Jess had gotten a call Monday morning from her agent and had to get back to L.A. early for an audition. It was for a role on a TV cop show playing a uniformed officer, which had the possibility of becoming a small but recurring role.
No one else was home when Lane remembered she still hadn’t opened the package Evie had sent. In fact, it was still in the cargo area of her Escalade. She went out to the garage, got the package, and carried it into the kitchen. She set it on the table and got a box cutter to get through the tape.
She opened the box and found a framed 18” x 36” print of an angel with strawberry blonde hair standing in a field of lilies of the valley. She shook her head as she read the note. “I saw this and you immediately came to mind. Happy birthday, sweetie.” The title of the print was Angel of the Valley.
How perfect. It was as if the picture was little Angelique Valle all grown up. It was a sign confirming that she should call the foundation. The Angel of the Valley Foundation.
Italian Translations
Lamiavitaeravuota: La mia vita era vuota: My life was empty
Ciao, Zio Sal, Zio Vinnie. LA presente Lane Parker: Hello, Uncle Sal, Uncle Vinnie. May I present Lane Parker?
Nipote, Ella è la visione di un angelo: Nephew, She is the vision of an angel.
Tu ci sarai: Will you join us
Unitevi a noi: Please, join us.
Si. Grazie: Yes, thank-you
Lei è sotto la mia protezione: She’s under my protection
Prima di andare, dovete sapere che il padre di omicidio vittima mettere 1,5 milioni di dollari, per la bambina dopo l'incidente. Ora è possibile aggiungere un denaro per qualsiasi motivo la polizia: Before you go, you need to know that the father of the murder victim put 1.5 million dollars in trust for the little girl after the accident. Now you can add a money motive to what the police have.
Grazie, Zio. Mantenere la sua sicurezza, lei è il mio cuore. : Thank-you Uncle. Keep her safe, she is my heart.
Questa non è casa mia: this isn’t my house
e la signora è sicura come hai chiesto: And she is safe as you asked.
È arrabbiata : She’s angry
Bambina: Little girl
La ragazza ha un punto: The girl has a point.
Così intelligente per una così giovane: So smart for one so young.
La donna non cucinare: The woman doesn’t cook?
Non cuoco italiano, Zia: She doesn’t cook Italian, Aunt.
Ah, ha spiegato: Ah, She’ll learn
Zio Sal, Zio Vinnie, grazie: Uncle Sal, Uncle Vinnie, thank-you.
Nipote, si sarebbe un pazzo a lasciare questo angelo della valle lontano.: Nephew, you’d be a fool to let this angel of the valley get away
Lane’s next adventure
Lunch at the Club
While watching crime shows or reading mystery novels when a character came across a body, she’d always been the one who said to the character “Call the police.” “Put your hands in your pockets.” “Don’t touch anything.” And as the character bent to touch the victim and perhaps the murder weapon, she sometimes literally, shouted. “YOU IDIOT! DON’T. TOUCH. THAT. CALL 9-1-1!!” So there Lane Parker sat in the Overland Park police station trying to figure out what had come over her causing her to ignore her own wise advice, and wondering why in fact that advice had never even crossed her mind.
Thank God, she’d at least had the presence of mind to tell them she wouldn’t answer any questions without her lawyer. She took pride that she was able to ignore their promise that she wasn’t under arrest which soon turned into taunts about innocent people not needing lawyers. While it was true they hadn’t done the Miranda warning yet, she wasn’t taking any chances. She was sure that her daughter Jess had called Ben Bellini. Ben was a criminal defense attorney and Lane’s significant other and until he arrived, she was determined to keep her mouth shut. She wasn’t going to take the coffee or soda they kept offering. She just sat in the interview room knowing they were standing on the other side of the mirrored glass watching her.
Benito Giovanni Bellini second generation Italian American and the best criminal defense attorney in the Kansas City Metropolitan area stood in the doorway exuding calm confidence. He resembled George Clooney except he was taller, younger, had a more chiseled body and was much, much better looking.
“I’d like to talk to my client alone.” Ben said, his back turned to the detective who had escorted him to the interview room. And as the door was closed, Lane released a released a sigh of relief.
“Please tell me that Hunter there is still one of your basketball buddies.” Ben played a friendly game of basketball every Wednesday in a league comprised mostly of guys from police forces and fire departments around the metropolitan area.
“Yes, Hunter still plays in the league. On the team that we trounced last week.” Ben looked at the blood on her hands and clothes and shook his head.
“So, Red what brings us here today? Don’t tell me you stumbled across a body.” Ben said using the nickname he’d given her shortly after they’d met. Lane who had strawberry blonde hair – thus the nickname - was an executive at Telco Unlimited, a wireless telecommunications company and sadly this wasn’t the first time she’d been in a police interview room talking about a dead body she’d stumbled over. Lane heaved a sigh.
“I’d love to not tell you that … but I can’t. You want the long or the short version here?”
When had she turned into that woman she’d read so much about? The one who couldn’t even go to the bathroom without stumbling into a murder investigation.
“Start with the short version.”
“Okay, I took the afternoon off to do a little shopping with Jess. We stopped at the Club for lunch first. I went into the restroom and saw a woman lying face down on the floor so I went over to offer assistance. I felt for a pulse, nothing. I rolled her onto her back and found a large bloody gash on her left temple. And as I was leaning over her, my hands covered in blood, another woman came into the rest room and screamed.”
Lane paused, the woman was - well - screaming bloody murder at least she now knew exactly what that phrase meant. “The next thing I knew, I’d given my statement to the uniformed officer and was looking into the disbelieving faces of a detective explaining that I’d found her that way. Ben, I can’t be certain because I haven’t seen in her in years, but I think it was Carol Anne Woods.”
Carol Anne Woods was an ex-girlfriend of Ben’s. Finally he said “Carol Anne called me to say she’d be in town this week. She wanted to get together for a drink. I told her I was with someone now and that we’d have to play it by ear. So, it could have been her.” He and Lane were together now and he wouldn’t have jeopardized his relationship with Lane to meet Carol Anne, but he was still curious about what brought her back to KC. “Who’s Hunter’s partner on this?”
She smiled and winked at him. “His partner’s a woman. Is the basketball league co-ed? Is there any chance Detective Crane plays with y’all?”
Ben shook his head. “No. Volleyball’s Lila’s sport.” The door opened. Detective Crane entered the room and lyrics to the Joe Diffey song Third Rock from the Sun began playing in Lane’s head. “She walks into Smokey’s one hip at a time…” She was about 5’7” tall and athletic. Her blue-black hair was pulled into a sleek pony tail and she had a gleam in her emerald green eyes as a smile spread across her full red lips. She could have been a body double for Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movies.
“Well, Counselor, long time, no see.”