House of Blues

too late, and then we could blackmail them.
    " Anyway, what I did—I ran the house. I guess
you could say I was literally a housekeeper. I hired the staff, gave
the parties, took care of the caterers, all that kind of stuff; I did
all the scheduling, took care of the laundry—everything except
procuring the bimbos. Also, I kept running the fish company. If you
looked in Maurice Gresham's records, you'd see that he did a whole
lot of 'private security work' for us."
    "Which he didn't really do."
    " Are you kidding? Why would a fish company need
security? He just did us the kind of favors a guy with the run of the
cop shop can do."
    Cappello caught Skip's eye. Skip raised an eyebrow,
acknowledging their previous conversation.
    "So that was the setup," she said. "What
happened last Monday?"
    " Monday?"
    " Were you having a meeting at the clubhouse?"
    " Oh, the night Mo's bimbo showed up pursued by
the mother of the baby she'd kidnapped. What a piece of work, huh?
Can you believe anybody could be so stupid? And can you believe she's
Arthur Hebert's daughter? God, I have some bad luck.
    "Reed comes running up to the gate, trying to
get in, and yelling everyone's name. We had three casino board
members there—did the neighbors need to know that? They'd just left
the meeting, but it was still in progress and I had to do something
with this crazy woman. I didn't have any choice about it."
    She was momentarily fiery, no doubt the Anna that
Reed had seen when she named her the Dragon, the one who was probably
good in business and who ran the mob clubhouse like a four-star
hotel.
    There are women like that. They're great in
business, do their jobs well, they make a terrific impression, but
they're completely submissive to men. Twofers.
    " Why not just tell her to go home?"
    " She saw those casino board peop1e—don't you
understand? Do you know what that means? Then it turns out she's Reed
Hebert. Not only does she know them, but they know her. She's seen
them at the mob clubhouse. That tries and convicts them in their own
minds—and who knows where it might have led? I certainly didn't,
and I didn't know what to do. Except contain the damage. That much I
knew.
    "So I had Eddie and Mike bring her in, along
with the bimbo, who was out of her mind drunk—or something—and
couldn't be reasoned with. And the little girl. Sally." In the
midst of it all, Anna smiled. As soon as she said the name, her face
was transformed. She looked at Skip, possibly because she'd known her
the longest by a couple of hours. "Is Sally all right?" Her
voice was different too, high and too light; worried.
    "She's fine."
    " I took good care of her. I'd never have hurt
her. You know that, don't you? The gun was empty."
    That was true: there were no bullets in the gun she
had held to Sally's head.
    Shellmire said, "So you took the three of them
prisoner."
    "I had no idea what to do. Nothing like this had
ever happened before—first of all, decisions to make; second,
Gustavo out of action. He had gone to New York for a day or two. I
faxed him immediately, thinking to hear back in an hour or two, like
always. Thinking he'd be back in the morning. He'd left no one in
charge, you see. No one.
 
" So
that meant me. I knew that if I didn't hear from him, I was supposed
to pretend I had, I wasn't to let anyone know he couldn't be
reached."
    "You had that agreement with him?"
    Anna looked at him coldly. "When you've spent
your whole life in the mob, you're expected to have a minimum of
street smarts. You don't need agreements."
    "I see."
    " I kept thinking I'd hear from him any second,
but I also knew that if I didn't, something was badly wrong. I was
crazy with worry, and I couldn't help it, I started drinking and
couldn't stop. I don't usually do that." She sounded surprised.
    " I mean, I've never done that in my life."
She looked at each of them in turn. "But I've never—I've never
had a problem like this. Could I have some coffee, please?"
    "Of course. Let's take a ten-minute break."
    Shellmire was probably happy to get her some coffee.
He wanted her to stay alert, stay focused. Keep talking.
    When they had reconvened, Anna seemed to have gotten
a second wind. "I don't think any of you can understand how
panicked I was and how the panic increased minute by minute, hour by
hour, day by day. I'm not trying to excuse what I did—I am deeply
sorry and I know I'll be punished. I just want you to know that you
can't know how crazy I was."
    She stopped and