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“Dad’s team.”
“Maybe you heard,” Danny said. “He died. It was in all the papers, including yours.”
I stood up now and came around the small desk. I was suddenly tired of him looking down at me. Even in running shoes, I was the same height as he was. So we were eye to eye. It just felt more like toe-to-toe. An old-fashioned stare-down between the two of us.
Yeah,I thought,things really have come full circle.
“If he’d wanted it to be your team after he died, it would be,” I said in a quiet voice. He’d always been the shouter. “He didn’t want it to be. So it’s not.”
“Enjoy this while you can,” he said.
We really weren’t in each other’s personal space. It just felt that way.
When I didn’t say anything, he said, “This is going to be a disaster.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Whydon’tyou fire me?”
“Because I’m not going to make a martyr out of you. Unless you leave me no choice.”
He stared at me. His face was now almost entirely red.
“You know what the real joke is?” he said. “People always thought you were the smart one in this family. On top of that, they thought you were the nice one. But those of us who really know you know you’re more like Dad than Jack and Tommy and me combined.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“You lousy, stinking hypocrite,” he said. “You didn’t run away because you were afraid you’d be like us. You were afraid you’d end up likehim.”
He slowly shook his head from side to side, smirking.
“And now you have.”
He walked toward the door.
“One more thing,” I said.
“No. We’re done.”
“How did DeLavarious Harmon die?” I asked.
He turned back to me and hesitated a couple of beats too long before responding.
“How the hell would I know? I’m waiting for the autopsy report along with everybody else.”
“Could he have been taking something that you knew he shouldn’t have been?”
“Why are you asking me?”
I wondered if he knew how defensive he sounded in that moment.
“You just told me it was your team,” I said.
He cursed at me before walking out, leaving the door open behind him.
“Good talk,” I said to myself.
Then texted Thomas Wolf.
