“He should be there, Celina,” the woman said. “He left over an hour ago.” A silence followed. Celina could hear the sudden whistling of a tea kettle coming from Helen’s kitchen. “Maybe he’s at the office,” Helen said. “He did mention stopping by there.”
But Harold wasn’t in his office. And he wasn’t with her father.
“How long have you been waiting?” George asked.
“An hour,” Celina said. “And I’m getting tired of waiting. Where do you think he is?”
George didn’t know.
“If this wasn’t becoming a habit of his, Dad, I’d be worried. But it is becoming a habit. First he decides not to show for two board meetings, and now this. What’s going on with him? Harold’s never acted like this before. That man used to be on time for everything.”
“He may have just forgotten, Celina. The deals with WestTex and Iran have doubled his workload. He’s not as young as you.”
“True,” she said. “But my workload has tripled and you don’t see me missing a business dinner.”
“I’m not going to defend him.”
“I don’t expect you to. You know how I feel about Harold. But I do expect you to talk to him. Somebody has to.”
She severed the connection and forced herself to relax. She was damned if Harold’s absence was going to ruin this evening.
She returned to the table. Jack looked up at her as she approached. “We might as well eat,” she said. “It looks as though he won’t be coming.”
“Did you find out where he is?”
“No,” she said. “And at this point, I really don’t care. I’d rather have dinner alone with you, anyway.” She picked up the menu and flipped through it, aware that Jack was looking at her intently. “The filet mignon here is wonderful,” she said. “It's so rare, I think they merely walk a cow past a stove. I’m having that.”
Later, after dessert and coffee, Celina said, “It’s still early. Would you like to come back to my apartment for a nightcap? We can continue the conversation there.”
Jack said he would like that very much.
The evening was so warm, they decided to walk.
“You haven’t mentioned your family,” Celina said. “What do your parents do?”
They were walking up Fifth, stopping from time to time to glance at the illumined store windows. Jack reached out and held Celina’s hand. “They’re retired,” he said. “Dad worked forty years at a Pittsburgh steel mill before he sold the house and moved to West Palm with my mother. They live in this little house near the ocean. My mother calls once a week to tell me that Dad is driving her crazy. My father calls twice a week threatening divorce’“
“So, they’re happy?” Celina said.
“Excessively.”
“Any brothers or sisters?”
“One sister,” Jack said. “Her name is Lisa. She’s a nurse.”
When they passed 59th Street and her apartment complex came into sight, the first thing Celina noticed were the flashing red and blue lights surrounding it. As they drew nearer, she counted six police cars and one ambulance. A crowd had gathered outside Redman Place and traffic was lined up the street. Sirens gave chill to the warm night air.
“What’s going on?” Jack asked.
Celina said she didn’t know. She immediately thought back to the bombs that exploded on top of Redman International and couldn’t still a twinge of fear. The police still hadn’t learned who rigged the spotlights with explosives.
They hurried up the avenue. Car horns were sounding and people were talking excitedly, their voices rising. Celina tried to grasp what they were saying, tried to make sense of it, but it was impossible in the confusion.
The ambulance was parked in front of the building-lights flashing, sirens now quiet. A team of ten officers kept the crowd at bay. Jack led Celina toward the building’s entrance. His grip was strong, firm, and she was thankful for it.
When they reached the front of the crowd, they were in time to see two paramedics wheeling a man out on a stretcher. Celina knew it was a man by the arm that dangled to one side. It was muscular, bloody, bruised. An IV dripped life into it.
As the paramedics neared them, her stomach tensed and she squeezed Jack’s hand harder. She leaned forward but couldn't see the man’s face as he passed. It was partly covered by a bloody sheet.
She noticed that one of the man’s legs was quivering. She also noticed that the other leg was twisted horribly beneath the sheet.
Celina knew almost everyone in this building. It was here that many of Redman International’s senior executives lived. She turned to one of the officers and was about to ask who had been hurt when, from inside the building, a woman shouted, “Wait!”
To her surprise, Celina watched Diana Crane rush from the building.
There was a bandage on her forehead. One eye was slightly swollen. Celina heard Diana say, “I’m going with him.” She watched in disbelief as the woman climbed into the back of the ambulance. No one objected.
The paramedics were lifting the stretcher. Celina knew it was Eric lying there even before the sheet fell to one side and revealed his broken face.
For a moment, she couldn’t speak, couldn’t move or react. Her mind began making connections. She remembered her father calling a week ago and saying, “Leana’s been beaten, Celina. Eric did it the night of the party-probably not long after you left the room. If I had known that earlier this morning, Eric would be in the hospital now, instead of just looking for a job.”
She knew her father was responsible for this. She was sure of it.
Why else would he have asked Elizabeth and her to leave the room before making that call?
The ambulance’s doors slammed shut. The sound broke Celina’s reverie and she saw that the vehicle was preparing to leave. She was about to run forward and ask what hospital they were taking him to when she caught sight of her sister in the crowd.
For a moment, Celina could only stare.
Arms crossed, face grim, Leana was standing across from her, sandwiched between two tall, muscular men. She was wearing dark glasses, a black pant suit, no jewelry. Her hair was pulled away from her face.
Celina called out her name.
Alarmed, Leana turned in her direction. Their eyes met. Leana took a step back.
Celina called out her name again.
Leana ignored her. She spoke to the men beside her, they looked at Celina and quickly led Leana away.
She was gone at the same moment the ambulance screamed to life.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The first thing Mario noticed when he arrived at the modest-looking brownstone on l2th Street was his father’s black Lincoln limousine shimmering in the light of a streetlamp. Instinctively, he looked across the street at his home and saw the three men standing guard at the brick entrance.
Something was wrong. His father only visited on Saturdays.
He parked the Taurus behind his father’s car, stepped out and slammed the door shut. He crossed the street and nodded at the men as he approached. “What’s up, Nicky?” he said. “Why’s my father here?”
The man shrugged, even though Mario sensed he knew exactly why Antonio De Cicco had taken the time and
