Hope House (15 page)

“Mick Puglisi.” She yanked her hands away and practically spit at him.

“What?” Where the fuck did she pull that name from?

“Remember Mick Puglisi from college?”

“No.”

“He dated Marcia Donali.”

“I don’t remember him.”

“Well I do. He was a sleaze—a royal sleaze from a crime family.”

“Okay. And?”

“Guess who owns New Age Adoption Agency?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

“Sibli Corp.”

Tommy felt his gut clench and his throat tighten. Being a criminal lawyer, he knew firsthand that Sibli owned a lot of companies but he didn’t delve into Sibli’s financials.

“Sibli owns the fucking adoption agency, and guess who owns Sibli?”

“I don’t know. Enlighten me.” He bunched his hands up under his legs to hide their trembling. He did know but hoped against all odds that she didn’t. 

“The Puglisi family. You know, the Puglisi crime family out of Providence. That’s who my enemy is. That’s who’s trying to kill me—and I’d bet my life’s savings that they had Donna murdered because she uncovered the same connection.”

No surprise there. But he couldn’t believe that Gloria had figured it out. He wondered now though, had Tad Boucher taken their baby alive and kicking out of Gloria, and then adopted the infant out through the agency?
Could
this Alison be his child? The ages were wrong, yes, but he had never seen the fetus—not dead or alive. What if they had somehow kept the child alive as some part of sick experiment?

Tommy sat in his swivel chair, the smell of expensive leather cloying. He knew this was one of those pivotal moments in his existence. A point where whatever choice he made would affect the rest of his life. Would affect his family’s life and Gloria’s.

He thought of the Rudyard Kipling poem,
If.
Of course he couldn’t remember the whole work verbatim but knew a few odd lines. “
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken.
”

Am I a man?

Was he going to step up to the plate and tell her what he had done? That he had sold their fetus for an experiment to make partner in a big law firm in Miami? And that once Gloria and he divorced, that he had never looked back and had been wallowing in the spoils of his ill deed ever since? And what would he tell the new wife?

He looked into Gloria’s eyes. They were tear-filled but strong. She was waiting for an answer.

Tommy knew if he chose to spill his guts to Gloria and agreed to help her get Alison back, and to expose the Puglisi clan, and to figure out what other crooked things New Age Agency was up to, that he’d be killed before the end of the week. Maybe the end of the day.

Sorry Gloria
, he thought.
It’s self-preservation. Survival of the fittest.

He put on his litigator hat and decided he needed to do some serious intimidating.

“So now you’re adding Mafia conspiracy to the pot? God, Gloria!” He got up and sashayed around his office, pretending to be in the courtroom. It always worked to confuse the jurors when he moved around.  “Give it up, Gloria. Yeah, it sure as hell seems someone is trying to kill you but I’d bet on my mother’s life that it’s not a major crime family. Maybe they do own the adoption agency, but maybe they own a lot of things. I hate to burst your bubble, feeding this ridiculous conspiracy theory further, but you are now and were before—” he caught himself before he slipped out, “hereinafter” or “aforementioned” or other legalese he normally peppered his speech with to sound smart— “just a regular woman. You’re just a run-of-the-mill, ordinary woman who had a miscarriage and can’t cope. You’re not important enough to even catch the eye of the Mafia, if that’s even what this Puglisi family is, much less have them put out a hit on you.” 

He waited for her to speak up but she failed to do so.
Good.

And the big finish. He leaned down on her chair and braced the arms, locking her in.  “There’s nothing for you here. I want you to go back to Massachusetts.  There’s a little girl with parents who love her, and an agency that brought them together. Maybe you’re jealous of that. I don’t know. But what I do know is that you’re going to be facing some serious slander charges if you don’t leave New Age and Sibli alone. The Ganders’ll most likely slap you with other charges: harassment, attempted kidnapping may
be. And where will you be then?

“I recommend as your ex-husband and as a lawyer, that you leave this alone. See a psychiatrist and attend to your life before it unravels like the last time.”

With that, he stared her down. He towered above her as she sat in the chair. She looked down and nodded. He released his grip on her chair and let her leave.

When finally she had gone through the door, Tommy Carpenter smiled. His bluster and bluff had worked. He could tell. He hardly ever lost a case, and he had just won her over too. He’d probably get an email from her next week saying she was sorry she’d gone off the deep end. She’d thank him for being stalwart a
nd strong and steering her from inflicting pain on herself and others like little Alison.
And as far as the truth of what was going on? To hell with that.

Tommy couldn’t be bothered with truths. No room for that kind of honesty in his business or his life. He’d call Mick though and ask him to lift the hit on Gloria. Tell him she’d be going home now and dropping it.

Tommy opened his drawer and pulled out the bottle of Stoli and a paper cup. He poured the liquid then held up the cup and quoted his favorite words of the Kipling poem. “
If you can make one heap of all your winnings/And risk it all on one turn of the pitch and toss . . . .
”

He toasted the pictures on his desk and the diplomas on the wall
then drank the liquid. It burned as it went down. For the first time in days he felt good. “Yes, Tommy Carpenter. You are a man.”

6.

Starlite Motel, Miami, evening

Gloria sat on her bed in a new, but still seedy room in the Starlite Motel. Her old room was designated a crime scene so the manager had relocated her to a deluxe room on the opposite side of the building. Deluxe translated to two locks and a king-sized bed facing a wall of mirrors. For her trouble, he’d also thrown in a complimentary bottle of wine.

As Gloria maneuvered a plastic fork and knife from the wrapped package that accompanied her takeout Greek salad, she reflected that this had to have been one of the worst days of her life. Normal people like her didn’t have lives like this. She was used to getting up, showering, commuting to Boston, reading manuscripts, and working with editors, booksellers, and writers. Not a wild life by any means.

Today? The room service guys trying to get to her, Kurt killing them . . . She shook her head at the call from Detective O’Grady telling her the surviving one had died a couple of hours ago from a brain hemorrhage.

To top it off: Tommy turning on her, again, trying to convince her it was all in her head.

The worst though was what had happened between Kurt and her. Or what had almost happened. 

This morning she had made a fool of herself in the bathroom. Threw herself at Kurt. Ripped his towel off like a brazen hussy. He had reached out to unbutton her blouse. So close to making passionate love with him right there in her hotel bathroom, only minutes after viewing the bodies of the men he’d pulverized.

Instead of being sickened by Kurt’s ability to snuff out life at will, she had been more excited and hot than she had ever been in her life. Damn near frenzied by th
e marauding, violent Kurt. Overwhelmed with lust.

And then Detective O’Grady banged on the bathroom door. She had blocked the outside door, but
he’d managed.

Kurt had jumped in the shower behind the curtain and she’d opened the door a crack. Steam poured out over the detective’s face.

“Sorry, Ms. Hanes. I knocked and you didn’t answer. I was worried.”

“I’m ready to get into the shower.” She hadn’t made any effort to keep the impatience out of her voice.

“Sure. Sorry.”

“What was it you wanted?” All she had been able to think about was Kurt’s naked muscular body, and the hot water cascading over it.

“I just wanted to give you my card. In case you had any questions.”

She took it. “Anything else?”

He had said no and left the hotel room. When she had opened the shower curtain Kurt shut the water off and wrapped a towel around himself. “Listen, Gloria. What almost happened, well, we shouldn’t let that happen.”

“Why?” She had folded her arms and leaned against the sink.

“I think you’re sexy and I like you. But you’re my client for one. And you’re also very vulnerable and likely to do things you wouldn’t normally do. I don’t want to take advantage.”

“All right.” It was a stupid response but no other words would come out.

After that Kurt scrubbed his shirt in the sink to remove the blood. The stains didn’t come out but pink circles wouldn’t draw as much attention.

As it dried, h
e told her all about the Puglisis and the Sibli corp. When Kurt revealed that Mick Puglisi attended the same college she did, Gloria remembered the name, though she didn’t know Mick then. Only in passing and from his family’s reputation.

As soon as the cops cleared the bodies
from the hall and left, so did Kurt, promising to return in the morning to relocate her once again. A quick chaste kiss on the cheek and he was gone.

A couple of hours later she’d braved the outside world to go see Tommy. That was a complete disappointment. What an arrogant jerk!

She’d managed to hold back tears while she visited a cell phone store and replaced hers. Then she held herself together until she got back to her room, salad in hand. And now she broke down crying. It took a few moments for her to compose herself enough to eat.

Two bites into it, Gloria looked at the salad.

How can I eat after all that’s happened today? Kurt, why haven’t you called me?

She dumped the meal in the trash. No appetite. Gloria bunched the scratchy bedspread up in her hands.
You’re supposed to protect me.

Gloria flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling yearning for Kurt to hold her. The locks did little to assuage her fear. She closed her eyes tight and hugged her pillow, wishing it was Kurt Malone.

Chapter Five

1.

Starlite Motel, Miami, Thursday, February 9
th
late morning

Gloria
put a piece of stale gum in her dry mouth and chewed. Nothing happened. Too nervous to make saliva. She counted the seconds until the elevator door opened. When it finally did, she hesitated before stepping out. Kurt would be on the other side and she had mixed feelings about seeing him.

She hoped he’d either have forgotten about her attempt to seduce him yesterday, or that he’d changed his mind about her attraction to him.

Sure to his word, when the door opened he was standing right outside wearing faded jeans and a well-worn collared gray shirt. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she said tentatively.

“Come on. We’ve got a lot to discuss.” He walked out of the hotel in front of her in bodyguard fashion, eyeing everyone nearby. She followed close on his heels. He acted as if she was still in serious danger.

“More since yesterday?” she asked as they walked to his car.

“I’m a private eye. I called around and emailed all night and early this morning.”

“So what did you find out?”

“Let’s just wait until we get to my place.”

“Your place?”

“You’re staying at my apartment until this gets sorted out. It’s safe there.”

Gloria rode in silence, neither of them mentioning the intimate moment between them or the fact
that Kurt had killed two people. Two that she knew about.

It didn’t take very long to get to Kurt’s place. It was a tan brick building, big plain light square planted on gray pavement. Palm trees around it of course
, but those were so commonplace here they blended in. His apartment building was so non-descript that she inwardly laughed. Such a big place but easy to miss. Safe.

“There’s no number on the front. Isn’t that against the fire laws?”

“Sure is. The management company has already gotten a few violations but as quick as they replace the metal ones and threes, I rip ‘em off. Makes it hard for people to find the place, you know?”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

He rolled his mischievous blue eyes up at her. “You wanna be safe or not?”

She nodded. Ripping street numbers off a building was probably the least of Kurt’s offenses; besides, but he was right. He kept her safe and that’s
all she cared about anymore.

After a few cursory glances to ensure they weren’t followed, Kurt led her up a flight of inside stairs to the second floor apartment. Four color-coded keys opened a succession of deadbolts.
“You got this place as tight as Fort Knox,” she said.  He grunted in reply.

The place was pretty standard on the inside. White walls that weren’t really white anymore. Dark hardwood floors that had seen better days. There was a gray couch. Also non-descript.

The apartment consisted of a large living room with a kitchenette area Kurt must use as his home office. A tangle of cords was duct taped to the tabletop and she imagined he plugged a laptop into them. As paranoid as Kurt was and with the confidential information he had on his clients, there was no way he’d leave the computer plugged in on the table. A white throw rug sat under the cable, to keep the floor from getting scratched. A big coffee stain marred the fabric with an ugly brown starburst.

Kurt shut the door behind him. She heard the click-click of all the locks being engaged. 

“So this is my place. There’s a bathroom over there and my bedroom is through that door. You can take my room.”

“For how long?”

“Until we figure out what’s going on.” He gestured for her to sit with him on the couch. “Want a Coke?”

“Do you have bottled water?”

“I’m a Coke and take out food kinda of guy. My staples are soda, smoked almonds and beer. Anything else is take-out.”

“I’m all set for now. Just tell me what you found out.”

“After I called you late last night and you told me what Tommy said I did some further checking about the age of the fetus. To verify it either way, you know?”

“You got access to my medical records
?” So much for all the damn HIPAA laws. Nothing was really safe.

“I did gain access, and yes, nothing’s safe from an accomplished hacker. Gloria, records say your fetus was sixteen weeks when you had a miscarriage. The records state, well, I didn’t actually see the records but I talked to someone at the hospital. Actually talked her into looking up the records for me, and she said it was a normal early term miscarriage.”

“According to the records.”

He nodded
. “According to the records, yes.”

“But records have been known to be falsified.”

“True.”

“Well those records are not mine, Kurt. Sixteen weeks? How could they say that?” She felt her blood pressure rise. “Are you sure you had the right record? Maybe they looked up the wrong—”

“I didn’t. Believe me. It was your name on the file. I just don’t understand why Tommy and the medical records both say the same age.”

Gloria felt the room spinning around her. Now even Kurt didn’t believe her.

“Oh my god! I know why the records say that!”

“You do?” Kurt leaned forward. He wanted to bel
ieve her and that was something.

“When they were wheeling me down the hall for my surgery, to take the baby out, they thought I was asleep and I heard them talking.”

“The doctors?”

“No, Tommy and my doctor. My doctor said something about after twenty weeks it would have to be reported as a stillbirth. They didn’t want me to go through a funeral and have to get a death certificate for the baby.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My doctor told Tommy not to worry about it. That he’d lie on the records and say it was earlier than twenty weeks, and he’d say it was a spontaneous abortion. A miscarriage.”

Kurt leaned back on the couch, seeming to absorb it all. “The logic makes sense if they didn’t want to have to show a body, if they wanted to steal it. But Gloria, there isn’t any proof.”

“Yes there is. I have proof.” She smiled when she remembered. “I have a copy of the ultrasound picture at sixteen weeks. I’m sure the date on it will be six weeks before they took her away from me. I know I still have the photo. It’s all I have left of her and I never got rid of it.”

“Damn, that’s good! Okay, well that explains that. They lied about the age.”

Gloria took a deep breath and sighed. All the shattered
segments of her life since entering that hospital so many years ago, each jagged piece was falling into place.

2.

Kurt Malone’s apartment, Miami, afternoon

“But the ages still don’t match up. Alison is too young.”

“If they lied about the age of the fetus there’s no reason to think they’d be honest about the age of the child they adopted out. About Alison.”

“It’s a big difference though. The Ganders would have figured it out if they got a six or eight month old or whatever instead of a baby that was only a couple of weeks.”

“Alison Gander is mine.” Gloria folded her arms and curled her slender body into the corner of his couch. He wanted to hug her, console her, but after almost losing control yesterday he didn’t want to be that close to her. Well, he wanted to be, but it wasn’t a good idea.

Not that he didn’t want to sleep with Gloria. Hell, he’d be crazy not to. Not only was she sexy but he like
d her. Still, it wasn’t fair to get involved with someone like Gloria. Someone who had a lot going for her, a good job and a nice life back home. All he could offer her was, at the most, a few weeks of affection and love making and then he’d have to leave her before she started asking about his past. For her own good, Kurt had to keep his distance from her.

“Let’s assume she is, okay? Like I said before I wouldn’t put it past the Puglisis if they found a way to do it. I still don’t know why they’d go through all that for one baby though.
” She shrugged and he continued. “Maybe this will help.”

“What?”

“When I called the hospital I pretended to be your husband. I explained we were trying to have another baby and asked them to tell me how far along the baby was when you’d lost it.  They were happy to tell me what was on record.”

“I see.”

“Then I hung up and started wondering about the doctor. You said you didn’t know him except as your physician so I called back and figured I’d talk to him.”

“He’s still there?”

“No. Coincidentally, he left shortly after your miscarriage. I got lucky that one of the nurses dated Tad Boucher a long time ago and still felt jilted when he left her so abruptly. She was happy to talk.”

Gloria unfolded her arms and slid forward on the couch again. Kurt could smell her light perfume and got a little distracted but he pulled himself together. “What did she say? Where is he?”

“He left the hospital in New York to go to Israel for a few months then to Haiti.”

“
Israel and Haiti?”

“Boucher told the nurse he was going to Israel for some specialized training. After that he went to Haiti, where she assumes he still is, to work at a charity mission of some sort.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t sit right. A staff Ob/Gyn at a major New York City hospital ups and leaves to spend his life in Haiti. Not only that, but there’s no paper trail of his career after he left New York and nothing at all tied to his social security number once he left.”

“Sounds like he needs a skip-tracer on his trail. Unless . . . you think he’s dead?”

Kurt shook his head. He’d helped a lot of people start new lives and the pattern was the same. “Maybe he knows what he did was wrong and wanted to run away.”

“So you believe me after all?”

He caught her smile and the damsel in distress glint in her eye, and his heart
sputtered. It always skipped around when he got too excited. He coughed a few times to get it back in line.  “I never said I didn’t believe you. I just have a hard time with the facts at hand. I’m happy to let you prove me wrong.”

“So Tad Boucher is in Haiti at a charity mission. Doing good to make up for what he did to me?”

“Maybe, maybe not. The place he went all those years ago is called Maison D’Espoir. I couldn’t find a trail of him after New York but I did get something of interest from earlier in his life.”

Kurt stood and got himself a Coke. He needed something to cool himself down. Despite his resolve to never sleep with a client
, he was unsure how much longer he could resist Gloria. Morally it was the wrong thing to do but he felt himself wavering.

He sat down and handed her a can of Coke, which she opened and drank. He popped his open too, took a few gulps and held the can against his forehead.

“What?”

“Tad Boucher
went to UMASS too, just like Mick Puglisi. Probably not a coincidence Mick and Tad went to the same school as you and Tommy Carpenter.”

“I don’t remember a Tad Boucher though. He didn’t look familiar to me when he was my doctor.”

“He was older and it’s a big school but I’m sure he remembered you.”

She raised her eyebrow at him. “So what are you telling me? It’s some kind of conspiracy?” Sarcasm at its best.

He looked up at her, the soda can cooling him enough to keep his hormones in check. “I admit it sounded far-fetched when you first told me about it, but there are too many pieces connecting together to believe this is all mere coincidence. Fact is, often in life what appears this coincidental is not all coincidental.”

“So what do we do?” She stood and paced. “What’s our next step?”

“We get a hold of Alison’s adoption record. See who’s listed as the biological mother. If it’s not you, then we talk to that lead—ah, person.”

“But how can we get the record? Hell, Kurt, I couldn’t even get into the office for face time much less see the files.”

He laughed. So innocent. “We can see anything we want if we’re careful. I’ve got a plan. It’s not entirely legal or safe, but if it works you may just be taking your daughter home after six years of dreaming about her.”

“What about Tommy?”

“What about him?”

“He’s her father. He hasn’t believed me all along but if I prove it, I know he’ll be relieved. I don’t think he ever got over the fact I lost her. That we lost her.”

Kurt thought Gloria was giving the guy a lot more credit than he deserved. The way Kurt saw it, the loser abandoned Gloria when she needed him most, then started a whole new family and forgot all about her. He didn’t deserve any stake in Alison Gander.

But Kurt agreed that if she was his long lost kid and Kurt found her for Tommy and Gloria, it would be a nice feather in Kurt’s cap and probably a big ass bonus from Tommy Carpenter. Even more motivation to be aggressive about bringing down the Puglisis and uncovering the truth about Alison Gander. He wanted to tell Gloria that her ex had hired him to prove to her she was entirely wrong and completely misguided, but he decided this wasn’t the time. He couldn’t bring himself to enlighten her that her PI was taking her money and Tommy’s in true double-agent fashion. His last conversation with Carpenter had ended with the man shouting for him to get Gloria on a plane pointed toward Boston. But instead of saying anything on that score Kurt erupted with,  “Okay, here’s the plan.”