What the Nanny Saw

Chapter 13: No one left

Romano was back in the station early, wide awake due to the two ristrettos he'd had on the way in. Malia was his last lead, and he was determined to get to the truth. Both for Giulia and for Lydia, who was heavily on his mind.

Malia was the worse for wear when Catterina brought her into the interrogation room. Her eyes were red and puffy. They'd told her about her sister the previous night and she had clearly spent the time since weeping. It was clear to Romano that regardless of whether Malia had had a part in Bonsignore's death, she certainly hadn't wanted her sister dead. They uncuffed her and she rubbed at her tired eyes.

"I'm sorry, Malia," he started. "Giulia was a lovely girl and she didn't deserve this."

Malia started to well up, but took a few deep breaths and calmed herself, laying her palms flat on the table. Her hands shook a bit.

"I need to ask you a few additional questions," said Romano. "We know you were involved in blackmail, of clients at the least. Was Giulia also involved?"

"Absolutely not," answered Malia, firmly. "And that is not some kind of admission that I was," she added, realizing the potential trap.

"Then why did we find these pictures in her house?" the Inspector asked and he carefully tossed a packet of snaps - the snaps they had taken of Carlo and Catterina, in fact - toward Malia's left.

The girl reflexively reached up to grab them, but was awkward and uncoordinated and they bounced off her palm and hit the table. She reached across to pick up the pictures where they had fallen.

"I... I'm sorry, I don't recognize these. Isn't that... isn't that the cop I blew last night?" she asked in confusion.

"Really?" asked Romano. "My mistake, must be the wrong set of pictures." He knew what he needed to know. What he'd already guessed. There was no way Malia had hit anyone hard enough to kill them with her left hand.

"I spoke to your lawyer last night, he'll be here later today and you'll get bailed, I think. But before you go, please, if there is anything you can tell me that might help me find your sister's killer, this is your chance."

The girl looked at Romano for a long moment. Then, "Inspector, if I did know anything, I would tell you. Giulia was everything to me. Everything I've done, everything I am, it was for her. I'm alone in the world now and... and I don't know how to make that work. Giulia and I did raise some money by exchanging, uhm, embarrassing pictures with a few prominent men. And we did search the house for evidence we could use. But we didn't have an active, uhm, transaction, for months now. Someone might want revenge, sure, but no one out there is looking to silence either of us now. I'll give you a list of all our... " She hesitated before arriving at her preferred term: "benefactors."

Romano nodded, left it to Di Stefano to take down the list, and retreated to his office to think.

Romano spent the rest of the day signing papers. It became a meditative practice. He floated above his desk, his body moving mechanically, like an automaton, through the stacks.

He barely paid attention on his trip home, lost in thought, his body piloting the car. Surprisingly he drove better when he wasn't paying attention. Adelina had left him a spaghetti ricci di mare. Though it was his favorite, he barely tasted it, the briny sea urchin leaving little impression.

Romano sat at the kitchen table, staring at the wall, thinking through his options. Then he dragged over the telephone and dialed Lydia.

"I miss you," said Romano as soon as she picked up.

"What's wrong?" came her answer.

"I don't know that I can solve this, Lydia," sighed Romano. "I'm going round and round in circles and I just don't see where the loop starts and ends anymore. I think I'm done."

"You always say you can't solve it, Giacco," Lydia said softly. "You always say you're too old, too slow, too blind. And then, you always solve it."

"I appreciate your faith in me; I'm not sure I've earned it."

"Well," she answered, "if that's what you think, earn it, Giacco. Come up here and show me how you feel."

"I will," he said, and this time he meant it. "The day after tomorrow, I'll be there. I miss you so much."

"I miss you too," came the deep breathed reply. "I miss you, I miss your voice. I miss your hands. I miss your mouth."

Romano perked up a bit at this. "My mouth, is it? What would you like me to do with my mouth?"

"I'm gonna make good use of that mouth. It's gonna kiss me. Kiss my mouth. Kiss my neck. Kiss my chest. Kiss my breasts."

Romano groaned, "I will, I will cover your breasts in kisses. I'll lick and suck and kiss your nipples till they're hard little points."

Lydia groaned back. "You will Giacco. And then I'll push your head down. You can kiss my stomach and my thighs. And I'll push that mouth right into my pussy."

"Will you now?" answered Romano. "Are you wet? Are you wet for me now, Lyd?"

Lydia groaned. "I'm touching myself for you Giacco. Do you like that, if I touch myself for you?"

"I do." Romano's voice was a horse whisper.

"Stroke your cock for me, Giacco. I know you're hard, I can hear it in your voice."

Romano freed his cock. He was hard. Very hard. But his hand was dry.

"I am hard Lyd, but I'm sorry, I don't have any lube," he said.

"Look around Giacco, where are you? Did I leave some lotion behind?" she asked.

Romano looked at the table and saw the bottle of olive oil from his dinner. He laughed. "I don't have lotion, my love, but I think the olive oil will do."

Lydia laughed too. "Sometimes the answer is closer to hand than you imagine."

And all was suddenly right with the world. He would be on that plane and they would be together again soon. The two stayed on the phone and found their pleasure, more than 1,000 kilometers apart, but closer than ever.

After the call. After they came and after they reminded each other of their love, Romano sat. He sat with his thoughts for a moment, savoring the afterglow. And then, he picked up the phone and dialed the Commissioner's office and left a message letting him know he'd be taking some days off. Carlo would be put in charge. Romano's priorities were suddenly, finally, in order.

"You're in the wrong sea," Romano told the whale. "You don't belong here, you don't belong in Liguria at all, so far from the real sea." But the whale just looked at him. It shook its head as if to say, "let's not throw stones from our glass houses, Inspector."

"Just enjoy the sunset, Inspector. It's so beautiful from here. A softer red than those sea urchins from last week." Just as Romano started to question whether whales even ate urchins, it started to nudge him with its great nose. Bump, bump, bump.

Romano came to, to Lydia shaking him by the arm, as he lay on her chaise lounge. He'd fallen asleep mid-afternoon and it was time to get dressed to go out to dinner.

The reunion had been passionate, heated, even. Romano had taken Lydia just as they'd discussed by phone. First in the car, in the airport parking lot, probably in view of a hundred motorists. He'd had her in the passenger seat, kneeling in the foot-well and his tongue buried as far as it would go in her wet pussy.

Once they'd gotten home, though, that's when his frustrations of the last week poured out. Right through his cock. He'd fucked her harder than either could remember, gripping her breasts like a vice from behind and slamming repeatedly into her ass. He was thrusting so hard, they slid progressively forward up the bed until her face was pressed right up against the headboard and her back had to flex uncomfortably to arch enough to keep him in.

They'd moved to the sofa then. He'd practically thrown her across the back, and swatted her ass twice as she lay against it, panting. She hadn't seemed to mind the rough treatment, panting, moaning and crying out in pleasure loud enough that the neighbors would be looking at them side-eyed for the rest of his visit.

But it was once he'd put his thumb in her ass that the noise really started. She came and came and came. So much that it was unclear where one orgasm stopped and the next started. So much that she lay like a rag on her back on the sofa, mouth drooping half-open, as he came, raining on her face, her lolling tongue, her neck and the tops of her breasts.

The next two days had been successive rounds of eating and fucking. But Romano knew passion would only save him for so long. A difficult conversation was coming for him and he could only fuck it away for so long. He had a feeling tonight's dinner was going to be the end of the honeymoon.

"It was such a weird dream, Lydia," Romano was saying. "That fucking whale is always messing with me."

She gave a short snort of a laugh and asked, "Well, what did it want today?"

"It said your sunsets are more colorful here. Can you believe that?" Romano shook his head. "I guess you get more colors because of all the pollution. Though how a whale would know that..."

The after-glow of three days of hard fucking had clearly softened Lydia, who would normally jump on a comment like that, seeing it as a slight towards Liguria, and therefore of her. Instead she laughed lightly, placed her hand on his arm, and said, "See, even the marine life knows it's more beautiful up here."

"You are certainly more beautiful, my love," answered Romano. "But while we may not have the pink sunsets, we have the beautiful seas. Even the blockade can't diminish the joy of living at the edge of the ocean... " Romano trailed off.

"What?" asked Lydia, realizing Romano was lost to the world.

"It was in front of me the whole time. How could I not see it?"

He took a deep breath, looked Lydia in the eye, and said slowly, "Lydia, I..."

She already knew, of course, "You're going back." A statement, not a question.

"Yes," he said, "but not for long, my love. A day. Maybe two. And I'll be back. You can count on it."