At the heart of The Downey Trilogy is the relationship between mostly Irish-part Italian gangster Michael “Mickey” Downey and his son Detective Tommy Gates.
You can learn a bit more about Tommy Gates here or get to know him through Mickey’s eyes here.
Here are some more interesting facts about Tommy Gates:
1) Tommy is named after Mary’s father Thomas Gates and of course, his middle name Michael comes from his father. No one ever calls him Thomas, though he probably wouldn’t mind if they did. Oddly, it does bother him when people call him Tom. He never got to meet his namesake as his grandfather died while Tommy was in witness protection.
2) He takes the Stanley Cup Playoffs very seriously and has been known to break up with a girlfriend or two when they failed to understand the importance of this.
3) He is a workaholic with a lot of acquaintances but only a handful of real friends.
4) He purposefully tanked his date with his partner’s sister Katelyn Anderson because his number one rule is never mix work and personal life. Of course, that was before he met Agent Ginny Sommers.
5) He donated all of his presents from his father to Goodwill until he was in his teens when he started sending them back (just like the letters). Mickey stopped sending presents and started transferring money to Mary’s bank account after that. On Tommy’s eighteenth birthday, Mary showed him the account she had put it in and said he could use it for college. Tommy still hasn’t touched it.