The Bachelor Party. Ron Hummer
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who the men were?”
“I don’t want any trouble. They said that they wanted me to deliver a message to you.”
Emily’s eyes widened; Elaine put her hand to her mouth.
“They said Mr. Russo sends his regards.”
Elaine bit her lip, leaned back in her chair. “I don’t know anyone named Russo. I don’t think we even had a case with a person named Russo.”
“Well, that’s what they said.”
“You should tell the warden who did this,” Elaine demanded.
“They know who did it. The warden talked to them. I don’t want to have any trouble here.”
Emily said, “I’ll speak with the warden.”
“Mom, I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Fine.”
“What does Amanda say?” Michael asked, running his hand through his dark hair.
“We don’t know. The DA doesn’t buy your story.”
“What about the woman that helped me out of the bar?”
“We can’t find her?”
“Mom, she was there. I know she was there.”
“Michael, there were traces of ecstasy in your blood. It was put into your drink. For all we know, she could have done that.”
“She probably did. She was asking Tony to stop. Said I had enough.”
“Michael, the DA said it doesn’t make sense. They said that you got into a fight with him and maybe he pulled the knife and it was in self defense.”
“He didn’t have a knife. The woman did.”
“Amanda said she may consider self defense.”
“There must be cameras at the bar.”
“There were,” Elaine said. “No one got a good look at the woman. The cameras didn’t pick anything up.”
“And no one knew who she was?”
“No,” Emily said.
Michael closed his eyes, chewed the inside of his cheek. “What am I going to do?”
“I’ll speak with Amanda,” Emily said. “She’s a great criminal attorney. You know that we’re close friends. We both graduated from the same law school. We were in the same sorority.”
“How’s Dad?”
Emily and Elaine stood up. “You’re father’s fine. He couldn’t get a flight out of Atlanta. He should be here tomorrow.”
MIchael shook his head.
“We’ll figure something out,” Emily said. “We know you didn’t do this.”
“I know you do.”
“We’re going to see Amanda right now,” Elaine said.
“Okay.”
Michael stood up, his body shook. Emily and Elaine hugged Michael.
Emily and Elaine were outside, walking toward their car. As they reached the black Mercedes Benz, Emily noticed that three men were standing near the car.
“Can we help you?” Emily asked as the men stood there.
Emily looked the three men over carefully. The one on the left was much taller than her, short blond hair that was parted to the left with the body of a football player. The one on the right, shorter, his dark hair cut in a buzz cut. The man in the center ran his hand through his dark thinning hair that had a bald spot the size of a golf ball.
“I thought I would come over and introduce myself to you Mrs Wells,” the man in the center said.
“If you know who I am, you know that we’re lawyers and officers of the court.”
The man smiled, took a deep breath. “My name is Frank Russo.”
Emily glared at the man, put her hands on her hips. “Are you the one who had my son beat up in prison?”
“Now why would you make that accusation?” Russo asked.
“Because the men said this is a message from Mr. Russo,” Elaine said.
“In any case, we seem to have a problem.”
“I don’t understand,” Emily said.
“Well, it seems that my daughter has disappeared.”
“My son doesn’t know your daughter,” Emily said.
“On the contrary,” Russo said, scratching his head. “She was last seen with your son going out of the strip club.”
“Then your daughter saw everything,” Emily said. “Did she put ecstasy in my son’s drink?”
“My daughter wouldn’t do anything like that,” Frank said.
“I’m not sure I understand this,” Elaine added.
Frank clapped his hands. “Well, let me explain it to you. There was blood at the crime scene. As you know, there were three people, The third person could be my daughter.”
Emily crossed her hands over her chest. “So, what are you saying?”
“For all I know, your son could have killed my daughter after Tony Sage was killed.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Elaine said.
“In any case, I’d like to know what happened to my daughter. As far as I’m concerned, your son is the prime suspect.”
“Then I guess I’ll report this to the police,” Emily answered.
“You have no proof that I did anything,” Frank fired back. “Those men will deny that they ever said that to your son.”
Emily: “What do you want?”
“I want to know what happened to my daughter. You go to the police” - he put his hand to his mouth and coughed - “and make demands that they work on this case. Do whatever they have to do to find out what happened.”
“They’re doing everything they can already,” Elaine said.
“I’m not so sure. They think your son’s guilty. And if he is, then maybe he did something to my daughter as well.”
“My son is innocent of all these charges,” Emily said.
“That’s good. I hope so. For his sake. You stay on top of the police.” He pointed his forefinger at Emily. “You get some answers. Things will be unpleasant for your son if you don’t get answers that I need.”
“Fine,” Emily said. “I’ll speak with my attorney. I want to do everything I can to clear my son’s name.”
“Just make sure he is clear of all these charges. Because if he’s not, then all of you will deal with me.”
The men turned and walked away.
“What are we going to do?” Elaine whispered.
“We’ll go see Amanda. She’ll tell us what to do.”
Chapter 4
Emily and Elaine sat on a plush black couch in front of Amanda Collins, who sat behind a mahogany desk. She took a sip of her coffee, put it back on the coaster, her blond hair moving around her shoulders as she shook her head.
“Frank Russo is head of a mob syndicate in New York. I’m really surprised that he came to you like that.”
“Maybe we should call the police,” Elaine said.
“He