“It was before that,” Grossi said, “in my office. Before a witness.”
“Who, Roland?”
“No, not Roland. I said to Frank, you’re kidding. He said no, very serious. I know his voice, his tone. Nobody goes near her. I asked him why. He said I didn’t have to know that. Then Vivian came in, took some dictation. She witnessed my saying yes to him, it would be done.”
“Vivian, your secretary?”
“She’s more my assistant.”
“And Roland?”
“Somebody to carry it out, do the work.”
“You trust Roland?”
“He does what he’s told and keeps his mouth shut,” Grossi said.
You don’t know him, Karen thought, but held back from saying it. “Who else knows about it?”
“Well, Jimmy Capotorto. I told him a little, but not everything.”
Karen frowned. “Who?”
“Capotorto. Frank knew him. He’s been with Dorado for years; one of the associates.”
“Who else?” Karen said.
“That’s all.” Grossi paused. “But there are some stipulations I didn’t mention the other day that I didn’t want to get into all at once.”
“Like what?” Karen said.
“Well, if you move, the payments stop. You have to live in Frank’s house.”
“Frank’s house,” Karen said. “And if I marry again-I asked you that the other day, you said you weren’t sure.”
“For some reason it’s not a stipulation. I guess Frank assumed we’d see nobody got close to you.”
“But there’s nothing in the agreement that says I can’t take the entire amount.”
“Not in writing, no, but in the spirit of it, you might say.”
“Sign the bonds over to me and let’s forget the whole thing,” Karen said.
Grossi said nothing, looking at Karen, then at his cottage cheese, touching it tentatively with his spoon.
“Do you know why he did it?” Karen said. “Because he was having an affair and I found out about it. With a real estate woman.” A hint of amazement in her tone. “I told him-I wasn’t even serious, I was mad-I told him if he was going to fool around, I would too.”
“Well, he took it at face value and here we are.” Grossi seemed hesitant, working something out in his mind as they sat at his regular table in the corner of the grill room. He said, “Karen, I’ll tell you, something like this, I agree, it sounds like we’re back in the old country.”
“But we’re not,” Karen said; firm, knowing how far she was willing to go. “Ed, you’re aware of the people in here, how they keep looking at us?”
“You get used to it.”
“I go to the john I get looks, I hear my name, Mrs. Frank DiCilia, yes, that’s her, people talking about me, not going to much trouble to hide it.”
“Sure, you’re like a movie star.”
“All right, what if I stood up right now and made a speech,” Karen said. “Tapped my glass with a spoon-‘May I have your attention, please? I want to tell you something you’re not going to believe, but it’s the honest-to-God truth, every word.’ ”
“Karen, come on.”
“Come on where? Goddamn it, I’m not going to play your game. I’m not in the fucking Mafia or whatever you don’t call it. What do you expect me to do?”
“Keep it down a little, all right? I understand how you feel.”
“Like hell you do.”
“Yes, I do.” Grossi nodding patiently. “Listen to me a minute. I acknowledge his wish, I’m thinking, Jesus Christ, nobody ever wanted something like this before. I try to remember. Maybe a long time ago, I don’t know.”
“But it doesn’t matter, because you do whatever he says.” Karen holding on, refusing to let go. “He tells you to kill somebody-what’s the difference?”
“Karen”-the tired voice-“what is that? You think it’s a big thing? Maybe sometimes it is, but there’s a reason for everything. The man has a reason, I don’t have to ask him why.”
She leaned close to the table. “I told you why. Because he has this thing in his head about paying back.”
“Listen to me and let me finish,” Grossi said. “Even when I don’t want anything to do with it, I have to satisfy my conscience I’ve done something, I’ve acknowledged, I’ve gone through the motions. You understand? Then I say to myself, okay, that’s all you can do. You can’t watch her the rest of your life. I say to myself, did he mean that long? Forever? I answer no, of course not. I get a heart attack, cancer, I’m gone. Who continues the agreement? Jimmy Capotorto? Well, if I tell him to, but what does he care? He’s got enough to think about. So how can it be forever? I say, Frank wanted to teach her a lesson. All right, there’s the lesson. Did she learn it? I don’t know. Like a teacher-did the student learn it? What can the teacher do? So, I say, it’s up to her, she knows what’s going on. She knows his wish, stay away from men even after his death. Does she want to honor his wish? I say to myself, not to you, not to anybody else, only to myself. Maybe it should be up to her now. Something between her and her husband.”
There was a silence.
“You have more to do than keep watch on me,” Karen said.
Grossi nodded.
“Assign the bonds over and let’s stop all this.”
“I have to think about it a little more.”
“But you will keep Roland away from me.”
“Don’t worry about Roland.”
She sat quietly, aware of sounds, voices around her. She waited, wanting to be sure. Ed Grossi touched the cottage cheese again with his spoon, then put the spoon down and picked up his napkin.
“I won’t have to go to court then,” Karen said.
“No, you won’t have to go to court, if you give me time, let me be sure in my mind it’s all right.”
“Thank you,” Karen said.
Maguire’s body, arms raised, a piece of fish in each hand, formed a Y. He stood on the footrung of an aluminum pole that dug into his groin, the pole extending from a platform on a slight angle, so that Maguire’s fish-offerings were held some fifteen feet above the surface of the Flying Dolphin Show tank.
He said to the mothers and fathers and children lining the cement rail, “Okay… now this double hand-feeding can be a little tricky, considering the height”-looking up-“and the wind conditions today. The dolphins could collide in midair, with a combined weight of”-serious, almost grim-“nine hundred pounds. And you know who’s gonna be under them if they do. Yours truly, standing up here trying to look cool. Okay… here they come. Bonnie on my right, Pebbles on my left-”
Or was it the other way around?
The pair of dolphin rose glistening wet-gray in the sunlight, took the fish from his hands and peeled off, arching back into the water.
“And they got it! How about that, fifteen feet in the air. Wasn’t that great? Let’s hear it for Bonnie and… Peb-bles.”
Applause, as Maguire stepped down off the pole to the platform. He got three hunks of cod from his fishbucket, quickly threw two of them out to Bonnie and Pebbles, and waited for Mopey Dick.
Come on-
Mopey’s head rose from the water, below the platform. A wet raspberries sound came from Mopey’s blowhole.
“What? You didn’t like the double jump, Mopey?”
Rattles and clicks and whines from the blowhole. The kids watching, looking over the rail, loved it.
“You say you can jump higher?”
More rattles and clicks.
“Well, let’s just see about that.” Maguire sidearmed Mopey the piece of fish he was holding, stooped to the bucket and selected a long tailpiece. “You think you’re so good, let’s see you come up sixteen feet and take the fish out of my mouth. Okay, Mopey? Everybody want to see him try it?”
Of course. The kids yelling, “Yeaaaaaaa-” as Maguire, with a piece of dead fish hanging from his mouth, adjusted the pole, raising it a foot, thinking, Jesus Christ-
Karen came out of the round white building, Neptune’s Realm, down from the Flying Dolphin Show. She waited on the walk, looking around, as the moms and dads with their cameras and kids moved on to the Shark Lagoon.