“Who can sleep in this place? The testosterone is so thick I broke my last vibrator.” Ellie grinned at Mario flashing her teeth at him in challenge.
Ringo blocked the light to Mario’s right. “You lost your vibrator in Venice.”
Ignoring Ringo’s rumbled barb at my sister, I asked, “May we look at the photos again?”
As the men stepped aside, Ellie shot a quick, “Dickhead,” at Ringo.
“If that’s all you want me for, I’m happy to?—”
“Cease!” Mario turned one of the soft chairs toward me indicating I should sit where he’d arranged.
He was the proud, controlling type. Arranging people and events to his liking. I’d missed that somehow. Even Ringo listened to him and obeyed.
I should be careful around him. Yet, I couldn’t resist reaching toward him. I laid my fingers on the bare skin of his wrist. He’d rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt, as if he were keeping the cuffs out of the viscera and filth he’d have to dig through with his bare hands in order to…
Protect the family.
I understood his place now. And mine. “Husband.” I pressed two fingers against his skin so he’d know I was being careful with him, but also touching him. Because I could.
His eyes softened. “Amore mio.”
Then the veil of secrets dropped over his expression, blanking it and making it much colder. “We’ve looked at the photos.”
“Were you looking for a woman?”
“What?” Ringo asked.
“A woman. In the accident footage from the traffic camera.” I pointed to the folders on the desk.
“It was two men,” Mario insisted.
Ellie picked up on my thoughts. “Prove it.”
Mario dug out the single photo showing the passenger of the car Johnny was driving, and the enlarged version.
“Look.”
I tilted the picture sideways. While I wasn’t certain, there was something about the gloves that appeared disproportional to the rest of the figure. “Ellie?”
She snatched it out of my hands and barely looked at it. “It’s her.”
“Her, who?” Ringo leaned too close and Ellie avoided him by sliding to the far end of the couch.
“Johnny’s girlfriend. Or, lover, or maybe just partner in crime. I saw her at the club he liked to take me to. I suspected there was something wrong, and followed him… I also saw her coming from his house. The next m-morning—” She swallowed and continued, “The witch wore my fucking hoodie. That hoodie. It’s my favorite because it’s warm. I stole it from a football player I dated last fall. I must have left it at Johnny’s.”
Ringo snatched the paper from her hands and glared at it.
“You dated a football player?”
Ellie stuck her tongue out at him instead of replying.
Mario had to motion twice to get him to hand it to him.
“What does this woman look like?” Mario asked quietly.
“Do you have a photo of Dianora?” I interjected, trying to speed this up. I was tired, and if we could prove that she’d been in Chicago when her brother was killed, then… I assumed that would help my husband.
But the expression on both his and Ringo’s face wasn’t happy.
