Tony didn’t doubt his big brother for a second. He always did what he made up his mind to do. But to want to be a cop was an odd thing to want to be, in Tony’s mind. “Do they know she one of Dad’s?” he asked.
“Donnie says people have been talking around town, so I’m pretty sure some of those bozos heard it too.”
“But who is she? And why isn’t Donnie here? He lives in Jericho. You and I had to drive damn near an hour to get here, all the way from Orono to get here. Robert’s all the way in California, so he can’t help. But Donnie’s right here! Why didn’t Dad call him?”
Brent looked at his brother. “Why do you think?” he asked. “Donnie’s too young and immature to handle something like this.”
Tony smiled. “The one who’s married with a child on the way is the immature one. Talk about irony!”
“If it’s major,” Brent said, “Dad isn’t going to trust Donnie or Bobby to handle it. They’re his two youngest sons, and he loves them dearly, but they’re his problem kids let’s face it.” Brent looked at Tony. “And you aren’t much better. Dropping out of college on a whim like that.”
“Why do you keep bringing that up? I’m back in school.”
“Because Dad made you go back. Don’t act as if you went back of your own freewill. You didn’t. I know it and you do too.”
“Anyway,” Tony said, not interested in discussing his past mistake, “who is this female Dad ordered us to come and see? At first I thought he was talking about Miss Abby, since she’s been one of his ladies for years and years. But then I thought hell no. He wouldn’t call me away from school, and you too, for Abigail Ridge, Paige Springer, or any of these ladies around here. So who is this new chick?”
“Her name is all I know.”
“Jenay Franklin?”
“Right,” Brent said. “When I called Donnie on my way to town, he says Dad knocked him down just for being rude to her last week. He says she’s Dad’s new girlfriend.”
“And that’s what Dad calls her? His girlfriend?” Tony asked.
“According to Donnie, yes.”
Tony leaned back and ran his hand through his long, wavy black hair. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Since when does Dad give a toss about some female in trouble? I remember when Miss Abby was in the hospital for damn near a month and he hardly went to see her. He paid all her bills and paid the hospital bill, but that’s not the same thing as being there. But not only does he want us to be here for this particular lady, but he’s leaving a business meeting and flying in himself to be here? This doesn’t even sound like Dad. At one point I expected him to call Aunt Sprig and ask her to come to this station.”
Brent laughed. Aunt Sprig was the nickname for Jacqueline Gabrini, their father’s sister. She had been in a very bad marriage with a hot-tempered Italian, had gotten away from him and returned to her hometown of Jericho. Now she was a hopeless alcoholic who hated Charles as much as the rest of the townspeople because of his refusal to enable her bad habits. Charles and Sprig hadn’t spoken in years.
“I was disappointed when Aunt Sprig didn’t show up to Don’s wedding.”
Brent frowned. “Don didn’t invite her to his wedding,” he said, “so I don’t know why you would be upset with her. Be upset with Donnie. He’s just as moralistic as Dad. They’re both alike if you ask me. That’s why he’s always up under Dad the way he is.”
“Dad let him get away with murder,” Tony agreed. “The least thing you and I do and we get called out for it every time. But Donnie? He’s his baby. He’s his heart. He doesn’t get called out for shit.” Then Tony looked at Brent. “Speaking of being called out: word around campus is that you and Kerstin have broken up yet again. True?”
Brent nodded. “True.”
“For good this time?”
“For good this time.”
“You said that last time.”
“Yeah well. It’s for good this time.”
Yeah right, Tony thought. “But getting back to Miss Jenay. I still wonder what it is about her that’s got Dad all involved like this.”
“She must be hot,” Brent said with a smile. “That’s all I know. She must be something hot.”
They continued to sit in that stale police station, asking if they could see Jenay Franklin repeatedly, but being rebuffed every time. At one point the desk sergeant advised them to go back where they came from and try again tomorrow. They knew their father didn’t order them to this police station to leave with no results, so they ignored such advice, and kept on waiting.
And then, nearly three hours later, the double doors of the station flew open, and Charles Sinatra, like the weather event his presence sometimes felt like, came storming in, his suit coat flying behind him from the sheer wind the fast-opening door produced. Both sons quickly stood to their feet.
“Where is she?” he asked them as he hurried toward them.
“They claim they’re still processing her in,” Brent responded.
Charles knew better than that. He hurried up to the desk sergeant. “Where’s Joffee?”
“Chief Joffee,” the sergeant emphasized, “is indispose at the moment.”
“Get him,” Charles responded. “I want to see him now.”
“That’s not possible, sir.”
Charles stared his vivid green eyes at the sergeant in a way that left no room for ambiguity. He was not going to take no for an answer. “Tell him Charles Sinatra wants to see him. Now,” Charles ordered.
The sergeant glanced at Brent and Tony, who were staring at him, and then reluctantly made his way to the office at the back of the room.
Brent and Tony walked up to their father. “You okay, Dad?” Tony asked him.
“Tired as hell, but I’m okay.”
“So who is she?” Tony asked.
Charles looked at him. Having any vulnerability exposed to his sons was something he wasn’t comfortable doing. “Jenay Franklin,” he said. “She’s my new GM over at the Inn.”
“Oh! She works for you?”
“Yes.”
But that only made it even more implausible to Tony and Brent. Especially to Brent. “So you wanted us to leave school and come to be by the side of one of your employees?”
But their questions only fueled Charles’s anger. “Why are you concerned about that? I told you to do something, you did it. Nothing further to discuss.”
Both Brent and Tony knew to back off. And they did. And then Amos Joffee, the chief of the Jericho Police Department, came out of his office.
“Charles,” he said with a grand smile, “how nice to see you again!”
It was a stark contrast to the disrespect he had shown Brent and Tony, and Brent and Tony knew it. But they were used to it in this town. People always attempted to get back at their father, by mistreating them.
“I attempted to get you on the phone several times,” Charles said, “but your people claimed you weren’t here.”
“I wasn’t here,” the chief said.
“Now that’s a lie,” Tony responded.
Joffee ignored him. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“You have a friend of mine in your custody. Jenay Franklin. I want her released.”
“I’m sure you do, and I’m sure she does too, but that’s not possible at this point. She was caught red handed in her thievery. We had no choice but to turn it over to the prosecutor. It’s in the DA’s hands now.”
Charles was even more upset now. He hadn’t expected to hear that. “Let me see her,” he decided to say. “I want to see her.”
“That’s also not possible. She’s still being processed in.”
“Bullshit!” Charles proclaimed. “I want to see her, Joff, and I want to see her now.”
Joffee knew there was position in this town, and there was power. Sinatra was the power. And he knew it was the power people who kept him in position. “Ed!” he yelled to his desk sergeant.
“Yes, sir, chief?” the sergeant asked.
�
��Bring Miss Franklin into my office, please.”
The sergeant looked at Charles. He hated that they couldn’t stick it to his arrogant ass the way they were able to stick it to his sons. But he was no fool either. “Yes, sir, chief,” he said, and headed for the cells.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Charles, Brent, and Tony waited in Joffee’s small office while the sergeant went to retrieve Jenay. Charles was leaned against the front of the desk, his arms folded, his legs crossed at the ankle, while Brent and Tony were leaned against the wall. Chief Joffee himself was seated behind his desk.
“It’s a hell of a thing, Charles,” Joffee was saying. “That’s the problem. We practically caught her red-handed. We had to act.”
“You caught her doing what?” Tony asked.
“Stealing,” Joffee responded. “She stole the guest jewels from the safe at your Daddy’s B & B. We found those jewels in her suite, in her closet, in her suitcase.”
Tony and Brent both looked at their father, but Charles had zoned them all out. Jenay was on his mind. He had spoken to Meg at length, on the flight back to Jericho, and she told him exactly how it all happened. The jewels, she said, were in one of Jenay’s suitcases inside the VIP suite. The suitcase was in the closet, in the back, as if it was being purposely hidden. When the cops discovered what had happened, they arrested her on the spot. She was already guilty in their eyes, Meg had said. “What about in your eyes?” Charles remembered asking Meg. “Is she guilty in your eyes?”
“I can’t say,” thoughtful Meg had responded. “I don’t really know her, do I?”
And that was the rub for Charles. He didn’t really know her either. They had their conversations, and they were growing closer with each passing day. But he didn’t know her like that!
But he shook his head. He’d seen that decency in her eyes. He saw that hope and fear and pain and happiness. He didn’t see some actress, he saw her. And there was no way anybody was going to tell him that Jenay Franklin stole jewels from that safe. No way. He didn’t care what so-called evidence Joffee claimed to have.
The office door opened and all three Sinatras stood at attention. Especially Charles, whose heart was hammering. But when he saw her walk in with the desk sergeant, bound in hand and feet shackles as if she was some escaped prisoner they’d just apprehended, and he saw that pain and fear in her big, gray eyes, his own pain turned to anger.
He looked at Joffee. “Take that shit off of her and take it off now! Who do you think you’re dealing with, Joff?”
“That’s no affront to her, Charles! That’s how we handle all of our suspects.”
“I don’t care who else you handle that way,” Charles responded, “you will not handle her that way. Take that shit off!”
Joffee knew he could have ignored such an order. He was the chief of police, after all. But he also knew the backbone of the mayor. He also knew the mayor, his boss, relied on men like Charles Sinatra every election cycle with their generous contributions. If Sinatra threatened to pull his support if he kept Joffee on as chief, then Joffee would be fired tomorrow. Summarily. “Unshackle her,” he said to his sergeant.
The desk sergeant was reluctant, but he did unshackle Jenay. As soon as he did, Charles pulled her into his arms.
Jenay closed her eyes and released the burden of the past hours as if she was releasing air. She quickly looked at him. “I didn’t take that jewelry, Charlie,” she said.
“I already know that,” Charles just as quickly replied. “I know that.”
Brent and Tony were surprised by their father. He usually came down on the side of guilt when it came to his fellow man. Almost always. But suddenly he believed her? Despite the evidence Joffee mentioned?
“Told you she was hot,” Brent whispered to his brother.
Jenay had fought back tears the entire time she had been incarcerated. But now they were flowing freely. Charles wiped her tears away and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s alright, baby,” he said. “It’s going to be alright.”
“I’ve never been in a situation like this before in my life. I didn’t put that jewelry in that suitcase. I didn’t---”
“It’s okay,” Charles said and pulled her in his arms again. “I know you didn’t. It’s okay.”
Brent and Tony were now intrigued. This was amazing to them. They even walked over to the twosome, to make sure this was really their father playing this sensitive man role. When Jenay saw them, she wiped her eyes. She knew, from the reception, from their pictures on the walls, from the fact that they looked so much like Charles, that they were his sons. And they were meeting her for the first time, like this. She wasn’t getting any breaks, she thought.
Charles looked away from his sons when he and Jenay stopped embracing, as his eyes, to their additional shock, were almost watery. So Tony took over.
“Hello, Miss Franklin,” he said, extending her hand. “I’m Anthony Sinatra. Tony. Charles’s next oldest son. Nice to meet you.”
“Hello,” Jenay said, still trying to get her emotions under control too.
“And this is my brother Charles Brenton Sinatra, Junior. Better known as Brent. Charles’s oldest child.”
Jenay and Brent shook hands. “Ma’am,” he said.
“Dad has told us absolutely nothing about you,” Tony went on. “But I’m sure that was just an oversight. Right, Charles?”
Charles gave him a chilling look.
“Right, Dad?” Tony corrected himself.
But Jenay was on Charles’s mind. “How have they been treating you in this place?”
“They’ve been. . . okay.”
“You aren’t just saying that?”
“No. Of course not. But what happens next? Do I have to stay here tonight?”
“No,” Charles said to everybody’s surprise. “I’m going to do whatever I can to get these ridiculous charges dropped. You just keep praying.”
Jenay nodded. “I will,” she said, pleased to hear all of the certainty in his voice, even if she didn’t truly believe dropping the charges were possible.
The charges weren’t dropped. The DA wasn’t bought and paid for the way Joffee was. But Charles did manage to get her out on bail.
Jenay walked into Jericho Inn’s VIP suite like a woman given a last minute reprieve. Charles was with her, as his two sons had gone back to their college campus, but he didn’t feel any gratitude whatsoever.
“Where was the suitcase?” he asked her, as soon as they entered the suite.
“Back here,” Jenay said as she escorted him into the bedroom. “The cops were searching every room. I was with the Robbery detective when they entered this room and searched it.”
“So you saw those jewels in your suitcase with your own two eyes?”
Jenay nodded. “Yes. They were there. That wasn’t a mistake or any setup by the police. They had been placed in my suitcase. But I didn’t place them there. I swear to you, Charles. I had nothing to do with this!”
Her tears returned and Charles held her again. “Don’t cry,” he said tenderly, as she cried in his arms.
“I was only trying to do my job. I never seen inside of that safe. Meg told me it existed, and had shown it to me, but I never even thought to look inside of it. Meg had the responsibility for doing the end-of-day check. I viewed my role as the backup. I knew the code and I knew what to look for if somebody had tampered with it. But even Meg said there had been no tampering. She checked in every way she could. And I believe her.”
Charles nodded. “I do too.” Then Charles pulled her back and looked into her eyes. “But I want you to stop worrying about that. We’ll get this figured out. I’ll hire the best detectives in this country if I have to. You will not be going back to that jail, I promise you that. Now let’s get you a bath, and get you to bed.”
“You’re going to stay here tonight?”
Charles was touched by her need. “Yes,” he said. “There’s nowhere else I would rather be.”
Jenay attempte
d to smile, and she nodded okay. But even Charles’s presence that night could not quell her devastated heart.
The next morning, while Charles was still asleep, she woke up with a start. She remembered it. She remembered it when she was going over the books with a fine tooth comb. It was a small matter, but it could mean a lot.
Charles had her in a bear of a hug, and she had to peel away his big arms just to get out of bed. But she got up, showered and dressed, hurried downstairs and then into her office. When she found what she was looking for, she began to hurry toward the elevator just as Meg was coming in to work.
“You’re free!” Meg said with joy in her voice, and ran into Jenay’s arms. “When did they let you out?”
“Late yesterday. I don’t know how Charles pulled it off, but he managed to get my case on the docket before court adjourned for the night, and the judge granted me bail.”
“Bail? You mean they didn’t drop the charges?” Meg was disappointed.
“No. But . . . Meg, I know you have a key to the house safe. Right?”
“Right.”
“Who else has a key?”
“You.”
“And?”
“And that’s it.”
“Are you positive?”
“I’m positive.”
Jenay nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Thanks for the info.” And then she hurried back upstairs.
When Charles opened his eyes a few minutes later, Jenay was sitting on the edge of the bed. But she wasn’t smiling. She had a look of grave concern.
He leaned up on his elbows. “What is it now?” he asked her.
“When you took over this place, Charles, did you have all of the locks changed, or did you just reprogram them?”
“No. They had those old-styled key entry locks. I changed the entire building to keycard locks.”
“And there were levels of master keys, right?”
Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) Page 16
