Murder in Little Italy

she said instead. “I must go now.”

Sarah chose the outside stairs. She had to find Malloy and figure out what to do before Maria had a complete break-down. Maria followed her, seeing her out like a good host-ess. Ordinarily, Sarah would have told her to send for her if she needed anything, but she didn’t think Maria would appreciate such an offer.

Sarah opened the door and looked over her shoulder at Maria. “Good-bye,” she said and quickly stepped into the stairwell. Only when she’d taken the first step did Maria’s expression register: pure, molten hatred.

Shocked, Sarah turned back just in time to see Maria lunging toward her. Sarah threw herself against the wall and out of the way just as Maria’s body would have slammed into hers. Someone screamed as Maria’s momentum carried her headlong down the steps.

Instinctively, Sarah reached out to catch her, but she was too late. Maria’s body tumbled and twisted and struck the first landing with a sickening thud. The landing slowed her impetus, and Maria’s body slid down only a few more steps and stopped.

Somewhere, Sarah’s mind realized that Maria had tried to kill her, but she would deal with that later. Now, she hurried down to the landing to see if she could help. As if from a great distance, she heard people shouting, and as she reached Maria’s crumpled form, someone started running up the stairs from below.

Leaving Joe alone, Frank took Gino into the room where they’d questioned Lorenzo earlier.

“He’s gotta be lying,” Gino said. “He was Nainsi’s lover, and the girl was going to tell his mother the baby was his so Mrs. Ruocco wouldn’t throw her out.”

“He does have a good reason for wanting her dead, but why would he make up a story about sleeping in Lorenzo’s room?”

“Because he knows his brother will lie for him.”

“He wife would lie for him, too,” Frank pointed out. “In fact, she already did. She told us he was with her all night and couldn’t have killed Nainsi. Why would he tell us a different story?”

Gino frowned as he concentrated on getting it right. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. He only needs one alibi.”

“That’s right. He only needs one, and if he didn’t kill Nainsi, then one of the stories is true,” Frank informed him.

“We need to figure out which one.”

“How can we?”

“It’s not hard. Which story did we hear first?”

“The one Maria told us.”

“And what does her story prove?”

Gino thought about it for a minute. “That Nainsi was alive when Antonio and Joe came home from Ugo’s place.

That Joe was nearby, close enough to slip over and smother her if he wanted to.”

“Maria said he never got up the rest of the night, though,”

Frank reminded him.

“If she was asleep, how could she be sure?” Gino asked reasonably. He was starting to catch on.

“Right, so she could be lying about that part, at least.

Now, if Joe’s telling the truth, what does that prove?”

“That he wasn’t even near Nainsi from the time they left for Ugo’s until after she was killed.”

“But why didn’t he just tell us Nainsi was alive when he came home, and he was in bed with his wife all night, if that’s the truth?”

“Because . . .” Gino’s face brightened with understanding. “Because it’s not the truth. He told us what he really did that night.”

“Then why did Maria lie?”

He thought for another minute. “To protect her husband.”

Frank shook his head. “Donatelli, people sometimes lie to protect other people, but most of the time they lie to protect themselves.”

Lorenzo came racing up the steps, taking them two and three at a time, until he reached Maria’s crumpled body.

“What happened?” he demanded of Sarah.

“She fell,” Sarah said quite truthfully. “I tried to catch her, but . . .”

He wasn’t listening. “Maria, can you hear me?”

Antonio and Mrs. Ruocco were close behind him, both yelling questions.

“Maria fell down the stairs,” Lorenzo said, his voice both angry and anguished.

Maria groaned.

“Maria, can you hear me?” he asked again, taking her hand.

“Get her inside,” Mrs. Ruocco cried.

“Be careful,” Sarah warned. “She might have broken bones.”

“Antonio, go get doctor,” Mrs. Ruocco said, sending the boy racing back down the stairs.

Lorenzo kept trying to get Maria to respond, and finally her eyes fluttered open. “What . . . ?”

“You fell down the stairs,” Lorenzo said. “Where are you hurt?”

“Everywhere,” she murmured.

Sarah descended the few remaining stairs to the landing.

“Let me check her over before you move her.” She knelt, and Maria’s dazed eyes focused on her. Sarah saw a flicker of fear.

“It’s all right,” Sarah said reassuringly. “Let me know if anything hurts.”

Quickly, she felt Maria’s limbs and discovered a badly wrenched knee and an apparently broken arm. Lorenzo lifted her as gently as he could, carried her into Mrs. Ruocco’s bedroom on the second floor and laid her on the bed. She was moaning softly and cradling her broken arm. Was Sarah the only one who saw the adoration shining naked in Lorenzo’s eyes as he gazed down at her?

“What you do on steps?” Mrs. Ruocco asked, oblivious of her son’s devotion to his brother’s wife. “You never look, you only hurry, hurry!”

“Is she all right?” Valentina asked from the bedroom doorway.

No one answered her. Lorenzo just stared at Maria helplessly while Mrs. Ruocco continued to berate her for being so careless as to nearly kill herself.

“Valentina, would you get a nightdress for Maria and bring it down?” Sarah asked.

For once the girl obeyed without complaint, probably grateful for something to take her away. Sarah began removing Maria’s shoes.

“Lorenzo, would you step out?” Sarah asked. “We need to get her undressed so the doctor can examine her.”

“Will she be all right?” he asked, his desperation painful to behold. He’d apparently forgotten his animosity toward Sarah.

“We won’t know for certain until she’s been examined,”

Sarah said, taking him by the arm and directing him to the door.

“She pushed me.”

Everyone looked toward where Maria lay on the bed. She was staring at Sarah with the same loathing as when she’d lunged for her on the stairs.

“She pushed me down the stairs,” Maria said deliberately, pointing at Sarah with her good arm.

Lorenzo and Mrs. Ruocco turned to Sarah in horror, but before anyone could speak, they heard someone calling from downstairs. To Sarah’s great relief, it was Frank Malloy.

“She tried to kill you?” Malloy fairly shouted at Sarah. They were sitting at one of the tables down in the empty restaurant. Sarah had told him everything that had happened from the time she arrived at the Ruocco house earlier in the day until he’d come storming in a little while before.

“She’s not in her right mind, Malloy,” Sarah pointed out.

“Crazy or not, you’d be just as dead!” he pointed out right back.