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  "Don't look at me," Tuffy said. "I wasn't shooting at the little bastards."

  Lottie turned back to Vince. "Are they dead?"

  When Vince didn't answer, Mike leaned over the back seat. "Couple of 'em might be dead. Looked that way."

  "For Christ's sake," Lottie said. "We're in a fine mess if you guys plugged a bunch of little kids."

  "Shut up, Lottie." Vince straightened out his jacket and leaned closer to Frank behind the wheel. "How many cars we got in Brooklyn?"

  "Three," Frank said. "With Elmira plates."

  Vince fell back in his seat and tilted his fedora over his face. "We'll split up for now," he said. "We'll grab a couple more cars, stay away from the Bronx a while, and then meet up tonight again at the new place Florence got for us."

  "Will she be there?" Lottie started to reach for Vince's hat when he didn't answer and then thought better of it. She crossed her arms under her breasts and was quiet.

  "Gosh," Sally said, "little kids . . ."

  7:48 p.m.

  Loretto followed Dom up the stairs and through a broiling, dimly lit hallway that smelled of garlic and mold. They were hurrying, taking the steps two at a time on their way to the fifth floor and the Barontis' apartment, where Augie and Freddie Baronti still lived with their mother. The father had left more than a decade earlier, when the Baronti kids— Mike, Augie, Freddie, and Gina––were all children. Whenever anyone mentioned the father, which was rare, they asked after his health, since the story was that he had a heart ailment that required constant hospitalization in a sanatorium out west. The truth, which everyone knew, was that he was locked up in the psych center at Kings Park. He'd been taken away in a straitjacket after stabbing Gina with a kitchen knife, screaming that she was a puttana and he meant to cut the demone out of her heart. Gina was eleven at the time. The family had been broken up briefly after that, the children shipped off to relatives, before Gaspar, Dom's uncle, helped out with money and then found work for the boys selling newspapers. For years, before Gina got married at sixteen and moved away with her husband, they'd all shared two bedrooms in this same fifth-floor walk-up. Now it was just Augie and Freddie––and Freddie'd been in Elmira for the past two years on a burglary charge. He'd only been back a couple of days.

  Loretto stopped on the fourth-floor landing for a breather. From the apartment to his right he could hear meatballs cooking in a frying pan. The smell of meat and tomato sauce wafted out through cracks in the door. "It's like an oven in here."

  Dom's tie was undone and sweat stains showed on the front of his shirt. He took off his hat and fanned his face with it. "I keep thinking one of Cabo's torpedoes'll pop out of a shadow and blast us."

  "Relax a little." Loretto started up the stairs again. "We don't even know what Cabo's thinking."

  "I'll tell you what he's thinking," Dom said as they climbed the last flight together, side by side. "He's thinking you were Vince's lookout. He's thinking when you spotted him coming out of the club, you gave Vince the signal. That's what he's thinking."

  "We don't know that."

  "I know it," Dom said. "Sure as I'm standing here." He knocked lightly on the Barontis' door and then took a step back when it swung open and Gina stood there looking hot and annoyed. When she saw who it was, she wrapped him up in a big hug and kissed him on the cheek. "Dominic! I haven't seen you in forever!" She held his head in her hands and kissed him again, on the other cheek. "Where have you been?"

  "I been right here!" Dom said. "You're the one moved all the way to Canada!"

  "Canada," Gina said to Loretto. "I was in Carmel."

  "Where's Carmel?" Loretto asked.

  "See?" Dom said. "Who ever heard of Carmel?"

  Gina rolled her eyes. "It's about an hour from here," she said, and then she laughed with the sudden surprise of recognition. "You're Loretto!" She cocked her hips and offered him a flirtatious grin. "You grew up nice."

  "Who, him?" Dom said. "He's a chump."

  "Come on in." Gina stood aside. "You must've come to see Freddie."

  "Nah, we came to see you, doll," Dom said. "And what do you mean you was in Carmel? You're not anymore?"

  Gina moved close to Dom and exaggeratedly whispered, "I'm divorced now. We don't talk about it in the family."

  "So you moved back?"

  "Nah, I got my own place not too far. I'm visiting."

  "Boys!" Mrs. Baronti came into the kitchen and flung open her arms. "Dominic!" she said, and she hugged and kissed him before moving on to Loretto. "Federico's up on the roof with Agostino," she said. "It's too hot for them in here with their mother! We already ate dinner!" she yelled as though it were a tragedy that they had eaten without Dom and Loretto. "You should've told me you were coming! I got some biscotti! You want iced coffee?"

  It was hard to believe, as Mrs. Baronti stood alongside Gina, that they were mother and daughter. Gina was slim and cute with short dark hair cut fashionably in a bob, while Mrs. Baronti was built like a small tank: big breasts and belly, hips wrapped in a drab blue housedress, and a pudgy face under a jumble of unruly gray hair. She had a mole on her chin sprouting a pair of dark hairs, and creases and crevices that ran from her neck to her forehead. Gina's skin was blemished only by a small round birthmark above her upper lip, a pencil dot that disappeared when she smiled.

  Loretto said, "I'd love a glass of iced coffee, Mrs. Baronti." He fanned himself with his fedora. "It's a scorcher."

  "Here, give me that!" Mrs. Baronti advanced aggressively, yanked Loretto's hat out of his hand, and then pulled his jacket off by the back collar. "You, too!" she said to Dom. "You're crazy, both of you, in jackets and ties!

  Dom hung his jacket and hat on the back of the front door before Mrs. Baronti could get to him. "We were supposed to go out tonight," he protested. "We were going to the 21 Club. It's Loretto's birthday."

  "It's your birthday?" Mrs. Baronti stared at him, jacket and hat in hand, at a loss for words.

  "I'm getting too old for birthdays," Loretto said. He read Mrs. Baronti's confusion at a glance. Her first response was that he should be with his family on his birthday, and then she didn't know what to say when she remembered that he didn't have a family. "Say, you think we could go see the boys up on the roof?"

  "Why not?" Mrs. Baronti shouted. "Go!" She pointed to a cramped bedroom behind the kitchen. "Gina'll bring the coffee."

  Gina, who had been watching from the sink with a glass of water in hand, approached Loretto and stood on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the lips. "Happy birthday, birthday boy."

  "Don't be fresh!" Mrs. Baronti said. She took Gina by the arm and pulled her away.

  "I can't help being fresh, Ma," Gina said. "Look how handsome he is!"

  "What about me?" Dom said to Gina. Before she could answer, he turned to Mrs. Baronti. "Mama," he said, "don't you think I'm handsome?"

  "Ah," Mama Baronti said kindly, "un buon cuore, ma una brutta faccia!"

  Dom held his heart as if he'd been stabbed.

  To Loretto, Mama said, "I told him he's got a good heart but an ugly face."

  "Nah," Gina said. "Dom's a good-looking boy."

  "Basta," Dom said to Gina. He hugged Mama, kissed her cheek, and waved for Loretto to join him as he started for the roof.

  Dom had played in the Baronti home endless hours as a boy and so was familiar with the apartment. At twenty-one, he was the same age as Freddie, two years older than Mike, and three years younger than Augie. The four boys had played together on the streets as children and sold newspapers together as teens before Freddie went to work for Ciro Terranova, Mike started with the Dutchman's organization, and Augie got a job on the docks.

  To get to the roof, they had to go through a room off the kitchen that might have served as a walk-in closet in a fancy uptown apartment but here held two narrow cots on either side of a thin window that looked out to the street. In the foot and a half of space between the cots, a gooseneck lamp and a yellowing newspaper rested on a round nig
ht table. The cots were neatly made up with matching blue bedcovers, crisp white sheets, and a single lumpy pillow at the head of each bed, close to the window. On the side of the room opposite the window, a wall ladder led up to a rectangular skylight that was thrown open to a line of filmy white clouds floating high over the city. Dom climbed the ladder, and Loretto followed. On the roof, they found Augie and Freddie sitting on a pair of rickety folding chairs next to an empty wire-mesh pigeon coop and looking out over an avenue of rooftops.

  "Freddie!" Dom yelled. "Look at you! Madon!"

  Freddie was wearing khaki slacks and a sleeveless undershirt that accentuated the bulging muscles of his chest and arms. He was short and solidly built with thick thighs and legs that looked like they could easily kick down doors. He'd been sent up to Elmira for burglary at nineteen. "Yeah," he said to Dom, "I'm the new Charles Atlas." He nodded to Loretto, looked out over the rooftops, and then turned back to them. "I had a lot of time to work out," he said. "Did you ever hear of 'dynamic tension'? I was just telling Augie about it."

  Freddie didn't say anything more but instead turned his gaze out toward the ledge.

  "Sit down," Augie said. "Take a load off." He nudged his brother. "Don't mind Freddie," he said. "He's come back from Elmira a little batty."

  Freddie grinned at that, but his eyes remained on the line of roofs in front of him.

  Augie was wiry all over, with knotty muscles and a prominent Adam's apple. He was barefoot in black dress pants, an undershirt, and a straw boater. He looked like he hadn't shaved or been out of the house all day. "You think Mike's mixed up in the baby shooting supposed to be Irish did it? You mugs hear about that?"

  "Hear about it!" Dom said. "We was there!"

  "Yeah?" Augie grinned as Dom and Loretto sat across from him on the roof ledge.

  "You already heard we were there?" Loretto pulled his slacks up as he took a seat.

  "Everybody's heard," Freddie said as if talking to the clouds.

  Dom started to lean back and then jerked forward when he remembered he was sitting on the roof ledge. "What's the word about us?"

  "It's all about Loretto," Augie said. "I heard you saved some kid's life or something."

  "Me?"

  "Yeah, you. Anybody else named Loretto in the Bronx?"

  Dom and Freddie laughed, and Loretto said, "I didn't save no kid's life. I helped bandage one up is all."

  Augie pushed a loose strand of hair off his forehead and back up under the boater. "So, like I say, you think Mike was with Vince?"

  "Yeah, probably," Loretto said. "I didn't actually see him, but––"

  Dom shoved Loretto hard, cutting him off. To Augie he said, "Loretto's got to be careful what he goes shooting his mouth off about."

  "What's the big talk?" Loretto said. "I got to be careful what I say to Augie?"

  "Word around is Loretto was in on it," Augie said to Dom.

  "V'fancul'!" Dom shouted. "He works for my uncle! He don't work for Vince!"

  "Yeah, we know that," Augie said, "but Richie Cabo don't know it–– and he's sayin' Loretto was in on it."

  "I didn't have nothing to do with it," Loretto said. "I was waiting for Dom to pick me up. We were goin' out for my birthday."

  "Some birthday," Augie said.

  "That's just what I told him!" Dom shoved Loretto again. "I don't think you get the mess you're in," he said. "Cabo's––"

  "What about Mike?" Freddie took a step toward Loretto as if he might grab him by the throat. "You sayin' he shot some little kids?"

  Loretto remembered Freddie as the most easygoing of the Baronti boys, a good kid who was tough enough but didn't have a touch of meanness in him. "Are you a hard guy now, Freddie?"

  "Hey," Augie said, "Freddie didn't mean nothin'. Right, Freddie?"

  Freddie took a seat next to Augie. "I ain't trying to be a hard guy, Loretto. I just want to know what's goin' on with Mike."

  "See?" Augie said. He tilted his boater back. "Everybody should just relax."

  "Besides," Dom said, "who says any of those kids was killed? I heard they're all hangin' on."

  "We heard two of 'em was dead."

  Dom got up and brushed off the seat of his pants. "I got to go get a newspaper."

  "Ah, don't run away," Freddie said. "Nobody's tellin' me nothin' since I been back. I'm goin' nuts! Why don't you just tell me what's what? I'll find out anyway. Is Mike in with Vince or not?"

  Augie stroked the stubble at his jaw. To Freddie he said, "I'm tryin' to keep you away from things till you're yourself again. You don't need to know about nothin' till you're feeling better."

  Freddie looked to Loretto, ignoring his brother. "Is Mike in with Vince or not? And what the hell happened with Flegenheimer? When I left, everybody was working for Dutch except you guys."

  "Dutch don't like to be called Flegenheimer anymore," Loretto said. "I'd be careful about that. You don't know nothin'?"

  When Augie shook his head, indicating that Freddie didn't know a thing, Loretto said, "Last year Vince split from Dutch, and Mike went with him."

  "Yeah? What made him do that?"

  Dom said, "Long story."

  Loretto said, "Vince figured Dutch was making twenty million a year and paying him a hundred and fifty a week. He didn't like it."

  "I don't blame him," Augie said. He fell back in his chair and tilted the brim of the boater down over his eyes.

  "So Vince split with Dutch," Freddie said to Loretto. "Him and Mike?"

  "Him and Mike," Dom said, "and Frank Guarracie, Tuffy Onesti––"

  "So Vince and Mike and them," Freddie said, thinking about it. "That's a tough gang."

  "Don't forget Pete," Augie said lazily, stretched out now in his chair as if taking the sun.

  "Pete, Vince's brother?" Freddie asked.

  "Who else Pete?" Augie said.

  "Was Pete in the car with 'em today?"

  "Madon!" Dom said and slapped a hand to his forehead.

  "Pete's dead," Loretto said. "Dutch put him on the spot."

  Freddie looked to Augie, still hiding under his boater, and then back to Loretto. "How'd Vince take it?"

  "How do you think, Freddie?" Dominic, who had been standing over them, took a seat on the ledge again. "They been at war ever since. Vince ain't stoppin' till he kills Dutch."

  "Who else is dead I don't know about?" Freddie heard a scraping sound and turned to see a big silver platter slide up onto the roof next to the skylight. A moment later, Gina's head popped up.

  "Hey," Gina said, "it's cooling off a little." She pulled herself onto the roof. The sun was red and low in the sky, and the windows in the surrounding buildings reflected the crimson light. She carried the platter to Loretto. "Here you go, boys. Coffee and biscotti on the house."

  Loretto laughed as he picked up an eight-ounce glass with brown coffee swirling around chunks of ice.

  "What do you mean on the house?" Augie said. He spooned sugar into his coffee from a porcelain bowl. "Don't I pay for things around here?"

  "She was making a joke," Loretto said. "Because we're on the roof."

  Augie snatched a biscotti from the tray and bit it in half.

  "What are you boys talking about?" Gina sat on the ledge between Dominic and Loretto and placed the empty tray on her lap.

  "Nothin'," Augie said. "Don't Mama need help with something in the kitchen?"

  "Don't act all tough with me, Augie. I'll tell Mama not to bring you milk and cookies before you go to bed tonight."

  "You're funny." Augie took off his boater and dropped it on Gina's head, where it fell comically down to her eyes. "Really, scram, kid," he said. "We're trying to talk."

  Gina put the boater on the tray. "Are you talking about Vince? The mayor's on the radio. They're calling him a mad dog and a baby killer."

  "Ah, Jesus," Dom said.

  "You're not involved with any of this, are you?" she asked Loretto.

  "Nah. I had nothing to do with it."

  "Did o
ne of the kids die?" Dom asked.

  "They're saying two of them aren't expected to live."

  "But nobody's dead yet?"

  "Not yet."

  Freddie said angrily, "How come you're not asking about your brother? Don't you want to know if Mike's in trouble?"

  "Leave your glasses on the tray." Gina started for the skylight. Before she climbed down off the roof, she said to Freddie, "I don't have to ask."

  "What's she mean by that?"

  Augie said, "If there was five guys in the car, you can bet Mike was with them. Hell," he added, "I can tell you right now who was in the car. It was Vince, Frank, Mike, Patsy, and Tuffy. The five of them are like peas in a pod."