Hit and Nun (7 page)

Lucille was almost too upset to eat her dinner. She could tell Frankie knew something was wrong by the way he kept looking at her.

“Aren’t you going to finish that?” He pointed his fork at the piece of eggplant left on Lucille’s plate.

She pushed the dish away. “I’m not so hungry tonight. I don’t know why.”

Bernadette and Tony had finished their meal in record time and retreated to the rec room to watch television. Little Lucy had gone down early and they wanted to take advantage of it.

“Something’s wrong, isn’t it, Lu.” Frankie transferred the piece of eggplant from Lucille’s plate to his own.

“I didn’t want to say nothing.”

“Come on, Lu, out with it. You’ll feel better if you tell me.”

That was true, Lucille thought. Lucille began shredding her paper napkin. “I got a call from the doctor’s office today.”

She explained to Frank about having to go for a repeat mammogram the following morning.

“The lady said there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Then listen to her, Lucille. Don’t go borrowing trouble if you don’t have to. Everything is going to be fine.” He got up from the table and put his plate on the counter. “I’ve got my Knights of Columbus meeting tonight. You going to be okay?”

“Sure, sure. You go on. I’ll be fine.”

As Lucille did the dishes, she tried to think of something else besides the test. Like Rocky Abruzzo. She didn’t trust that guy. He had a temper, and there was something sneaky about him.

She’d really like to know if he had an alibi for the time of Sal’s murder, but how was she going to find out?

She thought about it as she stacked the dishes in the dishwasher and wiped down the stove. Maybe that waitress would know. If Rocky had been at the restaurant all day that would rule him out.

She picked up the phone and dialed Flo’s number.

• • •

Lucille was getting her leather jacket out of the closet when Flo arrived.

“We taking your car or mine?”

“Let’s take yours,” Lucille said as she slipped into her jacket. “Sometimes the Olds doesn’t want to start, and we don’t want to miss Nicole. The restaurant closes at nine o’clock.”

“We’d better get a move on then.”

They got into Flo’s Mustang and shot out of the driveway.

“Whoa, we don’t have to rush that much,” Lucille said when Flo floored it.

Still, when they pulled into the parking lot behind Rocky’s they could see the lights were already out.

“Guess we’ll have to try again tomorrow,” Flo said as they sat idling.

“Wait! There’s Nicole now.” Lucille pointed to the back door of Rocky’s. “She must be locking up.”

Before Flo could put the car in gear, Nicole had gotten into her own car and started it up.

“Follow her,” Lucille yelled, pointing out the window.

“What? Like stalk her?”

“We’re not stalking her.”

“Tell that to the cops.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Flo. Nothing’s going to happen. Just don’t lose her.”

“If you say so.” Flo roared out of the driveway, sending loose gravel flying.

“Left, go left,” Lucille shouted. “I wonder where she’s going?”

“Probably home,” Flo grumbled. She stuck close to the tail of Nicole’s car.

“Looks like she’s pulling into the bank parking lot.”

“Probably making the bank deposit.” Flo shivered. “I hated doing that when I worked at the beauty parlor. I always half expected to be robbed before I could turn the money in.”

Flo put on her blinker and followed the car into the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Bank.

Nicole pulled up in front of the night deposit drop-off but didn’t get out of the car.

“I wonder what she’s doing?” Lucille hissed at Flo.

“Maybe she’s still preparing the deposit.”

Lucille grunted. “What’s that noise?”

Flo listened. “Sounds like sirens.”

“Yeah.” Lucille leaned back in her seat. “Something must be going on.”

Nicole still hadn’t gotten out of her car. Flo fiddled with the radio, tuning in an oldies station. “Lucille” by Little Richard came on and Lucille sat up.

“Hey, that’s my song.” She began to sing along, slightly off-key.

Flo gave her a dirty look. “You’re ruining the song with your singing.”

“Well, I am so sorry, I’m sure.” Lucille continued to hum under her breath. “The sirens are getting closer.”

Suddenly the sirens got even closer, and swirling lights flashed across the parking lot, illuminating the inside of Flo’s Mustang with a reddish glow. Meanwhile, Nicole continued to sit in her car.

“What’s going on?” Lucille swiveled around and looked out the back window.

“I think it’s the cops.”

“What are they doing here? Do you think the bank is being robbed?”

“I don’t know how to put this to you, Lucille, but I think they’re after us.”

“Us? But we didn’t do nothing.”

“My guess is that Nicole got freaked out by us following her and called the police.”

“No!”

“Take a look.” Flo gestured toward the window.

Flo’s Mustang was surrounded by New Providence’s finest, their guns drawn and at the ready.

“Sheesh. They can’t possibly think we were going to rob—”

Before Lucille could finish her sentence, a voice came booming over a megaphone. “Get out with your hands up and no one will get hurt.”

“This is like a bad movie,” Flo muttered under her breath. She started to open her car door.

“I know that voice,” Lucille said. “That’s my nephew Gabe. Whoever promoted him beyond traffic control had rocks in their head.”

Lucille buzzed down her window. “Gabe, it’s me, your aunt Lucille.”

She saw Gabe make some frantic gestures, and the police lowered their guns but didn’t put them away.

“Aunt Lucille, is that really you?” Gabe called through his megaphone. “Come out of the car with your hands on your head.”

He had to be kidding. Wait till she told Angela about this. Gabe was going to hear a few words from her, that was for sure.

Lucille cracked open her door and started to get out. The policemen bristled and half raised their guns. Lucille realized this was for real—they weren’t joking—and she started to shake. Meanwhile, Flo had already gotten out of the car and was standing with her hands on her head. Nicole, too, was standing by her car and was talking to one of the officers—the only one who wasn’t busy pointing a gun at Flo and Lucille.

Lucille appealed to Gabe. “We only wanted to talk to Nicole here. We missed her at Rocky’s so we followed her.”

“You scared the crap out of me.” Nicole pointed an accusing finger at them.

“Looks like we don’t have a situation here,” Gabe said to the other officers.

“That’s right, Gabe. There’s no situation, as you put it.” Lucille glared at her nephew. “You can all leave and go chase some real criminals.” Lucille waved a hand at them and the officers shifted uncomfortably.

“We can go,” Gabe reassured them. “It’s just my aunt Lucille. She’s always doing crazy things.”

Crazy things? Wait till she told Angela about that, Lucille thought. She would straighten him out. Crazy things, indeed.

Nicole was still standing there. She cracked her gum loudly. “So do you want to ask me whatever was so important you had to follow me to the bank?” She stood with her hands on her hips.

“You know Sal who got stabbed?” Lucille asked.

Nicole nodded. “He owned the pizza joint across the street.”

“Yeah, we—me and Flo here—are investigating like. On account of Sal’s mother asked my mother to ask me to see what I could do.”

Nicole looked slightly confused, then she burst out laughing. “The two of you?” She pointed to Flo and Lucille. “You’re playing detective? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time. That cop was right. You don’t just do crazy things, you
are
crazy.”

Now Lucille was really pissed off, but she didn’t want to offend Nicole so she didn’t say nothing.

“So how can I help?” Nicole asked.

“We want to eliminate Rocky as a suspect,” Lucille explained. “So we was hoping you could tell us where he was when the murder took place. It was sometime after noon on Monday.”

“Monday? Let me think.” Nicole put a finger to her lips. “Yeah, now I remember. That was the day Rocky had his colonoscopy. He wanted me to take him, but I told him flat out no. I said go ask your ex-wife. He’s been paying her alimony for years while she sits on her butt and paints her nails. Let her earn her keep for once.”

“You’re sure he was there all day?”

“Yeah. His appointment was at nine in the morning, but they didn’t take him in until after twelve o’clock. He was really pissed off since he was starving from eating nothing but liquids for two days.”

Lucille and Flo glanced at each other. That ruled Rocky out. Lucille hadn’t had a colonoscopy yet, but she’d taken her mother for hers, and her mother had been knocked out for the rest of the day.

“Is that all you wanted to ask me?” Nicole stood with her hand on her car door.

“Yeah. And listen, we’re sorry we scared you.”

“That’s okay. It was kind of fun actually having the cops come out like that. It’ll give me something to tell my girlfriends.”

Lucille and Flo waved as Nicole drove off.

“What now?” Flo looked at Lucille.

Lucille’s shoulders sagged in defeat. “Home. I’m going to put on my fuzzy slippers, put my feet up and watch some television.”

“Good idea.” Flo got behind the wheel. “I’m going to do the same.” She started the car. “But throw in a highball. I need it.”

Lucille was glad that Frankie wasn’t home yet when she pulled into the driveway. She didn’t want to have to go explaining to him what she was doing out at this time of night. Not that it was all that late, but by now she would normally be relaxing in front of the television, especially since tonight was one of her favorite shows.

The whole thing had been worth it though—they could cross Rocky off their list of suspects. Lucille took off her shoes and slid her feet into the slippers she always left by the door to the garage.

Thank goodness Gabe had been on duty tonight. There’s no telling what those cops might have done if he hadn’t been there. Lucille was still a little miffed that he called her adventures crazy, but if it weren’t for him, she’d be handcuffed and in the backseat of a police car by now and on her way to the county jail. Try explaining that one to Frankie.

Lucille was making herself a cup of tea when she heard Frankie pull in. He burst through the door and grabbed Lucille around the waist.

“Frankie, you scared me.”

“Sorry, babe, but I’m so excited. I’ve got this really great idea.”

Lucille frowned. Some of Frankie’s great ideas had been less than great. Like the time he got a great deal on a small boat someone was selling down the shore, and it sank the first time he took it out, and the Coast Guard had to rescue him. “What is it?”

“Seriously, babe, you’re going to love it.”

“Okay.” Lucille still wasn’t convinced.

“How about we go to Vegas? We’ve been talking about it for years. Let’s do it.”

“But Frankie, the cost—”

Frank held up a hand. “Don’t worry about it. The business is going great, and so what if we charge a couple of things? I heard on the news that the average credit card debt for an American family these days is over seven thousand dollars. We got zero debt on our cards.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to keep it that way.” Lucille folded her arms across her chest.

“Aww, come on, Lu. It’s time we had some fun. At least think about it, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll think about it.”

Frankie went down to the rec room to turn on the television and Lucille sat in the kitchen drinking her tea. What had gotten into Frankie? They’d always been so careful with their money. She opened a Christmas savings account every year at the bank and put a little money aside each week so that they wouldn’t go into debt buying all them presents. And now he wanted to charge a trip to Vegas.

Lucille was rinsing out her cup when the thought struck her. She knew why Frankie suggested they go to Vegas. He thought she was going to die.

• • •

Later, Lucille lay in bed waiting for Frank to get out of the bathroom. He had told her not to worry about tomorrow’s test. That it was nothing, and everything was going to be okay. But obviously he didn’t believe that himself. Why else would he suddenly suggest they go into debt to go to Vegas? It wasn’t like him. And just last week he was complaining about business being on the slow side. It couldn’t have picked up all that much in just a couple of days.

It had to be that he thought she had cancer and was going to die. Lucille’s heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest. Wouldn’t it be funny if the test turned out fine, but she died of a heart attack before she even had it done. She couldn’t wait to get tomorrow over with.

The bathroom door opened and Frankie turned out the light and slipped into bed.

“You asleep, Lu?” he whispered in the dark.

“No.” Lucille turned on her side so she was facing him.

Frank ran his hand up her leg, over her hips and to her chest. Lucille snuggled closer.

“You feel anything?”

“Yeah. It feels good,” Frank whispered.

“No, I mean like any bumps or lumps or anything like that.”

Frank dropped his hand and leaned up on his elbows. “Would you quit worrying, Lu? Everything’s going to be fine. The doctor said so.”

“Doctors always say that. Of course, they’re not worried. It’s not happening to them.”

Frank put his arms around Lucille. “Whatever happens, we’ll face it together, okay?”

• • •

Lucille was too nervous to eat any breakfast. By the time she was through at the clinic, it would be lunchtime. She’d get a bite then. She patted her stomach. That ought to give this here diet a jumpstart. She was pretty sure she’d lost weight already, although whether it was from the diet or worrying, she wasn’t sure.

It was gray out with dark, heavy clouds moving swiftly in the chilly breeze. Lucille looked up at the sky. Was there really a heaven up there somewhere? Her whole life she’d believed that there was. And that they’d all be together forever—her and Frankie, Bernadette and the baby. Lucille’s stomach turned over, and she was sure glad she hadn’t eaten nothing. If Bernadette didn’t get little Lucy baptized, she wasn’t going to heaven. At least not according to what Lucille had learned in catechism class. They had a special place for babies that hadn’t been christened—it was nice enough, but it wasn’t heaven. She would have to talk to Bernadette again.