Part 3 (2/2)
The meal was silent and tense. Paavo recognized that the veal scaloppini and pappardelle with porcini mushroom sauce were excellent, but they could have been cardboard and fell in a lump in his stomach. Sal only nibbled at his food, finally pus.h.i.+ng the plate aside. ”Look, Smith, I got a problem.”
Paavo put down his fork, ready to listen.
”I guess Angelina told you I have managers to run my stores nowadays. I'm president of the family corporation, so I go check on them from time to time.”
”Angie's told me,” Paavo said. He knew all about Sal's string of shoe stores in shopping malls and downtown areas throughout northern California.
”I got a problem with one of my managers.” Sal dropped his gaze.
When he didn't continue, Paavo considered the situations that result in ”police business,” as Sal called it. ”Are you talking theft? Embezzlement?” he asked.
Sal shook his head. ”I wish. It's worse. Lots worse.” He caught Paavo's eye. ”It's love.”
Paavo felt the blood drain from his face. ”You aren't saying that you and this manager-”
”No! G.o.d, no!” Sal exclaimed. ”h.e.l.l, I never even liked her all that much.” He took a sip of wine. ”She called me, one, two times, with questions about the store. So, I answered. Then she says she wants to meet about the store-ways to improve profit. Her store's doing fine, but what's wrong with making more money, right? I had lunch with her a couple times. Then they started.”
Paavo's brows crossed. ”They?”
”Phone calls, letters.”
Paavo studied him, trying to figure out exactly what this was about. ”So this employee, a store manager, has a crush on you?”
Sal nodded. ”I have to break my G.o.dd.a.m.ned neck every day to get out to the mailbox before Serefina does.”
”Serefina doesn't know?”
”h.e.l.l, no! And I don't want her to, understand?” He glared, then folded his hands, his discomfort at having to tell this to Paavo evident with every painful gesture.
”Tell me about the woman,” Paavo said.
”Her name's Elizabeth Schull. When she first called, it was kind of flattering-I'm an old man, been married over forty years. She's a young woman. Well, young compared to Serefina. Or me.” He drew in his breath. ”But she's making my life h.e.l.l. Serefina wants to know why the line goes dead so often when she answers. I told Elizabeth to stop calling. When she didn't listen, I said I would fire her.” His voice dropped low. ”She said I wouldn't dare.”
”A threat?”
Sal nodded, watching, expectant.
Others had gone to Paavo with similar stories about threats. They never liked what he had to say. He knew Sal would be the same. ”It's not illegal to threaten people. There's nothing the police can do about it. Your attorneys can come up with a good case to fire her, though. She's hara.s.sing you. Why not just do it?”
”Nothing you can do?” Sal took the napkin from his lap and tossed it on the table. His words dripped with disgust. ”I listen to some woman threaten me, my family, and you say I'm supposed to handle it myself? I thought you were a strong man, some big macho guy that swept my daughter off her feet. Now I see the truth.”
Paavo had just put up with more than he'd ever taken from anyone else. ”Look, Sal,” he said, his voice a calm cover over a cauldron about to blow, ”she hasn't committed a crime. I'll see what I can find out about her, talk to her, whatever. But I won't be doing it as a cop. Is that clear?”
”Clear as mud!” Sal bellowed. ”Don't you want to know what she said?”
”Of course I do.” Paavo's jaws were beginning to throb from the gnas.h.i.+ng of his teeth.
”She said, 'I know what Serefina's up to, and I know all about your youngest daughter's engagement party.' Then she described Serefina's day to me, and Angelina's apartment building. She's watching them both.”
Paavo was astonished. ”You actually think she might harm Angie or Serefina? That's a h.e.l.l of a lot more serious than an employee having a crush on you.”
”Don't swear at me, Smith!” Sal said.
Paavo had had just about all he could take, Angie's father or not. ”You've got to tell them. Warn them about her.”
”No!” Sal was firm, unmovable. ”She won't touch them, but she can still make trouble. The last thing I want to do is ruin the happiness around my little girl's engagement party, even if it is to...Well, forget it. If we do this right, Serefina and Angelina won't have to know anything about it.”
Paavo leaned back in his chair, focusing on Schull and not on Angie's father's obnoxious personality. In his judgment as a professional police officer, not as a future son-in-law, he didn't like seeing this kept secret, and his cop instincts told him that Sal was being neither open nor honest about it. However, if the woman was as off-balance as he made her sound, she had to be kept away from Serefina and Angie no matter what Sal's problem actually was. He nodded, his lips tight. ”I'll help.”
The North Beach area's Fior d'Italia had no Amalfi party, nor did the Was.h.i.+ngton Square Bar and Grill. The next restaurant for Angie to check on was Moose's. As she pa.s.sed St. Peter and Paul's Church, she went inside to light candles and say a prayer for loved ones and those seeking guidance about engagement parties.
As she stepped out of the dark church, the bright sunlight made it hard to see. She stopped and blinked, looking up and down the street a moment.
Parked at the corner was a car that looked amazingly like her father's. Sal Amalfi was the only person she knew who still drove a 1969 four-door red Lincoln sedan with red leather seats and a huge red steering wheel. Sal loved the car. It was the first one he ever bought straight off the showroom floor. It had everything he'd ever wanted, and he'd babied it completely. It ran like a dream, eight miles to the gallon. It used to get better mileage before the California Air Resource Board pressured him into adjusting it to take unleaded gas, but their computers went berserk every year that it came up for a smog check.
Every so often Angie or Serefina would take him out to test drive a Mercedes or BMW or even a Jaguar. He declared them all garbage-flimsy, poorly made, death-trap tin cans. Nothing compared to his own personal Sherman tank.
Maybe he'd like a new Hummer.
Angie eyed the car as she walked toward it. It had to be his. If so, what was he doing in North Beach? Her parents lived south of the city in the wealthy peninsula town of Hillsborough. Because of his heart condition, Sal rarely left home, and it was even rarer for him to drive anywhere, especially into San Francisco, one of the most congested cities in the nation.
Serefina, on the other hand, enjoyed driving her Rolls-Royce. If Sal was riding with her, however, he clutched the dashboard the entire time. As a result, they often hired a chauffeur to get them from one place to the other. That way they didn't have to worry about parking or Serefina's driving.
Angie stood beside Sal's car. He liked Moose's Restaurant. Perhaps he was there having lunch with a friend.
She should try to find him. Wouldn't he be surprised!
She was a few feet from the entrance when her father stepped onto the sidewalk. She waved and smiled. To her amazement, Paavo appeared right behind him.
Both men awkwardly watched her approach. They seemed to be leaning away from each other, which she dismissed as a weird perspective, or uneven sidewalks. She gave each a quick kiss. ”What a nice surprise! My two favorite men right here together....” She stopped talking, expecting them to tell her why they were there.
Instead, Paavo said, ”What are you doing here, Angie?” His voice sounded strangled, as if he were under some great strain.
She didn't want Sal to know what she was up to. ”Just shopping, a walk in the park. Nothing special. What about you two?” She kept the smile on her face, difficult though it was.
All of a sudden, to her amazement, Sal wrapped a stiff arm around Paavo's broad shoulders and yanked him close, then patted his back hard. Very hard. ”We've decided it's time to get along even better than we have been.”
Angie gawked. Paavo pulled free, yet kept a sickly smile pasted to his face as he said, ”That's right. Bury the old hatchet.” He gave Sal what looked like a friendly tap on the shoulder. Sal staggered back a couple of steps.
The two men eyed each other, stiff as lampposts, smiles spread wide, teeth clenched. What in the world was going on? ”I'm so glad to hear it,” Angie said nervously.
”Yes,” Paavo said, his gaze hard as ice.
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