“Uh-huh,” she muttered.
“Speak up, Pearl,” Tyler said. “And don’t spare any details. These are ruthless people we’re dealing with.”
I broke out into a sweat. “Tell them about Manny’s men and how they’ve infiltrated the hotel’s security. Since Wilt’s escape will show on the surveillance footage, he’s doomed.”
Aunt Pearl nodded. “It might already be too late.”
Chapter 33
Aunt Pearl headed towards the foyer, her duffel bag still slung over her shoulder. “I know where to find Wilt.”
“No, Pearl,” Tyler said. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Aunt Pearl glared at him but returned to the living room.
Christophe walked over to the patio doors. He spoke in a low voice into his cell phone. Less than a minute later, he returned to the sofa. “I’m confident that we’ll find Wilt pretty quick. But innocent people normally don’t disappear like that. What’s he running from?”
“Manny, of course,” Aunt Pearl said.
“I doubt that’s it,” said Christophe. “He’s got police protection in a secure suite. Now, why would he go outside to face Manny, unless there was something else going on?”
“I can’t take this anymore! Of course there’s something else going on. Only you people are too dumb to see it. It’s the key to everything that’s happened.” Aunt Pearl squeezed her head with her hands. “You can’t figure it out, so I might as well tell you. Danny killed Carla. Wilt witnessed the whole thing.”
“Danny “Bones” Battilana? That’s impossible because he was already dead. I mean, we even saw him at the funeral.” Christophe looked pointedly at me and cleared his throat.
“That doesn’t mean he died before Carla,” I said.
Christophe shook his head. “Of course it does. He was already in the bottom of her casket. Besides, her death was ruled an accident.”
“Well, I have it on good authority that it’s not the way things went down.” Aunt Pearl crossed her arms defiantly.
“I don’t see how. All of you arrived after Carla’s death, including Wilt. How could he have possibly witnessed Carla’s death?” Christophe frowned.
I flashed back to the coffin fiasco. “There’s still one thing that’s bothering me. At the funeral, Bones just looked so...so...” I struggled for the right words.
“Like he was past his best-before date?” Mom asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Judging by the condition of his body, he was probably dead before Carla.”
“No, that’s not the case,” Aunt Pearl said. “Carla got embalmed, but Danny didn’t. That’s why he looked so bad. Besides, any embalmer worth his salt would have camouflaged the bullet hole in Bones’ forehead.”
Christophe’s eyes narrowed. “You seem to know a lot.”
Aunt Pearl shook her head. “Not really. I’m just very observant.”
“Well, one thing’s obvious. Rocco would never have hidden Danny inside his grandmother’s coffin,” Mom said.
“Don’t be so sure,” Christophe said. “People do desperate things to cover their tracks.”
“Can we get back on topic here?” Aunt Pearl scowled. “Wilt called me right after it happened.”
“But when? We didn’t leave for Vegas till after—”
“There’s such a thing as telephones and email, Cen.”
My aunt was notoriously bad with technology, so I doubted she had used either. Any communication would have been done in person. “When were you last in Vegas?”
Aunt Pearl’s eyes narrowed. “A while ago.”
“When, exactly?” Christophe jotted notes on a small pad of paper he had pulled from his shirt pocket.
“A couple of days ago.”
Mom gasped. “Before Carla died? Why didn’t you mention any of this before?”
“You never asked.” Aunt Pearl glared at Mom. “Oh, and another thing. Nobody asked you for your opinion. All of your guessing is just confusing things.”
Mom visibly wilted.
“Carla summoned me here. She said it was top secret, but when I arrived here, she was gone.”
“As in dead, gone?” Mom asked.
“Of course as in dead.” Aunt Pearl paced back and forth in front of the patio doors. “I found her in the pool. It pains me to think that she died just a few feet away from us.”
“She died here?” Mom shot out of her seat. “I thought Carla died at her home.”
“This hotel suite was her home,” Aunt Pearl said.
“But...I was in that pool.” Mom’s voice broke.
Christophe looked away, clearly uncomfortable.
“The police ruled her death an accident without even looking around,” Aunt Pearl said. “Case closed. The local police are either incompetent or bought and paid for.”
Tyler bristled. “Don’t go making accusations without proof, Pearl. This is my old job, and I know most of them. No cop I know would cover up a murder.”
I hated to side with Aunt Pearl, but she had a point. “There was something odd about how they found Carla, face-up in her pool. Drowning victims are almost always face-down.”
That got both Christophe’s and Tyler’s attention. Christophe scribbled a note.
The last thing we needed was for Tyler and Aunt Pearl to go head to head.
Mom’s hand flew to her mouth. “How could you not tell me any of this? You let me go in the pool.”
Pearl dismissed her sister with a wave. “This is exactly why I didn’t say anything. You always overreact.”
“Maybe Carla fell just like Mom did. Only her accident was fatal.” I said it more to encourage Aunt Pearl, who seemed reluctant to reveal the details. We couldn’t waste any more time getting to the bottom of things.
“No. Carla was strangled.” Aunt Pearl pulled the autopsy report from her pocket and handed it to Christophe. “The medical examiner said so, right here in this report.”
“Where did you get this?” Christophe frowned.
“Never mind,” Aunt Pearl snapped. “You want to read it or not?”
Christophe didn’t answer. He traced his finger along the report as he read it. “No water in the lungs. That is odd.”
“Now do you believe me?” Aunt Pearl’s eyes moistened with tears.
“I don’t know what to make of this,” Christophe said. “Bones is already dead. I happen to know the medical examiner fairly well and she’s above reproach. My source told me that she had called it a tragic accident. I can’t imagine her withholding information or doctoring a report.”
“Well, I guess your ‘source’ lied.” Aunt Pearl made quotation marks with her fingers. “The medical examiner and Wilt are the only ones who know the truth. And Wilt’s the sole witness to Carla’s murder. That’s the real reason he’s on the run.”
“You better help us find him, Pearl,” Tyler said. “It may already be too late.”
Chapter 34
Manny and his cronies were already under surveillance, and Christophe put out an all-points bulletin for Wilt. I suspected he wouldn’t remain missing for long, especially traveling in the massive RV. I felt a faint glimmer of hope that Wilt might survive after all.
“If Wilt’s account is true, then I guess the husband really did do it,” Tyler said. “That’s how it happens almost all of the time.”
“We’ll get Wilt’s statement when we find him.” Christophe turned to Aunt Pearl. “In the meantime, tell me everything you know.”
Aunt Pearl held up her hands, palms outward. “There’s nothing else—”
“The fake wedding,” I prompted.
“Oh, that.” Aunt Pearl glared at me. “Bones pretended to be the grieving husband, but he was only ever after one thing: the Racatelli empire. He forced Carla to marry him. If she didn’t, he threatened to kill Rocco. She agreed, but she outsmarted him. All the wedding paperwork was fake. The marriage license, the ceremony, everything.”
I flashed back to Rocco’s claim that Carla had a pre-nup. I
t apparently wasn’t the case—just Carla’s way of appeasing Rocco so that he didn’t feel threatened. “Bones thought that by killing Carla, he would inherit the Racatelli estate. He would cut Rocco out, at least financially.”
Mom sighed in relief. “Thank goodness the wedding was fake. It means that Rocco’s inheritance is safe after all. At least from Bones.”
Aunt Pearl raised her hand. “What about Manny La Manna’s people in the hotel? He’s already got his people inside the hotel, trying to take over. He’s infiltrated the casino operations.”
Aunt Pearl then turned to Christophe. “Is that why you’re here? Because of Manny’s attempted takeover?”
“I can’t answer that, Pearl. All I can tell you is that you’re safe as long as you stay here.”
“The rivalry between the Racatelli, Battilana, and La Manna families has been underway for a long time now,” Tyler said. “It’s not exactly a secret. The lobby shootout was one of those flare-ups.”
Aunt Pearl shook her head. “Such a shame. Manny was Carla’s one true love. They had a really good thing going.”
I frowned, thinking Aunt Pearl was with Manny. “B-but you...”
“I told you Manny was just a fling for me,” she snapped. “When Carla told me about her feelings for him, I dumped him immediately. I didn’t approve of her choice of husband, but who am I to stand in the way of her happiness?”
I gasped. “She married Manny too? For real?”
Aunt Pearl nodded. “That marriage was the real thing. In fact, it happened just hours before she died. It was a secret wedding, and I was one of only two witnesses. Rocco was the other.”
Now things were beginning to make sense. “The shootout wasn’t really about the Racatelli empire, was it? This is about the wedding. Rocco didn’t like it, and Manny wasn’t going to let Rocco get in the way. I guess Manny got what he wanted after all.”
Aunt Pearl started to cry. “I did everything I could, but it wasn’t enough in the end.”
I had seen my aunt close to tears many times, a lot of them in the last twenty-four hours. But I had never seen her cry. I placed an arm around her shoulder and hugged her. “It’s okay. You did your best. I just wish you had told us the truth to begin with. It would have made it a lot easier on everyone.”
We both jumped as Christophe’s cell phone rang.
He stood and walked towards the kitchen. He spoke in a low voice, but judging from his body language it appeared to be good news.
“They’re on Wilt’s trail, and not a moment too soon. Manny’s thugs are following him. I’m hoping we get to him first.”
Mom shivered.
“There are a few things we should take care of, Aunt Pearl. Like gathering up Carla’s documents. The marriage certificates for starters. That will back up your account.”
Mom stood, still a little unsteady on her feet. “I’ll help.”
***
It took us less than ten minutes to find the documents in Carla’s desk drawer. “These look genuine to me.” I pointed to the marriage certificate for Danny and Carla as I handed the papers to Tyler.
“I don’t see why this wouldn’t be real,” he said. “Carla and Bones had a valid license, and the ceremony was witnessed by both Rocco and the hotel manager. Where’s the fake part?”
Aunt Pearl blanched. “The marriage licence—I thought it was faked.”
“Uh-uh,” Tyler said. “It’s from the wedding chapel down the street. Their marriage was real, all right.”
Christophe frowned. “There’s just one question, and I think I already know the answer. Who killed Bones?”
Chapter 35
If Christophe and Tyler were annoyed by Aunt Pearl’s ever-changing story, they didn’t let on.
“We need to get the story straight from Wilt,” Christophe said. “Maybe he’s more than a witness.”
Tyler nodded. “Maybe he killed Carla. He doesn’t have an alibi, and he was the last one to see Carla alive.” Tyler turned to Aunt Pearl. “At least, according to Pearl’s version of events.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aunt Pearl frowned.
Tyler didn’t respond.
“We’ll find out soon enough.” Christophe dropped his phone on the table. “They’ve got Wilt. He’s safe.”
“What a relief,” Mom said.
“I already told you. Wilt didn’t do it.” Aunt Pearl stomped her foot in frustration. “Bones killed Carla, thinking that as her surviving spouse, he would inherit everything.”
“Maybe Rocco put Bones up to it, and then killed Bones after,” Tyler said. “With Bones, Carla’s husband gone, Rocco gets everything.”
“That’s even more ridiculous,” Aunt Pearl snapped. “Stop guessing and face the facts.”
“Maybe Manny La Manna killed Carla,” I said.
“Manny would never do such a thing.” Aunt Pearl seemed offended by my suggestion.
“You think these guys have morals?” I asked.
Aunt Pearl glared at me.
“How come you know so much about these people?” Christophe scratched his chin. “Speaking of which, how did you know that Manny had infiltrated the hotel, Pearl? You seem to know an awful lot for an innocent bystander.”
Shivers ran down my spine as I flashed back to the funeral, where Christophe had seemed so friendly with Manny. If Tyler trusted him, then he had to be all right, but I still felt uneasy. “Tell him, Aunt Pearl.”
“I want immunity from prosecution first.”
“It doesn’t work like it does on TV, Pearl.” Christophe smiled. “Besides, I don’t have the authority to do that. Only the District Attorney can make deals like that. I can, however, take you downtown for a very long interrogation.”
Silence.
“Or, you can cooperate and we can get the formalities over with.” Christophe smiled. “I know which one I would choose.”
“Fine.” Aunt Pearl frowned and slumped down on the couch.
Luckily Christophe wasn’t interested in the details of how Wilt got away, only in finding him. He pulled out his ringing cell phone and spoke into it. “Fine. See you in ten.”
Christophe turned back to Aunt Pearl. “They’ll have Wilt back here in a few minutes. In the meantime I want you to tell me everything you know about Manny. I’m all ears. You can start talking now.”
****
Aunt Pearl finished her account ten minutes later, omitting the romantic entanglements. That hardly surprised me, since her accounts were at odds with Mom’s version. One of them was lying, and I had no doubt who.
Aunt Pearl was surprisingly open with Christophe about Manny and the security infiltration. She also volunteered additional information about the Racatelli, Battilana, and La Manna crime organizations that even Christophe seemed unaware of.
At least, he acted as if he was surprised. That’s probably all that it was—an act. He was a surprisingly good actor, which, of course, a good undercover agent had to be. All of us had fallen hook, line, and sinker for his butler cover.
“It’s all my fault.” Aunt Pearl sniffed. “I was just trying to help Wilt. I promised Carla that I would take care of him if anything ever happened to her.”
Mom gasped. “You knew Wilt before he came to Westwick Corners?”
Aunt Pearl nodded. “He came to me for help. All I did was help him get away.”
I raised my brows.
“Okay, so maybe a little gambling on the side. This is Vegas, after all.”
“Go on.” Christophe pulled out his phone again. “Okay if I record all this?”
Aunt Pearl nodded.
“Who was Wilt running from?” I answered my own question. “Bones? Does his murder have something to do with Wilt?”
Aunt Pearl nodded slowly. “Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of?”
“Wilt had a big gambling debt. When he found out that his loan had ultimately come from Bones, he was mortified. He thought Bones wanted to kill him. But Bones would never
do that, if only because it didn’t make good business sense. Dead men never pay off their debts, but scared men do. That never occurred to Wilt. He’s so gullible. I had to help him.”
My mouth dropped open. Suddenly Wilt’s gambling problem made sense. “Wilt is no stranger to Vegas, is he?”
“No,” Aunt Pearl said in a small voice. “Wilt had to get the money somehow, and I figured there was no harm in helping him. Wilt and I were a team, but Manny and Bones both discovered our card counting system. Bones threatened to tell Manny, and I knew that Manny wouldn’t hesitate to kill us both if we didn’t stop.”
“Well, why didn’t you stop? That gave both of you a motive to kill Bones. Did you put that bullet in his forehead?” I already knew the answer, but I had to ask.
Aunt Pearl sobbed softly. “No, but Wilt did.”
Chapter 36
“Wilt’s a killer? I can’t believe it.” I stood and paced back and forth.
Aunt Pearl sighed. “Anybody can snap, Cen. Especially where family’s involved.”
“What do you mean by that? Who is Wilt’s family?” My hand flew to my mouth. “Wilt is related to Bones?”
Aunt Pearl nodded. “Wilt is Bones’ grandson. He even had a DNA test to prove it, but Bones still denied it. He claimed Wilt was an imposter, that Wilt had somehow doctored the test results.”
“How can you be sure Wilt is telling the truth? Maybe he made it all up.”
Aunt Pearl shook her head. “Wilt isn’t the one who discovered the connection. I remember when Wilt was born and knew his family. Wilt was just a baby when he and his mother, Della, innocent bystanders, were caught in the crossfire of a gangland hit. Wilt’s father died too, but he was part of the shootout.
“Wilt didn’t die that day, but we didn’t know it at the time. Della shielded him from the gunfire with her body, and that saved his life. But Carla only found that out many years later. It was a secret, known only to Bones and whoever had helped him cover it up. Long story short, Wilt lost both his parents that day.
Rags to Witches Page 15
