Chapter 16: On His Knees in the Rain

Lacey came to the gate at one in the morning, in the same gold dress, with a cardboard box in her arms.

The guard held a light on her face for a long minute and then called the big guard down from the house.

I was awake already.

I had not slept since the ballroom.

I found them in the gatehouse, Lacey on a hard chair, her shoes in her lap, and the box open on the table.

"These are copies," she said. "I made them in the office on Saturday night, after you left. He thinks I'm at my sister's."

"Why?" I said.

"Because he put me in front of the room tonight and said I plan events."

Her mouth shook.

"I've planned his events for two years," she said. "I've never once been called his anything."

The big guard lifted out a ledger and turned it toward me.

Down the left side ran the dates of the first Monday of each month, and down the right the numbers.

Cash was paid in at the end of every month, in round sums, and each one was marked with the same two letters.

R.R.

I looked at the initials for a long time.

"Do you know whose those are?" the guard asked.

"I know," I said.

I didn't say it aloud, because Lucian had come down behind me on his cane, and I wanted him to read it for himself.

He put one finger on the letters.

He said nothing at all, and he didn't need to.

At dawn on Monday the state police and two federal agents went into the Long Island City warehouse with a warrant.

The captain who had danced at Lucian's daughter's wedding had signed it himself.

We watched it on the television in the kitchen, with Renata bringing us coffee.

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