“But it wasn’t for you?” I asked.
“I believe in diversifying,” she said. “But he had the final say in the matter so I left it alone. And sure enough, someone starts moving in on his territory. A couple of our guys turn up with their throats slit. My youngest son wasn’t involved in the business. Alex was going off to college to make something of himself.” She smiled, the memories obviously fond. “The police said he was killed in a drive-by, and that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I knew it was a hit job.
“I could tell Carmen was worried after that, and I just didn’t care anymore,” she said. “Alex was my only son who didn’t make me feel like a failure as a mother. My other boys were very much like their father, only they didn’t have Carmen’s patience and work ethic.”
It was hard to think of a mob boss as having patience and a good work ethic, but I guess it took all kinds.
“Who moved in on your husband’s territory?” Kate asked. “As far as I could tell from the reports I read, everyone was convinced it was your husband running drugs. And if I’m not mistaken, the problem disappeared after he went to prison.”
“It wasn’t Carmen,” she insisted. “I’m telling you, I knew everything about our business. Carmen talked everything over with me and there were no secrets. We had a mutual respect for each other and the business.”
“Until you sent him to prison,” I said.
Angelica shrugged. “He should’ve listened to me. I was trying to save our family. We all would have ended up like Alex eventually. We had enough money and property. We could’ve gone anywhere and stayed safe and been together. But Carmen let my boys talk him into staying and fighting back for what was ours. It was a foolish mistake.”
I didn’t know how I felt about Angelica. I could understand a woman who would fight for her family. But I couldn’t understand a woman who could just sentence them to life if they went against her wishes. It’s not like they weren’t all criminals, so she couldn’t play the righteous card.
“How long ago did you contact Vince about your instincts?” I asked.
“Not long after it started happening,” she said. “I told him what was happening. He told me to see if I could verify or get a visual on anyone. He said he was going to make some calls and that was that. Then he calls me a few days ago and says he’s flying in and that he’s staying at the Four Seasons.”
“What’d he tell you?” Kate asked.
“That he’d gotten remarried,” she said, smiling slyly. “A girl’s gotta try.”
“Anything about the case?” Kate asked.
“He said he called the warden where Carmen and my boys are, he said up until his death Carmen ran a pretty tight ship. Carmen has always been a leader of men. They look up to him and would follow him anywhere. Putting him in prison wouldn’t have changed that.”
“Maybe everyone has left you alone up to this point because Carmen loved you enough to make sure you were taken care of,” I said. “And when he died then all bets were off.”
She sucked in a breath and held it, thinking about what I’d just said. “I guess that’s a possibility. Carmen did love me. But as far as I know, he’s always thought me to have died in that explosion. He never knew I betrayed him.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Kate said.
“Carmen had only one visitor since November of last year,” Angelica said.
“Who was it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “But I’d like to know.”
Chapter Twelve
By the time Kate and I had dropped Angelica back off at her house and driven all the way back to our hotel, it felt like the longest day in existence, and it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. All I wanted to do was go upstairs to the room, take my shoes off, and go to bed.
But plans had a way of changing, especially when Scarlet was involved. She was holding court in the lobby when we walked in. The longer I stood there, the less I was sure if she was holding court or if she was just a tourist attraction.
“Why is Scarlet dressed like Elton John at the Ice Capades?” Kate asked.
“I’m assuming she’s going full-out Miami,” I said.
Scarlet was wearing a tangerine-colored spandex bodysuit with bell-bottom legs and sleeves, and it had a sweetheart neckline that was obviously meant to display massive cleavage—if you happened to have massive cleavage. Scarlet’s cleavage was somewhere around her belly button, so it wasn’t quite the same effect. Her hair was from the Shakira collection and trailed down her back in frosty curls. If you saw her from the neck up and from the back, she was a dead ringer.
A couple of people took pictures as they walked by, and I gave up and took my shoes off right there in the lobby.
“Where have you girls been?” Scarlet asked. “I woke up and found your note, and then it took me all this time to get ready and you still weren’t back.”
“We got kidnapped,” Kate said. “Kind of. It was a weird afternoon.”
“Do I smell funnel cakes?” Scarlet asked, narrowing her eyes at me.
“That’s where the kidnapper took us,” I said. “It wasn’t our choice.”
“Hmmph,” Scarlet said. “Well, I guess if you didn’t have a choice, you didn’t have a choice. That’s a real nice jacket. I saw one just like it while I was walking down to see
