ainât all that solid, Lou, better not rock.â
Lou opens a drawer in the desk and takes out a bottle of gin. âA drink?â he says.
âA drop, Lou, just a dropâ¦â Uncle Sal says, looking at the glass with a disgusted expression. âYou know the respect I got for your grandfather. Itâs a point of honor with me that you feel fine here, Lou!â
âIâm fine, Don Scali, donât worry.â
âGood!â Uncle Sal says. âGood!â Then he looks around. âBut now there are some new eventualitiesâ¦â
Lou makes a face, like heâs saying, Eventualities, what the fuck is that?
âI mean, somethingâs happenedâ¦â Uncle Sal says, stroking the crease in his pants. âWhile you were unconscious in the hospital, it was like fucking Afghanistan here, flashing lights, sirens, TV news ⦠What the fuckâs going on? I asked Tuccio. Tuccio goes off to find out and when he comes back heâs looking really grim like heâs been to a funeral. You know what happened? A robbery at Uncle Mimmoâs! They killed a sergeant!â
âShit,â Lou says.
âItâs worse than if somebody had slashed my face,â Uncle Sal says, âmuch worse! Because I know the boys in this neighborhood, every single one of them, and I know for sure that if they do a robbery they donât kill me any cops. So I asked around, made inquiries, and found out that right after the robbery some half-drugged bozo came out of Uncle Mimmoâs store covered in blood.â
Lou sips his gin and says nothing.
âIf it was down to me,â Uncle Sal says, â first Iâd kill the son of a bitch with my own hands, then Iâd ask him if it was him. But I gotta handle things differently here. Because you know who this junkie is? Itâs that guitarist who lives next door to Tony: Nick Palumbo! Capito? The one Tonyâs so crazy about. He treats him like one of the family! Sure, you think about it, you know sometimes it happens, a good kid goes off the rails. Like they give you a couple fixes in San Berillo, and you become an addict and then they donât give you a fucking thing. So whaddaya do? To get another fix, you go do a robbery and kill some asshole with a badge.
âAnyway, Lou, sometimes a man canât just do what he oughta do. Sometimes itâs better to use your head. Right now I gotta straighten things out here, I canât just let it end badly. And thereâs something else I gotta tell you, Lou! I need to fix things up for Mindy! Which is why I say: Are we sure it was him? Tell me, are you sure? No, you canât be, Lou! Which is why I gotta tell you this, too. I saw this Nick at my nephewâs barbecue at the time of the robbery. Minchia, everybody there saw him talking to Mindy. So then I ask myself: If Nick Palumbo was at my nephewâs barbecue at the time of the robbery, what was he doing at Uncle Mimmoâs store?â
âWhat was he doing, Don Scali?â Lou asks.
âHe wasnât doing nothing! Nothing whatsoever! The son of a bitch wasnât there! Have I made myself clear?â
âTotally, Don Scali.â
âGood. And now we gotta make it clear to Uncle Mimmo, too,â Uncle Sal says.
âExcuse me, Don Scali,â Lou says, refilling his glass to the brim. âI donât want to be impolite, but I donât understand ⦠What do you mean, âWe gotta make it clearâ?â
âLou, Lou, Iâm under pressure right now to straighten things out ⦠This is a very delicate matter. I canât send one of my picciotti to see Uncle Mimmo. I got my connections at police headquarters, but so does that son of a bitch Sonnino. Uncle Mimmoâs an innocent. Letâs say the police or Sonnino put the scare into him and he squeals that one of my picciotti threatened him ⦠I gotta cover my back then ⦠Thatâs why