Chapter 21: Goodbye, Uncle

At nine the next morning the green felt table was bare except for Serena's ledger.

Plaster dust from the ceiling still lay on the floor where the capo had fired, and nobody had swept it.

Carmine sat in the folding chair the doctor had used, in yesterday's suit.

A man from each family sat on either side of him.

He had not shaved.

I had never seen my uncle look exhausted.

Vincent stood behind my low chair with one hand on its back.

He asked me before he did it, and I said yes.

"Before the Table decides on Carmine," the old boss said, "there's a second matter. Strozzi's own house."

Serena walked to the head of the room with the ledger in both arms.

She was in her gray cardigan, and she was twelve weeks along, with a hand pressed flat on her stomach.

Paolo stood by the door and did not take his eyes off her.

"I keep the Strozzi books," she said.

"For two years, a hauling company has billed us on the first of every month for cartage we never used.

"The same sum, every time. It's paid from a Cardello construction account to the cousin of one of our capos."

She turned the pages for the old boss and laid a finger on the line.

The gold-tooth capo sat on the floor against the back wall with his hands tied in front of him.

His face was swollen on one side.

He had not said a word since the gun.

"That's a lie," he said now, thickly. "She's a bookkeeper. She cooks numbers."

"Do you want me to read the dates?" Serena asked. "I'll start with the first. It was three weeks after the wedding."

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