Unholy Matrimony (18 page)

Finally she hung up and turned her attention back to Lucille.

“Where was I?”

“Donna got the job at Alex’s company.”

“That’s right. Donna got the job, but she also got Alex. He dropped Maria like a hot potato and started asking Donna out. Next thing you know they’re engaged, and she has this giant diamond on her finger.”

“And Maria never married?”

“No. I think she still carried a torch for Alex, if you know what I mean.”

“Sure, sure. I don’t know why women do that.”

“Neither do I. If it’s time to move on, then move on.”

“Did Maria blame Donna?”

“No. I think she just accepted the fact that things didn’t turn out the way she’d hoped. Besides, she was the maid of honor in Donna’s wedding. She even threw her this big shower at the Murray Hill Inn.”

“Blood is thicker than water,” Lucille said, although she’d never been exactly sure what that meant.

“I know. Your sister is your sister, right?” The woman looked over her shoulder, where the door had opened to one of the examination rooms, and a white-coated man was standing there holding a clipboard.

“Now, what can I help you with?” the woman said quickly.

“See, I’ve got this here parrot. I was watching it for the Grabowskis. But, as I said, they’re both dead. I can’t take care of it on account of my husband doesn’t like it, so I was wondering if you could put it up for adoption like. Same as those kittens.” Lucille pointed to the crate where the kittens were sleeping in a pile.

“I don’t know. We’ve never had a bird before. Let me ask the doctor.”

“Sure, sure. I’ll just go sit down.”

Lucille picked up the magazine, but the receptionist came back almost immediately. She was shaking her head.

“I’m sorry, but we just can’t handle a bird. The kittens are one thing—they’ll be gone in less than a week—but not as many people are interested in birds. I’m really sorry. I hope you understand.”

“Sure, sure.” Lucille picked up the cage. “Thanks anyway,” she called over her shoulder as she pushed open the front door.

Well, looked like she and Frankie had a parrot now. He would have to get used to it. She thought about what the receptionist had told her about Donna and Maria. That wasn’t very nice of Donna to steal her sister’s beau, but then the way the woman told it, Maria wasn’t exactly Alex’s girlfriend. Just someone he took out from time to time. Maria couldn’t have possibly held a grudge this long.

Chapter 18

Sheesh, she was tired, Lucille thought when she got home. She unloaded the parrot from the backseat and took it into the house. She’d put the cover over it and the bird was blessedly quiet.

Bernadette was sitting at the kitchen table eating a hard-boiled egg topped with mustard and sliced green olives.

“You still getting those cravings?” Lucille asked when she saw her.

“Yes,” Bernadette mumbled around a bite of egg.

“Where’s your father?”

Bernadette pointed to the ceiling. She swallowed. “Taking a nap.”

Lucille opened the refrigerator and looked inside. What could she put together for dinner that didn’t involve a trip to the A&P? She had a package of chicken breasts. She could slice them real thin and make chicken francese. She had a couple of lemons in the produce drawer.

She was closing the door when Bernadette made a funny noise. Lucille looked over and Bernadette was still, one hand on her belly, her eyes shut tight.

“What’s the matter? You getting one of them cramps again?”

Bernadette didn’t say anything—just nodded.

Lucille held her breath until Bernadette looked up.

“Better now?”

“Yes.”

“You been getting those regularly?”

“No. Just the one. I don’t think it’s anything.” Bernadette went back to eating her egg.

Nothing,
Lucille thought. Next thing they knew Bernadette’s water would be breaking and they’d be rushing to the hospital. No point in even thinking about Taylor anymore. She was pining all her hopes on Tony. If only he would get home soon.

Lucille was getting the chicken out of the refrigerator when the bell rang. She wiped her hands on her apron.
Now who could that be?

Frankie was coming down the stairs as Lucille pulled open the front door.

“Flo!”

“I hope you haven’t eaten,” Flo said, brandishing two pizza boxes. “I stopped by Sal’s to say hello to my cousin Joey, and he gave me a couple of pies.”

“That’s great,” Lucille said, relieved that she didn’t have to make no dinner. “Come on in.” She pointed toward the dining room. “Millie, Louis,” she called down the stairs. “Dinner.”

Lucille set out place mats and plates while Flo put the pizza boxes in the middle of the table. She followed Lucille out to the kitchen.

“I ran into Richie, by the way. He was picking up a pizza.”

“Oh.” Lucille tried not to act too interested.

“Yeah. We got to talking and next thing I knew I was agreeing to go out to dinner with him tomorrow night.”

“That’s great, Flo. I don’t think you’ll regret it.”

“We’ll see. It’s just that Dr. Hacker is kind of . . . dull.”

“Yeah, Richie’s got a lot more zip to him than that guy.”

Lucille grabbed a pile of napkins, and she and Flo went back out to the dining room.

“Sit,” she encouraged Millie and Louis, who had come up from downstairs. They reminded Lucille of a couple of moles emerging from a hole in the ground.

Flo helped herself to a slice. “You must be almost as excited as I am,” she said to Bernadette. “Tony’s coming home soon.”

Bernadette shrugged.

“I take it you guys are getting back together. Least that’s what it sounded like in his last email.”

Another shrug from Bernadette.

“Don’t you think the two of them should get married?” Lucille bit the end off her piece of pizza.

“I don’t know what the big deal about getting married is. Lots of people have a family, and none of them’s got a ring on their finger.”

“Yeah, Flo, I know that. But this here’s different. We’re not in Hollywood, you know. People will talk.”

“You have to ignore them, Lucille.” She shuddered. “There was plenty of talk when I came back to Jersey with Tony Jr. and no husband.”

“But that was different. You told everyone you was a widow. Everyone felt sorry for you.”

Frankie munched on his pizza, his head going back and forth between Lucille and Flo like he was at a tennis match. Millie and Louis were silent. Millie picked at her pizza like a bird while Louis was helping himself to a third slice.

“Why don’t you let Tony and I decide what we’re going to do, okay?” Bernadette shoved her chair back and stalked away from the table.

“Well, I’m sorry, I’m sure,” Flo said.

“Don’t pay no attention to her. It’s them hormones. They’re driving her crazy. They’re driving all of us crazy.”

Flo looked slightly mollified.

They were silent when
Yeah, baby
came from the living room.

“What the hell was that?” Flo spun around.

“I thought you were taking that bird back, Lucille.” Frankie flung down his napkin.

“Yeah, baby,” the parrot said again.

“I tried. But the owners, they’re not back yet.”

“I want that thing gone, Lucille. Gone.” Frankie picked up his plate and walked out to the kitchen.

“He’s awfully touchy,” Flo said.

Lucille shrugged. “Yeah. I think we’re all a bit jumpy on account of waiting for the baby.”

“Tomorrow is the funeral for the Grabowskis.” Flo finished the last bite of her pizza.

“Yeah, I heard. So it’s a double funeral.”

Flo nodded. “I wonder if Ippolito’s is giving them a two-for-one?”

“I think maybe I should go,” Lucille said. “After all, we was almost family.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Ma will probably want to go, too. At her age, she don’t get out much so even a funeral is something to look forward to. Besides, she knows old Mrs. DeLucca from church.” Lucille wiped her lips with her napkin. “This whole thing is awful strange, you know? The both of them being murdered like that. It don’t make no sense.”

“I think it was the mob,” Flo said. “Remember those guys at Bernadette’s reception? And the ones who came here looking for Alex?”

“But why kill Donna?”

“As a warning. Then when Alex didn’t pay up . . .” Flo drew a finger across her throat.

“I guess a lot of people lost money on account of him. His neighbors had to sell their house.” Lucille picked up her napkin and began to shred it. “He promised that maid, Natalie, that they were going to go away together, but then he went broke and never even gave her her back pay.”

“That would make me mad enough to kill.” Flo closed up the empty pizza boxes.

“Taylor had no real reason to kill his parents, do you think?”

Flo paused. “Nah, not unless he wanted to speed up his inheritance. Looks like there’s nothing to inherit now.”

“You know, I talked to this lady today, and she told me a little bit about Donna and her sister. How Donna stole Alex from Maria back when they was in their twenties. Said Maria was actually a good sport about it.”

“Not me. I would have ripped her eyes out.” Flo brushed some crumbs off the table into her hand. “But eventually you do get over stuff like that and move on.”

Lucille thought about some of the things she’d had to move past—like the fact that her best friend had run off to Florida and gotten married to a man Lucille never even met. Even after she learned the truth, it still bugged her. But now she’d put it in the past. Obviously Maria had done the same.

“Let’s just hope Taylor shows up for the funeral.” Lucille pushed herself up out of her chair. “If I don’t get rid of that bird, Frankie is going to kill me.”

• • •

Lucille had some time before the funeral so she thought she’d get some housework done. Bernadette was still sleeping, but Lucille knew the vacuum wouldn’t bother her none. She plugged it in and began to sweep the carpets.

She did a little dusting, washed some fingerprints off the glass panels alongside the front door and ran a mop over the kitchen floor. There was still time, so she thought she’d throw in a load of laundry or two.

She went through the clothes, checking for spots. For some reason she always seemed to get one or two on her tops no matter how careful she was. Maybe she ought to start tucking her napkin into her neck instead of putting it on her lap.

She stuck her hand in the pocket of her capris and pulled out a couple of crumpled tissues. Frankie wouldn’t like it none if his black pants came out all covered with bits of lint.

Lucille stuck her hand in the other pocket and found something hard.
What on earth?
Good thing she’d checked. She didn’t need to go putting something important through the wash.

Lucille gasped when she pulled the two pieces of Donna’s cell phone from her pocket. Here she’d gone and forgotten all about it. She felt herself flush all over. How was she going to give it to Richie now? He’d think she’d been holding on to it on purpose. That she had lured Donna to the church and killed her. Her, who felt guilty swatting a fly.

Lucille tried to fit the back onto the cell phone. It was one of them real expensive ones—an i-something. Lucille thought that was an awfully strange name for it. The back snapped into place—at least that worked. Lucille pushed one of the buttons and was relieved when the phone came on. Looks like she hadn’t completely broken it after all. Not that it made much difference. With Donna being dead, she wouldn’t be needing it no more.

Out of curiosity, Lucille punched a couple more buttons and found the call list. There was her phone call all right. Just like Richie said. The one she’d made to Donna before leaving for Macy’s. She hadn’t meant nothing by it. Who knew it would land her in hot water?

There was a long list of callers. Donna must have spent half the day with the phone pressed to her ear. Lucille scanned the list. Nothing interesting. She was about to turn the phone off, when something caught her eye.

Someone had called Donna right before Lucille had, not more than a few minutes before, and it just happened to be Donna’s sister, Maria DeLucca. Was it possible that she . . . ? Lucille switched the phone off. Now she was starting to imagine things. Must be all the stress.

She needed a vacation. Maybe when this was all over, and the baby was here and Bernadette was settled, she and Frankie could go away for a weekend down the shore. It had been a long time since they’d done that. Rita at the beauty parlor had offered to loan Lucille the little condo she and her husband had bought in Wildwood Crest. It was only a couple of blocks from the beach. It would be good for Frankie, too. He’d been working six days a week lately to make ends meet.

Lucille took the cell phone upstairs and tucked it into her dresser drawer under her underwear. Maybe she’d ask Flo what she thought Lucille ought to do. She didn’t want to bother Frankie. He had enough on his plate as it was.

Lucille had a black dress she kept for funerals. It wasn’t the latest style, but she didn’t care and didn’t see any reason to buy a new one. She and Frankie led a casual life that didn’t often call for her to put on a dress.

As she reached into her closet, she noticed the gown she was supposed to have worn for Bernadette’s wedding. Would she ever wear it now?

She slipped into her dress. It was a little snug, but that didn’t matter. As soon as she got serious about this new diet, she would lose weight like crazy.

Flo was picking her up, and then they were going to stop to get Lucille’s mother. Lucille looked at her watch. She’d better hurry.

Lucille was waiting by the door when Flo rang the bell.

“What are you doing with that thing?” Flo asked, pointing at the birdcage at Lucille’s feet.

“If I see Taylor at the service, I’m going to give the bird back to him. I promised Frankie I would get rid of it.”

“I’m not sure I want that in my car.”

“He’s not going to hurt nothing, Flo, relax.”

“I hope not.”

Lucille folded herself in half and slid into the passenger seat of Flo’s Mustang.