He smiled, his eyes riveted on Mercy. He came toward them with his arms outstretched.
“My God, Mercy, I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see you.”
When he moved to embrace her, Mercy stepped back and stuck out her hand for him to shake.
He looked surprised at first, but then glanced at Pine and a look of understanding broke over his features. He shook her hand. “I’m obviously getting way ahead of myself. You don’t even know me. I’m so sorry. Please, sit down.”
He joined them around a coffee table and looked each of them over before settling his gaze on Pine. “I understand that you have been informed the FBI has closed the matter involving Tim.”
“Am I wrong to sense your hand in all that?” asked Pine.
“I had a personal stake in it, too. They were investigating me as well, you know. But I will admit to placing a few phone calls to old comrades, as well as to people on Capitol Hill to whom I have donated liberally over the years. It was beyond clear that Ito Vincenzo came there to kill Tim and Tim merely defended himself. Now, I understand from Agent McAllister that you all had some adventure out in the western U.S., but he didn’t elaborate.”
“It’s classified,” said Pine. “But we all survived to make it here.”
Lineberry’s jaw slackened at this comment, but he snapped it shut and looked at Mercy. “I’m assuming that your sister has filled you in on things?”
Mercy looked him over, glanced around the finely appointed room, the purchased domain of the very rich, and then glanced back at him, unimpressed. “That you slept with our mom and had us? Yeah, got that. So I hear you want to leave us all your stuff. Can I take some of mine now? I got bills to pay and have to get back on my feet. It’ll probably be less than what you spend on haircuts.”
Blum stiffened, but Pine didn’t. She had wondered what her sister’s reaction to this meeting would be. And what had happened did not surprise her.
To his credit, Lineberry didn’t react to this, either. No patronizing smile, no look of anger or disappointment, nothing to show that he felt disrespected in any way by her blunt comments.
But he did glance at Pine and said firmly, “Atlee, would you and Carol mind giving Mercy and me a few minutes alone?”
“You okay with that, Mercy?” said Pine.
She shrugged. “Whatever.”
Pine and Blum rose to leave. Pine anxiously glanced back before closing the door and saw father and daughter staring at each other across a span of about six feet. It might as well have been six million. She closed the door after her.
CHAPTER
80
SO CAN I GET THE MONEY NOW, or do I have to wait for you to die?” said Mercy.
Lineberry said, “Oh, I’m sure something can be arranged. As you can clearly see, I have a great deal of wealth. You certainly should have your share of it.”
“That’s not what I meant. I had to quit all my jobs to go back into my past and get stuff figured out. And I got tossed out of my place, so I’m homeless right now. All I need is a little stash to get back on my feet, find some work, and I’m good to go. And you can leave all the rest to Lee. I don’t need it.”
“So that’s it? It’s just the money. No other questions for me? About your mother?”
Mercy shrugged. “I know all I need to. When I got taken my mother never looked for me. She left me to rot in a hellhole. Then she abandoned Lee and was never seen again. Oh, and then she wrote some bullshit letter to you to make herself feel better. And in that letter she never once mentioned trying to find me, so screw her. Did I miss anything?”
“You missed a great deal. Like the truth.”
Mercy stared at him contemptuously. “Oh, is this where you tell me she was, what, like that Joan of Arc chick?”
“No, she had her faults, many of them, as we all do. She made mistakes—again, like we all do, including me and, I’m sure, including you.”
“Don’t include me in this, okay?” Mercy said sharply, glowering at him.
“But you are part of it.” He paused and looked thoughtfully at her. “Your mother blamed herself for what happened to you and your sister. She went berserk with guilt. She pulled out all the stops to try to find you.”
“I know that’s bullshit. If she had, she would have found me.”
As though he hadn’t heard her, Lineberry continued, “And then she was forced to stop looking for you, at least officially. After that, she was compelled to go underground with her remaining family.”
This got Mercy’s attention. “Forced to stop?”
Lineberry gave her an appraising look. “I’ve never even told your sister what I’m about to tell you.” He paused again, as though to make certain he had her full attention. “Are you prepared to hear it? If not, you can get up and leave. I won’t try to stop you.” He reached into his pocket and took out a checkbook. “I can write you a check now so you can get back on your feet. Will two hundred thousand dollars do it? If not, just name the amount. A million? Two million? Ten? I don’t really care.”
Mercy flinched at these absurdly large numbers, but then relaxed. She slowly nodded. “I’m ready to hear it, but that’s not the same as believing it. You were in love with my mom and maybe you still are. You’d probably say anything to make her look good.”
He set his checkbook aside. “What I’m about to tell you is the literal truth. Whether you believe me or not is up to you.”
Mercy folded her arms over her chest, sat back, and waited.
“The Mafia families that your mother helped take down at the tender age of eighteen? They still had many tentacles across the country, in many different forms. Including in law enforcement and the federal government.”
“Stop right there. I was told a dude named Ito something or other kidnapped me and tried to kill Lee. Then he dumped me with this psycho family. And he did it for his brother, who was in the mob and got screwed somehow. He blamed my mother for it. That’s what Lee told me.”
“Bruno Vincenzo did get screwed. But not by your mother.”
“Who then?”
“I’ll get to that. Your mother made a deal with Bruno when he discovered her identity. It was the only thing she could have done. If she were exposed it would have blown the entire operation and cost your mother, and many other people, their lives. And apart from that, many dangerous and hardened mobsters would have gone unpunished, free to commit more terrible acts. So she made the deal with Bruno, and that deal was approved at the highest government levels. But when it came time to live up to that deal, Bruno got double-crossed. He was supposed to get immunity and then be placed in Witness Protection. Neither of those measures ever happened.”
“Why not?” said Mercy, now looking interested and engaged.
“Because a very high-ranking official, a man many rungs above me and a name that many Americans would recognize, ordered the deal not to be honored. Bruno was tried and convicted, and he was killed in prison by the mob for being a snitch.”
“Why would this high-ranking guy do that?”