fifty years of security. Why would you hide money with him?”
Delfina said, “I’ll tell you, because I know you’ll keep this in confidence.” He saw that Tasso didn’t contradict him. “I had a couple of things in mind. When Castiglione was out, and DeLuca and I were supposed to split the family, think about my position.”
“I know your position,” said Tasso. “I helped invent it.”
“DeLuca got the city. He could put money anywhere inside it. I would have had to carry it in a suitcase. I had to put it in places that were guaranteed for a while, until I could start using it. I didn’t lay off much with Bernie, but some.”
Tasso took a deep drag on his cigarette, then slowly blew the smoke out. “Bernie was guaranteed?”
“Sure he was. He had you and the others to protect him.” His smile returned. “Is there any other way I could have had you all protecting my money?”
“Not that I know of.” He looked at the cigarette as though he was reluctant to say good-bye to it, and then snuffed it out in his big glass ashtray. “I’m trying to protect you now.”
Delfina could see that what he had said wasn’t enough. “There was another thing. I didn’t put money with Bernie for a lot of years, but Castiglione did. He was in it from the beginning, I heard.”
“Practically,” said Tasso. “In the beginning it was the Langustos. And the Augustinos were in it before it started, because they found him. Then the other New York families, then me and Castiglione and Castananza.”
“That’s a long time ago. When Castiglione was pushed out Tommy DeLuca and I were supposed to split everything.”
Tasso nodded slowly. “There. Now I heard something that sounds like you thought of it. You figure you’re entitled to the money Castiglione laid off with Bernie.”
“Half of it, anyway,” said Delfina. “That was money the family made. When the Commission took the family away from him and gave it to me and DeLuca, did they mean he could take the family’s money to Arizona with him?”
“And that’s why you put money with Bernie.”
“Sure,” said Delfina. “That way I kept up a relationship with Bernie. I thought if DeLuca kept bringing money to him, and I didn’t, he would start to think of DeLuca as a straight one-for-one replacement for Castiglione. Then I lose out.” He shook his head sadly. “Only we all waited too long to ask for the money. Now we all lose out.”
Tasso shrugged. It looked like a sudden jump of his mountainous body. “It ain’t over yet. That’s why there was a meeting.” He reached into his desk and pulled out the two flyers he had picked up on the bus. “This one is Danny Spoleto. Know him?”
“No.”
“He came up in New York. He was Bernie’s bodyguard for a while, then he was a bagman for a while. He went ‘poof’ the day Bernie died.” He sighed. “Probably he heard about Bernie and heard people were looking for him at the same time, so he got scared. But they want to talk to him.” He handed Delfina the picture of Rita Shelford. “This one is even less likely. She’s just a kid, but she worked as a servant in Bernie’s house.”
“Did she disappear too?”
“That’s what they tell me,” said Tasso. “I’m not real hopeful that this is the way to find out who killed Bernie. But the Langustos and some of the others have been watching to see if big money started moving around, and they say it is. They think somebody got a list Bernie kept, or something, and now they’re washing the money. I’m giving it to you, for whatever it’s worth, just so there’s nothing everybody else knows that you don’t know.”
“Why?”
Tasso smiled in appreciation. “Now you’re doing it. But I like things the way they are. I’m old. I’m not happy that Bernie died with some of my money stuck in his frontal lobe. And if anybody ends up with it, I’m going to go see them. I haven’t skipped any meals. I don’t need it. But I like things in balance.” He glared at Delfina. “That’s the lesson I learned from Castiglione,” he said. “We let him get strong. We let him make side deals with some families in other places without telling the rest of us about it. He almost got too strong.”
“Are you worried?”
“I move before I need to worry. That’s why I’m telling you this. At the meeting Molinari asked why you weren’t there. It sounded like he wondered if the reason was that you were the one who did Bernie.”
“Me?” Delfina looked shocked.
“You’re in a lot of places, and you’re smart enough to know how to move money around if you had it. I think he’s satisfied, but don’t forget that the subject came up. If the money doesn’t turn up, the idea could come back. You might want to at least make motions to help find these two.”
“How did Molinari get satisfied?”
“That’s the other thing you should know. Tommy DeLuca said, ‘I didn’t think I should bring more of my guys than necessary.’ ”
“The son of a bitch,” said Delfina.
“Don’t get mad,” said Tasso. “You would have done the same thing if there was a chance to claim all the money Castiglione laid off instead of splitting it. Just keep it in mind, and you’ll be okay. You weren’t invited because DeLuca kept you out.”
“I see,” said Delfina. “If I know it, then it’s neutralized, and you maintain balance.”
“Not quite. You need to know one other thing,” said Tasso. “Molinari knew that Augustino had called the meeting, and that he did it because the Langusto brothers asked him to. If they told DeLuca but not you, then there could be a special relationship.”
“You mean they’ll back him if he says Castiglione’s money goes to him?”
“Maybe. But now you know.”
“Now I know. More balance.”
“That’s right. We could sit here and watch the heads of the families in Chicago and Pittsburgh making an alliance with one of the New York families. But it sounds a little familiar.” He lit another cigarette. “That’s all I have to say right now. Do what you want.”
“Thanks, Chi-chi.” He stood up. “If there’s another meeting will you tell me?”
Tasso nodded. “I’m not going to sit here and watch everything get all screwed up.”
Delfina went through the outer office and down in the elevator with the white-haired operator. It seemed to him that the temperature rose as he descended from floor to floor, until the lobby seemed like an oven. When the old man let him out, he closed the doors and the gate again. Delfina could see the little lights illuminating on the wall above the doors as he rose to the cooler floors.
Delfina walked to his car. He could barely touch the door handle without burning himself. He turned on the air-conditioning as high as it would go, rolled down the windows, and drove a few blocks before he closed them again.
When he reached his hotel room in the Vieux Carre, he saw that there was a fax waiting for him. He called Caporetto in Niagara Falls. “It’s me.”
“Sorry to bother you,” said Caporetto, “but there’s something new. We got a guy to pretend he was a cop and talk to the desk clerks at the hotel. The girl was really there. She checked in by herself, with her own credit card. Then, when she checked out, there was an older woman with her, who had them transfer the hotel bill to her card. But the girl had eaten in the restaurant and charged it to her card, not the room. That’s why the charge stuck and we got it.”
“What’s the woman’s name?”
“Kathleen Hobbs,” said Caporetto.
“Did you run her?”
“Yeah. The card is real, but I think the woman may be a ringer. The card’s about five years old, but it looks like she doesn’t use it much. There’s nothing recent, and nothing major on the credit report, either. No mortgage, no car payment, nothing bought on time.”
“Of course she’s a ringer. Would you have put that bill under your real name?”
“No.”
Delfina began to pace his room, but the cord kept pulling him back to the desk. He looked down, and the flyers Tasso had given him were staring up at him. “Did you get her description?”
“Yeah. Tall—like five-nine—and thin—a hundred and twenty-five or thirty. Late twenties or early thirties and pretty, but not like a movie star. More like a dancer or something, lots of leg and kind of all elbows and sharp edges.
