Free Headstone City by Tom Piccirilli Page A

wasn't going to be able to tell her anything much in another five minutes.
    “We all got one thing in the world that we love more . . . than anything else, Danetello. That makes us do . . . what we do . . . makes us who we are. You understand that?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I've got the money on me. A hundred c-note bills. A deadbeat sold his house and finally paid off the vig from three weeks ago. You give me your word of honor you'll tell her for me, and it's yours.”
    Dane looked over at the killer, who was still on the floor plying his guts, pulling out pieces and moaning in torment. “Isn't Don Monticelli the one who sent him?”
    “Nah, not the Don. Probably Roberto. That bastard never liked me. It's all so stupid. Not even about business.”
    “Because of Maria?”
    JoJo's eyes opened wide and he shook his head as if he still couldn't quite believe what had brought him to this. “Yeah. He wants her to marry a dentist. Or a podiatrist like her sister Carmella did. I worked a lot of good deals between them and the Ventimiglias. For ten years I've been making money for them, good enough to hand over . . . green bundles that could choke a cow. But because I walk in his father's footsteps . . . I'm not good enough for his sister. The hypocritical
stugots.
”
    It was like a scene out of
Romeo and Juliet.
Dane had never read the play but he knew it didn't end well.
    JoJo gave an agonized leer. “You're smart, and you're a little
pazzo.
I'm glad. You'll get the job done.”
    “It might take me a while. I got some other pressing matters. What makes you think she'll talk to me?”
    “The rest of us, we know you were only trying to help Angelina. Maria . . . she'll listen.”
    That sent a buzz through Dane's chest, his heart rate picking up speed at the sound of her name. “You think so?” It came out almost joyful, hoping that Maria was the one person in the family who didn't hate Dane's guts anymore.
    “Sure—”
    “What can you tell me about what's been going on in the Monti family since I went away? The feds have been sniffing around.”
    JoJo let out a dry laugh. Wheezing harshly, at least one lung collapsing. “Heard you nearly got clipped your . . . last day in the joint.”
    “Something's been stirring them up. What is it?”
    “Dunno, but your friend Vinny . . . he thinks he's the new Bugsy Siegel.”
    “What do you mean? He wants to start up in Vegas?”
    A clot of ruby dark blood poured over JoJo's bottom lip. “You . . . haven't given me your word. I want . . . it . . . your oath . . .”
    “I'll tell her,” Dane said.
    JoJo reached inside the folded newspaper and pulled out an envelope stuffed with cash. He started to rise, like he wanted to die on his feet, then fell over backwards. He hit the floor hard with a crack and his death rattle lurched loose. Dane looked over at the Monti hitter on the floor and noticed he was dead too.
    The baker's girl stood there gasping with tears tracking her cheeks. When Dane said, “Go get the cops,” she finally broke into motion and ran out onto the street.
    Dane took the money and the diamond ring, thinking of Maria's exquisite face, and the sorrow of his life.

 
    NINE
     
    H is myths were quiet ones without heroes, where the storms broke wide and heavy across the lawns of churches, and neighbors hid in their homes full of small tragedies.
    Dane had always been too observant for his own good. He could clock the passing of time by the divorces down the block. The swelling bellies of his schoolmates. Those who went missing, one by one, down through the yearbooks. Who drowned off Fire Island, and which one died in a car crash over on the Major Deegan. And how
she
died on this surgeon's table, and
she
died on that one, and
she
was the first girl he ever felt up, who died a year ago from ovarian cancer.
    Dane hadn't hung around the bakery waiting for the cops. He expected them to find him by the end of the day, but they never came to see him. It made him wonder,