“You knew she had a sister.”
“But I never had an inkling that she was so…”
“Yeah, she is, isn’t she? Stay away from her; she’s dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Well, for a start, she has a real snake for an ex-husband.”
“Who is he?”
“His name is Johnny Donato.”
“That has a familiar ring.”
“It should; he was a capo under Big Paul Castellano, before Gotti had him capped. Word is, he was supposed to be driving the Paul that night, which means he would have got it, too, but Paul sent him on some errand or other, so he survived. He disappeared after that and didn’t turn up again until Gotti and Sammy Gravano were in jail. Now he’s running a supposedly legit concrete business, taking up where Sammy left off.”
“And how did a girl as elegant as Dolce end up with a guy like that?”
“Pretty much the same way Mary Ann ended up with me. He was a guy from the neighborhood, working for a bookie and running his own little protection racket on the side. He tried to get a weekly paycheck out of my old man for not burning down his candy store, but when I heard about it I took him aside and discussed it with him.”
“You mean, you beat the shit out of him?”
“Something like that.”
“So why didn’t he and his friends retaliate?”
“I made sure I got him alone, made it personal; nobody saw it, so he didn’t have to salvage his pride. Besides, by that time I was a cop, so he didn’t want to mess with me.”
“Dolce looks too smart to get mixed up with somebody like that, let alone marry him.”
“She is smart, but she was eighteen, nineteen, and for a while, she was stupid. He was a very slick item, drove a convertible, dressed well, flashed money around. Eduardo had her on a tight leash, and she didn’t like it. By the time he got a handle on the situation, they were in Miami on their honeymoon.”
“So Eduardo brought her back?”
Dino shook his head. “That’s not his style. He gave her some rope, and Donato hung himself. They hadn’t been married a month before he was fucking around. She got smart and went home.”
“What’s she doing now?”
“She’s Eduardo’s right-hand man, and I use the gender advisedly. She’s got more balls than any four guys I know.”
“An Italian of Eduardo’s generation makes a business associate out of a daughter?”
“What’s he gonna do? He’s got no sons, and it’s fifteen years before Ben could step up to the plate.”
“You think he wants to bring Ben into his business?”
Dino shrugged. “He’ll try like hell, but the kid has an independent streak. Anyway, it might not be a bad thing, if he wanted it. Eduardo will have the whole thing scrubbed clean before then. It’s a generational thing: Eduardo’s grandfat
her was an out-and-out, leg-breaking extortionist and pimp; his father was up-to-his-ears Mob, but he had a legitimate fruit business, and he was a good family man. Now Eduardo is a trustee of Columbia, he’s on the board of the Metropolitan Museum, he’s a papal knight, and he’s got a portfolio of businesses that would turn Warren Buffet’s head. You think anybody cares where the money came from?”
“Except you.”
“Except me, but I’m a cop.”
“The police commissioner doesn’t care, but you do.”
“Call me crazy, but yeah. I just can’t cozy up to Eduardo.”