopoli when Jason presented the cheque to the teller. The bank had been forewarned by Monopoli that any large amounts written out by Gina had to be OK’d by him. Turns out Anthony refused payment when he heard who the payee was.’

‘Sounds like a good enough motive for Gallagher to shoot one of the Rosselini’s. You’ve questioned Anthony about this?’

‘He’s confirmed it. But interestingly enough, Anthony didn’t say anything to Gina at the time. He was busy getting ready for the
wedding and was going to tell her about it later. He completely forgot about it when Maria was shot.’

That sounded believable, thought Rick. ‘What about Dani Russo? Any further information about him?’

‘He was released from prison a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t serve his full time. Good behaviour.’

‘They could be in cahoots,’ offered Rick.

‘That’s a possibility too.’

‘We’ve got a lot of possibilities here and no definites,’ stated Rick.

Brougham gave a grin. ‘That’s what makes crime interesting, Rick.’ He paused. ‘By the way, we got the forensic report back on that anonymous letter to Gina. No trace of fingerprints. Ordinary writing paper with the words typed out. The brown envelope is sold in a thousand stores around the country. Postmarked locally.’

‘If it is Gallagher, it seems strange he hasn’t contacted Gina again,’ said Rick with a frown, ‘especially if he didn’t get his money.’

‘Unless he’s waiting for the right moment,’ Brougham suggested.

That was Rick’s thought exactly. And he had a feeling it would be sometime soon.

Gina stood there seething. ‘I’m going to complain to the bank. Anthony had no legal right to refuse the cheque.’