I Hunted His Mistress for Three Years, But She Was My Best Friend novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Order Book
The old Don's study had been locked since the day of his funeral.
Agata opened it on Tuesday morning with a key she wore on a chain under her dress.
The room smelled of cigars and dust.
A black iron strongbox stood behind the desk, and she knelt in front of it with her cane across her knees.
"I have not touched this in nine years," she said. "He told me it held his will."
"Did it?"
"Let us see."
Inside lay a deed, a rosary and a thick black book bound with a strap.
Agata unbuckled it and began to turn the pages.
They were columns of dates in an old man's hand, each followed by a name and a sum.
Her thumb stopped.
"The ninth of March," she said.
I leaned over her shoulder.
The entry was short.
Santoro, Bensonhurst. The man and his wife.
Done by D., with a second man and the driver.
No vote of the table. Twenty thousand paid.
Under it, in smaller letters, was another line.
The girl was not found. Ask no one.
Agata read it twice with her lips moving.
"Fifteen years," she said. "He told me it was a house fire. I held that girl's hand at the funeral."
"Mirella?"
"I dressed her myself." The cane slid off her knees and clattered on the floor. "Twenty thousand dollars. For two people."
I did not know what to say.
She sat back on her heels and wiped her face with the heel of her hand, and it was a moment before she spoke again.
"A made man does not die without the table's vote," she said. "That is the oldest law we have. Mirella's father was a made man of this family. The table must be shown this book."
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