Finding Angelo (The Wine Lover's Daughter, Book 2)

by Christa Polkinhorn

  Tying up the fully awake but injured cop was more difficult. “Are you crazy? I’m hurt. Are you going to tie up an injured man? I thought we were friends.”

  “All of a sudden we’re friends again? Just a few minutes ago, you were going to kill me,” Angelo said. He pulled the man’s arms behind his back. Fabio screamed. “Hold still and it won’t hurt as much.”

  After binding their hands, Angelo proceeded to tie their legs as well under the loud protests and filthy expletives of both men. He checked the wound on Fabio’s leg. “Just a scratch. Don’t whine like a baby.”

  “Are you going to let us die here?” Fabio’s eyes registered fear.

  “Don’t worry. You deserve it, but we aren’t killers. After we leave, I’ll call the police and the ambulance to come and get you.” Angelo double-checked the bindings and got up.

  “Don’t call the police, for God’s sake,” Fabio screamed, trying to wiggle his hands free.

  “Why not? Are you afraid they’ll find out about the illegal crap you’ve been involved in? That you were going to kill someone at the behest of a mobster in the United States?” Angelo smirked.

  “Okay, ladies, let’s go.” Angelo grabbed a bag with some clothes and other essentials, his passport, and money. Sofia and Miriam pulled their backpacks from under the bed. On the way out, Angelo took a small chain with a round ornament from the wall and put it around his neck. “The medal of Saint Benedict,” he said in answer to Sofia’s questioning look. “For good luck.”

  Angelo locked the house but put the key under a flower pot next to the door. He walked around the house to his car. Miriam and Sofia followed.

  Outside, it was getting light. The early morning mist hovered over the trees. Angelo turned around. “Thank you, you women are amazing. You saved my life.” He hugged them both.

  When they arrived at the car, Angelo dropped his bag on the ground. “Damn it all, the assholes slashed my tires.”

  Sofia scanned the area. “How did they get here? Where is their car?”

  “Over there,” Miriam pointed at a jeep parked behind a tree.

  “Well, I’ve always wanted to drive a jeep,” Angelo said. “Wait here.” He walked back to the house, unlocked the door, and went inside. He came back a few minutes later, holding up a pair of car keys.

  He opened the door of the jeep. Sofia motioned for Miriam to sit in the front seat but Miriam climbed into the back. When they were all seated, Angelo started the car.

  “What did you mean when you said I won the NRA shooting competition?” Sofia asked him.

  He looked at her. His face stretched into a full-blown smile. It was the first time she saw his smile reach his eyes. “Didn’t you?” He gave her a mock-surprised look.

  “I don’t even know what it is,” she said.

  “Neither do I.” He grinned.

  Chapter 33

  They drove slowly down the rugged road, trying to avoid the potholes. The jeep, however, was made for streets such as these and lumbered over the uneven spots without any problems.

  Angelo was quiet, deep in thought. Images of the past night tumbled through his mind. They had barely survived a vicious attack. If he hadn’t been for Miriam and Sofia, he might be dead. Of course, the women had brought the criminals to his door. Rather than being angry or regretting it, he felt a sense of relief. He knew now what he had to do. He was afraid of the consequences. Anton was still around. He was still a threat. And there was the murder of Fred. Angelo suspected that Anton was behind that as well. Who else could it be? But if the police in California suspected Angelo of killing Fred, he would probably be arrested and would spend time in jail. What if he couldn’t prove his innocence? He just had to trust. He couldn’t go on hiding any longer. But first he had to find a place to stay until he was ready to leave. Should he accept Sofia’s invitation to go to Tuscany?

  “Where are you going to go?” Sofia asked, as if she had picked up on his thoughts.

  “I don’t know.” Angelo said.

  “You can stay at my apartment,” Miriam suggested.

  Angelo shook his head. “Thanks, but I’m afraid they’d find me there. They must have followed you, which means they know where you live. In fact, you shouldn’t go back home right away. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “I have a better idea,” Sofia said. “As I told you, I have a place in Tuscany. Why don’t you both come with me? There’s enough room. Miriam you can stay as long as you want, until this thing is cleared up. And Angelo needs to return to California anyway. We can leave together from there.”

  Miriam shook her head. “I have to go to work tomorrow. I teach kindergarten.”

  “Couldn’t someone fill in for you?” Angelo asked. He wanted Miriam to be with him. He felt bad for having abandoned her and wanted to have some time to try to make things right, to reconnect.

  “No, not at such short notice. But I’ll stay with my mother for a few days. She lives nearby, and I should be safe there.” Miriam put her hand on Angelo’s shoulder. “I promise I’ll be careful. You need to go back and take care of things.”

  Sofia turned around. “We’ll have to keep in touch.”

  “Yes,” Miriam said. “Either here, or I’ll visit you in California. I haven’t been back to the States for a long time.”

  Angelo glanced at Miriam in the rearview mirror. “I’ll be in touch, too. I promise.” He hesitated. “That is if you want me to.”

  “Yes.” Miriam squeezed his shoulder. “Not that you deserve it,” she grumbled under her breath.

  “Yes, I know.” Angelo cleared his throat. “Okay, this is what we’ll do. I’ll drop the jeep off at the parking lot. They’ll find it eventually. Then we’ll take you guys’ car and drive to Miriam’s place to pick up Sofia’s car. I also need to stop by the monastery and let Abbot Francesco know what happened and that I need to leave. Agreed?”

  “Yes,” Sofia said. “What about the guys in your house? One of them is hurt. Doesn’t he need a doctor?”

  “The bullet didn’t penetrate. It’s a superficial wound. Fortunately, I have a friend who may be able to help me out with that. I’ll call him from the parking lot.” He glanced at Sofia with a humorous glint in his eyes. “I think you shook a little too much when you pulled the trigger.”

  “Thank God,” Sofia said. “I couldn’t live with myself if I’d actually killed the man. Not even a criminal like him.”

  They arrived at the end of the bumpy mountain path and drove on the paved road into Rivalta to the parking lot. Angelo parked the car next to Miriam’s.

  Miriam checked the windshield. “We’re lucky. No ticket.”

  “This is a public lot, so it’s okay to leave it overnight,” Angelo said. “And it’s one of the few ones where you don’t have to pay.”

  They grabbed their bags and backpacks and piled into Miriam’s car. Angelo pulled out his cell phone. “Just a moment.” He pressed a button.

  “Pronto,” said a groggy voice.

  “Larry? It’s … Danilo,” Angelo said. He had almost used his real name, having gotten used to it again around Miriam and Sofia. “Did I wake you?”

  “It’s okay. I have to get up anyway. We had a little … well get-together with a few guys last night.” The voice sounded clearer now.

  “Drinking party, huh?” Angelo said.

  “One of the perks of unemployment,” Larry said, then gave a snort. “What can I do for you?”

  “Remember Fabio?”

  Silence. Then: “Are you trying to ruin my day?”

  “No, not at all. I just found an opportunity for you to get back at him. This time for sure.”

  Another moment of silence. “This better be good.”

  Angelo briefly related the events of the past night. “Fabio was asked to eliminate me. Fortunately, I have two brave friends with me.” He glanced at Miriam and Sofia. “We managed to tie them up and leave them in my house. Fabio is a little hurt, nothing serious.”

  �
�Who wants to eliminate you?” Larry asked.

  “It’s a long story and has to do with things that happened back in California. I’ll tell you another time. Right now, I need for someone to pick the two guys up at my cabin. Key is under the flower pot next to the door. Fabio may need a doctor. Can you arrange this?”

  “May I kill him instead?” Larry asked.

  “It’s up to you, but I have a better idea. I have real evidence that Fabio is involved in illegal dealings, exporting stolen art works from Italy to the United States. He delivers them to a man who is involved with the mob and has killed someone, actually I think two people, probably more. He ordered Fabio to kill me, because I know too much about him. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to trust me for the moment. I’m on my way to write this all down and I will testify if I need to. This could be the greatest story of your life. You will be back in demand again.”

  He heard a sigh at the other end. “Danilo, this is about the most outrageous and craziest story I’ve heard in a long time. And I’m supposed to believe it?”

  “Larry, it’s true. I’ll tell you everything later.”

  Another sigh. “All right. I’ll see what I can do. But you better give me all the details.”

  “Thanks, Larry, you won’t regret it.” Angelo pressed the disconnect button and nodded at Miriam. “Ready to go.”

  “What was that all about?” Sofia asked.

  Chapter 34

  “Larry is an investigative journalist, originally from England,” Angelo explained as they were driving toward Moretta.

  “We met years ago in Bardonico when he did a news report on the corruption and illegal activities of government officials. When Fabio threatened me and I left Bardonico, I contacted Larry. I suggested he look into the police department in Bardonico, that I had been approached by someone with an offer that sounded suspicious to me. I gave him as much information as I could without directly exposing Fabio. I still felt a certain loyalty to him, since we’d been friends. Also I didn’t know if he actually went through with the deal of smuggling art works or if he took my advice.

  “Anyway, Larry looked into the matter and accused him and the department in an article in the paper of corruption and illegal smuggling. The problem was he didn’t have enough proof and the source he got some of the information from wasn’t reliable. He got into a lot of trouble and was fired from his job.”

  “Were you the unreliable source?” Miriam asked.

  “No, I wasn’t. Well, indirectly I guess I was when I encouraged him to look into the department. In the meantime, I lost touch with Larry. I heard about the whole thing after the fact by accident. I felt I was in part responsible for Larry’s downfall. I either should have given him the whole story and named Fabio, or I shouldn’t have said anything at all. I tried to contact him. It took me a while, but I finally got a hold of him.

  “We met and we talked. He didn’t blame me. He understood that I didn’t want to name a former friend. He said he’d done shoddy work in his eagerness to crack down on police corruption. Still I felt bad, that in a way I’d betrayed him. Had I known that Fabio would even consider killing me, I wouldn’t have hesitated to expose him.

  “In hindsight, I suspect that Fabio believed I had ratted on him and that this was the reason for the investigation of his department. That’s why he tried to track me down and found out I was in Moretta.”

  “Oh, my God.” Miriam exhaled deeply. “What an ordeal. I just wish you had confided in me.”

  Angelo lifted his hands with palms turned up. “Yes, I know, I should have … but, once again, I panicked.”

  “Perhaps now, after all this happened, your friend will be exonerated,” Sofia turned around to face Angelo, who sat in the back seat.

  “I hope so,” he said. “I hope this whole thing comes out in the open and the people responsible will get punished.”

  Angelo looked pensive and the lines in his face seemed to have deepened over the past few hours. Sofia knew he was worried. He’d been hiding for twenty years. Coming out of hiding and facing his family and possible murder charges must be terrifying.

  “If for some reason we should be questioned about the incident up in my house,” he continued, “I think we should say that I shot Fabio.”

  “Why?” Sofia asked.

  “I have a permit for the weapon. I speak the language, and I wouldn’t want you to get into trouble.”

  “But it was self-defense,” Miriam said. She started the car and drove it out of the parking lot and onto the street toward Moretta.

  “Yes, but the jerks may deny it. There might be an investigation. Sofia could be arrested, questioned. She’d need a lawyer, and it could be very unpleasant, to say the least. I don’t want you to be involved any more than you already are.”

  Sofia’s heartbeat increased. She hadn’t even thought about the possible consequences. “But you’d be in trouble, too,” she said.

  Angelo gave a quick laugh. “I’m already in trouble up to my ears, Sofia. One problem more or less won’t make any difference.”

  “But what if he says I shot him. He saw me, didn’t he?” Sofia said.

  “I don’t think he was aware of it. It happened too fast. Besides, he’d be all too happy to put the blame on me. He’s too macho to admit that a woman got the better of him. So, let’s agree, I shot him, okay?”

  Sofia felt his sharp eyes watching her. She turned around. “Okay.”

  They lapsed into silence. Sofia, her thoughts racing, tried to calm down and enjoy the sun-dappled hills and the vineyards outside. It didn’t work. For the first time since she began her search for the mysterious and missing great-uncle, she felt she was way over her head in this adventure. Investigation, possible jail, what would her family, Nicholas, say? She’d found Angelo but perhaps lost her freedom in the process.

  “Do you really think I could get arrested?” Her voice trembled.

  She felt a strong hand on her shoulder. “No. I don’t think so. I just want to cover all the bases.” Angelo’s voice sounded reassuring again.

  In the meantime, they had arrived at Miriam’s house in Moretta. They went inside and Angelo walked through all the rooms, then came back into the living room.

  “Just wanted to make sure everything is okay,” he said, meeting Miriam’s puzzled look.

  “Why would they bother with me?” Miriam asked.

  Angelo shrugged. “As long as we don’t know who’s behind Fabio, we better be very careful. There are people out there for whom human life means nothing. Believe me. So I really want you to pack some things and spend a few nights at your mother’s. We can drive you there.”

  “I can drive there myself. It’s actually within walking distance. I need to take care of some stuff first, water the plants and the yard. They wouldn’t be coming for me today. They’re probably still tied up in your house.” Miriam opened the refrigerator. “Would you like some lunch or coffee or something.”

  Angelo glanced at his watch. “We better get going. I still need to drive by the monastery to talk to Abbot Francesco. I hope you don’t mind?” He turned to Sofia.

  “No problem,” she said.

  “Well, then, but please Miriam go to your mother today, okay? And call me when you get there. Do you have my cell phone number?” Angelo’s dark eyes darted around the room as if he wanted to make sure nobody was hiding in a corner somewhere.

  Sofia, wanting to give them some privacy, picked up her bag. “I’ll get my car out of the garage.”

  “Okay,” Miriam said. “The door is unlocked.”

  Sofia and Miriam hugged. “Please stay in touch,” Miriam said. “Let me know how everything turns out.”

  Sofia nodded. “Yes, of course. I’ll see you again, either here or in California. Thank you very much for your help. I dragged you into a dangerous situation. I’m sorry.”

  “It was exciting. Getting to know you and finding this faithless friend here again was worth it.” Miriam gave Angelo a pointed
look.

  Sofia opened the front door and glanced left and right before she stepped outside. No blue Honda. She shook her head, realizing that whoever drove that car must have been one of the guys now sitting tied up in Angelo’s house. Waiting for Angelo after backing her car out of the garage, she wondered if she would ever forget those dangerous moments in Angelo’s house. Her heart still constricted at the thought of having shot someone. She could’ve killed the man. She couldn’t even remember if she had aimed at a particular part of his body. The moment before she pulled the trigger was a blur. The only thing stuck in her mind was the pressure of her finger pulling the trigger, the crack of the gunshot, and the smell of something burning.

  A light tap at the passenger window brought her back to reality. Sofia unlocked the door. Locking it while she was waiting must be another unconscious reaction to the turbulence of the past days.

  Angelo put his bag on the backseat and got in. “You’re sure you don’t mind driving by the monastery?”

  “No,” Sofia said. “I think the abbot will be relieved when he sees you. I hope we didn’t tell him anything you didn’t want him to know. At least he didn’t act surprised, and he said you should go back and take care of things.”

  “Yes, he knows me quite well,” Angelo said softly.

  They were quiet on the short stretch toward the abbey. At one point, a blue Honda drove from a side street into main road and Sofia flinched.

  “What’s the matter?” Angelo asked.

  Sofia shook her head. “Nothing. I just get scared every time I see a blue car.

  At the monastery, they got out and walked into the courtyard. Angelo pointed at the stone bench along the wall of the chapel. “Wait here, I’ll go find Abbot Francesco.”