The Spia Family Branches Out

by Mary Leo

  “Do I have to? I’d rather just leave. I can’t understand why she didn’t report the smell to Louie. The smell is really bothering me.”

  “Not as much as it bothered Angelina,” Lisa said. “She’s dead.”

  THIRTEEN

  The Trouble With Angelina

  With a bushelful of apprehension I walked into the bedroom. I wanted to ignore what Lisa had just said, and instead walk right back out of the room door, but I knew that act of cowardly self-preservation wasn’t really an option.

  “Are you sure?” I said as I stepped inside the smelly room, and crept up to the foot of the bed. The lovely Angelina lay on her side, facing the windows in the massive king-sized bed, covered in a floral throw, her head resting on a white pillow, and a .9mm Glock resting on her nightstand. “Maybe she’s just in a deep sleep.”

  “Oh, it’s deep alright. Deep enough so that she doesn’t have a pulse.” Lisa slipped her phone out of her purse, while holding on to it with a vice grip. “I’m going to call the sheriff, and an ambulance. If you have a problem with that, just tell me and I won’t do it, but please don’t toss my phone out of a window or flush it down a toilet. It took me most of the day to get this one all set up again.”

  “Well, maybe you want to hold off for a sec,” I said, trying to think of all the ramifications of this tragic situation. “I mean, maybe we should snitch her gun first, and see if it matches with the bullet Uncle Ray pulled out of Giuseppe’s shoulder.”

  “That would mean Ray kept the bullet. Why would he do that?”

  “Insurance. And you should check that mini-fridge to see if it’s been tampered with.”

  “That’s up to the sheriff. Taking her gun can get us in enough trouble.”

  “Yeah, but aren’t you curious to see if this was an accident or not? Besides, I doubt her handgun is a legal weapon. She couldn’t possibly have brought it in from Italy. I have a feeling somebody in my family had something to do with getting her a weapon, but that’s only a guess . . . unfortunately, it’s probably the right guess.

  She hesitated for a moment while she still held onto her phone. “Fine, but we’re really getting in deep once we start tampering with evidence.”

  “We already stepped into that deep hole when we didn’t report Giuseppe’s gunshot wound. Besides, before we jump to conclusions, maybe she died of natural causes . . . could happen.”

  I shrugged, as if ‘natural causes’ was even a possibility in the family Spia.

  Lisa’s heavy sigh and eye-roll told me she wasn’t buying it. “I need to put on gloves. I don’t want my prints on any of this.” She slipped her phone back into her bag and pulled out a pair of latex gloves, slid them on, then handed me another pair. “You should put these on.”

  I followed orders, wondering why anyone would purposely carry thin rubber gloves in their bag, but then I remembered this was Lisa Lin. “What else do you have in there?” I asked nodding towards her Saint Laurent black tote that must have cost her a cool thousand dollars or more. Being a successful writer had many perks, and gorgeous handbags and shoes were just two of the perks I envied.

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “Actually, I don’t think I would,” I told her as I pulled on the tight-fitting gloves.

  Lisa found the mini-fridge hidden behind a mock set of drawers, and went to work trying to check it out while I wrapped the Glock in a small guest towel and slipped it into Lisa’s large tote. My purse, a Marshalls special, was the size of a pencil case and barely held my phone, so she won the prize, at least for now.

  I went over to check out Angelina, and was stunned by what I saw . . . a woman who had probably simply lain down for a short nap. She was dressed in a lovely black and gray dress, a gray linen short jacket, and her lips were still bright red from her lipstick, the same shade on the wine glass in the other room. She also wore extra-large hoop earrings.

  Now, that was odd. Who slept while wearing hoop earrings? Wouldn’t she have taken them off first? Obviously, she’d dressed for her guest, but then got tired and took a nap. While she was still dressed? While she still wore her very large hoop earrings?

  Something smelled, and it wasn’t just the Freon.

  She had laid down on top of the quilt, with only the fuzzy throw over her. That’s when I noticed something was missing from her outfit.

  “She’s not wearing her ruby necklace,” I said more to myself than to Lisa.

  “It probably didn’t go with her outfit.”

  I checked around on the nightstand. No necklace, but a small key sat next to an unopened bottle of water. I knew the key had to be for a safe. “She looks so peaceful. Like she’s only sleeping. I may not have liked her very much, and suspected her of shooting Giuseppe and breaking into my apartment, but I never expected this.”

  I opened the wooden wardrobe, and sure enough a small safe was bolted to the floor. I shoved her clothes aside, along with an assortment of designer stilettos, and opened the safe.

  I pulled out some impressive pieces of jewelry, along with a sheathed knife, pepper spray, and a Taser . . . the woman had come prepared. The ruby necklace wasn’t there, either. I put everything back, and closed the safe.

  “That’s what makes this whole scene so troubling,” Lisa mused. “She must have smelled the ammonia when she went to take a nap, but she took one anyway? That doesn’t make sense. Or maybe something more sinister happened. Maybe someone cut the Freon line while she was sleeping.”

  “She’s wearing hoop earrings. Who takes a nap while wearing those cumbersome earrings? It doesn’t make sense.”

  This entire situation wasn’t making any sense . . . until I shuddered with yet another disturbing thought. “Wait a minute. If Angelina didn’t leave this room, then who was driving that white Mustang?”

  An icy-cold shiver ran right through me as someone knocked on the door and we both yelped.

  “Louie!” we said in unison.

  Neither of us moved, or even breathed. “Now what?” I asked, wanting to jump out of a window to get away from all the fallout that was sure to descend once we opened that door.

  “We answer the door and get rid of him.”

  Lisa had pulled the mini-fridge partially out, and removed the back.

  “Maybe he’ll go away,” I mused.

  “With what we offered him? I seriously doubt it.”

  Rap, rap, rap.

  Lisa said, “It doesn’t sound as if he’s going away.”

  “We have a dead girl in one of his rooms. He’s going to pop a vein.”

  “Send him on an errand.”

  “What kind of errand? Nothing’s going to deter him from entering this room. I’m surprised he hasn’t already used his master key.”

  Rap, rap, rap.

  “Tell him we need food . . . an olive and cheese plate.”

  “Like that’s going to work.”

  “You’re Italian. Angelina is Italian. I’m Asian. Food is always part of the equation.”

  Rap, rap, rap.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she groused.

  Slipping off her gloves, she marched over to the room door. I pulled off my gloves as well, shoved them in the pocket of my jeans and followed her out of the bedroom closing the door behind me.

  She gazed out of the peephole. “We shouldn’t be here. This is about to get really ugly,” Lisa muttered. I felt as though my delusional world was about to crack wide open. There was only one person that would cause Lisa to wish she were somewhere else.

  “Tell me it’s not Nick Zeleski. No way could he know anything about all of this. Besides, how could he possibly have gotten back already and then found out about us? But if he did, what the hell are we going to say? This is so not good.”

  My throat tightened. I felt sick. Nick did everything by the book . . . his book . . . and I had no idea what was in his book, but it always included contacting the local sheriff.

  “It’s not Nick. It’s worse.”

  “Impossib
le,” I said, folding my arms over my chest.

  “That depends on which side of the law you want to be on.”

  “I can’t answer that right now. There’s a dead girl in this room.”

  “And a gangster out in the hallway,” Lisa said, hand on the doorknob.

  I couldn’t believe one of my relatives had followed us here. Was there no privacy left for me? “Of course there is. Who is it, Uncle Benny? Jimmy? Uncle Ray? It’s like my family has a sixth sense when it comes to murder and mayhem.”

  “Who said anything about this being a murder?”

  “We’re a mob family. People don’t just die, especially when they’re not even out of their twenties.”

  “It’s not anybody from your family . . . at least not yet. But never fear. That wedding they were all keen on just became much more probable.”

  I waited as she swung open the door and Giuseppe walked in escorted by Jade Spia. My jaw literally dropped open. “What are you two doing here?”

  “I swung by to pick you up and found Giuseppe instead. He saw your text and we immediately jumped in my car and drove over to make sure you were okay,” Jade announced all smiles as she strolled into the room behind Giuseppe, who should have stayed in my apartment. Part of me regretted having sent him that text, but the scared part of me was happy he was here.

  “Pick me up for what?” I asked, trying to think if I’d missed a dinner arrangement or something equally as unimportant considering the situation.

  “But how did you know where to look for us?” Lisa asked, not allowing Jade to answer my question.

  “Mama Spia, she tell us,” Giuseppe said.

  “But I never told her where we were going,” I countered.

  He shrugged. “Your mama, she is a smart woman.”

  “Apparently, smarter than we think,” Lisa quipped.

  “Like, ya know, she said she was worried about somebody named Angelina because she hadn’t heard from her yesterday or today. I didn’t know who Angelina was, but Giuseppe said she’s his fiancée. I thought everyone wanted him to marry you, so I got confused, anyway, that’s all cleared up now. Where’s Angelina? The man down at the front desk said this was her room, so we came right up. Oh, he gave me a message for you, Mia. Thanks, but no thanks. Way too kinky. I asked him to explain, but all he said was that he was going home now, and that you’d understand. But he did offer to send up an olive and cheese plate if you wanted it.”

  Lisa shot me a look. “See, always food. It’s the great equalizer.”

  “We must leave,” Giuseppe said once the door closed behind him, looking as gorgeous as ever. There was something about this man that sent my pulse racing. “Subito, before it is too late.”

  “I think we’ve already passed too late and we’re now into a prison sentence,” I told him.

  “Wow, this room is incredible . . . smelly, but still incredible!” Jade announced as she made her way around the sitting room, enjoying the ambiance.

  “Where is Angelina?” Giuseppe asked. “Is she still getting dressed?”

  Lisa and I gazed at each other, neither one of us wanting to tell him. After all, she was his fiancée.

  After a beat, I decided the news should probably come from me. “I don’t know how to say this, but . . .”

  Jade’s muffled scream cut into what I was about to say. Apparently, she’d found Angelina.

  “Oops,” Lisa quipped, talking directly to me. “You should keep better control on that girl.”

  “Me? Why me?”

  “She’s your sister.”

  “Who is in there?” Giuseppe asked. “What is wrong? Where is Angelina?”

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you,” I said, trying to sound calm. This was going to be difficult for him and I didn’t want him to start shooting up the place in retaliation.

  But Giuseppe wasn’t about to listen to anything I had to say. Instead, he stepped past Lisa and me and headed straight into the bedroom. We followed close behind.

  “Who’s that?” Jade asked, pointing to Angelina. “And why isn’t she moving?”

  “Because she’s dead,” Lisa said as if this fact was nothing to get upset about. I suspected that she was getting used to dead, or, as in the case of Giuseppe, nearly dead bodies.

  But clearly not Jade. She looked as if she was about to go screaming from the room. Giuseppe put an arm around her waist as he came up next to her. I didn’t know if he needed the support or if he simply didn’t want her to move. “Now is not the time to panic. You can panic once we leave the hotel. Right now, you must be quiet or we will attract the polizia.”

  Jade wobbled and tried to take a step back but he held on tight. “You guys killed this woman? Wow! I knew this family was into mob stuff, but I never thought you two were part of it.”

  She looked scared and a bit horrified at the same time. I couldn’t blame her. I was a bit horrified myself.

  Lisa rolled her eyes. “We didn’t kill anybody. We found her this way.”

  Jade took a few cleansing breaths. “And what’s that smell? Like ammonia or something. Was somebody cleaning in here?”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s what killed her,” Lisa said.

  “Like, I mean, I know the maid service in wine country is great, but are you saying a maid killed her with cleaning supplies?” Jade asked.

  “You better sit down,” I told Jade, guiding her away from Giuseppe’s grasp. “I think between the intense smell and the dead woman you’re getting a little confused. Besides, you look a little pale.” I escorted her to a comfy looking chair. She fell into it, resting her head on the back, gazing at the ceiling.

  “We need to call the police,” Jade said, after letting out a sigh.

  Giuseppe made the sign of the cross. “Dio mio.” He walked over and felt for a pulse on Angelina’s neck then gently tucked her raven hair behind her ear and kissed her on the top of her head. From my angle, I could tell his eyes had welled up. No matter what his true feelings had been about their getting married, I knew in that moment that he’d cared for her.

  “She looks too perfecto. No blood. No bullet. No bruises.”

  Lisa had slipped on her gloves again, and gone back to the mini-fridge. “Just as I suspected. The line has been cut.”

  “So she went down for a nap, and someone cut the line afterward?”

  I shook my head. “We don’t think so. She’s wearing thick hoop earrings. I think something happened before she laid down.”

  “Like, you would never take a nap wearing hoops,” Jade said, agreeing. “This is so not right.”

  “We are in grave danger. If someone has killed Angelina, we have much to consider. She was an expert bodyguard. If she is dead, then the killer has outsmarted her, and we do not stand a chance if we do not do what is necessary. This could be another war between the Spia family and Angelina’s husband’s family. If it is, no one is safe, especially not your papa.”

  “What does my father have to do with anything?” I asked, skipping over the fact that Giuseppe had just told me that Angelina was already married.

  He turned to me, his eyes burning into mine. “Angelina was your papa’s bodyguard.”

  FOURTEEN

  When One Door Closes, A Window Opens

  “Wait!” I said. “She was my dad’s bodyguard?”

  “Yes. The best of the best,” Giuseppe said.

  “Obviously, not anymore,” Lisa offered.

  “Then why is she here while he’s in Italy?” Jade asked.

  Giuseppe raised an eyebrow. “I no can answer that.”

  “Holy crap, does this mean what I think it means?’ I said, stunned over the idea that my dad might in fact be here in Sonoma. That man I saw on the street in our little village, could very well have been my long-lost dad.

  “You are pushing on a door that should not be opened,” Giuseppe countered, his face taking on a stern demeanor. I’d seen that look before so I knew I shouldn’t press him any further, but I also knew eve
rything I needed to know now.

  My dad wasn’t far.

  “Angelina is married?” Lisa asked, always knowing when to change the subject.

  “She was married, but her husband is gone,” Giuseppe offered.

  “Gone?” I asked, hoping he meant that her husband had taken a vacation or they’d gotten a divorce and not that he was floating on the bottom of the Mediterranean wearing cement shoes.

  “Now is not the time to discuss these matters,” he said, abruptly ending the conversation. That was two for two.

  The conversation along with a very dead body guard was beginning to grate on my nerves. Or maybe it was just the acrid smell of Freon.

  “I don’t like how any of this is shaping up,” Lisa groused as she pushed the mini-fridge back into place then stood.

  Giuseppe shook his head. “Many of the Pisano family sleep with the worms. However, I think more of them need to eat dirt. The Pisano family can no give up the power, and your papa, he had a woman to do a man’s job. The Pisano family has wanted to bury me and your papa for a long time.”

  I could tell by Lisa’s sudden change in stance that she took immediate offence, not to the Pisano family needing to eat more dirt, but to the slight on women. Giuseppe didn’t know what he was in for, tangling with Lisa’s girl power.

  “Wait a minute. Are you saying Angelina is dead because she’s a woman?” She pushed a hip out and stuck her hand to it. The accusation did not sit well with her. “Because if you are, let me list about a thousand ways women can outsmart, outhunt and outdo most men. Whoever killed her, did it in the most devious of ways. I have a feeling she was drugged first, that’s why she’s in that bed. And it was probably done by someone she trusted or at least knew. There’s no sign of a struggle, and believe me, a woman like Angelina would have probably put up a damn good fight.”