Killer Smile

by Lisa Scottoline

  THIS INDENTURE read self-important letters, and the date of the deed was June 3, 1940. Mary skimmed ahead to see the grantor, and her heart stopped. JOSEPH GIORNO. She reread it, just to be sure. Joe Giorno, Amadeo’s lawyer? Founder of Giorno & Locaro, later Giorno & Cavuto, had sold Amadeo his house? She checked the grantee, and there it was: AMADEO and THERESA BRANDOLINI. The price of the house was nine hundred and eighty-two dollars.

  Mary read it again, shaking her head. Why hadn’t Frank mentioned this, either? Did he know? She went to the next deed, to see how Giorno had gotten the house in the first place. THIS INDENTURE, began the deed, and her eyes widened. The date of the deed was April 2, 1940 — less than two months before Giorno had sold the house to Amadeo. The grantee was indeed JOSEPH GIORNO, and the grantor was one GAETANO CELLI, a name that meant nothing to Mary. But her gaze slipped to the purchase price: Two thousand and twenty-three dollars and no cents.

  Mary went back and checked the previous deed. She had remembered right. The purchase price for the Celli-Giorno deed was more than the Giorno-Brandolini deed — in other words, Joe Giorno had sold the house to Amadeo at a huge loss. She considered it. Why in the world would anybody buy a house for two grand, only to sell it two months later for half the price? Mary didn’t get it, especially since Giorno was allegedly one of the cheapest men on the planet. And it wasn’t as if history had intervened to affect housing prices; Pearl Harbor wouldn’t happen until December 7, 1941. This case kept getting stranger and stranger. Mary switched off the viewer, gathered her microfilm and money for copies, and packed up her bags.

  She had to get to work.

  Eleven

  A troubled Mary charged off the elevator into the firm’s reception area, which looked friendlier than it had the night the furniture was trying to kill her. Chairs covered in taupe cloth curved around a buttery leather couch, on which clients who didn’t look psychotic read magazines. Marshall Trow, the firm’s receptionist, was seated at the reception desk wearing a pink cotton sweater with a tan skirt. Her brown hair, which she used to weave into a hippie braid, had been cut and shaped since Rosato & Associates had moved uptown and become a good hair office.

  “Where have you been all morning?” Marshall asked, her voice low.

  “Did we hear from Premenstrual Tom?”

  “Only four times today.”

  Mary tensed. “So what did you do?”

  “What I’m supposed to do, record the messages.”

  “Shouldn’t we be going for a restraining order? Or buying bazookas?”

  “Peace. Judy’s working on a TRO, with Bennie supervising from afar.” Marshall handed her the morning mail and a slew of yellow phone messages. “That man on the couch is a reporter from the Philly News. He’s been waiting for you since nine o’clock.”

  “For me?” Mary took the messages, puzzled. She had never been interviewed in her life, and something else was pressing on her mind. It was Marshall’s infant daughter that her mother had been baby-sitting. “Marsh, did you notice my mother getting thin?”

  “Actually, yes.” Marshall’s smooth forehead creased. “I mentioned it to her last week. She said it was nothing. Why?”

  “Tell you later.” Mary couldn’t say more because the reporter was already getting off the couch and crossing to her. He struck her as incredibly good-looking, with dark eyes and a confident grin, dressed in khaki slacks and a soft blue work shirt.

  “Jim MacIntire,” he said when he arrived, smiling and shaking her hand. “You must be Mary DiNunzio. Do you have a sec to talk to me? It’s about Amadeo Brandolini.”

  “Amadeo? How do you know about Amadeo?” Mary asked, surprised. Nobody else knew about Amadeo, especially nobody this hot.

  “I’d like to write a feature about him, maybe shed some light on his plight. Shine a spotlight on him and history, so to speak.”

  “Before you answer, Mary,” Marshall interrupted, pretending to consult an appointment book, “I did tell Mr. MacIntire that you had a deposition in half an hour, and you might need the time to prepare.”

  Huh? Marshall was giving her an out, because Mary didn’t have a dep. She probably needed permission to be interviewed. Still, Bennie wasn’t around, and she was intrigued.

  “I’ll finish before the dep,” she said and led the reporter to her office, where he settled into one of the new navy cloth chairs opposite her desk. Mary glanced self-consciously around, relieved to see the place remained in order. Telephone and stacked correspondence on the right, accordion files and closed laptop on the left, clean space in the middle. Bookshelves lined the far wall, full of dust-free law casebooks, the Federal Rules, and two bound volumes of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review with her name pompously embossed in gold. On the near wall hung a pastel patchwork quilt, the girl part of the girl lawyer thing.

  Mary went around the desk, set down her bag and briefcase, and took her seat. “So how did you find out about Amadeo Brandolini?” she asked. DiNunzio on the case. Cross-examination our specialty.

  “My barber, Joe Antonelli, mentioned it to me.”

  “Uncle Joey!” Mary felt a rush of familiarity. So the reporter was a guy with an Uncle Joey haircut. The Executive, unless she missed her guess.

  “Joe’s been cutting my hair for three years. He’s a great guy.”

  “He sure is.” Except he chews with his mouth open, but what are you gonna do? People are people.

  “He’s very proud of you. Your job here and your accomplishments. You’re the star of the family. The neighborhood!” MacIntire grinned. “He didn’t say he was your uncle, though.”

  “He isn’t, technically. I have about three hundred eighty-two aunts and uncles in South Philly, all of them fake. In fact, I have two fake Uncle Joeys, but you’re talking about Skinny Uncle Joey as opposed to Fat Uncle Joey, because he’s the barber, if you follow.”

  MacIntire laughed. “You have a terrific sense of humor, Mary.”

  “I do?” I mean, I do.

  “Sure you do. I love a woman with a sense of humor. I think it takes real intelligence to be funny.”

  “Intelligence?” Duh.

  “You also have terrific eyes, too, but I bet everyone tells you that.”

  Everyone. “I mean, they’re just brown. One on each side.”

  The reporter laughed again. “By the way, you don’t mind if we record this.”

  “Of course not.” Mary wasn’t on tape anywhere except her answering machine, but she tried not to let it show. The reporter was already reaching into his knapsack, a black Jansport, and extracting a silvery tape recorder, which he set between them on her desk.

  “Cool. You know, I Googled you before I came over today. Got your bio on the firm’s site. The photo doesn’t do you justice.”

  “Thanks.” Mary knew she was being flattered, but it was about time. She found herself wondering if he was married. He didn’t wear a ring and he was so good-looking. Not that she was attracted.

  “Okay, let’s get started.” MacIntire looked up eagerly, and she noticed that the light from the window brought out the dense espresso of his eyes. “Why don’t we start by you telling me everything you know about Amadeo Brandolini. How did you come to get interested in him? I’m fascinated.”

  “Okay,” Mary began, warming to being fascinating. Besides, it was fun to talk about Amadeo to someone who actually wanted to listen and who also happened to be totally handsome. The reporter told her his nickname was Mac, and she found herself telling Mac about the FBI memo from the National Archives and the circle drawings. He asked such good questions that she ended up telling him about the clothesline and the gift house, too, and by the end of their conversation, she had decided that Mac’s eyes were more French roast than espresso. They’d such a great time that she couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to ask her out.

  “Well, thanks so much,” Mac said, switching off the tape recorder. The little red light went out, and he slipped the tape recorder back into the Jansport. “I
have the making of an incredible story, thanks to you.”

  “Really?” Are you going to ask me out?

  “I called for a photographer to get a picture. He should be in the waiting room right now. That’s cool with you, isn’t it?”

  “Now? Okay. Sure.” Mary figured she looked okay and she knew her eyes were terrific, both of them.

  “Sweet. So you know what’s going to happen next, don’t you?” Mac rose with a smile and zipped his backpack closed.

  Mary flushed. You’re going to ask me out? “No, what?” she asked, suddenly dry-mouthed.

  “There is only one logical next step in your investigation.”

  “My investigation?” Mary repeated, then held her tongue while Mac told her something that wasn’t asking her out at all and was so unexpected that for a minute she couldn’t speak. Then all she could say was, “Really, you think?”

  “Of course. Why not? Don’t think about it, just do it. Keep me posted if you find out anything more.” Mac hoisted his heavy backpack onto his shoulder and went to the door, which was when Mary realized he had forgotten to ask her out.

  “Wait a minute!” she blurted out. It was her heart talking.

  “What? I’m kind of on a schedule. I have another assignment.”

  Mary blinked, mortified. He wasn’t even thinking of asking her out. She considered asking him out, but she had never done that in her life and was sure it qualified as a venial sin. She felt suddenly like a fool. “Uh, what about the photographer?”

  “I don’t stay for that. I told him what I wanted. Smile pretty. Ciao.”

  “Bye.” Mary let him go, and told her heart to shut up.

  Mary and Judy sat side by side on one of the wooden benches that ringed Rittenhouse Square. The air was cool and sweet and the sky clear, so the park was packed with businesspeople having lunch. They filled the benches and sat on the concrete wall bordering the Square, men eating with their ties tossed over their shoulders and women balancing salads on purses in their laps, a lineup of Etienne Aigner tables. Everybody was enjoying the Spring day, except Mary.

  “What do you think, Jude?” She leaned over, keeping her voice low so no one else could hear. “Why would the guy with the zits go to Amadeo’s? Why would Frank fire me? And why would Giorno sell a house to Amadeo at a loss?”

  “Marshall told me that the reporter was really hot,” Judy said, between mouthfuls. She looked almost normal in a jean skirt, a white T-shirt, and brown Dansko sandals. Her hair was combed smooth and its ersatz filaments caught the sunlight. She bit off an unladylike chunk of her hoagie while Mary poked at a scoop of tuna salad on anemic iceberg. Eating in the park was Judy’s favorite thing, but to Mary it was camping.

  “What about what I’m saying? Aren’t you a little worried about me? What if I’m being followed?”

  “Did he ask you out?”

  Gulp. “Don’t be ridiculous. It was business. I think he’s married anyway.”

  “Remember, you have a blind date tonight with my friend Paul. Give him a chance.”

  “I’m not going, and what about what I’m saying? The Escalade and all. Aren’t you worried?”

  “You’re not weaseling out of this date again. You’ve canceled on him twice.” Judy eyed her over the hoagie. “Now, how much did you tell the reporter? You might need damage control.”

  “Basically, I told him everything about Amadeo,” Mary answered, but she was already wondering why she had told Mac so much. She felt pathetic. She slumped on the bench, watching a young man pass their bench. He was walking a puppy with a paintbrush tail that flopped back and forth.

  “Did you tell him about the clothesline?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about the circle drawings?”

  “Well, yes. He didn’t know what they were.”

  “You showed him?”

  “I thought he might have an idea about them.”

  “They’re just doodles, like Cavuto said.” Judy had seen them and didn’t know what they were, either. “You didn’t tell him about the hair, did you?”

  “Uh, yes.”

  Judy moaned. “Did you ask to see his story before he files it? You’re supposed to.”

  “Not really.” Mary’s appetite vanished. She closed the Styrofoam lid of her salad and put it back in the bag, to be stowed in the office refrigerator until she could throw it away untouched, three days from now. She couldn’t bring herself to waste food, at least not on time. “I know it might have been dumb, but I guess I just wanted to talk about Amadeo. It wouldn’t be the worst thing if he got a little attention. He deserves it.”

  “He deserves it?” Judy set down her hoagie, shifted around, and faced Mary directly. “Mare, I understand that you went through hell when Mike was killed, but frankly, I think you’re getting a little nuts. Ever since Premenstrual Tom called, you’re like a freak.”

  “You getting the TRO, right?” Mary asked, and Judy waved her off.

  “Completely missing the point here. Let’s review. The Escalade is a very popular car. Files from 1942 should be gone. Lots of big guys have zits, and you don’t know that your big guy with zits was the one who went to the Korean lady’s house.”

  “He asked about me!”

  “He asked about someone, that’s all. Or maybe he’s interested in you and Brandolini. After all, a reporter got interested in you and Brandolini, and he’s not a killer. Jeez, at any given moment, three of your uncles are blabbing about you.”

  “But what about the deed business?”

  “Maybe Giorno did Brandolini a favor and took it out in fees. It’s not inconceivable that a lawyer would do that for a client, especially in that day and age. Maybe Giorno wanted to help him out. You said he owned a lot of property in South Philly.”

  “What about Frank firing me?”

  “Maybe he’s sick and tired of hearing about Brandolini all the time!” Judy shot back, so sharply that a man on the bench opposite them looked up from his roast beef special.

  Mary felt stung. She didn’t say anything for a minute.

  “Sorry.” Judy sighed, then leaned over, her forehead knit with worry. “Mare, usually I’m with you, but I have to tell you, you’re losing it. Going to Brandolini’s house, and the way you said you felt in his house. You’re running around with human hair in your briefcase! That’s creepy!”

  “It’s part of the case file. It’s in my desk now.”

  “Next thing you know, you’ll be holding a séance.” Judy wrinkled her upturned nose, and Mary flushed, defensive. Not that she hadn’t thought of it, last night when she couldn’t sleep. Judy continued, “You’re too immersed in this case, too immersed in the past. In old people and ghosts. Let it go, will you? That’s why I’m pushing the blind date.” Judy’s voice softened, almost to a whisper. “You are going out with Paul, girl. You have a lot in common. You’ll like each other. You need to move on.”

  Mary shook her head, hurt. She knew that Amadeo had gotten bound up with Mike and somehow it was all of a piece. But she couldn’t move on, not yet. She didn’t know how and, now, she didn’t want to.

  “Don’t look like that.” Judy’s blue eyes narrowed. “You know, even if what you’re saying is true, about the Escalade and all, it’s even a greater reason to get out of this case. Because you could be in danger, and for what? Are you keeping an innocent man from jail? Catching a murderer? That, I’d understand. But this? I helped you find that FBI memo because I thought that it would end all this, but I’m sorry I did. On balance, it’s just not worth it.”

  “But Amadeo—”

  “Is dead! He’s dead and gone. Nothing you do can change that or bring him back. Nothing you do now can bring anybody back.” Judy’s fair skin colored with emotion, and Mary knew who she was talking about.

  I wish this feeling would go away, she thought, but didn’t say.

  “And you’re working on Brandolini all the time, not your other cases. Did you get ready for those deps, for Bennie? Alcor and Reitman
?”

  “I’ll get to it.” Mary watched as a young mother approached, holding a toddler by its tiny hand. The baby wobbled along in blue overalls and new white sneakers, practicing his steps. “You think she’ll be mad?”

  “Are you kidding?” Judy’s voice regained its familiarity, and they were on safer ground now, complaining about the boss. Judy was feeling good enough to eat her vegetables and opened a crinkly black bag of Yukon potato chips, to which she was currently addicted. “She won’t like it that you talked to the reporter, either. You didn’t have her permission and you know how she feels about the press.”

  Mary shook her head. “Half the time she yells at me to assert myself, and the rest of the time she yells at me to ask permission.”

  “Women.”

  Mary looked away. The baby took a wiggly step forward, chest out, arms loose in the air, then stopped and swayed before plopping down on his cushioned bottom. He burst into a two-tooth smile. Mary said, “You know what that reporter said to me?”

  “What?” Judy managed to get a large potato chip into her mouth, sideways like a pizza into a Tuscan oven. It wasn’t pretty.

  “He said I should go to Montana. See Fort Missoula, the internment camp. It still stands, as a museum.”

  “You?” Judy’s cheeks bulged like a giant squirrel’s, her blue eyes wide. “Go to Montana?”

  “Yes, me. Of course, me, go to Montana.” Mary felt miffed, even though she’d had the exact same reaction. “I can find Amadeo’s grave.”

  “But Montana! It’s just so not you.”

  “Why isn’t it me, Jude?” Mary really wanted to know, because she agreed and wondered why.

  “I don’t see you in big sky country. You’re so totally Philadelphia. You went to college in Philadelphia, you went to law school in Philadelphia, you grew up here and you’ve lived here all your life. It’s like your dad said the other night at dinner, remember?”