"Well, at least you'll eat better than I will," he said with a grin. "I love my mom, but she's not much of a cook, to be honest."
"And, of course, eating Chinese food on Christmas day also keeps me in touch with the theme of most Jewish holidays, which is: ‘They tried to kill us, but they failed, so let's eat.' Except for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when it's: ‘Let's celebrate being Jewish by fasting.' You missed a lot of fun by being raised Catholic."
"Obviously." He walked beside me down the hall toward the ladies locker room as he asked, "So when you were growing up . . . No Santa, no tree, no presents?"
"No Santa or tree, certainly. I don't think my father would care either way, but my mother would probably burn down the house rather than let Christian symbolism in the door. Jewish identity is very important to her." I added, "But my parents understood that being Jewish children at Christmas could be a strain, so we did get presents. Mom called them ‘holiday gifts for good behavior,' but since my sister and I were getting presents, we went along with that."
We paused outside the locker room.
"I guess this is your stop," Lopez said.
"Yes. Um, I . . ." I tried to think of what exactly I wanted to say in farewell. Although he had been the one to break up with me, I was the one who later decided we should stay apart when he seemed to be thinking maybe we should try again. And since memories of nearly getting him killed haunted me, I was still inclined to stick with that decision. So I definitely didn't want to say something that might lead him on. But I also wanted him to know . . . "It's good to see you."
"I'm glad to hear that, since I'll be a fixture around here for the time being," he said. "Investigating shipping warehouses, abandoned Fenster trucks, and hijacking sites is chilly at this time of year, so I thought being assigned to investigate here at the store meant I was pulling the lucky straw. But that was before I met the Fenster family."
"Armed robbers would probably be easier to work with," I agreed.
We said goodnight, and I went into the ladies locker room to change into my street clothes and get my purse. Then I realized I still hadn't clocked out. So I went into the break room to do that.
An older man in Fenster maintenance coveralls was hovering near the coffee machine in there, standing with his back to me as I entered the room. He was average height and very stocky, and the short hair under his duckbill cap was nearly white.
I walked over to the punch clock on the wall and reached for my employee card. The man turned his head to look at me. Then, moving swiftly, he seized me by the shoulders, startling me.
"Finally!" he said. "I been waiting for you."
I found myself staring into the face of a notorious Gambello hit man.
10
"Lucky?" I said incredulously. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know, at Christmas, everyone comes to Fenster's," he said with elaborate casualness.
"Huh?"
"What do you think I'm doing here?" Now he was exasperated.
"Um, Christmas shopping?" I guessed in confusion.
"You mean you don't know about the hijackings we're being accused of?" he said. "Where have you been? It's all over the news!"
"Yes, but-"
"And OCCB sure ain't hovering around this place because they suspect Santa of loan-sharking."
"No, but-"
"With the cops snooping all over our business, who's going to catch the bozos who are actually pulling these heists and getting away with the swag while everyone's busy casting unfair aspirins on the family?"
"Aspersions," I said. "You cast aspersions, not-Never mind. What family do you mean? The Gambellos?"
"What other family would I mean?"
I took a steadying breath. "Wait. Back up a step."
He did so.
"No, I meant . . ." I cleared my throat. "Let me see if I have understood you correctly."
"We ain't got time for that!"
"We'll have to make time for that."
"No, we gotta get out of here before I'm recognized. I just been waiting for you." He added accusingly, "And you sure took your sweet time! What the hell were you and Detective Lopez doing? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know. None of my business."
"Wait!" I said as he grabbed my arm and tried to drag me toward the door. "I have to clock out."
Lucky hovered impatiently while I did so, then pulled his cap low as he led the way into the hall after checking to make sure the coast was clear. Then we descended to the ground floor via the stairs, at my insistence, rather than taking the elevator. At the bottom of the stairs, with no one else around, Lucky unzipped the coveralls and stripped them off, revealing winter clothing underneath.
"Ah, no wonder you looked so stocky," I said.
"Let's go."
We exited the building through the employee entrance and started heading toward the subway station. It was damp and cold out here, but I was glad to be outside, under the real night sky, and not dressed as an elf who never felt the cold.
Alberto "Lucky Bastard" Battistuzzi was a semi retired hit man in the Gambello crime family. Due to the strange twists and turns of fate, he was also friends with me and Max.
Lucky had acquired his nickname due to surviving two attempts on his life as a young man, both times because an attacker's gun jammed. Earlier this year, I had been present on a third such occasion, too, when a killer stuck a gun in his face and pulled the trigger-and the gun jammed rather than firing. This old guy really was lucky.
"All right," I said, "let me see if I interpreted your garbled comments correctly back there. You're telling me the Gambellos are not responsible for hijacking those three Fenster shipments-"
"Three?" he repeated in surprise. "There's been a third heist?"
"Yes, there have been three, not two," I said, looking at him with interest. "It'll probably be in the media soon."
Apparently the cops hadn't revealed the first heist to the Gambellos. Lucky's surprise about the number of trucks seemed to confirm his claim of the family's innocence. But I hadn't thought he was lying about that, anyhow.
Oh, sure, if I walked up to Lucky and asked him if he or his associates were committing felonies, he'd lie to me and deny it. Of course he would. But it would make no sense for him to risk waiting around for me tonight in a place where he might be seen and recognized by an OCCB cop like Lopez, all so he could lie to me about something he certainly knew I would never hunt him down to ask about. (I did not make a habit of prying into Gambello business, after all.)
I continued, "And you've evidently come to Fenster's to investigate this matter, because you don't think the cops will solve the case as long as they keep looking at the wrong perps, i.e. the Gambellos."
"Yeah." Lucky pulled a knitted wool cap out of his pocket and put it on his head as we walked along. "That's what I said."
"That's not at all what you said, but I guess I got the gist of it anyhow." I added, "So you infiltrated the staff by impersonating a maintenance man?"
"That disguise was a mistake," Lucky grumbled.
"Because you don't know how to fix things?" I asked.
"No, because it don't seem like those guys ever fix things."
"Ah. Yes, that much is true."
"I couldn't get much investigatin' done today, because every place I went in that store, as soon as anyone saw me, they practically did a full body tackle to get me fix something for them." Clearly scandalized, he added, "That place is really falling apart, Esther. You should be careful there."
"You don't say?"
"Then, late in the day, some big prop on the fourth floor went haywire-"
"I know."
"-and everyone on maintenance was rounded up for that. When I got there, I looked around for you. Stella told me you're working in Holidayland until she's got more hours for you."
"It's Solsticeland these days," I said.
"It didn't used to be like that," he said in a negative tone.
"Nondenominational?"
"Dark. They should call it Gloomyland. I liked it better the way it was back when we used to take my daughter there." Lucky was a widower, with one grown-up daughter who lived in California with her husband. "Oh, by the way, before I forget. I ate at the restaurant yesterday. Stella sends her love and says right after New Year's, she'll have plenty of shifts for you, so hang tight."
"Okay."
"Anyhow, where was I? Oh, yeah, Gloomyland. So I spotted you, but I couldn't get near you, because you were with OCCB's golden boy, the one who solved them doppelgangster killings in spring." He added, "Well, you, me, and Max solved them, actually. But your boyfriend did a pretty good job, too. Made his bones at OCCB, and all that."
Since Lucky had been around on the day Lopez broke up with me, he knew he wasn't my boyfriend anymore. Lopez hadn't ever been my boyfriend, really. We had only gone on a few dates. But I let the phrase pass, rather than distract Lucky from his account by digressing into that subject.