Dario eased his foot off the gas pedal and took the sharp turn on the road hugging the coastline. Ella stared out the passenger window. Since they’d left his condo she hadn’t uttered a single word. He tapped his hand on the steering wheel in beat with a song from the radio. At Irena’s insisting, and with a ton of reluctance, he and Ella headed to meet Ante at the Mezzaluna. Irena had agreed to keep her phone on her at all times. She needed some alone time to take out her anger on a punching bag in the rec room.
With one hand on the steering, and his attention on the road, he squeezed Ella’s hand and her tense muscles relaxed. “You’re awfully quiet. What are you thinking about?”
She slowly turned toward him. “Mom. She’s beyond mad. Her whole life she thought Mr. Novak was her dad. It explains why he was never nice to her.”
“Honey.” He gave Ella’s hand another reassuring squeeze. “I know you’re worried about her, give her time, she’ll snap out of it. She’s entitled to vent her anger. Though she’s right, your grandpa, I mean, Mr. Novak, ruined her childhood.” He swallowed hard, trying to remember Mr. Novak wasn’t related to Irena or Ella by blood. Up until today, the man who had caused them all greatest hardships was Irena’s father by nurture, if one could call it that, but not by blood. “And
if he had it his way, he would’ve ruined her entire life, but your mom is the smartest, toughest woman I know. Nothing can bring her down, at least not for long.”
“Wish Grandma left him and went to the Professor. What was my real grandfather like?” A battle of emotions showed in her quivering voice and knotted his gut.
“Your grandma is worn down by bitterness and regret. She’s afraid she’d become a topic of gossip.” He thought as the town grew the nasty rumors might end, but it seemed they were only getting worse. Dario scowled at the small city mentality and continued, “The Professor Vlahos was a good man, too smart for this place. He would’ve loved you, I’m sure. His pupils loved him. He lived for teaching.” Dario’s knuckles whitened with his grip on the steering wheel. The poor child had grown up surrounded by selfish and indifferent people she called her grandparents, while her real, loving grandparents never knew she existed, except for Irena’s mother, but the woman was emotionally unapproachable.
Ella nodded slowly and faced the window again. “Still, I never saw Mom this angry before. Not even when I lost her shiny amulet.”
He glanced in her direction, but quickly returned his gaze to the road ahead, looking for a spot to pull over. This new revelation from Ella required his full attention and he couldn’t concentrate on the winding payment and her at the same time. “Shiny amulet?”
“You know it, Dad. Mom told me how you got the amulet from a gypsy woman at the fair. When I was little, I loved playing with Mom’s gem, but I had to return the pebble in the special box when I was done,
and I always did. The lines in the rock would glow in my hand, that’s why I called it shiny amulet. I don’t know why but it never happened in Mom’s hand. She said it’s because I’m special.” Ella licked her lips before continuing. “Mom would find her amulet around the basement and yell at me. Then one day…it disappeared. We upturned the whole house and nothing. Mom got angry.”
He brought the car to a safe stop and cut the engine. His poor daughter sat with her head hung low and her shoulders slumped. “Hey, look at me.” At the caress on her cheek, she snapped her gaze at him. Good, he got her attention. “How long since you last saw it?”
“Over two years now.” She pursed her lips and glanced away. “I didn’t lose it, Dad. Mom had nightmares. After the amulet got lost, her bad dreams became more frequent.”
“Did she ever speak of her nightmares?” His chest squeezed. By his recon, the nightmares that had plagued his dreams increased in frequency some two years ago.
“They would start with the dream of you, but after a while, the gypsy woman’s face would replace yours. The woman’s mouth opened as if she was trying to say something, but no sound would come out. Mom would wake up screaming and drenched in sweat. Thank God she didn’t have a nightmare since we arrived in Zadar, her screams scared me.” Ella’s voice faltered. “I hope they don’t come back. My theory is that the two pieces are close to one another and soon the amulet will become whole again. Let’s not talk about that anymore. Can I see your half of the amulet?”
He swallowed against his tightening throat. Irena’s
nightmares were identical to his, save for her face becoming Gypsy woman’s. If only he hadn’t been so damn scared of the image and listened what was she wanted to say. Perhaps there was some secret mystery she wanted them to know. To his defense, the woman’s appearance wasn’t for the faint of heart. Thinking back, he too hadn’t had that particular dream since Irena returned. The amulet would become whole again. How? “Of course, love. I keep the second half on my desk as a paperweight and only saw it glow once. The night your mom returned to me.” Hopefully, the fire had not spread to his office. God, he’d barely stepped his foot out of his restaurant since that night. His family was worth the sacrifice. In recent years he’d cursed the very establishment he bled for and built from the ground up. While being immersed in work helped him not to think of Irena, at the same time he envied those
who lived normal lives.
The restaurant owner was no longer a noble profession. With countless establishments in the city, competing for the drop of the business from an ever drying well, restaurateurs turned ugly. Gone were healthy coexistence side by side, replaced with only bitterness. That kind of foulness repulsed and disturbed him.
To his surprise, lately, he caught himself pondering of folding the business and perhaps opening something else with not such a large overhead. A topic he needed to discuss with Ante. After all, he was his equal partner and half owner of Mezzaluna.
Ella shifted, making the leather on the seat creak, and faced him. “How did the gypsy woman break that amulet?”
“With some magic chant and a weird finger symbol she drew in the air above the rock. But gypsies are tricksters.”
Ella’s sad expression sent heaviness to his chest. He needed to cheer her up and make her forget her mother’s tumulus angry state. With Ella’s fascination of the history, there was no shortage of things to show her that would take her mind off her troubles. “Hey, did you know this city has a sphinx?”
She shot him a wide-eyed look. “A real sphinx?
Where?”
“Yeah, it’s right there.” He pointed at the wide open intricate cast iron gate nestled between waist high garden walls running along the other side of the road. “Want to go see?”
“Are we allowed in there?” She craned her neck, peering through the driver’s side window.
“It’s a private house, but the owners don’t mind as long as you respect their property. All the villas along the coast here are from Belle Époque period. In spring and summer, their gardens are beautiful.” He opened his door. “Come, you’ll love it.”
She reached for her nun-chucks under the car seat, but he stopped her. He’d opposed her having the wood sticks concealed under her coat during the funeral. However, had things turned ugly when Fred approached them, he’d have been glad she didn’t heed his protests. “You can leave your weapon. We won’t be long.”
He stepped onto the sidewalk, and Ella eagerly skirted the hood of his car, joining him. The northerly wind brought brisk air and pushed the dark clouds away, leaving clear skies. On the open sea, white crests formed on the waves. Hopefully, the wind would die by
tomorrow or their speedboat would get some trashing on the churned waters.
She wrapped her arms around her torso and shrunk deeper into her jacket. “This wind is freezing. Is this what Mom called the Bura weather? She said it’s usually not this bad.”
“Yes, this wind is called Bura from Greek mythological figure Boreas.” He checked both ways for traffic and waited for the few cars to drive by. “Our city’s protected by the mountain ridge to the north and on rare occasions, we feel the blast as bad as today. However, up the coast, in a channel between mainland and islands, the wind speed in the winter exceeds two hundred kilometers per hour daily. No wonder pirates set their stronghold there. The coast was unapproachable most of the time. They were quite skilled sailors.”
Holding onto her elbow, he ran across the street and entered the large garden. “Here’s the city’s sphinx. It’s not as big or as old as Egypt’s Sphinx, but it’s the largest in the Europe.”
Much work still waited for the new owners who strived to restore once the professionally landscaped area that had been left to deteriorate after the nationalization of the Villa Attilia and its grounds after the World War II.
“The sphinx was built in 1918 by Giovanni, the man who originally owned this villa in memory of his dead wife, Attilia. The villa bears her name too.” He pointed at the three-story building to the right of the Sphinx with its white window frames accented by the mustard yellow walls. His plan to give Ella a quick history lesson on the Zadar’s almost forgotten part of
the past fell through as she saw the Sphinx and dashed ahead before he could finish.
“It’s concrete, but that somehow enhances its beauty. Look, Dad, she has fingers instead of paws.” Ella pointed at the ground between the Sphynx’s hands where a few green blades of grass marked the first sign of spring. “These bricks suggest there was something here?”
“A fish pond stood there as if the Sphinx’s hands protected it by a dagger and a shell she held. Those deteriorated as well. The grounds and the villa stood neglected for years. Some stories circled of buried treasure under the Sphinx and no one ever deciphered the hieroglyphic inscription on her hair, it spurred some wild imagination.” He pointed at the top of the Sphinx’s head with strange engravings. “Giovanni and Attilia dabbled in the occult.”
She inspected every nook and cranny of the concrete structure and stepped closer to trace her hand over the face. ”Was the treasure ever found?”
“There was never any treasure.” He pulled the zipper of his bomber jacket as far as it would go, but the collar provided little protection from the bitter wind. “People came sniffling with metal detectors and aside from a few beer caps, found nothing.”
He waited until she snapped a few pictures. His quick plan worked and, judging by her grin, she must’ve forgotten her mother’s anger. “Well, shall we go? I don’t want to overstate the owner’s welcome, and Uncle Ante is waiting for us.”
“Sure.” She pocketed her cell and cast one last glance at the Sphinx. “Her face shows sadness and happiness at the same time.” Ella pivoted in his
direction and threaded her arm through his. “Thanks for showing me this.”
“I love to stop here sometimes to enjoy the peacefulness of the sea among the tall pines surrounding the property.” With one last glance at the sphinx, he vowed to give Irena the same kind of contended life Mistress Attilia had with her husband. Their marriage had been blessed with five children, and hopefully, Irena would want a big family too.
He turned to Ella and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Promise me one thing?”
“Sure, Dad. What?”
“Slow down and don’t be in such hurry to grow up. You get to be a child only for a little while.” He nudged his forehead against hers, coaxing her laugh.
“Okay, Dad. I promise.”
Once he was seated in the car, the warmth caressed his face and replaced the brisk, biting wind. He fastened his seat belt and turned on the engine.
Ella placed her reddened hands over the vent on the dashboard. “It’s great to have a heat in the car.”
“It is?” He gave her a quick glance. “Heat in Mom’s car didn’t work?”
“Mom only turned the heat on to defrost the windshield. We had to be frugal. Every penny we saved helped us to run from Fred. Last year I was the most sought after babysitter and kept two paper routes.” Ella turned toward the passenger’s window. She could revert to her subdued state, he should keep her talking.
Now would be a perfect time to ask his burning question. “Would you live here?”
The corners of Ella’s mouth dipped. “There’s so much history to see, but I don’t think I’d want to move
to this country. The few times I’ve got to see the city, I noticed many beggars and people seem generally unhappy. The service we received at the stores and restaurants was without smiles. On top, I think the younger kids are kind of punky.”
Dario smiled despite her accurate observation. “Yes, youngsters are turning aggressive.” He pulled into an empty parking spot by the footbridge.
She grabbed her weapon from under the passenger’s seat and stuffed inside her short jacket.
He opened the driver’s side door and put one foot out. “I hope you didn’t bring those to your school.”
“I did in my last year, but no one knew.” She eased out of the car and joined him. “It’s tricky to hide them under my jersey during the gym.”
He harrumphed but refrained from commenting. No child should feel unsafe to the point that they need to carry a weapon of any kind. Yet, the naïve ones became easy victims to the predators. Perhaps he should be glad his daughter knew better and could take care of herself. At the top of the footbridge where the wind gusts were felt the most, she moved closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Once we enter the old city it won’t feel this cold. The Medieval high walls offer great protection against the wind. Unfortunately, we have to walk back this way to get to the car.”
Only a few souls braved the cold day and mingled the streets of the ancient town. The establishments had their front door shut tight, and a few didn’t bother to open, knowing the business would be scarce. The charred walls of Mezzaluna’s interior squeezed his heart. Ante stood slouched over his laptop, his
expression sour.
Dario scanned the smoke damage inside the restaurant’s dining room.
Ante raised his head from the computer screen. “Hi Ella didn’t know you were coming. Is Irena with you? Poor thing, I heard what happened at the funeral. By now that’s pretty much the talk of the day. “
“Something to amuse the people. We left Irena to beat the punching bag to a pulp. She’s quite upset.” Dario lowered the lid of Ante’s laptop.
“I wish I could’ve been there to get into that craven’s face too. Knowing Irena, she is not shocked by the gossip, but the secrets her mother kept all these years.” Ante turned his attention to the papers next to his laptop and dangled his copy of the insurance report in front of Dario’s face “How did the bill get so astronomical? For the most part, it was the smoke and water damage.”
Dario snatched the papers from his brother’s hand and slammed them on the dirty counter. “The fire marshal fined us for faulty wiring and plumbing.”
Ante snorted. “Load of crap. The building owner wouldn’t cut us a deal on the lease. We would’ve gladly upgraded his wiring to bring it up to the code. If we were to fold the business, we can’t take the work put into the building with us.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” “What? Upgrading the electrical and plumbing in
this place?” Ante tiled his head toward the overhead light. “The building is old and getting it up to the code will require some serious cash. I’d sooner move the business somewhere on the outskirts of the town where we’re bound to find a newly built location. That would
also mean less visibility.”
“I thought about it myself and came to the same conclusion.” Dario gauged his brother’s reaction. Ante’s continuous frown and furrowed brow made him finally give up. It was obvious he wasn’t getting Dario’s hint. “There’s no way of winning this, bro. The only solution is we cut our losses while we can. The sales are going down no matter of our location and frankly…” He glanced at Ella. She smiled at the phone in her hand and her thumbs flickered over the screen. Who could she be texting with, other than Irena? “Well, I’m also tired of putting up with people who cheat us on deliveries, patrons who want freebies, dealing with employees who can’t pull their weight and we had to cut loose. Who’s to say one of them didn’t sell his soul to Fred and told him the best way to start the fire in the restaurant?”
“That’s only a beginning.” Ante put his index finger up, stopping Dario from continuing. “Half of our employees took jobs elsewhere and other half left the country. We’ll have to start from scratch and hire and train new staff.” Ante pursed his lips and crossed his arms over his wide chest. “It’s possible someone sold us out, but what do you have in mind?”
Here goes nothing. Dario took in a long breath, bracing for Ante’s reaction, but had to voice out his plan. “We give Frank the place to manage and drive Fred’s out of business, then Frank gets his own restaurant back and if he wants he can buy Mezzaluna from us.”
Ante scratched his thumb back and forth over his jaw. “How’s Frank gonna come up with the cash to fix this place? He couldn’t buy his own place from Fred.”
“He’s got money. Not as much as Fred wanted for the LaGrotta, but he’d do fine leasing our restaurant. Anyway, we’ll have to sell for less. He can have the place, but not our recipes.”
“Of course. Recipes are our best-kept secret.” Ante cocked his head. “Not a bad plan, but what do we do?”
Dario relaxed his shoulders. Ante took the news better than he anticipated. “I haven’t discussed this with Irena yet, but if she agrees, I’ll go with her to Canada. She’s already established there, so it would be easier for her and Ella. I get set there and send you and your family a one-way ticket.” At Ante’s raised eyebrow, Dario continued. “How are things with Martina? Good, I hope.”
A wide grin bloomed on his brother’s face, suggesting things with his woman were better than good. “Fantastic, I think this time we’ll make it. Jasmin is happy too to see her parents together and not arguing.” Bouncing on his feet, he continued, “I’ll have a talk with Martina. She’d have a hard time leaving, but I can persuade her.” He waved his hand back and forth between Dario and him. “We’ve seen the big scary world out there. Our minds have opened and expanded and can’t ever shrink back again. That is why we didn’t really fit with these people back home. Most of them never step their foot outside of this small country.”
A knock on the open front door had them pivoting in the direction of a tall, hulking man standing in the threshold. “Have you forgotten me, Dario? It’s Tom. Ana’s ex, or rather current again, thanks to you, and hoping to stay that way.”
Dario’s chest constricted and he drew in a slow and deep breath. Tom’s presence here meant only one thing.
His teeth were about to meet the man’s hard knuckles for treating Ana as a sex object. Instead, Tom’s features relaxed and he put one hand up. “As you were, gentlemen. I wanted to ask you about that low life called Fred. Where can I find him? He’ll pay for what he’s done to my boy and my woman.”
“I know where he’s staying, but I need to warn you, the man doesn’t work alone, and he’s got some big brutes guarding him. They may be armed and I’m sure they are dangerous.”
Tom’s deep chuckles reverberated against the stone walls. “I wasn’t born yesterday, and I can come up with more men than he can think of. If it was your child, wouldn’t you beat the living daylight out of the pervert? My boy’s having nightmares but still, won’t talk about what that man did to him. Only confessed he got into the shower with him, naked and washed him down. Truth be told, I’m not sure I want to know the rest. There’s no doubt he touched him inappropriately, but damn it, not knowing keeps me up at night.”
Dario shivered. What horrors could the poor boy experienced while in Fred’s care? “Oh man, sorry to hear that.” Dario shook his head. Having Tom and his buddies on his side would make for one powerful ally. He should play his next card carefully to not to risk and blatantly ask for Tom’s help. “I hope Nicky gets better soon.”
“Yeah, the damn shrink told us to give the boy plenty of love and assure him he’s safe. We’re doing that, but it’s not working.” Tom punched his fist into his open palm. “I want that man’s head on a plate.”
Silence followed while Dario’s mind raced to how to fulfill Tom’s request. Ella cleared her throat and
snapped him from his musing.
Tom turned his head to her. “Your daughter? She’s a real beauty, like her mama.” He grinned, turning to Dario. “I remember Irena.” Tom dusted his hand off the soot after the touched the counter. “So, where do I find this low life? From what I heard, that man runs some dirty business. While a few say he’s a saint. He offered them schooling abroad for their children, but I see the fear in their eyes.” Tom reached into his jeans back pocket and retrieved his wallet.
“You heard right. One of my buddies works with Europol. He promised to check Fred out.” Dario squared his jaw. Despite Irena’s urgency not to involve police, he’d promised her his friend would stay discreet. Things may be getting out of hand, and if it came to that, they would all have hard questions to answer if they hadn’t alerted the law enforcement sooner.
“Ah, no use talking to them, the scumbag most likely has the city police on his payroll. They won’t do a thing unless you have some hard evidence. Here, take my business card.” He scribbled on the back of the card. “This is my private cell number. If in need, call me. I and my men are on your side.” Passing the card in one hand, he raised his other for a high-five salute.
Dario slapped his palm against Tom’s and they shook their hands. A silent nod and understanding passed between them. With Tom on his side, Fred had little chance of succeeding.
After Tom left, Ante stored the number in his mobile’s contacts. “I spoke with Joe while on the island. He told me not to do something dumb. He didn’t say much, but I’ve got a feeling he knows about Fred and his child prostitution ring.”
Dario pocketed the card and tapped his brother’s arm. If their buddy wasn’t saying much, it meant only one thing, he wanted to stay low and not come under Fred’s radar. “Bring the boat to the pier at first light tomorrow.”
Ante nodded, and Dario set off in search for Ella. Where had she slipped to while he spoke with Tom? He found her in his office. The small room stood untouched by smoke, but judging by the upturned contents of the cabinets and drawers, someone had to have been looking for something. Water soaked paperwork covered his desk and the tossed invoices and purchase orders littered the floor. He snapped a couple of pictures for the insurance claim purpose and pocketed his phone. “Come love. We should head back.”
“It’s not here, Dad. I can’t find it.” She didn’t spare him a glance as she turned the items on his work station.
“What are you looking for?”
She popped her head up and looked him square in his eyes. “Your half of the shiny amulet. It’s gone. Someone out there knows the amulet’s secret. Mom said only in the right hand it will become whole again. Her half glowed in my hand. I think my hands are the right hands.”