Chapter 16

Back at Walton Square, Carlita called an emergency family meeting at Mercedes' place.

Taking turns, Carlita and Vinnie filled the others in on what had transpired. "The bottom line is someone took Enzo out. I'm not sure if it was Costanza or Danny Lombardo."

Vinnie motioned to Tony. "Any sign of Costanza?"

"Nope. I checked with the manager at Ravello's. No sign of him there, either."

"So, he's MIA. Maybe I should ask Elvira to check her surveillance camera recordings from yesterday until this morning." Carlita dialed Elvira's cell phone number.

"Hey, Carlita."

"Hello, Elvira. I need a favor."

"Sure. What?"

"I was wondering if you noticed if my two debt collectors showed up on your cameras again."

"I haven't checked yet today. Why?"

"Vinnie and I found one of them dead inside the property over on Morton Street."

Silence.

"Hello? Elvira, are you still there?"

"I'm here. I'm trying to process what you said."

"It's a lot to take in. A guy is dead. The other is MIA. Pete, Mercedes, Tony, Vinnie and I are trying to muddle through this and wondered if you could check to see if either of them was lurking around here."

"Where are you?"

"At Mercedes' place."

"I'll take a look and swing by after I finish."

"You don't…"

It was too late. Elvira had already hung up. Carlita waved her phone in the air. "Elvira is going to check."

"Let's head out to the alley. I could use a smoke," Vinnie said.

"I could use one too."

Carlita wagged her finger at her middle son. "I thought you quit."

"Semi quit, unless I'm stressed," Tony said.

"This'll do it," Mercedes said. "If I smoked, I would want a cigarette too."

"No one else in this family is taking up smoking," Carlita scolded.

The group exited the apartment single file and gathered in the alley. While the brothers lit up, Carlita wandered around in circles. Pete called the manager of his pirate ship to let him know a family emergency had come up and he needed someone to host the evening's outing.

Mercedes plopped down on the stoop. Sam rounded the corner and came to a full stop. "Vinnie. I didn't know you were coming into town."

"Neither did I until last night."

Sam looked around. "Something tells me this isn't a happy reunion."

"It's a family crisis," Mercedes said.

"Involving…"

"All of us at this point," Pete said.

"Pops owed a lot of money to an unscrupulous lender for a property over on Morton Street," Mercedes replied.

"Morton Street," Sam repeated. "That's not the best area of town."

"And the property isn't in the best of condition. If you ask me, it probably needs to be torn down," Carlita said. "The lender sent his associates to collect. They were supposed to meet with us this morning and never showed."

"Ma and I found the body of one of them a couple of hours ago inside the property." Vinnie flicked his cigarette butt and ground it out with the bottom of his shoe.

"Are the Savannah authorities involved?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. The lead investigator is a man named Ellery."

"Charles Ellery?"

"We didn't catch his first name," Vinnie said. "Why?"

"A few of my buddies down at the station have mentioned him. He's ruthless."

"Great," Carlita groaned. "All we need is a ruthless investigator breathing down our necks."

Sam cast Mercedes a side glance. "At the risk of butting in, would you like me to see if I can get a little info on the investigation?"

Mercedes motioned to her mother.

Carlita shrugged as if to say, "It's up to you."

"You can put out a few feelers, if you don't mind. It goes without saying Ma didn't kill the guy."

"But someone did. I don't think it's a coincidence his body was found in your building," Sam said.

"Neither do we," Tony said. "He was left there to either send a message or to set Ma up."

Sam told them he would call a couple of his friends on the police force. "I can't make any promises considering it just happened, but I'll try." He stepped around Mercedes, who was still sitting on the stoop. "I found this great recipe for paella and was thinking about whipping up a batch. Do you want to swing by later and sample it?"

"Paella? I…sure," Mercedes said. "Thanks for offering to help."

"You're welcome." Sam slipped inside and quietly closed the door behind him.

"Sam was generous to offer his help," Vinnie said. "Although I have to say I'm getting a cold vibe."

"We're reassessing our relationship."

"Mercedes is reassessing their relationship," Carlita corrected. "Not that I blame her after what happened with his ex, Natalie."

"Ma." Mercedes shot her mother an irritated look.

"Okay. Okay." Carlita lifted both hands. "It's none of my beeswax. However, I will say I agree with your brother. It was nice of Sam to offer to help."

"And you would be crazy to turn down homemade paella," Tony teased.

Elvira's door flew open. She scurried across the alley. "The Garlucci family in full force."

"We're all here, except for Paulie and the wives," Tony said.

Elvira sashayed over to where Vinnie stood casually leaning against the wall. "Hello tall, dark, and gorgeous. Had I known you were coming into town, I would've cleared my calendar."

"Cleared it for what?" Carlita chuckled. "Dinner? Drinks?"

"For whatever suited the mood." She sidled up next to him, her eyes sliding from the top of his head to the tip of his expensive Italian leather shoes. "You have to be the most gorgeous man on the planet."

"I'm sure his wife Brittney thinks so," Carlita said.

"If you ever tire of blondes, give me a shot. Older women can be so much better."

"Elvira Cobb," Carlita scolded. "Please stop. You're embarrassing yourself."

Vinnie laughed out loud. "Elvira's stroking my ego. It's okay."

She winked at him. "Thanks Mr. Hottie."

"Elvira."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes. "I spent the last half an hour staring at surveillance camera recordings. I deserve a little reward."

"We all appreciate you taking the time to help us. Did you come up with anything?"

"I skimmed through the surveillance from yesterday afternoon all the way up until this morning. What time were you supposed to meet the men?"

"We didn't have a set-in-stone time. They gave me twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours would have been nine o'clock this morning," Carlita said. "They never showed."

"Let me get this straight. There were two men. One of them is dead and you don't know what happened to the second one," Elvira said.

"Correct."

"Did you try calling them?"

"I would have if I had their cell phone numbers."

"Maybe you should have asked for their contact information."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," Carlita said. "Yes, we should have exchanged information. However, I had no idea they weren't going to show. To be honest, if not for the fact someone died and I'm clearly a suspect, I would have been happy to never see their faces again."

"We appreciate your thoughtful suggestions," Mercedes said. "What we need now is information. Did you notice anyone lurking around either sometime yesterday or early this morning?"

"Maybe," Elvira said. "The cameras caught something very interesting."