24

Mariano, on the door at the don’s house while Calo sat in despair upstairs, didn’t recognize Charley (who had been the hero of his boyhood), so he dummied up, pretending not to speak English, and pushed at Charley’s chest with the length of the sawed-off shotgun. Charley hit him with the fear. “Take the weapon off the threads, creep. I am Charles Macy Barton,” he said, and walked across the hall and up the stairs.

Pop and Mae sat facing each other. Maerose was wearing a scarlet sweater and a black skirt. Pop, in his black suit, had his head back, his eyes closed. He sat up as Charley came in.

“What happened?” Charley said.

“Somebody snatched the don.”

“Whaaaaaaat?”

“Only he was dead, Charley. He died while I was alone in the room with him yesterday.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“He didn’t tell me he wanted that.”

“Jesus, Pop, I’ve heard of omertà, but—”

Maerose broke into tears. “Who would steal the body of a little old man like that? What could they want with it? God, he didn’t have enough on him to make a good soup.”

“They’ll tell us what they want,” Charley said. “Money.”

“That’s what Pop and Eduardo think,” Maerose said. “But I can’t believe it. There are a few rotten people in this business, but how could they face a priest at confession and tell him they did a thing like that?”

“There was a lotta people who coulda took a oath to get even when we dumped them for the franchises.”

“Watch your speech, Charley!”

He gulped. “Is that not so, Pater?” he asked Angelo.

“Maybe, but I don’t think so. How could they know he dropped out? Even we didn’t know he was sick—he just went.”

Maerose said, “You think it was an inside job?”

“I didn’t say nothing.”

“Six people knew—the three of us plus Eduardo, Amalia, and Calorino. The doctor is out because the don was alive when the doctor left. Amalia is the only one who didn’t leave the house after the don collapsed. It wasn’t Charley. It wasn’t me. God knows it wasn’t you, Angelo.”

“It wasn’t Eduardo—he’s running for president,” Angelo said. “It would look bad if it came out he had snatched his own father’s body.”

“Where is Eduardo? He ought to be here,” Charley said.

“He was here. He hadda go to Iowa.”

“Iowa?”

“The campaign.”

“Amalia’s out,” Mary Barton continued. “That leaves Calo.”

“Calo is too dumb to think like that, and he loved the don,” Charley said.

“So that means nobody done it, but the don ain’t here,” Angelo said.