“Actually, they did,” Bruno said. “A lotta money.”
She looked over at him, both hands on the wheel.
“Keep your eyes on the road,” he said.
“He was robbed?” she asked. She couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice.
“And you know what?” Bruno said wistfully. “It wasn’t his money.”
“It wasn’t his money?” she asked. “Whose was it?”
“The people whose money it was?” Bruno said. “Very unhappy. Very property-oriented, and very unhappy.”
“Whose money was it? How do you know all this?” Joanie asked.
“Whoa, take it easy,” Bruno said. “What’s the problem?”
She tried to quiet herself down. They stopped again, at a stop sign. She released the steering wheel and flexed her hands. “How much money was it?” she asked.
“This is stuff you’re better off not knowing,” he said. He looked back over the hood of the car like that was the end of that. “It’s clear.”
She drove through the intersection.
She didn’t know what to do. She had to do something. She had to say something. Did somebody think she robbed this guy? Did he? Was somebody going to come after her for that?
Say something, she thought. You must look like the guiltiest person on earth.
“Be good to get back to church, huh?” she joked. Oh, God, she thought.
“I can’t go to church, because I’m a cripple,” Bruno said. He watched Spada’s Blue Goose Restaurant go by on the left and seemed to check out the cars in the parking lot. “Instead I go to bars.”
“You look okay to me,” Joanie said.
“My goodness is crippled,” Bruno said. “My soul is crippled.”
The funeral was at Our Lady of Peace. They were coming into Lordship. They passed Avco-Lycoming, and then Sikorsky Airport.
Bruno sang about being a traveling man all over the world. He had his arm along the door and his hand on the side mirror.
“Ricky Nelson?” Joanie asked.
“Ricky fucking Nelson,” Bruno said.
They drove past Rose Park, which had no roses in it. The church was across the street. A guy in raggy long pants and a filthy ORLANDO: WATCH US GROW! sweat shirt was urinating behind a narrow tree. It was a pretty small park; he was exposed on just about all four sides.
“Look at that,” Bruno said. “I don’t think he ever got it out.”
“Speaking of that,” Joanie said, trying for something like banter, “you gonna behave yourself at this funeral?”
“My ass,” Bruno said.
She stopped at the corner and turned into the church parking lot. The place was jammed. There was a spot right up front, but she passed on it. She wanted someplace where she could nose the car’s bumper up against a wall.
“What was wrong with that?” Bruno asked.
“Didn’t think I’d fit,” she said.
“What’re you driving here, the USS Iowa?” he asked.
They circled the back of the church. He made a noise between his lips, like a tire losing air. They turned a corner. It was beginning to look as if there might not be another spot.
“Lotta people here,” she murmured. He didn’t answer.
“The car’s still in good shape,” he said.
They turned another corner. She was driving slowly, hoping the funeral would end before they parked.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Bruno said. “Grab that other spot and let’s go. Somebody else probably already got it.”
She accelerated a little. She had to go back out onto the street to circle the building completely. She stopped and put her turn signal on.
“How was it, talking to the police?” she said. “That scares me.”
He snorted.
They pulled into traffic and circled around. “It’s still there,” Bruno said. “Let’s go. Grab it.”
She turned back into the lot and eased into the space. She had about three feet of clearance on either side. Bruno looked at her.
“I didn’t think I’d fit,” she said.
Their front end faced the church doors. When Bruno got out she said, “Bruno,” to stop him where he was. She circled around to the back of the car. “Look at this.”
“What?” he said. He waited and then walked around to meet her. “What? What’m I looking at?”
“You think I’m gonna lose this license plate?” she asked. “The bolts are all rusted.”
He lowered his chin to his chest and looked at her.
“Oh, come on,” she said. She hooked his arm and led him down her side of the car. “You’ll be my escort.”
She tried not to pull when she got past the bumper. He put his hand on the small of her back. “So when’re you gonna ask me out again?” she said.
She could feel his eyes on her. She kept hers on the church doors. “Today,” he said. “Very soon.”
At the entrance she let his arm go and held the door for him. Once he was inside, she glanced back at the car. You could see the dents from there. What she was going to do on the way out, she had no idea.
She followed him into the entryway. Her eyes took a minute adjusting. It sounded like things were just starting. The late arrivals in front of them were dipping two or three fingers into the holy-water font and making the sign of the cross before heading to the pews.
She could tell him she’d hit something. But then why hadn’t she mentioned it before?
He’d never go for it. She had to get past this and get it fixed before he saw it.
The church was packed. Everyone was standing for the opening hymn. Bruno pointed out her parents in the last row on the right. They shoved in next to them, nodding their hellos. Her father leaned forward so he could make eye contact and gave her a big smile, as if trying to cheer her up. What did she look like?
She ended up between Bruno and a woman with a newborn baby. The baby opened its eyes wide and closed them. Joanie smiled at the mother, and the mother rolled her eyes.
It started to rain. They could hear it.
Was he playing with her? Had he figured something out? She stood and sat and knelt at everybody else’s cue. Could Todd have told him? What was this thing with the money?
“Where’s Todd?” Nina whispered.
“Fever,” Joanie said.
Nina gave her a look.
Just tell, she thought. It was an accident.
She had to go to the police.
A wind blew through her from some central point. It was just fear of embarrassment that had done all this.
She put her face in her hands.
Someone looking at her would have thought it was grief for Tommy.
When the service was over, they held up at the entryway to talk to Nina and Sandro. Bruno was four feet from the front doors and from seeing her car, and was clearly anxious to get going.
A lot of people were standing around, pulling up collars and buttoning jackets. It was still raining.
“We’re gonna go out the other way,” Sandro said. “We’re all the way around the back.”
“You going to the grave?” Nina asked.
“Yeah,” Joanie said, though they hadn’t talked about it. “Could we get a ride with you? No sense taking two cars.”
Sandro pointed. “Then we gotta bring you back here.”
“Is that such a problem?” Joanie asked.
“She’s having some people over, afterwards,” Nina said, meaning Mrs. Monteleone.
“Well, we could go over there with you, too,” Joanie said. “And then you could drop us off here.”
Bruno put both hands up, palms out. “Whatever,” he said.
“Sure, fine,” Sandro said. “Let’s go.”
They headed back through the church against the flow, relief blooming in Joanie all the way down the aisle.