Page 84 of Fifty-Fifty

together, even if it was only cheap gold.

‘I need what’s in that envelope, Jimmy. I wasn’t thinking straight that night.

There might have been something I missed,’ I said.

‘What’s in here ain’t good for you to see. I got it, but I don’t think you should look.’

‘I have to,’ I said. ‘I can’t trust the cops on this one. It’s too important. She was too important.’

Jimmy nodded, handed over the envelope.

‘You get anything on Frank?’ I asked.

‘Sure, I’ve been busy is all. One of my guys from the restaurant, Little Tony P, he’s in the goddamn hospital with a brain injury. He got run over crossing the street, for Christ’s sake. I’m gonna go see him when we’re done here. I got a lot on my mind. Sorry it took so long, but I also had to wait until all my little birds came back to tell me their tales. Frank had a lot of friends and a lot more enemies. I had to be sure his murder wasn’t a hit. All the little birds have come home with the same story. There was no motive, no opportunity, no old scores

that needed to be settled, no money floating around in the wind, and no contracts on our dearly departed Frank either.’

I had thought as much, but I had to be sure. Jimmy confirmed my fears – this was not a hit on Frank. It was patricide. No question.

‘How close were you to Frank?’ I said.

‘Depends who wants to know. If you’re asking me, yeah, we were close. If the DA is asking, then I hardly knew the guy.’

‘Did you know Sofia or Alexandra?’

‘Frank kept family separate for the most part. Like a lot of my business partners, it’s better if the IRS, the FBI and any other three-letter government organization are none the wiser about our relationship. We didn’t socialize together when he was in office, but have no doubt, I put his ass in the mayor’s chair. He wouldn’t have gotten past the primary without the unions. His girls?

Birthdays, family celebrations – not that there were many of those – Frank came to the restaurant with them.’

‘Either of the girls strike you as peculiar?’

‘Peculiar like they could chop up their old man for no reason? No. They didn’t like each other, I knew that. Frank was always bitching about it. I know they had a lot of money in that house, but green isn’t everything. Family is the most important thing you got. Frank was a widower twice over. You know? That’s gotta leave a mark. That wasn’t no happy home for those kids. Frank told me …’

Jimmy hesitated.

He liked to talk. We had grown up together. Jimmy didn’t see me as a lawyer, and I knew enough details to put him in jail for the rest of his life. Not that I would. Ever. We had a mutual trust. The fact that he had hesitated meant he didn’t want to betray a confidence that had been given to him by someone else – Frank. Jimmy was old-school that way.

‘You can trust me,’ I said.

Jimmy looked out the window, gazing up at my building.

‘Why don’t you got somewhere nice to live, Eddie? This place ain’t fit for a man like you.’

‘I do fine. Come on …’

‘Look, what I’ve got to tell you may not help. It may not help at all. It’s probably nothing but …’

‘Jimmy …’

‘Frank’s first wife. She fell down the stairs, got her neck caught in the bannister. Both girls were in the house. They saw the body. It was fuckin’ tragic, you know? Frank came to see me the next day. I got a guy in the city morgue on

my payroll. Don’t ask me why …’

If I was sure of one thing, it was I didn’t want to know why Jimmy had a man in the morgue. I could guess though. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that some body bags might go into the furnace with an extra corpse inside.

‘He asked me for a favor. My guy spoke to the medical examiner. I took care of it.’

‘What did you take care of?’