Murder at St. Winifred's Academy

by J. D. Griffo

  “Is Angela’s granddaughter the only living member of the Miccalizzo family?” Alberta asked.

  “As far as I can tell, yes,” Kip replied. “Adrienne Petrocelli is the last Miccalizzo standing.”

  “That’s weird,” Jinx said. “I can’t believe there aren’t cousins or some distant aunt still alive.”

  “Unlike the traditional Italian family of that time, no one had a lot of kids,” Kip explained, pointing at various sections of the tree. “Missy’s brothers were both childless, so several branches of their tree died off early.”

  “Che peccato,” Alberta said. “What a sin to have no more family around.”

  “Speaking of having family around,” Helen said. “Where is Adrienne?”

  “I don’t know,” Kip answered. “She lived most of her life in Michigan, which is where Angela died, by the way, in a nursing home, but at some point since then, Adrienne moved.”

  “How do you know?” Alberta asked.

  “Right before the auditions when I knew that Missy was going to star in the play, I tried to reach out to Adrienne,” Kip said. “I thought it would be nice to stage a family reunion and bring Missy and Adrienne together.”

  “It’s true, then, that Missy hadn’t met any members of her family?” Jinx asked.

  “Yes, Missy was estranged from her entire family,” Kip replied. “I don’t think she saw them again once she went to Hollywood.”

  “We know all about that and Missy’s emancipation,” Alberta said.

  “And the fact that while Missy got richer, her family got poorer,” Helen added.

  “I’m sure a lot of family secrets died with Missy and they’ll be sealed up along with her when she’s laid to rest,” Kip remarked.

  Alberta and Helen were a bit surprised by Kip’s graphic description, but Jinx was alarmed by the use of one specific word: sealed. It reminded her that Kip was not only the holder of Missy’s heritage, but the holder of his own secrets, which were sealed up in a police station in Deer Isle, Maine.

  “Do you have any other sealed-up secrets you’d like to share, Kip?” Jinx asked.

  Alberta understood why Jinx would ask such a question. Although she believed Kip was harmless, the fact remained that he had been mixed up in some kind of criminal affair, so his innocence could not be proven until he was exonerated of his guilt. However, Kip had given them quite a bit of information with little coercion and they would most likely need his help if they wanted to connect with Missy’s only living relative; challenging him was not the way to ensure his continued cooperation. Alberta did the only thing she could think of to end Jinx’s line of questioning: She kicked her in the shins.

  “Owww,” Jinx cried.

  “Are you all right?” Kip asked.

  “I’m fine,” Jinx replied, rubbing her shin. “Just a charley horse.”

  Once again, Alberta’s quick thinking had kept Jinx quiet, but she had another relative at the table who was harder to control.

  “You didn’t answer Jinx’s question, Kip,” Helen said. “Do you have any more secrets to reveal?”

  Helen was fixed on Kip’s expression, so she didn’t see Alberta and Jinx staring at her. If Kip noticed their surprised expressions just inches from him, he gave no indication. He simply leaned back in his chair and smiled.

  “None at all,” Kip said. “Now that my Missy memorabilia has been uncovered, I have no more secrets to hide. I feel like a free man and I owe it all to you three. Thank you.”

  The women didn’t think Kip would thank them if he knew that they knew he was lying. They would keep quiet and let him continue to think that he was as good an actor as he believed himself to be.

  “Then it’s case closed,” Jinx said.

  For now.

  CHAPTER 19

  Bella donna O belladonna.

  Behind every strong woman is a wise man. Or, in Jinx’s case, a wise dude.

  “You want me to team up with Vinny?” Jinx asked.

  Jinx and Freddy were snuggling on her couch, a TV mystery movie about a psycho Pilates instructor playing in the background, as they shared a plate of Alberta’s leftover lasagna. Nola was staying over at Johnny’s apartment, so Jinx had been able to fill Freddy in on the whole Kip-is-an-obsessed-Missy-fan portion of her day without fear of being overheard. When Freddy suggested that she team up with Vinny to unlock the secrets of Kip’s past, she thought she heard him wrong.

  “You want me to be Vinny’s partner?” Jinx repeated.

  “Is my girlfriend going deaf?” Freddy asked. “That’s what I said.”

  “Why would you suggest something like that? You know I’m not Vinny’s favorite Tranquilitarian.”

  “For that reason exactly,” Freddy said. “And watch your vocabulary please, you know how big words turn me on.”

  Ignoring her flirting boyfriend, Jinx continued her line of interrogation. “Vinny and I have finally gotten to a place where we don’t scream and yell at each other, why would I risk ruining that by working alongside him?”

  “Because the two of you will get to know each other better and you’ll each find out what I already know,” Freddy said.

  “What’s that?”

  “That you’re both great guys.”

  Jinx playfully stabbed Freddy with her fork. “Is that what I am to you? One of the guys?”

  Smiling devilishly, Freddy replied, “You’re one of the sexiest guys I know, Jinxie boo.”

  Groaning, Jinx rested her head on Freddy’s shoulder. “I think I prefer when you call me ‘dude.’ ”

  “You don’t like ‘Jinxie boo?’ ” Freddy asked.

  “It makes me sound like a cat.”

  “Well, you are purr-fect.”

  Jinx had officially had her fill of flirting. She abruptly sat up and faced Freddy, almost upturning the plate of lasagna in the process. “Promise me two things.”

  “I’ll promise you two-thousand-million-thousand things, Jinxie ...”

  “First, do not ever call me ‘Jinxie boo’ again,” Jinx interrupted.

  “That’s gonna be a tough one, Jinxie boo, but for you, I promise,” Freddy said.

  “Thank you.”

  “What’s the number two promise?” Freddy asked.

  “If I agree to work alongside Vinny and our partnership doesn’t become all hunky-dory, as Gram would say, I get to say I told you so for like ... I don’t know ... all eternity.”

  Freddy took the plate of lasagna from Jinx and placed it on the coffee table. He then held Jinx’s face with his hands, and Jinx could feel that they were warm, but slightly trembling. His brown eyes with their flecks of gold dancing in the light stared at her. He was silent, but Jinx was so connected to Freddy at that moment that she heard every word he didn’t speak. He loved her. She returned his feelings, so no words needed to be spoken. But when Freddy did finally speak, she melted in his arms.

  “As long as I get to spend all eternity with you,” Freddy whispered, “I grant you that promise.”

  It was a good thing Freddy kissed her because Jinx felt all the words she wanted to share with her boyfriend catch in her throat. It was also a good thing Nola didn’t come back to the apartment the next morning and went straight to work from Johnny’s place because she would’ve found Freddy and Jinx wrapped in each other’s arms sleeping on the couch.

  After they each showered, dressed, and had a quick breakfast of some anisette cookies and coffee, Jinx still wasn’t convinced working side by side with Vinny was the smartest idea Freddy ever had. But watching him bent over his chair at the kitchen table lacing up his sneakers, his hair falling into his eyes, his big ears looking bigger than ever, she realized that had he suggested she try to swim across Memory Lake underwater, she would’ve made a valiant attempt. Love really made you do crazy things sometimes.

  Other times it made you realize how crazy you’d been acting.

  Vinny was standing underneath the ornate, wrought-iron archway that was the entrance to Tranquility Park when J
inx arrived. She smiled, not because she was determined to put forth an optimistic attitude, but because Vinny reminded her of her father, Tommy. If her father ever wore a tweed jacket with an orange V-neck sweater and jeans. The only piece of Vinny’s clothing she had ever seen her father wear were beat-up hiking boots, but the resemblance between Vinny and her father wasn’t physical. Tommy Maldonado wasn’t as tall, as wide, or as Hollywood handsome as the chief of police, but when she looked at Vinny she saw the same compassion and fatherly affection she saw when she caught her own dad looking at her. She had never noticed this side of Vinny before. Maybe she did need her boyfriend to open her eyes to the world around her.

  “Good morning, partner,” Vinny said, “or is it too early to award Freddy a victory?”

  Despite the commitment she made to herself to appear aloof and professional, Jinx felt her mouth form into a broad smile before she could stop the transformation. She decided to adopt her boyfriend’s outlook on life: relax and see where the ride takes you.

  “If that extra coffee you’re holding is Joey Vitalano’s special dark roast blend with no sugar and extra soy milk, I’ll deliver Freddy’s prize myself,” Jinx declared.

  “Then the fifteen minutes I spent waiting on line at Vitalano’s Bakery this morning was worth it,” Vinny said, handing the coffee container to Jinx. “And might I add that Freddy is one lucky guy.”

  Jinx couldn’t disagree, but she also didn’t want to get off track as to the reason why she and Vinny were joining forces. There was another guy who had gotten lucky and she wanted to know why.

  “You could say the same thing about Kip Flanigan,” Jinx said. “How do you go about getting your court documents sealed so no one finds out that you committed a crime?”

  Instead of imparting some fatherly and/or chief-of-police wisdom, Vinny howled.

  “Did I say something funny?” Jinx asked.

  “No, you just reminded me of your mother,” Vinny explained, still laughing.

  Suddenly, thoughts of Kip flew away on the cool breeze gliding through the park and Jinx was left with a yearning to hear more of Vinny’s memories of her mother. She had never connected the two of them before, but it made sense that Vinny would remember Lisa Marie because he had grown up with Alberta. It wasn’t just the mention of her mother, it was how casually Vinny did it. Most people actively avoided talking about her mother because of her fractured relationship with Alberta, but Vinny shared his thought without a hint of hesitation or regret afterward. Maybe it was because it was just the two of them on a Monday morning talking a stroll through the park. Their defenses were down and they could speak honestly.

  “My mother was funny?” Jinx asked.

  “No, the complete opposite,” Vinny recollected. “She was very serious. Even when she was little, four, five years old, she didn’t have time to fool around, she was always direct and to the point. Like you were just now.”

  Jinx looked off to the left and saw the tree house that had been in the park since before it had officially been a park and remembered a past case she had worked on. She shook the memory from her mind because she didn’t want to be distracted from the conversation. If she had learned one thing from her grandmother, it was that cases weren’t nearly as important as family.

  “What else was she like as a little girl?” Jinx asked.

  Vinny hesitated, and Jinx wasn’t sure if it was because he had no further information to share or if he felt as if he would be betraying his friend if he spoke openly about his friend’s estranged daughter.

  “I only ask because, well, you know that my grandmother doesn’t really talk about my mother, and because she doesn’t say anything, no one else in the family does,” Jinx said. “Plus, my mother never liked to talk about her life in New Jersey, which means I don’t really know much about my mother when she was growing up in Hoboken. If you could maybe fill in some of the blanks, that would be cool.”

  Jinx took a deep breath and Vinny smiled. “As Freddy likes to tell people, I really am a cool dude,” he said. “Guess I should prove it.”

  As they walked through the park, Jinx sipped her coffee and listened to Vinny share stories of Lisa Marie. He started with the one when she insisted Alberta return the black patent leather Mary Janes she bought for Lisa Marie’s first day of kindergarten because they would get scuffed too easily while playing in the schoolyard. Alberta was furious that she had to send her daughter off to St. Ann’s in a pair of navy-blue boat shoes.

  Then there was the time during her seventh or eighth birthday party, Vinny couldn’t remember precisely, when Lisa Marie told the clown to stop making balloon animals and blow up something more practical, like a spatula or an oven mitt. Alberta was actually quite proud of her that day.

  Just as they were exiting the park, Vinny told Jinx one final story of how Lisa Marie demanded Alberta teach her how to sew so she could raise the hemline of her skirt. Alberta refused, on the grounds that Immaculate Conception High School was no place for cattive reggaze and that she could transfer to Hoboken High if she wanted to be a bad girl. The only reason Alberta relented and started giving Lisa Marie sewing lessons was because the kid actually registered at Hoboken High, saying she recently moved to town from Sicily and was living with relatives.

  “My mother went that far to hike up her skirt?” Jinx asked.

  “She would’ve gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for Raffaella DeFilippo,” Vinny said.

  “I’m almost afraid to ask, but who’s Raffaella DeFilippo?”

  “She was the principal’s secretary and also your grandmother’s cousin’s brother-in-law’s wife.”

  “My family’s tree grows bigger every day,” Jinx said. “Ah, Madon! I almost forgot about what we found thanks to Missy’s family tree that Kip put together. We have to find out where Adrienne lives.”

  “You’re talking about Adrienne Petrocelli?” Vinny asked.

  “Yes, you know about her too?”

  “I am the chief of police, it’s kind of my job to know who the next of kin is.”

  They stopped walking when they reached the front steps of the police station. Jinx looked up at Vinny and smiled, partially because she was happy to have spent the morning with him and partially because she was embarrassed that it took a forced morning rendezvous for her to realize she and Vinny had always been on the same side. It was time to get things back on track.

  “Do you have any leads on her?” Jinx asked. “Kip said she used to live in Michigan, where most of Missy’s family moved to, but he lost track of her after she moved.”

  “We’re working on a lead as to her whereabouts and should have confirmation shortly.” Before Jinx could ask, Vinny answered, “I’ll let you know where she lives the moment we find her.”

  “Thank you.” But Jinx wasn’t done. “Now back to Kip and whatever crime he committed in Maine. You never answered me; how does somebody get their court documents sealed and what do we have to do to get them unsealed so we can find out what kind of criminal Kip really is?”

  “First of all, Kip’s an alleged criminal,” Vinny said. “When someone’s court case is sealed, it often means their record has been expunged, and in the eyes of the court they have not been convicted of any crime.”

  “Semantic distinction duly noted,” Jinx said. “But why does the court allow that? The public has a right to know if they’re living next to a guy who, let’s just say, got away with murder.”

  “The judge must have felt that the need for secrecy to perhaps ensure Kip’s safety was more important than the public’s need to access information,” Vinny explained. “And to answer your next question.”

  “How do you know what my next question is going to be?” Jinx asked.

  “You’re going to ask me how we can get sealed documents unsealed, aren’t you?” Vinny replied.

  “You’re like an old Italian lady, you can read my mind,” Jinx teased.

  “You hang around enough old Italian ladies, they start to rub o
ff on you,” Vinny joked. “To unseal a document, you have to bring a motion to the judge stating you have a serious privacy or public safety concern.”

  “We totally have that!” Jinx exclaimed. “There’s been a murder, Kip might be a murderer, what more evidence do we need?”

  “None,” Vinny agreed. “Which is why I’ve asked Tambra to prepare a motion to submit to the Deer Isle courthouse to have Kip’s documents unsealed so we can know what kind of person we’re dealing with.”

  Jinx stepped back and leaned into the railing at the front steps and nodded her head. “This working together thing really is a lot better than being at odds all the time.”

  “I’m glad you agree,” Vinny said. “There is one glitch, though.”

  “That sounds a bit ominous,” Jinx replied.

  “Sometimes when documents are sealed, the judge orders them to be destroyed,” Vinny explained.

  “Like shredded into little bits or thrown into a fire?” Jinx asked.

  “Both of those methods would work,” Vinny replied. “But let’s see what happens when we file our motion.”

  “Agreed,” Jinx said. “And I also agree that from here on in we share information and don’t keep secrets from each other.”

  When Jinx saw Donna Russo strut on up to Vinny, her curly hair bouncing with each step, she wondered if Vinny was distinguishing professional information from personal. She wondered about some other things too.

  Shouldn’t Donna be at St. Winifred’s on a Monday morning? Were false eyelashes appropriate to be worn by high school principals? And why was she shoving the manila envelope she was carrying back into her purse? Bella donna o belladonna, Jinx thought. Was Donna a pretty woman or a deadly poison? She wanted to remain in Vinny’s presence for a while longer to look for clues that might help her answer that question, but both Vinny and Donna had other ideas.