It's a bright, sunny day, mid August 1978, out on the middle of the Louisiana River, a lone brand new Tracker bass boat bobs and sways with the gentle current tethered by it's anchor, the gentle waves lapping at the welded steel hull and dissipating as quickly as the sound barrier-shattering gunshot, that scared what few birds were nesting in nearby trees and shattering the chest of the boat's lone occupant slumped back in the bow chair, rod laying across his bare feet, catfish and largemouth bass in the forward live-well never to be eaten. The only sound now, is the gentle idling of the Evinrude 70 horsepower 2 stroke outboard engine...A fellow local Bass fisherman saw the empty boat and came over for a closer look. Slumped in the chair was Vito Scaletta. He drove to shore and called it in from a phonebooth at the local bait shop and general store. Police were dispatched and Vito's boat was towed to shore. The first officer on the scene was 41 year old Detective Marry Phelps. Transplanted from Los Angeles to Louisiana about 5 years ago, and one of the youngest first grade detectives on the force of Acadia Perish. She was good because she followed in the footsteps of-and took after-her illustrious detective and Marine WW2 hero father Cole who died when she was 10 in the line of duty. Marry examines the body, noting a bloody entrance and exit would through the chest of his pink polo shirt, and confirming Scaletta's identity through his driver's license in the brown, leather wallet in the left pocket of his beige slacks. Merry rises and continues her canvas for evidence, finding a discarded Winchester model 70 hunting rifle chambered in .35 Remington. It was dusted for prints and later confirmed balletically as the murder weapon from a bullet lodged in a tree directly behind where Vito was shot. Fingerprints from the forearm, trigger-face, and a palm print from the grip were later examined at the station along with Vito's. The rifle's print's came back to an Emerson Evendale who was brought in for questioning. He later confessed that he owed money from a gambling debt from horse racing to the Falcone crime family and was subsequently beaten by Vito, who took his rifle, along with $2,000 cash to settle it. Vito's prints came back for a second conformation, and revealing that he served 6 years of a 10 year sentence for gas stamp fraud just after the war, as well as a stint in 1943 for theft where he was instead sent to Sicily during Operation Husky with the US 1st Infantry Division, getting wounded and sent home. Further research revealed to Marry that Vito received the Bronze star and a Purple heart from General Patton for fending off a siege from the 15th Panzergrenadier Division single-handedly with an MG42 light machine gun before being wounded from a shell from one of those Panzer tanks firing at the tower he was firing from. During the course of her investigation. Mary comes across a 60 year old former hitman for the Falcone family named Lupo Argent who's serving life for being a freelance hitman who killed anyone and everyone for all five families. Thinking he has nothing to loose and being cocky and arrogant, Lupo confesses to Mary that he was ordered to kill Vito on Don Carlo Falcone's orders for the unsanctioned attack on the Triad gang in New York. He said he used the rifle Vito brought back from Emerson's visit. Vito's murder is tacked onto Lupo's confirmed string of killings and Marry moves on to another case....
In Fresno California, Lincoln Clay gets the news in the paper when the case was wrapped up, catching the earliest flight back to his home state to pay his respects. Standing with Vito's 79 year old sister Francesca in Riverside Cemetery, looking at Vito's headstone beside his parents.