From Mangia to Murder (A Sophia Mancini ~ Little Italy Mystery) Read online

  Summoning all the strength she could, she fought to speak, desperate to make her words reach him. He was her last hope.

  “Tiernan.”

  And then no more words would come. Her strength failed her, and she was delivered into darkness.

  ***

  When she finally woke, it was dark. The only light in the room came from the tiny table lamp by her bed. She was back in her hospital bed.

  And someone was with her. A hand gently covered hers.

  She wiggled her fingers. Thank God she could move again. She wanted to weep with relief.

  “Oh, Blessed Mary, thank you.” Tiernan drew his free hand across his tired face. “Shh ... don’t try to talk.” With a squeeze so gentle she might have only imagined it, he slipped his hand from hers. She immediately missed the warmth of his touch. “Let me get your brother. He’s in a conference with the doctor.” He rose to his feet.

  Sophia grabbed for his sleeve and shook her head. He sat again, pulling his chair closer to the bed.

  “This may be the most difficult thing you’ve ever been asked to do, Miss Mancini, but I am begging you, for the love of God, to be silent.” He paused for a moment. “The doctor assures us you’ll be fine. But you’re bound to be in great pain for days.”

  “Eugene?” She managed to say, hardly believing the raspy sound came from her. She wanted to say so much more, but that one word alone hurt like the devil.

  A slow, exasperated expression spread across her companion’s face. “I should have known you’d not be able to go thirty seconds without asking a question. I’m now giving you a direct order to be silent. Understand?”

  Sophia nodded.

  “Eugene Gallo is in jail. He’s been booked in on three counts of attempted murder.”

  Tiernan had saved her. She remembered Eugene drugging her and trying to take her from the hospital. He’d actually gotten her out the door and halfway down the front steps. He would have killed her, too. She didn’t doubt that. Except that Captain McIntyre had arrived.

  “The fact you never seem to do as you’re told probably saved your life this time. If you’d eaten the whole sandwich like you were supposed to, you wouldn’t be here now.”

  Sophia started to say something, but he held up his hand to forestall her words. “Don’t talk,” he cautioned her. “I can see you’re about to start with the questions. You’re going to have to wait to hear everything else when your brother believes you’re well enough to hear it.” He looked at her for a long moment, a knowing expression on his face. “You’ve a thousand questions, haven’t you?”

  She shook her head. No. Just something she desperately wanted to say. ‘Thank you,’ she silently mouthed the words, knowing they were completely inadequate for what he’d done for her.

  “You’re most welcome.” He smiled, a warm, gentle expression. “I’ll go get your brother. Angelo’s been half crazed with worry.”

  After he was gone, Sophia realized she’d been right. He was handsome when he smiled. She lay back against the pillows. Vincenzo’s killer was in jail. Justice would be done.

  Or so it would seem. But something wasn’t right. Hadn’t Tiernan just said three counts of attempted murder? She was fairly certain he had--the three obviously being Mooch, Stella, and herself. But what about Vincenzo? She vaguely recalled Eugene’s insistence that he didn’t kill Vincenzo. He could be lying. Or not. She couldn’t take a chance.

  She threw back her blanket and swung her legs over the side of the bed, waiting a moment for the room to stop spinning. She needed to find her clothes and get out of the hospital before her brother came to sit with her. She didn’t have time to try to convince Angelo she was right.

  Not only did she think she knew who the killer was, she also had an idea who they were going to kill next.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Can’t you make that dog stop barking?” Sophia nudged Mooch and pointed to the Vidoni Doberman.

  Her throat burned like a raging wildfire, but she’d worry about it later. She had bigger problems right now, like the snarling, insanely hostile animal not ten feet from her. It was either going to lunge over the fence at them, or awaken everyone in the house. Neither scenario was good.

  Mooch glanced over his shoulder at the dog. “No.”

  “No what?” she hissed.

  “I can’t make it quiet. That’s why I like cats.”

  He turned his attention back to the house and Sophia did the same. The full moon cast enough light to drive them into hiding behind a giant oak tree until they could figure out a way into the house.

  And she’d thought sneaking out of the hospital was going to be the hard part. Surprisingly easily, she’d managed to slip out of the room while Angelo was in conference with the doctor. Mooch had been more than willing to break out of the hospital when she’d told him of her plan. For a big man, he could move fast.

  “So how do we get in?” she prompted him.

  “Just wait.”

  She hated waiting. Hated it. Especially tonight. They didn’t have much time before the murderer struck again.

  “Wait for what?” she had to ask.

  “If the dog keeps barking, Tino will come out and take it for a walk.” Mooch turned to frown at her. “Don’t your throat hurt?”

  “Yes, but being quiet hurts more.”

  He looked at her like she was crazy. “Go make the dog bark louder.”

  “Why?”

  His answering frown was so ferocious that she decided she didn’t need an explanation. With a quick glance at the house, she moved toward the fence. Amazed that her body was actually obeying her mind again, she issued a short but fervent prayer of gratitude that she’d survived Eugene’s attempt to poison her.

  She stared at the Doberman. It now had the audacity to stand growling at her, loud enough to unnerve her, but not loud enough to bother anyone in the house. Rotten beast. Why had it stopped barking? And how was she supposed to make it start again?

  “Hurry up,” Mooch ordered her.

  “Who’s an ugly doggy?” she crooned. “Who’s not going to get a steak tonight?”

  The beast bared his teeth and deepened his growl.

  There was nothing for it. If she had to sacrifice a limb, so be it. She charged the fence, grabbed ahold of the chain link, and rattled it for all she was worth. It worked. Her efforts were rewarded with an explosion of deafening barking.

  Mission accomplished, Sophia darted back behind the tree just as a side door opened and Tino came charging out of the house.

  “Zitto,” he shouted. The dog continued its vocal assault and lunged at the fence, ignoring the command to be silent. “You’ll get your cursed walk, just hold on a minute.”

  Sophia aged five years in the five minutes it took Tino to get the dog settled enough to leash it. She was terrified it would come charging at them the moment it was out of the pen. It did its level best, but Tino, bless his clueless heart, held tight and pulled the dog in the opposite direction. The coast was clear.

  Once they were in the house, Sophia followed Mooch’s lead. He knew the house like the back of his hand.

  As they’d planned, Mooch led her to a downstairs telephone. She dialed home and almost cried with relief when her grandfather answered.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” His standard after-dark greeting came through the receiver.

  “Grandpa, it’s me Sophia. I need your help.”

  “Sophia?” He sounded incredulous. “Put your brother on the phone.”

  “There’s no time, Grandpa. Listen carefully, and please, please just do as I ask. I’ll explain later.”

  “Put a nurse on the phone.”

  “I’m not in the hospital.” She held the phone away from her ear as he let loose a torrent of angry words.

  Mooch snatched the phone from her. Holding her at arm’s length so she couldn’t grab it back, he spoke into the handset. “If you ever want to see Sophia alive again. then be quiet and do as you’re told.”


  Sophia frantically waved for him to stop, but Mooch ignored her. This wasn’t a part of the plan. What was he doing?

  “When I hang up the phone, you call Frankie Vidoni at his home. No, I don’t care how late it is. You want Sophia back or not? Say these exact words to Frankie, ‘Sophia needs to meet you immediately at the warehouse. She has proof you didn’t kill Vincenzo, and she knows who did’.”

  Sophia bit her lip as she watched Mooch listen to her grandfather. This was not a good time for one of Grandpa’s lectures, although Mooch deserved it for deviating from the plan without consulting her. She impatiently gestured for him to give her back the phone.

  “Help me, Grandpa, and just do what he asks. Someone’s life depends on it.” She then did the unthinkable and hung up the phone, cutting her grandfather off in mid-sentence. She’d never imagined living this dangerously.

  They stepped back into the shadows and waited for Grandpa to come through for her. Two Hail Marys later, the phone rang. It wasn’t a full three minutes later that Frankie ran down the staircase and slammed out the front door. She couldn’t make out exactly what he’d been muttering, but she was sure she’d heard her name.

  When they heard Frankie’s car peel out of the driveway, they hurried upstairs. There was no telling how long Frankie would be gone, or when Tino would return.

  Sophia paused outside of Lily Vidoni’s bedroom, and took a deep breath before turning the door knob. She stepped into the room and looked for Frankie’s wife. The bed was empty, but a motionless Mrs. Vidoni was on the chaise by the window.

  Her eyes now adjusted to the dim light, Sophia’s heart almost stopped beating when she saw the figure of the night nurse by the window. Her back to the door, she was bent over a table and didn’t turn. Thank God she hadn’t heard the door open.

  “Maria.”

  The nurse whipped around, a startled cry betraying her surprise.

  “It’s over, Maria.” Sophia struggled to keep her voice level, wanting to give the appearance of complete calm, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Her nerves were as twisted as a mid-summer southern tornado.

  “Sophia? Is that you? You sound like hell. What are you doing here?”

  “I’m here to stop you.”

  Silence. Sophia could almost hear Maria’s panicked thoughts race.

  “You shouldn’t have come here.” She took a step forward, her right hand behind her back.

  “Not another step, Maria, I’ve got a gun.” Technically untrue, but she would as soon as Mooch found one, and came back to help her. What was taking him so long?

  “You’re a stupid, stupid girl, Sophia Mancini, and you’re making a big mistake. You have no idea what you’ve done by showing up here.”

  “Stay back.” Sophia edged toward the chaise lounge, wanting to protect Mrs. Vidoni. She glanced quickly at the prone figure. Panic gripped her heart. What if Lily was dead? But no, Maria would have already disappeared. She must still be alive.

  “You can’t stop me, Sophia.” The moonlight provided a clear view of Maria’s face, contorted in rage as it was.

  “Maybe no one has stopped you before, but time’s up, Maria. You’re not going to kill one more person. I’m not going to let you.”

  “I thought I’d gotten lucky when I heard you were poisoned. I was grateful someone took care of you for me. But you couldn’t even die could you?”

  Where in heavens name was Mooch? It wasn’t a part of their plan for Sophia to be left alone with an insane woman--a dangerous, murderous insane woman at that.

  “How exactly do you plan to stop me?” Maria took another step closer, clearly gaining confidence. “If I could plunge a knife into Vincenzo’s back, then how do you think you can stop me from injecting you with this?” She held up a syringe. “There’s more than enough morphine in here for you and the soon-to-be late Mrs. Vidoni.”

  “Even if you do kill us, Frankie’s not going to marry you.” Sophia scrambled for something to stall her, all the while praying Mooch would get back with the gun he’d said he had in his desk. “Frankie was using you.”

  Maria’s laugh was sharp and harsh. “All men use women, you idiot. The key is to use them back and finish with them first.”

  “Frankie can’t save you.”

  “He can and he will. He’ll buy a judge or pay off the police, or whatever it is he does.”

  Maria sounded so confident that Sophia decided not to enlighten her that Frankie couldn’t buy her anything more than an illusion. Her job was to stall Maria, not drive her right over the edge. Not when she held a lethal dose of morphine in her hand.

  “Why not just wait until Frankie’s a widower? It won’t be long. You know that. I know it was you that visited Quadrelli’s funeral home.” She didn’t know, but what was a lie in time of need?

  Maria snorted. “I might well have waited if you hadn’t forced my hand. It all could have ended with Vincenzo’s death. But no, you had to play idiot girl detective.”

  Sophia decided to be ladylike enough to ignore that bit of nastiness. “What about the bloody jacket the police found? You did that. How did you think Frankie was going to marry you if you sent him up the river?”

  “I needed it to keep my dress clean. After I stabbed Vincenzo I left the restaurant by the side door and stashed Frankie’s jacket in the alley before going back into the restaurant by the front door. The jacket was a temporary distraction, that’s all. I could have pinned the murder on Eugene if you’d kept your damn mouth shut and stayed out of it.”

  “Were you and Eugene in on this together?” Sophia asked. In a morbid way she was fascinated by the idea that Maria thought she could get away with killing a man. “Are you two a couple?”

  Maria laughed--a scornful, wicked sound. “Eugene Gallo is a patsy. A weaker man God never created. No. He must have figured out Vincenzo’s blackmail scheme and decided to take it over.

  All he cares about is his precious restaurant and the cash he needs to keep it going.”

  Sophia knew she had to keep Maria talking until Mooch got back. Less than ten feet separated her from certain death.

  “How did you do it? How did you manage to sneak up on Vincenzo? He was so much bigger and stronger than you are.”

  “Vincenzo didn’t take me seriously. Like every other man I’ve ever known, he didn’t fully appreciate my intelligence.” She inched toward Sophia, her eyes as intense as a venomous snake poised to strike. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Why did you have to kill him? You two could have gone on blackmailing each other in peace. Vincenzo wouldn’t have wanted to go to jail for bigamy.”

  “Stop saying his name,” Maria snapped. “You don’t understand what a monster he was.”

  “Tell me.” Keep talking, Sophia willed her. Just don’t move any closer.

  “He wouldn’t have gone to jail, because he never remarried.”

  “Of course he did. He married Stella.” Where in God’s name was that miserable Mooch? “He’d have been in as much trouble as you if the truth came out.”

  Maria shook her head vehemently. “That’s what we were arguing about at the restaurant. He never legally married Stella. He hired a fake priest to perform a wedding ceremony, and stupid Stella signed a fake marriage license. So he wasn’t guilty of bigamy. But I was.” She took a menacing step forward, drawing her arm back and lifting the syringe. “So you know everything now, you infuriating busybody.”

  “Why was Vincenzo so angry if he had nothing to fear? You were the one who faced jail time, not him.”

  “I told him I’d do whatever I had to do to ruin him, to publically humiliate him,” Maria snarled. “I told him he’d lose his stupid restaurant. That’s when he lost his temper.”

  Over the sound of her thundering heartbeat, Sophia heard Lily stir.

  “Frankie?” Lily’s voice was weak, only half lucid. “Sweetheart?”

  Sophia’s response was drowned out by the sound of Mooch bursting into the room.<
br />
  “Mooch, be careful, she’s got a syringe filled with--” Sophia didn’t have time to finish her warning.

  In fascinated horror she watched as Mooch crossed the room, grabbed Maria’s arm and twisted it behind her back before bringing the gun down on her head. With an anguished cry, Maria slumped and would have fallen to the floor, but Mooch held her up with one hand, her limp body dangling like a rag doll.

  “Oh my God, Mooch, what did you do?” Sophia shrieked. “Did you kill her?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I’ve done this before and never killed no one yet.”

  Sophia covered her face with her hands. This had to be a hallucination. She had to be back in the hospital. It had to be the painkillers.

  “Go call the police. The phone’s on the table at the end of the hall.” Mooch frowned when she hesitated. “Move.”

  With only a backwards glance at a still-groggy Lily and an unconscious Maria, Sophia stepped carefully over the syringe and ran to the phone.

  If this was a nightmare, she wanted to make the call for help before she woke up.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The custody hearing wasn’t until the next day, but Sophia awoke in the morning to face a jury of her peers gathered around her hospital bed. Their dour expressions left her no doubt she’d been tried and convicted while she’d slept.

  “I can explain.” She looked from Angelo, to her grandfather, to Andrea, and finally to Francesca. Only Luciano smiled at her.

  She patted the empty space next to her, and he climbed up onto the bed and snuggled beside her. There. Now she could face the world.

  “You can explain how you snuck out of the hospital without a word to anyone and then went alone to confront an insane woman who has already killed at least one man?” Her grandfather’s voice was level and calm--not a good sign under the circumstances. “Impressive.”