The Big Blowdown [D.C. Quartet #1] by George P. Pelecanos

Author:George P. Pelecanos [Pelecanos, George P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General, Greek Americans, Immigrants, Organized Crime
ISBN: 9780312242916
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 1999-09-23T12:00:00+00:00

"Mr. DiGeordano," he said.

"Yeah, boy."

"You got any more ammo for this forty-five?"

"It's in the bag."

"How about its holster?"

"The same bag."

"You don't mind if I hang onto this gun for a while, do you?"

"Sure, Karras Jr. You go ahead."

Karras hefted the Colt in his palm, wrapped his fingers tightly around the grip. It felt good there, fitted in his hand.

The next morning was a Sunday, and Peter Karras went to church. He accompanied Eleni, little Dimitri, and his mother, who wore a black dress with stocking anklets and black orthopedic shoes. Karras had not been inside the church since the baptism of his son, over one year ago.

Stepping into the narthex, Karras saw several of the parents and some of the children he had grown up with, now with children of their own, and he nodded cordially to those who nodded at him but did not engage them in conversation. A few of the old^rias stared unashamedly at his twisted knee and whispered among themselves. Karras paid them no mind. He lighted an orange candle for his father, crossed himself, then kissed the icona and had a seat with his family in a pew to the right of the altar toward the back of the church.

In the thirties, when Karras was still a child, the men took their seats on the right side of the church and the woman took theirs on the left. Karras had always sat on the left with his mother, as his father had rarely attended service. He was reminded of this watching Dimitri sitting comfortably between his mother and grandmother in the pew.

Father Laloussis performed the liturgy, the glass in his wire-rimmed spectacles occasionally flashing in the light. Laloussis had an unremarkable singing voice and was not particularly dynamic, but he had been attentive to Georgia Karras after her husband's death, and Karras had thought him to be a pretty fair priest as far as priests went. Karras listened to the liturgy, closed his eyes occasionally to enjoy the choir, and took in the pleasant smell of the incense smoke that hovered heavily in the church. He did not care to tax his mind over the meaning in the spoken

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verse or in those words being sung. But when Laloussis brought out the communion cup, Karras went dutifully forward to take what he had been told to be the body and blood of Christ, and he drank the wine and ate the bread, and crossed himself as he backed away, because he thought that a man who had killed another man the night before should at least hedge his bets. He sat back down in the pew and tasted the antithoron that he held in his hand. Laloussis went into his sermon, spoken in Greek,- Karras looked around the room.

Perry Angelos was up front in his usual spot with Helen and their two little girls. Behind them sat Mr. and Mrs. Nicodemus, Mrs. Nicodemus dressed entirely in black, six years after Billy's death. Next to the Nicode-muses sat Nick Kendros, who had owned and operated the Woodward Grill, near the D.

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