I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. As you know we were out of town. I've also been fighting a respiratory problem.

Thanks for your patience and for reading and for commenting.

Chapter 96

Jess' uncle noticed us first when Wilson, Jess and I arrived. "Where've you three been?" He pulled Jess into a hug, then held out a hand to me.

I shook it, although I'm not usually a hand-shaker. "If you tell us why you're here, we might actually tell you."

He laughed but looked at Jess, no doubt wondering whether to take me seriously. "I came to see Nina and ran into Bertoli here."

"I was just about to find out if her doctor is ready to release her." Wilson said.

Johnny nodded. "She seems to be anxious to get home."

"But how did you know she was here?" I was just about to ask that, but Jess beat me to it.

"She called to say she was definitely going ahead with the catering business." Johnny smiled. "Seems she called all of the restaurants she contracted with."

Jess smiled. "How's Julio?" she asked Bertoli.

"Resting comfortably, but they still don't know whether he'll recover completely."

"Maybe I'd better check on him." I needed an excuse to go see him.

Bertoli nodded. "I would like your opinion, Doctor."

Wilson and I left Jess with the two men and walked to the elevators. Nina and Julio's rooms were both on three, so we rode up together.

"What are you going to ask him?" Wilson asked.

"I'm not sure yet. Depends what he says when I bring up the car shop."

"I thought you were going to have Jess tackle him, play on the connection as co-abductees."

"I think she'll do more good talking to her uncle and Bertoli."

Wilson's eyes narrowed.

"Both of them know something more, something they haven't shared with us yet. They may not even realize how important their information is, but Jess will ferret it out."

"I hope so. I don't want Nina starting a business without knowing what she may be getting involved in, even tangentially."

"You've got it bad for her, haven't you? She's not your typical needy woman, despite what happened to her this week." I studied his face.

He smiled. "I could say something similar about you and Jess. They've had an odd life, and they're both just beginning to realize that there's more out there for them than what their father wanted. I'm still surprised that you picked Jess."

I couldn't tell him how it surprised me, too, or how glad I was that I did.

We got off the elevator and he headed for Nina's room. I turned the other way. Julio was alone this time. I guess Bertoli was his only visitor, and Bertoli was still down in the lobby.

I slid the door open and stepped inside.

"Dr. House, what are you doing here? Where's Jess?"

"She'll join me in a little while. She's talking to her uncle and your boss." I studied his face as I continued. "Bertoli's been really good to you."

"Yes he has." His face was surprisingly expressionless.

"How come you wound up working for him? Didn't you have a job with your cousin's husband's company?"

That got his attention. "How'd you know that?"

I shrugged. "I just assumed he made sure you had employment while you were carrying out his orders against the Locarnos."

"Yeah, well, I did work at his auto detailing shop."

"So, was it your idea or Bertoli's that you go to work at the restaurant instead?" I knew the answer but wondered how he viewed it.

"Mr. Bertoli brought his car into the shop some months ago, and I helped him arrange the work. We talked much and I learned he needed staff at his new restaurant." He smiled. "See, my family, we have two restaurants in Palermo. I grew up working in them. I couldn't resist."

"Did you know that Bertoli had connections to the Locarnos?"

His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. "No he doesn't."

"He told me about it. They helped him start his business. He claims they aren't involved in the restaurant, but don't you think it's a mighty strange coincidence?" I wasn't going to tell him outright that Bertoli hired him to keep him from going after the Locarnos.

"You think he approached me because he knew why I was sent to this country?" The kid was sharp.

"It's possible."

Julio rubbed the lower part of his face. It seemed obvious he hadn't known, that it wasn't a part of a plan for him to get closer to the Locarnos. "I don't understand why he'd even admit to knowing them."

"He wanted to convince me that they weren't behind the kidnapping."

"But then, who was? No, it had to be them."

"Perhaps Carlo Molino was disappointed that you hadn't fulfilled your mission."

"But when I reported to Carlo that I was still working on it, he told me to take my time." Julio was still having a hard time adjusting his beliefs about what happened.

"How sure are you that it was the Locarnos who killed your cousin?"

"What? Carlo said it was certain." He shrugged. "Who else but his enemy would do such a thing? Francesca was such a sweet girl."

"And she left him."

"Well, yes. But he was sure she'd come back before long."

"That may be what he told you, but you only have his word on any of this."

His eyes narrowed. "You think he was lying to me?"

"Everybody lies."

"But why would Carlo have me kidnapped?" Julio frowned. "Did he think I betrayed him? Did he want to scare me into doing what I was sent here to do?"

"Julio, do you trust him more than Bertoli?"

"Mr. Bertoli is the best boss I've ever had." He blinked.

"You couldn't have had very many." I knew he was in his early twenties. "Julio, you asked us to keep quiet about why you came to this country, but Bertoli knew all about it."

"So you're telling me I can't believe Carlo or Mr. Bertoli?" He shook his head as if to clear it. "I don't know what to think anymore."

"Just keep an open mind about both of them. We can't know who's the bad guy here, but we can find out."

"We can? How?"

I decided it was time to come clean. "Bertoli told me that he purposely hired you as a favor to the Locarnos. He was pretty honest about it. Maybe he knows something about your cousin's death that we don't know."

Julio nodded thoughtfully.

"We're also almost certain that the place you, Jess and Nina were held was Molin's auto shop."

"It did smell somehow familiar."

"What do they use bleach for there?"

"Bleach?" He scratched the back of his head. "The only time I saw anyone use bleach there was when they were working on the inside of a car. There were blood stains on one of the seats, and it was the only way they could get them out. Then they redyed the fabric."

"Blood stains, huh?" That was always a possibility, but I hadn't wanted to think it. I'd seen no signs of blood anywhere in the shop. Knowing that they commonly used bleach to remove them, put a new light on the situation.

Julio shook his head. "I can't believe that Carlo's people were behind the kidnapping."

"Jess was pretty sure that it was the place you were taken. The only thing she didn't hear was the train whistle."

"The train whistle!" His eyes went wide. "How could I forget? Trains came through nearby every day at regular times. I don't know why I didn't think of it when we were being held! But she's right."

"So, now you believe that's where you were taken?"

"I guess so. But I still don't understand why, or why we were set free."

"We've gone round and round on that. I suppose the motives would be different depending on who was behind it, but it's still strange that they'd let you go for such a small ransom."

We both turned to the door as Jess slid it open.

Julio smiled at her. "We were just talking about the car shop. I think you're right. That's where we were held."

"Have either of you come up with a motive?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Actually, we were talking more about why you were let go."

"It's obvious the original intent wasn't to extort money from anyone. That was just to give them an excuse to release us." She came closer to the bed. "How are you feeling today, Julio?"

"Much better. The treatments, I think, are working. How is your sister?"

"She's recovering, too." She turned to me. "Bertoli told me something very interesting, something that may have bearing on who kidnapped us."

"What did he say?"

"When Julio came to work for him, he told the Locarnos. The head of the family, Tony, was very pleased, but his oldest son, Marcello, thought it would cause more friction between the families, even though there was no visible connection between Bertoli and the Locarnos."

"So there was dissension in the ranks. But haven't we established that you were held at Carlo's car shop?"

"That's just it. Bertoli thinks it might have been retaliation against him, rather than an attack on Julio."

I shook my head to clear it. This was convoluted to begin with, but each piece of information we got made it more so. Give me a clear-cut medical mystery over this, not that I wasn't enjoying the challenge of unraveling all the threads.

"I need a whiteboard to work this out logically." I limped out of the room and headed for my conference room, oblivious to whether Jess was following. The room was empty, and so was the board. I grabbed a marker and started to list all of the players in this drama, including Jess and Nina. Drawing lines to show the connections between them all created a mess, but it also helped me. Next, I tried to list events chronologically.

We've never asked Julio what Carlo expected him to do to the Locarnos or which of them they thought was responsible for Francesca's death.

I was startled by Jess voice, but her comments helped. "We don't know exactly why Francesca left Carlo." I added those questions to the board, then stepped back to study it. We were still a long way from finding out why Julio was kidnapped, and Jess and Nina along with him.