Goldie had made no attempt to contact him once she’d moved away, and he gave up hope of seeing her again after graduating high school. When his parents made the decision to relocate to New York, he’d decided to make a fresh start and put the memory of Marigold behind him. But no matter how hard he’d tried, he had never gotten over losing her.
“What I don’t understand,” he heard her say to Karl, “is why Marsha didn’t just shoot Mrs. Volto immediately. If her goal was to eliminate the trial’s star witness, a bullet would’ve done the job far quicker than a crystal vase. She had a loaded gun right there on her hip.”
“I agree,” Zeke said, moving closer. “What we saw between Louisa and Marsha Volto was personal. Marsha was really mad.”
“Of course she was mad,” Karl said incredulously. “Louisa Volto has done the worst thing possible in Mafia circles. She ratted out the family.”
“I think there’s more to it than that,” Zeke said. “Marsha was in Louisa’s bedroom for at least four or five minutes before we realized what was going on. What did they talk about for that length of time?”
“I don’t know, because Louisa is too traumatized to give me a statement,” Karl replied, rubbing his stubbly bald head. “But our undercover Mafia sources indicate that Leonardo Volto didn’t order the attack. He’s so far refused to place a hit on Louisa while she’s carrying his unborn child, so it looks like Marsha was acting alone. It just goes to show why this protection detail is badly needed. There might be plenty more lone wolves in the Volto family who are happy to go against Leonardo’s wishes.”
“That’s a certainty,” Zeke said. “But Marsha wasn’t a lone wolf, was she? I hear that the real Officer Diaz was found bound and gagged in the garage and she can’t have done that all by herself, can she? What has Diaz been able to tell us?”
“He says it all happened very quickly,” Karl replied. “He was checking a noise in a hedge when a bag was placed over his head and he was manhandled into the garage, where he was tied up and his shirt removed. You’re right—Marsha must’ve had help to do that, perhaps a friend of her husband’s. If Marsha manages to eliminate Louisa, then her husband most likely walks free.”
“Well, her plan worked perfectly, because she got inside with ease,” Zeke said, avoiding Goldie’s eye. “But then she totally messed up. She had an ideal opportunity to murder Louisa and get out of the house quickly, but she wasted time by getting into an argument. Why?”
Karl shrugged. “People do strange things when they’re driven by anger, and we’re incredibly fortunate that Marsha wasn’t thinking straight, because we almost lost our star witness today, not to mention her innocent baby.” He eyed them both. “I do not want this kind of scenario to happen again. I hope you two understand that I expect you to tighten up your security protocols.”
They answered in unison. “Yes, sir.”
“I’ve also noticed a little animosity between you,” Karl said ominously. “And I don’t care to know the details, but you’ll need to cooperate and share your expertise in order to complete this assignment successfully. Don’t let me down on this.”
“No, sir.”
He rose from the table, gathering his paperwork. “I’ll go try to coax a statement out of Louisa. She’s terrified, and I’m concerned she may try to back out of our deal.” He rubbed a hand across his scalp again. “This is turning into a very bad day.”
As soon as Karl left the room, Zeke took his empty seat and placed his hands on the table, fingers twined. “Listen, Marigold...” he began.
“I already told you, Zeke,” she said, giving him a look of scorn. “It’s Goldie now.”
“Right, of course.” He smiled. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”
“Except the old habit of loving me, huh?” she shot at him. “You let that die pretty easily from what I remember.”
“What are you talking about?” he said disbelievingly. “I never stopped loving you, not until I realized you weren’t coming back. You never even said goodbye.”
“My dad wouldn’t let me come see you before he drove us all to Ohio in the middle of the night,” she said, her voice creeping higher. “He told us to cut contact with everybody in Glenside, but I wrote you letters in secret. And you ignored every single one of them.”
“Letters?” He cast his mind back to those dark months after Goldie’s family had vanished. “I never got any letters.”
She searched his face. “Well, I sure sent them, ten in total. And I called your house a bunch of times but I just got a message that the number was disconnected. It seemed like you were trying to erase me from your life.” She raked her fingers through her red curls. “I can’t believe I’m still hurt about this even after twenty-one years. I must be crazy.”
“You’re not crazy,” Zeke said. “You have every right to be hurt, but I promise you that I didn’t receive any of your letters.” Still searching his memory, he was reminded of things his parents had told him at the time. “Not long after you left, my dad said we needed to change our telephone number because of some crank calls.” Now he started to see things with more clarity. “And when he saw how much I missed you, he told me to move on. It’s possible that he also destroyed your letters before I got to see them.”
Goldie’s mouth dropped open. “Why would he do that?”
How honest should he be with her? At one time he would’ve told her everything, trusted her to react with calmness and maturity, but now he wasn’t so sure.
“When my parents found out what a devious person your father was, they were horrified that he’d
