Chapter 3: Living in America
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She wakes up the next day with a new resolve to find out more information. She goes the police station in hopes to get further than she did before. Again several hours were spent with a comment of "don't come back unless you have more proof." She decides to the library where maybe she could make more connections on their Internet connection.
Google searches for 'Polancco' brings up news reports of a family being slaughtered, but Tammy did not make the connection because in her mind, "There was no way my mother married a billionaire industrialist. Especially when this guy is considered as a political terrorist!"
A reverse phone number look up gives her a name of 'Joseph Polancco' and an address several miles out of Milan. Google Maps gave her directions to get there though images of the area were deliberately blurred out. She manages to get printed pages of the information.
Looking at the time she sees it's getting late. She also realizes that to her stomach, it was getting late. She packs up her things and step out of the library. The restaurants in the area looks expensive, so she decides to take a walk and maybe find something more to her money's liking. Within a few blocks she finds the 'hole in the wall places', which offers food at a lower rate than those in the main streets. She finds it impossible to believe that there was a Chinese restaurant in the row of eateries. She goes in and orders a take-out dinner to take with her to the hotel.
There was nothing to watch on the TV other than the news channels and the pumped in porn. This gives her more time to study her printed notes and eat her cold dinner. It was early when she went to sleep.
The following day she wakes up early and heads out to find an eatery that served breakfast. But breakfast was American meal and one not served in Europe except in American based hotels with their Continental Meals Service. She did manage to find a bakery to serve her a buttered roll and coffee. She sits on her rented scooter and has her meal before heading off.
It takes her more time than she thought as she took the side streets along the highway instead of the highway itself. Eventually she makes it to a small town outside of Milan and to a long road that runs by a large fenced in farming area. She continues, thinking whether she is on the wrong road or not. Eventually she comes up onto a gated area with the right address, which was opened. She turns in and rides down the paved path to a large house, which she remembers from the wedding's reception. "Why would mom's phone number would lead to the place rented for the reception?", Tammy thought.
Coming to a circled path in front of the house, she notices several expensive cars with the Mercedes emblem on them parked in front of the house. She parks the scooter not too far from the main door and rings the doorbell. No one answers as she waits for a couple of minutes. "How can the place be empty if there are cars parked in front of it.", she thought. She decides walk around the house to the back in hopes to find somebody there.
It takes her a few minutes to get to the rear of the house because of its immense size. In the wedding she remembered going through the house to get to the rear. There were five men there in suits discussing something in Italian.
"Ahem...!", Tammy lets out. The men turn around with a couple of them drawing out guns and aim them at her. She immediately raises her hands and shouts out "Inglis! Inglis!"
They look at her in bewilderment, thinking in Italian, "English? Who is this person?" They slowly approach her, knowing English themselves, one of them asks, "Who are you?"
"Thank god you speak English. I am Tammy Squirrel. Rebecca Squirrel's oldest daughter from America.", Tammy answers.
"Who is Rebecca Squirrel?", another asks.
Another turns to the first in Italian, "Didn't father marry an American Bitch named Rebecca?" They look at each other, both saying in Italian, "No way."
The first turns to Tammy, "Why are you where? You came all this way from America?"
"Yes. Uhm…I don't know what happened but when no one was returning my calls and my letters were being sent back, I just want to know that happened to my mother and little sister!", Tammy starts to say and then lets out and then begins to cry.
"I see the American scum came to get its claim to the family property.", one the men says in Italian.
"Leave it alone, Alfonse. Something tells me she is not here for that.", another tells him in Italian as well.
"Why don't we just shoot her and leave her in the fields?", a third says in Italian.
"That goes for you too. Let me figure out what this is about and then send her on her way.", the second lets them know in Italian.
"Yeah right. Johan, you got one hour to send her away before I decide to let her blood fertilize the vineyard's soil.", the third tells him in their native language.
"Romeo, you and Alfonse put away your guns so I can start working on her.", Johan tells him in Italian.
"I'll be right there to witness this.", a fourth one says. The fifth one shakes his head leaves.
Johan steps to Tammy, taking her hand and telling her to follow him inside the house. He takes her to the Recreation Room from the rear of the house. He leads her into the room and tells her to have a seat in one of other several chairs in the room. He takes one and carries it to where Tammy was sitting. He sits down hunched over looking at the floor for a moment with his hands folded. Then he straightens up and looks at her.
"You know nothing of what happened here?", Johan asks.
"Isn't this where my mother has her wedding reception with this Polancco guy?", Tammy asks.
He tries to hold back his laughter and angered emotions, biting the inside of his lower lip for a second. "How can I say this? That Polancco Guy is my father and those outside are my brothers. This is our estate where he lived.", he tells her. Her jaw drops in disbelief. "So that was your mother? Well, I don't know what to say but I think that makes you our step-sister. But we're not happy with what happened here. This place is far from the land of the free and home of the brave."
"What happened here?", Tammy asks.
"A crime of some sort happened here. Our father and youngest brother were killed, and your mother and sister cannot be found. We have been cleaning the place since the police gave it back to us. They say that they were not involved but you cannot blame us for any animosity the family may have against your mother and sister.", Johan explains.
"But...", Tammy tries to say. "The phone calls, the returned letters."
"So you were trying to contact them, you have any proof?", Johan asks.
Tammy goes into her backpack and pulls out several envelopes addressed to the place, each having been 'returned to sender.' She hands them over to him, and then the last month's phone bill with calls to the place where the answering machine picked up. He looks them over with interest.
"I see.", he hands them back to her. "Look, I don't know what to say.", he begins to pull out his wallet and counts off several Euros in thousand and five hundred denominations. He reaches to her with the letters, telephone bills, the money and a business card slipped into the bills. She looks at the money and then tries to take the letters and telephone bills by pulling on them to slide through his fingers without taking the cash. As she takes back her papers, he flips the money and has it land on her lap. "If this is a better time, you would be welcomed. But this is not a good time. Go Home. Don't come back unless you have proof that your mother and sister were not involved in our father's murder. And do yourself a favor; get yourself something bigger than a Vespa." He then hands her a credit card, similar to the one her mother gave her but instead of it being Black-World Elite MasterCard or a Crystal Sapphire Blue Visa card, it was American Express Black.
"Knowing the likes of you Americans, with your tastes you will not be spending much on that card, though it has a bottomless credit line. I expect you not to be renting expensive cars with it, but get something to give yourself some good transportation. I recommend a Fiat.", Johan tells her. "Now go home. The door outside is that way.", he then points to a far door.
Tammy takes a few moments to recompose her self and puts the papers and money away in her backpack. She slowly gets up and walks out through the door with her backpack. A few moments later she was on her scooter, taking a moment to think about what happened and where she was going. Soon she would be on the road, making her way back to Milan.
It took her three hours to get there, and it's taking longer than that to get back to her hotel room. She is in no condition to be riding a scooter, let alone a motor vehicle. But she does, and worse, gets on the highway. Though the scooter can do 120KPH, she does not go over 45KPH. Eventually she makes it back to the motel, spending another night crying her self to sleep.