The Mob Gave Me a Week to Leave, So I Took Over Dorchester novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Under This Roof

Irena told it in order, with her hands folded on the oilcloth and her eyes on my face.

"On the Wednesday I came to your house at nine, like always," she said. "The kitchen chair was on its side by the back door, and the seat had come off the legs."

"I remember the chair," I said.

"You had your good sweater on, the long sleeves. You reached up to put a plate on the shelf, and the sleeve slid down."

She laid her own small hand around her upper arm, four fingers on the outside and the thumb on the inside.

"It was this big, and still red at the edges. It was from the night before."

I had worn that sweater on purpose.

I had thought she was watching the floor.

"Three years I washed your floors," Irena said. "One morning there was blood in the mop bucket, and you told me you had cut your hand. I said nothing, because you said nothing. That Wednesday I decided I was finished with saying nothing."

"So you took the bus home and got the pistol."

"I took the bus home and I got the pistol from the tin. Then I took the bus back."

She said it flatly, in the voice she used for the price of eggs.

"He came home on Wednesdays at the same time, from the envelope at Marek's yard. I had heard him tell you so while I ironed. You were at the bar until midnight, and I waited in the garage with the light off."

I held the watch in my pocket so tightly that the crystal bit my palm.

"He got out of the car and said my name," Irena said. "He said, what are you doing here, old woman. I think he was going to laugh."

"Don't," I said.

"I will not say more. I wanted you to know that it was not a thing I did in a rage."

The refrigerator hummed.

Upstairs a floorboard creaked once and went quiet.

"Why tell me now?" I asked.

"Because Frank will stand in that hall and tell the Table a Polish house did it, and he will be right. You are the widow. You speak first, and you should not stand up not knowing what is under your feet."

"And Marek?"

"I did not tell him because he is a good man, and he would carry it for me." Her chin lifted. "I should have known he would carry it anyway."

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