“We’ll circle the room,” Frank said. “You go that way, and I’ll go this way. We’ll keep an eye on each other and signal to the other if we see them.”
“Right,” said Gino, and he started off, eyeing the crowd.
He hadn’t gone three feet before a girl accosted him, though. Frank couldn’t hear what she said, but he understood the look in her eye all too well. Gino was a handsome man, and if he was here, he must’ve come to meet girls.
Frank waited to see if he could extricate himself. He did, but he didn’t get far before two more girls latched onto him.
With a weary sigh, Frank started in the opposite direction. If he found the Ruoccos, maybe Gino could at least help take them into custody. He scanned the crowd for tall men with dark hair as he walked slowly around the perime-ter of the room, but none of the men who caught his eye were the ones he wanted. He’d just mentally dismissed yet another one when he noticed that the girl he was talking to looked very familiar.
She was Nainsi’s friend, Brigit. She looked different tonight, with her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright from al-cohol. She was shaking her head, refusing whatever the man was offering. She didn’t notice Frank’s approach.
“Brigit,” he said, startling her.
“Is this the fellow you’re waiting for?” the man scoffed, looking Frank over with contempt. “Find yourself another girl, old man. I’m taking this one.”
“Are you?” he asked mildly, but gave the man a look that sent the blood rushing from his face.
“I . . . I’ll see you later,” the man said and scurried away.
“What’re you doing here?” Brigit asked in alarm, glancing around as if searching for someone to help her.
“I was looking for Antonio Ruocco. Have you seen him?”
“Antonio?” she echoed in surprise. “No, not tonight. Not for a long time, either. At least since he married Nainsi.”
“Was this where they met up?”
“Mostly, I guess,” she said, twisting her hands in front of her nervously and glancing around again.
He remembered something else he’d wanted to check.
“When did you first meet Antonio?”
“Me? I don’t know,” she said plaintively. “I can’t remember.” She didn’t want to talk to him, but she was afraid to run away.
“You said she started seeing him last spring. Was that when you met him?”
She shook her head. “Nainsi said she didn’t want us stealing him away. She wouldn’t ever bring him around us.”
“But she told you she was seeing him?”
“Sure she did, like I told you before. She was bragging about how she was going to marry a rich Italian. Can I go now? My fellow’s gonna be back in a minute.”
“Antonio says he never even met Nainsi until last August,” Frank said, watching her reaction.
She didn’t have one. “He’s lying then, and he’ll burn in hell for it, because it got Nainsi killed, didn’t it?” she said impatiently. She was still looking around. “Please, let me go. My fellow won’t like me talking to you.”
“When did Nainsi first trust you to meet Antonio?”
Frank continued relentlessly.
“I already said, I don’t remember!”
“Was it when she told you they were getting married?”
Frank guessed.
She gave the question a moment’s thought. “I guess it was,” she recalled in exasperation. “She said it was safe then, because they was already promised. She wanted us to see how handsome he was and be jealous. Then they got married a few days later.”
She looked up again, over Frank’s shoulder, and her eyes grew wide with apprehension. She tried to warn away whoever was coming, but Frank turned and spotted him before he could comprehend the warning.
Richard Keith’s jaw dropped when he saw Frank. He was carrying two glasses of beer, one of which was half empty, both of which he forgot about as he turned to flee. He ran right into another man, and the beer went flying in every direction, splashing on several of the other customers who were none too happy about it. They started shouting and shoving and before Frank could rescue Keith, someone had socked him right in the jaw and sent him sprawling at Frank’s feet.
“Police! Police! Get out of the way!” someone was yelling over the commotion, and Gino burst through the crowd like an avenging angel.
“Step back, all of you,” Frank commanded, and the shocked crowd obeyed, giving Frank and Gino room to pull Keith to his feet.
“Let’s get him out of here,” Frank said, and Gino helped him half drag, half carry Keith through the crowd, outside, and down the stairs to the street.
“Why did you hit me?” Keith asked, glaring blearily at Frank.
“I didn’t hit you . . . yet,” Frank said, standing him up on his feet and glaring at him, while Gino stood by to catch him if he fell. “Tell me, Mr. Keith, what is a happily married family man doing in a dance house with one of the girls who works for him?”
Keith’s eyes widened as he realized his predicament.
“I . . . I like to dance,” he claimed. “I just happened to see Brigit there and . . . and . . .”
“And you thought you’d buy her a drink and diddle her a little, is that it?”
“No! I never . . . I don’t . . .”
“Yeah, I know, the girls don’t get any bastards from you,”
Frank said in disgust. “Doesn’t stop you from getting plenty from them, though, does it?”
“I . . . They don’t mind, though,” Keith insisted.
“I’ll bet they have a different opinion,” Frank said.
“They don’t, really! I never make them actually do it,” he claimed virtuously.
“How did Nainsi get pregnant then?” Frank demanded.
That sobered him instantly. “I didn’t . . .” he tried, but the words caught in his throat. “I couldn’t help it! It wasn’t my baby, though,” he added hastily. “I don’t care what she said. It couldn’t have been!”
“And why is that?” Frank asked with genuine interest.
“Because she . . . It didn’t happen until July. That was too late. Brigit told me.” Frank noticed he was sweating even though the evening was pleasantly cool.
“What did Brigit tell you?”
“When the baby was born, she told me it was full-grown.
I’ve got kids of my own. I know if a baby is born early, it’s sickly. If it was mine, it would’ve been sickly.”
Frank considered him for a long moment. “Mr. Keith,”
he said with mock respect. “How is it that a man so careful as yourself got caught up in this?”
“I . . .” he looked around wildly for a moment, as if searching for someone to help him. “It was her— Nainsi.
She was a witch! She tricked me and . . .” He ran a hand over his face, and his shoulders slumped with despair.
“And what?” Frank prodded.
“I already told you, I’m a careful man. I don’t . . . penetrate the girls,” he explained in a whisper, glancing around to make sure no one else was listening. “They just . . . They hold their legs together. It’s a trick I learned from a whore years ago,” he added defensively.
Gino frowned in distaste, and Frank felt his skin prickling with fury. “So you think it’s all right to use the girls like that so long as you don’t penetrate them.”
“I told you, they don’t mind,” he insisted. “They don’t have to worry about losing their jobs or getting a baby, and I get what I want, too.”
Frank had to close his hands into fists to keep from striking Keith. He still needed a few more answers. “You said Nainsi tricked you,” he reminded him. “How did she do that?”
