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2353 Words
They spent two days in Las Vegas before they took the family jet back to Miami to pick up Dominic’s car after which they were on the road headed for New York City. Nicki had wanted to go home, but Dominic needed to go back to New York and sort out his affairs before moving to Montana. He had called his realtor the other day and asked him to find them a suitable place in Helena until they found such a place they had agreed to stay in New York.
Dominic intended to keep his studio in New York. He travelled often enough that he could still make use of it. Nicki had called back to Devon when they were on the road to check in and tell her family she was going to New York with Dominic. She told them they were having fun and that she missed home and that she’d see them soon. However, Dominic noted she did not tell them about their hasty wedding.
“Why didn’t you tell them?” He asked when she hung up the phone.
“It just didn’t feel right.” She said tucking the phone back into the glove box. “It feels like something I should tell them in person.”
“Well I’d tell them soon, or they’re going to find out watching Entertainment Tonight. I’m not sure how long it will take for the press to figure out we eloped. I’m amazed they don’t already know.”
“I don’t think my Father’s going to take the news well. I want to tell him in person I owe him that much after robbing him of the chance to walk me down the aisle.”
“He’ll understand it a lot less if he finds out watching the news.”
“I know I just need a little more time.” She said looking out the window.
Dominic took her hand, and Nicki looked at him. “You’re not having regrets, are you?”
“No. I’m just worried.”
“You worry too much.”
“Aren’t you afraid to tell your parents you ran off with a woman you just met?” She couldn’t believe he was calm.
“Are you kidding? I’m terrified, not that I’m afraid of my Father but my Mother; she gets this look of disappointment that can cut deeper than any knife. It’s not just me, but all my brothers have the same problem. My Mother doesn’t yell or scream, but when she’s mad, she can make you feel like your three feet tall. I should tell them about us alone.”
Nicki didn’t understand. “You’re going to tell them you’re married, but you don’t want me to be there? Why?”
“Honestly I’m scared.”
“Scared of her?”
“Yes. If you knew my Mother, you’d be scared too. I want her to work out her reaction before you two meet one another.”
“Why? Are you afraid she won’t like me?”
Dominic scoffed. “No, I know she won’t like you.”
Nicki was offended. “Why wouldn’t she like me?”
“Oh, honey it’s not you trust me. She wouldn’t like anyone I brought home, she never has. It’s not just me she never likes my brother’s girlfriends either. She’s one of those women that wants her boys to settle down and start families but doesn’t think any woman is good enough for her children. She was terrible to Max, and she treated Cassia like dirt. She tried to pay Cassia to leave Lance. Her words can practically flay flesh from bone. You’re going to have to have a thick skin when it comes to my Mother. She’s a wonderful loving woman, but she’s vicious when it comes to her boys.”
Nicki wasn’t sure she wanted to meet his mother. She sounded terrifying. Nicki didn’t know if she was strong enough to withstand his mother’s disapproval. She didn’t have a thick skin.
Nicki spent the rest of their time on the road worrying about the inevitable introduction to his family. So much so that when they reached New York, she couldn’t enjoy the sights. The city was big. Dominic’s studio was in Manhattan. It was a beautiful island. He kept a loft in a tall building. There was no street parking which was probably best given how expensive Dominic’s car was. They parked underground and took the elevator up to the tenth floor. They stepped off the elevator, and Nicki noticed there was one door to the left and one to the right. It was a big building, but it only had two apartments on each floor.
Dominic veered off to the right and unlocked the door then once inside he deactivated the security alarm. Nicki followed him inside and gasped. It was huge. It was all one floor, and one room divided up by Japanese partitions. There was art hung on the wall, and both painted and plain canvasses leaning against the walls in stacks and rows. There was a large paint splattered drop cloth on the floor beneath a tall wooden easel. There were tall windows with vertical blinds. The kitchenette was made of cherry wood, and there was no table just two barstool-like chairs pulled up to the island.
Behind the partition were a king-sized bed and a free-standing wardrobe, a dresser, and a desk. Next to the bed was a frosted glass door that opened onto a large bathroom. The bathroom was the same size as Nicki’s bedroom back home. There was a walk-in tub set into the marble tile floor. Next to it a stand-up shower and against the opposite wall two sinks and an antique vanity.
The whole place was beautiful. “Well, this is home,” Dominic said taking the luggage into the sleeping area. He tossed both onto the bed and began to unpack.
“It’s not what I expected.” She confessed looking around.
“What did you expect?” He asked.
“I don’t know something smaller, something more urban. It’s so nicely decorated and beautiful almost feminine.”
“Did you just say my place is girly?” He laughed.
“It’s just beautiful and bright.” She said sweetly. “I’m surprised a man designed it.”
“Well, I am an expert in beauty.” He winked at her. His phone rang at that moment, and Dominic checked the caller ID, and his expression became very serious. “I got to take this.” He said and walked away to answer the call. He kept his voice low, and Nicki couldn’t make out what was said. It was suspicious. He then hung up and came back to her with a smile. “I got to go out.”
“We just got here. Where are you going?”
“To see my lawyer.”
“Why?”
“Evette is problematic. Don’t worry; I’ll only be gone a few hours. Why don’t you take a bubble bath and put something nice on and we’ll go out for dinner? I’ll be back in three hours. I promise.” He said rubbing her arms, and then he kissed her lips and headed for the door. He was lying. He wasn’t going to see his lawyer or at the very least not for the reason he claimed.
Why was he lying?
***
Dominic slipped into the booth of the diner across from Gorge Kelly the private investigator his family had used in the past. When as wealthy as they were there was always a reason to keep a man like Mr. Kelly on retainer.
Mr. Kelly was an older man in his fifties. He always wore a wrinkled suit Dominic assumed it was wrinkled because he spent a lot of time sleeping in his car when he was out in the field. It was always an old suit, bargain basement sort of material. His hair was dark with a streak of grey at the sides and thinner at the top but not yet balding. His face was lined, and his nose was bulbous. His bifocals sat on the tip as he read that day’s paper.
As Dominic understood he had just returned from Montana where he’d spent the last three weeks looking into the events in Devon. “What do you have?” Dominic asked accepting the large brown envelope Mr. Kelly slid across the table. He opened the envelope and removed documents and surveillance pictures.
“I kept an eye on the men you asked me to as well as the good Sheriff of Devon. You’re right the Sheriff is lazy and crooked. I got pulled over for speeding and offered the cop a bribe to tear up the ticket, and he did. The local cops are for sale to the highest bidder.” He said taking a sip of his coffee. “As for the other men, I looked into their history and found a cornucopia of bad behaviours. They’ve been written up at work for violence on the job. Arrested a few times in their teens for fighting. Tossed out of bars for aggressive behaviour. They have a long history of violence and vandalism. Thing is they stopped getting arrested a few years ago right around the time an industrialist named Jack Moore took a professional interest in Devon and the surrounding lands. Over a period of two years, Devon began experiencing a lot of trouble; vandalism, accidents, some serious troubles that drove most of the landowners off their land.” He said taking another sip of his coffee. “Some of the landowners were holding out.”
“Like Mitchell Taylor?”
“Bingo. The day Miss. Taylor was assaulted, Mark Harris had filed a complaint that the local farmhand staying with the Taylors had assaulted him. It couldn’t be proven, and the charges were dropped the same day. But it got Mr. Taylor out of the house and when he returned his daughter had already been beaten. The medical bills bankrupted the man, and he was forced to sell his land. But he sold it to his farmhand and not Mr. Moore.”
“So, who did it?”
“Well, Mark Harris and the other men had been receiving pay cheques from the local sawmill which Mr. Moore owned. Thing is not one of them has worked a shift in two years, but they collected pay, at least until Jack Moore was arrested last year for embezzlement and tax evasion. After Mr. Moore was no longer a fixture in Devon, they started working again.”
“So, you think Mr. Moore paid Mark and the others to assault Nicki?”
“The day of the assault, Mr. Harris’ bank account received a five-thousand-dollar infusion that can be traced back to Mr. Moore. It was fairly easy to make the connection. If the Sheriff had even bothered to look into it, he could have made the connection.”
“So why didn’t he?”
“I looked into the Sheriff’s bank records too. A month after Mr. Moore started buying up land the Sheriff started making six grand more every month.”
“Kickbacks to look the other way.”
“That would be my assumption.”
“Can you link the Sheriff’s pay increase back to Jack Moore?”
“It’s all traceable and in that file. But if you’re going to go after them, you’re going to want to nail it because so far, it’s all circumstantial. All they need is to make one juror question it, and they walk free and double jeopardy is attached.”
“Was Jack Moore convicted?”
“Sure was. He’s doing twenty-five years in Rikers.”
Dominic was surprised. “He’s here in New York?”
“He was brought back to New York by the FBI, and the IRS tried and convicted. Not for what he did in Devon but for his embezzlement and tax fraud. All his holdings were auctioned off and sold to pay off the tax man. He’s flat ass broke and ruined.”
Dominic stuffed the evidence back into the envelope. This was just what he needed. “As always you have done wonders.”
“The invoice is in the envelope.”
“My banker will deal with that. You’ll have your money in a week.” He then took an envelope of money from his jacket and handed it to Mr. Kelly. “Consider this a gratuity.”
Mr. Kelly opened the envelope and did a quick mental count of the money inside, and then he smiled and tipped his hat graciously. “Always a pleasure doing business with you and your family.”
Dominic got up and left the diner, as he climbed in his car, he made another call to his parents to tell them he was on his way over, but first, he stopped at his lawyer’s office to give him the evidence Mr. Kelly found.
- Writer
