Dirty Secrets (25 page)

“
Eccola
,”  One guard said, stopping in front of room 241. 

It was as though Adele had been shot out a rocket.  She had heard the guards words, but unable to stop, her feet propelled her forward; however, a bone-crunching hug was enough to do the job her feet couldn’t.  The hug felt familiar, the squeezing a comfort.  Adele knew who was on the other side of the hug.

“You look like hell.”  Robynne pulled out of Adele’s arms and eyed her up and down.

“I’m so happy your alright.”  Adele hugged her again.

“You must have really missed me.”  Robynne said.

“I thought something terrible happened to you,” she said.

“Not as terrible as what happened to your fashion sense.  An Hermes bag with  Khakis?  Really?  And, you could have ran a comb through your hair.”   

“The kidnapping hasn’t curbed your sarcasm, I see.” 

Robynne smiled and hugged her friend once again.  “I wasn’t being sarcastic. You’re violating so many fashion rules right now.” 

They entered Robynne’s hospital room, a precaution due to her recent predicament. 

“Were you hurt? Where were you?  Did you see the kidnappers?  Are you really okay?  How did you escape?” 

“Okay, you need to take a breather.”  Robynne handed Adele some water off her half-eaten dinner tray.

“I would like to know the answers to those questions myself.”  Giacoppo said as he entered the room.

“She can answer questions later.  It’s 2 a.m.  Let her have some rest,”  Adele said.

“I give the orders around here, Ms. Jaspers.  If she’s lucid enough to enjoy your company, then she can answer a few questions,” Giacoppo said.

“I don’t know anything.  They covered my eyes the entire time.  Although, wherever they were keeping me smelled like old paint,”  Robynne said.

The investigator made himself comfortable in a chair next to the door.  “Were you violated?” 

“Not sexually.  Someone slapped me once.”  Robynne and Adele held hands on the corner of the bed. 

“Only once?  What were you doing when you were slapped?”

Robynne’s face took on the gray undertones of a rapidly approaching storm.   “They tied me up.  Before I could slip all the way out of the binds, someone backhanded me.  I don’t respond well to hitting, call it a casualty of surviving an abusive marriage.”

Adele hugged Robynne so tightly, it was hard to decipher where she ended and where Robynne began.  “I’m so sorry.  If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have had to go through any of this.”

“Please let her finish, so I can go home to my family before sunrise.”  Giacoppo said.

“The force of blow knocked me over.”  Robynne said.

“Where you standing or sitting?”  Giacoppo didn’t look up from his notepad.

“I was sitting.  I landed on something hard.  Unfortunately for him, I used it to hit the asshole in the face when he tried to re-tie me,”  Robynne said.

“You must have made him angry, no?”

“I heard bones snapping when I connected with his face.  There was screaming.”  Robynne drank a big gulp of water. 

“Did you hear your kidnappers talking?”

“In Italian, I don’t know what they were saying, but there was a woman there.” Robynne looked everywhere but Giacoppo.

“How do you know she was a woman?  Weren’t you blindfolded?”  He crossed legs.

“I have a sense of smell, and I can hear.  Her heels tap against the floor when she walked.  Her cheap perfume made me sneeze.” 

“So we’ve come to the most important question, how did you escape?”

“I didn’t.  They let me go.  They put a napkin over my nose.  The next thing I knew, I was here.”

“Are you leaving anything out?”  He put his pen in his pocket. 

“No,”  Robynne said.

A middle-age nurse checked on Robynne, advising him to go, much to Adele’s relief.  

Giacoppo nodded his head in acknowledgment.  “I will leave you two to your little reunion, but before I do, the journal, Ms. Jaspers.” 

Busted, Adele bit her lip in hopes the pain would conjure up an escape route, a magic journal-hiding genie or an anvil.  The journal, a noose around Adele’s stealing neck, sat way down in the depths of Robynne’s purse.     

“Today, Adele.” 

She wavered a few seconds more before deciding to hand it over when Robynne let out a gut-wrenching scream.  She screamed again, this time the decibels reached just below ear-shattering.  Hospital staff flooded the room, a diversion Adele used to rip some pages out of the diary.  Calm and collected, she handed it over to him.

“I haven’t decided on whether to charge you for stealing evidence yet; however, it’s not looking good for you right now.  I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to stay in Florence. I’m talking to you too.”  He pointed at Robynne before he was ushered out of the room.  

Adele waited a few minutes before she spoke.  “So, I went to the room where you were kept.  There was blood everywhere.  You really got him good.” 

“I tried to land another blow when I heard a voice.  It was distinct and coated with arrogance.  Even though I thought the voice sounded familiar, I wasn’t sure until he said he should have brought a bib.” 

Lost, Adele stared at Robynne waiting for the punchline. 

“Don’t you remember?  The strange dinner at La Borgata.  Ambrogio asked if you needed a bib?  That bastard kidnapped me.  I don’t know why, frankly, I don’t care.  Ambrogio will pay.  The police won’t give me justice.  No man is ever going to take advantage of me or anyone I love again.” 

“It wasn’t Ambrogio.  He has a brother named Luca.  Their--” Adele’s voiced trailed off, the realization took her breath away.

“The asshole at the dinner table wasn’t Ambrogio?  Thank God, I thought you’d  gone crazy on me,”   Robynne said. 

“Are you sure?”

“I never forget an asshole.”  Robynne pulled a band-aid off her arm. 

“How could he be involved in all of this?   It doesn’t make any sense.”  Adele pulled out the pages from Cesare’s diary. 

“I don’t know why he did it, but I am certain it was him---his brother.  This is so confusing.  Maybe the answers are in the pages you ripped out,”  Robynne said. 

“Nice save, by the way.”  Adele scanned the pages for clues.  Nothing pointed to Luca until the second to last page. 

June 12th
  Out of sheer curiosity, I followed a member of the Fleur-de-lys today.  I wanted to see who was behind the power, the ones who would give me Ambrogio after all these years, my saviors.  The man in black seemed to go unnoticed, fading in and out the dense crowds of people more concerned with snapping a photo with the bronze pig in the center of Mercato Nuovo.   He discarded his robe, and and I saw him. Luca Argentero was a Fleur-de-lys member.  I was astounded, so much so, I gawked openly, but I soon came to a realization.  There is no Fleur-de-lys.  I knew in my heart I had been played for a fool.  I felt ashamed for him and for myself.  Legend has it whoever rubs the nose of the pig will return to Florence one day.  I know it was silly, but I rubbed its nose.  Maybe I will return to the person I once was one day. 

“Shit, I have to tell Ambrogio, but he won’t take my calls, much less see me.”  Adele said.

“Why won’t he see you?”

Adele fought to hold back tears.  “It’s a long story, but basically I betrayed him.  Ambrogio hates me.” 

Chapter 38

“What’s this about me hating you?  I could never hate you, Cara.”  Ambrogio never looked better.  His suit was as crisp as a newly minted one hundred dollar bill. 

“You could have fooled me.  I saw how you looked at me during the press conference.”

“Press conference?  What the hell?  Can you two stop acting like I’m not in the room.”

Ambrogio walked over to Robynne, embracing her.  “Robynne, I am so glad you are alright.  I would have never forgiven myself if something had happened to you.  I wish we could have met under better circumstances.”

“So, you’ve forgiven me?”  Adele asked.

“There is nothing to forgive.  You did what you thought was right at the time,”  Ambrogio said.

“Yes, but--”  Adele said.

“Let’s forget our petty misunderstandings.  Robynne is back.  Any friend of yours is a friend of mine, and I must make this up to her.” 

“It wasn’t your fault.  I know it now.” 

“What do you mean?”  A quizzical looked passed over Ambrogio’s features.

“What I am going to tell you will come as a shock,” Adele said.

“It will have to wait.  You and Robynne are in mortal danger.  I have arranged for us to leave Italy tonight.”  Ambrogio said.

“But Falconi said we couldn’t leave Italy,”  Robynne interrupted. 

Ambrogio grabbed Robynne’s hand to reassure her.  “He knows we are leaving.” 

“I have to tell you something,”  Adele said.

“You can tell me on the plane.  We found another bomb in one of our cars.  Luckily no one was hurt due to its faulty mechanisms.  I don’t want what happened to Cesare to happen to you or your friend.  I cannot protect you here.  So, I beg you, for your safety, come with me.” 

“I can’t go anywhere in a hospital gown.”  Robynne said.

After leaving the room momentarily, Ambrogio returned carrying a bag.  “I retrieved your belongs from the hotel.” 

Arm in arm, Adele and Robynne, sans hospital gown, followed Ambrogio into the hallway where they were surrounded by his guards. 

“You came prepared,” Robynne said.

“There are paparazzi lined up by the front entrance.  A car is waiting behind the hospital.” 

Adele intwined her hands with Ambrogio’s.  

“Spare me, you two are making me sick to my stomach,”  Robynne said.

Two black limousines idled in the alley.  The early morning sky, a living fresco, painted with rich purples and reds as dark as blood, greeted them as they boarded the vehicles. 

“I have to tell you this now.  According to Cesare’s journal, there is no Fleur-de-lys.  The mastermind behind the bombs, the riddles, Robynne’s kidnapping and Felicita’s rapidly declining mental health was Luca.”  Adele hands him the torn journal pages from Cesare’s diary. 

Robynne, the three guards and Adele waited for his response.  He remained emotionless as he scanned the pages. 

Ambrogio sighed, crumbled up the pages, rolled down the window and tossed them in the street.  “This is unfortunate.” 

‘I’m sorry.”  Adele reached for Ambrogio. 

“I mean this is unfortunate for you and your friend.”  He removed Adele’s hand from his knee.

“I was hoping to keep up this act until we boarded the plane, but once again, you ruined everything.  

“What the hell is going on?”  Robynne asked.

“I should have let Maurizio beat you to death.  You’ve been a pain in my ass since the first moment I met you.”  he said.

“You should have what?”  Robynne was quickly restrained by one of the three guards sitting in the limo.

“When you broke Maurizio’s nose, he was going to kill you.  I saved you, a fact I’ve regretted ever since.” 

“Luca?”  Adele said.

Don’t look so shocked Adele.  I am an actor who has studied at Julliard.  I must admit, I was a little nervous playing my brother again, but I made sure to employ all of his little quirks and pretty little words in my arsenal.”

“Did you hurt Ambrogio?” 

“What does it matter if I did or not, he’s done with you anyway.”  he said.

It was Adele’s turn to be restrained.  “If you’ve hurt him, I will rip that smug smile right off your lips.”

“Such bravado, too bad you can’t back it up.”  With his last sentence, the car stopped on the tarmac, a few feet away from the Argentero’s private jet. 

“We’re not getting on the plane.”  Robynne yelled. 

“You can get on the plane by virtue of both your legs or you can be drugged and carried?” he said. 

Robynne and Adele looked at each other.  Their choice was clear.  “We will walk.” They said in unison.

“A wise choice.”  Luca said. 

Chapter 39

Flanked by guards, Robynne and Adele reluctantly climbed onto the plane.  As far as surprises go, they were in for few more.  Inside the plane’s belly, seated between two guards sat Felicità, and Ciro and Maurizio Guidice. 

“The gangs all here.” Luca said.

“Felicità are you alright?”  She could barely keep her head up.

“I’ve given her a rather high dose of poison.  It mirrors Alzheimer’s Disease.  She doesn’t have it by the way, but I paid the doctor to tell her otherwise.”

“You’re one sick fuck.  How could you do that to your own grandmother?”  Robynne chimed in.

“Don’t judge me until you’ve walked in my shoes.” 

“What reason could justify you drugging your grandmother?”  Adele asked.

“Why wouldn’t I, my old hag of a grandmother betrayed me.  The first born son should be running the family business,”  Luca said.