Read Online Hardware by Linda Barnes - Free Book Online Page B

fluid—”
    â€œSomebody may have seen it. We need to ditch it.”
    â€œSam, what the hell is going on?”
    â€œCarlotta, I am not getting involved in this. It was a racial thing. That’s it. But the minute my name comes into it, it will be a Mafia thing, and you damn well know it.”
    â€œSam, it wasn’t your fault. You’re a victim here. You should call the cops.”
    â€œListen to you,” he said, shaking his head. “You talk like a child. Fault . My family, everything’s been my fault since I was born.”
    The steering wheel felt warm against my icy hands.
    â€œAfter my mother died,” he went on, “when I was a baby—a toddler, I guess—my brothers took me to church and left me there, like they thought God would accept me as an offering, a kind of exchange, and give Mama back.”
    â€œThe priest must have been happy to see you,” I said. Sam doesn’t speak of his childhood often. The gunfire seemed to have loosened his tongue.
    â€œOh, they didn’t take me to the local parish. Not that dumb. They wrapped me in rags, stuck me in a stroller they’d pinched from a garbage dump. Not the fancy Gianelli carriage all the mamas in the North End could identify. I was just a baby dumped on a doorstep, well on my way to a wonderful life in foster care.”
    â€œWho found you?”
    â€œI only know this from stories, the way it was told to me. Papa jumped to the conclusion that I’d been kidnapped, the biggest crime since the Lindbergh baby. Fired the nanny on the spot. She didn’t have her papers, had to go back to Italy. He wanted her arrested, but he settled for deported.”
    â€œIt wasn’t her fault.”
    â€œThere you go again,” Sam said.
    â€œHow did your father find you?”
    â€œHe heard my brothers praying in the nursery, asking God to take me instead of Mama. Beat the crap out of them till they talked. I remember he said by the time he got me back, I was sick. A cold, but he thought I was really going to die.”
    â€œDo you believe it?” I asked. “The story? I mean, your brothers were adolescents, teenagers. Old enough to know God doesn’t play Let’s Make a Deal. ”
    Sam shrugged. “My father could have made the whole thing up. Any of the boys could have invented it, as a way to let me know they didn’t want me around. That’s the most likely explanation, but hell, I suppose I could have been kidnapped by the Winter Hill Gang. It doesn’t matter.”
    I licked my lips. My hands weren’t shaking anymore. They felt numb.
    â€œWhen Gina’s son died, they blamed me,” Sam went on.
    â€œDid Gina blame you?”
    â€œNo,” he said with a trace of a smile. “She blamed you. Whatever, what I’m trying to say is, I’m not getting my family involved in this.”
    â€œEven if it was a Mafia thing,” I said.
    â€œI don’t know any Italians who hang in that neighborhood,” Sam said.
    â€œFrank looks Italian. Could it be somebody after Frank?” I asked.
    â€œThe housing inspector, I suppose. Code violations.”
    â€œWhat if it was an Organized Crime Task Force thing?” I said. “Considering they’re so interested in you.”
    â€œNot their style, Carlotta. They’re the good guys.”
    â€œSam, I think you should let me inspect the bugs.”
    â€œDon’t start, Carlotta. I know what I know. When I said I had experts check them out, I meant experts !”
    I drove slowly, stopping at each yellow light. If I piloted a cab like that, I’d get picked up on suspicion.
    â€œWhat about you?” Sam asked suddenly. “Is somebody gunning for you?”
    â€œWho’d you have in mind?”
    â€œYou were a cop.”
    â€œA while ago.”
    â€œAre you into something I don’t know about?”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œYou working for any