Most Precious Blood by Vince Sgambati

Author:Vince Sgambati
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771833073
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Published: 2018-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

21

“Are you Mr. Lasante?”

Not fully awake, Lenny shivered at the cold and asked the young police officer to step inside. He wondered if this was about Big Vinny’s bribe money, and expected to hear, You have the right to remain silent, but instead the officer, looking more like a boy in a Halloween costume than a real police officer, cleared his throat, removed his cap, and asked: “Are you Frankie Lasante’s father?” After he said that there had been a shooting at Most Precious Blood and explained what the police discovered when they entered the church, Lenny stepped back and stumbled over the mother bear and her cubs, and Angie grabbed his arm.

With one hand Angie clutched at her chenille robe, and with the other she held onto Lenny as he tried to balance himself. Had Big Vinny been in the room, Lenny might have killed him. He didn’t know how, but he was sure that this horror was connected to Big Vinny — a vendetta. Angie’s grip was the anchor that moored Lenny and kept him from telling the young officer that the real killer lived down the block.

Angie quickly changed out of her nightclothes and the young officer drove them to the hospital where they learned that, when the police had arrived at Most Precious Blood, it was too late for Mr. Rodriguez and Gennaro, but Frankie, though unconscious, was alive. Had Mrs. Rodriguez not called the police when her husband didn’t answer his cellphone, Frankie would have bled to death.

He was in surgery having two bullets removed, one in his neck, just missing the carotid artery and one in his thigh. A plain-clothes officer questioned Lenny, but Lenny shook so violently that she called a nurse. After a shot of Valium, he was at least able to tell the officer that he had no idea why anyone would harm Gennaro or Frankie, but the officer persisted, including questions about Big Vinny, Michael, and Jimmy, and all of Lenny’s answers were some version of sorry all I know is what was in the paper or on television. The next morning the police learned all they needed to know, or at least most of it. The convenience store proprietor saw the news on television and called the police about a teenager who on Christmas night had asked him if one of the boys he saw leaving the store was a DiCico. The police arrested the teenager who turned out to be the murdered cabdriver’s son.

Several hours after surgery, as the dark hospital windows faded to a pale lavender, Frankie lay in bed semiconscious, Angie and Lenny sat next to him staring at multiple monitors and machines with blinking lights, and Lenny received a text message from Vi: Just heard the news on the radio. This is terrible. I will do whatever you want me to do.

Too late for that, Lenny thought and slipped his cellphone back into his pocket without mentioning the text to Angie. But throughout the day,

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