Page 80 of Urgent Vows
After Severu has a word with Big Sal in my father's office, I lead the way. We go up the stairs to the second floor and walk all the way to the end of the hall. As we progress, men from the entourage peel off to take up security positions along the way. It's all so well-orchestrated. No hesitation, no questions about where to stand. Each of them is alert, their stance military tight.
My bedroom door is open. When I step inside, I see that there are half packed open boxes on the floor. Some with clothes, some with books. Purposefully avoiding even glancing at the books, though I do note with relief that my bookcase is almost empty, I kick off the too big pumps and make a beeline for my wardrobe.
My shoes are sitting in a neat line across the floor. I don't have that many pairs. Just one in each basic color. Other than a single pair of low heels in nude Zia Lora insisted I wear to my cousin's wedding three year's ago, the rest are flats. Satisfaction floods me as I slide on a pair of tan ballet flats with the insert already in the right shoe.
Only then do I head for the fireplace, original to the house. I pause, unable to start the sequence that will open the door hidden in the wall.
Chapter 26
CATALINA
"What is wrong, Catalina?" Severu asks me.
I shake my head. "Nothing. Not really. It's just the first time I've ever opened the secret room with anyone else here."
"You do not need a secret room any longer, Catalina," my husband says like he knows that the room is where the real Catalina has lived for the past eleven years.
I found it when I was fourteen, my first summer home after going away to boarding school. It had been so hard to settle back into life in the mansion after living like other girls at school, with no threat of violence and verbal cruelty hanging over my head every day.
The masonic symbol on the fireplace made me curious and I researched what it might mean. When a book I read said the symbol could indicate a hidey hole in the fireplace, I started searching for other clues. I found the bricks with the three dots. I spent almost the entire summer figuring out what they meant. When I discovered a secret room rather than a hidey hole, I was elated.
Knowing I have no choice but to expose this part of myself I've kept hidden so well for so long, I nod.
I'm comforted to see that the only people in my bedroom now are Severu and Miceli. Even Aldo and Luigi have left. The bedroom door to the hallway is closed.
I like that Severu listened to me and took my suggestion not to let anyone else see my files before he got a look at them.
I push one side of nine bricks in the fireplace marked with a tiny masonic symbol in one corner. Then I grab the little step stool I found in the attic years ago when exploring. I keep it near my bookcase, like it's there so I can reach the top shelf. Although it has been years since I needed it for that as I can reach the books by standing on my tiptoes.
I put the step near the fireplace and get on it to reach up to press the same side of a brick in the chimney. Following the pattern it took me weeks to figure out from both research and trial and error, I press each of the nine bricks in groups of three. Three on the right side, three in the center, three on the left side.
When I push against the last brick, the wall to the left of the fireplace swings out silently revealing a narrow opening into the room beyond.
"There's not a lot of space to move around," I warn Severu.
The room runs the entire width of my bedroom, but it's only about four feet deep. It's never presented a challenge for me, but Severu and Miceli are both big men. Trying to get by one another is going to present a challenge.
Stepping inside, first I disable my failsafe and then I flip the switch on the battery operated lights I hung a few years ago. I recharge one battery set each night so that there is always power. The batteries match those I use for the digital camera Carlotta passed on to me when she stopped using it in favor of her smartphone.
"Fuck me." That's Miceli.
Other than the table and chair I found in the room when I first discovered it, there is no furniture. But I have covered the long wall with boxes stacked up like storage cubes. I check the recyclables weekly for boxes of the right size. Most are from food deliveries to the kitchen.
Feeding a family of five, a half a dozen staff and ten mafia soldiers requires buying food staples in bulk.
"What is all this?" Severu asks.
The boxes aren't full, but all of them have something in them. Composition books filled with my notes, papers I've printed off my computer on the printer I saved from being recycled when a newer model was purchased. It uses the same ink cartridges as the old one and I'm careful, so I don't use more than two cartridges a year. There are books, magazines and pictures related to each box's subject when I can come by them.
"Those are the boxes dedicated to my research into the syndicates." I point to two stacks of boxes five high at the right farthest end of the room. One for each Cosa Nostra territory and the others hold miscellaneous information gleaned about related crime organizations in other states and countries.
Severu and Miceli stride quickly to where I'm pointing. My husband grabs one of the composition books from the top box. It is for New York and is almost full.
He flips through the pages and then looks up at me. "This is more detailed than I expected."
I shrug. "I had a lot of time on my hands."
"The FEDs would shit themselves for this kind of info." Miceli frowns.
