“One more,” I yelled out to Gino, and I lit a cigarette.
Gino didn’t come.
I put the cigarette to my lips. I inhaled its dark smoke, and all the smoke in that bar, it seemed. This was the moment I had been moving towards all along.
There was another siren now, closer. Any minute the cops would be at the end of the block, turning the corner. I could imagine them already, climbing from their squad cars, hurrying down the sidewalk, Leanora Chinn out in front, of course, moving crisply, her head held so straight and true. She would be the first one through the door, pausing under the picture of Il Duce. I wondered for a minute about those other cops behind her, whether they would be men or women, and whether their skin would be brown or yellow or white as the driven snow. In this city it was impossible to say. They could be any color at all, I thought, but one thing I knew for certain, their uniforms would be midnight, the deepest shade of blue.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1988 by Domenic Stansberry
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1198-3
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The Last Days of Il Duce Page 17
