The Family Man by A.M. Pascarella

Author:A.M. Pascarella [Pascarella, AM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bay Road Publishing

18

Some kinds of information couldn’t be found on Google.

On her way back to the station, Maria stopped at a coffee shop off of Ogden. In the back, she saw the familiar bulk of Vincent Battagliano, an old friend of her father. He looked up as she approached, smiled. Stood to gather her into a big hug. Vincent was almost six and a half feet tall and had once weighed almost three hundred pounds, but a bout with cancer and the chemo regimen had turned him into a beanstalk.

Vincent was a made man, a real deal gangster with the criminal record and stints in a federal penitentiary to show for it. Not to mention the bullet still lodged in his shoulder from an assassin that missed. The rumor was that Vincent hadn’t missed when he’d shot back, but no one could confirm that story because the body was never found. Something Vincent reportedly chalked up to luck. Her father had joked it was the kind of luck one got from using a shovel and digging a deep hole.

Growing up, Maria’s father had brought her to breakfast with Uncle Vinny, as Maria called him, a few times a year. Well, at least the years he was out of prison. Later, when she became old enough to pay attention to the news, she’d seen an article about her Uncle Vinny being arrested, and she’d asked her father about it. Her father had just shrugged and said Uncle Vinny was his friend. Some things they just didn’t talk about. But when she became a cop, her father had let her know it was more than just a friendship.

Uncle Vinny was a fount of information. The kind of information that was hard to find, provided that her father wasn’t investigating the mob, Uncle Vinny was happy to dish. Probably why her father had never worked on organized crime task forces or special assignments related to the mob.

Now Uncle Vinny was retired, too old to be living that life, and if you asked him, he’d tell you the bout with cancer had made him reevaluate his life choices. Maria didn’t believe him, and to be honest, the mob wasn’t what it once was. The real criminal organization that everyone feared was the Hell’s Angels. Nobody messed with those guys. But Uncle Vinny was still a fount of knowledge if someone knew the right questions to ask.

“That funeral for your father, what a send off, and well deserved, got to tell you,” Uncle Vinny said.

Maria could barely remember the funeral. Between her brother’s death and what happened with Harold. The whole thing was a blurry mess.

“I sent your mother some flowers. I’m going to check on her soon,” he said.

“She’d love that,” Maria said.

Her mother and Uncle Vinny related to each other in a way that Maria couldn’t understand, but in hindsight made sense. They were both from the streets and sensed it in each other.

“I feel like there’s something you need,” Uncle Vinny said.

“I have a case,” Maria said.

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