Lullaby Town

and too many expensive gifts will distort his values.'

I said, 'Tobe. Peter and your mom have to talk. Why don't you go outside for a little bit'

Peter said, 'The boy and I were just getting to know one another.'

Karen said, 'I know, but this is important You can get to know each other after.'

Toby went out the front door and pretty soon there was the thump thump thump of the ball on the drive. Karen looked at Dani. 'Could we have some privacy?'

Dani flushed and said that she'd keep Toby company and went out.

Peter said, 'What?'

Karen sat on the couch and tucked her skirt under and stared at the man she had married when she was seventeen years old and lived with for fourteen months. Then she took a sharp, quick breath and told him about her involvement with the mafia. No preamble.

Outside, the deepening twilight was purple and chill and punctuated by the bounce of the ball and an occasional laugh or word. I could see Dani and Toby and most of the drive, but not the hoop. Someone would shoot the ball and the ball would arc up, but then it would be gone, passing from my line of sight. It didn't matter. You could tell if they made it or not by their faces and the sounds they made and by how the ball rebounded. If someone ran to one side or the other, the ball had caromed off the side of the hoop. If someone ran fast straight ahead, they had lofted an air ball and it was rolling into the garage. If the ball gently came back to them or they trotted forward to the hoop, they had made a basket. You didn't see the event, you saw the results of the event. I had read a book on modern astronomy which had said that both Neptune and Pluto were predicted long before they had ever been seen because of peculiarities in the orbits of the other outer planets. It made me think that planets weren't so very different from people. Seeing what happened around them was enough to tell you where they were and what they were.

When Karen Lloyd was finished, Peter looked at me and said, 'Is this for real?'

'Yep.'

He stood up and gave impatient. 'No. I mean, is this really real? This guy who was here, Charlie, he's a criminal, he's in the mafia?'

I said, 'It's really real, Peter.' Something only someone in show business would have to hear. 'The DeLucas are one of the largest mafia families in New York. I've talked to Charlie about letting Karen out of the setup, but he's said no.'

Peter made a big deal out of looking around the room before he looked back at Karen. He was grinning, like this wasn't really real after all, like maybe we were clowning around. 'You're in the mafia.'

'No. I'm not in the mafia. I'm involved with the mafia.' Her voice was edged. The edge hadn't been there a few minutes ago.

'Does the boy know?'

The jaw knotted again. 'Stop calling him 'the boy.' He has a name.'

'Jesus Christ, all right. Toby. Does Toby know?' Now Peter was giving us irritated.

'No. This is illegal, Peter. What I'm doing is against the law. You don't tell a child something like that'

I said, 'This is why I didn't call. We were trying to get this straightened out before I brought you in.'

Peter said, 'Jesus Christ.'

'If Karen goes to the police, she'll have to cut a deal with the states and the feds. She can do that, and her testimony will put Charlie and probably Sal away, but then she'd have to go into witness protection.'

Karen said, 'We'd have to change our names. We'd have to move and go into hiding. I won't do that to Toby or to me.'

Peter said, 'But the guy's here threatening our kid.'

I said, 'Charlie did what he did today to get a message across. He won't do anything else if Karen makes the pickups that he tells her to make and continues to launder the money.'

Karen said, 'I've asked Elvis and Mr. Pike to move in here until this is over.'

Peter blinked at me. Surprised. 'I didn't know you were staying here.'

'I wasn't staying here. I'm going to stay here now.'

Peter frowned, thinking about it and not liking it. 'How long is this going to take?'

I told them about Gloria Uribe and the Jamaican named Santiago, and that maybe Charlie was going to meet with Santiago sometime tomorrow.

Peter was shaking his head. 'You're gonna follow him around and hope you see a connection? Christ, that could take years.'

'It's what we can do.'

Peter went to the window. Outside, Toby passed the ball to Dani, who shot and missed. She laughed when she missed and said something that I couldn't understand. Peter said, 'All right. If that's the way things are, that's the way things are. I'll take care of it.' He was looking sort of pleased with himself.

Karen said, 'What do you mean, you'll take care of it?'

Peter made a little no-big-deal gesture with his right hand. 'I'll talk to the guy. I'll pass a little cash and smooth him out. I'll take care of you, Karen.'

The skin beneath Karen's right eye began to jump. 'You'll take care of me.' Her voice was soft.

'Sure. We don't need all this running around and following.'

I said, 'Peter, this isn't some mid-level union fixer looking for a payoff.'

'I know what this guy is.' Annoyed.

I said, 'No, you don't. This guy is a professional nut case who made his bones when he was sixteen years old by killing a man. This guy is not going to do what you want because you're from Hollywood. He's capo of the largest crew in the DeLuca family, and one day he's going to be boss of all the other capos. If he wants to pal around with people from Hollywood, he'll buy a studio.'

Peter leaned toward me, giving me the Donnie Brewster treatment. 'And I'm telling you I can smooth this guy out. I come three thousand miles and find out the mafia got my family, I know what to do. I'm Peter Alan Nelsen.'

Karen leaned toward him. 'We're not your family.'

Peter's face went red and he blinked behind the thick glasses. 'Hey, I'm just trying to help. I'm just trying to take care of the boy. All this following around and waiting, something could happen. Someone could get hurt.'

Karen said, 'Elvis knows how to do this. If you come barging in, you'll mess it up.'

Peter rolled his eyes and made a big deal out of waving his hands. 'That's right, that's right. I don't know anything.' He looked at me, and then he looked at Karen, and then he shook his head. Mr. Incredulous. 'You got no idea how lucky you are. There must be four hundred million women out there wish they had been married to me. You oughta wake up and take advantage.'

Karen's face went very white and a small dimple appeared below the corners of her mouth, and she said, 'You arrogant sonofabitch. Get out of my home.' You could hear her breathe.

Peter slammed out of the door. Outside, the ball stopped bouncing and the voices grew hushed.

Neither of us said anything for a time, and then Karen went to the window and looked out. She lifted her hands and looked at them and said, 'My God, I'm shaking.'

I nodded.

She put one hand in the other and held them down, looking again at whatever was on the other side of the glass. 'I guess I'll have to let him own me a little while longer, won't I?' I didn't know if she was talking about Peter or Charlie, but maybe it didn't matter.

'Yes,' I said. 'I guess you will.'

She nodded. 'Okay. If that's what it takes, I can do that.'

'You're doing fine.'

'I'm surviving.'

'Sometimes that's enough.'

'No,' she said. 'It used to be. But it isn't anymore.'