“Not in my worst nightmares.”
“We gotta kill this guy, you know.”
“First things first, huh?”
Get Pat in the ground. Well, first get him out of the ground, then back into the ground decently. Go through the hell that’s going to be the funeral and the wake and maybe, then, think about killing Antonucci.
If he don’t get us first, which he’s sure as shit going to try.
The truce will last until the wake is over.
The next morning, it will be on again, and we’ll be lucky to survive, never mind kill Sal.
But first things first.
Find Pat’s body.
The route takes them out through the woods, then the causeway across the eastern side of the Scituate Reservoir. Sal said he’d “heard a rumor” that the body is off a fire lane before the Pike edges the water again, about a hundred yards south of the road to the right. There’ll be some dead pines, then some live ones.
The body is at the base of the first live pine.
Jimmy turns onto the fire lane and drives through the dead pines. They get out of the van and shine flashlights around.
“Could he have picked anywhere creepier?” Jimmy asks.
Danny aims his flashlight on the ground in front of him and walks to the first live tree he sees. Sure enough, there’s a patch of disturbed ground with pine needles kicked over it.
“Get the shovels,” he calls back to Jimmy.
Jimmy brings the shovels and hands one to Danny, who digs the blade into the loose ground and steps down on it with his right foot.
He feels it hit something hard, then scoops the dirt up.
Jimmy shines the light down and Danny sees that the shovel hit Pat’s head.
What’s left of it, anyway.
The hair was sheared off with most of the skin on the right side of Pat’s head and the eye socket is empty.
Danny drops the shovel, turns, bends over and throws up. He hears Jimmy moan, Oh fuck oh fuck and then the sound of Jimmy retching. Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, Danny turns back and says, “Let’s get this done.”
They dig as gently as they can until Pat’s whole body is revealed in the shallow grave. He’s in a fetal position, most of his clothes scraped off, the skin on his bare legs raw with dried blood and dirt. His right foot hangs from a single tendon, his fingers are still clutched as if trying to grab for something.
His life, maybe, Danny thinks.
They spread an old army blanket out on the ground, roll Pat into it, wrap it as tight as they can, carry the body to the van and slide it into the back.
Danny closes the doors and throws up again.
The last ride of Patdannyjimmy is them driving out of the woods back to Providence.
Cassie is standing outside Marley’s when they pull up.
Danny sees her spot the car and go inside to tell people that they’re there. He knows the family’s waiting and part of him wants to tell Jimmy to just keep driving because it’s going to be brutal.
“You ready for this?” he asks Jimmy.
“No.”
“Me neither.”
He gets out of the van and walks inside the funeral home and the whole family is there—Terri, John, Catherine, Cassie, and Sheila, who makes herself look up at him when he comes through the door.
He nods to her.
Even Pam is there, with Liam.
Who now goes into take-charge mode. He gets up out of his chair and asks, “Did you find my brother?”
“I did your job, if that’s what you’re asking me.” Danny nudges him aside and walks up to Sheila. She stands up as he says, “You don’t want to see him, Sheila, trust me on this.”
“He’s my husband.”
“Remember him the way he was.”
Then he hears Cassie gasp as Jimmy and two of Marley’s guys carry Pat in.
That was bad enough, but Catherine’s shriek as she sees her son’s corpse wrapped in a blanket is the worst sound he’s ever heard.
He’ll never forget it.
They’re trying to carry Pat’s body to the elevator to take it down and work on it, but Catherine gets in their way, tears at the blanket, trying to rip it off to see her son. John tries to pull her away but he’s not strong enough and gives up, hangs his head and pinches his fingers around his nose.
It’s Cassie who manages to pry Catherine off her son’s body, who holds her up and doesn’t let her slide to her knees, holds her tight as she sobs and screams and pounds her fists into Cassie’s shoulders.
Sheila slides past Danny, walks up and feels the blanket until she finds where Pat’s head is and strokes it through the blanket.