Tomorrow's Vengeance

TWENTY-FIVE

‘The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as “the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world.”’

Announcement of 2009 ULI Awards for Excellence,

Urban Land Institute, Atlanta, April 24, 2009.

Angie and I sat on the porch like two old friends, quietly rocking. I’d brought my knitting with me: a sweater for my granddaughter, Chloe, that I’d started back during the summer Olympic Games, the ones in Beijing. The sun had slipped behind a cloud and there was a slight chill to the air, a harbinger of fall, which was just around the corner.

‘How’s your mother-in-law, Ange?’

‘Surprisingly fine. I think she knew all along, deep down, that her relationship with Richard was a fantasy. Know what she said to me?’

‘What?’

‘“The tragedy of growing old is that I’m a young person in an old body.”’

‘Oscar Wilde?’ I wondered.

‘No. Christie McSpadden.’

I thought about Nancy Harper, living in her eighteen-year-old mind with no more worries than whether Frank was going to ask her to the prom. ‘Well, on that cheerful note…’ I began.

‘Yeah, I know. It’s almost time for lunch. I wonder when they’ll have Raniero back? That mac and cheese yesterday. Bleah. Mother wanted me to join her today, but nuh-uh.’

‘He might never be back, Angie. Last I heard he was working with a deal lawyer from Skadden Arps, trying to keep his restaurant plans from falling through.’

‘What happened?’ Angie asked.

‘When Lawrence Levine found out it was being partially financed by the sale of artwork stolen by the Nazis, he decided to pull the plug.’

‘Levine? Larry Levine the Quik Loan King? That Levine?’

‘That’s the guy.’

‘No kidding. Figured it’d be bad for business?’

‘That, too,’ I said. ‘He’s Jewish. Lost his father and two sisters at Bergen-Belsen, so it’s not surprising he wants to revisit the arrangement he made with the Bucchos.

‘Hutch tells me that the project is pretty far along. The Bucchos bought an old warehouse on the waterfront in Canton near the Boston Street Pier. The architectural plans had made it through the Land Use and Urban Design division of the Baltimore Planning Commission, no mean feat that, so they were good to go. Filomena knew that if Levin found out about the investigation into the provenence of the art stolen from Izzy’s father the deal might unravel. And once the press got ahold of the story…’ I paused. ‘She had to do something to shut Masud Abaza up. He knew about the paintings, of course, because of Safa. And she actually saw one of them in Izzy’s scrapbook when Izzy foolishly brought it into the dining room. But Masud had something else on Filomena, apparently.’

‘The whole thing with the meat inspections?’

‘Yes. It was simple, really. He wanted to have sex with Filomena. She wasn’t going to have it with him indefinitely.’

‘There’s one thing Raniero’s gonna have to do for sure,’ Angie said.

‘What’s that?’

‘Change the name of the restaurant.’

‘Why? What was he going to call it?’

‘Filomena’s.’