Shallow Graves

an eye because of fighting for my son in some fucking chinktown over there, she lost an eye and she still acts like a daughter to my Amatina. There were times, I gotta tell you, there were times I could barely stand to be in the same room with my wife, Mr. Detective. Times the look on her face, or the smell... But Claudette, she was always there for her, and then Tina, too. Tina loved her nana —my Amatina. Loved her like an Italian girl would. They did everything they could, make her comfortable. Then, when my wife... after the funeral, I’m walking back up the stairs down there, where you just come up. If Primo here isn’t with me, I’m dead, because I have a heart attack, it feels like five fucking linebackers, they’re driving a battering ram through my chest. Primo, he calls my doctor —we call him Doctor T, he’s kind of on retainer to us, but he’s so famous now, he don’t want everybody to know that. Anyway, Primo gets me to the hospital, and Doctor T and the others, they do their thing and I’m still alive, but I can’t do nothing, nothing for myself. And the ‘Oriental,’ she’s just got my Amatina out of her house, and she takes me in. Primo looks after things here, but Claudette and Tina, every day they take care of me down at Joey’s house when I can’t fucking lift my head or... clean myself up.“
    Danucci looked at me, the eyes blazing. “Then she grows into a beautiful young lady, my Tina Amatina, and some fucking louse, some fucking lowlife colored drug fucker kills her. My son Joey, he’s out of town, so her mother, she has to call me. And ever since, it’s like a blister on my heart. Every hour I think about it, and it’s like you rubbing that blister, it don’t get better. The best ones, Mr. Detective, we bury the best ones in shallow graves, shallow fucking graves. So you go ahead. You ask your questions, and I’ll answer them.“
    The old man gave that curt nod again, then went back to his fork.
    Primo said, “Mr. Danucci, let me warm that up a little for you?“
    Danucci started to shake his head, then pushed the bowl three inches toward Zuppone, who scooped it up gracefully, did the same with mine, and hustled into the kitchen.
    I said, “Your granddaughter give you any idea there was any problem in her life?“
    “Problem? No. She kind of broke away from the family, year, year and a half ago. Go out on her own, be a model or some kinda shit. Just her age, every kid goes through that. But I’ll tell you something, she still remembered to call me. She needed something, she didn’t want to ask my son for, she asked me.“
    Danucci’s hand doted on the stem of the goblet. “You know, she talked to me the day she died?“
    “You saw her?“
    “No. Just on the telephone. She called me, told me how happy she was about going to some party, about me and the Order of the Cross and all.“
    His son had mentioned it “You’re some kind of officer in it?“
    Danucci looked at me sharply. “Not some kind of. I’m gonna be the next president, you hear that? Thomas Danucci, Tommy the Temper Danucci, he’s gonna be number one in the most honored Italian Catholic society there is for laymen.“
    Danucci swung his head around the room. “You’re wondering, even with all the paintings, the icons, you’re wondering how come they let a guy like me in period, am I right?“
    “That’s what I was wondering.“
    Danucci softened the look a little. “You’re okay, Mr. Detective. You get asked a question, you answer it.“ The rhythm of his speech changed. “When my Amatina got sick, I started to get the religion again. It happen to you, with your wife?“
    I started to say no, then Zuppone came back in with our bowls. After he served us, I said, “Not so much.“
    “Well, you were young. I was—this was six years ago, I was coming up against seventy. The Office—that’s what we call it, you know?“
    I wasn’t sure how much of this I wanted to hear. “It?“
    Danucci attacked his food. “Come on, Mr. Detective, don’t disappoint, eh? The organization. Here in Boston , we call it the Office. In Chicago , they called it the Outfit. Till everybody got bit with the RICO shit. You know what that means?“
    “I know it stands for ‘Racketeer’ something or other.“
    “Well, let me tell you, so you’ll know. It stands for ‘Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations.’ That’s what they called it down in Washington . Sound like a good name for a law to