Shallow Graves

windows. The light playing tricks on me, but I coulda sworn... I could swear today it was my Amatina’s eyes, looking down at me, asking if I was okay, if there was anything she could do. I... reached up for her, and took her into my bed, and... That was it. She didn’t fight back or resist or nothing. Then she was gone. But she come back, two nights more. And by then I knew. Knew it wasn’t my Amatina. But I couldn’t... I couldn’t...“
    The abrupt nod, scooping the chalice up again and this time drinking in a gulp.
    Danucci put the chalice down but didn’t refill it. “She never said a thing, Tina. Nothing. Then I got better and got back here, and still nothing. She was always polite to me, the family get-togethers. Always a hug and a kiss. I figured she... forgave me. That she understood that what happened, it was out of weakness, not... “
    “You set her up in the apartment.“
    The eyes blazed. “What’re you saying, you fucking cocksucker? You saying I set my own blood up in that apartment to be a whore for me?“
    “No. I’m saying she decided to stay in the apartment house, and probably had to ask you to do it.“
    “It was her mother.“
    “Claudette?“
    “She was afraid for Tina, being in the city, living with the colored photographer. So I got Primo to scare him off, then gave Joey the idea Tina should have the place on Falmouth, where Ooch could look after her.“
    “And Sinead Fagan?“
    “The Irish girl, Tina was friends with her. Wanted her to be in the building, too, less than market rent. I got lots of buildings, lots of properties. Didn’t cost me much.“
    I thought about it, Mau Tim getting her revenge indirectly, receiving from her grandfather without confronting him. “What set Tina off?“
    “You don’t know?“
    “Her mother’s phone call that Friday.“
    “You do know. You cocksucker, you don’t toy with Tommy Danucci!“
    “I’m not toying. I’m guessing.“
    The old man lowered himself a notch. “Yeah. Well, I pick up the phone when it rings, and it’s Tina. And she says, ‘Mom told me, you got picked to be president of the Order of the Cross.’ And I’m thinking, this is great, this is terrific, my granddaughter, she cares enough about me, she calls to congratulate me. So I say, ‘Yeah, it’s something I wanted since your grandmother died.’ And then she hits me with it. ‘Well, I don’t think any religious thing is gonna want you to be their president after I tell them you’re a baby-raper.’ “
    Danucci used the empty chalice as a prop. “I tell you, Mr. Detective, I hold the phone away from me, just like this. I hold it away account of I know it must be wrong, it’s gotta be defective, I didn’t hear anything like that come out of it. Then I pull it back and I say, ‘Tina, Amatina, what’re you saying?’ And she says she’s going to a party that night, she’s gonna try it out on her friends before she tells her mother and father about it the next night at dinner. Tina says she wants to make real sure she’s got it down right before she calls the Order and tells them.“
    “You told me Tina talked about the party when she called you.“
    “I figured, you’re a detective, you can get the company records on her phone there. They’d show the call to me, I had to have an explanation for it.“
    “But you didn’t know the party was going to be in her building.“
    “No. No, she didn’t say that over the phone. So, I hang up, what am I supposed to do, eh? You tell me. I pace back and forth here, maybe two, three minutes. I can feel my heart, racing. Primo, he’s out shopping for me, but I can’t bring him into it, anyway. Can’t let him know.... So I grab my keys to the place on Falmouth, I got them all on a ring. I go out, walk up to Hanover, find a cab. A colored, just dropping off a fare for one of the restaurants, he don’t know me from a hole in the ground. I tell him to take me to the corner by the building. He’s driving, I’m thinking, what can I say to her?
    “I get to the front door of the building, I let myself in with my key to it. I go past the apartment door on the first floor, and I hear this music. But it’s not real loud or nothing, so I figure the Irish girl’s just got it on for company. It don’t never occur to me, she’s having the party for Tina there.“
    Danucci refilled the chalice from the decanter. “I get up the stairs to the third floor. The door—I can just hear the shower on, then turned