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.”Frankie actually looked embarrassed.“I’ve worked hard to cultivate my image.You wouldn’t understand.” Frankie stared off into the corner for a moment, as if wrestling with unpleasant thoughts.Or memories.“No, I don’t understand.You’ve built up a successful import business and are living a perfectly legitimate life.Why act like you’re on the other side of the law?”Frankie leaned forward.“I like having people slightly afraid of me.It makes me feel like I matter.My late father scrubbed dishes in a restaurant and swept floors in a five and dime his entire adult life.People never even noticed him.He didn’t count.It wore him down, and I didn’t want to end up like that.So I started acting a little tougher than I actually felt in school.It was amazing how people treated me differently when they thought they had something to fear.”“That’s what this whole thing is about?”Frankie stood and paced back and forth.He finally stopped and rested his hands on the end of her bed frame.“You don’t have to understand.It may mean nothing to you, but it means everything to me.I’ll do anything to keep my reputation intact.”The words of a desperate man.Desperate enough to kill to keep his secret?“I have another question.What was your wife talking about when she said she knew what you’d done? What did she want you to tell the police?”“Do I have to answer that?” he asked.“One of us is going to talk.Either you tell me what I want to know, or I tell the police what they want to know about what I remember,” Sophia told him.“Your choice.”His sigh was long-suffering.She ignored it.She could wait him out.She wasn’t going anywhere.He’d seen to that.Finally he spoke.“Lily always believed I was involved in.um.an organization, you could say.At least I thought she believed that, I really did, but she was just going along with the charade out of respect to me.” He looked down at his hands.“I went straight to her today when I was granted bail.She told me she loved me the way I was, no pretense needed.You can’t imagine what a treasure that woman is.”“She is truly special.I knew that right away.” She hated to push him on the sensitive subject of his wife, but she had to know.“What exactly did she want you to tell the police?”“Lily wanted me home at the end,” his voice caught and he held up a hand while he composed himself.“She wanted me to tell the police about my true business affairs so they’d release me.”He obviously hadn’t, not based on the acrimony she’d witnessed when he’d spoken with the police captain.“You didn’t because your lawyers got you out first,” she guessed.He nodded.“I’ll worry about everything else later.Right now all I want to do is be with my wife.However, I did feel that I needed to come and check on you, at least.”Sophia couldn’t bring herself to thank him for his concern, not when he was the one who put her here in the first place.But she did understand his wish to be with his wife.“Just a few more questions.It’s important.What was Vincenzo’s reaction when you refused to be blackmailed?”Frankie shrugged.“Moretti was an idiot, a hot head.Everyone knows that.He vowed to get revenge, but he ran out of time, which makes me a lucky man.”“It makes you look guilty.”Frankie shrugged.“No one can prove anything, can they? That’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? It’s about the evidence prosecutors have to build a case with, and how they present the facts to a jury.You see, Miss Mancini, not everything is as it appears.”Sophia decided to try a different approach.“Did you know that Vincenzo was blackmailing your mistress?”“Maria?” Frankie frowned.“What did she tell you?”“You’ll have to ask her.” That should make for some interesting pillow talk.“I have more important things to worry about than Maria Acino.Maria’s part of the--what should I call it?”“Sham?”“Image is the word I was looking for.Having a flashy dame like Maria on my arm was part of the picture I wanted to paint, but my heart’s with my Lily.No question.Always has been, and always will be.”Sophia resisted the urge to take Frankie to task for having a mistress when he had a gem of wife in Lily Vidoni.From the way Primo Quadrelli had spoken, she knew Frankie’s wife wasn’t long for this world.“Then go home to her now.It’s where you belong [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]