Page 121 of Urgent Vows
I look around trying to figure out what it could be.
He grins and it transforms his face. For a moment, the cold don is gone completely and the mischievous boy who might have existed if he'd been allowed a real childhood shines from his dark eyes. "Did you know criminals were just as likely to build their homes with secret passages as the Masons?"
"You have a secret passage?" Excitement and curiosity burn inside me.
He nods and then with a flourish, he waves me toward the wall with the painting. Severu presses against one of the carved squares that connects the sections of wainscoting.
A panel shifts to the side to reveal a modern biometric scanner. "My family had these installed when the technology was first developed," he tells me. "We've kept them up to date ever since."
What's in the secret passage they are so careful to protect? He puts his hand on the pad, it is scanned and then he types a code into the keypad beside the scanner. He types into the keypad again and says, "Put your hand on the scanner."
I do and a laser travels the length of my hand.
"Now you can open it. The keycode changes weekly. I'll give you the new combination every Sunday."
Wow. "Okay."
"Only three people have access to this passage. Myself, Miceli and now you."
Not even his mother? Something stirs in my chest. He's telling me that he trusts me. Like a lot.
Part of the wall swings inward, and we enter an elegant, if narrow, hallway. No dank, or barren wood passages for this mafia family. It looks empty, but Severu stops in the middle of the wall and goes through the same process as before, having me scan my hand a second time.
Afterward, the wall slides open and reveals a steel vault door. This is the vault he mentioned to Miceli back at the mansion? Is my research data on the syndicates inside?
Excitement burbles through me.
The biometric scanner on the vault door requires an eye scan and another code typed in. Then a clank sounds and Severu pulls it open.
Inside is an area about eight feet deep and easily fifteen feet wide. The wall to my left is lined in shelves filled with ledgers. Some look really old, some look fairly new. The wall to my right is made up of drawers and the back wall has a series of cabinets. Everything is dark wood, the handles on the cabinets and drawers brass fittings like they had in banks back in the 1920s.
There's a six-foot table in the center with two straight backed chairs.
Now I understand why the study, library and my office are designed the way they are. The narrow rooms seem longer than they really are, providing space for the passage and the vault behind them. If I remember the layout of this floor, this hidden vault lies between the kitchen pantry and the closet of the empty guest room to the right of my new office.
He points to a column of drawers. "This is where Miceli stored your research. You can add information to it, or access it any time you like, but it will remain here for safekeeping."
And I have access through my office. He's showing me a level of trust that humbles me. What does Miceli think of me taking over his office and having access to the vault? He hasn't shown any resentment toward me. Does that mean he's okay with it?
"I'm surprised it's all wood." It's easier to comment on that than to let myself think about what Severu showing this means to me.
"The vault is lined with concrete and steel plates, which means no internet or phone access. There is power, so air-gapped computers can be used. There are also sealed spaces above and below lined with more concrete and steel plates. Their entire purpose is to stop anyone from getting to our vault from above or below and to create a fire barrier."
That must be why the vault's ceiling is only seven feet when the rest of the home has 12 foot ceilings.
He pulls open a cabinet to reveal a set of leather bound volumes on one of the shelves. "These contain the history of the De Luca family in New York."
Severu hands the one from the far left to me.
I open it and carefully thumb through the pages. It's handwritten. Some pages just have dates and events. Some show family lines and others have entries like a journal. It's all from the late 1800s, before this building was even built.
"The journals are added to by every generation and then passed on to the next." He's giving me access to a hidden history, to information about his family that no one else knows. "The De Lucas were one of the first families to swear allegiance to The Genovese, but my grandfather was the first De Luca don. He was a behind the scenes player who could step in when the top men went to prison on RICO charges."
An unknown made man with a long history in the family would have been the perfect choice for don when the Cosa Nostra in America had to return to their incognito roots.
"You don't mind if I read them?" I run my hands reverently over the journals.
"They are as much yours as mine now, Catalina."
