“I’m tryin’ to find out how things went with Mr. Bacigalupe. That’s all.”
Todd came downstairs and stood next to her. His eyes were wet. His mouth was a straight line and the rest of his face scared her. He stood with his hands on his hips.
“Did you find an envelope there?” he said.
“Hold on a minute, Ma,” she said. “What?” she said to Todd. She had her hand over the receiver and felt a pain in her chest.
“When you went out to look at Tommy, after you hit him.”
She flinched at the way he put it, at the brutality of his intent. She said, to maintain her poise, “Hold on a minute, Ma. Todd’s asking me something here.”
She put the receiver against her chest. He had his hand on his hair and was raking his fingers downward, a self-calming strategy she’d seen him use before. “What envelope?” she said. “What are you talking about?”
“Did you find an envelope?” he asked.
“No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He turned and left. She raised the phone to her ear again. “What’s goin’ on over there?” Nina asked. “He all right?”
“Ma,” Joanie said. She was stretching the phone cord around the kitchen wall to see where he went.
There was a faint buzzing on the line while her mother let the rudeness go.
“You gonna see him some more?” Nina finally asked. “Your friend?”
“I don’t know. Ma, it’s almost midnight.”
“Bacigalupe,” her mother said softly.
“Why do you call him that?” she asked, distracted and frantic. She heard something being dragged on the floor upstairs.
“He was the one started using it, not me,” Nina said. “You know, Bacigalupe. Bacigalupo. ‘Kiss of the wolf.’”
She had the sensation her chest was filling with gravel. She sat, putting a hand out to catch the chair arm.
Upstairs, there was the hollow, wooden, grating sound of a drawer being pulled out.
“I gotta go, Ma,” she said. “I’ll call tomorrow.”
“Don’t bother,” her mother said, and hung up.
She got hold of herself and hung up the phone. She stood and crossed to the living room and listened. More drawers were being pulled out. She took the stairs two at a time.
Todd was pulling out the drawers and dumping them on the floor. He’d gotten his father’s big suitcase out of the cubbyhole storage off his bedroom and was pitching clothes into it.
“What’s this? You’re running away?” she asked. She hadn’t succeeded in purging the mocking quality from her voice.
“I’m movin’ out,” he said.
There was a banging at the door downstairs. Todd stopped what he was doing, a sock hanging from his hand. She put her palm on her stomach and tried to breathe out.
The banging resumed: four big bangs. She could hear Audrey jumping and whining and scratching at the door in excitement, but no barking.
She hurried down the stairs. She turned on the outside light. She moved Audrey away from the back door, made sure it was locked, and peeked out.
Bruno was holding up a bottle of champagne. He gave her a grin that showed a lot of teeth.
She hesitated, with her hand on the doorknob. He turned his head, held both hands up, and arched his eyebrows, as if miming exaggeratedly, “It’s your move.”
“It’s late,” she said through the door.
“It’s early,” he called back.
She still had her hand on the knob. “What’s the champagne for?” she asked.
“Celebrate,” he said.
Audrey spun and leaped in place, whining. Bruno tipped the bottle to his mouth, miming a drink. He made a face like, Mighty good.
She turned the lock. He pushed the door into her and swept into the room. She staggered back a little into the coats and umbrellas hung opposite the door.
The dog leaped up on him, and he lifted a knee and deflected her into the cabinets by the sink. She came at him again, and he conked her on the head with the bottom of the bottle. It sounded like a hammer pounding in a stake. She gave a yelp and flattened.
“Don’t,” Joanie said.
“I need her all over me right now?” he said. “We love each other. Fine. We love each other. Great. That’s established. Time for her to get outta the way.”
“You coulda hurt her, “Joanie said. She could hear Todd on the stairs and then the creak of the risers as he climbed as quietly as he could back to his room.
Bruno shook the champagne hard a couple of times and set it on the counter. “I was gonna bring you a Slim Jim, too. They had ’em at the checkout, but a colored woman took the last two.”
She stood where she was, a few feet from him, frightened at what could come next. Audrey was trying to get to the bump on her head with her front paws, but all she could reach were her snout and ears.
“You see my Windbreaker?” he asked. “I mighta left it here this afternoon.”
She swallowed and shrugged. She said, “Well, you left it here, it’s here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said. He looked around the room like someone deciding if he wanted to buy something.
“Bruno,” she said. “It’s late.”
“Here’s what I was thinking,” he said. “I was thinking I could come over, we could have a little talk.” He sat in a kitchen chair. “You could open up to me.”
She stood there, staring at him. Audrey rolled on her back on the linoleum and finally sneezed.
He got up and wheeled into the hallway, through the living room, and up the stairs. She froze for a minute and then ran after him.
“Bruno, what are you doing?” she said, chasing him up the stairs. He wasn’t running. “Bruno, what are you doing?”
He leaned his weight into Todd’s door as he turned the knob, and boomed it open. Todd was sitting on his bed, surrounded by clothes. He scuttled back against the headboard.
“Bruno—” Joanie said, working up some real anger.
“What’s this?” Bruno said. “We’re goin’ on a trip? Club Med? South Seas? North Pole?”
Nobody answered.
“Atlantic City?”
“We’re havin’ a fight,” Joanie finally said.
“Ah, a family thing,” Bruno said. He sat on the bed and pulled a Vikings sweat shirt out from underneath him. “I certainly don’t want to get involved in a family thing.”
“Mom,” Todd said, like a plea.
“Here’s what your son told me,” Bruno said. “Your son told me you hit and killed Tommy Monteleone.”
She looked over at Todd. Their eyes met. She thought with complete clarity that this was the worst thing yet.
“Your son told me that you then got out of the car and went over to him. Your son told me that you probably took the envelope. Your son told me you been fucking me over all this time. Making me a jerk-off. Playing me like a fucking piccolo. That’s what your son told me.” His voice hadn’t gotten any louder, but there was so much rage in it she thought it could float him over the bed.
“No,” she said. She had to force air into her diaphragm to be heard.
“I didn’t say that,” Todd said.
Bruno shrugged. “This is what the kid told me. I didn’t necessarily believe it all. I thought, What do they know at that age? No offense. Maybe he made something up. Maybe he got something garbled.”
She put her hand out to the wall. It brushed the phone.
“The envelope thing he wasn’t sure about,” Bruno said.
Downstairs, Audrey shook herself hard, her collar jingling and her ears flopping.
“I think I know what your problem is here,” Joanie said.
“My problem,” Bruno said dangerously. He folded his hands before him like an altar boy. “You think you know what my problem is.”