Chapter 19: The Key He Asked For

The council met at noon in a union hall off Route 3, with the blinds down and sixty men on folding chairs.

Lombardi capos filled the left side, tanned men who had flown in from California overnight.

The three allied families sat across from them.

The white-mustached man from the warehouse sat in the front row with his arms folded.

Paolo stood at the head of the room in a fresh pale suit, with his right forearm in a white sling.

He smiled when I walked in.

I had the iron ring on my hand and the keys at my waist.

Behind me came the Greco captains in a double line.

Domenico walked at my left shoulder, and Agnese followed with her cane tapping on the linoleum.

The room got quiet in pieces, from the front to the back.

"Cari," Paolo said, and he opened his good arm to the room.

"Gentlemen, my sister has come to put an end to this."

"I have," I said.

He had told them I would surrender, and the Lombardi side leaned forward to watch it.

He had told them I was a tired woman taken in by her husband's enemies.

He had told them I would give up the cipher with my own mouth.

I walked up the middle aisle and stopped in front of him.

"You asked for the true key in front of the whole alliance," I said.

"I did."

"I told you I'd give it."

"You did, Cari, and I'm grateful."

I took a folded slip of paper out of my sleeve and held it out.

He took it with his good hand and did not look at it yet.

A man from the back of the room carried up the canvas bag and set it on the table at Paolo's elbow.

Paolo lifted the first ledger out of it and laid it open in the light.

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