She forced herself to look at her mother, the woman who had always been so supportive and consistent in all the ways that mattered. Then fear took hold and Lucie’s resolve collapsed. “Mom? Do you know something about this?”
Please let her say no. Let her be the person I’ve always thought she was and not be involved in one of Dad’s harebrained schemes. The clock kerplunked on the hour and her mother shuddered from the sound. She cleared her throat and her eyes got a little droopy. Lucie’s heart slammed, the pressure expanding, more, more, more, until her chest got tight enough to blow apart.
“I think so.”
Chapter Seventeen
The pain in Lucie’s chest felt like an ax whacking at her. Her mother, the moral compass of the family, might be involved in this diamond mess.
“You know about the dognappings?”
Her mother gasped. “Absolutely not. I would never have allowed that.”
Lucie slapped both hands over her face. I don’t understand. They had to start at the beginning. It was the only way. She pulled her hands away and focused on her mother’s eyes. “Did you know I found a diamond in my craft stuff?”
Mom’s gaze held. “You used one?”
Cripes. “I used it on a test coat, but disregarded it because it was too big. We’ve been assuming there’s more since the dognappings haven’t stopped. I guess, since you asked if I had used one, we were right.”
Her mother nodded. Two and a half weeks of trying to outsmart dognappers and keep it from her mother and the woman knew all along. Worse, she’d allowed Lucie to be put in danger. How could she do this?
“You have no idea what I’ve been through. Three of my dogs were kidnapped and two others had attempts made. Then there was the theft at Sammy’s and Frankie’s concussion.”
Her mother flew out of her chair, ran to Lucie and threw her arms around her. “I didn’t know. If I’d known, I would have stopped it.”
The agony in Lucie’s chest grew. “Please, tell me about the diamond. Frankie, Joey and I have been insane over this.”
Pulling back, Mom drew a long breath and held it for a minute. “There are more. I don’t know how they got into your supplies. I spotted them a few weeks back when I brought laundry into your room.”
“How did you know they were real?”
Mom put her head down, cupped her hands over her eyes. “I’ve seen them before.”
Oh, no.
“Are they Dad’s?”
“No.”
“Then whose?”
A loud clomping sounded on the stairs and Joey swung around the banister wearing a fresh set of clothes. He combed his fingers through his damp hair. Must have showered.
“That cop leave?” he asked.
“He’s gone.” Then wondering if she should clue Joey in on this conversation, Lucie glanced at her mother, who inched her head back and forth. Lucie looked back at Joey. “Are you going out?”
“Yeah. I’ll be back later.” He smacked a kiss on Mom’s cheek and left.
“Thank you. I’m not ready for him yet.”
“But you’re ready for me?”
“I don’t have a choice. Not with the dogs being stolen and Frankie getting hurt. That’s gone too far.”
This didn’t sound good. None of it. Lucie sat back, settled herself in for a ride she wasn’t sure she wanted. “Tell me.”
Mom pressed her hands as if in prayer, holding them in front of a tight mouth. She closed her eyes, made a humming noise. “It’ll change everything. Maybe it’s selfish, but I want you to see me the way you always have.”
And Lucie wanted to die. Maybe, just maybe, she’d idolized her mother to impossible standards.
Mom held her head higher. “I like being the dependable parent.”
“You think that will change?”
She smiled in that pitiful way people did when they knew they’d reached an impasse. “I know it will.”
A spool of navy thread sat on the table and Lucie reached for it, unwound and rewound it. She could leave right now and never know what her mother had done. Not knowing would probably be much easier.
But that wasn’t Lucie’s way. She needed to analyze facts. She needed to absorb those facts. She needed to understand.
“Mom, it can’t be any worse than what Dad has done.”
Her mother nodded and slid her shoulders back. “The beginning goes back twenty years.”
Twenty years. How could that be? “The diamonds have been here twenty years? How did the feds not find them when they searched the house?”
“They weren’t here for twenty years. They must have been put here after your father was arrested.”
“Do you know who put them here?”
“I believe I do.”
“And?”
Mom closed her eyes again and the sight sent a stabbing pain up Lucie’s spine. This would be bad. “Mom, please.”
“Al Falcone.” The words came in a rush, as if she hated the taste of them and needed to spit them out.
Lucie sunk into her chair while a vision of Frankie’s face flashed in her mind. “That can’t be.” Tears filled her eyes.
All this time Frankie had been going to his father, asking for help and his father was already involved? How? Why?
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Are you holding the diamonds for him? Why didn’t he just ask you for them back rather than steal my dogs?”
“He doesn’t know I have them. He obviously thinks you have them.”
Frankie had told his father they had one diamond. Mr. Falcone must think she used the others and didn’t know it.
My God. “Are they stolen?”
“I believe so.”
Lucie slammed both hands on the table. “Tell me the truth.”
“Twenty years ago, your father and I went through a rough patch. He was gone all the time, doing who knew what. People started to gossip. I knew what he was, but I hated the snickering. I know you understand that.”
“Absolutely.”
“You and Joey were six and nine. You wanted your father to be like the other dads. The ones who went to parent-teacher conferences and school functions. Particularly, Joey. He needed his father. Plus, the two of you were fighting all the time and I was tired and lonely. I wanted some peace. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but one day a man started paying attention to me and, well, I liked it. He complimented me and wanted to spend time with me where my husband didn’t.”
Oh, no.
Mom’s shoulders collapsed. “Please don’t hate me.”
“You cheated on Dad?” Holy smokes. That took a set of brass ones.
“I’m certainly not proud of it, but yes, I had an affair. The guilt was horrible, but the love that man had for me was remarkable. It sustained me.”
And suddenly, Lucie saw her mother through the haze. Somehow, she understood. She understood her father had not been easy to live with. She’d experienced it herself and couldn’t imagine being married to the man.
She reached for Mom’s hand and squeezed. “I could never hate you. I love you. Who was the affair with?”
“Bob Martin.”
The only Bob Martin Lucie knew was the goofy guy who owned the meat store on Franklin Avenue. “Butcher Bob?”
“Yes.”
Her mom had done the nasty with a guy in a bloody apron. “Wow.”
“It started out innocent enough. I’d go into the store and we’d get to talking. Before I knew it, we were having coffee and then…well…”
Lucie held up a hand. “Got it. Skip the details.”
“We used to meet at the motel off of Janes Avenue.”
“Oh, Mom, not the love-thy-neighbor-here place.” What a cliché.
“It was the only place we wouldn’t be seen. None of our friends would be caught dead in that place.”
“For good reason.”
“Anyway, somehow Al found out about us. I don’t know how. Bob certainly wouldn’t have told and I was too terrified o
f what your father would do. To this day, I don’t know how Al knew. He stopped by the house one afternoon during the summer. Your father was out and I was in the yard with you. Al told me he knew about Bob, and I was terrified he’d tell your father. I knew I was betraying your father, but I couldn’t help it. Bob had a normal life, wanted someone to live that normal life with him. I had your father and his carousing and the police knocking on my door at all hours.”
Lucie took a second, let it all seep in. Every disgusting detail. Her father obviously didn’t know about this because Bob would most likely not be among the living. Or he’d be in a wheelchair.
Which he was not.
How many times had Lucie walked into that butcher shop and made small talk with the man who’d done a horizontal mambo with her mother?
Mom let out a long breath. “Al told me he’d keep my secret, but I had to help him. He and your father weren’t close back then and I never saw the Falcones much.”
“What did he ask you to do?”
“I had to accept a package he’d send from England.”
“England?”
“You probably don’t remember, but the Falcones went on a family trip to London that summer.”
“Did you ask him what the package would be?”
“No. I didn’t care. All I wanted was to make sure my children grew up with their mother. At the very least, your father would have made sure I never saw you and Joey. I couldn’t live with that. At that moment, I knew I’d do whatever necessary to keep you.”
“So, you accepted the package?”
“Yes. It was a shoebox, but it had some weight to it. I wanted to see what was so important that he’d threaten me with it.”
“You opened it?”
Mom nodded. “Yes.”
“Let me guess. The diamonds.”
“The box was filled with jewels. I panicked. I don’t know what I expected to see, but it wasn’t that. I should have known better than to open that damned package. It’s haunted me for years. Anyway, I sealed the box and turned it over to Al. He asked me if I’d opened it and I said no. I lied.”
“And that was the end of it? He took them out of the house?”
“Yes. Until three weeks ago when I saw them sitting on your work table.”
Lucie sat in a stunned state of hyper-analysis. Questions warped her mind. How did they get there? When did they get there? Why now? She mentally sorted the possibilities into manageable piles. That would be the only way to attack this. One element at a time. The diamonds had to be first.
“We can assume the diamonds are stolen,” she said. “Do you know from where?”
“No. Obviously England. I wasn’t supposed to know what was in the box. I never asked questions. Nor did I want answers. All I knew was my children were with me.”
“I don’t understand why, after all these years, Frankie’s father hid the stones here? Could Dad be involved? Maybe Mr. Falcone was hoping the feds would find them and blame him?”
Mom shook her head. “I doubt it. The FBI tore this house apart when your father was arrested. All the boxes in the attic had been overturned.”
Lucie remembered it. The place looked like a war zone after a bombing.
“I had to clean that mess. There were no diamonds. I think if the FBI had seen the stones they would have known they were real.”
A valid point. “The stones had to have been put there after Dad was arrested. Mr. Falcone, for whatever reason, suddenly needs a safe place to hide the jewels. He has an emergency key for the house so he goes into the attic, comes across my craft stuff and hides the jewels there. I haul the box down and start creating my accessories and wind up using one of the diamonds. He must have flipped when Frankie told him about my trunk shows. He probably came looking for the jewels, but I’d already cleared out what was in the attic. Why wouldn’t he have just taken them from my room?”
“I switched them with fakes. He probably came looking for the bag in your room, but only found what I’d put there.”
“So you have the real ones?”
“Yes. I took the real diamonds. I must have done it right after you used the one stone. I swear to you, Lucie, I didn’t know you’d used that stone. I never wanted you or Joey involved. You could be charged with a crime. I panicked. Then I got mad because that man still had power over me. I hid the real stones. For a change, I wanted him to panic. I wanted him to feel what I’ve been feeling. For once, in this crazy, misbegotten life, I’d have control.”
Mom played tough, holding her head high.
“You should have told me. I could have helped. Joey could have helped.”
“I couldn’t take the chance on something happening to either of you. It was my problem.”
“Yeah, but now it’s our problem and I need to figure a way out of it.”
Which probably includes telling Frankie his father blackmailed my mother.
* * *
After spending an hour in her room searching the internet for London jewelry heists, Lucie entered the Coco Barknell headquarters, a.k.a. the dining room, and found her mother hand stitching a black leather coat adorned with a faux fur collar.
She cleared her throat as the pungent aroma of coffee smacked into her. Mom’s coffee made Mr. Atlas look weak. “Hi.”
Mom set the coat down, smoothed it against the table, and then brought her gaze to Lucie. “Hi.”
And there it was. The invisible barrier of a bag full of precious stones lodged between them.
Heaven help her. Lucie wrapped her hand around the back of her usual chair, pulled it from under the table and sat.
“Mom—”
“Lucie—”
She bit her bottom lip while Mom fiddled with a spool of inky black thread.
Lucie held out her hand. “You first.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the stones. If I had known what you were going through, I would have told you.”
Her mother had been the dependable parent for twenty-six years. Nothing would ever make Lucie believe otherwise. She reached across the expanse of the table. “I know.”
Mom gripped her hand, nearly breaking her fingers. “Ow,” Lucie cracked and her mother snorted a laugh.
Nothing like a little humor to lighten the tension.
“You okay?”
Not so much. No. “I don’t think so. I lost my job, was forced to move back home and now I’m dealing in stolen jewelry. I can handle the job loss and moving home. The stolen jewelry has me hugging the edge.”
Check the penalties for unknowingly harboring stolen diamonds.
Lucie couldn’t think about that. “Mom, I should be down at police headquarters trying to clear myself. I can’t do that though. Not with you being involved.”
“All I wanted was to protect you and Joey.”
“I know.” Telling her mother she was a fool would not help matters. Somewhere in her mother’s mind, she’d been able to justify helping Frankie’s father commit a crime. All to save herself and her children. Maybe Lucie would have done the same, she didn’t know.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Lucie said. “I just researched jewelry thefts. There was a big robbery at an English castle around the same time Frankie’s dad shipped you the package, but we need more information. Unfortunately, that’s going to require Frankie’s involvement.”
“No.”
“Sorry, Mom. He’s already involved and he’ll get suspicious if I suddenly shut him out. Plus, it’s his father. He has a right to know.”
“Lucie, please, don’t tell Frankie about the affair. Please.”
Did she have the right to let her mother’s secret out? Did it even matter anymore? Lucie jammed the heels of her hands into her gritty eyes. Her shoulders must have weighed a hundred pounds. She pulled her hands away. “I’ll do my best to keep the affair out of it, but hearing this about his father will be devastating. If it will help him to understand, I’ll tell him. He’s entitled.”
Her mother nodded.
“I need those stones, Mom.”
“No.”
Was that invisible barrier between them expanding? Had she ever argued with her mother? Really argued?
Probably not.
“I understand what you’re doing. Protecting us is who you are. But this time, there’s no way around me having those stones. Whoever is snatching my dogs thinks I have the diamonds. I can keep you and Joey out of it if they continue to think that.”
Manipulating her mother’s emotions might be the crummiest thing Lucie had ever done.
Call it collateral damage. Joey was already on the government’s radar, and any hint of a jewelry heist would intensify that interest. Her mother would sooner drop in front of a bus than have one of her children be accused of a crime they didn’t commit.
Four, three, two, one…
“Fine. I’ll tell you where they are, but if you want them, I’ll get them for you.”
One thing was obvious. They weren’t in the house.
“Where are they?”
“At the bank. Aunt Tillie’s safe deposit box. I didn’t know where else to put them.”
The bank. Lucie hesitated, let the idea sink in. She and her mother had both hidden diamonds in safe deposit boxes. Great minds? Possibly. At least the dognappers couldn’t get to them. Not unless they robbed the bank. Even if that happened, they’d need the box keys. Well, they could break into the house, trash the place, find the keys and then rob the bank.
Wow. What was up with Lucie’s imagination?
She shook it off. “At least I know where they are. We can work with that.”
For now.
* * *
Dead tired from her mother’s recent revelations, Lucie walked through Frankie’s front door prepared to tell him about a castle in England. A banner day all around.
She found him at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. He wore a stark white undershirt, his favorite blue basketball shorts and his coffee brown hair zigzagged into a wonderful mess.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I had a headache. Came home early and napped. What’s up?”
He shifted sideways to face her and Lucie took a moment to savor the crazy hair, the sleepy eyes, the crease from the sheet running down his left cheek. The simplicity of it calmed her, but now it was time to break his heart.
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