Blue Smoke

told her. “A couple stints in juvie before he hit sixteen.”
    “I know about those. John kept up for me, when I asked him. They took him away,” she told him. “Like they took his father. The night Joey killed his dog and left it burning on our steps.”
    She rose, walked around to sit on the corner of O’Donnell’s desk so their conversation was less hampered by the backchat of the squad room. “He killed his own dog, O’Donnell. They said it was a violent acting out, a result of having his father arrested because of the fire. A troubled child, a confused child from an abusive home life. Because his father used to tune his mother up regularly. And knocked the kid around from time to time, too.”
    “But you’re not buying that.”
    “No. I saw the way he ran after the car when they arrested Pastorelli. He worshipped his father. A lot of kids in that sort of atmosphere do. His mother was weak, ineffectual. His father ruled. And look at his pattern,” she added, turning so she could see the readout on O’Donnell’s screen. “Arrests for assault, sexual assault, vandalism, grand theft auto, parole violations. Not just following, outdoing his father.”
    “There’s no fire on his record.”
    “So, maybe he’s more careful, or more lucky, in that area. Maybe he and his father have some sort of tag team going. Maybe he saved his fire-starting for me. But one or both of them is behind this.”
    “No argument.”
    “One or both of them killed Josh Bolton.”
    “It’s a big step up from what’s on their sheets to murder, Hale.”
    She shook her head. “There might be others, and they just haven’t been caught. It goes back to me. Straight back to the day Joey assaulted me. Sexual assault, that’s what it was, but I was too young to get that.”
    But she could remember it still, and very well, the way he’d grabbed at her chest, her crotch, the names he’d called her. And his face, the wildness on it.

    “He jumps me, and my brother, a couple of his friends hear me screaming—run him off. I tell my father, and he goes straight over, gets in Pastorelli Senior’s face. I’ve never seen my father like that. If some of the neighbors, some of the people in Sirico’s, hadn’t come out, broken it up, it would’ve gotten bad. Seriously bad. My father threatened to call the cops, and people who were there, hearing what went down, were behind him.”
    “And that night Pastorelli torches Sirico’s.”
    “Yeah. Get in my face, you bastard, here’s what you get. Sloppy job. Drunk and sloppy, and no thought to the family who lived upstairs. The place could’ve burned down around them.”
    “But you saw the fire.”
    “I saw the fire. Back to me. So we had a mess on our hands, but nobody was hurt. Insurance would cover it, and the whole neighborhood ready to lend a hand. You could tip it one way and say the fire actually benefited the family. Built loyalty, gave my parents a chance to expand, renew.”
    “That’s a pisser for somebody who wanted to make trouble.”
    “And gets caught. His dog barked, O’Donnell. That was one of the things I told John. The dog barked in their backyard, where he kept his shed, where they found the gas can, some of the beer he’d stolen, the shoes he’d worn.”
    “Kid kills the dog.”
    “Yeah. You could twist it so the dog played a part in the chain. Damn dog helped ruin his father.”
    “Dog has to die.”
    “Yeah, and more, the dog has to burn. Kid goes away, evaluation, juvie, in the system. He gets out and his mother pulls him up to New York. He gets in trouble up there, but he’s still a kid. Hard for a kid to get from New York to Baltimore to cause me or my family any grief. And see.”
    She tapped the screen. “He does a short stint himself. But they were both out when Josh died. Joey’s not a kid anymore. Joe’s mopping floors. Hell of a comedown.”

    She could feel it now, feel the truth of it in her belly, in her throat. These were pieces of the puzzle.
    “But Sirico’s is doing fine. Our family’s doing fine. And the little bitch who caused all this is in college, screwing some jerk. Joey puts hands on her and she screams, messes everything up. But she lets this guy do her, no problem. Time for payback, some serious payback. I’d been with him that night, with Josh that night, after Bella’s wedding. One of them killed that boy, set him on fire. Because I’d been with him.”
    “All right, if we take that angle, why didn’t he, or