Dead to Him novel · Chapter 5 of 16

Chapter 5: D and L

My father let go of the bars.

He stood there with his hands open at his sides, and for a moment he didn't look like anyone I knew.

Then he got back in his truck.

He didn't drive away.

He turned off the engine and sat behind the wheel, facing the gate.

"Leave him," Giovanni told the men. "He'll get cold and go home."

My father was still there an hour later.

He was still there at two.

Serafina left at one with three full trash bags in the trunk of her white Audi.

She kissed Giovanni at the door.

"Call me tonight. You need to eat something real."

When her car passed the gate, my father got out of his truck and watched it down the street.

At two thirty Giovanni's phone rang.

"It's Luca. Come to the clinic. I want to show you something, and I'm not doing it over the phone."

We drove to Federal Hill.

My father's pickup followed us three cars back, the whole way.

Giovanni's driver noticed it at the second light.

"Boss, the old man's behind us."

"Let him."

Luca met us at the bottom of the basement stairs.

He had the rosary out of the bag, on a white cloth on the counter.

He'd cleaned it.

The chain was gold again, and every bead was honey-brown.

"I soaked it in saline and went over it with a soft brush," Luca said.

"I wanted to see if there was a maker's mark. A shop name."

"Was there?"

"Look at the back of the cross."

He turned it over with a pair of tweezers and pushed a lamp closer.

Two letters were cut into the wood. They were small, and deep, and the lines were very clean.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Dead to Him from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.