Electronic Kill Machine

Scratches

It was almost midnight when cops arrived at 55 Bedford Street, a stone's throw from downtown Quincy. The house, a three-story clapboard, old-style multiple dweller, with three porches rising in the front and back, on top of one another, sat on the base of the street.

The House at 55 Bedford Street, Aerial View

There, at the bottom of the interior stairs, was the badly bruised and twisted body of Marina Calabro, Ant's 84-year-old great aunt. She looked bad. Like she had not only fallen, but maybe been run over by a truck, too.

A stairway fall did all this damage?

People were mingling about outside, what with all the lights flashing and uniforms moiling about.

"What's going on?" someone asked.

Ant had called in the discovery. Thomas Lally was with him.

One of the cops noticed that Lally had fresh scratches on his face and what appeared to be a bite mark on his forearm.

"What's that from?" the cop asked.

"We were horsing around," Lally said, "me and Anthony. We got a little rough and fought last night."

The cop bought it.

Ant and Lally said they had returned home after a night out only to find Marina at the bottom of the stairs. It was horrible. Can you believe it ... Marina ... dead?

Two police officers sat with Anthony in the kitchen. Lally was brought into the living room.

They would have to come up with more than "we went out."

Step by step. Hour by hour. The cops wanted to know what the two men had done that night.