called Lawson Steel, she had a last name to give them. She dialed the main number and said, “Hello, I’m calling for Salvatore Marciano.”
“One moment please,” she was told and put on hold.
“This is Marciano,” he said when the line picked up again.
“Hello Sal. This is Gianna Ionnetty. Do you remember me? I’m the one who…”
“I know who you are. Is everything okay? Has Marvin been in contact with you again?” he asked.
“No. But I have a friend and I’m not sure you could help. I’m not even really sure what you do, but this is complicated and it doesn’t look good. Maybe I shouldn’t have called you, but I don’t know how else to help her.”
“Have you spoken to Jordan about this?” Sal inquired.
“No. He has enough to worry about. And besides, I don’t think she’d want her personal business being spoken about. Do you think you can maybe come over and speak to her?”
“Of course. I won’t know what I can do until I have the facts, but if I can’t help, I know people who might be able to. Are you in your office?”
“No. I’m still home. I don’t want to leave her. She’s quite shaken up about this. Would you mind coming here?”
“Not at all. Let me make a call and then I’ll come right over,” he said.
“Sal, I hate to ask, but please, don’t tell Jordan about this. I don’t want him to think my friend is a bad person. Really, she isn’t. Something else is going on here and I just need someone to help her figure it out.”
Sal replied, “I told you to call any time. I’m glad you did. I’ll see you soon.”
Gianna walked back into the living room and noticed Mary-Lou curled up on the couch, hugging a pillow. She wasn’t used to seeing her friend like this. Hopefully Sal was going to be able to help. All Gianna could do was love and support her no matter what happened. And maybe I’ll kick some butt this time if we can find out who really did this.
As they sat waiting, Gianna tried to keep Mary-Lou calm by talking about Jordan.
“It sounds like you two are crazy for each other. I’m glad I only poured the beer on Marvin’s head, otherwise I’d feel bad.”
“I’m sure he’d have understood,” Gianna said.
“There’s a difference between understanding and still letting me be your maid-of-honor when you two get married.”
Gianna shot her a warning look. “You know how I feel about marriage.”
“Yup. I’ve heard you say it again and again. You don’t need it. You’re fine alone. You have a business to run. Blah. Blah. Blah,” she muttered. “Sound familiar?”
With a huff, she replied, “You’re older than I am and I don’t see a ring around your finger.”
“Hell no! Can you picture my life if I was married? All those cute guys who come into the bar would now be off limits.” Then Mary-Lou sighed. “Of course I won’t need to worry about them when my ass is sitting in the pen.”
“Mary-Lou, stop talking like that. You’re innocent. You need to remember that. And you’re not alone. You have me,” she said. Then there was a knock on the door. And hopefully you have Sal too.
She let Sal in and left Mary-Lou and Sal to talk in private. Even though she knew some things, she felt as though it was better for her not to be in the middle. When they had finished Mary-Lou called out her name.
Gianna rejoined them in the living room and said, “What do you think?”
Sal said, “Mary-Lou has agreed for me to contact a friend of mine, Connor Falciano. He runs a company that might be able to trace those purchases.”
“Is he local? Can we go meet with him?”
“I can have him fly out here if needed, but this won’t be leg work, it’s all digital. Every transaction leaves some trace, like a fingerprint, behind. Mary-Lou and I will give him what we know and hopefully he can find out what really happened,” Sal said.
“Thank you for coming,” Gianna said.
Mary-Lou added, “And thank you for believing me. I must’ve really pissed someone off to make them do this.” With a heavy sigh she said jokingly, “Guess someone didn’t like how I made their drinks. I knew I should’ve put in extra olives.”
It was good to see Mary-Lou able to laugh, but she knew it was just a cover for how scared she really was. We’ll figure this out and then you’ll