We'll be on vacation for a week beginning Tuesday, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to post, or even write, the next chapter. Hopefully I can have something for you by Wednesday 8/21.

Thanks for reading, and you know how much I love your comments.

Chapter 125.

I kept glancing at Jess' face all the way down in the elevator and again as we strode to my car. She seemed to have several ideas warring in her brain. It wasn't until we got in that I said anything. "If you want to stop the charade now, I'll understand. I have other avenues to explore..."

She shook her head and interrupted me. "I think I want to go through with this. It's...it's important that we find out whether Francesca was the woman the receptionist told you about." Her focus narrowed. "It would be interesting to learn when she visited Dr. Jerome, how long before her accident."

I nodded. That was an important piece of her part of the puzzle. "Then I'll take you for the sonogram tomorrow."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she had one as part of her evaluation. Maybe the technician can tell us something."

I finally relaxed, knowing she was focused on our search for information about Francesca, and not on what the results of our tests would show. And she'd dropped her concerns about her father's part in her mother's death, at least temporarily.

"Hungry?" I asked. We were nearing her favorite Mexican food place.

"I thought you'd never ask." She looked out the window and grinned. "I'd die for an enchilada or two."

"I don't think we'll have to go to that extreme." I turned down the next street and pulled into the lot of Eduardo's Enchiladas. It was a tiny place, off the main drag, but always busy with people who'd found it somehow.

"Doctor, Signorina, welcome, welcome." Eduardo himself greeted us at the door and looked around for an empty table. The short, round man was always fussing over his regulars. "The couple in the corner will be finished soon, no? I will have the table ready for you quickly." He called to a thin young man and spoke to him in rapid fire Spanish.

"Si, Senor Garcia." He approached the table and waited for the man and woman to leave before replacing the tablecloth, napkins and utensils quickly and efficiently.

"Ah, see? Already ready." Eduardo took two menus from the stack and led us to the table.

Once he was gone, I faced Jess. "I'm surprised you haven't added Eduardo to your suppliers."

"We thought about it. Perhaps when the business expands."

"Expands?"

She nodded. Closing the menu, she leaned toward me. "Nina and I have some ideas about that, but first we have to get The Catered Affair going."

The same young man who'd cleared and set our table returned with ice water and a wire basket of chips and small dishes of salsa. Jess took a chip, bit into it and chewed vigorously.

"That's what you finally decided to call it?" I kept my sneer to myself.

"If it's not already taken. I have a feeling it is. Nina was checking on that today. We also considered An Affair to Remember. She's checking that one, too."

I knew she'd chatter on about this to avoid talking about what she was really thinking, and I let her, because I wasn't ready either.

We both ordered enchiladas, smothered in a red chile sauce and topped with cheese, a specialty of Eduardo's. While we waited for our food, she recited a litany of the idiotic names they'd considered. They were so dumb, I can't even remember them. I know I laughed when I thought it appropriate.

Finally, Eduardo presented our steaming plates himself, two huge enchiladas with sides of the traditional rice and beans, and a bit of shredded lettuce and tomatoes. I took a bite. Just the right amount of cilantro and pepper flakes to wake up my mouth without burning it.

After we'd eaten about half our food, Jess took a sip of her ice water and cleared her throat. "How do we find out when my father met Molino?"

I guess it had become one of the less difficult things for her to talk about.

"I'm going to try to find out why the charges against Morgan were dropped in Francesca's case."

"But..."

I help up a hand. "I know that won't tell us anything about your father, but it might give us names of people we can approach."

"Besides Morgan himself."

"Jess, I'm not that suicidal." I'd been thinking of ways I could approach him, but she didn't have to worry about that. "I guess I'll also have to talk to your father again." I scratched the back of my neck.

"Haven't you already gotten all you could from him?"

"Don't you want me to talk to him?"

"I've been thinking about it. Maybe Nina or Petey know something about the week before the accident. I'd just returned from school the day before, but I wonder whether Dad was acting strangely."

That was an avenue I hadn't thought of. Maybe she was right. Nina would be the easier one. In addition to being older, she tended to be more observant than their brother. I nodded. "Maybe I'll come in for a few minutes when I drop you off at her place. I assume that's where I'm taking you after dinner."

"Yes. Uncle Johnny sent us a menu change and we have to figure out how it will affect our fliers."

We refocused on our food, and finished our meal off with a dish of flan. I paid and thanked Eduardo for another excellent meal and were on our way again.

I parked not far from Nina's building, and we took the elevator up to her place. I hadn't been there since she was sick after their abduction. The décor in the lobby and hallways still struck me as pretentious, but Nina didn't seem to mind. At least her apartment was more tasteful.

She answered the door and let us in. "How'd it go?"

I didn't know whether Jess told her where we went or why, so I let Jess reply.

"Mostly we filled out a questionnaire, talked to the doctor for less than ten minutes and then had blood drawn for tests." Jess tossed her purse on the counter separating the kitchen from the dinette. "I have to go back tomorrow for a sonogram."

Nina nodded. "Did you find out anything?"

Jess smiled. "Yeah. Francesca was there, and the doctor didn't find anything wrong with her."

"So the problem was with Carlo?"

"That's what Dr. Jerome surmised, according to his receptionist." I smirked. "Molino probably couldn't accept that."

"Would you?" Nina didn't wait for me to answer, but I'd already been expecting that might be the case. "So now what? Besides your sonogram tomorrow, that is."

"Actually that will give me a chance to grill the person who does it, find out what they know about Francesca."

"They won't tell you, will they?"

Jess shrugged. "We'll see."

Nina turned to me. "Don't you have to be at the hospital? What are you doing here?"

I glanced at Jess, wondering what she'd told her sister about the man who caused their mother's death.

"Nina, sit down." Jess put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "There's something we want to talk to you about."

Nina's face clouded over. "What's wrong?" She collapsed into the nearest chair.

"Greg found out that the man who caused Mom's death is the same man who crashed into Francesca's car, killing her." Jess sat too.

"You're sure?" Nina looked at me.

I nodded. "Also, your father knows Molino. We think it's because of this connection, but we're still not sure what it means."

"But you suspect Molino of arranging his wife's death. You can't really believe Father had anything to do with..." she trailed off as the possibility hit her. "Oh, no!" She buried her head in her hands.

Jess reached over and squeezed her arm. "That's exactly what I said when I first heard about the connection. But, Nina, there could be another explanation." When Nina looked up at her, Jess' eyes pleaded with her sister to calm down.

Nina nodded and sniffed back tears. "I don't know why I'm so upset. It isn't as if I had any respect left for our father."

"But he is our father. Even if we hated him, and I don't think we do, but if we did it would still be horrid to believe he might have planned the accident that killed Mom. At this point I doubt it. This thing is, there was no way to know that anyone would be killed."

"That's true." Nina looked at me. "What do you think?"

"I don't know what to think. After all that I've learned about Molino, and Francesca's death, I'm still at a loss. Where your father comes into it is another mystery laid on top of the rest. And then there's the Locarnos."

"What about them?" Nina sat back.

"Mike Morgan wasn't involved in Ricky's accident, but Tina told us her mother was killed in an accident and she doesn't know enough about it to know whether his name ever came up. I'll have to talk to Marcello about that."

"You think that's connected, too?"

I shrugged. "Nina, I have to ask you something."

"Now what?"

"How much do you remember about the accident?"

She looked at Jess, then back to me. "I've never remembered it happening or the first few minutes afterward. The first thing I remember was the paramedic examining me."

"How about the week or even the month before. Was there anything..." I took a breath, unsure how to put this. "...anything odd about your mother's behavior?"

"My mother? You're not asking about my father?"

"Well, him too, but first, what about your mother?"

"Of course not," she replied without even thinking about it, but then her eyes got that faraway look.

After a couple of minutes, Jess prompted her. "Nina?"

She focused again. "It seems so long ago."

"It was ten years."

She nodded. "I can't think of anything, although Mom and Dad did argue about a few things. They argued before that, but these arguments were different, like there was something going on I didn't know about." She rubbed her eyes. "One of the fights was about Petey. Come to think about it, there were a few about him, about his driving but mostly about the way Dad excused all of his failures."

That didn't fit with what I knew about their brother's relationship with their father. "I thought your father blamed Petey for the accident."

"Yeah, that's why it was so devastating to Petey. Dad never thought he could do anything wrong before that."

Jess nodded. "Nina's right. I think Petey was devastated enough about Mom's death, and then to have Dad blame him made it that much worse."

"Did your parents argue about anything else?" I asked Nina.

"About the number of hours Dad worked, but neither seemed as passionate about that."

"Nina, did you ever see Mike Morgan before the accident?"

"Dorsey's a small town. I guess I saw him around. Certainly he drove by in his truck now and then."

"He's from Dorsey?" Now that was something I hadn't known. "So what was he doing in Princeton when his truck hit Francesca's car?"

"Good question."