“I can’t believe you’ve been shouldering all this alone, Tony. You should have come to me.”
I nod gratefully. “I know that. Now.”
“What do the police say?”
“They’re still investigating. They haven’t gotten anywhere.”
“That’s frustrating,” she mutters in disappointment. “They’re usually all over missing kid cases and, well, after what happened to Bobby, you’d think they’d have a little more sense of urgency.”
“They don’t know everything,” I tell her softly.
Her eyes narrow. “Pardon me? What haven’t you told them about?”
“Giordano.”
She dips her head and rubs her forehead between her thumb and fingers. “But he explained quite a bit you didn’t know, didn’t he? Put some things in proper perspective?”
“True.”
“You need to tell Jake Plummer about him, Tony.”
“What if Joe really does have eyes and ears in the police department?” I counter. “He knows Pat and Bobby’s parents filed missing person reports, so he doesn’t blame me for Jake knowing that the kids are missing. If Jake gets wind of Giordano and Joe finds out, though, things could get dicey.”
“Assuming Joe even knows about Giordano.”
“Of course, he does!”
Penelope looks at me in pity. “This guy’s really gotten to you, hasn’t he?”
One might say so. I think back to Jake telling me that Joe is hardly Superman. Maybe Penelope has a point.
“You’re not thinking straight, Tony,” she continues. “The police are the guys to trust here, not this Joe character. You’re playing right into his hands.”
“I don’t want her to get hurt.”
She gets up and comes around the desk and rubs a hand in soothing circles around my back. “Then you need to get the police involved with everything, partner. Trust them to play their cards close to the vest.”
“And if they don’t?”
“They will,” she assures me. “A final thought?”
“What’s that?”
“We can’t leave Billy and Rick twisting in the wind. We have a responsibility to them that we can’t put off indefinitely.”
“Brittany’s safety comes first!”
She nods sympathetically and lays a hand on my shoulder. “Agreed, but we don’t know how things really stand with Brittany.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“As much as I, or anyone, hates to consider it, we need to be alive to the possibility that Joe may have already killed her.”
I can tell how much it pains her to have this conversation, but I’m still pissed at her for giving voice to the unspeakable.
“It’s possible that Joe plans to use the time he’s bought to make a play to put the screws to our client, Tony. We can’t give him the opportunity to do so.”
I can’t believe she’s prioritizing a civil lawsuit over the safety of my daughter. “We’ve got Sapphire’s deposition.”
Penelope settles her hands on my shoulders and gazes into my eyes. “And if Joe knows about that?”
The possible answers are all varying shades of disaster. “We’re giving him time to eliminate Sapphire.”
She nods.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“We know who Joe is,” Jake Plummer announces triumphantly that afternoon as he settles into a seat in the cramped office at Zack’s Used Books. We figured meeting here would be safe, with me coming in the front and him slipping in the back door from the alley. Zack Menzies runs his bookstore from a small steel desk wedged into a tiny office that also holds a trio of four-drawer file cabinets. The building has the peculiar smell of burnt dust caused by ductwork in dire need of cleaning.
“What’s his real name?” I ask.
“Giuseppe Vitale.”
“So, he really is an asshole named Joe,” I mutter, Giuseppe being the Italian equivalent of Joseph.
“Yeah,” Jake mutters with a wry smile. “Right on both counts.”
“Are you picking him up?” I ask tentatively. My initial burst of excitement was immediately tempered by the realization that this could be a bad thing. Like the dog that finally chases down that elusive car, the outcome of the encounter may prove tragic for the pursuer. In this case, Brittany’s death could well be an unintended side effect of catching up to Joe. Which is backward thinking, I suppose. How else will we get her back?
Jake shakes his head. “We know who he is but not where he is. We’re looking, though. So is the FBI. The question is: Now what? Even if we do locate him, do we move in on him? That could put Brittany in mortal danger if….”
I have no difficulty surmising the unspoken next three words: she’s still alive.
“Then there’s your father to consider. A lot of moving parts in this thing, all interconnected in some way.”
I nod.
“Makes it hard to know what to do,” he says unhappily.
“I know.” I relate the story of Sapphire Larkin’s visit. “Penelope and I don’t know what to do next.”
Jake shakes his head and frowns. “Ain’t that a bitch? You’ve finally got the bastards by the balls, and you’re scared to squeeze.”
“Penelope raised the possibility that waiting might put Sapphire at risk.”
“How so?”
“Gives Joe time to track her down if he gets wind of her story.”
Jake blows out a long sigh. “Your partner has a point. Then again, Joe probably doesn’t know anything about Sapphire.”
“But he might. Can’t you take her into protective custody or something?”
Jake dips his chin and rubs his hands over his face. “I’ll look into it.”
“If we sit on the information and we lose her, we’re doing Billy and Rick a disservice for nothing,” I continue. “Especially if Joe already killed Brittany.”
Jake winces. “We’ve been kicking options around with the FBI. It’s hard to know what to do, you know? Nobody wants to put Brittany at risk, but the longer she’s gone, the better the odds become that something bad will happen.”
“Or has happened,” I add morosely.
He nods. “We wish we had more information to work with.”
I can’t hold his gaze and drop my head to study the floor. There’s still Matteo Giordano to discuss.
Jake stirs, and an edge creeps into his voice when he says, “Now is the time to come clean if there’s anything else you haven’t told me, Mr. Valenti.”
The use of my surname brings my eyes up to
