Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dan waited until the senator had been escorted from the interview room before expelling a long breath. “I didn’t expect that.”
Gary shook his head. “Christ. Bruno DiFanetti—and Senator Cain.”
Dan tapped the table with his index finger. “Yeah, I’m a little confused about that part.”
“You and me both. I thought I had a handle on that family. Now? I don’t have a clue.”
“We’ll have to bring him in, won’t we? If only to corroborate what the senator told us.” He stood. “I don’t know about you, but I need some coffee. And maybe a little information.”
“What do you want to know?”
“You told me about the DiFanetti family, and both you and Travers made them sound really dirty, but”—he frowned—“it doesn’t add up. Because the demands Bruno made of the senator….”
“I know.” Gary picked up his notepad and pen. “Let’s grab that coffee, and I’ll fill you in on a little family history. I did some research once Gianni emerged as a possible suspect.”
“The coffee will have to wait.” When Gary gave him a quizzical glance, Dan arched his eyebrows. “Travers wants to see you, remember? He wants an update.” Then he stared at the chair where Senator Cain had sat. “He really was good.”
“What do you mean?”
“We didn’t think he was involved in Cheryl’s death.
His concern, his willingness to help us…
. I believed him. And yet it was all a performance, one he’d been instructed to give.
” He sighed. “Except for the part about being in love with her. That felt real. And when he said he’d killed her, he believed that. ”
“I’d better go report to Travers.”
Dan smiled. “I’ll have coffee waiting for when you emerge from the lion’s den.”
They headed for the door, but Gary paused before opening it. “Was it really Lori’s phone call that put you on the right track?”
“Partly. Those pocket doors… there was something about them. And when I realized James Sebring had made them, it was all too much of a coincidence. Then there was that intense curiosity I felt every time I handled the negatives and the photos. Not all of them, just the ones connected to the Caravaggio. And finally….” Dan gazed at him.
“You remember when I stepped back in the art room to get a better look at the Rembrandt, and I almost fell?” Gary nodded.
“Well, in an effort to prevent myself from falling, I put my hand out and touched the hearth.”
Gary’s eyes widened. “Where Cheryl fell and hit her head.”
“Exactly. I didn’t see it happen, but I knew something momentous had taken place.” Dan shivered. “He sat with her, trying to save her, trying not to panic, while he waited for Bruno to show up.”
“He knew it was over between them.” Gary huffed. “I’d better go.” He opened the door and hurried toward Travers’s office.
Dan walked more slowly, his mind turning over the interview with the senator.
He wasn’t how I expected a politician to be. He had the potential to be a truly great man, a force for good.
And all of that potential had been wiped out the minute he laid eyes on a painting.
Dan glanced up as Gary entered their office. “So is Travers happy at how our first cold case concluded?”
“Yes and no.” Gary went over to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup.
“Let me guess. Yes, because we’ve solved the mystery of who killed Cheryl Somers. And no, because it turned out to be a senator.”
Gary sat at his desk. “That pretty much sums it up. But before you start talking about this case being concluded, I think I’d better point out something you seem to have overlooked.”
“Oh?”
Gary looked him in the eye. “How did Cheryl end up in the tunnel, missing her head? Although knowing the DiFanettis, that last part isn’t all that surprising.”
“What’s this family history you were going to fill me in on?” Dan sipped his coffee.
Gary pulled a folder from his desk drawer. “Okay, I think I mentioned before that in the past, the DiFanettis had their fingers in a lot of pies: gambling, narcotics, robbery, loan sharking, extortion, money laundering, smuggling, fraud….”
Dan gaped. “Dear Lord, we are talking organized crime. When exactly was ‘the past’?”
“I think the sixties was their heyday, but they got going in the forties. The head of the family was Gio, Bruno’s father, and popular opinion has it that he was behind all the shit they got up to.”
“Sounds like something straight out of The Godfather.”
Gary chuckled. “Art imitating life, maybe? Anyway, Gio went in ’71. Heart attack. Bruno was thirty at the time, and he took over as head of the family.” Gary leaned back in his chair. “Now, it should have been his older brother, Nico, but he’d been bumped off in 1960 at the age of twenty-two.”
“Bumped off? Someone murdered him?”
“That’s how it looks. You remember Paul DiFanetti?”
Dan shuddered. “I’m not likely to forget him.”
“Well, Paul was the youngest brother. Three years younger than Bruno.”
“Wait a minute. The way you just described Bruno’s father…. From what the senator said, Bruno doesn’t seem to be a chip off the old block.”
Gary nodded slowly. “There have been signs that times are changing. From all accounts, Paul is a lot like his dad, but he’s had to toe the line.
” He tapped the folder. “I did some digging. Lately if the DiFanetti name pops up in anything dirty, it’s usually linked to Paul, not Bruno.
Which is why I found it easy to believe Paul might have had Cheryl taken out. ”
“And now?” Dan could easily have believed Paul to be the culprit.
“After everything I heard in that interview, it sounds as though Bruno is trying to change the DFF group’s rep.
All that stuff the senator was asked to support?
Maybe Bruno is trying to go legit. A lot of people’s perceptions of the family are based on the past, and it could be he wants to change all that. ”
Dan frowned. “Now hold on there. Are you saying the senator and Bruno are good guys? Seriously? Then explain the painting. You think Bruno happened to have it lying around? Think about the timing. The museum heist took place March 18, 1990. Then Bruno approached the senator in July.” He folded his arms. “We need to know what happened after Bruno took Cheryl away from the senator’s house. ”
Gary nodded. “I agree. Which is why we’re going to bring Bruno in for a little chat. Maybe he has the answers. Because we don’t have them all yet.”
“When will you bring him in?”
“Tomorrow morning, first thing.”
Dan cocked his head. “And when do you think Senator Cain will make bail?”
“That lawyer of his will have him out of that cell before the end of the day. I guarantee it.”
“So he’ll be free to go back to the house and wait for the hammer to fall.
Only this time he won’t have his Rembrandt to gaze at.
” Dan stilled. “I think it lost its luster when Cheryl died. Because can you imagine how he felt every time he looked at it? It would be a reminder of the night he lost the woman he loved.”
“He lost more than that,” Gary murmured. When Dan gazed at him inquiringly, he gave a sad smile. “I think that night… he lost a piece of his soul.”