Deceit of the Earth - Heavy Metal (eBook)

2

Bear Downs Apartments, Waco, Texas –
Sunday, August 15, 1976, 9:00 PM

Dante “Danny” Martucci sat down on the blue, second-hand sofa in the small living room of his daughter, Angela’s, apartment. She was starting her Junior year at Baylor University switching her major from English Literature with a focus on the writings of Elizabeth and Robert Browning, to Finance and Accounting at the Hankamer School of Business. Danny didn’t care. He loved Angela whatever she did, but he knew the business degree would better serve her as the secure cloak of the college campus dissipated to reveal the real world.

He felt some fatherly pride in helping Angela and her roommate, M’Liss Houston, move into their new apartment.

He paid the bills, tuition, and Angela’s monthly allowance, even though this was the first time he had been on the campus.

Angela romanticized that her mother did not want him coming to the family house in Baywater, Texas, because she still loved him.

Regardless, her stepdad for almost eight years, Curtis, certainly made such visits very uncomfortable.

“Please. I’m asking for everyone’s sake. Please, just lay off the questions,” her mother would plead to Curtis.

“I just don’t like it. There’s something wrong with him. He won’t even talk about the weather from where he’s been or what it is he even imports or exports. I don’t trust him, and I don’t like him being around the kids. You know the Mafia is still real. He can’t even have a normal conversation,” Curtis would respond.

Once, her mother retorted in an unusual, serious tone, “Dante is seldom in a question-answering frame of mind and being Sicilian does not automatically put you in the Cosa Nostra. I think the Naval Academy and the Marines would have figured that out. His business has lots of confidential client details, and that’s all you need to know.

“And . . . Curtis, trust me . . . you probably don’t want to be on the other end of the conversation if he decides to be the one asking questions. Just let Angela visit with her father . . . Please,” she implored, in a hushed, stern voice.

Her younger stepbrother and stepsister were generally okay on a day-to-day basis, but they had their own baggage to deal with involving their somewhat irresponsible mother and her boyfriend du jour. Mixed family visits were simply full of tension.

When Danny was in town, Angela really wanted more quality time with just the two of them, even if it meant less time. That meant finding someplace away from the house.

The last time he saw her was around Christmas at the diner next to the Baytown, Best Western Motel where he was staying. Embarrassingly, he had bought her a Hippie, Barbie doll, complete with a red, bare-midriff top and bell-bottom blue jeans – plus, the Barbie VW Microbus.

Sitting up on the edge of the red, Naugahyde bench seat and leaning over the gold-flecked linoleum tabletop at the diner, she unsuccessfully tried not to laugh, telling him, “This is actually really sweet. It’s perfect. I love you Daddy.” Then, they talked while they both peeled the various flower and peace symbol stickers off the sheet to stick on the microbus. She still had them in her college apartment.

Grown up and beautiful. He looked at Angela sipping her chocolate milkshake from a tall, old soda fountain style glass – with her long dark hair, dark brown eyes peering up, and well styled make-up – make-up!? He knew he had missed so much over the years.

“A Barbie doll? What the hell was I thinking?” he scolded himself.

The next morning, he asked if Angela could drive him to the airport. Curtis reluctantly agreed she could use her mother’s Ford station wagon, with faux wood panels on the sides. “Feel free to ask him to chip in for gas money,” Curtis hollered as Angela headed out the door.

Stopping cold in her tracks, Angela stared at Danny standing next to a 1974 Camaro SS, candy-apple red, with black racing stripes on the hood. Danny twirled the keys around his index finger with a perfect flip, so they landed in Angela’s hands.

“Not brand new, a few dings, but the engine is in excellent shape and low miles. Title’s in your name and I’ll get the insurance bill . . . so I guess I’ll know if you’ve been driving safe. Any tickets . . . well that’s between you and LEO,” said Danny with an unremovable smile.

Angela shrieked, ran to hug her dad, “I love you . . . I love it . . . I love you I mean, and the car!” Then, she looked intently at Danny, “But I’m keeping the Barbie and the van, so don’t ask for a take-back.”

“I wouldn’t dare . . . I wouldn’t dare,” he said still soaking in the feeling of his not so little girl hugging him. He tried to blaze the moment in his cortex islands so he will never forget. He knew that bringing memories like this to his sense of the present could mean life or death for him in some bad situations.

“One rule,” Danny said. “One rule . . . no one else drives it, unless there is an emergency, and I mean hospital not a What-a-Burger emergency. Not your mom, Curtis, no boyfriends or girlfriends. Are we good?”

“More than good. Got it! Honest . . . got it . . . easier to say no if it’s a rule anyway,” Angela smiled. She also knew Curtis would be furious about the car and more so for not being able to drive it. She fully expected Curtis to attempt sneak drives operating in full teenager mode.

Angela knew her father had a post office box in Alexandria, Virginia, but he was seldom there – wherever there was. All she knew was that his business involved lots of travel. She had a phone number, but she also knew that if they were to talk, it was only when he called her.

“Helping,” to move in, meant finding a couple of local workers from a moving company, paying them cash on the side. It was a Sunday after all and at least ninety-five degrees. Danny preferred doing things on the side and off the books.

He smiled, only using one hand to pull a money-clip from his pocket, slide four twenties off with his thumb, and palm them in the hand of one of the movers, like a magician. The mover never looked at Danny, sliding the bills into his pocket.

There was no great secrecy about the transaction, but that’s how Danny rolled. He noticed the mover seemed to have experience in surreptitious transactions. Danny smiled again, “Muchas gracias mi amigos. Extra twenty. . . great job on short notice.” He also handed them a six pack of Lone Star Longnecks without any sleight of hand.

“Gracias, señor Danny. La Siesta, the bar, you know how to find us if you need anything else. Just ask for Pablo or Billy. They’ll call us,” responded the mover as they walked back to their box truck to leave.

Dropping into the sagging cushions, Danny knew he was struggling to still pull-off wearing his long sleeved, white, turtleneck shirt, tailored black slacks, and black, handmade Italian ankle-high shoes. Yet after the dinner of parmesan chicken, Caesar salad, spaghetti, and spumoni ice cream, he felt his black, leather belt straining on his puffing gut. He hoped his bandage and field stitching held as well. A bright red splotch on the side of his shirt was not something he wanted to try to explain.

“Another glass of chianti, Daddy?” said Angela, handing him a filled wine glass.

M’Liss strolled into the living room area wearing a black, spaghetti-strapped piqué cotton sundress with a form fitting bodice, draping loosely to just above her knees, and black, strapped sandals. Her freckled summer tan was highlighted by the gold hoop earrings and thin gold chain necklace.

“First time I’ve had chianti, Mr. Martucci,” M’Liss said with a lilt. Then, she flipped back her strawberry blonde hair to sip on her third glass, glancing up with her light-hazel eyes and subtle freckled nose.

“Danny. . . None of this mister stuff. You girls are all grown up now,” replied Danny.

“In fact, Danny, I think about the only wine I’ve ever had is Boone’s Farm. . . unless you count a good tequila as wine,” M’Liss continued, with some humorous eloquence.

“Benjamin did get a bottle of Matuse, so I could use it as a candle holder,” she added, nodding at the wax dripped, green, flask-shaped bottle near the window.

Angela wanted one of the newly constructed apartments near campus – two bedrooms. She also wanted her friend M’Liss as her roommate. M’Liss was on an academic scholarship in honors, pre-med, and worked parttime at a hospital pathology lab for her expenses. Danny never flinched at Angela’s request that Angela cover two-thirds...