Free Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline Page A

abused woman? Lusting after a mobster? Had she lost her mind? She closed the drawer and reached for the phone, lifted the receiver, and heard an interrupted dial tone, which meant there were messages. Verizon was the most common Philly carrier; Mary had it at home, too. She pressed 00, reached a prompt, then turned to Giulia.
    “What password does Trish use generally, do you know?” Mary asked. “I want to check her messages.”
    “Try Lucy. She uses that for everything. It’s her mom’s old dog.”
    “Thanks.” Mary pecked the keys, then the voicemail said that there was one new message. She pressed 1, but it was a telemarketer. She hung up. “Rats.”
    “No luck?”
    “Not yet.” Mary thought a minute. “Trish told me she kept a diary. That’s probably in her bedroom, right?”
    Giulia frowned slightly. “No, she didn’t. She said that? You sure?”
    “Yes. She had a gun, too, didn’t she?”
    “Sure.” Giulia seemed distracted, her forehead creased slightly. “I don’t think she had a diary. She woulda tol’ me.”
    “Do you know where she kept the gun?”
    “No.”
    “I’m wondering if she took it with her.”
    “I don’t know. Prolly.”
    Mary thought the gun and the diary would be upstairs. “Let me ask you something else. Where would he take her for her birthday? Which restaurant?”
    “I don’t know. He didn’t like to take her out. He liked her home. It drove her nuts.”
    “Okay, where does he go when he goes to work, or whatever Mob guys do?” Mary didn’t know much about organized crime and wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. “Where does he sell drugs?”
    “I dunno. We never talked about it. She didn’t wanna know the details, and neither did I.”
    Mary remembered Trish had said that. They don’t know the whole story.
    “Once she told me that the boys hang at Biannetti’s, down Denver Street. But he never took T there.”
    Mary made a note on an imaginary legal pad. AVOID BIANNETTI’S AND DENVER STREET. “Did she ever mention any friends of his in the Mob, or just guys he knew? Maybe Mob guys he hung with at Biannetti’s? Guys who might know where they went?”
    “No. Like I said, we didn’t talk about it.”
    Mary scanned the kitchen and dining room one last time. “How many bedrooms in this house?”
    “Two, one and a half baths, no cellar.” Giulia frowned again. “I can’t remember the last time I was even upstairs. It’s like she’s not allowed to have girlfriends.”
    “How can you get along without your girlfriends?” Mary was thinking of Judy, and Giulia smiled.
    “For reals.”
    “Did Trish mention any other friends she had? Maybe a friend who might know something about where they could be?”
    “No way. She had us. She was loyal to us.” Giulia frowned, and Mary let it go.
    “Did you check the bedroom? I’m curious to see if her clothes are missing. Or if there are any signs she packed anything, or he did.”
    “I didn’t check.”
    “Where does she keep her suitcase, do you know?”
    “I dunno. We keep ours under the bed.”
    “I’ll check that, too.” Mary filed it away. “By the way, where’s their computers?”
    “He didn’t have one, I know that. She told me he never liked ’em. He said he had ADD.”
    Mary thought back. He had been a poor student. He could have been undiagnosed, back then. “No e-mail or anything?”
    “T had it.”
    “I want to look upstairs.”
    “I’ll go out and smoke.” Giulia turned, but Mary touched her arm.
    “Wait, I have a job for you and the girls. I want you to go up and down the street and interview the neighbors.”
    “Why?” Giulia frowned.
    “When there’s a crime, cops canvass the neighborhood to find out what people saw. They interview them to get witnesses.” Mary walked into the dining room and picked up one of the photos from the credenza. “Take this with you. Show it to the neighbors when you talk to them.”
    “Don’t need it. I got a picture of them in my cell