Her Work Was Done

By Joanna Dellaripa Rosenberg

Josie Cantone entered Calafiore Funeral Home with her mother Lidia and sister Lisa. The procession of boisterous mourners was making its way towards the receiving line of Uncle Sebastiano’s immediate family and inner circle. His nephew, her Uncle Enzo—Lidia’s brother and new head of the family—smiled broadly at the three of them.

“How are my two orphans?” blustered Uncle Enzo to the two sisters as he put one hand on each of their shoulders. Their father passed away from an illness several years ago, and Enzo still resented the fact that he was never able to lure his brother-in-law into the family business. Josie looked past Uncle Enzo’s smug face to get a glimpse of Uncle Sebastiano in his casket. A perfectly pressed pinstripe suit with a red rose in his front pocket was framed by his coiffed pompadour and cosmetically enhanced face. Anger boiled inside her. 

Josie squeezed the clutch purse in her coat pocket as if it was a lifeline. The act of kissing each aunt, uncle, cousin on both cheeks made her nauseous as she moved along the receiving line. As the crowd swelled, Josie asked one of the funeral home directors for the restroom. He pointed her toward its location, but before reaching it, she made a detour downstairs. As expected, the basement office was locked while the adjacent bathroom was free for her to enter. Despite her breathlessness and trembling hands, the air vent was easy enough for her to remove and attach the bug inside the wall.  

She emerged from the basement undetected. The three women had been overlooked by the Palmieri family since her father died. Her mother bravely kept her distance from her brother while accepting just enough of his money to avoid the wrath that would emerge from his chipped ego. Growing up, Josie didn’t really understand (or perhaps didn’t want to understand) what her mother’s side of the family did. But she saw firsthand what they were involved with when her childhood friend Tina died of a drug overdose during the time she waitressed at one of their nightclubs. She would never forget how her uncle washed his hands of any responsibility for Tina’s death, and the fact that he did not even attend Tina’s funeral was a testament to this. This emboldened her to take FBI Agent Sam Clyde up on his offer when he approached her a year ago. 

Once the visiting hours were over, Enzo and his entourage convened in the funeral home basement office. Josie told her mom and sister that she’d meet up with them back at Cousin Anna’s house. She sat in her car and waited until everyone left. The only cars that remained belonged to the men in the funeral home basement.  She pulled the burner phone from her clutch and called Clyde. 

Josie coldly reported to Clyde and his agents, “They are all in there—Big Enzo, Cousin Aldo, Danny the Dealio—all of them.” Clyde confirmed that the proceedings of the funeral home meeting came in loud and clear from their van down the street. She then hung up.

Josie drove a few blocks to a church parking lot, threw her burner phone down onto the ground, smashed it with her boot heel, and tossed it into a nearby manhole. Her work was done.

Read more stories on Palette.