Mick Sinatra 4: If You Don't Know Me by Now (16 page)

“But that
was nothing.
 
That was Gloria upset that
I didn’t recommend her boyfriend for that part.
 
She lashes out, that’s how she copes.
 
All of your children cope that way.”

Mick wasn’t
surprised to hear somebody say his children had limited coping skills.
 
Another nail in his coffin.
 
“But she was angry with you.”

“Yes, she
was,” Roz said.
 
“She’s always angry with
me, and then she’s not.
 
She’ll get over
it.”

But this
wasn’t adding up.
 
Mick leaned forward
and pressed Play on the computer.
 
Roz
watched the video.
 
Mick watched Roz.
 

“
If anything happens to me,
” Gloria
ultimately said on the video, “
please know
that Roz is behind it
.”

 
Mick watched as Roz frowned and moved closer
to the computer.

“
Roz either did it herself
,” Gloria
continued, “
or hired somebody to do
it.
 
She’s the one responsible.
 
That’s where you have to look first.”

Roz couldn’t
believe it.
 
Her heart fell through her
shoe.
 
And she looked at Mick.
 
“What is she talking about?
 
I would never do anything to harm her.
 
What is this about, Mick?”

Mick pulled
Roz back, and into his arms.
 
“I don’t
know,” he said.
 
“But I will find out.”

“But why
would she claim I had something to do with it?
 
That’s not true.”

Mick already
knew that.
 
“I know it’s not,” he assured
her.

“But why
would she use my name?”

Mick had no
answer for it.
 
He pulled her closer
against him.
 
Roz didn’t know it, but her
nearness, her closeness, was comforting him far more than he was comforting
her.

She wrapped
her arms around his muscle-tight body.
 
“Once you find her,” she said, “we’ll have our answers.”

Mick didn’t
want to tell her everything, but he felt he had to.
 
“There was blood, Rosalind,” he said.

Roz sat up,
and looked at him.
 
“Blood?
 
Where?”

Mick let out
a sigh of pain.
 
“In her condo,” he
said.
 
“Lots of blood.”

“Oh, no,
Mick.
 
So there were signs of a
struggle?”

Mick
nodded.
 
“And how,” he said.

“She didn’t
just leave?”

“No.
 
Somebody came in there and forced her
out.
 
There was no robbery, no ransom
note.
 
This was personal.
 
And what I don’t know is killing me.
 
I don’t know if she was taken because
somebody had a grudge against her, or against me.
 
Or,” he said, looking at Roz and given the
accusation Gloria hurled on that video, “against you.”

“Against
me?” Roz asked.
 
“Again?”

When she
said that last word, Mick stared at her.
 
Because he realized something profound.
 
He pulled out his cell phone.

“What is
it?” Roz asked him.

Mick found
the number he was looking for, pressed it, and his man in New York
answered.
 
“This is Sinatra,” he said.

“What do you
need, boss?”

“Find that
cocksucker that was with Carmelo.”

“The one in
the motel?”

“Yeah.
 
The one who was supposed to be the
messenger.
 
When you find him, you safe
house him, and then call me.”

“Yes, sir,”
the man said, and Mick killed the call.

Roz was
waiting for an explanation.

“I let him
get away,” Mick said.
 
“To be the
messenger to anybody else who would attempt to do you harm.”

“And you
think he’s behind this?”

“I know he’s
not,” Mick said.
 
“But he may know who
is.
 
I thought it began with Hamilton
Sturgess and Betsy Gable, and ended with Carmelo Rodriquez.
 
But now,” Mick said, his face revealing his
deep concentration, as he pulled his wife closer against him, “I’m thinking it
didn’t end there.
 
They were just the
beginning.”

Roz looked
at him.
 
“The beginning of what?” she
asked.

An anguished
look appeared on Mick’s face.
 
“Your
destruction,” he said.

The SUVs
came to a rolling stop in front of the small duplex.
 
Mick and Teddy, both in long, black coats and
gloves to shield against the biting cold weather, stepped out of the first SUV.
 
Four more men stepped out of the second one.

Two of the
men moved up front as Teddy and Mick surveyed the area.

“Should I
knock, boss?” one of the men asked Mick when they arrived at the door of
apartment number 1.

Mick looked
at Teddy.

“I got it,”
Teddy said as he moved in front, leaned back, and with his expensive shoes,
kicked the door in.
 
The two body men
hurried inside, running straight for the small bedroom, their guns drawn.
 
Mick, and then Teddy, walked in behind them.

Fonz fell
out of the bed in shock when the door kicked in, and the woman in bed with him
moved up to the back of the headboard, covering her nakedness with a sheet.

“I didn’t
mean it, sir,” Fonz said, his hands high in the air as if Mick and his men were
the police.

“You didn’t
mean what?” Mick asked, stepping in front.
 

“I didn’t
mean to hurt her!
 
I was going to tell
her it was over between us.
 
That I loved
Rita instead.
 
She knew we were having
problems.”

Mick was
staring at him so hard his look alone had Fonz’s heart palpitating.

“Where is
she?” Teddy asked.

“I was gonna
tell her, I promise. . . I was . . .
what
?”
 
Fonz was only just realizing that Mick
Sinatra, Teddy Sinatra, and their armed henchmen would not have broken down his
door just because he was cheating.
 
“Where is she?” he asked.

“Where is my
sister?” Teddy asked.

“I don’t
know,” Fonz said.
 
“I haven’t seen her.”

Teddy kicked
him in the chin, causing him to fall backwards.
 
The woman screamed.
 
“Don’t fuck
with us, Fonz!
 
Where’s Gloria?”

“I told you
I don’t know!
 
I haven’t seen her!”

“You’re
lying, you lying sonafabitch!”
 
Teddy
kicked him again.

“I don’t
know where she is!
 
I don’t know!
 
I’m not lying, Teddy.
 
I don’t know!”

“When was
the last time you saw her?” Teddy asked.

“I was
supposed to see her last night.
 
To tell
her it was over.
 
I went by her condo,
but she wouldn’t let me in.
 
I called her
on my cell phone, but she wouldn’t answer my calls either.
 
I figured she knew about Rita, so I left.”

“You didn’t
try to go inside of her place?”

“Hell no,”
Fonz said.
 
“Glo didn’t play that.
 
She never gave me a key.
 
So I looked in the parking garage, to see if
her car was there and she was just mad at me because she knew what was coming,
but her car wasn’t there.
 
So I figured
she wasn’t home, and left.”

“And you haven’t
heard from her?”

“Not a
word,” Fonz said.

Teddy looked
at his father.
 
Mick’s men looked
too.
 

“Take him to
the safe house,” Mick said, “until we find her.”

“What about
the girl?” one of Mick’s men asked.

Mick looked
at the girl.
 
No more stones left
unturned.
 
“Take her too,” he
ordered.
 
Then he left.

Teddy kicked
Fonz one more time, in the head this time, causing him to fall over.
 
“That one’s for breaking my sister’s heart,
you prick!”
 
And then Teddy left too.

Mick was getting
in the SUV, with his driver holding open the door, when Teddy made it back
outside.
 
He walked around the SUV and
got in beside his father.
 
He looked at
him.
 
He could see the pain all over his
face.
 
“We’re gonna find her, Pop,” he
said.

But Mick
wasn’t interested in platitudes.
 
He saw
that blood.
 
He heard her screams.
 
And that blasted video!
 
What did that mean?
 
Why would they go through Gloria, if Rosalind
was the target?
 
What was he
missing?
 
He frowned.
 
He was missing something that was right in
front of him.
 
He could feel it.
 
But what was it?
 
And now his child was in danger.
 
Or even worse.

Mick had
never felt more anxious in all of his life.

And then his
cell phone rang.
 
“We’ve got him, boss,”
the caller said.

Mick almost
asked who, but he already knew.

Mick’s plane
was on the tarmac, ready to take off again, when Mick and Teddy arrived.
 
But they weren’t flying anywhere.
 
They were going to see somebody Mick had
flown in: Carmelo’s sidekick.
 
A man they
called Hook.

Hook’s eyes
were swollen shut, and his hands and feet were in shackles, as he sat on the
floor of the plane.
 
Mick sat on the seat
in front of him.
 
Hook looked up.
 
He could barely make out shapes through the
slit of light still in his eyes.
 
When he
realized it was Mick the Tick, when he realized the man who had so decisively
took out Melo was the man behind his imprisonment, he began screaming and tried
to back up.

“Shut the
fuck up!” Teddy yelled.

“I told
everybody, just like you said,” he cried to Mick.
 
“I didn’t do anything wrong, I promise!”

“Who hired
Carmelo?” Mick asked.

Hook was
confused.
 
“Who hired him?”

“Who hired
Carmelo to kidnap my wife?”

“Nobody.
 
I mean, somebody, but I don’t know who.
 
She never revealed herself.”

She
?
 
Teddy looked
at his father.

“Who never
revealed herself?” Mick asked.

“The lady,”
Hook said.
 
“She would never reveal
herself.”

“Describe
her?” Teddy asked.

“She was
black.
 
Pretty.
 
Long hair.
 
I don’t know!”

It could
have been Gloria herself, and both Mick and Teddy knew it.
 
“Did this black chick have a name?” Teddy
asked.

“Yeah, but I
don’t know it.
 
I don’t remember it at
all.”

“What about
Gloria?” Teddy asked.

Hook shook
his head.
 
“I don’t know.
 
I told you I don’t know!”

“But it
could have been Gloria?”

“Yeah.
 
Could have been.”

Mick stood
up, frustrated again.
 
“Get him out of my
face,” he said, as he began to pace around inside his plane.

His men
quickly grabbed Hook and carried him to the far back of the plane.
 
Teddy stayed with his father.

“Gloria
wouldn’t be involved in no shit like this, Pop,” he said.
 
“I know her.
 
She doesn’t hate Roz like that.
 
She might have had some hate for you.
 
We all did, a little.
 
But never
for Roz.
 
What did she ever do to Glo?”

Mick looked
at his son.
 
He always gave him the
unvarnished truth, no matter how painful, and he loved him for that.
 
“Maybe it’s not what Rosalind did, but what
she caused to have happened.”

“Like what,
Pop?”

“Like having
the twins.
 
Like making it possible for me
to get it right with them, where I failed with you, Gloria, and Joey.”

Teddy
thought about it too.
 
“Like Roz having
your attention,” he said, “when Gloria wanted more of it.
 
Yeah, I know she wanted more.
 
We all do.”

Another
truth.
 
Another failure by Mick.

“But why
would she try to have Roz kidnapped in New York?” Teddy asked.
 
“And why would she stage her own kidnapping?”

“The same
reason she would make a video and point the finger at Roz.
 
That,” Mick said, “I know is a lie.
 
Why would she lie?”

Teddy
exhaled.
 
It didn’t sound like Gloria to
him.
 
Not even that lie.
 

“More?” Roz
asked as she was about to pour herself more coffee.

“No, I’m
good,” Joey said, covering the rim of his coffee cup.
 
“I just wish I knew what was going on.”

Roz wished
she knew too.
 
But she knew they had to
wait.
 
They were back upstairs, at the
center island in the kitchen.
 
The twins
and their nannies, along with guards and Deuce, were downstairs in the safe
rooms of the estate.

Joey looked
at Roz.
 
“I saw the video,” he said.

Roz stared
at him.
 
“You saw it?
 
When?”

“After Dad
left.
 
I went in his study.
 
And I saw it.”

Roz knew
getting Joey to understand that she had nothing to do with Gloria’s
disappearance, despite what Gloria said on that video, was useless.
 
He was the kind of young man who was going to
believe what he was going to believe.

“What was
that about?” he asked her.

“It was
about Gloria pointing a finger at me.”

“But why
would she do that, if you have nothing to hide?
 
I know Glo.
 
She’s not like
that.
 
She loves you.”

Roz thought
so too.
 
“I love her,” Roz said.
 
“And I’m not like that either.
 
I had nothing to do with her disappearance.”

“Dad believe
you?” Joey asked.
 
Then he frowned.
 
“What am I saying?
 
Dad believes you, no matter what you tell
him.
 
He’ll believe you over any of us,
because he puts you ahead of us.
 
You
know that, right?”

Roz knew she
held a special place in Mick’s heart.
 
She probably also knew, if she were to be honest with herself, that he
did place her above his children.
 
It was
wrong, and he had to know it was wrong.
 
But that didn’t negate their special place in his heart.
 
“He loves you, Joey,” she said to him.

“Not like he
loves you though,” Joey fired back.
 
“You’re his special angel.
 
Me and
Glo, and even Teddy, are his special burdens.
 
He never gave a damn about us, he just threw money at us.
 
Until he met you.
 
Until you made him pay us some attention.
 
Now maybe it’s payback time.”

Roz studied
Joey.
 
Did he know something about
Gloria’s disappearance?
 
Was he
involved?
 
Was this some elaborate plot
by him and Gloria to get their father’s attention?
 
Mick suggested this whole thing might have
had to do with her.
 
But was he wrong?
 
Maybe, as usual, it all had to do with him,
and yet another one of his past sins.
 
“Do you know where your father can find Gloria?” Roz decided to ask
pointblank.

Joey
frowned. “If I knew I would have told him.
 
Why would you think I wouldn’t have told him?
 
That’s my sister.
 
Daddy wasn’t there for us, but we’ve always
been there for each other.
 
Gloria and
me
and Teddy are as close as close can get and nobody’s
taking that away from us.
 
He took Adrian
away from us, but that’s it.
 
That’s
all.
 
He’ll never break us apart.”

The
bitterness in Joey’s voice was palpable.
 
Roz knew they had a problem.
 
She
knew Mick’s children still held a major grudge against him.
 
But she thought they were all coming
around.
 
Mick was trying to be the father
he should have been long ago, and they were trying to build a relationship with
him.
 
But had something changed?
 
Had it all regressed and even Mick didn’t see
it coming?