Chapter 22: The Vote

Roxanne's voice shook so hard in the first sentence that the speakers squealed.

She stepped back from the microphone, and then forward again.

"My name is Roxanne Wrentham," she said. "I'm a nurse. I'm not here to say what Mr. Kinsella wants."

The old man's smile stayed where it was.

"Three years ago in March I called him twice from Denver," she said. "I told him which boy in his crew belonged to Marcello Bellandi."

"His name was Eli Keane. He was twenty-four."

The chapel went so quiet that I heard the heating pipes tick.

"I did it for money," Roxanne said. "My sister's care home. I took the payments every month, and I stood at his funeral and held his sister's arm."

"I made the video that said Marcello did it. I put his face on that man."

She pointed at the heavy man against the wall, with a hand that shook.

"And I built the poll you're all about to vote on."

Gwen's father moved at last.

"My dear girl is unwell," he said gently. "Someone take her out."

Two of his men started down the aisle.

Marcello's men stood up in the pews, twenty-nine of them, with their hands empty and their eyes on the Kinsella coats.

The two men stopped.

The old man's voice had lost its warmth.

"The vote will go on. The question is on the screen."

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