Shallow Graves

I have beautiful car my husband give me. I have five hundred dollar to spend on beautiful handbag that maybe go with three dress I wear. Five hundred dollar, a whole family live for year in Vietnam . Whole family, wait in Vietnam office, sleep on floor, on dirt outside, for month, two month, to come here to America .“
    Her voice surged. “I tell you these things so you will understand, Mr. Cuddy. I see hard things in my life. But nothing so hard like when I sit in my living room and the telephone ring and the brother of my husband from Boston tell me my daughter is dead. I give up all I have, I give my other eye, for my daughter to live again. Do you understand this?“
    She was riveting, the good eye on me and the glass eye on me, too. “Yes.“
    “When I sleep, I dream. Before my daughter die, if I dream of things in Vietnam , bad things, hard things, I dream of these things in Vietnam words. When I dream of things here, in America , good things, beautiful things, I dream in America words. Now my daughter is dead, and I dream in Vietnam words, all things in Vietnam words.“
    “You promise me, Mr. Cuddy. You find the one kill my daughter.“
    “Mrs. Danucci—“
    “You find him, you tell me.“
    “Mrs.—“
    “You promise!“
    I promised.

- 10 -

    There was an awkward moment as Claudette Danucci stood and moved toward the door to the den. Awkward, because Vincent Dani had knocked and then come in without waiting for an answer, saying “Claudette?“ His brother’s wife just shook her head, stumbling a little as she passed. Dani gripped her at the shoulders, steadying her. His hands lingered a beat longer than necessary, his eyes a beat longer than that as she patted his left hand and went out the door, shutting it gendy behind her.
    Turning to me, Dani had the look of a cat caught drooling at the family canary. He stiffened, saying, “If I were you, Mr. Cuddy, I would not upset my brother’s wife.“
    I was thinking, funny how “upset“ almost rhymed with “covet.“
    Dani came all the way into the room, taking the part of the couch that his sister-in-law had used, then shifting his rump a little, perhaps in reaction to her residual warmth on the seat. “My brother said you’d like to speak to each of us?“
    “I would, thanks. What law firm are you with, Mr. Dani?“
    “Winant, Terwiliger, and Stevens.“
    Joseph Danucci had said that his brother had made partner at an old-line firm. “Old-line“ didn’t quite do Winant, et al., justice. A hundred and fifty years in Boston , principal tenant of a harborside skyscraper, the firm was one of the five premier hives for attorneys in the city.
    “How long have you been with them?“
    “Since law school.“
    “Which was?“
    “Eight years ago.“ Dani crossed his legs. “Is this line of questioning headed somewhere, Mr. Cuddy?“
    “I don’t know. I guess I was wondering why your brother decided to join the family business and you didn’t.“
    Dani bridled. “My brother has an ‘i’ at the end of his last name and pictures of Italian-American athletes in his den and that makes him Mafia, right?“
    “Your brother’s the son of Tommy Danucci and sends a guy like Primo to see me, there’s a presumption.“
    Dani’s lips auditioned a smile. “Primo said you’d had a year of law school.“
    I was impressed. “Primo found out a lot in the time he had.“
    “Primo’s what my father would call a ‘situation guy.’ “
    “Maybe he ought to be doing this instead of me.“
    “No. No, you send in somebody like Primo to assess things, report back. He lacks what my father would call ‘ambition.’ “
    “Takes some ambition to aim at Winant, Terwiliger as a target and hit the bull’s-eye.“
    Dani’s lips found the smirk line and held it. “I thought you were looking into my niece’s death.“
    “I am. What can you tell me about it?“
    “Nothing beyond a profile of the man who did it.“
    “I’m listening.“
    “Young, poor, probably on drugs, and not well versed in the lore of organized crime.“
    Dani seemed awfully cool about Mau Tim’s death. Almost detached. “Why is that?“
    “Hitting a building that’s ‘connected,’ Mr. Cuddy.“
    “I thought you were one of the trustees, counselor.“
    “I am.“
    “And you filled out the property report.“
    “Yes.“
    “I’m wondering about the necklace.“
    “The necklace?“
    “The purple one. Made out of iolite?“
    Dani maintained the even expression. “And