Page 14 of Trina Gabrini: Bring Him Back Home to Me

But Ellis was distracted. “Isn’t that his old man?”

“Whose old man?” Ralph asked as he and Dawson looked where Ellis was looking.

“Jimmy’s old man. That’s him over there.”

“Where?” Ralph looked and that was when he saw him too: Reno Gabrini seated in a booth with a busty blonde.

“That’s him alright,” Ralph said. “That’s Reno Gabrini.”

But Dawson was still confused. “Who are you talking about? Where are you looking?”

“Over there.” Ellis took his small head and pointed it in the right direction.

“I still don’t see who you mean. All I see is what’s his name? I see him at the PaLargio all the time. Gabrini, that’s it. Reno Gabrini.”

Ellis and Ralph looked at each other in disbelief. Then they looked at Dawson. “What’s Jimmy’s last name?”

Dawson didn’t have to think about it. “Gabrini.”

They looked to see if he got it this time. But Dawson didn’t get the connection at all. He still looked confused. Then, when he realized what they meant, he frowned. “But Jimmy’s black. Reno Gabrini’s a white man.”

“But his baby mama wasn’t a white woman,” Ellis said.

“His baby mama? You mean Jimmy’s mama?”

“No, I mean your mama. Yes idiot. Reno Gabrini is Jimmy’s daddy. But that blonde ain’t his mama.”

Ralph laughed.

“I thought somebody said his mama was dead,” said Dawson.

“She is. But his step-mama is very much alive.”

“And that ain’t his step-mama either,” Ellis said as they looked at the woman Reno had his arm around.

“So you’re saying Jimmy Gabrini and Reno Gabrini are related?”

Ellis shook his head. “Yes, child. That’s what we’re saying.”

“Wow. Who would have thought that!”

“Everybody except for you,” Ralph said. “How many Gabrinis could there possibly be in the same town and they not be related? Come on now, Dawse. You’re green, but you can do better than that!”

“Change the conversation,” said Ellis. “Jimmy’s here.”

They looked as Jimmy glanced at a girl that gave him an assessing look, but he kept on walking until he was plopping down at their table. “Don’t ask,” he said.

“Or don’t tell?” asked Dawson.

Jimmy looked at him. “What?”

“ignore him, Boss,” Ellis said. “What took you so long?”

“Tommy called me as soon as I was trying to get out of the building.”

“What did he want?”

“He told me to turn my ass around right then and there and send him the Riverside report.”