Necessary Decisions, A Gino Cataldi Mystery by Giacomo Giammatteo Page A

money.”
    Lucia rapped Mars on the head. “Focus on your real school, young man. Not jiu-jitsu. I’ll not have an illiterate child because you think you have talent.”
    Mars scraped his plate and carried it to the sink. “Would you have stayed here, Dad? I mean in this house?”
    “Of course not,” Jada said. “With all that money, we could have moved anywhere. I’d have gone to The Woodlands, where all the rich people live. Right next to Alexa.”
    “Yeah,” Mars said, “A huge house with a swimming pool and a pool table.”
    “And a tennis court,” Jada said. “And a dance floor in the party room.”
    Lucia shook her head. “Listen to yourselves. I’m glad we didn’t hit the lottery.”
    “Mom…”
    “Mom nothing. All your father did was throw away a dollar’s worth of eggs, gambling on that lottery nonsense. And fill your heads with silly dreams.” Lucia turned to face Jada. “What, you think those people over there would be waiting with cookies and milk, greeting us when we moved in, huh? You got a lot more to learn if you think that.”
    “Those days are over,” Jada said, getting up from the table in a huff.
    “Sit down and let me tell you something. Just because the law says there isn’t prejudice, and just because we got a black president, don’t ever think that prejudice is over. It flat out ain’t true.” She looked at Jada and Mars both. “I’m not talking about black and white here; I’m talking about a prejudice that goes a lot deeper than that—the one between rich and poor. That’s been going on a lot longer than any black-and-white thing.” She shook her head, mumbling, “The one thing rich people hate more than anything is poor people getting rich quick.”
    She looked as if she’d stop, but then she turned to Lonny. “And shame on you, husband, for letting this talk go on so long.”
    Lonny’s smile had long since disappeared. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her ire, but there was no sense in arguing when Lucia got like this. He imagined it was nerves eating away at her, which he couldn’t much blame her for. “Your mother’s right. We’re simple folk, and we need to remind ourselves of that.”
    Lucia grabbed her plate and coffee cup from the table and put them in the sink. “Help me with these dishes, Mars. You too, Jada.”
    Mars grabbed a dish towel and started drying. “I didn’t want to be rich anyway. It would have taken me too long to write down all I needed to buy.”
    Lucia stopped doing dishes and laughed, though it seemed to be mixed with tears. “Don’t you worry, children. The Lord won’t let anything bad happen to a good person like your father.”
    Lonny choked down the last of his coffee, cringing at her words. The Lord was certainly ashamed of him right now, and he had to do something about it.

Chapter 12

    Gino Gets a Partner
    I left the Marshall house feeling like I had nowhere to go on this case, and a night’s sleep hadn’t improved my outlook. Whoever the hell these people were, they were doing a good job of maintaining control. In the morning, I called Coop to see about getting help. I had to catch these bastards.
    “Captain Cooper’s office.” Cindy’s long drawl came across with a pleasant tone.
    “Hi, Cindy. Where’s Gladys?”
    “She’ll be all over your backside if you keep calling her Gladys.”
    “So where is she?”
    “In the office.”
    “You know what Delgado’s working on?”
    “Why don’t you come right out and say what’s on your mind?”
    “I need to know who’s available before I ask Coop for help. I don’t want to get stuck with just anybody.”
    “I think Delgado can be spared.”
    “Okay, put me through to the sweetheart.”
    Cindy was still laughing when she switched me over.
    Coop picked up a few seconds later. “What do you need?”
    “I need help. Delgado available?”
    “Since there was a long delay between the time Cindy’s phone rang and the time I got the call, I presume