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Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust…
I don’t know if I can manage, my stomach is still in knots from Mass and all the conflicting emotions I feel at being in the church and listening to Mass.
While the priest is speaking about Sherri and the short but beautiful life she led, I can’t stand it any longer and squeeze Michelle’s hand. Then, I quietly leave the group of people standing behind the family, who are seated in front of the grave.
I go stand in a copse of trees a few dozen feet away from the grave and watch from a distance. There, I’m able to wipe my eyes and sob a bit and no one can hear me.
Sherri… I should have been more forceful in my warning about going out with the Monster.
I should have told her to forget him. That there were other handsome, wealthy, powerful men she could find, if that was what she wanted — ones who weren’t tied up with the Irish Mafia and Russian Mafia and underworld. Drugs, prostitution. Gambling. Sex trafficking.
But I didn’t, and now I can’t help but feel like I’m partly responsible.
When the service is over, and people begin to disperse, I watch in shock as Sherri’s Aunt Dianna goes running after Harrison O’Connor, who apparently showed up and, like me, has been standing off a distance from the grave. She begins screaming at him, pounding him on the chest and shoulders. He easily stops her and turns her around, pinning her with his arms. Her husband, Ted, Sherri’s uncle, comes over and takes her, apologizing to Harrison. I run over to where Michelle is standing and we hold onto each other, shocked at the show of violence. I glance over and see Harrison, who is talking quietly to Ted. Harrison looks over at us and our eyes briefly meet, but then they move on, and he turns away, leaving the cemetery like the devil himself is chasing him.
He doesn’t know me from a hole in the ground and that’s good.
I can’t believe he had the audacity to come to the funeral, considering it’s his fault that Sherri’s dead.
I want to run and punch him, kick him, and scream at him the way Sherri’s Aunt Dianna did, but I hold back.
I’ll find another way to get revenge.
I spendthe rest of the weekend researching Mr. Harrison O’Connor, son of Ronan O’Connor, middle brother of three.Harrison’s younger brother Liam died of a drug overdose just a few months earlier and I think — what is wrong with the man? His brother dies and yet he lets the crap go on at his club and at his penthouse? You’d think he’d learn about how dangerous mixing drugs and alcohol are after his own brother died, but apparently not.
What a monster…
It just hardens my determination to find some way to bring him down. I spent some time talking to Sherri’s Aunt Dianna about the past few weeks since she met Harrison. I meet her at a local coffee shop, and we sit at a table looking out over the street and drink our coffees while pedestrians pass by, unaware of the two women with broken hearts sitting in the window.
“Did she tell you anything about what was going on? She barely spoke to Heather and me about him except to say he was so gorgeous and rich, and she was in love.”
Aunt Dianna shrugs, shaking her head in dismay. “No. She merely said that she met him through a mutual friend who works at this exclusive club. Her name was Lisa. That’s all I know. Lisa got her into the club, and I guess that’s how she met Harrison.”
“Lisa? Was she a student with Sherri?”
“I think so. She works part time at this club called Nuage. She got Sherri a membership and introduced her to these powerful men who go there.”
I nod and consider. I must find a way to get a membership there so I can rub elbows with these powerful men.
Unlike Sherri, I won’t do drugs.
There has to be a way to get in touch with Lisa so I can get into the club.
“You don’t happen to know Lisa’s last name, do you?”
Aunt Dianna frowns for a moment. “McDonald? Yes, I think it was Lisa McDonald. She’s a marketing student, and that’s how Sherri knew her.”
“Thanks,” I say and write that down on a note in my cell. “This will help.”
“What do you think you’re going to do that the police can’t?”
“Or won’t,” I say and put my cell away. “I’m going to find out more about Harrison. Things that maybe the police can’t find out. He’s rich and powerful. He has a powerful family with ties to both business and government officials. Probably bought off the local prosecutors, or else why wouldn’t the family have charges against them for all their crimes? The whole edifice is corrupt.”
Aunt Dianna shakes her head in disgust. “The Mafia rules New York, or haven’t you heard? They’re inside the police and the government. They changed the laws, so they don’t break them anymore.”
I sigh. I’m not as conspiratorial as Aunt Dianna. I know there are good cops and good politicians in New York and in Manhattan, but they fight an uphill battle against corruption and organized crime. Gramps is one example, having spent decades as a bona fide good cop, breaking free from our family’s notorious past. My own ancestors were heavily involved in organized crime back in the forties and fifties, but we finally were able to go straight.
Gramps is the first generation of our family to be clean and operating outside of the Irish Mafia that are our roots.
