PEACE BE WITH YOU

A novel by Raimondo Salomone

PEACE BE WITH YOU, by Raimondo Salomone, begins with Vinny Croce sitting quietly in the last row of Saint Catherine’s Church while his parish priest, Father Matthew Esposito, continues to offer communion to the congregation. Vinny’s eyes read from the Ten Commandments as his priest repeatedly says, “The Body of Christ.”

Vinny is at a crossroads in his life. He’s 35, penniless and working two aimless jobs, one as a collector for a low-level bookmaker, the other as a bouncer in a local bar. He’s a recovering alcoholic and a long-suffering degenerate gambler. He holds the distinction of once losing fifteen bets in a row, which landed him in the debt he’s now trying to work off. He lives with his grandfather in the only home he’s ever known, a three bedroom railroad style flat in a five-story walkup tenement building that is solidly located in the heart of what once was a blue-collar, second generation, immigrant neighborhood. As he reads the Ten Commandments, his mind wanders back to that night, almost four years ago, when he poured himself into his Jeep after a day of golf and a night of drinking and barreled down Second Avenue, slipping through yellow lights and running the reds until his luck ran out and Frank Miller, an off-duty fireman, himself on a bender, stepped out of Dillon’s Pub and right into the path of Vinny’s Jeep. His face smashed up against the windshield, that much Vinny remembers, and then his body, seconds away from being lifeless, hurtled into the air and crumbled to the ground. Vinny turned right, slowed down just enough to squint with one eye into the rear view mirror and see Frank Miller’s last seconds on this earth. Vinny drove the few more blocks home and rushed up to wake up his father, himself a lifelong drunk, out of his nightly stupor and into another world, one that neither of them imagined ever having to enter.

The plan was his father’s idea, and it needed corroboration and credibility and soon both men walked down their block and rang the buzzer to the rectory. Father Matthew had helped countless parishioners out of tight jams before, but this was different, a man was dead and someone had to pay. Peter Croce, a father to Vinny, in blood only, wanted to take the blame and accept the consequences as a penance to his God for the sins he had committed against his own son. Years of abuse, mental, verbal, physical had hardened the souls of both men and calloused their hearts and now they needed help to love again and Father Matthew was their only salvation. The priest agreed to the plan and handed Pete a bottle of booze to help authenticate the scheme and soon they presented themselves to the local precinct where Pete surrendered himself and confessed to the crime of running down Frank Miller and leaving the scene of the crime.

He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, avoiding a trial, avoiding the possibility of destroying their well-conceived plan. An innocent man went off to jail, content in his decision to take the blame, while his guilty son remained free to live his life. Their priest settled back into his routine and reconciled the choices he had made. He prayed to God for forgiveness and he felt absolved, until the night Vinny rang the rectory buzzer again, waking up the priest and throwing his life back into turmoil.

PEACE BE WITH YOU continues to probe deeper into the minds of the characters involved in the plan to keep one man in jail, allowing another to be free. It is a compelling examination of faith and salvation, of loyalty and honor. It’s a battle between right and wrong and good and evil.

HOW FAR WILL A PRIEST GO TO KEEP A SECRET?