Page 67 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
Not so fast, Tommy thought as Mick sped up to that Mini Cooper and flung in front of it. Everybody hopped out, except for Robby, who got onto the third seat and kept his gun trained on Luddie.
While Tommy, Sal, and Reno ran to Jeremy, Mick pulled out a pump-action shotgun and aimed it at the chopper pilot. The pilot, no fool, placed his hands in the air.
Tommy flung Jeremy against his car. “Why would you do that to my children?” he angrily asked him. “Not man enough to do it to me, so you go after my little ones? Why?” he yelled again as he slammed Jeremy’s thin body against that car again.
“It’s all because of you,” he said. “You had to suffer. I knew what was important to you. That wife and those children. But it was better to go after the children. Because they’re innocent. That’s why I did the school. That’s why I went for the kids. All that blood is on your hands.”
“Bullshit,” said Sal. “All that blood is onyourhands. Your ass did that shit, not my brother.”
“Why?” Tommy asked Jeremy again, his face filled with anguish. He was pained to know. The betrayal was just that deep for him.
“You killed her,” Jeremy finally said.
“I killed who?”
“My big sister. She wasn’t even two years old when it happened.”
Tommy frowned. “I killed a two-year-old? That’s agotdamn lie.”
“You killed her!” Jeremy screamed out.
“How did Tommy kill your two-year-old sister?” asked an equally confused Reno.
“Remember Marjorie Donaldson?” Jeremy asked Tommy. “Remember that whore, Tommy?”
Tommy stood erect when he heard that name. It was one of the more painful chapters of his life.
But Reno frowned. “Marjorie? Tommy’s ex-girlfriend? You’re talkingthatMarjorie?”
“Yes, that Marjorie,” said Jeremy. But his eyes stayed on Tommy. “You broke up with her to be with Grace, and on that fateful night she was in your limousine crying about it. It was all in the papers because I looked it all up after she died.”
“After who died? The two-year-old?”
“Yes. Only she didn’t die right away. She wasted away for years. And then she died.”
Tommy was confused. “But what happened with Marjorie was years and years ago. What are you talking about?”
“My mom and my baby sister were in the car.” He had tears in his eyes now.
But Tommy still didn’t understand. “I thought Ingrid Hawken was your mother.”
“She’s not my mother. She’s my half-sister on my mother’s side. My father was black. Her father was white. Our mother was white.”
“But Ingrid was the one that was in the car?” asked Sal.
“No!” said Jeremy. “Don’t you ever listen? Ingrid wasn’t in the car at all. It was my mom and my little sister that were in the car.”
“But what car are you talking about?” asked a still confused Tommy.
“The one that had to swerve when Marjorie Donaldson jumped out of your moving limousine. She committed suicide right there on that highway. Or at least that what you bribed the papers to claim.”
“Fuck you!” said Sal.
“My mother was driving behind your limo and she and all those other cars had to swerve to avoid running over that fool when she jumped out. Only my mom swerved into another car and her car went airborne. It ended upside down. She and my baby sister both were badly injured.”
Tommy remembered there was a lot of wreckage that night, but he didn’t remember the details.
“My mom recovered, but my baby sister never did. She had horrific health issues and paralysis for the rest of her life. Until she died seven months ago. My mom, still filled with guilt after what happened to my baby sister, died a few days after she did. And that when me and Ingrid decided it was time.”
