CHAPTER SEVEN
ANGIE AMALFI LOOKED AT the clock when she heard the knock on her apartment door. It was early for Paavo and besides, the knock was too quiet for him. He had a cop’s "open up or else" knock, even when coming to see her. They were going to go to dinner and then to her parents’ house for Christmas Eve.
Angie was a petite woman with wavy brown hair streaked with light auburn highlights. She’d been looking forward to this Christmas Eve for some time—the first one for her and Paavo as an engaged couple.
She opened the door, then her mouth dropped and she stared. Was this a joke? Her mother, Serefina Amalfi, stood in front of her dressed up like a vision of a very w-i-i-d-e sugar plum fairy wearing a Christmasy red dress decorated with large white polka dots, her black coat hapha
