45

The 8mm print went to New York on an afternoon flight that day, and the delivery was made to Angelo Partanna at St. Joseph’s Laundry at 4:40 P.M. Angelo had dinner with Rocco Sestero, whose wife was visiting her daughter in Michigan, but he flatly refused to eat at Tucci’s. He got home a little after ten and ran the film. He told himself that, if he hadn’t been around for all the years he had been around, he couldn’t believe it. If they didn’t bother to find out what the environment was doing to them, then it had to be that they deserved what they got.

He called Gennaro Fustino.

“Gennaro? Angelo. How they hangin’?”

“You see the movie?”

“My God.”

“I sat here staring at this guy. You wouldn’t believe it. He was in charge, the big executive.”

“Did you put him in touch with the guy he wanted?”

“They have a meet set for tomorrow night.”

“Where is the contractor gonna take Charley?”

“Wherever you say.”

“Charge him extra for what the contractor’s gonna do for him.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Thanks for the help, Gennaro. We owe you one.”

“Listen, for favors that pay as good as this one—anytime, Ang.”

Angelo called Eduardo Prizzi and made an appointment at Eduardo’s office the next morning. “It won’t take ten minutes,” he said. “But it’ll be very productive.”

Maerose ran a finger over the heavy engraving on the rich parchment paper and drank in the words that glowed like jewels under her eyes.

Mr. Vincent Prizzi

of

New York City

announces the engagement

of his daughter

Miss Maerose Amalia Prizzi

to

Mr. Charles Amedeo Partanna

son of Mr. Angelo Partanna

of New York City

For the fourth time she read the information that Eduardo’s people would give out to the press:

Mr. Vincent Prizzi has announced the engagement of his daughter, Miss Maerose Amalia Prizzi, to Mr. Charles Amedeo Partanna, both of New York City. Miss Prizzi is a graduate of the Marymount School in New York and Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. For the past year she has been working as a partner of Price-Hoover Designs, interior decorators. Mr. Partanna was also educated in New York. In Vietnam he served as a Staff Sergeant, Special Forces, where he was decorated with the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Since then he has been associated with the St. Joseph’s Laundry and Dry Cleaning Service of New York as general manager.

Maerose then reread the small, oblong card that was an invitation to the reception at old Palermo Gardens. It was the absolute clincher.

She folded one copy of the formal announcement and one copy of the press release and stuffed them into a heavy cream-colored envelope, then dropped the small card into it. Smiling serenely, she sealed it and addressed it to Miss Mardell La Tour at 148 West Twenty-third Street, New York, NY 10011. She stamped the envelope and put it carefully aside in a small drawer of her desk before beginning to addresss the other envelopes from the long list at her elbow.