Chapter 19

© Copyright 2007 by Elizabeth Delayne



And FBI agent was walking around the edge of the property, nearly blending in with the trees. That one, Jason knew, at least knew what he was doing. Before joining the FBI he’d worked with special forces. He’d been trained to find what no one else could.

They knew Joe Rossi had been in the woods, close enough to see the house, to watch Nicole. Still, they hadn’t been able to track him. It made Jason think back to his youth. Joe Rossi had been tough and mean, at times ... and others as smooth as a block of ice. He had charmed Amelia, and seemed to love her in his own way. It wasn’t until after his death that he’d seemed to snap ... and had brought his dealings into the family, so to speak.

Jason had always thought of Joe Rossi as city born and bred. What did he really know of his father?

There had been long periods, months at a time, that Joe had simply disappeared. Jason had assumed that his father had been off finding work in the city. But he wondered. What had Joe Rossi taught him of New York? They hadn’t gone to baseball games, like most father and son teams would have done. He’d gotten his city routes, and his rural dreams, from his mother. Amelia Rossi had been New York born and bred.

Had she married Joe Rossi because of her own dreams?

“Jason–“ Nicole walked in to his office from the kitchen where she was teaching Trisha how to make lasagne the way Mrs. Cambise had taught her.

Jason turned to look at her from his place the that computer. He wasn’t working. He was just staring out the picture window thinking, deep in thought, as he had been all day.

“Did you ever work with Joe outside of New York?”

For a moment, she just stared at him. He’d taken her off gaurd, taken her back—obviously, by the look on her face—to a place she didn’t want to go.

She shook her head. “We ... pulled off a few small jobs around the city. Worked with Nino, his cousin who runs electronics.”

“Never to the country side? Never to ... other places?”

“Sometimes,” she said slowly as her hand trembled. “Sometimes, when I was younger, and he was teaching me to pick pockets ... sometimes we would drive to some small mall outside of New York. He had friends out there. Places we would stay. But eventually, he stopped taking me with him. Why?”

“Just trying to figure out how he’s staying so under cover. What was he doing? Where was he going when he disappeared for so long. This is not the city.”

“Maybe his girlfriend has some clue,” Nicole wondered. “She doesn’t strike me as the wait around type of woman. She wants something. If he’s still hanging out around here, she must be getting impatient for some money of some sort.”

“I’ll mention that to the Feds.”

But he knew they had already questioned the girlfriend. She claimed not to know anything, that he was a businessman, that he traveled a lot.

She had some ties to Joe that had kept her around despite his long absences. And she’d been the point person with Dusty for the social worker.

“Jason ...”

Jason looked back and realized he’d tuned her out. She’d been the one to come in to talk to him.

“Trisha and I were talking. Monday is labor day. Dusty is scheduled to come home this weekend.”

He nodded. He was thinking about the same thing. Among the other deep, dark, worries.

“Don’t you think we need to make some other arrangements for him?”

Jason slowly shook his head. “He already feels like we’ve shipped him off. Separated him from the family. He misses you.”

“We could visit. Take him somewhere.”

“This time, but what about next? Our father’s not going anywhere until he gets what he wants. Whatever he wants—and I don’t think it’s just the jewels. If it were he could have gotten to them by now.”

“But he doesn’t know where they are.”

“He doesn’t have to know where they are. He should have made a move by now. It doesn’t make sense to just stick around.”

“Unless he’s picking up some business in other cities.”

“Possibly,” Jason sighed. “I don’t know what to do, Nicole. We tell Dusty about what’s going on, then he becomes even more worried about you. And he if gets scared, he runs. He disappears. He knows how to do both.”

“In the city maybe.”

“Look at what our father’s accomplished. What you accomplished. Besides, the counselor there is pretty firm that we need to establish consistency. A home life here, with us.”

“But he could ...”

“I promised him, Nicole. I made a promise to Dusty. I can’t let that go now,” he studied her eyes. “I’ve already done that once, and I can’t go back.”

Nicole sighed and dropped down in the chair opposite him. “Jason ...”

“Our father won’t touch Dusty. We just won’t let him. We’ll be around him. The FBI will be here, banking on your fears that he will come out. That he will finally make some move. And Julie will be here.”

“Julie?”

“It was Gabriel’s idea. She’s a trained observer. Trained to protect herself and others. And she can communicate with Dusty almost as good as you.”



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