Shallow Graves

mother’s jewelry box?“
    His attention on the box, Danucci seemed to lose a little of the rage.
    Vincent Dani took advantage of the moment. “Primo, why don’t you put the case on the desk and show us.“
    Zuppone still waited for the sign from Danucci. It came in the form of his dead father’s abrupt nod as he sat back down.
    Primo lowered the case to the desktop carefully. He opened it, then took out the two revolvers.
    Joseph Danucci said, “What the fuck? I haven’t seen those...“
    Some distant memory worked at him. Worked over him.
    Vincent Dani looked at me. “What happened?“
    “Your father asked me to come to him first if I found out who killed Tina. I did, and he treated me to a game of Guts.“
    Tonelessly, Joseph Danucci said, “Guts.“
    Vincent said, “Why would Pop play Guts with you?“
    “Because he knew I’d figured out that he’d killed Tina.“
    Zuppone sucked in half the ah in the room and charged for Joseph Danucci just as Danucci showed his teeth and came out of his chair at me. Primo cushioned the collision with his chest, then waltzed Danucci back to the chair, saying “Hey-ey-ey, Boss. Boss, easy, huh? Easy.“
    Danucci flailed past him, only to be confronted by his wife, who had stood and crossed to them. Claudette Danucci clouted her husband across the cheek as hard as I’ve ever seen a man hit by a woman. Zuppone, sure of the advantage and being as gentle as possible, dragged him back, finally letting him go ten feet from me. Danucci rubbed his cheek, staring at his wife.
    Claudette Danucci said, “We listen to this man.“ She turned to me. “What you tell us?“
    “Look in the case again.“
    Claudette went to the desk, the top of the case still up. She first looked in, then haltingly put her hand in, picking up the necklace like it was a sleeping snake. Her good eye squinted at it, the glass one lolling for the first time in its socket as the eyelid worked on its own.
    She said, “How? How can this be?“
    “Your father-in-law had the necklace. All the time.“
    “You’re a fucking dead liar, Cuddy.“
    I looked at Joseph Danucci. “What do you think, I found the necklace on somebody else and took it to your father’s house? Then planted it on him to cover myself for shooting Tommy Danucci? When he knew I wasn’t carrying, when the gun he gave me had six live rounds in it and his a couple of blanks?“
    The son plowed his hair with crabbed fingers. “Primo?“
    Zuppone nodded. “I believe him on that. Boss.“
    Danucci’s hand left his hah and began to rake at the back of his neck.
    Vincent Dani said, “Why would my father kill his granddaughter?“
    I looked at the lawyer. “Because she was going to expose him.“
    Joseph Danucci’s head came up. “Expose him? For what?“
    I got ready in case Primo wasn’t. “When your father was recuperating from his heart attack, here in this house, he mistook your daughter for his wife and went to bed with her.“
    Zuppone was too jolted to move quickly enough. Joseph Danucci was on me before I got all the way up. Spluttering and gasping, he landed a wild left before I was able to get him into a clinch. I held on until I felt Primo clamp on his biceps and pull him off me and back to the other chair.
    Danucci’s voice was cracking as his legs kicked out for me. “Cocksucker! You fucking, lying, cocksucking bastard. We’re gonna keep you alive for days for that! You’re gonna crawl to us, beg us to kill you.“
    Vincent Dani, in a very low voice, said, “It’s true.“
    Everything stopped, everyone in the room turned to him.
    In a monotone directed at the carpet, Dani said, “Six years ago, a little after Pop went back home to his house, Tina came to me. At my office. She said... she said a friend of hers at school had a problem with... an uncle. She said this uncle had done some things to her friend, and was there anything a lawyer could do about it? I told her... I told her not likely. That if it had stopped, it would just be more trouble for her friend than it would be worth.“ Dani looked up at all of us. “It was good advice. That sort of matter rapidly becomes a can of worms once—“
    But Claudette’s hand, the one with the necklace in it, was already following through, cutting the words off his lips and a layer of skin off his cheek. “You know these things! You know my daughter tell you these things and you keep silent?“
    Dani touched his cheek, gawking at the blood on his fingers.