Chapter Fifteen: Puzzle Pieces come together
Dr. Denise Hadden was a rational woman. But she had never felt this way about any man she had ever dated. Dating Joe Morelli made her chatty in a way she never was. She told him she had finished high school early, finished her BS in three years and got into the Albert Einstein's College of Medicine and how proud her folks were. How she had to work and earn money while studying and taking out huge student loans. How earning her MD and a place in their surgical residency program had been an amazing culmination of her years of hard work. She had colleagues she worked with for years who never heard any of her stories. She even confessed the hell that was a surgical internship. TV was nothing like the backbreaking work of an intern. She told Joe she would be a surgeon by now if her younger sister Sandra had not lost her baby at 23 weeks and how the loss changed her life.
She explained that Sandra went in for an amniocentesis and was the 1 to 3 in a thousand women who went into preterm labor from the procedure. At only 23 weeks, the fetus… Denise's niece… did not survive. And Denise decided to change her focus and create a tool to prevent this loss from happening to another family. She described her pursuit of non-invasive methods to do prenatal genetic testing. Joe listened, asked a few questions and Denise felt heard. Loved.
Oh God! She was falling in love with Joe Morelli.
"Joe, I feel like I am doing all the talking when we go out."
"I disagree. I have already told you about my misspent youth and my crazy family."
At that point Denise looked up and saw a beautiful blonde making her way to their table. Joe turned to see what Denise was looking at.
Terry was beside him as he got to his feet.
"Is something wrong?" Joe almost whispered.
"Joey, please introduce me to your guest." Terry waved to the waiter for another chair and took Joe's, sitting beside Denise. "I am Terry Gilman, and you must be the new woman in Joey's life."
"Terry, knock it off."
Denise looked at Terry Gilman. Beautiful skin, glowing blonde hair, pricy manicure and designer clothing tailored to perfection. She was every bit the Mafia Princess Joe had described. And she was playing her part as the jealous ex to perfection. Their show had just begun.
Joe warned Denise that the world of Trenton needed to see this show so it got around the Burg. It was all part of the plan.
A day earlier, the results Joe asked her to run came back. After weeks of waiting, Denise was able to confirm that neither male adult samples were a match to either the younger female sample or the fetal sample DNA. This confirmed that neither Morelli nor the dead man were the father of the younger female or the fetus. Denise was able to confirm as well that Stephanie was carrying a healthy XY fetus.
"Steph is having a boy…"Joe was a little misty eyed as Denise explained the report to him. He had already told Denise about Stephanie. While they were waiting, Joe slowly shared with Denise who Stephanie was to him, who Ranger was as a man and a rival. Everything, from the beginning. He explained to her that more than once, Ranger saved Stephanie's life. Literally. How Ranger once dove off a bridge to save her life. And he confessed his own doubt that he could have done the same.
As he explained he was not proud of some of the things he had said and done, he expressed his sorrow over his mistakes. He needed to tell her, he explained, because he wanted their relationship to be based on honesty. Denise held him in her arms and told him no one was without fault. Then he told her about believing the baby was his and planning to "do the right thing".
"And I would have married her and raised the child with her. Even though both of us knew we weren't everything to each other. Because it was expected."
Now they had to get the report to Stephanie. And Terry was going to help them get it to her with nobody any the wiser.
"Joey, you know you want me more than this little girl." Terry was playing intoxicated floosy, while leaving her purse slightly opened on Denise's side of her chair. When she waved her hand, knocking over the wine glass, Denise was able to drop a USB flash drive into the opened bag unnoticed. Joe made a show of helping Terry up and gathering her things and helping her to the front of the restaurant, where her car and driver were waiting.
Returning to the table, Joe apologized to Denise who seemed resistant to the Morelli charms. They finished their meals in near silence and headed to his car. As he headed out of the Burg, Denise burst out laughing. "You were an award-winning actor tonight! If ever you decide to give up the cop thing, you should take to the stage."
Joe smiled, "I believe the Oscar is all yours, my love."
Silence fell in the car. It was deafening. Did he just say…
"What did you say?" Denise whispered.
Joe swallowed as he pulled the car to the curb and turned to her, then he said what he had been holding in for a while. "I love you, Denise." He pulled her to him and kissed her with a gentle fire that took her breath away.
On the day before Thanksgiving, I arrived at Sally Sweet's high rise condo overlooking the river, a sandblasted concrete with black glass building with the lobby done in mauve and grey. I went straight up to the ninth floor as we were supposed to have Friendsgiving. I left my RangeMan guys in the lobby and we ordered Chinese food for delivery.
We were joined by the Wonder twins, Melvin and Charlotte who were, along with Hector and Diesel, using Sally's place to Mole Hunt. There was news at last!
Charlotte dove right in "Well, as you know, Hector gave us a list of single guys who were hired by RangeMan but were not raised local to any of the RangeMan offices."
"Because, like, if they were from here in Trenton, people would know them and their family." Melvin added. "The same being true in Boston and Miami."
"We excluded guys who were related to any of the long-term employees or had served in the military with any of the guys on our management team." Charlotte picked up. "Basically, we eliminated anyone who somebody else on the team could vouch for long term. They couldn't be imposters."
Melvin explained, "Cause our mole had somebody scrub his background so clean that Hector couldn't find the fix. We had ten guys on our list to start."
"Then we thought- since we were off the grid "visiting family out of state", maybe we could do some live interviews with people who actually grew up with our guys and could identify them from years ago." Charlotte smiled. "We eliminated like seven guys in the first couple of weeks."
"Anyway, we found a RangeMan who hailed from a small town in Idaho. His parents died years ago and other than his uncle who came to live in their house as our boy headed to college there was no other family." Melvin smiled at Charlotte. "When he graduated, he moved in with the uncle."
"Except the guy who moved back after college is not the kid who used to live there, he is just using his name- we think the imposter wanted the kid's clean, tragic background." Charlotte concluded and Hector nodded his agreement
"How do you know it is a different guy than the one who left for college?" I ask.
"Well, we were talking to the girl who just bought the house around the corner in August- directly behind our guy. Turns out that Maggie Watson used to visit her aunt for two weeks every summer and met the original guy- they were best friends until she stopped coming in the summer." Charlotte steepled her fingers. "Some kind of fight between her mother and her aunt."
Melvin picked up the tale. "Then she turned up last year and bought her aunt's old house… And our boy had NO IDEA who she was when he travelled home from Trenton for a weekend in late summer- he just thought she was a new, cute neighbor."
"And she even has pictures of the original kid, which is how we know it is not the same guy."
"You got him?"
"We got him."
"Do we know what happened to the guy this one is impersonating?"
"We are still looking."
Sally and Diesel looked at Stephanie. "What are you going to do about this guy?"
"We need to find out more about him… watch him, maybe see if anyone is helping him. And then we need to get a plan together about what to do with him." Stephanie looked to Diesel. "For now, can you and Wulf help me keep eyes on him."
"We can do that."
And now it is Thanksgiving morning. I am in the back pew waiting for the Eight o'clock mass to start. My Grandma Plum loved this mass. Since it was not a Holy Day of Obligation, only those who wanted to attend were here. I was here because I craved the quiet comfort of the hymns and rote prayers I had grown up with.
"Mrs. Manoso, do you know who I am?" I looked over and found myself face to face with an older mobster.
"Of course, Mr. Grizolli. You helped me with your nephew Kenny Martin when he was my FTA… you were kind to me."
"Please call me Vito. May I join you?" I wave him to the seat beside me.
"Vito, call me Stephanie."
"Stephanie, are you aware that your husband and I have had a working relationship since he came to Trenton?" I nodded. Ranger often served as a peacemaker between the Families.
"Are you further aware that sometimes he shared some of his concerns with me about issues with his business concerns with garden rodents?" Vito knew we had a mole.
"Are you aware of the issue we had with the rodent in question allowing information to get away, Vito?" He nodded.
"Stephanie, your husband did mention he had some team members working on that issue." He knows we have the Wonder Twins looking. I wonder what else he knows.
"We have some results- eyes on the rodent, but no plan to spring the trap. The situation is being monitored and the rat isolated."
"That is good to know- you will, of course, let me know if you require my assistance with the resolution."
"If it cannot be managed in-house, I would be grateful for your assistance." Vito could definitely address the mole issue.
"I would like to share some information with you, but it must stay between the two of us. As Joseph has told you, it is my belief that your husband is both alive and being held captive. The body received in Florida proved to be a different man." Vito handed me the flash drive Denise had given Terry. "These are the DNA results you have waited for." I was right- the body wasn't Carlos. THANK GOD!
"Do you really believe Carlos is alive after all this time?" Vito nodded.
"There is much I know that I cannot yet share and also much I do not know or must confirm. When I do have more to share with you, you will receive a call confirming your lunch reservations at Rossini's. You will eat lunch and on your way to the ladies' room before dessert, you will join me in my private room. Then I will update you with what I learn."
"Why are you and Terry helping us?"
"It is not only us, Stephanie. Ranger has always been an honorable man and has done much to keep peace between the Families. It is my belief that this is one of the reasons he was targeted."
"Thank you, Vito. I…we…"I rub my growing belly, "are more grateful than you can know."
"Happy Thanksgiving, Stephanie." Vito rose to his feet.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Vito."