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“You calling me a cheat?”
“I’m simply saying I’ve come a long way in life by being cautious. Imagine if I’d paid the fee and then walked into the vault and the key didn’t work. Then where would I be?”
“It’s your vault. Why not just break into the damn box?”
“Because it’s not mine, is it? It’s the organization’s. I simply stand guard over it. I walk in and break into a box and the cameras catch it all. Rules are there for a reason, Jack. You know that.”
“Like the rule about killing an untouchable?”
“One, I didn’t kill an untouchable.” He points the severed finger at me. “You did. If anyone gets in the shit for this, it won’t be me. Two, it’s not my fault that they left me a loophole. Want to know what it is?”
“Enlighten me.”
“The rules specify fingerprint and key to get into the boxes. Doesn’t specify that the fingerprint needs to still be attached to a live body. That’s on them, not me.”
“Dumb fucking rule.”
“On that, we agree.” He stamps out his joint into a crystal ashtray. “We’ve got a lot in common. You know that? We both do what we need to in order to get by. We both know there is no right and wrong in this world. There is only money and those who do what it takes to hold on to it. The weak ones, the pussies, they are the ones that fall by the wayside, but not you and not me. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to having you on the team. You’re like the son I never had, Jack.”
“Yeah, you said.”
“You really are. Coldhearted, dead inside, you’re more like me than I am. Start of a wonderful friendship right here.”
“Not good enough for you to pay me yet.”
“A formality, that’s all. Let’s go to the vault and by the time you come out, you’ll be a very rich man.”
There’s a tapping sound from behind Vincenzo. “Enter,” Vincenzo shouts.
A door I didn’t even notice swings open in the bookcase to the left. “Straight to outside,” Vincenzo explains. “For those visitors who don’t want to walk past all the tellers. Or for the bodies to be taken out if someone lies to me.”
Through the door comes a goon in a suit too small for him, like it shrunk in the wash. He’s got someone behind him on the end of a cord. I follow the line of rope and do my best to keep the shock from my face. It’s Isobel. She looks half asleep.
“Still coming out of the sedation,” Vincenzo says, motioning toward a chair along the far wall. “Not sure why you want her back so bad. Main thing she does is whine. It’s a real downer.”
The goon shoves her into the chair and then turns to grin at me, as if taunting me.
Vincenzo puts an arm around my shoulder. “The key fits, and she’s free to join you, Jack. Call it a gesture of goodwill. Unhurt like I promised. Not a scratch on her. Been well fed, she has. Told her tutor to take good care of her. She knows more than most kids her age. Hell, you should be grateful I took her in.”
I fight the urge to grab her and run. “I was told the organization was holding her.”
“I picked her up this morning. Told them I was handing her back to you. I will too. As long as you’re not trying to doublecross me.”
“Let me guess. Key doesn’t fit, and she dies?”
“Got it in one. Either we’re back up here in five minutes together and I give the nod or she’s joining mama and papa on the big cloud in the sky.”
I don’t look at Isobel. I can’t feel things. Not now. Not when I’m so close.
“Come on. Let’s do this.” Vincenzo walks over to the office door. “If we’re not back in five minutes, shoot her.”
“Yes, Don Vincenzo.” The goon grins at me.
I turn away, the last thing in the world I want to do.
Decisions. Got to make them all the time. Like it or not, I’ve made mine. Now I’ve got to follow this through to the end.
We walk out past the tellers to a red curtain toward the back of the bank. Pushing past it, we descend a flight of stairs. At the bottom is a locked door and a keypad. Vincenzo types in a code while I wait behind him. The door clicks, thuds, and then rolls to the side without another sound.
