Blood Money by Thomas Perry Page B

complication.”
    He nodded. “I never thought of myself that way. I guess I’d better get used to it, though, now that Danny’s dead. Keeping me out of sight would have been a good deal for him. He would have been a very rich man.” He turned his head a little and held her in the corner of his eye. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
    “I think I can take Rita to a safe place and teach her to live quietly for long enough so they don’t find her. I can’t guarantee that I can keep you from being found, but I canmake it very difficult.” She looked at him to judge his reaction. “I think I can arrange something that will help your son without making him too strong.”
    “You want something in return,” he said. “What is it?”
    She walked on. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have a general idea that appeals to me. I’ll tell you what’s on my mind. I’ve always been careful to stay out of the Mafia’s way. There’s never been any question that if I ever happened to attract their notice, there wouldn’t be anything left of me. And I never had any illusion that I could do them noticeable harm, so I never thought of how to go about it. One of the families you’ve been helping happens to be looking for people I’ve made disappear in the past few years. I won’t say who, and I won’t say which family. It occurred to me that I would like it if the families were weaker. My friends would be that much safer. And I would be too.”
    “So you want to hurt the Mafia. How?”
    “I want you to take all of their money and donate it to charities.”
    “What?”
    “That’s my price.”
    “That’s your price? Ten billion dollars?” He grinned at her, but his expression slowly changed. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You don’t want any, you just want to give it away? I didn’t think anybody would be able to hear what I had to say last night, then go to sleep and not wake up thinking about being rich.”
    “You wanted a way to help Vincent without giving him enough to get himself killed. It happens to coincide with what I want: I don’t want any of the rest of them to have it either.”
    Bernie laughed, looked at her, then laughed again, a high, rheumy hoot that ended in a cough.
    “I guess that means no,” said Jane. She held out the keys to the car. “You’d better take these now, because I’ve got a plane to catch.”
    Bernie drew his hands back and stuck them into his pockets. “I didn’t turn down your deal. Just let me think for aminute. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about it, either. Once in a while I would say to myself, ‘What I ought to do is screw these guys and give it all away.’ But it’s not easy. It’s a tough thing to do with that much money. It means dreaming up lots of tricks.”
    “I saw somebody do something like it once,” said Jane. “I know how hard it is.”
    “And you have a way to take care of Vincent?”
    “We can offer him a way to be comfortable for the rest of his life without taking any risks. Whether he agrees or not is up to him. It’s the best I can do … or at least, the most I’m willing to do.”
    “It would have to come from my money,” he said. “Nothing from them.”
    “Of course,” said Jane.
    Bernie walked along for a few seconds, thinking. Finally, he shrugged. “It’s probably the best either of us can do.”
    “You’ll consider it?”
    “You think I’ve got to go through a pile of other offers before I decide?” he asked. “I’ll do it.”
    “Good,” said Jane.
    “You don’t sound as though you mean it,” said Bernie. “Honey, I think you’ve got to open up just a little more.”
    She looked at him. “It’s what I think should happen. It’s not what I want to do. It takes time, and it’s dangerous.”
    “Ice cream,” announced Bernie.
    “What?”
    “Homemade ice cream. You got to crank a machine to get it, it’s got raw eggs so it’s the biggest source of food poisoning. It’s full of fat and