Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man(59)

And then, nearly three hours later, the double doors of the station flew open, and Charles Sinatra, like the weather event his presence sometimes felt like, came storming in, his suit coat flying behind him from the sheer wind the fast-opening door produced. Both sons quickly stood to their feet.

“Where is she?” he asked them as he hurried toward them.

“They claim they’re still processing her in,” Brent responded.

Charles knew better than that. He hurried up to the desk sergeant. “Where’s Joffee?”

“Chief Joffee,” the sergeant emphasized, “is indispose at the moment.”

“Get him,” Charles responded. “I want to see him now.”

“That’s not possible, sir.”

Charles stared his vivid green eyes at the sergeant in a way that left no room for ambiguity. He was not going to take no for an answer. “Tell him Charles Sinatra wants to see him. Now,” Charles ordered.

The sergeant glanced at Brent and Tony, who were staring at him, and then reluctantly made his way to the office at the back of the room.

Brent and Tony walked up to their father. “You okay, Dad?” Tony asked him.

“Tired as hell, but I’m okay.”

“So who is she?” Tony asked.

Charles looked at him. Having any vulnerability exposed to his sons was something he wasn’t comfortable doing. “Jenay Franklin,” he said. “She’s my new GM over at the Inn.”

“Oh! She works for you?”

“Yes.”

But that only made it even more implausible to Tony and Brent. Especially to Brent. “So you wanted us to leave school and come to be by the side of one of your employees?”

But their questions only fueled Charles’s anger. “Why are you concerned about that? I told you to do something, you did it. Nothing further to discuss.”

Both Brent and Tony knew to back off. And they did. And then Amos Joffee, the chief of the Jericho Police Department, came out of his office.

“Charles,” he said with a grand smile, “how nice to see you again!”

It was a stark contrast to the disrespect he had shown Brent and Tony, and Brent and Tony knew it. But they were used to it in this town. People always attempted to get back at their father, by mistreating them.

“I attempted to get you on the phone several times,” Charles said, “but your people claimed you weren’t here.”

“I wasn’t here,” the chief said.

“Now that’s a lie,” Tony responded.

Joffee ignored him. “What can I do for you, sir?”

“You have a friend of mine in your custody. Jenay Franklin. I want her released.”

“I’m sure you do, and I’m sure she does too, but that’s not possible at this point. She was caught red handed in her thievery. We had no choice but to turn it over to the prosecutor. It’s in the DA’s hands now.”

Charles was even more upset now. He hadn’t expected to hear that. “Let me see her,” he decided to say. “I want to see her.”

“That’s also not possible. She’s still being processed in.”

“Bullshit!” Charles proclaimed. “I want to see her, Joff, and I want to see her now.”

Joffee knew there was position in this town, and there was power. Sinatra was the power. And he knew it was the power people who kept him in position. “Ed!” he yelled to his desk sergeant.

“Yes, sir, chief?” the sergeant asked.

“Bring Miss Franklin into my office, please.”

The sergeant looked at Charles. He hated that they couldn’t stick it to his arrogant ass the way they were able to stick it to his sons. But he was no fool either. “Yes, sir, chief,” he said, and headed for the cells.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN



Charles, Brent, and Tony waited in Joffee’s small office while the sergeant went to retrieve Jenay. Charles was leaned against the front of the desk, his arms folded, his legs crossed at the ankle, while Brent and Tony were leaned against the wall. Chief Joffee himself was seated behind his desk.

“It’s a hell of a thing, Charles,” Joffee was saying. “That’s the problem. We practically caught her red-handed. We had to act.”

“You caught her doing what?” Tony asked.

“Stealing,” Joffee responded. “She stole the guest jewels from the safe at your Daddy’s B & B. We found those jewels in her suite, in her closet, in her suitcase.”

Tony and Brent both looked at their father, but Charles had zoned them all out. Jenay was on his mind. He had spoken to Meg at length, on the flight back to Jericho, and she told him exactly how it all happened. The jewels, she said, were in one of Jenay’s suitcases inside the VIP suite. The suitcase was in the closet, in the back, as if it was being purposely hidden. When the cops discovered what had happened, they arrested her on the spot. She was already guilty in their eyes, Meg had said. “What about in your eyes?” Charles remembered asking Meg. “Is she guilty in your eyes?”