Don of the Dead (PM1) by Casey Daniels

Author:Casey Daniels [Daniels, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780060821463
Publisher: New York : Avon Books, c2006.
Published: 2006-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

As it turned out, I didn’t need Quinn’s help after all.

I had my own personal Deep Throat.

Gus had hung around the Scarpetti compound long after I left, listening and (no doubt) reliving the old glory days. When he finally popped back to the cemetery the afternoon of the day both Quinn and Albert Vigniolli paid me a visit, I asked him about the project Rudy had mentioned in passing, the one Quinn refused to discuss. Lucky for me, Gus was ready, willing, and able to share.

Three days later we stood side by side on the walk in front of The Family Place, a retirement home with an exclusive list of residents and a strict policy of not accepting new applicants.

If anybody knew about Gus’s death, it would be the men who lived there. Except for a couple who were dead, a couple more in prison, one who had retired to Florida, and another who was a permanent resident in the psych ward of a local hospital, the men inside that house were all that was left of what used to be Gus’s inner circle. His crew. The made guys who made sure that the hits just kept on comin’.

I shook the thought aside and looked where Gus was looking, at the white three-story house. It was newly built but in Victorian style, a rambling structure complete with green shutters, a wraparound porch, and window boxes chock-full of purple and yellow pansies that bobbed in a stiff breeze.

All-American respectability in a good neighborhood. The house was situated on a bluff that overlooked Lake Erie. To one side of it, there was a park. On the other, a sweep of lawn and beyond that, an Art Deco mansion in the midst of a major revamping. There was a team of workers installing new windows. And a vaguely familiar-looking dark-colored car in the driveway.

“I gotta tell you, I’m real proud of Rudy.” Gus’s eyes sparkled. “Sure, he collects art glass. And he did make a pass at you. For that, I cannot forgive him. But I raised him right. He understands the value of family. Imagine him taking care of the guys like this.”

“Unless the guys took care of you.”

“Are you starting with that again?” Gus’s top lip curled but he hardly spared me a look. He was still studying the house. It was an overcast day and a cold mist hung at the roofline and in the branches of the two huge oaks that framed the front porch. Beyond the house, I could see the lake. Whitecaps rolled in from Canada.

I was huddled in a chartreuse peacoat that I should have been able to put away weeks before. But, hey, it was Cleveland and only the end of April. I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering partly from the temperature and mostly because I’d been shivering since I’d heard about Goon #2’s promise to pay me a visit.

So far, so good. No sign of Albert. And believe me, I’d been looking.

Over my shoulder any time I went out.

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