Chapter 11: The Chapel Vote

The old Don from Elizabeth called the table for six the next morning, in the Barzini chapel at the cemetery in Belleville.

Nico had gone to him before dawn with the doctor's recording, and he did not wait his seven days.

"Because tomorrow Barzini will have had time to bury it," he said.

The chapel was cold stone and wooden pews, with a stained window of a saint holding a lamb.

Five Dons sat in the front rows in dark coats.

Marco came in last, with Rosaria on his arm and Silvia a step behind in a navy dress, her hand under her stomach.

I sat at the end of the second pew with Gina.

Nico stood against the wall.

Two men from the old Don's family brought the doctor up the aisle with his hands in front of him.

He had not slept in the cellar.

His cardigan was crushed, and he looked ten years older.

He did not look at Marco.

"Say it," the old Don said, and tapped his cane. "Everything. As you said it to the girl."

The doctor stood in front of the altar and said it.

He spoke for a long time.

When he reached the fourth lot, nobody breathed.

He said the word "valve" and a man in the third row stood up and walked out, and the door banged behind him.

Several of the men looked at the floor.

One, a heavy man in a camel coat, said "Madonna" under his breath and crossed himself twice.

Marco did not say a word.

When the doctor finished, the old man turned to the front pew.

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