Текст книги "A Few Broken Rules"
Автор книги: Kate Kane
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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
Chapter 32
Tanner met Ben and Jamie in the lobby at 8:30 a.m. He gave them the keys to his SUV and arranged to meet them at the hotel when they were finished.
As he drove, Ben looked at his son. “It’ll be pretty much the same process as the statement you gave in K.C. earlier in the week. You won’t have to go over any of the background, just tell them what happened last night.”
Jamie nodded; they’d gone over this last night. His phone had been burning up half the night with text messages and phone calls from friends and teammates but he’d ignored them just as Ben had told him. Ben had told him it was important not to talk to anyone else until after he’d given his official statement. It was still surreal; Lucas Evans’ father tried to poison Justin and killed Coach Ferguson just to ensure Lucas was able to secure a scholarship.
“They’ll type up your statement and have you sign it. They’ll take him back to K.C. to for arraignment on the murder charge, probably an attempted murder charge too for Justin. In addition, if he doesn’t cop a plea, you’ll have to testify at the trial. If he’s smart, he’ll take whatever the DA offers though.”
“Dad, what’s going to happen to Lucas? None of this is his fault.”
Ben smiled at Jamie. “Bambino, there are rules for everything. Society can’t function without them. Lucas’ dad tried to take a short cut and when rules are broken, people usually get hurt. Sadly, it’s often an innocent bystander. It might take a while, but Lucas and the rest of his family will be okay.”
Epilogue
On Saturday morning, Jamie and his father went to the St. Louis Police headquarters, where Jamie made his statement. Much to Lucas Evans’ chagrin, assault charges were not being filed against Jamie Parker; they were being filed against him. He had hit Jamie first; Jamie had only acted in self-defense. Then there were those annoying first-degree murder and attempted murder charges in Kansas City. Jamie would have to testify unless a public defender could convince Evans to take a plea. For now, though, Jamie and his siblings were safe.
Lane and Ben had flown to Chicago to tell Phillip Parker that Jamie wasn’t really his son. After Phillip left Lane for Ralphie, the real love of his life, he hadn’t had much involvement with his children. And, while Lane felt she needed to tell Phillip that Jamie wasn’t his son, she was fairly certain that he wouldn’t be upset by the revelation.
Now, here she sat with Ben, in a restaurant at the Hanover Hotel in Chicago. They were waiting to meet Phillip and his fiancé Ralphie, so they could break the news. Lane, who was an executive officer at a wireless telecommunications company, had survived union negotiations, multiple lay-offs, a couple of mergers, and years of rearing teenagers, but she’d never been in a situation like this before. She had rehearsed, re-written, and re-rehearsed the speech in her head multiple times over the last several hours. And, if she was honest with herself, she still had no real idea of what she was going to say.
While she’d spoken to Phillip concerning the Parker Kids over the years, she hadn’t seen him since the night he walked out of the bedroom they had shared. He hadn’t even shown up at the divorce hearing, he’d only sent his lawyer. Lane had just finished telling Ben that she wasn’t even sure she’d recognize him when she saw him across the room.
Phillip was six feet two inches tall and appeared quite thin. He had hazel eyes and very long eyelashes, and the last time she’d seen him, he’d had short, neatly styled sandy blonde hair. As he stood at the entrance, scanning the room for Lane, she noticed that his hair was now silver. She saw him speak to his companion, a man who was a couple of inches shorter, maybe about six feet tall. The companion, who must be Ralphie, carried a few extra pounds and had longish, rather shaggy, light brown hair with blonde highlights. She saw Phillip nod in her direction and the two men walked toward them.
Ben noticed Lane tense a bit and followed her gaze to the two men walking toward their table. He squeezed her hand and whispered, “Ti Amo, mia Bella.”
Ben stood as the men neared their table and held Lane’s chair as she stood. Lane took Phillip’s hand, and did formal introductions.
“Phillip, this is my husband, Ben Bellini. Ben, Phillip Parker.”
Phillip shook Ben’s hand and introduced Ralphie, “Lane, this is my fiancé, Ralph Easterbrook. Ralph, my ex-wife, Lane and her husband Ben Bellini.”
Ralphie went around the table and pulled Lane into a hug, “I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you.”
Ralphie released her and reached for Ben’s hand. He stood back as he shook Ben’s hand and looked Ben over closely. Ben was six feet four inches tall and had a muscular physique under his very expensive custom made shirt and Brioni suit.
Ralphie released Ben’s hand, looked at Phillip, and smiled, “She’s beautiful.” He glanced at Ben and then back to Phillip. “But then, so is he,” he said turning toward Ben and winking.
Lane had caught the wink and noticed that Ben seemed completely unaffected as he gestured to the chairs. “Please, let’s sit.”
Ben held Lane’s chair as she sat, and waited for their guests to sit before taking his own seat. He and Lane sat adjacent to one another and Ralphie took the seat next to Ben, across from Lane, leaving Phillip the seat next to Lane and across from Ben.
Nearly immediately after Phillip and Ralphie sat, the wait staff descended on the table. On the one hand, Lane and Ben were used to this kind of attentive service, but that was in Kansas City where Ben was sort of famous; they weren’t sure what was going on here, until Ralphie explained.
“I’m the head chef here. I hope you don’t mind if I order for everyone.” Ralphie said as he ordered dinner and wine for the table. He ordered a bottle of Merlot from L & B Vigneto and looked from Lane to Ben. “It’s from a small vineyard in Sicily. They have marvelous wines; we just started carrying them. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”
Ben smiled, he was sure he would too, after all, his sister Marie Terese was an excellent vintner. He wondered whether Ralphie knew it was his family’s label or perhaps it was merely a happy coincidence.
Lane didn’t want to waste any time and decided to jump right into the reason she and Ben had come to Chicago.
She smiled at Phillip. It was true that the way he left had been very difficult to deal with, but that was eighteen years ago. She’d had a lot of time to get over the shock. She really felt no anger or animosity.
“Congratulations on your engagement. I know you and Ralphie want the kids there, and I’ll pave the way for you the best I can. But, there’s something I need to tell you.” She took a breath. There was no easy way to say this. “Jamie isn’t your son.”
Phillip looked at his ex-wife. During their years together, he’d never had any reason to doubt Lane’s fidelity, even for an instant. Was she telling him now that she’d been unfaithful?
Phillip looked at Lane, “Lane, don’t be ridiculous. You haven’t got an unfaithful cell in your body.”
Ben gave her hand a squeeze, “What she’s saying is that she got pregnant with Jamie after the two of you split up.”
Lane nodded, “Yes, it really doesn’t matter how it happened, but I got pregnant with Jamie after you left.”
Phillip was processing the information. He was an accountant and everything was about number crunching with him. Lane had given birth to all of their children before her due date and he had never thought there was a need to do any math concerning Jamie. Besides, the child support settlement had been determined for just two children, Jake and Jess. After she found out she was pregnant, Lane hadn’t asked for any more money. Thus, there was no reason at all to discuss this. He’d run the numbers and could see no impact to anything.
A tone of annoyance clearly in Phillip’s voice, he asked, “And why are you telling me this now?”
Lane suddenly remembered Phillip and his need to bottom line everything and replied, “The bottom line is that I just found out and felt you had a right to know.”
“Very well, now you’ve told me.” Phillip replied somewhat dismissively as he reached for his glass of Merlot.
He hadn’t asked anything about Jamie’s biological father. The truth was that he’d had very little to do with his children after he’d gone to Chicago to be with Ralphie and Lane wasn’t sure what else there was to say on the matter. She leaned toward Ben and whispered, “I wish I could speak Italian.”
She looked at Phillip and excused herself to use the restroom. Ralphie jumped up and offered to go with her.
He smiled at Phillip. “You know we like to go in groups,” he said as he stood and motioned for Lane to follow him.
Ben stood and helped Lane out of her chair.
Phillip had sized Ben up immediately and had decided that he was much younger than Lane. Despite his expensive looking clothing, Ben was too attentive toward Lane. Obviously, Bellini was a gigolo of some sort. Just have you gotten yourself into, Lane? He thought, and as he swirled the wine in his glass he asked, “Tell me, Bellini, what is it that you do?”
Ben had known for years that Phillip was an ass; he just hadn’t known how much of an ass he was. Ben smiled his mega-watt smile. “I’m an attorney.” Furthermore, you pompous ass, I can play this game much better than you can.
*****
Lane followed Ralphie’s directions as the two of them made their way toward the rest rooms. She opened the door to the Ladies’ room, half-expecting Ralphie to follow her. But, as she pushed the door open, she heard Ralphie say, “I’ll wait here to escort you back to the table.”
Hadn’t he said he needed the restroom too? The door closed behind her and she found herself in a luxurious lounge. She pushed through the second door and entered the restroom. She pushed through a third door and entered one of the bathroom stalls. Pregnancy made her feel like her bladder was about the size of a walnut. She quickly finished her business, washed her hands and left the ladies’ room, as usual without even bothering to check her hair and makeup.
As promised, Ralphie was standing outside the door waiting for her. He took her hand and tucked it into the crook of his elbow, and patted it as he spoke. “You mustn’t mind Phillip. He loves the children; he’s just not good at showing how he feels. Surely you remember how reserved he can be.”
Dear Lord, it’s been eighteen years. She thought, as she nodded. Sure Ralphie was in love with Phillip; had been for nearly twenty years. And, maybe he had learned something, which either she never knew or had forgotten, about pertaining to Phillip’s complete and utter lack of emotion. No matter, she was happily married to a wonderful man who had no problem at all in showing her and telling her how he felt.
“I notice you aren’t drinking.” Ralphie said as they made their way back to the table. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” He asked giving her hand a little squeeze.
Lane stopped, dead in her tracks.
If Phillip was reserved and had difficulty showing his emotions, then Ralphie was apparently his polar opposite. He was practically gushing. “I’m so excited for you and Ben. Are the kids excited about having another brother or sister?” He asked, as he continued walking, pulling Lane along as he went. He didn’t seem to notice or care that Lane hadn’t responded to either question.
As they approached the table, Ben stood, pulled Lane’s chair out and helped her sit.
“Did you boys have a chance to bond while we were gone?” Ralphie asked as he sat.
Italian Translations
Ti amo: I love you
Il bambino trova un corpo a scuola, vieni con me: the bambino found a body at school come with me.
Qual è la linea della partita di campionato? What’s the line on the championship game?
È rockhurst u. a 2 touchdown perché ciò che sta accadendo?: It's Rockhurst by 2, why what’s up? You want to place a bet?
Non hai sentito che l'allenatore di calcio è stato ucciso oggi? Sarà che cambia nulla?: No, have you heard that the football coach was killed today? Will that change things?
Che potrebbe cambiare le cose.: That could change things.
Grazie: Thank-you
Il ragazzo ha trovato un uomo morto?: The boy found the body?
Sì, e il giorno prima un altro giocatore è stato avvelenato. Ma lui è vivo: Yesterday another player was poisoned but he’s alive.
Egli aveva appena lasciato la bambino: he had just left the Bambino
Basta: Enough!
Il Sig. Bellini. Ho il piacere di incontrarvi.: Mr. Bellini, it is my pleasure to meet you.
Sono onorato di essere nel mio ristorante: It is an honor to have you in my restaurant.
Mio nipote: My Grandson
Forse, dare loro il mio numero di cellulare. Vedremo cosa siamo in grado di lavorare fuori: Maybe, give them my cell number. We’ll see what we can work out.
TI amo, mia bella: I love you my beautiful.
“Nipote, rilassarsi, L'angelo è bello: Nephew, relax, the Angel is fine.
Abbiamo bisogno di arrivare al parcheggio est. il killer è il mio figlio: We need to get to the east parking lot, the killer has my son.
Kate answers your questions
Some of you have asked about paper books so you can flip back and forth to the Italian translations. Sadly, I don’t see that in my immediate future. You may have noticed that with this book, I have created bookmarks to the translations so you can click (or touch) it and go to the translation and back to the story.
If you like reading about the Parkers, Bellinis, and Lucianos and their adventures, tell your friends and consider reviewing the books in Amazon or at https://www.goodreads.com
If you have comments, you can contact the author via email at [email protected]. It may take a while, but Kate answers all of the email from her readers.
Nebraska Hand and Foot Canasta Rules
Nebraska Hand and Foot Canasta is similar to Hand and Foot Canasta and may be played by any number of players from 3 to as many as will fit around your table.
The Decks: 1 deck for each player + 1 deck (for 3 players 4 decks are used.) You may add additional decks as needed if you run low in the Draw Pile.
The Deal: Each player deals his own cards to himself. Each player picks up a small pile of roughly 22 cards from either of the two piles. Each player then deals his cards in front of him into two piles of eleven cards each. If the player picked up exactly 22 cards on the first try then he gets 100 bonus points added to his score. If he has less than 22 cards he picks up more, as needed, from either of the two main decks. If he has more than 22 cards then the extra cards are returned to the main pile.
The Play: For the 1st round, select a player to go first. For rounds 2 -4, the player with the lowest score will go first. The aim is to get rid of cards from your hand, and then from your foot, by melding them.
Using your Hand and Foot: Each player selects one pile of cards and uses it as his/her first hand. You must meld all of the cards in your 1st hand before you can look at the cards in your 2nd hand (the “Foot”.)
The Draw: Each player either draws 2 cards from the draw pile or picks up the discard pile then discards 1 card into the discard pile.
Picking up the Discard Pile: In order to pick up the pile, you must be able to play the top card, you must have your meld without using the card showing on the top of the discard pile. You must also have 2 cards to go with the card on the top of the discard pile (so if the top card is a King, you must have 2 Kings or a King and a Wild Card) in your hand.
Melding: A meld is a set of from three to seven cards of equal rank placed face up on the table. A meld cannot have fewer than three cards or more than seven. After a meld of three or more cards has been started you can add further cards to it until there are seven. You can make a meld of cards of any rank from A down to 4. The remaining cards cannot be melded in the normal way. Twos and jokers are "wild cards" and can be used as substitutes in melds, as long as there are more real cards of the rank of the meld than wild cards.
Points per Card:
Card
Value
3♦, 3♥
Negative 500 points
3♣, 3♠
Negative 5 points
4, 5, 6, 7
Positive 5 point
8, 9, 10, J, Q, K
Positive 10 points
2 (Wild), A
Positive 20 points
Joker (Wild)
Positive 50 points
Points for Books:
Clean Book (no wilds)
Positive 500 points
Dirty Book (with wilds)
Positive 300 points
Wild Book (all wilds)
Positive 1500 points
Meld Per Round:
Round 1
50 Points
Round 2
90 Points
Round 3
120 Points
Round 4
150 Points
Going out: To go out, you must have at least 1 clean book and 1 dirty book. And you must have a discard.
Scoring: After a player goes out, each player then counts their points using the above chart. Any cards left in a player’s hand (including red threes and wild cards) are deducted from the score for a total.
Winning: The player with the highest score at the end of the 4 rounds wins the game.
Preview – Buried Secrets
Chapter 1
Ben Bellini had wrapped up the Garcia trial, getting the verdict of not guilty that he expected, keeping his perfect record intact. It wasn’t a surprise; it never was. Rosella Garcia had killed her abusive ex-boyfriend in self-defense and the jury had deliberated only for an hour before returning the verdict. He’d left the courthouse, gone to his office to drop off some things, and headed to the building site.
It was only 5:30 p.m. but it was full on dark. Ben shook his head and retrieved a flashlight from the console of his Lincoln Navigator. He’d come to the building site to check the progress on his new house. It was three weeks before Christmas and he planned to give the blue prints along with an artist’s rendering to his wife as part of her Christmas gift.
He’d had the plans drawn up last summer and as soon as Lane Parker had agreed to marry him, just three short months ago, he’d had the builder break ground. His original plan was to tell Lane about the house as a wedding gift, but, in October, Lane discovered she was pregnant and they’d had a rushed ceremony. Now, Ben was anxious to keep things moving on the construction, so anxious that he was throwing boatloads of cash at the builder to keep crews working nearly around the clock. While Lane, and their son Jamie, had moved into Ben’s 6000 square foot house, now there was the baby on the way, and he wanted the new house finished and the move complete long before the baby’s arrival in the spring.
The house was being built in La Bella Vista, a new subdivision of consisting of twenty lots each between three and five acres. The subdivision was once a farm owned by the Luciano and Bellini families, and his parents, his uncles Sal and Vinnie Luciano, his cousins Daniella and Bianca Luciano, and his brother Tony had lots there as well. His brother Tony had broken ground on his lot a few weeks ago, and as Ben walked toward his new house, he thought he’d stop by and take a look at the progress at Tony’s before he headed home.
Ben’s building site was five acres overlooking the lake near the center of the subdivision. The new house was over 10,000 square feet. It featured all of the normal rooms; a formal living room, formal dining room, eat in gourmet kitchen, a butler’s pantry, a large wine cellar, two powder rooms, a hearth room, a music room, a media room, home offices for Lane and himself with adjoining French doors between them, a master suite, seven bedrooms, each with a private bath, a home gym that would rival any fitness center in the area since it included an indoor basketball court, an attached six car garage, a detached four car garage, and both an indoor and outdoor pool. Oh, yes, and a pool house.
It was becoming more and more difficult to keep the house a secret from Lane, but Ben was nothing if not determined to keep this secret for the next two weeks. He unlocked the construction door and walked into the house. It was a true ranch style with a walkout basement. The construction door opened into the entryway. Right now, there was wood sub flooring, but he’d ordered Italian marble for the entryway, and it should be delivered soon. The rooms were framed in and the plumbing and electric work would be starting soon. He had an interior design firm, who had done the current house, and he’d booked them, but he knew that Lane would want to weigh in on the finishes. He was leaning toward cherry and mahogany floors throughout, knowing Lane loved the look of hard wood floors too, he was fairly certain that was the way they’d go.
He flipped the lights on, while the final electrical work wasn’t done, there was some temporary, construction electric roughed in, before making his way from room to room. The master suite was three rooms in all, the bedroom, the bathroom, and a sitting room that he suspected might hold a baby bassinette for the first few weeks after they baby came home. Naturally, there were two large walk-in closets, his, and Lane’s. He made his way toward the basement and down the ladder that was there. All in all, the builder was doing an excellent job. The construction electric was dim and cast shadows everywhere, but after the wiring was complete, they could install better, still temporary, lighting which would enable the crews to work after dark.
He walked through the home gym, the wine cellar, the basketball court, and the two-room suite he intended to use for a live-in housekeeper. He wasn’t sure Lane would go for live-in help, but he had cleaning people come in twice a week now, so it wouldn’t be much of a leap, and he could afford it.
He climbed back up the stairs and did one last quick walk through of the house before closing and locking the construction door. He walked back to his SUV and drove around the lake to Tony’s property. Tony had broken ground only a few weeks ago, so only the outside walls were up and it appeared that they had poured concrete for the basement. Ben reached for his flashlight and got out of the SUV again.
He entered the construction site and made a sweep of the area with the flashlight. The footprint for this house was smaller because Tony was building a two-story house. The interior rooms were marked on the floors, but the framing hadn’t been done yet. They’d apparently poured the concrete for the floor today and the ladder had been pulled up and was laying on the floor. Ben shone his flashlight into the basement and scanned the area. He stopped when he saw something sticking up from the still wet concrete. It couldn’t be what it looked like; it had better not be what it looked like. He trained the beam from his flashlight directly on it. Crap, he knew it was exactly what it looked like. He pulled out his cell phone and called 9-1-1. Good thing that Lane’s book club was meeting tonight, he wasn’t going to make it home for quite a while.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” The female voice asked.
“This is Ben Bellini; I believe I’ve found a body. Send the police to number 8 La Bella Vista way.”
“You said body. Is someone unconscious?”
“No, I’m pretty sure it’s dead since all I can see is a hand sticking up from the cement. I’ll wait here for them.” Ben said as he disconnected before the 9-1-1 operator had time to go through her ‘stay on the line until they get there’ routine. He dialed his uncle Sal who was a partner with Ben in the law firm, and a criminal defense attorney. The person who finds the body is always the first suspect in a murder, and if he wasn’t mistaken, the hand belonged to none other than his ex-girlfriend, Liza Conrad, who was now his brother, Tony’s fiancée. At least the sparkle that his flashlight was reflecting on certainly looked like the five-carat princess cut stone Tony had placed on Liza’s finger less than two weeks ago.
The Bellinis and Lucianos always spoke to each other in Italian.
“Pronto.” Sal responded as he answered the phone.
“Sal, I’m at Tony’s building site. There’s a body in the cement in the basement. I’m pretty sure it’s Liza Conrad. I’ve called for the police, and you know how it goes, the person who finds the body is also the first suspect. Can you meet me at the Leawood station? I need to call Tony. We’ll probably both need a lawyer before this thing is over.”
“What about the Angel? Where is she?” Sal was referring to ben’s wife, Lane.
“She has book club tonight. I’ll call Jamie to let him know I’m tied up, but I hope I can get home before Lane does.” Ben disconnected from his uncle and called his son.
“Bambino, I’m tied up with work. I’ll be home as soon as I can, but I can’t say when that might be. So, if Mom gets home before I do, would you let her know I’m on my way to the Leawood Station?” The sirens were ringing in the background as Ben disconnected from Jamie.
