Part 21 (1/2)
32.
Salvatore Maniella rose from the sofa, walked to the library door, opened it, and spoke to Black s.h.i.+rt, or maybe Gray s.h.i.+rt, who was standing watch in the hall. ”Please ask our other guest to join us.”
A minute later she strode into the room, sat in the other chair, and crossed those long, long legs.
”I understand no introductions are necessary,” Sal said.
”Some reason you feel the need to have your lawyer present?” I asked.
”Just being careful.”
”I'm gonna take a wild stab here and say the body in the morgue isn't you.”
”No.”
”So who is it?”
”His name was Dante Puglisi.”
”Age?”
”Sixty-four.”
”Address?”
”He lived here.”
”A relative?”
”No. He was in my employ. Had been for a long time.”
”How long?”
”Since we mustered out of the SEALs together.”
”What did he do for you?”
”Little of this, little of that. Driver. Bodyguard. Workout partner. Sometimes he helped out around the place.”
”Didn't his family wonder where he was the last three months?”
”His parents were killed in a car accident twenty years ago. We were the closest thing to family he had left.”
”He looked a lot like you.”
”He did.”
”Similar features, same height and weight, same eye and hair color, same Van Damme arms and Schwarzenegger chest.”
”That's correct.”
”Was anything done to enhance this resemblance?”
”About ten years ago, he had a little work done, yes.”
”Why?”
Sal glanced at Yolanda. She nodded, indicating it was okay to answer.
”Shortly after I opened our strip clubs, I became involved in a dispute with some of our state's more unsavory characters.”
”Carmine Gra.s.so and Johnny Dio,” I said.
”You know of this?”
”I do.”
”Well, perhaps you can understand why it seemed advisable to employ a double.”
”When the two of you were together, the Mob wouldn't know which one to shoot,” I said.
”Quite right.”
”And you could send him on errands posing as you.”
”From time to time I did that, yes.”
”Last September, he went to the Derby Ball in your place.”
”He did.”
”And it got him killed.”
”Yes.”
”What was he there for?”
”I'd prefer not to get into that.”
”I was there, too,” I said, ”covering the event for the Dispatch.”
”Were you now.”
”I was. I saw him there, cozying up to the governor. Of course, I thought it was you. The governor probably thought so, too.”
”Perhaps he did.”
”Conducting some business for you with the governor, was he?”