Shallow Graves

step. “But 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—Vinnie?—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, figure 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 scribble some lines on a business card. Standing tall, his hair was about level with my chin. “This is Primo’s apartment number, best way to reach him. This one’s my home number here, you need it.“
    I took the card.
    “You want to see the place in the South End?“
    “It would help.“
    “I’ll call Ooch right now.“
    “It won’t be