“You’re not a father, so you don’t know how a father feels about his son. It’s special. I don’t know how Vinnie knew Brennan. I was closer to him than his father, but that was because we were both young, single guys.” The old man swallowed. “I didn’t know Brennan from a hill of shit! Vinnie came to me with Brennan’s deal because he knew his father would never go for it, but Brennan was offering five hundred dollars, which was a lot of money in those days. You could buy a new car for that much.

“I’m telling you, I didn’t know Brennan from a hill of shit. Vinnie was my connection to the deal. Brennan was driving a bus in Queens for a guy named Brady and had just married Brady’s daughter. She had made the mistake of getting on Brennan’s bus one night at the end of the line. He slipped it to her, nice Catholic girl, a virgin. She kept her mouth shut about what he did even though she wasn’t exactly a volunteer, if you know what I mean. Back then, what choice did she have? She knew her father thought the world of Brennan. Anyway, Brennan saw his opportunity. After the marriage, all he had to do was get rid of Brady. So Brennan went to Vinnie, and Vinnie came to me. Vinnie knew his father would never go for a deal like that. I gave Vinnie the stuff that Brennan had to get Brady to drink, and I told him what to tell Brennan about how to use it. It gives a guy a heart attack. I was trying to do the kid a favor. If Vinnie hadn’t kept telling me how it was going, I might have forgotten about it, with enough time.”

Devlin thought he knew what was coming. What interested him was the reaction of the other men listening to DiBennedetti. They knew this story. They were eager to get the little gun. Still, they were being respectful, not simply acting it. The old man might be crazy, but he was still in pain over Vinnie Ippolito, and the pain was important to them all.

“Vinnie told me that the stuff worked, but then, a little later, he said that Brennan was acting funny, like he decided he couldn’t trust Vinnie no more. I told Vinnie to stay away, and he said he would, but that was only to shut me up. One night Vinnie didn’t come home, and the next morning the cops found him in an alley, beat to death. I saw the body. Did you ever see a guy who got beat to death?”

Devlin said yes.