Page 61 of The Killer Cupcake
Carmine tipped his head, the polite mask firmly on.“My congratulations! I hadn’t heard that Matteo had taken a wife. Beautiful children.”
Cosimo’s head lifted sharply, the warmth freezing into icy disdain.“Matteo? These are Carmelo’s bambini. My son has been wed to Maria for two years.”
The words hit Carmine like a physical blow. His carefully constructed smile faltered, then died. He stared at the babies – Carmelo’s twins – the blood draining from his face. He forced his expression blank, a monumental effort.
“So nice to finally meet you, Signore Boanno,” Maria offered sweetly, oblivious to the earthquake she’d triggered. “Carmelo speaks of you and New Orleans often. He loves it there. We hope to visit someday soon. Once he becomes the World Champion.”
“Ah… does he?”Carmine managed, his voice slightly strangled.“Yes… a man of… many talents, a true champion.”He touched the brim of his hat, a desperate gesture of retreat.“Cosimo, forgive me. I have other families to see, Marcello’s messages to deliver. If your thoughts on the desert… evolve… You know how to reach us.”
Don Cosimo barely glanced up, already cooing softly in Italian to his grandchildren.
Carmine practically fled the room, the image of those innocent twins seared into his mind, a secret now burning a hole through his loyalty to Janey and shattering everything Kathy believed.
CHAPTER 25
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE - MAY 1952
Kathy stepped into the thick, mosquito-heavy Memphis night, and the Douglass Hotel's stuttering neon sign cast a sickly green halo over the weathered awning.
"Kathy! Baby!" Janey sang out as she fast walked out of the darkness toward her like a vision in silk and pearls. She rushed into her aunt’s eager arms, their embrace fierce and warm. Janey kissed both of Kathy's cheeks before holding her at arm's length.
“Why are you here? Where is Carmine? You aren’t supposed to be here, remember? This is a colored hotel,” Kathy stuttered through the hug. Janey’s beauty and melanin-deficient skin was alarming to anyone who would see her in the late hour at the hotel.
"Let me look at you properly,ma chère." Janey said.
Kathy grinned, feeling the familiar comfort of her aunt's undivided attention.
"I know it's only been two months since I saw you, but I swear it's like having Brenda standing before me every time you visit. Put on a little weight, eh? Never mind it—you look exactlylike your mother when she was your age. Same eyes, same stubborn chin."
Kathy blushed at the comparison and the fact that Janey noticed her weight change. "Mama had to go back home earlier than planned to see about Daddy. She'd been with me, taking care of Big Mama. But Aunt Claire called and said there's trouble brewing with Bumpy and his men. Not sure what exactly, but Mama's never far from Daddy's side when danger comes."
"Ain't that the gospel," Janey said with a knowing roll of her eyes. "Go in and get settled. Need to work out something with Deion. Think I got us a plan."
"A plan?" Kathy asked.
"Go," she said and shooed her away.
Kathy did as she was told. Inside, she was greeted by an old man and a young girl who settled her into the process and gave her a quick tour of the hotel—an old-fashioned house turned into a boarding place. All the families were asleep, and within thirty minutes she was settled in her room. She looked out the window to see Deion speaking with some men, then getting in a car and driving off with them. There was no sign of Janey.
She waited another twenty minutes for her aunt to appear, then realized Janey probably wouldn't risk stepping into the hotel and revealing her identity. So she sat alone on the narrow bed, thinking of how she and Carmelo would connect with this new obstacle between them.
Nearly an hour later, Janey sent for her. Already in bed and half asleep, Kathy had to dress hurriedly to run downstairs into the night to meet her. And Janey was right where she left her.
Janey grinned and met her half the distance with a joyful hug. Listen, my husband is...misbehavingagain. He’s parked in the back of the hotel, waiting and pouting. But don't you worry none. I've arranged a place for you and your Melo to be together.Dieon's gonna take you to see him tonight, and we'll figure out the rest as we go."
"Wait, what do you mean?—?”
Janey gently turned Kathy to face the hearse waiting like a patient shadow. She leaned close and whispered conspiratorially in her ear, her breath warm against Kathy's skin: “Auntie always delivers,ma petite."
Dieon leaned against an idling black 1948 Cadillac Superior hearse fromPercy & Sons Funeral Home.
"Mr. Percy's doin' a midnight embalmin'," Dieon murmured, opening the rear door with practiced discretion. "Said you could use the old building and stay in the 'arrangements parlor' 'til the coast clears. I’ll take ya.”
Kathy grinned. She gave Janey another hug. “I don’t know what I would do without you, Auntie. For helping us, for being there for me. I love you so much.”
Janey’s eyes teared as she hugged her tightly. “I love you more.”
Kathy slid onto cool velvet seats originally designed for mourners, the cloying scent of funeral lilies and formaldehyde thick in the air.A funeral home hearse.Of course. In Memphis, the dead were sometimes granted more dignity than the living. Funeral homes were among the few businesses that crossed color lines out of necessity. Still, this felt more macabre than romantic. She and Carmelo had devised countless creative ways to meet over the past two years, but nothing quite as unsettling as romance among the tools of death and grief.
