Page 40 of A Week Away

Rose nodded, “My grandmother used to say they’d have gotten married in the old country.”

“Do you think there was something romantic going on between them?”

Rose paled. And then her sister stepped in, “Just kid stuff. Spin the bottle. That kind of thing.”

“How old is Luca?”

“He’s in between Rose and I. Thirty-seven.”

A few years older than Joanne. That would have been significant when they were teenagers. Not so much as adults.

“Is he married?”

“He’s never married,” Carla said. “He lives with our parents.”

I wondered if that had anything to do with why they didn’t. I said, “You’ve heard the rumors, I assume.”

“Which rumor?” Carla asked, her voice going hard. “The rumor that Luca is in The Partnership? Or that he got rid of Dominick for Joanne?”

“Either.”

“Life is never as exciting as people want it to be,” she said, though it really wasn’t an answer. “My father isn’t involved with organized crime. He’d like people to think he is, but he’s not. And our brother is a pretty average guy. As long as he doesn’t get mad at you, he can be really sweet.”

I noticed Rose staring at her coffee as though it might bite her.

“What was it like when Dominick disappeared?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Were people upset, angry… How did everyone react?”

“His family was upset, of course. They never believed he’d just run off.”

“Joanne was happy,” Rose said, looking up from her coffee. “She said her life could start now that he was gone. It was… unseemly.”

“It was,” Carla said dryly.

There was a lot going on in this branch of the Di Stefano family. Particularly for poor Rose. Something that had to do with Luca. The parents had chosen Luca and Carla had chosen her sister. The question was, did it have anything to do with Dominick’s disappearance? I wasn’t sure.

“Would you like more coffee?” Rose asked.

Cass started to say yes, but I said, “No. I think we need to move on. You’ve been helpful. Thank you for talking to us.”

And then I was standing. Cass followed suit and the women walked us out. At the door, Rose pulled Cass close, and said, “You need to visit more. Next time I’ll make cookies.”

“Okay,” he said, unconvincingly.

Once we were in Cass’s car, he asked, “So what are we doing now?”

“Logically we should follow your cousin Luca around to get a feel for what he’s up to. You should have let me rent a car.”

“What’s wrong with my car?”

“It draws attention. If you’re following someone you don’t want to do that.”

“Why not just talk to him?”

“Sure, we can go ask if he killed your dad. He’ll say no, but when he kills one of us we’ll know he lied.”