“I was there when he decided.” He looks into the distance, old memories returning to him. “He says to me he’s got to stop gambling. I’m there collecting from his latest losses and he gets all serious. He says he’s got a plan, so he doesn’t spend her inheritance. He was drunk enough to spill it. Says he’s putting what’s left of his fortune into a vault and locking it away. I told him he could just get it back out again when he gets the urge to gamble and that’s when he grins at me. Says he’s put a time lock on it. Can only be opened by one key and he’s giving it to Natalie when she turns eighteen. That way her mom can’t get it and neither can Winnie.
“He gets this look in his eyes and I almost feel sorry for him. He starts crying right in front of me. He says Natalie’s got five years to work out how to get into the vault. If she doesn’t figure it out, the lock seals up for good. He’s hooked it up in there, so the whole lot will be incinerated after five years.
“I ask him why he would do something like that and he just giggles madly and says her mom liked puzzles. See if she can work this one out. I swear, he was losing it, even back then. Too much Scotch and too many nights being yelled at by Winnie. Tells me how the box works and then passes out in front of me.”
“So his fortune is in a bank vault? Why not just rob the bank?”
“Firstly, no one knows which bank. Secondly, it’s a vault within a vault. You’ve got to get downstairs and got to have the key. He’s got Luigi’s kid guarding it, working at the bank. One sign of forced entry and the flames start up. No one can get in unless they’ve got the key, and the key is in the box. So you get the box and we find out where the vault is. Then we get the fortune. I clear my debts with their money. Anything left, you can have when you inherit.”
“Who else would you give it to but me?”
“Your cousin is itching to take over. Says he can get hold of the box if I give him a chance.”
“Flavio is a worm, you know that as well as I do. He fucked up the Green Bay job. Cost us twenty-thousand in an hour by dumping the stuff when the cops came after him.”
“He may be a worm, but he may also run things if you fuck this up. You got your mask ready?”
I hold up the porcelain face-mask with the holes carved in it for me to see through. “Relax. It’s going to be fine. I know what I’m doing.”
“I’ll relax when you bring me that box.” His eyes narrow. “Fail me and I’ll kill you.”
Chapter Three
Natalie
* * *
“I can’t believe he’s still doing the masked ball thing.”
We’re in a side room off the entrance hall. Mom is rummaging in a box, pulling out one mask after another. She hands me a black silk one. “Wear that,” she adds.
“What for?”
She picks up a mask in blue painted porcelain, sliding it over her face. “We had these balls twice a year when me and your father were together. The families have been doing these for generations. Everyone wears a mask until they pair off and head together into a side room. Think of it like speed dating without the embarrassment. You don’t like someone, you can reject them without worrying you might bump into them. You want to get up to some rolling in the hay with a stranger, you can do it without your reputation being sullied. It’s how I met your father. He was wearing this beautiful red mask, covered his whole face except his eyes. I knew from the moment I saw those eyes that I had to marry the owner of them.” She sighs. “Maybe you’ll meet someone while we’re here.”
She walks over to the far door and turns the handle. “Let’s do this.”
I slip my mask over my face and go after her. I walk into a ballroom that immediately overwhelms my senses. There are people everywhere. A band is playing on the stage at the far end. Dancers move back and forth in front of me. The men are all in suits, black, gray, tan, white. The women are all in beautiful gowns, some scandalously short, others sweeping the floor. Everyone is in masks. No one is looking my way.
I can’t see Mom. What I can see is a bar. I head for it, hoping this isn’t the kind of place that checks ID.
I get there at the same time as two men. I hang back while they order, listening as they bicker about something. “I’m telling you, he was here.”
“Bullshit,” the other one replies. “How could you tell? Everyone’s got a fucking mask on.”
“You think I wouldn’t know Angelo Genovese when I see him?”
“I’m saying why would he be dumb enough to show up here?”
“Maybe he’s come to try to get the box same as us.”
That gets my attention. I listen closer.
“He doesn’t know how to use it.”
“All right, maybe he’s scouting the place for an attack.”
“You’re talking out your ass. The Genoveses would never risk it. They’re chicken shit and so’s he. Been out of the game for too long.”