He’d had the plans drawn up last summer and as soon as Lane Parker had agreed to marry him, just three short months ago, he’d had the builder break ground. His original plan was to tell Lane about the house as a wedding gift, but, in October, Lane discovered she was pregnant and they’d had a rushed ceremony. Now, Ben was anxious to keep things moving on the construction, so anxious that he was throwing boatloads of cash at the builder to keep crews working nearly around the clock. While Lane, and their son Jamie, had moved into Ben’s 6000 square foot house, now there was the baby on the way, and he wanted the new house finished and the move complete long before the baby’s arrival in the spring.
The house was being built in La Bella Vista, a new subdivision of consisting of twenty lots each between three and five acres. The subdivision was once a farm owned by the Luciano and Bellini families, and his parents, his uncles Sal and Vinnie Luciano, his cousins Daniella and Bianca Luciano, and his brother Tony had lots there as well. His brother Tony had broken ground on his lot a few weeks ago, and as Ben walked toward his new house, he thought he’d stop by and take a look at the progress at Tony’s before he headed home.
Ben’s building site was five acres overlooking the lake near the center of the subdivision. The new house was over 10,000 square feet. It featured all of the normal rooms; a formal living room, formal dining room, eat in gourmet kitchen, a butler’s pantry, a large wine cellar, two powder rooms, a hearth room, a music room, a media room, home offices for Lane and himself with adjoining French doors between them, a master suite, seven bedrooms, each with a private bath, a home gym that would rival any fitness center in the area since it included an indoor basketball court, an attached six car garage, a detached four car garage, and both an indoor and outdoor pool. Oh, yes, and a pool house.
It was becoming more and more difficult to keep the house a secret from Lane, but Ben was nothing if not determined to keep this secret for the next two weeks. He unlocked the construction door and walked into the house. It was a true ranch style with a walkout basement. The construction door opened into the entryway. Right now, there was wood sub flooring, but he’d ordered Italian marble for the entryway, and it should be delivered soon. The rooms were framed in and the plumbing and electric work would be starting soon. He had an interior design firm, who had done the current house, and he’d booked them, but he knew that Lane would want to weigh in on the finishes. He was leaning toward cherry and mahogany floors throughout, knowing Lane loved the look of hard wood floors too, he was fairly certain that was the way they’d go.
He flipped the lights on, while the final electrical work wasn’t done, there was some temporary, construction electric roughed in, before making his way from room to room. The master suite was three rooms in all, the bedroom, the bathroom, and a sitting room that he suspected might hold a baby bassinette for the first few weeks after they baby came home. Naturally, there were two large walk-in closets, his, and Lane’s. He made his way toward the basement and down the ladder that was there. All in all, the builder was doing an excellent job. The construction electric was dim and cast shadows everywhere, but after the wiring was complete, they could install better, still temporary, lighting which would enable the crews to work after dark.
He walked through the home gym, the wine cellar, the basketball court, and the two-room suite he intended to use for a live-in housekeeper. He wasn’t sure Lane would go for live-in help, but he had cleaning people come in twice a week now, so it wouldn’t be much of a leap, and he could afford it.
He climbed back up the stairs and did one last quick walk through of the house before closing and locking the construction door. He walked back to his SUV and drove around the lake to Tony’s property. Tony had broken ground only a few weeks ago, so only the outside walls were up and it appeared that they had poured concrete for the basement. Ben reached for his flashlight and got out of the SUV again.
He entered the construction site and made a sweep of the area with the flashlight. The footprint for this house was smaller because Tony was building a two-story house. The interior rooms were marked on the floors, but the framing hadn’t been done yet. They’d apparently poured the concrete for the floor today and the ladder had been pulled up and was laying on the floor. Ben shone his flashlight into the basement and scanned the area. He stopped when he saw something sticking up from the still wet concrete. It couldn’t be what it looked like; it had better not be what it looked like. He trained the beam from his flashlight directly on it. Crap, he knew it was exactly what it looked like. He pulled out his cell phone and called 9-1-1. Good thing that Lane’s book club was meeting tonight, he wasn’t going to make it home for quite a while.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” The female voice asked.
“This is Ben Bellini; I believe I’ve found a body. Send the police to number 8 La Bella Vista way.”
“You said body. Is someone unconscious?”
“No, I’m pretty sure it’s dead since all I can see is a hand sticking up from the cement. I’ll wait here for them.” Ben said as he disconnected before the 9-1-1 operator had time to go through her ‘stay on the line until they get there’ routine. He dialed his uncle Sal who was a partner with Ben in the law firm, and a criminal defense attorney. The person who finds the body is always the first suspect in a murder, and if he wasn’t mistaken, the hand belonged to none other than his ex-girlfriend, Liza Conrad, who was now his brother, Tony’s fiancée. At least the sparkle that his flashlight was reflecting on certainly looked like the five-carat princess cut stone Tony had placed on Liza’s finger less than two weeks ago.
The Bellinis and Lucianos always spoke to each other in Italian.
“Pronto.” Sal responded as he answered the phone.
“Sal, I’m at Tony’s building site. There’s a body in the cement in the basement. I’m pretty sure it’s Liza Conrad. I’ve called for the police, and you know how it goes, the person who finds the body is also the first suspect. Can you meet me at the Leawood station? I need to call Tony. We’ll probably both need a lawyer before this thing is over.”
“What about the Angel? Where is she?” Sal was referring to ben’s wife, Lane.
“She has book club tonight. I’ll call Jamie to let him know I’m tied up, but I hope I can get home before Lane does.” Ben disconnected from his uncle and called his son.
“Bambino, I’m tied up with work. I’ll be home as soon as I can, but I can’t say when that might be. So, if Mom gets home before I do, would you let her know I’m on my way to the Leawood Station?” The sirens were ringing in the background as Ben disconnected from Jamie.
Chapter 2
Ben and Lane had gone to Papa’s restaurant for dinner and come across Liza and Tony, in the parking lot, screaming at each other. Ben didn’t know how long the fight had been going on, but he was livid about what he heard and thus what his wife had overheard as well.
“You fucked my brother.” Tony screamed at Liza.
“That was a long time ago and besides I’m marrying you.” Liza screamed back.
“That may be, but no matter how many times I asked, you waited to say yes until after Ben was married. What? Were you holding out hope?”
Liza was crying as she replied, “That wasn’t the reason, not that you’re ever going to believe me.”
“Yeah, okay, sure, but why have you been lying about it all this time? I know that if Ben hadn’t dipped his wick by the second date, there wasn’t a third one. You only had two actual dates with Ben and so I believed you.”
Ben and Lane had approached them and Ben slapped his right hand into his left and said, “Stop!” Then he looked at Lane and said, “Take her inside, get her calmed down, and cleaned up, will you?”