To which Joe replied But before he could reply the door to Brian's office burst open and two boys in blue, their batons drawn, jumped into the room.
"Everything all right, Chief?" asked the bigger one. "We heard shouting and-"
"It's okay, 'guys," I said calmly. "It's just two officers of the law about to commit murder."
Brian dismissed them, and I got each combatant to his neutral corner. They glowered at each other over the table.
"I, uh, gather that the Sacco-Vanzetti case is fraught with externals. It's surrounded by issues of ethnicity and class. One might even say the judicial system was on trial as well as the defendants."
"Right, Doc. The trial did not prove they were guilty; it proved a man who didn't speak good English, didn't have a lot of money and prestige, and didn't agree a hundred percent with the exploitation of immigrants could not get a fair trial."
Brian started to say something,. bit his lip a little, then said it anyway.
"But it's not by any means certain they were innocent," he said.
"Let's get back to Johnny Robinson," I suggested before Joe could reply. "Who's this Andy fellow he mentions?"
"Sam told me he's Andrea Santuccio, Dom's son. I've never met him. Johnny went to the Boston Public Library as planned at eleven on Friday and retrieved a certain parcel of letters and transcripts, given to the library by Andy after Dominic's death. Apparently this certain parcel was especially controversial or something. Anyway, Andy later fought for a special injunction to get it back. I guess he wasn't aware of what the packet contained at first. When the court ruled that the Santuccio family was entitled to reclaim part of the papers, Andy immediately hired Johnny to pick them up and deliver them back to the Santuccio home in the North End. Clear so far?"
We nodded, and Joe continued.
"But when Johnny got to the Santuccio house apparently nobody was home. The mother died over ten years ago and Andy is the only surviving member of the family. He's also a bachelor, I guess. The fact that Andy wasn't there altered Johnny's plans. Andy was supposed to be waiting there but wasn't. So Johnny hiked over to Cambridge for the other errands, went to get your fancy dental work, Doc, and at the end of the day hoofed it back to the North End. Remember, all this time he's carrying the hot papers for Andy right in his pouch. We don't know, but we can assume that Johnny called you either right before or right after he went back to the Santuccio house a second time."
"And delivered the papers?" asked Brian.
"No. And did not deliver the papers."
"How do you know, Joe?" I asked.
" 'Cause the asterisk was still there in the log, indicating a nondelivery. Sam said that before he called me back just now he called Andy's number. No answer. Now I'm going to try again."
And he did. Still no answer.
"Doc," he said wearily, "are you beginning to get the same queasy feeling I am?"
"Yep. I assume you're thinking that the guy in the chimney just might be-"
"Andrea Santuccio. The guy who was supposed to take possession of the papers but who wasn't there to get them."
"Where's that body now? In Boston?"
"It's en route from a Lowell funeral home to the Suffolk County morgue, where the autopsy will continue in greater detail. It may be there already. I'm going to make sure some locals from Hanover Street get a look at the corpse. Now."
So he got on the phone again to Ten-Ten Comm. Ave. to have some bluecoats from the North End take a peek at the grisly body we'd found in the chimney. But it wasn't necessary. As soon as the remains had come into the morgue it was identified. A subsequent check with dental records confirmed that the man was indeed Andrea Santuccio, son of the late and renowned Dominic.
"Well," sighed Joe as he twiddled a pencil between his big fingers, "at least we know why Johnny was killed, though it'll be small comfort to Sam."
"And a lot of us policemen," said Brian. "Can you work up some sort of scenario on this thing?"
Joe rubbed, his stubble and thought for a minute. His face darkened.
"Old Dom Santuccio had those papers for years. He always claimed he'd uncover some kind of evidence that would clear Sacco and Vanzetti. But he obviously never did or he'd have been pounding on the governor's door night and day, shouting and screaming. Old Dom was quite a character- a fire-eater. Finally, about a year before he diedhe had the cancer already and was on all kinds of drugs- he said he'd have a great announcement to make. One that would shake the world. Trouble is, nobody would believe him. Including me. He was batty by then from the pain and the drugs. Then he had a stroke and lost his speech and most of his memory. Andy had to hospitalize him because he got so violent. Now I say this, and I don't like to, being Italian: if there's anything hot in that pack of papers, I'm afraid it's something that drives the last nail in the coffin of Sacco and Vanzetti. If not, then why didn't he let it out?"
"Why did he will the papers to the library then?"
"He didn't. After he died, his son, Andy, donated them."
"Now wait," said Brian. "Is there anyone who'd go haywire if they knew the stuff had gone into the public domain? If so, they'd be mighty annoyed at Andy. Mad enough to kill him."
We all considered in silence for a minute. Then Joe cleared his throat and raised his big bloodhound eyes up at us.
"Okay. Assuming the evidence is damning- and I can reach no other conclusion- then there's only one logical candidate for a group who'd get totally unglued at the mere thought of its revelation."
"Who?" asked Brian..
"Ever hear of the Sons of Italy?"
"Oh no. No way," I said.
"That's what I hope too. After all, I'm a lifetime member."
"Say it ain't so, Joe," I said.
"I hope- I hope to God it ain't so, Doc."
There was more silence. Then Brian spoke.
"Wait a minute, Joe. Wasn't Andy in Sons of Italy?"
"Sure. One of the real leaders, and so- oh shit. I see what you mean. They certainly wouldn't harm him. In fact, the Sons wouldn't hurt anybody… I don't think."
"Here's what happened," I said. "After old Dom's death Andy, being a good citizen and interested in the case and his father's lifelong passion, donates the papers. Fine. Then sometime later, and we'll probably never know how, he discovers that there's something hot in the papers: a potential bombshell. He has to get the papers back to save the last vestiges of Sacco and Vanzetti's tarnished reputation. Because if scholars dig out the facts and publish them, every American, and especially every Italian-American, will have to face the truth- that Sacco and Vanzetti were indeed robbers and killers. Right?"
"That's it. So far so good… But, he also knows that somebody else wants the papers. Or else why hire Johnny Robinson?"
"Yeah, but who wants them?"
"I don't know," said Joe. "But I've seen the archives room at the Boston Public and it's a virtual vault. The people who wanted the papers would have to take them from Andy after he got them back, or else during the delivery itself."
"It would seem to me that taking them from Andy would be easier and safer," I said.
"Yeah, but you don't know the North End like I do. It's the tightest of all the Boston neighborhoods. Maybe they thought pulling something against Santuccio on his home turf would be very risky, so they took or lured young Andy away from the meeting with Johnny. Maybe they thought he already had the packet. Under interrogation, he tells them it's on its way via courier, but one glance at Johnny and the dogs and the thugs know it's no-can-do. So they know if Johnny can't make contact he'll either leave the packet at Dependable's office or take it home, where they set up the ambush-"