The Dogfather

proceed.”
    “She interested in him?”
    “Very, I’d say.”
    “Convenient that her husband’s out of the picture. Like they say, God helps those who help themselves.”
    “Carla? If she was in the Loaves and Fishes parking lot or anywhere near there, I didn’t see her. And she’d have been hard to miss. Carla’s quite flamboyant. Or convenient for Guarini? I started to tell you before. That’s what Deitz seems to think. On the one hand, Guarini can obviously hire anyone to do anything, so it’s possible that he arranged to have Joey killed. On the other hand, Deitz is out to get Guarini, and my guess is that as far as Joey’s murder goes, what Deitz has on Guarini is just his own bias. But I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve had two visits from this guy Deitz and his partner, Mazolla, and Kevin, I don’t trust Deitz at all. What he wanted from me, and what he stills wants, is to have me plant listening devices. The first time, I said no. Then my car blew up. And today, there was Deitz again, only this time, he was more vague about what he wanted, and he was making not-so-veiled threats. Against my dogs. And I will not tolerate that. Kevin, you and I are good friends. I know how law enforcement works. Legitimate law enforcement. Trying to intimidate innocent dog trainers is not part of the process. Do I strike you as a likely informant? Of course not. The likely informant against Guarini was Blackie Lanigan. Another gangster. He was an FBI informant for years. But me? Do I look to you like Blackie Lanigan?”
     

CHAPTER 23
     
    “You’re a lot prettier than Blackie,” Kevin said, “judging from what I’ve seen, anyways. I’m going to be able to tell better once I’ve got that picture of Blackie to hang on my wall like someone promised me.”
    “Kevin, I’m very sorry. I’ll do it right away. I’ll even buy you a frame for it.”
    Like every other cop in Greater Boston and probably half the cops in America, Kevin had studied the photos of Blackie Lanigan until he knew Blackie’s features better than I knew the faces of my own dogs. As I understood Kevin’s desire for a proper portrait of the legendary mobster, it was what Sherlock Holmes would have felt if he’d had the opportunity to acquire a portrait of Professor Moriarty suitable for display on his mantlepiece as a perverse acknowledgment of respect accorded to an archenemy.
    The waiter presented us with small dessert menus. With no hesitation, I said, “Tiramisu, please.”
    His eyes gleaming, Kevin said, “Sounds like one of those fancy names for soy sauce.”
    “That’s miso,” I said. “It’s soup. This is Italian. It’s creamy. You’ll like it.”
    Kevin was triumphant. “Gotcha! Hey, I’m Italian myself ” To the waiter, he said, “Tiramisu. Double portion.” When we were alone again, he said, “I been asking a few questions about Joey Cortiniglia. Nosing around.”
    “Because Enzio Guarini likes heart attacks.”
    “Fact. The man favors heart attacks. Always did. And then the dearly departed Mrs. Guarini's godson goes and becomes a cardiologist, and Mr. G. gets to like heart attacks more than ever. But like I was saying, I started asking around, and one of the things I heard was it happened in Cambridge. And another thing was, I heard a lot of talk about Blackie Lanigan. But this is the first I heard that it happened in shooting distance of my own home. And yours.”
    The waiter appeared with our portions of tiramisu. Probably because the restaurant was too new to have built up a clientele, the service was very fast.
    “It wasn’t exactly in shooting distance,” I said.
    “Close enough. You know, Holly, I’m going to get you out of this. And, yeah, you should’ve told me to begin with. But you were scared of Guarini. You and everybody else that hasn’t got”—he looked down at his plate—“tiramisu for brains. But thinking you could get yourself out of it all by yourself—that was dumb. That was just plain dumb.”
    “I know.”
    “What I need you to do now is, I need you to give me a picture of what happened. At Loaves and Fishes. Everything. Who was there. Where and when. Everything. Who got there first?”
    “I did. The dogs were with me. I got there early, and I parked behind Loaves and Fishes, and the dogs and I went behind the mall and across the railroad tracks, and we walked in the park. And when we got back to the car, Guarini was just getting there. Joey Cortiniglia and Al