Pin Up Man followed me to the far end of the hall and his recently deceased guest. I looked down. I saw expensive shoes, a pair of trousers, and a shirt. My eyes stopped at the left hand and the distinct ring on the dead guy’s pinky finger, holding back the urge to question Pin Up Man’s story I continued my assessment. There were two gunshot wounds to the chest. The man died with his eyes open. His face frozen in an expression of surprise.
I heard Nonna’s voice echo through my cranial cavity. Che il viaggio dell’ amina abbia successo.
I looked at Pin Up Man. “You never mentioned you worked with the Vitali family.”
“I don’t.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, pulled up a recent news article and showed it to him. “This is Dante Vitali the head of the Vitali crime family. He is laying on the floor in your hallway. He’s dead.”
Pin Up Man looked surprised, almost as surprised as Dante.
I continued. “Which is the bad news.”
“The good news?”
“...you didn’t kill him.”
Pin Up Man stared at me for a moment like I’d lost my mind. “There are two bullet holes in this man and I told you I shot him.” He pushed on Vitali’s leg with his foot. “He looks pretty dead to me.”
“Che il viaggio dell’ amina abbia successo.” I said repeating my grandmother’s words.
“May the journey of the amina be successful?” He asked.
“You speak a little Italian?”
“This is New York, I’ve picked up a few bits and pieces.”
“May the journey of the soul be successful. It’s something my nonna says when someone has died. That is what told me you didn’t kill Dante.”
Pin Up Man waited for the rest of the story.
“Nonna has a gift for seeing souls. She has watched as many souls have left the body to begin their journey.”
“To heaven?”
“Not necessarily. The soul has to be weighed and judged before it moves on to Heaven or Hell. But Nonna always wishes them well. She’s been doing it since she saw her first soul.” I looked at Pin Up Man. “Nonna says the soul leaves the body within the first thirty minutes of death.”
Pin Up Man looked at the face of his Jaeger-LeCoultre, “I left for your office over an hour ago.”
“You shot him but you didn’t kill him.”
“When I left he was still alive?” Pin Up Man’s face paled. “I could have called for help.”
“When the ambulance arrived there would have been two bodies.” I pointed to Dante Vitale’s body. “That shot to his heart killed him immediately meaning it was a professional hit. From the look of surprise on his face, it was someone he knew and trusted who killed him. Someone like that would not have left any witnesses behind. Leaving the apartment was the smartest thing you could have done.” I studied the hallway. The walls, the floor, I opened all the doors and looked inside. Every room off of the hall was a potential access point. At this height where had Pin Up Man's visitors come from? I continued walking around. “Do you have neighbors on both sides?”
“Yes. Do you think they might have heard something?”
Feeling a cool draft on the back of my neck I turned around and looked up. “Who lives in the penthouse above you?”
“Some VIP no one mentions. It’s all very hush hush. Come to think of it, I was told if I bought a penthouse in this building I could be put on a special list for an extra fee.”
I returned my attention to Pin Up Man. “Meaning?”
“For the extra payment, which is substantial, they provide you with a butler, a cook, daily housekeeping, priority use of any of the building’s other amenities along with their privacy package. The privacy package is a doozy. It includes a Service NDA. Everyone who works in the building is bound by a non-disclosure agreement. They would not be able to confirm or deny that a purchaser of that privacy package lives here.”
“What happens to deliveries, packages, mail that sort of thing.”
“If the person is a resident the concierge delivers it. If they do not a courier delivers it where it needs to go. I decided I wasn’t interested in the VIP package and chose a more modest floor plan. I’m a bit of a minimalist.”
I looked at Pin Up Man.
“I still work for a living.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“A few months.”
“Do you still have the info they gave you when you were buying the place; floor plans, amenities that kind of thing?”
“I think I do.”
Pin Up Man went into his office and I took another look at the stiff. I checked for a wallet there was none suggesting that I was right, Dante was living here somewhere in the building or visiting someone. He had emptied his pockets as many men do when undressing or getting comfortable because they are in for the night. I was already wearing gloves so it was easy to pick up his hand and get a better look at the pinky ring. The Vitali crest was prominently displayed across the face of the ring. I knew Dante wasn’t a kid anymore but he wasn’t middle aged either. I also knew from word around town he chose to live more quietly than those who worked for him. I patted the body down as gently as I could and found no weapons, but living quietly didn’t make him any less of a bad guy. The stories of his brutality were well known which made me wonder what could make a man like Dante Vitali want to flee his own home? Where a guy like him would go when he left it.
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