Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:56:48 EDT
From: Djedoric58@aol.com
Subject: The Bull Singer, chapter thirty four

THE BULL SINGER
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR


From chapter thirty-three

Pete smiled at the spy hole. "Hi Gran, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Oh, heavens! Peter? Wait a minute." There came the sound of a muffled
conversation then a chain being dropped and the door being unlocked. The
door swung open to reveal, not an old lady but a distinguished looking man
who stared out at Pete with a shocked expression. I moved close to Pete,
ready to defend him.  Now read on



The man looked past us at the porter and said, "Jeff, you didn't see
anything did you?"

"See what, sir?" The porter replied and touched his forehead in salute, sat
down behind his desk and went back to reading his paper.

The man nodded, grabbed hold of Pete and dragged him into the hall beyond,
and beckoned me to follow. Once the door slammed shut behind us the man, I
guessed was Richard Crayel, said with tears in his eyes, "Oh, my God,
Peter! It's so good to see you again. I am so sorry for what I did; will
you ever forgive me?" Hovering in the background an old lady leaned on the
arm of a woman about the same age as Richard. Both held tissues to their
eyes. I watched with relief as Richard threw his arms round Pete and the
two women added their arms to the embrace, and Pete wrapped his arms round
Richard in a tight hug and seemed happy to lay his head on Richard's
chest. At last they broke the hug to look at me, and Richard smiled at me
through his tears. "I can't believe it. You must be one of the
triplets. Which one are you?"

"This is Geuseppe, "Pete said, sniffing back his own tears and accepting a
tissue from his grandmother. "We know him as Joey."

The old lady shuffled forward, peered into my face and said softly, "So
like your father. Welcome home, Geuseppe." She kissed me on my cheek and
drew me into a gentle hug. "I suppose you want to know everything about
your family. Why don't we all go into my lounge and talk over a nice pot of
tea?"

The apartment boasted a main lounge, dining room, kitchen and three
bedrooms leading off the hall, with a smaller lounge off the dining
room. Mrs. Crayel led us into this one and asked her daughter in law, also
called Mary, to make some tea. Richard walked into his mother's sanctuary,
with his arm still round Pete's shoulders, and made sure we were all
comfortable before sitting down on the settee beside Pete and I, saying in
a trembling voice. "You needn't worry any more, Pete. I've had counselling
and feel I can accept what you are. I don't really approve of your
lifestyle but if that is how you wish to live, then all we can say is
you're still our son and we love you deeply."

Pete frowned at him. "If so, why haven't you tried to find me?"

"Because, Pete, your decision to tell us when you did, gave us a golden
opportunity to keep you safe."

"Safe? What for?"

Just then, his wife came in pushing a loaded tea trolley. "Perhaps we ought
to start at the beginning, Richard. Pete, do you remember finding a photo
of a family and asked me who they were? I snatched it from you and said you
mustn't look at it again?"

I reached into my jacket pocket and drew out the black and white photograph
and held it up. "You mean this one?"

All three Crayels gave a gasp of surprise. Mrs. Crayel asked, "Where did
you get that?"

"It was in my mother's safe box. We found copy of it in the house of the
late, Billy D'Marco."

Mrs. Crayel's hands shot up to her face, as she stared wide-eyed at
me. "Billy, you mean Guglielmo? You mean he's dead? Oh, My Lord, no! When?"

"A couple of months ago," Pete replied. "He had cancer. You might have see
it on the news; he was the front man of Billy Junior."

"Oh, my goodness! Was that our William?" Mary shook her head. "We never
realised, even though we always said he looked like his dad. You do
too. Our dearest wish was to find you all and adopt you ourselves."

Richard smiled at me. "That's how I knew who you were. You're the image of
your real dad when he was your age. You must be almost eighteen now?"

"February 16th if I remember rightly." Mary smiled as she dried her
eyes. She handed me a cup of tea. "Sugar?"

"No thanks. Yes, the date's correct." I glanced at Richard. "You were going
to tell us why you threw Pete out?"

"Oh, yes." Richard nodded his thanks when Mary handed him his tea. "You
see, Pete, despite all our efforts to keep you safe, certain people who
wanted to harm you, found out where we lived, and I was desperate to work
out a plan to spirit you away somewhere, when you dropped the solution in
my lap. It seemed such a natural way to make you leave the place, to make
you believe I objected to you being gay, and satisfy all our nosy
neighbours who saw an irate father booting you out of the home. They would
gossip about it and anyone nosing around and asking questions would hear
that tale and believe it. Enough of our neighbours heard us rowing to make
it believable. I hated the deception but I had to make you hate me enough
for you to leave and not come back. That's the only reason I said what I
did about your adoption." He took hold of Pete's hands and squeezed the as
he said, "That was a load of nonsense of course, and Mary and I have shed
many tears over it, but at least it saved your life."

"Till now," Mrs. Crayel broke in. "It seems we will have to make other
plans."

Pete and I exchanged looks of confusion before he addressed his
father. "Why would anyone want to harm us?"

"It's a long story, Peter," Mrs. Crayel said, "but I suppose, now you're
here, you might as well be told everything. This involves you as well,
Joey. Like Mary said, it all started around the time that photograph was
taken. Your Grandfather Geuseppe D'Marco, whom you are named after, was a
very good friend; Richard was actually born in Rome and grew up with the
D'Marco brothers, Guglielmo and Pietro., hence one of the triplets being
named Ricardo. I think we should use the English versions of names from now
on to avoid confusion. Both the boys were very musical; as you will know by
now William loved the drums, and Peter loved to sing. But Peter was a wild
child, often in trouble, and friendly with certain criminals by the time he
was eighteen. One of them had a granddaughter who ran away from her home in
London, and ended up living with him in Rome. She soon set her skirts at
Peter; he fell in love with her and before they knew it, you were on the
way. They married and you were born five months later, Pete. Her name was
Angela Chambers, although she always used her mother's maiden name of
Street. They seemed to settle down all right, but the D'Marco family didn't
trust her, and their suspicions were confirmed when someone was killed and
she and Peter were linked to the crime. That is when Angela showed her true
colours. The evidence weighed heavily against her but she managed to plant
evidence to make it look like Peter was the culprit. She also threatened to
kill all you boys unless Peter pleaded guilty.

"You triplets were four and a half months old at the time and Peter doted
on you; you were his world and he would have given his life for you boys,
but could do nothing from a jail cell. He knew Angela was going to flee the
country with you so he asked his family to help him hide our boys. They
were terrified of Angela and only William agreed to help. As a result,
their father ostracized both brothers. William got in touch with me, and I
in turn, got in touch with my brother who was visiting Rome at the time. We
hatched a plot to kidnap you boys and everything was set for a night when
Angela was normally out plotting her illegal schemes with her
friends. Unfortunately it was the very night you decided to upset things by
being ill with breathing problems, Joey. Your mother rushed you to hospital
and there was no time to wait for her to bring you back. Our travel
arrangements had been made and we had to stick to our plans or lose all
four of you. William took little William, my brother took Ricardo and I
took Pete, leaving you with your mother. As soon as William knew Billy was
safe, he went back to Rome to try another rescue attempt but Angela had
already disappeared with you, leaving no clues as to where she had gone."

My heart sank to my boots. "So Angela really is our mother?"

"I'm afraid so, Joey, and she is the one who is looking for her other
sons. By coming here, you two have placed yourselves in grave danger. And
Angela will do anything to stop you being reunited with Richard. She
probably considers you boys to be a force to be reckoned with and will side
with their father against her, should you ever meet and realise what she's
done."

 "If that's the case, why hasn't she killed me already?" I asked.

Richard smiled sadly. "It's possible she expected you to die of natural
causes and it looks like she's be playing the waiting game with you, hoping
that a possible hole in your heart would do the job for her. After little
William recovered from his own operation, Peter suspected that all three of
you had the same defect. Harold promised to have Ricardo treated as soon as
they got to Great Britain, William had been operated on in Rome, so that
left you."

Things were slowly dropping into place for me. "She must have been really
miffed when I didn't die. No wonder the doctors kept on at her to have me
looked at? Every time a doctor started poking too close we'd move
home. Well she almost got her wish last weekend. If Mags and Grandpa
Chambers hadn't intervened, I would have been in a box by now."

"Chambers?" Mrs. Crayel asked with a smile. "As in Elias Chambers?"

"You know him?"

"Only from meeting him when he came to Rome looking for Angela. That was
before Peter and Angela got married of course. Such a lovely man! Pity his
daughter didn't turn out the same way."

"Amen to that!" I replied bitterly. "Although Elias wasn't entirely to
blame there. Elias wasn't her dad."

"Oh?" Mrs. Crayel eyed me closely. "Care to tell us more, young man?"

"According to Elias, Marian Chambers had an affair with a man by the name
of Edward Alton, and Angela was his daughter. Edward is my biological
Grandfather and I'm living with Angela's half brother Mags Alton. Gramps
Alton and Pete look after me when Mags is off playing with Billy Junior."

Mrs. Crayel's gaze swept round to Pete, who sat staring at the carpet with
a reddening face. "Ah, I see! Another twist in the tail." Her eyes sparkled
with mischief, and I realised what a clanger I'd dropped. "What I would
like to know is how you two met?"

"Would you believe by sheer coincidence?" Pete said. "I hadn't a clue who
Billy was when I joined his band. I came looking for them just after Billy
died to see if I could rejoin. I found that Mags and Joey had got together
and they introduced me to Edward. I had my suspicions that it was more of a
coincidence, Billy and Joey looking like two pea in a pod. We never twigged
until we broke open a case of Angela's and saw that photo. We went to
Billy's house and found another copy in a photo album of Billy's. That's
when we put two and two together and decided to come and see you." He
grinned at Richard. "We were hoping to speak to Gran when you weren't here,
and I didn't expect such a welcome home. Did you really mean what you said
about adopting all of us, Mum?"

"Oh, yes. When your Gran found she was too old to adopt, we jumped at the
chance, and the Italian authorities were happy to let us take you off their
hands. They arranged for Peter and Angela to be stripped of their parental
rights. Peter agreed for the sake of you boys and Angela fled the country
so was dealt with in absentia. But there was nothing we could do about
bringing you together till we knew for certain Angela was out of the way
and her underworld empire at an end."

"So, you had to forego having contact with your brother because of us?" I
asked Mrs. Crayel. I' sorry you had to do that."

 Mrs. Crayel nodded her head, tears springing to her eyes. "It was a vow we
made with William, and I was determined to keep it no matter what I had to
sacrifice."

I shook my head in amazement. "Madam, that is one sacrifice I'd hate to
make! Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Mrs. Crayel's features crunched as she wiped a tear from her face. "It was
my pleasure, dear. Even though you may be in danger, I'm glad to have you
here." Suddenly she stood up and looked round her extended family. "Now
then, no more hoping about what may or may not happen; I'm hungry and in
need of supper."

Mary looked shocked. "Mother! You've only just had tea."

"So?" Mrs. Crayel chuckled, "I was always a social eater. Come on everyone,
let's see what Mary's got hidden away in the kitchen. I'm sure you boys
know enough about cooking to lend a hand?"

"Got any crayfish tails?" I asked with a grin, and received a dig in the
ribs from Pete. "Sorry, a private joke."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Pete brought us to a stand still. "I've just thought
of something." When he had our full attention he said, "Mags has a friend
of his doing some research, and he's hasn't found any marriage, birth or
adoption records for me, Joey or Angela. He's been looking in the wrong
place hasn't he?"

Richard nodded his head. "Unfortunately, you are right, Pete. Angela was
married in Rome, all of you have Italian birth certificates, which your
father has in his possession, or has secreted them away somewhere. And your
adoption took place in Turin under the guidance of a magistrate who's a
friend of mother's. If my uncle was able to have Ricardo adopted that would
have been here in the UK, as was Billy's adoption."

"Well there is nothing we can do to help matters along tonight,
"Mrs. Crayel said, "Let's just eat and get to bed early. We'll start our
search for my brother, and Ricardo, in the morning."

"Can I just phone Mags?" I asked. "He'll be worried sick where we are."

"And we have to phone Joey's social worker as well" Pete chipped in.

While Richard and Mary followed Mrs. Crayel into the kitchen, Pete showed
me where the phone was in the main lounge.  I used it first and got through
to mags on his mobile. "Hi Mags."

"Joey! Where the hell are you?" Mags sounded pretty frantic. "I've been
trying to ring you but Pete's isn't answering his phone and yours seems to
be out of action."

"Sorry, Mags," I said with a chuckle, "Pete lost left his phone at the
place we have lunch at, and I forgot to charge mine up. We're at the
Crayels in Colchester."

"I guessed that's where you'd be. Daley told me about the D'Marcos and we
know now that we're related."

"Did they tell everything?"

"Yep. Everything, and we know we have to be careful."

"More careful than you know, sunshine. We've heard from Benjamin's spies
that Angela is on your tail and heading south. But so are we."

I frowned at Pete who had put the receiver on speakerphone. "Who's we?"

Mags laughed. "Let's just say when Custer says charge they send in the
cavalry. I'll see you in the morning."

I put the phone down and Pete and I stared at each other. "Cavalry? I think
we'd better have a pow-wow with your folks." We hurried into the kitchen
and informed the Crayels about Mags's warning. We didn't talk much during
supper, as if each of us were chewing over the situation and deciding what
would be the best to do. Finally, we cleared the dishes and Mrs. Crayel
announced that time had beaten us and we should all have an early night and
discuss things in the morning. Pete and I were disappointed but, hopefully,
Mags would arrive by then, and I for one would feel safer. Pete had a quiet
word with Mary, who glanced my way, smiled and nodded. Pete led me into
what had been his own bedroom and I raised an eyebrow at him.

He grinned and said, "Don't worry, sport. I told Mum about us. In any case
where else would you sleep, on a not so comfortable sofa? I think not." I
glanced at Pete's bed, a big one covered with an old fashioned crocheted
throw, probably made by one of the Crayel ladies. It certainly looked
inviting, and I suddenly realised how tired I was. I sighed with relief
when Pete turned me to face him and began to undress me. In minutes we were
curled up together and drifting off to sleep.

Author's note

Aah!  Bless their little cotton socks! No cliffhanger this time, except for
who the cavalry might be. I thought I would let you have a quiet time till
the next chapter.