MemoriesErasedTreachery (30 page)

Ewyn looked at Christopher. "Is the marriage legal in the States?"

"Yeah, it's a binding marriage. But you have to register it here in the states, if the wife wants to have her name legally changed," Christopher explained. "I'm not sure of the process or all of the details. My international marriage laws aren't up to par, so don't quote me on that."

"If there's no record of a name change, Niki stuck it to him again," Timothy scoffed.

Devin nodded. "Calabria was studying law, he would have looked into it, but Niki outsmarted him by keeping both copies of the marriage certificate. He probably tried to push her to file for the name change, and I bet that's what made her terminate all contact with him. I'll have the name change looked into, just to tie up loose ends." He turned to Patterson. "We have positive ID?"

"Yeah, and get this. I contacted the family and talked to the father. He didn't seem upset or surprised when I told him what Anthony had done." Patterson sighed. "It was business as usual. He thanked me for calling, didn't ask for details, and said one of his people would arrange for body pick up. Some family, huh."

"Was it a random killing?" Marissa asked.

"Doubtful," Patterson replied. "It has all the earmarks of a mob hit."

"Oh, well. Guess I'll never know who to thank for saving me the trouble, huh," Marissa stated.

Startled, Patterson whipped around to face her. "Excuse me?"

She stood and made direct eye contact with him. "Don't go dumb on me now, Detective, and lose all my respect. You heard exactly what I said." She walked over to Gemma and took hold of her hands. "You can go on your trip with your mind at ease. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you prepare for it."

"I will." Gemma reached out, hugged Marissa, and whispered, "You should have been a Calderone."

"Thank you." Marissa laughed and turned to Ewyn. "With Calabria out of the picture, do you still want Niqui to stay over?"

"Oh yeah. I'm working from home for the rest of the week. Myce will be there, and we did promise them. I wouldn't be able to live with Kieki, if Niqui doesn't stay." He looked at Devin. "Is that okay with you?

"Not a problem."

"I'll come over with Korey, this weekend, and take Niqui back with us. See you then." Marissa left.

"Was she trying to be funny," Patterson grumbled.

"Not," Christopher stated.

"But…"

"Leave it alone, Patterson," Ewyn told him, then looked around the room and sighed. "So, does this rule out CeCe?"

Everybody groaned. Ewyn smirked.

"We're home, Ew," Niqui yelled as she bounded into the living room. Kiera giggled.

Standing at the stove, adding the final touches to dinner, Ewyn grinned. "Did you see the puppies?" The twins skipped into the kitchen and clambered up on the stools, knowing not to come into the cooking area while food cooked on the stove. Without saying a word, Kiera puckered her lips and waited. Ewyn continued working, pretending he didn't see her action.

"Ew." Niqui sighed. "Kieki waitin', then my turn."

Laughing, he put the potholder down, came around the counter, and scooped the giggly, squirming bodies off the stools. With one under each arm squealing and wiggling, he ran into the living room, flopped down on the sofa and gave both girls a resounding kiss on their cheeks.

"Daddy!" Kiera screamed when Devin entered the room. He joined them on the sofa and Kiera scrambled over on top of him. "Kisses, Dev." He placed a noisy kiss on her cheek, hugged her, and settled her on his lap.

"Did you decide on a puppy today, sweetheart?"

"Lotsa puppies lick my face crawl on me. I want the brown one like Niqui's dogs."

Devin looked at Ewyn. "I think she's talking about a Doberman."

"Oh…
noooo
," Ewyn groaned and fell back on the sofa cushions. Both girls giggled and pounced on him.

Two weeks later

Ewyn sat at his desk smiling and staring at the photo of Kiera and her large Doberman puppy, Samson. He had to admit the housebreaking had come along very nicely. Samson stayed on the estate during the week, Martin handled all training, and he allowed Kiera to participate. His baby-girl was a natural.

Kiera and Niqui had started Pre School and had adapted to being away from home with a minimum of trepidation. Ewyn attributed the ease of integration into their new environment to Gemma, who had used her influence to get Niqui enrolled in the same private school as Kiera.

The twins, as both families referred to them, were still under strict surveillance and the joint security measures established to insure their safety. They wore identical GPS tracker bracelets.

The knock on the door startled Ewyn from his reverie. "Come in."

A young man entered, dropped several envelopes on Ewyn's in-basket, smiled and nodded, then left. The phone rang as the door closed behind the kid. Ewyn reached for the mail as he pressed the speaker button. "Kelley."

"Hey, babe. Are you busy?"

"Not really, why?" He rifled through the envelopes and noticed one with no stamp, no postmark, and no return address, only his name--typed. He pulled it from the pile.

"Patterson is here with Calabria's file. He wants to go over it with us, so he can close the case."

"On my way."

Ewyn left his office, taking the envelope with him. He jabbed the elevator call button, and while he waited, he tore off one end of the envelope. The elevator arrived and the doors slid open to reveal a full car. Not willing to wait for the next one, he turned toward the stairs. Folding the envelope, he slipped into the inside pocket of his sport coat, and took the steps, two at a time. He entered Devin's office and nodded at Roger as he strolled toward the inner sanctum.

"I
guess
he's expecting you, Kelley," Roger called after him in his usual snotty tone.

Ewyn chuckled but refused to acknowledge the comment. Roger did it to agitate him. The jealous bitch. After their first confrontation, Devin intervened and let Roger know he wasn't interested. He explained the relevant facts to the obnoxious twit and advised Roger to focus his talents on the job, if he wanted to keep his position. However, if Roger couldn't accept the situation, Devin would have him transferred.

Ewyn opened the door and stepped into the inner office. Patterson
and
Christopher were present. He nodded to both men and joined them at the conference table, seating himself next to Devin, who had the contents of two file folders and several photos spread out before him. One file, labeled
Coroner's Report--Case File #72774--Calabria
,
Anthony Francesco
, had the usual sketches of the human anatomy with indicators marking the locations of the injuries to the corpse. Accompanying the sketches were the actual photos of the body and the crime scene. The other folder, labeled
Police Report--Case File #72774
with Calabria's name had typewritten notes protruding from it.

Ignoring the conversation flowing around him, Ewyn reached for the photos, unperturbed by the sight of Calabria lying on the beach, half in and half out of the encroaching tide with his abdomen decimated. The pictures, taken from various angles, clearly detailed the viciousness of the crime. If the photos had been of anyone but Calabria, Ewyn might have felt a measure of empathy. Instead, he examined each photo with coldhearted detachment, brow furrowing, they seemed familiar. But why? Some long ago memory? He couldn't remember viewing crime scene photos before. Or had he?

"What is it, Ewyn?" Patterson asked.

Startled, Ewyn looked up. "Huh…what?"

"The way you were looking at the pictures, it seemed as if you recognized something."

"No. Morbid fascination, I guess." Ewyn glanced around, noticed Christopher and Devin watching him with identical concentrated stares. Clearing his throat, he said, "Sorry, I zoned out for a while. What were you saying about the report from you contact?"

He picked up the notes from the other file. He perused the comments by the Huntington Beach police and Detective Steppling, while Patterson repeated what he'd learned of Calabria's background.

"So, it wasn't a criminal record, but a psychiatric one," Ewyn commented as he put the notes back in the file. "And it's genetic."

"Yeah. Calabria's mother, in and out of institutions for most of his childhood. The family thought the medication had Anthony's episodes under control," Patterson reported. "More times than not it did, but there were trigger factors."

"Let me guess," Ewyn said. "Everyone your contact spoke to referred to Anthony as narcissistic, so he had control issues."

"Got it on your first try." Patterson stood, moved to the wet bar, and refreshed his coffee.

"It fits," Devin said. "As long as he and Nicole were just friends, no problems. Once she agreed to marry him, then refused to conform to his skewed idea of the marriage contract, the whole love, honor, and obey thing set him off."

"Yep. My contact managed to get a peek at those sealed records." Patterson returned to the table and looked at Christopher. "Don't know how he managed to get the information, didn't ask, and I don't want to know because I'm afraid it won't be legal."

Christopher and Devin made eye contact, then grinned before Christopher responded. "Hey, Patterson, relax. You're preaching to the choir here. Besides, he's dead, it really doesn't matter."

"Yeah, well, Calabria was on the brink of insanity his entire life, and seeing the way his dad controlled and dictated every aspect of his mother's life, he never understood the reason why. He assumed the man…the husband should have all the control."

"He picked the wrong woman," Ewyn mumbled and picked up the crime scene photo again.

"True, but his fucked up mind couldn't grasp that." Patterson started gathering up his files, stopped, looked over at Ewyn, and extended his hand. "I'll need that."

"Of course." Ewyn handed over the picture. Patterson stood, put the files in his briefcase, and snapped it shut. "Do you think you'll ever find out who did that?" Ewyn asked, nodding toward Patterson's briefcase.

"Doubtful. He'd been in the water long enough to wash away trace, if there ever was any. Besides the obvious cause of death, the only other marks on the body were a few scratches on his face and a bruise on the forehead. Figure that's how the killer incapacitated him." Patterson grabbed his briefcase. "Calabria's homicide will remain open, relegated to cold case files, but your nieces' deaths and the attempted kidnapping of your baby-girl, those cases are closed." He looked around the table. "I know we got off to a bad start, but it has been a pleasure working with all of you."

"Same here." Devin stood, shook his hand, and walked out of the office with Patterson.

No sooner had the door closed behind the two men than Christopher said, "What did you recognize in the photos?"

"I'm not sure." Ewyn leaned forward, put his elbows on the table, and propped up his chin with his hands. "They seemed familiar, but I haven't a clue as to why. Maybe I saw something similar in the newspapers, on television…" He paused. Nibbling his bottom lip, he shook his head. "That couldn't be right. They wouldn't have shown such detail of a crime scene, would they?"

"Not on regular television broadcasts. Do you watch the real forensic shows on cable?"

"I don't watch much television. I might glance at the headlines in the papers, read the sports pages. But the only time I catch the TV news is when Devin is home and watching it in bed."

"Hmm. Want anything while I'm up?" Christopher went to the wet bar and fixed himself a cup of coffee.

"No, thanks."

While he waited for Devin to return, Ewyn retrieved the envelope he had shoved into his pocket earlier. After examining the outside again, he looked inside, extracted a single sheet of paper, unfolded it, and found one typed line centered on the page.

It read--
Pipsqueak… Take better care of your own. I won't be around forever
.

In an instant, Ewyn remembered where he'd seen photos like the Calabria crime scene, and fell back in the chair, laughing. He'd been about ten years old when he found similar photos in his father's office and asked his dad about them. His father had explained they weren't real. Said they were shots of movie stars made up to look dead, and he'd had no reason to think his father would lie to him.

He stared at the message in his hand. Thinking back over the years, he'd heard his father's men talking about this person or that person gutted like a fish. The same phrase Steppling used in Patterson's report. Hell. His naïve ass never had a clue back then.

Ewyn looked up to find Christopher sitting across the table, eyebrow arched, staring. Heat warmed his cheeks and he bit down on the inside of his bottom lip to keep from laughing again. Like Devin, for such a big man, Christopher had that stealth thing going on, too. Ewyn never noticed the man returning to the table.

Grey eyes sparkling with humor, Christopher asked, "Want to share the joke?"

Devin re-entered the room and returned to his chair, looking from Ewyn to Christopher, he said, "What did I miss?"

Ewyn handed the note to Devin, who read the message and passed the paper to Christopher. "I'll have to disagree with Patterson about the Calabria homicide," Devin remarked. "Case
is
closed." He looked at Christopher and they spoke unanimously. "Shredder."

Ewyn grinned. "Does this mean CeCe is
really
no longer a threat?" He ducked when Devin and Christopher picked up spoons and threw them at him.

"A whole afternoon and evening to ourselves." Devin lay back in the Jacuzzi and watched Ewyn strip out of his clothes. "Is this what parents have to do, make appointments to get busy?" Ewyn stepped into the tub, laughter lighting up his jungle green eyes as sank beneath the swirl of hot steamy water, and crawled up along his body until mouths joined. After several minutes, Ewyn pulled away and chuckled.

"I guess. They manage to procreate." He sat up. "You know, with your new job, you're going to be around more and the temptation will be hard to resist. We'll have a lot of frustration building up."