The Dogfather

true foodies discovered the Bella Vista, it would, I predicted, be packed with happy eaters. That night, only two other tables were occupied, both at the back of the room. As Jennifer’s boyfriend, Kevin had been given the best seat in the house.
    I went on. “And as you know, I do not use the word bitch lightly. Kevin, I know I should’ve asked for help before, but—”
    “You wanted to keep Guarini happy.”
    “Which I’ve done, at least until today. Zap is practically simpleminded, but by now, he’s got to have told Guarini about what happened when we got to my house, and Guarini is anything but simpleminded. He’ll definitely have worked it out. And he won’t necessarily blame me. He likes me. Among other things, he’s read my column and my articles for years. He’s a fan. Guarini’s not the one I’m most afraid of, anyway. I know who Enzio Guarini is, Kevin. I get it. But he would never hurt my dogs. The one who scares me now is Deitz.”
    “That asshole,” said Kevin. “Pardon my French.”
    “There’s nothing to pardon. I’m glad to have my opinion confirmed. And I have to tell you that it’s a relief to talk about this. Rita is easy to talk to, but in her own way she’s very judgmental. And Steve, well, just when we were starting to begin to get back together, I didn’t want him to know anything about any of this. I should’ve told you, but the last thing I wanted Guarini to think was that I’d...”
    “Gone to the cops. Start at the beginning. Take your time. There’s no hurry.”
    I ate some marinated mushrooms and a fat pepperoncini. “It started when the dogs and I got abducted in Enzio Guarini’s limousine. My best guess is that Guarini just told his thugs to pick me up and give me a ride or something, but that’s not how it felt at the time. Anyway, all Guarini wanted from me was help with his puppy. He really loves dogs.”
    “And Mama Mia and apple cannoli. Have these thugs got names?”
    “Zap. I mentioned him. The driver. Zappardino, his name is. He thinks he’s on his way up in the organization, but it’s a miracle that he ever learned to operate a motor vehicle. No one’s ever going to promote him beyond that. The other ones were Al Favuzza—he looks honest to God like Dracula—and Joey Cortiniglia.”
    “The late.”
    “I’m getting to that.”
    The waiter cleared away our plates and the antipasto platter, now empty. He returned with two orders of lin-guini with white clam sauce. The pasta was fresh, and the sauce had tons of garlic and olive oil.
    “Favuzza’s some kind of distant cousin of Guarini’s,” Kevin said. “His specialty’s the dirty work."
    “With these people, that’s everyone’s specialty.”
    “Not like it’s his. Holly, you don’t want to hear about it. Especially not while you’re eating. Anyone else?”
    “There are these colossal twins. Monstrous. Gargantuan. Timmy and Tommy. When we got to Guarini’s house, they were there.”
    “Triplets.”
    “Twins.”
    “Triplets. Bellano. Timmy, Tommy, and Teddy, except that what happened to Teddy was that he spent some time under a railroad bridge near the Neponset River. And after that, he didn’t look as much like Timmy and Tommy as he did before. Hey, speaking of which, where’s that picture you were going to get for me?”
    The promised picture was a photo of Blackie Lanigan. Months earlier, I’d explained to Kevin that it was possible not simply to print web pages but to download images, edit them, and print them out. Choosing an example I’d thought would interest him, I’d said that I could go to the FBI web site, capture one of the pictures of Blackie Lanigan, enlarge it, and print him a copy. Kevin had asked me to do just that. What now prompted Kevin to remind me about the photo was the notorious link between Blackie Lanigan and the Neponset River, the banks of which served as graveyard for Blackie’s victims. TV shows and newspaper and magazine articles of the “Where’s Blackie?” genre invariably included accounts of bodies unearthed in Quincy from the shores of the Neponset River and in Dorchester at Tenean Beach. In case you’re unfamiliar with Massachusetts, let me warn you that if you visit here and feel like going to the beach, Tenean—otherwise known as Tincan Beach—is conveniently close to Boston, but it’s not a place where you want to encourage your dog to dig for bones or where you want to provide your children with pails and shovels so they