Doppelgangster - Laura Resnick [16]
“Esther!” Lucky called.
I lifted my head again. “Lucky! Where are you?”
“Don’t, Esther,” Lopez said. “This is a zoo. We’d better take you to—”
Another flash went off in my face. I saw spots and stumbled. Only Lopez’s supporting arm kept me from falling.
A hand from the milling crowd reached for me. I flinched, but then I saw Lucky’s face and returned his grip.
“Grazie a Dio!” Lucky tore me out of Lopez’s grasp to hug me. “Thank God you’re all right, kid! They wouldn’t let me inside, and no one knew for sure if you was okay!”
I hugged him back and babbled, “Chubby Charlie’s dead! He was shot right in front of me! I thought he was having some kind of stroke or psychotic fit, but then . . . Oh, Lucky!”
Napoli snapped at Lopez, “Can’t you keep your witness quiet?”
Lopez said, “Esther—”
“Hey, buddy, back off!” Lucky warned him, sweeping me to his side and stepping between us. “Her boyfriend’s a cop.”
“I’m a cop,” Lopez said, trying to retrieve me. “And I’m her . . . I mean . . .”
Our eyes met.
I said, “I thought I’d have a chance to explain to you, before you heard about it from someone else, that, um, I’ve been telling the guys around here—”
“Lucky, relax!” said Stella, who’d followed us outside. “This is Esther’s boyfriend.”
“Oh? Oh. Hey!” Lucky turned friendly. “You’re the boyfriend?”
Napoli said to Lopez, “Whoa! The witness is your girlfriend?”
Lopez looked at me, as if thinking I might know the right answer to this question.
I said, “It may seem as if things between us moved forward without you actually being here, but I—”
“Well, okay, then, pal! Glad to meet you!” Lucky grabbed Lopez’s hand and pumped it in greeting. “Any friend of Esther’s is a friend of mine!”
Lopez said to me, “You’re friends with Lucky Battistuzzi?”
“Hey, you know me?” Lucky sounded pleased.
“Only by reputation.”
Napoli said, “Good God, you’re dating a mob girl?”
“No,” Lopez said.
“Wait a minute!” Lucky bristled. “Are you sayin’ you’re breaking up with Esther, you bozo? Now? Tonight? After the poor kid just saw Chubby Charlie get whacked? What kind of a man are you?”
“I’m not breaking up with her,” Lopez said, starting to look like his head hurt.
“No? Well. Okay, then.” Restored to good humor by this news, Lucky gestured to a few of the wiseguys in the crowd. “Hey! Guys! Esther’s boyfriend just got back to town! Come say hello! Tommy! Freddie! This is Esther’s fella.”
Tommy Two Toes said, “Yo!”
Freddie the Hermit said, “Hey!”
Lopez said to me, “I can see that you and I have a lot to talk about.”
“I can explain this,” I assured him.
“So you are dating a Gambello girl?” Napoli said coldly.
Lopez said, “Esther, I doubt anyone can explain this.”
Jimmy “Legs” Brabancaccio came over and extended a beefy hand to Lopez. “So you’re the guy who stole our Esther’s heart, huh?”
“ ‘Our’ Esther?” Lopez repeated darkly.
“Your girl’s got a great voice,” Jimmy Legs said. “Golden pipes. She’s gonna be a big star someday. Her name in lights on the Great White Way.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Hey, Ronnie! Come over here and say hello to Esther’s fiancé,” Jimmy urged.
“We’re getting married?” Lopez said.
“I never said that,” I told him. “I swear.”
Ronnie Romano folded his arms and shook his head. “I ain’t makin’ the acquaintance of no cop. Not unless what he’s got a warrant for my arrest and I can’t in no ways avoid the association.”
“Aw, come on, don’t be like that,” said Jimmy. “You’ll hurt Esther’s feelings.”
“Then she shouldn’ta got mixed up with no cop,” Ronnie said with a scowl. “Shoulda found herself a nice rib-eye or somethin’.”
“Rabbi,” I corrected automatically.
“Esther!” someone shouted, pushing through the crowd.
“Now what?” Lopez muttered.
“Angelo,” I said, recognizing the busboy who worked a lot of the same shifts I did.
“Angelo Falcone,” Napoli said quietly to Lopez. “Busboy and wannabe.”
“You okay?” Angelo asked me. “I heard you was with Charlie when he bought it.”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I said.
“And you,” Angelo said, turning on Lopez and Napoli. “You can’t pin this