Italian Dinner

**I own these characters. I do not make any money writing this story.***

Italian Dinner
Chapter Six

~*~

The next morning I was reading the paper and sure enough, there was the big news splattered across the front page. "Consolata Corp. Holds Party for Annual Fund-raising". It promised to be the biggest party Los Angeles would see in the year. The article took up half the page, and in the middle was a picture of Julian, Matteo and Julian's cousin Chris, standing in the lobby of the building with the logo behind them. Julian was the only one smiling, surprise surprise, while his brother and cousin looked gravely pleased with themselves. Figures. Underneath the photo the caption said, "Brothers Matteo and Julian Consolata look forward to seeing you at Patina. Cousin Christopher Consolata will be hosting the event."

I figured Matteo had just come back from Palermo in time to have his photo taken. Strange how Santo Consolata wasn't in the photo, but then again he probably didn't want his mob boss mug observed by the whole population of Los Angeles.

No doubt I'd hear from Julian about this thing. And sure enough, right as I was talking to Karla, he called.

My daily chats with Karla were becoming less about the case and more of a "get to know you" chat. I came by the office early only to find that Swanson wasn't in yet, so I grabbed a coffee and went to the front to chat with Karla. I told her I noticed that she had curled her hair, which resulted in her blushing and twirling a curl in her finger.

"Do you like it?" she said, doing that thing with her shoulders that women do.

"Yeah, definitely. It suits you."

She grinned. "I got it done last night."

"Yeah well...it looks nice."

I had also noticed that her choice in clothing -- usually tops -- were becoming more and more revealing. Short sleeves, V-necks, no necks, see-throughs. Stopping by to chat with her in the morning was also kind of like a daily trip to the local candy store, if you know what I mean. Karla was younger than me by a year or two but fuck, she was cute so who gave a shit.

She then proceeded to lean forward and stare at me. "Adrian do you know what you should do with your hair?"

I took a sip of my coffee. "Please don't say spike it."

I was serious, actually. Karla was cute and interesting, but one word about putting gel in my hair and I was walking.

She giggled. "No, you should have it straightened and snipped in the back. Oh, and bangs too. On one side so they fall down in your face. I know that sounds annoying but it would look sooo good!"

I raised an eyebrow. Apparently my posing as a gay marital lawyer to get information on a mob boss hadn't effected Karla's opinion of me, or her confidence of my sexuality. Sweet.

"That sounds cool." I concurred. And I gotta admit, it's nice to have a womanly input on my looks, since I had just been swinging it by myself since I divorced my ex-wife. Not that she had any good tips, though.

"Oh, and I should take you to my hairdresser Ivy! She's incredible, she'll cut you hair so-" the phone started to ring, so she put up one finger, as if to say 'to be continued', and answered her phone.

At that moment my cell phone started ringing so I picked it up and hovered away from Karla's desk. "Adrian Black."

"Hey it's me." Julian, of course. "Did you see the paper this morning?"

"Yeah, I did." I said. "Quite the photograph, you guys look great."

He made an indignant sound. "It was Chris's idea, thought we needed to appear like the Three Amigos or something. Matteo wasn't pleased though."

"Looked pretty good though."

Karla was off her phone and I could feel her eyes on me, listening as much as she could.

"So listen," Julian continued. "Would you be interested in coming with me to this fund-raiser?"

Ah, wunderbar.

"It's just for appearances," Julian promised, quickly, as if really trying to convince me to go with him. "Go in, have dinner, get out. We wouldn't have to stay very long."

I knew what that meant, right away. 'Adrian I promise, we won't have to stay long, meaning we could get out and go somewhere and fuck soundly for the rest of the night?'. Sorry Julian, not gonna happen. Maybe I could fake food-poisoning and be rushed to the hospital at the end of the night?

"Yeah no, that sounds like fun." I lied. "I've never been to the Patina. When is it?"

"A few weeks." he sounded relieved that I wanted to go. Probably so he wouldn't have to face his family by himself. "But hopefully I'll see you before then."

"Yeah, uh..." I hesitated. "Listen I'm just in the middle of something, let me call you back."

Just in the middle of making possible headway with Karla. Wink wink.

"Okay sure."

"Bye."

I hung up, relieved. I was going to the bloody fund-raiser. Maybe I could finally catch a glimpse of Santo Consolata, maybe even meet him.

"Well I'm going to that fund-raiser." I told Karla.

She grinned. "Well you need to get you hair done now." With a girly giggle. "I'll make an appointment for you, Ivy'll do a great job for you, just wait. And you should get a new suit. I'll go with you, I know the perfect place to get the nicest jackets, and it's in the same mall!"

I hardly had the mind to argue, what with her low-cut shirt and all.

~*~

So Karla and I made plans to go to the mall on the Sunday when I had a day off. She'd take me to get my hair cut and to pick out new clothes for the fund-raiser. Was I falling for Karla? A little bit, she was cute and it was nice to get back into the swing of the straight people's dating game, if that is indeed what it was. Was it happening too fast? Perhaps, but then again I was straight, not gay.

I didn't call Julian back, which I was aware and unaware of. Was I avoiding Julian? Yes. I couldn't help it. I didn't want to talk to him. I figured I'd tell him I got really caught up with this new case- erm, couple that absolutely hated each other but adored their daughter and didn't want to share her between the two of them. That sounded rather convincing, and time-consuming. So that's what I'd say.

Over the course of the next few days, there were the articles in the paper revolving around the fund-raiser. There soon came an announcement that revealed that along with collecting funds to help the organization, half of the money would go towards a charity that was to be announced. That got them extra headway as far as audiences, I'm sure. I was actually curious to see just how much money they were gonna raise at this thing (and just how much was gonna be donated to charity).

And then they announced that they had had a change of venue -- simply because the guest list was becoming longer and longer. So now it was being held at the Casa del Mar...whatever the hell that was. Didn't matter to me, really.

Come Sunday I hadn't actually called Julian back, but he didn't call me so I made the assumption that he was busy.

But that hadn't mattered. I met up with Karla at the mall and away we went on a very harmless little outing. True she hung off my arm almost the entire time but I didn't care. I went in to get my haircut and she stared at me through the mirror as she and Ivy talked. Ivy was a pretty damn good hairdresser, I came out of that place looking like a black-haired Christian Slater. And Karla was completely thrilled with it.

So we started talking. Stopped at the café for coconut hot chocolate (which I didn't like but Karla loved), and then continued on throughout the mall.

"So tell me who's late more often, is it Swanson or James?" I know you're not supposed to gossip about the people you work with, but hey Karla was the receptionist, the eyes and the ears of that place, and I had a few interesting questions about my new co-workers.

"Definitely James." Karla said confidently. "Him and his wife like to have sex in the morning."

"Ugh!" Definitely not a pretty picture. "He told you that?!"

Karla laughed. "No, but you can tell. He's late and when he comes in he's got a goofy grin on his face. Course I suppose that could be because he likes pissing Swanson off. Now Swanson will come in late all the time, mostly due to the Egg McMuffins at McDonalds. He gets three, maybe four of them at a time."

"Disgusting." I said, shaking my head.

It was nearing 2 o'clock and the mall was getting busier. We'd already been there an hour, and usually I hate shopping malls, but I didn't mind it so much with Karla. Inside the office she tended to be rather hush-hush about things, but outside in the open it was like everything was fair game.

"So Adrian, you like Los Angeles? We treating you okay?"

I shrugged. "So far so good. I'd like it better if I wasn't chasing around a little fairy, I gotta say."

She looked confused. "You mean...for your case?"

"Yeah, and it'd be nice if the guys acknowledged that I wasn't gay."

Karla laughed. "Adrian don't be so sensitive. The guys know you're straight, they just like to tease you. They tease all the new guys."

Again I shrugged, but I gotta say I was a little relieved about that.

We went into the nearest suit & tie place after that. Karla picked out some nice shirt colours that she exclaimed looked great with my hair. A lot of greens and a few blues to go with my eyes. I didn't argue with her, it was nice to have a woman's imput in the things that I wore. In the end I had bought one of the French blue shirts and a tie to go with it. They'd look good with my black suit at home, and perfect for the event.

All in all the entire afternoon had gone very well...and then of course I jinxed it.

I'm walking along and Karla's going on about how she came to be a receptionist at the police station, when all of a sudden I hear someone call my name. "Mr. Black."

I look over my shoulder and alarm hit me like a bag of potatoes. I came face to face with Christopher Consolata. I'd recognize that shrewd look and expensively trimmed goatee from miles away.

"Mr. Consolata." I said and nodded my head, while shaking Karla's hand out of mine.

He too was shopping but he looked more as though he had been dragged here. I looked and noticed we were standing right outside the La Senza of the mall, which made one of my eyebrows rise.

"Congratulations on the news of the fund-raiser." I said a little nervously, and cleared my throat.

He made a little "hmm" noise in his throat. "Well your little tidbit of information regarding Mr. Giovanni was worthy of a party...luckily it was just in time for our fund-raiser." and he gave me a snarky grin.

I wanted to fucking punch him in his smug face. At that moment he noticed Karla at my side and looked at her in question. "I don't suppose I'll be seeing you at the benefit..."

I smiled. "As a matter of fact, Julian invited me."

"You swing between sides, do you?"

Of course it was at that moment that I remembered Karla at my side. "Oh, sorry. Christopher Consolata this is my eh...my sister, Karla Black. Karla this is Christopher, Julian's cousin."

Whether or not Karla remembered who this guy was, or anything about this really, was beyond me, but she played it off beautifully. She extended her hand and gave him a sweet little smile. "Nice to meet you."

He shook her hand humbly like a gentleman, I'll give him that, and then he looked to me. "I'd introduce you to my wife but she's in the La Senza exchanging a birthday gift I gave her that was not...christened, if you will."

Eew. Too much information.

"Well I look forward to meeting her at the benefit." I said, with yet another polite nod of my head.

"Of course," he said in return. "I'll see you there then."

He extended his hand and I took it and shook his hand hard. As if I wanted to say, 'Shake the hand of the man who's going to take down your family from the inside'. That one look between us set everything up. And after the handshake was done, Karla and I walked past him without another word.

Once we were in safe distance, Karla laughed. "Oh my god, did you see the way that guy looked at you? It's like he hates you! What did you do to him?"

I shrugged. "He caught me and Julian snogging in the hallway one time."

Karla stared at me with her jaw dropped open. "You kissed the guy?!"

"Not THAT guy!" I said, pointing over my shoulder in Christopher's direction. "No, I kissed Julian! Remember Julian? Julian's the cute one."

"Oh right."

"Anyway I kissed Julian and Christopher just so happened to walk in on us." I shuddered. "He hasn't liked me much ever since."

She was looking at me still with her eyes fairly wide. "But still...you kissed a guy."

I nodded. "Well the kid's gay, remember. You gotta do what you gotta do."

Karla snickered a little bit and that really fucking annoyed me. It was as if I had had her on my side so long as I didn't give her any details about the case. And now I had let one thing slip and she was just like all the other guys, laughing their asses at me behind my back.

Finally Karla broke the weird silence that had settled between us. "Is Julian anywhere as attractive as that guy back there?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Julian's the cute one, I just said that."

"Yeah, but that guy back there was hot."

I shook my head and tried to laugh, but I was fucking annoyed. Even on my day off, the Consolata family managed to make me look and feel like a complete jackass.

~*~

I was really bitter when I got into work the next morning. Luckily Karla was on the phone so I didn’t have to stop and make like I wasn’t pissed off at her, which I was. I slipped by her and went directly to the coffee machine and poured myself a cup of strong, black coffee. I had been up half the night thinking about this stupid fund-raiser, and just what would be expected of me...with Julian and all that, I mean.

Course Henderson scared the fuck out of me by literally jumping on my shoulder. He was holding a long sheet of paper. “Guess the FUCK WHAT!”

“Jesus Christ Henderson...I just got here, can’t you give me a minute!” I growled at him, and picked up my coffee and downed just about half of it in one gulp. Stupid machine never makes it hot enough.

“There, you’ve had your minute. Get a load of this!” he showed me the piece of paper he was holding. It was a credit card statement for MasterCard. The name at the top was Mr. Charles Stoneworth.

“Whoa!” I said and took it right out of his hand. “How did we get it so fast?”

“I don’t know.” he said, and we sat down at our desks. He propped his feet up as if in triumph while I gawked at the record in my hands. “I think Fielback slept with one of the girls at MasterCard or something.”

It was all here, right in front of us. Stoneworth had paid for some bills with his big fancy credit card, and then here, right here...Four Clovers motel, one night, $95 on Saturday May 9 at 1:03 in the morning.

But what was even more interesting was what was right before it: a transaction at an ATM for nearly $1000.

“So he lied to us,” I said very simply. “Stoneworth told us he had the card cancelled like...what was it, three days before the transaction went through for the motel?”

The interactions stopped right at May 9th, so if the idiot had cancelled the card, it was only after he had paid for the room.

“Isn’t it great?” Henderson said, snickering. “Swanson is gonna shit a golden egg when he reads that.”

“Did you see this?” I asked, pointing at the piece of paper. “Stoneworth takes out $1000...literally two hours before he pays for the room.”

Very suspicious. What was he doing with $1000 in cash if he paid for the motel room with his credit card?

Henderson was picking out the crud under his fingernails with an overjoyed look on his face. “Who knows, man. Stoneworth himself can explain that when we bring him in.”

I put down the statement and pinched the bridge of my nose. Jesus, what a lead this was. Not only did this prove that Stoneworth lied to us about the card being cancelled, but it also put him in our crime scene literally three hours before the murder with a whole fucking whack of cash.

But we still didn’t have an ID on our John Doe, or Cyclops which was his nickname around the station. You joke about things like that in the morgue and they get mad at you. But for now we didn’t need his name; if we could get Stoneworth to confess that he lied to the police, and then confess that yes he had paid for the motel room, then everything would just fall into place, hopefully.
So all in all what had been an essentially bad morning was turning into a very good day.

~*~

So later that afternoon I decided to pop in on Julian, not because I wanted to see him, but because I needed to see Charles Stoneworth. No doubt they’d still be slaving away on that stupid case with the Giovanni retard. If I could get the guy alone and maybe slip in a few questions here and there..maybe I could get a new type of lead.

Yeah it was a bold move, I admit it. But when you’re a police detective you learn when its safe to take these risks and when its not. Stoneworth was obviously guilty of something, and he was looking to cover his ass. If I could get him cornered, I could get him to tell me everything.

I go into the Consolata building at about 4:45 and ask if I can be let up into the boardroom, in which the guard at the front desk gives me a curdling glare and says that only restricted personnel are allowed in those meetings. So I explain to him that I’m acquainted with Julian Consolata, and the guard lets me go up to see Julian.

Which was good enough, I think.

I come out of the elevator and Julian’s standing there talking to Alice, his secretary. When he looks up his brown eyes widen, and I know that he’s surprised to see me.

“Adrian.” he says.

I grin at him, and tap on Alice’s desk because by now she’s starting to get to know who I am. “How you doin’ Alice, you all right?” and I’m sure she replied but I was just too thrilled about the whole thing with Stoneworth to stop and take time to smell the flowers, if you know what I mean.

I take Julian’s hand in mine and I drag him back into his office. He tells Alice something quickly before closing the door and then he looks at me with a strange expression on his face.

“This is a surprise Adrian, what are you do-“

I cut him off with a kiss. I was excited, I figured the kid could live with a kiss. He settled into it in an instant, closing his eyes and wrapping an arm around my neck. When I break from the kiss he looks dazed somewhat.

“I figured I’d drop by, see how you’re doing. I thought maybe I’d catch you in one of those board meetings.” and I moved away from him to admire the view he had of downtown Los Angeles from the picture window.

Julian swallowed and then he nodded. “Well we’ve been having board meetings just about every morning, you know what with the benefit coming up.”

“Right, right.” I said nodding my head. “How’re things with the Giovanni case? Everything going okay there so far?”

Now right here I think I’m just making harmless conversation. This is of course where things get worse...and then they get even more interesting.

“Actually we’ve decided to hold it off until after the benefit.” Julian says with a little smile.

I felt the smile on my face literally drop to the floor and smash. “Hold it off? I don’t understand...”

He shrugged. “According to my uncle, making the company look good goes far and beyond the need to prove that we don’t rip off overindulged millionaires who have been found guilty of fraud in the past.” Julian smiled handsomely. “So he gave us all a break. Matteo, myself, and the lawyers until the benefit is over.”

Okay so here’s where my stomach drops out of my body and smashes on the floor. “...He gave the lawyers a vacation?”

Julian nodded. “Yes, two weeks, I guess it was. A week after the benefit, so we can all have a little break.”

So now you’re probably thinking what I’m thinking. Not only is it suspicious that Stoneworth is...what, out of commission for another two weeks, but that Santo Consolata personally sent him on a vacation for two weeks.

I took in a deep breath, and I smiled widely. “Well ain’t that just lovely.”

But the truth is, it was just lovely.

~*~

Julian and I got a coffee after that, and we discussed what to do for the benefit. I agreed that I’d meet him at the Casa del Mar, since he’d be there plenty early with the rest of his family getting his picture taken and what not. So I’d just show up and Julian would come collect me in the lobby or wherever. Again he reassured me that we wouldn’t have to stay very long. I shrugged and told him whatever he wanted to do was just fine with me.

So he tells me he needs to stay at the office to finish up some things, so I give him a kiss goodbye, and I go running back to the police station to tell Swanson what I’d found out.

I run into Henderson who’s taking off right as I come in the door and I stop him. “Guess what! You’ll never guess what I just found out!”

He grins. “Hey we’ve been finding these out all day. You’re talking about the Cyclops case, right?”

I nodded. “Turns out that Charles Stoneworth was given two weeks vacation by Santo Consolata.”

“Who the hell’s Santo Consolata?”

“He’s the...you know, the big Godfather of the Consolata family.”

“Oh right, that guy...the one for your case with the twink, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right!” I was getting more and more excited by the minute. “He’s working on this big lawsuit for Santo Consolata, and in time for this benefit thing Santo gives them two weeks off! That puts him out of the country so we can’t question him about the motel!”

“Holy shit...” Henderson breathed. “So you think this Santo Consolata guy had something to do with it?”

“I dunno, maybe! I guess we’ll see. So anyway, sorry, what did you find out today?”

Henderson gave me a smug grin. “You remember the ATM interaction for $1000 bucks you pointed out this morning? We talked again to the clerk who was watching the desk that night at the hotel, says he remembers the guy walking in with a hooker.”

I think at that point I may have fainted. Jesus Christ but I do love it when we nail these things.

~*~

Next Chapter: The benefit. Adrian meets the rest of the Consolata family.