Shallow Graves - Jeremiah Healy by Jeremiah Healy Page B

you're going to tell me who
aced my Tina."
    I said, "No."
    Danucci telegraphed the swing of the bottle by a full
second. I was up and blocking the sweep of his right arm with my
left, the bottle flying and smacking into a leather chair before it
boloed to a stop, some Scotch gurgling onto the leather cushion.
    Danucci's breathing was almost deafening. "You .
. .You . . ."
    Then he turned away, starting for the bar before
sinking into a chair without a bottle on it. He rubbed his face with
his hands, then clasped them in front of him, a soldier assuming an
unfamiliar stance in a chapel. "Should have been the happiest
day of my life, Cuddy. I talked to my father that morning. The Order
of the Cross, like a Holy Name Society thing, it was making him
president or whatever. All his life, Pop wanted that. To have some
kind of . . . recognition besides the rackets. The next night,
Claudette and me were going in town, have dinner with Tina for her
birthday, stay over at the South End house. My brother — Virmie? —
he did such a good job representing my company, they made him a
partner at this old-line law firm in Boston wouldn't have let him
take out the garbage twenty years ago. The business was going good,
like the deal in Philly coming together. It was like everything was
coming together. Sinatra in the song, 'a very good year,' you know?
Then that phone call, looking at the filthy river from this guy's
office .... "
    I went over to the chair with the Johnny Walker
Black, picking up the bottle and setting it on the counter of the
bar. Behind me, Danucci said, "Our ways, they don't work so good
for this kind of thing, Cuddy. Somebody gets hit, you can usually
trace it back up the line, iigure out who ordered the contract.
Something like this, this . . . random kind of thing, we got feelers
out on the street. But they should have turned something by now, and
they haven't given us shit."
    I said, "I'm not going to give you a name so you
can kill the guy."
    Danucci looked up at me now, the dead-eyed stare, his
tugged-down tie the only part of him moving. "What, you think,
you give the name to the cops and they lock him up, he's some kind of
safe from us?"
    "I might not get that far. My job is to be sure
the people at the agency didn't have her killed to collect on the
policy. I decide they didn't, I can stop."
    Danucci thought about that. "We pay you to keep
going."
    "No."
    "You see The Godfather ?"
    "Yes."
    "That Coppola, he got a lot of it right. Not
everything, but a lot. We pay you with your life."
    An offer I couldn't refuse. "I already have my
life."
    "Not if I decide otherwise."
    "You decide otherwise, send two of your best.
They don't come back when you expect them, don't call anybody, don't
even pack. Just run for your life."
    Danucci grinned, the big jaw jutting. Not a pretty
sight. "You don't scare, huh?"
    "I scare. I just don't change my mind."
    Danucci sat there, maybe thinking what he was going
to say next, maybe deciding which two of his best he was going to
send. Maybe just remembering his daughter.
    Finally, he said, "You find out who killed Tina,
you tell the cops?"
    "Probably."
    "Then we can compromise here. You don't got to
tell me the guy's name, but you stay on the thing till you find the
cocksucker who done this. Then you give him up to the cops. We'll
take it from there."
    "And if I don't stay on the case?"
    The grin again. "Life is sweet, Cuddy. Do
yourself a favor, taste it a little longer."
    When I didn't say anything more, Danucci said, "Okay,
we got a deal, and you got our cooperation. One hundred percent.
Anything you need, Primo'll be right there."
    " I work alone."
    "Fine. You need something, you give him a call."
    Danucci seemed calm, almost rational. I tried to
figure how much of what I'd seen with the bottle was an act. I
thought, not much. He just went in and out like that. At least over
his daughter's murder.
    "I don't expect to be calling him."
    Danucci went to the desk and used a pen to