The old woman shook her head. “But I don’t keep an eye on the men who live here. And Eddie, I didn’t even know he was missing.”
And so no one would be hunting for Eddie Sullivan, Tony thought, no wife or kids or friends save for Tony himself.
“You think he’s in trouble some way?” the old woman asked.
Tony peered at the empty parking space where Eddie’s old Ford should have been parked. “I’m sure he’ll turn up.”
But he was not sure Eddie would turn up, and if he didn’t, he had no one but himself to blame. For a moment he reviewed the circumstances that had led to this pass. He’d asked Eddie to talk to Caruso, and after that Eddie had disappeared. And so it stood to reason that if anyone knew where Eddie was, it was probably Caruso. Even so, Tony didn’t know what to do about it. Caruso worked for his father, and the Old Man would be furious at the thought that Tony had tried to come between him and his trusted gofer.
He was still pondering the situation when he got back to the marina. He’d hoped to see Eddie’s beat-up old car in the lot, but it wasn’t there, and because of that Tony now felt a slowly deepening dread settle upon him.
He walked into his office, glanced out the window, hoping against hope that Eddie would miraculously appear, sauntering down one of the wooden piers in that ungainly way of his. But Eddie didn’t materialize, and so he turned from the window and sat down at his desk. For a time he once again considered his options. They seemed to grow fewer with each consideration, and finally he concluded that there was nothing to do but take the bull by the horns. He picked up the phone and dialed the number.
“Yeah?”
“Vinnie, it’s Tony Labriola.”
Silence.
“I’m calling about Eddie Sullivan.”
Silence.
“I thought you might know where he is.”
“Why would I know that?”
“Vinnie, this is serious.”
Silence.
“Are you listening, Vinnie?”
“Yeah, I’m listening.”
“I know he talked to you about Sara.”
Silence.
“About how my father’s looking for her.”
Silence.
“You hear me, Vinnie?”
“Yeah.”
“So, what did you tell him?”
“I didn’t tell him nothing.”
“Vinnie, are you listening to me? Eddie’s missing.”
Silence.
“Vinnie, I can’t let this go. I know Eddie talked to you about Sara. Now, listen, did you tell my father that Eddie talked to you?”
“No.”
“Tell me the truth, Vinnie.”
“I didn’t tell him nothing. Your father, I mean.”
“What did you tell Eddie?”
“Nothing.”
“Vinnie.”
“Nothing.”
“Where is he, Vinnie?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is he, Vinnie?” Tony repeated evenly.
“I’m telling you, I don’t know,” Caruso answered.
“I know you talked to him.”
“Okay, so what? I ain’t saying I didn’t talk to him. But that don’t mean I know where he is. Last I seen him we was at Billy’s Grill. Like you say, he wanted to know was I looking for your wife. I told him no, and that was the end of it.”
Tony listened for something further at the other end of the line, a word or caught breath, some hint that signaled truth or lie, but nothing stirred, and so, after a moment, he said, “Vinnie, we got to meet.”
“That ain’t a good idea, Tony.”
“You got to meet me. I won’t say a word about it to my father, but I got to talk to you. We’ll go out on my boat. Nobody’ll see us. You got to do this, Vinnie. I got to find Eddie.”
“But I don’t know nothing about Eddie.”
“Vinnie, this thing is getting out of control.”
Silence.
“Come to the marina,” Tony said.
Caruso did not respond.
“Vinnie, if you don’t meet me, I got no choice but talk to the cops.”
“The cops? What they got to do with it?”
“Plenty if something happened to Eddie.”
“Nothing happened to Eddie.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know, that’s all. Eddie don’t never get in trouble.”
“So where is he, Vinnie?”
Silence.
“So, you gonna come to the marina or not?”
“Yeah, okay,” Vinnie said.
“Can you be here in an hour?”
“All right.”
Tony heard a quiet sigh from the other side, waited for more, and when none came, gently returned the phone to its place.
CARUSO
Caruso heard the soft click as Tony Labriola returned the phone to its cradle. He had lied and lied, but the strange part was that he wasn’t sure why he’d lied, save that in the world he knew, the truth was never a good idea.
Fuck, he thought as he hung up the phone. Then he posed the question starkly,
The spitting rain that had drenched the city the night before had finally relented, but the cloudless blue sky gave Caruso no relief. Instead, he sensed that far away a little bulletlike particle had suddenly assumed a trajectory that would inevitably send it crashing directly between his eyes. Eddie Sullivan was missing, and he could be missing only because something had happened to him, something really bad.
But what?