But finding Tony in a city this size proved more difficult than Ray had anticipated. He wound along the docks, peering into one seedy hovel of a bar after another. Music clanged and the smell of whiskey and sweat fogged the air. Ray fell back on his accent as he searched, making his English seem poorer than it was, and blending in with his open collar and threadbare shirt.
Finally, the bars began to close. As their lights winked out and the patrons stumbled into the streets, Ray had to admit that he wasn’t going to find Tony tonight. He pulled his cap down low over his eyes, thinking. After giving those coins to Viola, he didn’t have enough left even to afford a flophouse for the night. Could he go back to her tenement and sleep on her floor? No, suppose Tony should turn up. It would have to be a park bench for the night. At least he had enough money for a hot cup of coffee in the morning.
It was getting on evening the next day before he found him. Just as Ray was beginning to despair, wondering if Tony had fled the city, he stumbled on the right bar. The man looked gaunt, bloodshot eyes focused on a hand of cards, emitting a few curses through a funnel of boisterous laughter. Tony was in the corner seat, filmed by smoke, lubricated by whatever was in the tankard at his elbow, when he looked up and recognized his wife’s brother.
“What are you doing here?” Tony slurred.
“Wondering how you have money for drinks and games while I had to give the last dollars I had to your wife and son.”
Tony slammed his fist on the table. The chips, cards and tankards rattled.
“You’re finished here then, Valari?” a man seethed. “You were in over your head anyway.”
Tony eyed his hand possessively. “I am not finished. I just have to… take care of something.” He tossed the cards on the table. “Deal me out next round but save my spot.”
Tony was uneasy on his feet. His bloodshot eyes bored into Ray as they stepped through the doorway and out to the street: a symphony of wolf whistles, automobile horns, horse’s hooves, and drunken laughter.
“Glad I found you,” Ray said, leaning against the side of the tavern and appraising Tony. The man looked even worse in the moonlight than he had under the garish lamps of the bar.
“You bring that detective girl with you? Found yourself a looker, Ray. Even I can appreciate that. All the guys could. Forbes, especially. Liked the way she was built.”
“Do you want me to drive my fist into your teeth?” Ray said lazily. “You don’t have anyone here to back you up, and you know I am much faster than you.”
“I’m complimenting her.”
“You’re the lowest kind of… ” Ray chewed his lip to stall himself. It wasn’t worth it. “Stop drinking your money in there. You’re already in the hole. Take care of the family you abandoned.”
“I can provide for my own family.” Tony scraped at the dregs of his pride.
“This is ending, Tony. I hate the way you treat my sister and Luca. I won’t do it anymore. I won’t sit and watch you hurt them and leave them to starve while you drink and gamble. You keep horrible company. You—you smell like a fish. Who knows where you go to work every day.”
“I make a good income.”
“Listen,” Ray said. “Let Viola and Luca go. You’re never home anyway. It would be no great loss to you if they were with me in Toronto.”
“She is mine. She belongs to me and with me. The boy too.”
“You’re talking about her as if she’s a tugboat. She’s my sister. I will provide for her and Luca and take care of them, and then you are free to do… well, whatever it is you do.” Ray took a step and grabbed Tony’s lapel. “But no longer at the expense of my family.”
“It’s funny you’re telling me this, Ray.” Tony coughed as Ray tightened his grip. “To go home to my wife and family. When here you are a thousand miles from home. And what does your pretty wife think about that?”
“She has friends who can take care of her,” Ray snipped. “Viola has no one.”
“But she has you,” Tony mocked. “Of course she has you. It’s so convenient for you too, isn’t it? You can hide behind Viola. You can use her for an excuse when Toronto gets too hard and you realize you’re failing as badly as I am.”
Tony’s instincts had slowed, and when Ray flung him back, he toppled over, spitting and cursing. “I have a game to finish. Stay out of my life.”
“Gladly. But I won’t stay out of hers. And I won’t stay out of Luca’s.”
Tony fingered his bleeding lip. “You haven’t changed. Controlling everything. Needing to be perfect. Needing her to worship the ground you walk on. You need to… ”
Ray didn’t stay to hear the end of the sentence.
He stalked away, his eyes low. What he really needed was a place to spend the night and enough money to see Viola and Luca through whatever Tony was losing of theirs back at the gaming table. He swept the immediate vicinity with intent eyes, finally settling on the least intoxicated man in the alley. “Any idea where I might find work?”
“Hedgehog,” the man said hazily. “Terror of a man at Burnham Harbor. Look for tugboats four and ten.”
“Four and ten.”