The Pawn novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Say It Again, Papa

Nerina's POV

Pellegrino looked at me for a long moment.

"Nerina," he said gently. "This is not the time."

"It's the only time, Papa."

I did not move from his side.

My hand lay on his arm, light and warm, and I could feel the gun behind Cosimo's head without looking at it.

"You told me yourself," I said. "Sitting at the kitchen table, over tea. I would rather hear it here."

"Hear what?" said the heaviest man on the Pellegrino side.

He was a heavy, white-haired capo with a napkin tucked into his collar.

He had been staring at Cosimo all night with a grim, unhappy face.

"Mr. Pellegrino has never told you how Cosimo's father died," I said, in a clear voice. "He told me."

The room went still.

Pellegrino smiled at me, tired and fond, and I saw him decide.

He believed he had won, so he did not have to be careful.

"Why not?" he said to the table. "It was a long time ago. It is only a story."

"Aurelio," said the white-haired capo. "You told us he fell off a boat."

"I told you what was useful." Pellegrino spread his hands.

"He came to my house to sell me a secret, and I did not care for his price."

"Say it plainly," I said.

"I took him down to the dock and I put him in the water."

He said it in the voice he used for pouring tea.

"I held his head under, myself. It took him a while. He did not tell me what I wanted to know, and I respected that."

Nobody spoke.

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