by Jay Mackey
“Doesn’t ring any bells,” he said, lying. He knew immediately who it was, and his insides were doing flips.
“No?” said the older of the men. “That’s funny. Some other guys said you were close friends.” He was wearing a uniform. Not a cop uniform, though. This one was military. Army, thought Gus.
“Me?” said Gus. “I don’t know. I don’t usually hang around with dead guys.”
“Very funny, asshole,” said the other man, who didn’t look military. He continued, “You know this is James Sorrento. He’s dead because he was somewhere where he shouldn’t have been. You sure you don’t recognize your old buddy?”
Gus grabbed the photo, trying to see if he could learn anything from it. James, or, as he was known by his friends, Oaf, was lying on a clean white table in what looked like a hospital room. Certainly not the desert, where Gus had seen him last.
“Now I see the resemblance,” said Gus. “Sure. Didn’t recognize him at first. What happened to him?”
Ignoring his question, the older man said, “As we understand it, James wasn’t alone the other night when this happened. When’s the last time you saw him? Alive, I mean.”
“Oh, Geez, it must have been a couple months or so ago, at least,” said Gus.
The two men asked him where he was on the night James died. He told him he’d been with his brother at home, playing cards. They hassled him about his answer, but he didn’t care. It was an alibi they’d discussed, just in case. He hadn’t believed they’d ever need it, but he felt lucky that Little Bull had insisted.
That night at home, Gus and Little Bull sat drinking beer, talking about what had happened. Venus was in her usual position, snuggled tight against Gus on the couch. Melissa was playing on a blanket on the floor, and Donna was at work.
The two men had also approached Little Bull, but they were more belligerent with him, even threatening to take him “downtown” for questioning. He stuck to his story, and the two eventually left, but not before warning him that they’d be back.
“The thing that gets me, though,” said Little Bull, “is that they never once said anything about Faccio. Did they ask you about him, Gus?”
“No, they didn’t,” answered Gus. “I thought about asking them, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it without admitting that I’d been there.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” said Little Bull. “It means that Faccio is still out there someplace.”
“Then we’d all better watch our backs,” said Gus. “He knows where we live.”
“Yeah, plus that Army guy and his cop buddy might show up here, too,” added Little Bull.
Somehow, Venus had not understood until that moment just what was being discussed. But suddenly it all became clear to her, and she panicked. “Oh, no. You can’t let them come for me,” she said, grabbing Gus’s arm with both hands. “You can’t let them take me back. You can’t.” She squeezed him as she searched his eyes for assurance, for protection.
Gus instantly realized that Venus was indeed in danger. “Christ,” he said. “Venus has no ID. If those jerks come around here, that could be a problem. You can get her some fake ID, can’t you Little Bull?”
“I can get her a driver’s license tomorrow,” said Little Bull. “A social security card will take a few days. Don’t sweat it. Consider it done.”
“With a social security card, she could get a real job,” said Gus.
“Wait,” said Venus. “What will I do about baby Melissa if I start some job? Donna won’t have a babysitter.”
“Don’t worry,” said Little Bull. “We’ll work something out.”
Gus grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “And don’t you worry,” he said. “I promise you, I will always take care of you. Always.”
She stared back at him for a long minute. And then she seemed to relax. She nodded, and wiped a tear.
And that was the moment that Violet Jones was born.
Later that night, after Melissa was put to bed for the last time and Donna and Little Bull had disappeared into their bedroom, Gus was just getting settled in on the couch when she came to him. She didn’t say a word. Not then. She leaned over and kissed him, gently but firmly on the lips. Then she took his hand and led him to the bedroom.
He was very careful with her, caressing her tenderly, and she directed him surely and slowly. Gus felt that they connected on a level so deeply emotional, the physical connection almost seemed secondary. She cried afterward, but to him it didn’t seem to be because of regret, but because of some sense of relief. He felt he’d finally earned her trust.
She slept in his arms while he kept watch. Or at least that’s how he perceived it.
When they woke in the hour before dawn, they made love again, a little more urgently this time, but no less tenderly.
Then she told him a story, speaking so softly he could barely hear her over their breathing and the beating of their hearts. And whether he believed her or not wasn’t really the point. The point was, she told him.
25
Las Vegas, April 2018
Oval spotted several suspect white cars, but none seemed to be following them as they went through their avoidance maneuvers. By the time they’d finished, they were fifteen minutes late getting to the library.
Ms. Parsons was behind the desk, and she led them to where Jack was sitting in the back of the periodicals section. His hat was on the table in front of him, and an old-fashioned briefcase was next to the hat. Jack looked a little perturbed, glaring at them as they approached.
“Sorry we’re late,” said CJ, “but we were extra careful getting here.”
Jack nodded, and then motioned for them all to sit down.
Oval broke the ice. “If you’re so worried about us being followed,” he asked, “why are we meeting in the library? Anybody could see us here.”
Jack gave him a begrudging smile. “I come here all the time,” he said. “They don’t bother with me in here anymore. But if you’re followed, then it’s better that we meet someplace public than somewhere you could compromise me.”
“We weren’t followed,” said Penny. “We were really good. Weren’t we, guys?”
CJ and Oval nodded. CJ said, “So what’s up?”
Jack nodded and opened his briefcase. It was the old style with the strap that went across the top to close the opening, in dark brown leather, or at least it had been brown once. It was indistinguishable from black now, with multiple scars, as if it had been tossed around and mishandled for years. Before pulling anything out, Jack looked at CJ and asked, “You said your grandfather was a Matzelini, right?”
“Right,” answered CJ. “Gus, or really, Guiseppe Matzelini.”
“Years ago, there was a guy named Little Bull Matzelini.”
“Yeah. He was Gus’s brother, so my great-uncle, I guess,” said CJ, wondering where this was going.
Penny added, “Little Bull Matzelini was my grandfather.”
“So you’re a Matzelini, too?” Jack asked her.
“Yes.” She hesitated. “Well, not by blood.” She blushed and glanced over at CJ, who gave her a quick smile. “Marcio, Little Bull, was my mother’s stepfather. I guess.”
Jack nodded. He glanced at Oval, who appeared to get flustered.
“I’m just a friend,” Oval said quickly, patting his chest. “No relation.”
Jack nodded again, and turned back to CJ. “There was a guy I knew, a long time ago, and he knew the Matzelinis. Or I should say he knew Little Bull Matzelini, and maybe Giuseppe, I don’t remember. Didn’t have nice things to say about Little Bull.” He looked from CJ to Penny, to see if they had any reaction.
Neither did. They sat expressionless, waiting for more.
Jack continued, “Of course, the guy I knew was an asshole, so he was probably wrong about Little Bull.” He smiled and looked at each of them again.
This time they smiled back.
“The guy I knew was named Faccio,” Jack said. �
�Tony Faccio.”
CJ quickly looked at Penny, who was staring back, eyes wide. “But that’s the guy from that clipping,” said CJ.
Before Penny could respond, Jack stood quickly, looking behind where CJ and Penny were sitting, opposite him.
“Damn it,” he said in a loud whisper, clearly upset. “I told you to make sure you weren’t followed.”
“We weren’t,” CJ said.
“No way,” added Oval.
“Well, that guy in the white shirt followed you in here this morning, and now he’s back.” Jack snapped his briefcase closed, put on his funny hat, and disappeared quickly though a nearby door marked “EXIT.”
“What the heck was that?” said CJ.
Oval stood and looked behind them. “What a dweeb.”
CJ and Penny turned around to see what he was talking about. Sure enough, there was a man standing near the information desk, looking at something in a rack of magazines. His white shirt made him easy to spot. His back was to them, so they couldn’t see his face.
Oval said, “The guy is wearing a long-sleeve shirt and dress pants in the desert. Like, how to blend in, NOT.”
“So who is he?” asked Penny.
“I don’t know,” said CJ, but it occurred to him that if the guy was following them, they might be in some danger. “Maybe we should get out of here. Take the exit like Jack.”
“Good idea,” said Oval. “Let’s book it.”
“No, wait,” said Penny. “I think the guy is leaving.”
They all watched as the man slowly walked back toward the main entrance. As he left the periodical room, he glanced back over his shoulder at the kids.
“Jesus,” CJ said. “He looks vaguely familiar. I can’t place him, though.”
“This is seriously messed up, guys,” said Oval.
“You know what else is messed up?” said Penny. She looked at Oval and CJ as if she was waiting for them to answer. When they didn’t, she blurted, “Jack. Jack is seriously messed up.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” said CJ. “I was really wondering what he was about to tell us, and what was in the briefcase.”
“Yeah,” said Penny. “And he knew Tony Faccio back in the day, the guy mentioned in the article about my Grandfather Marcio.”
“So what does all this have to do with your grandmother, CJ?” asked Oval.
“I don’t know,” CJ answered. “Except that there was a shootout between Marcio and Faccio, and soon after that my grandparents changed their names and moved to Newport.”
“None of this makes any sense,” said Penny. “So what now, puzzle man?”
“Well, I’ve got Jack’s phone number from when he called me earlier,” said CJ. “I’ll wait for a while for him to calm down, and then I’ll call him and see if he’ll meet with us again.”
“And this time we’ll make sure white shirt doesn’t show up,” said Oval, pointing out the way the man had left.
On their way out Oval stopped by the desk where Ms. Parsons was working.
“Excuse me, Ms. Parsons,” he said. “Did you happen to notice that guy in the white shirt who just left?”
“No, I’m sorry, but I didn’t,” she said.
“He was in here this morning too, I think.”
“He might have been, but I didn’t see him.”
“Just one more thing,” Oval said. “You mentioned that Jack was a crackpot. At least, that’s what he called himself.”
She nodded.
“May I ask what makes him a crackpot?”
CJ and Penny shrank back, embarrassed that Oval would ask such a question, but Ms. Parsons just smiled.
She said, “Of course. I don’t know if he’s told you yet, but he thinks he was abducted by aliens.”
As the kids left the library, CJ felt a bit stunned, and more than a bit confused.
Oval, looking around for the man in the white shirt, said, “We know who to look for now, at least.”
“Face it, we’re worse off now than we were an hour and a half ago when we were ready to give up,” Penny said, marching toward her car and waving her arms to emphasize her points. “One, some jerk has supposedly been following us.” She climbed into the driver’s seat, but didn’t interrupt her speech. “Two, the man who told us that is an admitted crackpot who thinks he was kidnapped by aliens. Shoot, he probably thinks he is an alien, for all we know.” She stopped for a breath as the boys got in. “And besides, the alien idiot disappeared without telling us anything anyway. So whoop-de-do, we’re really gettin’ it done now.”
“Things are just getting interesting,” said Oval. It was hard for CJ to tell if he had his tongue in his cheek or not.
“Yeah, right,” said Penny. “Next thing we’ll find out is that Ms. Parsons is the alien who abducted old Jack.”
Oval responded, “Sure. Maybe that’s why he likes her so much. Who else would pay attention to an old man like that?”
CJ, who’d remained quiet while his friends ranted, now spoke up. “Hold on, guys. I don’t think it’s time to quit yet. I’m still really curious about what Jack was going to tell us. I mean, he seemed to be really worked up.”
“Doesn’t explain why the guy is following you,” said Penny.
“Well, I still want to know what Jack has to say.” CJ looked from Penny to Oval. “Something has upset him, and I’d like to know what. It’s got to be about more than some random guy showing up in the library. There’s more here. Like, what’s in the briefcase?”
“I don’t know,” said Oval. “I’m kind of with Penny on this one. If someone tells you he was abducted by aliens, then whatever he tells you next you’ve kind of got to question, don’t you think?”
“I’m not saying I’m going to believe whatever he says,” said CJ. “But I’d still like to hear it.”
“Hey, go for it,” said Penny. “I’ve got nothing better to do for the rest of the week than drive you two crack detectives around.”
CJ gave her a fake smile and pulled out his phone. He called Jack but got no answer. He didn’t leave a message.
They went back to Penny’s house, where they spent the evening blowing off steam. One of Penny’s best friends lived next door to her, and she had a swimming pool. The group of them were joined at the pool by two more of Penny’s friends, who were not as cute but were at least as fun to be with. Rosa, the friend from next door, had an older brother, Carlo, who joined them, but he was not as friendly, mostly just watching the girls a little too closely, in CJ’s opinion. One of the girls, Jenny, who was pretty but almost painfully thin, tried to flirt with Carlo, but he acted only mildly interested. They ordered pizza and made like real spring-breakers.
Oval was, as usual, the life of the party. The girls loved him, not only because he was funny, but also because he looked good. His wrestling season had just ended, so he hadn’t eaten his way back to his “normal weight,” which was about thirty-five pounds higher than his wrestling weight. He told them that he was just, “four pizzas and about five pounds of French fries” removed from displaying his “epic abs.”
CJ had to correct him. “Even when you’re at weight for wrestling, you have no abs. You look less like a hunk than like a starving refugee.”
“You mean like you look now?”
“Exactly.” CJ posed, flexing his muscles, what there was of them. That drew a laugh.
CJ had been checking in every evening with Nini and Noga, just to let them know he was okay, and that he hadn’t yet worn out his welcome with the Hancocks. Of course, he didn’t tell them what he was really doing with most of his time; instead, he made it sound like he’d been touring Vegas, swimming and eating, mostly. And now that he was actually swimming, he almost felt like he wasn’t lying.
He also didn’t say anything about white shirt guy, even though he figured it was at least possible, and maybe even probable, that if this guy was following him, it was the same guy who’d shown up at York Street looking for him.
No reason to b
other Nini with that. She’d just worry. It’s not like she can do anything about it.
In this evening’s conversation, Nini asked an unusual question: “Are you hearing anything in your head?” she asked.
“What?” said CJ. “Do you think I’m going nuts?” Did she know about his meeting up with the crackpot who thought he’d been abducted? Did that craziness rub off?
“No, I mean, do you have headaches, or anything like that?” she said, quickly catching herself.
“Why would you ask that?” he said.
“I’m having some headaches and was hoping you didn’t catch the same bug I have before you left,” she said. “That’s all.”
“No. Nini. I’m fine,” he said, a little upset at her questions. But after hanging up, he remembered that he’d had a bit of a headache earlier.
Mothers and grandmothers were always weird. They asked questions and said stuff all the time that seemed to just pop into their heads.
It was later, near midnight, when CJ and Oval were just finishing up a session of playing Halo on Penny’s brother’s Xbox, that CJ got a return call from Jack.
“Do you want to try this again?” Jack asked him.
“Yeah,” answered CJ. “If you do.”
Jack told him that the next meeting wouldn’t be at the library. He gave directions to a Starbucks near the old downtown and told CJ to be there at 9:00. “Wait for me there.”
Oval wasn’t really happy about the meeting, not because he didn’t want to see Jack, but because of the time.
“This is supposed to be vacation. We’ve been getting up so early, every day. Why can’t we get a good vacation sleep-in just once?” he said.
“Not my choice, so we’ll just have to live with it,” replied CJ.
Penny had gone to bed, so CJ texted her to let her know about the meeting. She hadn’t gone to sleep yet, and within seconds of CJ’s text, appeared in the family room wearing her pjs, which were just tight enough to get Oval to pay attention.
“We’re not really going to do this, are we?” she asked.
“You don’t need to go,” said CJ. “I’ll take Uber or something. But I’m going to meet him.”
