Rebecca Winters - The Bride of Montefalco

“Hey, Jim! This is Troy at the Golden Arm Gym. Since new management is taking over, we’ve been cleaning out the lockers. I found something pretty valuable of yours. I don’t have a phone number or address on you, so I’ve been calling all the J., Jim or James Parkers in the city trying to find you. Call me back either way so I can cross you off the list. If you’re that Jim, drop by within twenty-four hours or it’ll be gone.”

Ally had buried her husband two months ago. Just hearing someone ask to speak to him today of all days sent a chill through her body. This call was like a ghost from the past.

Since Jim had never joined a gym, she phoned the number to let them know.

“Golden Arm Gym.”

“Is Troy there?”

“Speaking.”

“You’re the person who called my house yesterday morning. I’m Mrs. James Parker, but I’m afraid you have the wrong Jim Parker.”

“Okay. The Jim I’m looking for works in Europe a lot, and he doesn’t have a wife. Thanks for letting me know.”

He clicked off, but Ally’s fingers tightened around the receiver. Much as she wanted to dismiss his words, she couldn’t. Too often in her marriage she’d ignored little signs because she hadn’t wanted to believe anything could be wrong.

But those days were over. She was no longer the naïve idealist he’d married.

Once the taxi arrived, she instructed the driver to stop by the gym. It was on the other side of Portland near the freeway leading to the airport. There was no time to lose.

The driver waited while she hurried inside the gym.

When she entered, there were several people already working out. The trainer at the counter flashed her a look of male interest.

“Hi!”

“Hello. Are you Troy?

“That’s right.”

“I’m Mrs. Parker, the woman you spoke to this morning.”

He squinted at her. “I thought you told me I had the wrong person.”

“Something you said forced me to reconsider. Did this Jim tell you what kind of work he did in Europe?”

“Yeah. He sells ski wear. In fact we worked out a deal. I gave him free workouts in exchange for his top of the line ski equipment.”

She took a fortifying breath. “Then that was my husband.”

He blinked. “What do you mean ‘was’?”

“Jim died four months ago.”

“You’re kidding. So that’s why I haven’t seen him around. What happened?”

“He died in a car accident.”

Had there been other women before Donata, and she’d happened to be the unlucky one who’d gone off the bridge with him?

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Parker. Maybe I misunderstood about him not being married.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m quite sure you didn’t. When did he join this club?”

“About a year ago.”

A whole year?

Struggling to remain composed, she pulled the wallet from her purse. Inside was a little photo holder. She showed him the one of Jim.

The other man stared at it, then nodded. “Just a sec and I’ll get what he left here.”

Half a minute later he came out of his office with an unfamiliar looking silver laptop. The power cord had been taped to it.

He tore the attached slip in half. “Sign here.”

Ally complied, trying her best not to tremble.

“Thank you for the call, Troy. I’m anxious to keep anything that belonged to my husband.”

“Of course. I’m glad you came when you did, otherwise we’d have sold it. I really am sorry about your husband.”

“So am I,” she muttered in a dull voice.

She’d known nothing about the purchase of this laptop. Jim’s company had supplied him with the one he’d always used to do business.

The only reason for this computer to exist meant he’d had something to hide.

She would have to take it to Europe with her. She didn’t have time to go back home. After she returned to the States, she’d look inside. If she discovered painful secrets, hopefully by then she’d be better able to handle them.

After going out to the cab, she packed the laptop in her suitcase then told the driver to step on it.

As she sat back in the seat, she shuddered to realize that her husband had been working out in a gym for eight months, and she’d had no knowledge of his activities. He must have stopped by either coming or going to Switzerland on business.

It was one thing to recognize that the two of them had drifted apart, but quite another to realize he’d been living a separate and secret life. How humiliating to be confronted by the truth in front of Troy, a total stranger to her.

Oh, Jim. What happened to the man I married? Did I ever really know you?

Ally was beginning to wonder…

With the aid of the staff, Gino helped his grieving Sofia and her father into the limo outside the local parish church. They’d just buried Donata in the adjacent cemetery. It had all been carried out in secret while word of her death had finally been announced by the media.

One day when the furor had died down, he would have her remains removed and buried on the grounds of the Montefalco estate in the family plot.

“I’ll join you at the farm in a few minutes, sweetheart.”

Sofia’s face was ravaged by fresh tears. “Don’t take too long.”

“I promise. I just want to say goodbye to a few people and thank the priest.”

She nodded before the farmhouse caretaker Paolo drove the car away.

Vastly relieved this part was over, he turned swiftly to Carlo whom he’d asked to wait until they could talk in private.

“The onslaught has started in earnest, Carlo.”

“What’s going on?”

“One of the security guards at the palazzo just left a message that a woman claiming to be Mrs. James Parker tried to get in to see Marcello a few minutes ago. It’s another ploy on the part of the paparazzi to ruin my family.”

The other man pursed his lips. “I must say I’m surprised they’d be audacious enough to impersonate the wife of the deceased.”

Gino grimaced. “Nothing surprises me anymore. She came in a taxi. As a precaution, the guard wrote down the license plate number.”

Carlo’s brows lifted. “Want me to track her down and have her vetted?”

Gino was way ahead of him.

“If you could locate her, I’d like to do the interrogating for a change.”

“What’s your plan?”

“How long could she be held at the jail?”

“Only twelve hours. If you can’t make the charges stick, then we’d have to release her.”

Gino’s eyes glittered. “Don’t worry about that. She’s going to wish she’d never ventured into my territory.”

Carlo pulled out his pocket notepad. “Give me the plate number. I’ll alert the desk sergeant at the jail to cooperate with you.”

“As usual, I’m indebted to you.”

“Our families have been close for years. I’m not about to see you and Sofia destroyed.”

Those words meant more to Gino than his friend would ever know.

“Grazie, Carlo.”

There was a jarring knock on the bedroom door.

“Signora Parker?”

Ally had only been in bed an hour and groaned in disbelief. Her long connecting flights from Oregon to Switzerland, then Rome, had been bad enough. But it was the horrendous day she’d spent on a hot, overcrowded train to reach the hilltop town of Montefalco that had done her in.

To compound her troubles, every hotel in the town had been booked months in advance for some festival. If her taxi driver hadn’t taken pity on her and brought her to his sister’s house to sleep, she would have been forced to return to Rome for the night. Perish the thought!

The rapping grew louder.

“Signora!”

Ally couldn’t work out what was happening.

“Just a moment!”

She sat up, unconsciously running a hand through her short, blond curls. They made her look younger than her twenty-eight years.