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community, investing in the future. It's one of the few things he'd ever done with his money that he felt was truly clean, but he had to do it in a murdered place.”
    She stopped then and Chase waited for the rest of the story. But she stalled there, adrift in her memories. “And what weakness did you expose of Dad's on that day?”
    “Not a weakness, just a hidden aspect. I asked him if he was going to be sad when they rebuilt the park. I could see that he enjoyed the place exactly asit was. Decrepit and desolate. It was probably because he'd been chopping up snitches and feeding them to the fish.”
    She let out a hum that was part laughter. “But Daddy didn't like me knowing that about him, seeing through his talk and knowing in my heart he was lying, perhaps even to himself.”
    These Langans, they liked to do things fast and out in the open. No wonder they were losing to the other syndicates.
    “And that's when Lenny threw you into the water and told you to swim,” Chase said. “Said that you had to be strong, that you had to prove yourself worthy of the Langan name.”
    “Of course not. My father doted on us. We went out for ice cream.”
    They found each other's gaze in the mirror again. Chase didn't know if it was a tell or not, but the thickest vein in her throat pulsed and shivered.
    “You're lying.”
    Smiling without any humanity now, her hot eyes completely iced over. It was a very slick maneuver, throwing spooky truths out there that were meant to unnerve, but pulling back on everything else. She walked every inch of the walk.
    “Attempting to expose my secrets too?” she asked. “Didn't I just tell you it was dangerous to try that?”
    “That's the thing about secrets,” he said, “they have a way of exposing themselves.”
    They entered the city. Traffic was heavy crosstown,but the Super Stretch really sliced up the lanes. It maneuvered easily and had an intimidation factor that even the taxi drivers picked up on.
    Sherry Langan said nothing more and he wondered if she was deciding to leave him with a king-size exit wound in his temporal lobe.
    He drew up to the bank on Madison Avenue, double- parked in the street, and undid his safety belt. He got out, opened the limo door for her, offered his hand again, and helped her out of the back. Sherry moved to the bank door and he followed.
    “Where are you going?” she asked.
    “Your well- being is my responsibility. I'll walk you inside.”
    Chase escorted her in and watched the manager and the other employees kowtow while Sherry took it all in. She shook hands like Marie Antoinette, holding it out there palm down, high in the air, forcing the other person to reach up to take it.
    Chase stood behind her trying to act like a bodyguard. He scanned the tellers and thought about the one bank job he'd been involved in as a kid.
    He was only supposed to drive the getaway car but at the last minute one of Jonah's string had gotten pulled in by the cops and Chase had been forced to cover. The boost had gone off perfectly, Jonah grabbing the drawer counts, careful of all the secret alarms. Chase wasn't armed, he just ran around the place grabbing people's wallets. The next day Jonahbought Chase a thirty-five-dollar hooker in celebration. If he thought too long about that moment, seeing what a thirty-five-dollar hooker looked like and what was expected of him, Chase could still get red-faced over it.
    When Sherry Langan was done, he accompanied her out again, opened the limo door, all that. He slid back into traffic and headed toward Pietro's.
    “Forget the restaurant,” she said. “I don't dine alone. Just take me back home.”
    An oppressive stillness filled the car. He swung back toward the tunnel, turned the oldies station up.
    “It's proper to ask your passengers what music they wish to listen to rather than putting on your own,” she told him.
    “I'll remember that,” he said and started humming along.
    Jonah said, You're an idiot to keep