Family Business

by Michael Z. Lewin

  ‘How do you …?’

  ‘You’ve been making telephone calls, Jack,’ Salvatore said. He reeled off the number that Shayler had dialled the previous night.

  ‘Sound familiar?’ Angelo said. ‘Bit naughty, making secret phone calls before you go to bed.’

  Shayler’s jaw flopped down and hung open.

  ‘I expect you want to know how we know,’ Salvatore said. ‘Well, we’ve been in your house.’

  ‘Nice freesias by the phone,’ Angelo said.

  ‘Yellow,’ Salvatore said. ‘My favourite.’

  ‘And while we were admiring them, we left a little ear in the telephone,’ Angelo said.

  ‘That’s right,’ Salvatore said. ‘We bugged your telephone, Jack.’

  ‘But you’ll want to confirm that, I expect,’ Angelo said.

  ‘I’ve got an idea,’ Salvatore said. ‘Why don’t you ring home, Jack? Ring your wife.’

  ‘Nice woman, your wife,’ Angelo said. ‘Trusting. Open. Pity if something happened to a nice woman like that.’

  ‘You ring her,’ Salvatore said. ‘Make sure she’s all right. And then tell her to unscrew the part of the phone she talks into.’

  ‘It comes off easy,’ Angelo said.

  ‘And tell her to look for a little brown cube.’

  ‘Smaller than a sugar lump,’ Angelo said.

  ‘Oh yes, much smaller,’ Salvatore said. ‘But it’s a modern miracle, Jack. It is, because it picks up telephone conversations a treat.’

  ‘So let’s do that before we go any further, Jack,’ Angelo said. ‘You check our bona fides with your wife. And then, Jack, then we’ll have a little talk about what you’re up to, eh?’

  ‘What’s the matter, Jack? Cat got your tongue?’

  At long last Jack Shayler said, ‘Who … who are you?’

  ‘First things first, Jack,’ Salvatore said. ‘Ring the missus.’

  ‘I don’t …’ Shayler said.

  Angelo and Salvatore each took an arm. They lifted Shayler to his feet and manoeuvred him to the red telephone box. Angelo went in first. The idea was that Salvatore would wedge Shayler in from behind while Angelo dialled the Shaylers’ home number. Angelo had a coin ready.

  But with unexpected strength Jack Shayler suddenly twisted out of Salvatore’s grip and bolted down Alfred Street.

  Angelo stepped out of the telephone box and stood with his brother as they watched Shayler sprint away. ‘Quick for an accountant, isn’t he?’ Angelo said.

  ‘Caught me by surprise, bubba,’ Salvatore said. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Should be all right,’ Angelo said. ‘He’ll arrive home out of breath. His wife can ask him about that.’

  ‘Should we follow him, do you think?’ Salvatore asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ Angelo said. ‘To make sure he doesn’t stop to rest. But first I’ll ring his wife to tell her what happened.’

  But as Angelo turned back to the phone, it rang.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Dinner on Fridays was always early and cold. The pattern first evolved at the height of the Norman Stiles case, the Old Man’s only murder. The subjects of the Stiles surveillance pursued their nefarious activities during active weekends that began on Friday evening. Because the Stiles case was complicated and lengthy, a Friday and Saturday routine of simple meals was established.

  The pattern still suited the Lunghis because it allowed those with social and cultural inclinations to go out early. Salvatore, the Marie of his day, always had ‘plans’ but in those days everyone in the family went out occasionally. More recently it was the newest generation of Lunghis who most often socialized on Friday and Saturday nights. And, until the last few weeks, alternate Fridays were when Rosetta regularly got some time alone with Walter.

  This Friday, however, was almost unprecedented. Everyone was at dinner—even Salvatore—and no one was in a hurry. When Mama and the Old Man came down from their flat and saw how full and settled the household was they were both surprised.

  The Old Man was pleased. ‘The washing-up liquid, it pulls them in,’ he said.

  Mama’s feelings were more ambivalent. She said to Salvatore, ‘You’re going out later?’

  ‘Yes, Mama. To the Rose and Crown to pick up the picture the so-called detective left with the woman Muffin and I talked to last night.’

  ‘And Muffin? How is she?’

  ‘Fine,’ Salvatore said.

  ‘She’s going with you?’

  ‘Not tonight.’

  Mama would have said more but the Old Man said, ‘You met this Shayler husband today, yes?’

  Salvatore said, ‘That’s right, Papa. On his way home from work.’

  ‘And you put the wind up him?’

  ‘We filled his sails,’ Salvatore said. He smiled at his brother.

  Angelo said, ‘Good and proper, Papa.’

  ‘Did he admit the fancy woman?’

  ‘It’s more complicated than that, Papa,’ Angelo said.

  ‘Life is complicated,’ the Old Man said. ‘So?’

  Angelo began by recounting the visit he and Gina made to Mrs Shayler in the morning, and how it had produced the telephone number Jack Shayler tried the previous night. Gina went through the phone conversation the number had produced with Howard the Printer in the early afternoon. Then Salvatore and Angelo described the late afternoon encounter with Jack Shayler.

  ‘And the public phone ringing was no wrong number?’ the Old Man asked.

  ‘It was Howard,’ Angelo said.

  ‘Howard?’ the Old Man said. ‘The printer?’

  ‘That’s right, Papa,’ Angelo said.

  ‘Wow!’ David said. ‘It all fits.’

  ‘Huh!’ the Old Man said. ‘So it’s not a woman with Shayler after all.’

  ‘It was definitely Howard,’ Angelo said. ‘I recognized his voice.’

  ‘So what is it between Shayler and this Howard? He’s a boyfriend maybe?’

  ‘I think not,’ Angelo said. ‘Howard was angry and he was shouting.’

  Salvatore said, ‘I could hear him and I wasn’t even on the phone.’

  ‘And this angry printer, what did he say?’ the Old Man asked.

  ‘He said, “All right, I rang. You happy? But I’m not talking to you. My job is my business, right? And nothing to do with you. So if you know what’s good for you you’ll keep your fucking nose out of it.” Then he hung up.’

  ‘“If you know what’s good for you”,’ the Old Man said. ‘Angry.’

  ‘What’s it about, Dad?’ David asked.

  Angelo repeated what he had heard Howard say and then asked everyone, ‘What do you think?’

  Salvatore said, ‘I think Shayler initiated contact and has been pushing Howard to ring back, something to do with his job.’

  ‘And Howard doesn’t want to talk about it,’ Gina said. ‘In fact he threatens.’

  ‘But Shayler doesn’t know that,’ Salvatore said, ‘because he never got the call.’

  ‘But he probably thinks you and Angelo came from Howard,’ Gina said, ‘so he didn’t get the call but he got the message.’

  ‘What’s so difficult for this Howard about talking?’ Mama said. ‘Anybody can talk. What does it cost?’

  ‘Maybe it’s something they shouldn’t talk about,’ Rosetta said.

  ‘Or something Howard keeps secret and Shayler shouldn’t know about,’ Angelo said.

  ‘Porn?’ David suggested. He was rewarded for his suggestion by a sharp look from his mother. ‘I was just trying to think of something to do with a printer,’ David said.

  ‘Don’t forget the cry for help,’ Mama said. ‘This Shayler is upset, disturbed. Whatever it is.’

  ‘Maybe Mr Shayler is trying to blackmail the printer,’ David said.

  ‘Could be,’ Angelo said. ‘But blackmail about what?’

  Marie stood up. ‘You shouldn’t say “blackmail”,’ she said.

  ‘I think it could be blackmail,’ Angelo said. ‘It would explain why Ho
ward is so angry.’

  ‘You shouldn’t say the word, “blackmail”. It demeans black people to associate them with bad things all the time.’

  Marie’s declaration stopped other conversation.

  ‘What? What did she say?’ the Old Man asked Mama.

  Marie said, ‘I’ve got some calls I have to make.’ She left the room.

  ‘Well well,’ Mama said. ‘Is it, maybe, love?’

  ‘I think it’s a cry for help,’ David said.

  Gina said, ‘Does she have a new boyfriend, David? Do you know anything?’

  ‘No, Mum.’

  ‘But you see her around school.’

  ‘Only with her boring, stupid girlfriends.’

  ‘What I don’t understand,’ the Old Man said, ‘is how Shayler connects with a printer.’

  ‘We were talking about Marie,’ Mama said.

  ‘Marie?’ the Old Man said. ‘We were talking about angry Howard, the printer.’

  ‘I don’t think there’s anything more to say about Marie, Mama,’ Gina said.

  ‘Is something wrong with Marie?’ the Old Man asked. He looked around the table. ‘Is she sick?’

  ‘Lovesick,’ David said. Then he held up his hands. ‘Only kidding, Mum, only kidding.’

  ‘She’s lovesick?’ the Old Man said. ‘Huh. She’ll get over it.’

  ‘What were you saying, Papa?’ Angelo asked.

  ‘Girls get lovesick,’ the Old Man said. ‘Then one day they feel better. It’s like it never happened. Who can understand? It happened with Rosetta.’

  ‘Papa!’ Rosetta said.

  ‘Always mooning after someone,’ the Old Man said. ‘I noticed. I knew.’

  ‘Tell about the printer,’ Mama said.

  ‘What about the printer?’ the Old Man said. ‘I don’t know about the printer. Except he’s angry. Also I don’t know how the printer knows Shayler. How they connect.’

  ‘Good question, Papa,’ Angelo said.

  Salvatore said, ‘Surely, the connection must come through Shayler’s job. Maybe Shayler’s firm does the accounts.’

  ‘Is Howard’s business a big one?’ Rosetta asked.

  ‘I doubt it,’ Gina said. ‘He answered the phone himself and spoke as if he could make decisions.’

  ‘If it’s small he wouldn’t have expensive accountants.’

  ‘They’re expensive?’ the Old Man asked.

  ‘Their office is in The Circus, Papa,’ Rosetta said. ‘They’re not going to be cheap. They must have high overheads.’

  ‘And all the latest equipment,’ Angelo said quietly.

  ‘Time to take a look at this printer,’ the Old Man said. ‘If someone is paying.’

  ‘Mrs Shayler’s still paying,’ Gina said.

  ‘Poor woman,’ Mama said. ‘What she must be going through.’

  ‘I rang her from the pay phone,’ Angelo said. ‘But I didn’t talk to her for long.’

  ‘She needed to be ready for her husband running home,’ Gina said. ‘Ready to ask why he was so upset.’

  ‘And sweaty,’ Salvatore said.

  ‘After the call we followed where Shayler ran but we couldn’t see him anywhere,’ Angelo said.

  ‘So we have to assume he went straight home,’ Gina said.

  ‘Back to the nest,’ Mama said.

  Gina said, ‘I wish we could ring Mrs Shayler now, to ask what happened.’

  ‘And make sure he did go home,’ Angelo said.

  ‘Where else?’ Mama asked. ‘A disturbed man. Frightened by bullies. Of course he runs to his wife. He’s lucky he has a wife. Single men aren’t so lucky.’ She looked at Salvatore.

  Gina said, ‘But since we can’t ring her, we’ll have to wait for her to contact us.’

  ‘Time to look at this printer,’ the Old Man said again.

  ‘Angelo and I thought we’d go over there this evening,’ Gina said. ‘There’s an address off the Lower Bristol Road.’

  ‘Good,’ the Old Man said, nodding. ‘Good. This salad dressing, it’s that low cholesterol muck?’

  ‘Of course not,’ Mama said. She winked at Gina.

  ‘Tastes it,’ the Old Man said.

  ‘Do you want me to get you some extra cholesterols from the kitchen, sprinkle them on?’ Mama said. ‘Because I can’t. But taste the fresh basil.’

  ‘I just asked,’ the Old Man said.

  As the Old Man spooned salad dressing on to his tomato slices David said, ‘Auntie Rose, can we work with your new computer tonight?’

  ‘Don’t push your luck,’ Angelo said.

  ‘I want to work on our cartoons,’ David said. ‘That’s all right, isn’t it? I don’t have any homework this weekend.’

  ‘What pushing your luck?’ the Old Man said. ‘Is there pushing luck on a computer? Like a button? Rosetta?’

  But Rosetta said, ‘I won’t have time, tonight, David. You can use the computer but it will have to be on the office terminal, not mine.’

  ‘Dad?’ David said. Angelo said nothing. ‘Mum?’

  ‘Yes, all right,’ Gina said. ‘If you’re not going out.’

  ‘Are you going out tonight, Rosetta?’ Mama said.

  ‘No, Mama.’

  ‘So why so busy you can’t help David learn?’

  ‘Didn’t Gina tell you? I’ve got a lunch date tomorrow.’

  ‘Have you!’ Mama said.

  ‘So I’ve got to wash my hair and decide what to wear and try to relax.’

  ‘Who’s it with, Rose?’ Angelo asked.

  ‘Don’t bully the poor girl,’ Gina said. ‘It’s not your business.’

  ‘I wasn’t bullying.’

  Mama said, ‘Must be important if you need to relax tonight.’

  ‘Mama!’ Rose said.

  ‘I’m not prying,’ Mama said. ‘I wouldn’t pry. All I hope is this one isn’t married.’

  Rosetta said nothing.

  ‘Is he married, Rose?’ Gina asked.

  ‘I … don’t know,’ Rosetta said.

  The Lunghis’ garage was not behind the house but a path at the foot of the garden led, circuitously, to the road the garage was in. After loading the dishwasher Gina and Angelo headed down the path on the way to their car and their trip to the Block Letter premises of Angry Howard the Printer.

  The path was tree-lined and overlooked the Avon. As if by prearrangement they stopped at the riverside and Angelo took Gina’s arm. A tourist launch passed on its way back to the centre of the city and a cluster of children waved from it. Gina and Angelo waved back. As the launch’s wake approached, Gina felt a wave of relaxed satisfaction.

  The river and the hills on either side, piled with their terraces like cornflakes in a bowl, had contributed to the eighteen-year-old Gina’s choice of Bath over the other art colleges when she was picking her textile course. Of course it was a long time ago now. Many an Avon gallon had passed under Cleveland Bridge.

  Gina had been in the city for only two weeks—already, embarrassingly, homesick for the family she’d won the right to a career from—when a devastatingly handsome third-year picked her out. ‘Do you realize what a beautiful couple we’d make?’ he’d said, his first words. Gina realized nothing of the kind, but was pleased at the attention and enjoyed his bright energy. Remarkably, for their first date he invited her home.

  Gina wondered if Mama ever wished it had been Salvatore she’d married. Whether Mama thought she would have been ‘the one’ to steady him down. But from the beginning Gina found Salvatore as disturbing as he was attractive. Beautiful, and attentive, but fundamentally unsafe. However she had loved the family and, soon, the younger brother who was already a mainstay in the family business.

  ‘So what about Marie?’ Angelo asked.

  ‘What about Marie?’

  ‘Do we do anything?’

  ‘What did you have it in mind to do?’ Gina asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Angelo said. ‘Yes, all right, do we try to find out what she’s up to? What would we recommend
to a client?’

  Poor Angelo. So upset by all this, because he couldn’t understand it. ‘Who’s paying?’ Gina said.

  But Angelo did not wish to be deflected. ‘Is it not important?’ he asked. ‘To me it sounded important.’

  ‘Children lie to their parents,’ Gina said. ‘And if they don’t, they lie to their friends and say they do.’

  ‘But “easy money”?’ Angelo said. ‘What’s that supposed to mean? What money is easy?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Gina said. Marie was growing up in a different world from the one Gina grew up in. ‘Maybe it’s a job of some kind.’

  ‘I offered her a job,’ Angelo said.

  ‘You did?’

  ‘For this Saturday. She turned it down.’

  ‘She’s already committed,’ Gina said. ‘And it could be paying work.’

  ‘If it was a legitimate job, she would brag,’ Angelo said. ‘To annoy David.’

  ‘I believe she’s fundamentally sensible,’ Gina said. ‘Don’t you believe that?’

  ‘Is she? Pop concerts too young. Night-clubs with bands. Expensive tastes …’

  ‘You’re working yourself up,’ Gina said. ‘What do you want to do?’

  ‘I just think we ought to consider what we would do for a client. If we give good advice, shouldn’t we take some of it ourselves?’

  ‘Follow her?’

  ‘Maybe it’s necessary. Maybe it’s important. Maybe we should.’

  ‘I don’t want to start following our own children,’ Gina said.

  ‘I don’t want to either, but what if it’s a robbery?’ Angelo said. ‘This Terry had been to check the place out. Is he casing the joint? Or maybe it’s shop-lifting. A lot of them do that, don’t they? “Easy money,” she said. At table she even sings it.’

  ‘You think Marie is stealing? You might as well say she’s selling drugs. Or her body.’

  ‘Don’t forget the infatuation,’ Angelo said. ‘You heard the tape. It was in her voice. They can go crazy for love, girls. Look at Rosetta.’

  When Salvatore arrived in the Rose and Crown Bonnie the Regular was already there. ‘I was beginning to think you didn’t really want this phone number,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, but I do,’ Salvatore said. His smile, his teeth, his eyes all said he wanted it.

  ‘So, you going to get me a drink, or what?’

  Salvatore bought drinks for them both.