She moved from the oven to the refrigerator. 'Some carrots would be nice with the lamb. You can peel the carrots,' she said, handing me the bag and the paring knife. 'By the way, why did someone send you a penis?'
I almost sliced off the tip of my finger. 'Um . . .'
'The return address was New York, but the postmark was local,' she said.
'I can't tell you about the penis. It's under police investigation.'
'Thelma Biglo's son, Richie, told Thelma that the penis belonged to Joe Loosey. And that Kenny Mancuso cut it off while Loosey was getting dressed at Stiva's.'
'Where did Richie Biglo hear this?'
'Richie tends bar at Pino's. Richie knows everything.'
'I don't want to talk about the penis.'
My mother took the paring knife out of my hand. 'Look at these carrots you peeled. I can't serve these carrots. Some of the skins are left on.'
'You shouldn't cut the skins off anyway. You should scrub them with a brush. All the vitamins are in the skin.'
'Your father won't eat them with the skins on. You know how particular he is.' My father would eat cat shit if it was salted, fried, or frosted, but it took an act of Congress to get him to eat a vegetable.
'Seems to me Kenny Mancuso has it in for you,' my mother said. 'It's not a nice thing to send a penis to a woman. It's disrespectful.'
I searched the kitchen for a new task, but I couldn't come up with anything.
'And I know what's going on with your grandmother, too,' she said. 'Kenny Mancuso is getting to you through your grandmother. That's why he attacked her at the bakery. That's why you're living here . . . so you can be close by if he attacks her again.'
'He's crazy.'
'Of course he's crazy. Everybody knows he's crazy. All the Mancuso men are crazy. His uncle Rocco hung himself. He liked little girls. Mrs. Ligatti caught him with her Tina. And then the next day Rocco hung himself. Good thing, too. If Al Ligatti had gotten hold of Rocco . . .' My mother shook her head. 'I don't even want to think about it.' She shut the heat off under the potatoes and turned to me. 'How good are you at this bounty hunter business?'
'I'm learning.'
'Are you good enough to catch Kenny Mancuso?'
'Yes.' Maybe.
She lowered her voice. 'I want you to catch that son of a bitch. I want you to get him off the streets. It's not right that a man like that is free to hurt old women.'
'I'll do the best I can.'
'Good.' She took a can of cranberries from the pantry. 'Now that we have things straight, you can set the table.'
Morelli showed up at one minute to six.
I answered his knock and stood blocking the doorway, preventing him from slipping into the front hall. 'What is it?'
Morelli leaned into me, forcing me to take a step back.
'I was driving by, doing a security check,' Morelli said, 'and I smelled leg of lamb.'
'Who is it?' my mother called.
'It's Morelli. He was driving by, and he smelled the lamb. And he's leaving. RIGHT NOW!'
'She has no manners,' my mother said to Morelli. 'I don't know what happened. I didn't raise her like that.
