Chapter 38
Kenny opened the door and pulled Frankie into a rough embrace. “Welcome home, and Merry Christmas.”
Frankie grabbed Kenny’s shoulders and kissed him on both cheeks. “It wouldn’t have been a merry anything if it hadn’t been for you. Thanks for putting up the money for my bail. I did promise to pay you back.”
“What are you talking about? I thought the feds seized all your assets.”
“They missed one,” Frankie whispered.
“Say what?” Kenny whispered back. He knew his apartment wasn’t bugged, but understood Frankie was paranoid because of what Sophia Toscano had done to him.
“Do you mind if we go out on the terrace in your bedroom to talk?”
“Sure,” Kenny agreed, even though the temperature had dipped well below freezing.
“Before I was released, I’d asked the judge for permission to stay in the apartment above the laundromat, and he said yes,” Frankie said in normal tone as they stood outside in the bone-chilling cold.
“I had someone come in and sweep the place for bugs, and they found all of them. When the feds came to take the file cabinet with a set of bogus accounting ledgers, they missed the actual ledgers and cash hidden in a safe under a false floor in a closet. Even though I spilled my guts to Sophia about what I’d been involved in, I never mentioned what my uncle had installed under the floor. ”
“How much cash, Frankie?”
“Try eight mil.” Reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket, he removed an envelope and handed it to Kenny. You’ll find the money you put up for the bail and a little extra for having to withdraw monies from your investments.”
“But I’ll get my money back once you go to trial. That’s if you don’t jump bail.”
“Don’t tempt me with the suggestion. I intend to stand trial and beat the charges. I hired a couple of barracudas for lawyers who convinced the judge to let me post bail. Eight million dollars is tempting enough to convince a lot folks to change their minds.”
“Are you talking bribes?”
“You said it, I didn’t,” Frankie said, smiling. “You said you needed some advice about a situation that has to do with something that happened to your mother back in the day.”
“Let’s go inside, Frankie. I’m freezing my nuts off out here.” Kenny closed and locked the doors to the terrace after they stepped back into the bedroom. He pointed to the journals stacked in a neat pile on the edge of a padded bench at the foot of the king-sized bed.
“What’s in those?” Frankie asked.
“My mother’s life. I packed them away after cleaning out her apartment and forgot about them until one day last week, when I opened the trunk to get a ski jacket and pants that I need to take with me when MacKayla and I leave for Colorado in a couple of days.
Come in the kitchen with me, and I’ll tell you what she wrote down. ”
“You’re fucking kidding me, Kenny! You’re a twin?” Frankie questioned, after Kenny gave him the unabridged version of what Justine had written.
“That’s what my mother wrote, and there’s no reason for her to pen lies.”
Frankie ran a hand through his thinning gray hair. “But you’re nothing like that pompous loudmouth who looks for every opportunity to have his face in front of the camera.”
“That’s because even though we have the same father, we were raised by different women, who are as different as night from day.
The last thing my mother said before she died was that she wanted me to pay the bitches back for ruining her life.
I had no idea of what she was talking about until I read her journals. ”
“There’s no doubt someone needs to pay for forcing her to live a life of lies. And all along, you believed your father was murdered when he was sitting up in a big house in Mount Vernon with his duplicitous wife, pretending she’d given him the heir he wanted. Who the fuck does that?”
“Folks who believe that because they have power and money, they can get whatever they want. I decided to tell you and not Ray, because he would tell me to pray for them, and I’m sorry, but I’m not the forgiving type when it comes to people hurting those I love.”
“Do you mind if I take the journals and read them myself before I come up with a solution to help you pay the bitches back for what they did to your mother? Now I know why she wouldn’t marry my uncle. She was afraid he would find out about her past.”
“There probably wasn’t a day when she didn’t live in fear that someone would uncover who she actually was. And that’s why she wouldn’t let anyone get close to her.”
“No one but Uncle Frank. And there were times when she refused to see him. He would tell me he didn’t understand why she kept pushing him away. It was only after he had cancer that they started to spend more time together.”
“My mother was a complicated woman.”
“She had to be, Kenny, to keep up the facade she had to play all of her life.”
Kenny closed his eyes and shook his head. “That had to be stressful, and now I know that’s why she died so young.”
“Are you going to honor her dying wish and pay the bitches back for how they ruined her life?” Frankie asked.
Kenny opened his eyes. They were cold and unreadable as a stone. “Yes.”
“That’s all I need to know. And I’m not going to tell you how I’m going to make it happen, except that I know people who run a prostitution business and owe me a few favors.
My soul is damned, and I know I’m going to hell, and there’s no way I’m going to bring you down with me.
So, whatever we talked about here stays between us.
After I finish reading your mother’s journals, I’m going to burn them. I hope that’s okay with you?”
“It’s okay, because I also planned to burn them.”
Frankie stood up, Kenny rising with him. “I know you and your girl are planning to go away for Christmas, so I’m going to get out of your hair so you can get ready. Now that you’ve found your special lady, don’t take too long to put a ring on her finger.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking about, because she’s been hinting that she wants to be a June bride.”
“Are you talking about this coming June, Kenny?”
“No. That’s too soon. Her birthday is coming up in July, so that’s when I plan to give her a ring, and if she doesn’t want to wait until the following June, then we’ll marry sooner.”
“Go get the journals, buddy, because I promised my father I’d be back in time to help him put up the tree. I don’t know why he waits until Christmas Eve to get a tree, but I can’t get him to change. I suppose it’s because old folks get stuck in their ways, and it’s hard for them to change.”
“It’s going to happen to us if we live long enough,” Kenny said, smiling. “I’ll be right back.” He put the journals in a canvas sail bag and gave it to Frankie. “Merry Christmas, brother.”
Frankie nodded. “Back at you, brother.”
Kenny walked him to the door, closing it behind him. He felt a sense of relief now that he was able to share what his mother had written with another person. And whatever decision Frankie would come up with, Kenny would go along with it.
He had two things on his wish list for the coming year:
Buy an engagement ring.
And have Ray baptize him.