Part Seven
Elizabeth was near the breaking point during yet another cooking lesson. She'd begun to forget what it was they were working on. She'd tried to ask questions of Gaetana, but the woman, while pleasant, still had no understanding of English.
Between the proper slicing of vegetables and the proper use of wine at the table, Elizabeth found out that she was developing an allergy to parmesan cheese… or at least she was hoping to. The one benefit from this all was that when she returned home, and she had to hold onto the hope that she would, she'd be able to cook Italian food in her sleep or start a catering business on the side.
The door opened and both women startled, turning to face the door. Elizabeth's shadow gave a measuring look to the man in the doorway. Rail thin and awkward in his own skin, the man tugged at his collar and then resettled his glasses on his nose. He gave the older woman a nod and one to Gaetana. To Elizabeth he gave a deep bow as though she had somehow acquired a royal heritage. "I have come to teach you-"
"Oh, thank God!" Elizabeth wiped her hands on her apron and moved toward him with a smile. "I don't care 'what' it is as long as you know how to speak English…"
Jason listened to Max carefully on the phone and fought the urge to throw it against the wall. It was Max he wanted to throw against the wall. "Look… yes, whatever… look, Max… MAX!" Jason took a long breath. "Get his doctor to come and see him, he's not in his right mind that should be easy enough to see. And let me know what's going on… no… I have something more important to do."
Closing the phone he looked up at Spinelli and saw the shock on the young man's face before he dove back into his internet search.
Johnny sat on the couch, a discarded newspaper spread on the table. "Sounds like you're having as much fun with Sonny as I had with my father."
"Sonny's a good man."Jason would say no more.
Taking the hint, Johnny moved aside the sports section and waved his hand at the seat across from him. "Stan and Compu-geek are hard at work, you've got men searching the city, how about you sit down and take your mind off things."
Jason looked down at the coffee table and the chess game that Johnny had revealed. "Chess."
"Do you play? Dad always insisted I learn how to play. Strategy, he insisted, must be learned and relearned if you want to succeed."
"Chess." Jason repeated the word. "Anthony sent us a bunch of boxes… the first one had a chess game in it. White queen missing, the king without his head… it was the first thing that told us something was missing… someONE was missing."
Johnny sat up, curious. "What about the other boxes?"
Jason's express was tight. "Sonny destroyed them all before I could see them."
Standing up from the couch Johnny walked up to Jason and set a hand on his shoulder. "Come with me."
"Please," Elizabeth pleaded with a whisper, "help me," but her tutor merely continued on.
"There is little time, Miss Zacchara, and many phrases that your father wishes you to learn." He leaned in and gave her an awkward smile. "Later you will have time to become fluent, but for now we must be satisfied with making you barely conversive in the language by the party."
"Party?"
His expression spoke clearly to her. She didn't have to understand Italian to understand that he had let something slip. "Let us begin again. How do you say-"
Johnny clicked on the storeroom light and the two of them stared at the pile of packages. Johnny spoke first. "Did they look like these?"
Jason nodded and watched as Johnny opened the first one.
Another chess set. "An original gift giver is he not?" The strange phrase caught Jason off guard and he could only watch as Johnny tilted the box so he could see it. The white queen was missing, the white king missing its head.
"Let's see the other ones," Jason reached for the chess set.
Johnny stopped him and turned the set around to lift up the black king. There was a note underneath it. "Dad always played the black pieces." He opened the note read it and showed it to Jason.
YOU THOUGHT I WAS DEAD… YOU NEVER FOLLOW UP!
SO HERE'S A CHANCE FOR YOU GET THINGS RIGHT.
CAN YOU FIND THE MISSING PIECE?
"Jason," Johnny looked at his new confederate, "let's get these boxes into the other room and go through them."
Sonny sorted through his mail, tossing most of the envelopes to the floor, missing the trash can and not caring. He was still brooding over Jason's betrayal and trying hard not to act on the blood-thirsty feelings he felt roiling around inside of him. It was better to sit in his office and brood rather than kill Jason Morgan… so far…
The next envelope stopped him, the feel of the paper superior to the usual cheap paper of a regular No.10, this one was expensive and therefore worth his attention.
He opened it and read the words a few times over before he smiled. An invitation from an old… friend. This might just be the kind of diversion he needed.
Picking up his phone he called the hangar. "Get the plane ready. International flight. I'll be there in a few hours."