The Devil You Know (44 page)

Jacob stood. ‘I’m going to check on what she’s doing.’

‘You worry too much,’ Fred Rothstein said. ‘Go get yourself laid.’

Jacob wasn’t convinced. He went back to his desk and buzzed Ella. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Get someone to pull the property records. MLS listings, whatever you have. I want to know what Rose Fiorello owns and where.

Have someone get back to me within half an hour.’

‘Yes, sir.’

When the answer came back, Jacob listened intently. He didn’t like what he heard.

How could I have been so stupid?

His personal limo took him to Rego Park. It took the driver a few minutes to find it on the map; this was not the kind of place that Rothsteins usually asked to be taken to.

Jake got out and looked at the shabby, run-down building. A swarm of workmen were all over the site, digging, measuring, carting off. There were more workmen there than he ever usually saw on P, othstein projects. Something else; the site was a hive of activity. Nobody was sitting down chewing sandwiches or swigging

from hot thermos flasks. These guys were actually working. It only took him a few seconds to find the foreman. ‘You’re working for P,.ose Fiorello?’ ‘Who’s asking?’ said the guy.

‘My name’s Jacob P,.othstein. I’m a friend of hers.’

‘Then she can tell you her business, can’t she? You got a pass, fella? This is private property.’

Jake grinned. ‘That’s OK. I’m leaving.’

He went back to the warm, heated comfort of his Lincoln Town Car and opened up the file on lose. She lived down in Tribeca. He gave the driver the address.

She was sitting at her kitchen table with a large yellow legal pad and

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a biro. Empires had been built on far less than this. Ten versions of ad copy were crossed out with thick black marks. She was

determined to get the pitch exactly right. Her doorbell buzzed. ‘Yes?’

‘It’s Jacob lKothstein.’

Rose wondered what to do. She buzzed him up, then ran to open the safe and locked her ad copy inside it with the Rothstein papers. He’d never find it. She kept the mobile phone in her hand, just in case he tried anything stupid. Jacob wasn’t violent, Rose knew that.

But the rap on the door still found her jumpy.

‘Come in ‘

He looked gorgeous in that dark suit. But from the ice in his eyes and the thunderous scowl of his brows, lose knew at once that he knew.

‘tKego Park, huh?’

‘You’ve been to my site,’ lose said, trying not to seem surprised.

‘And why not? You’ve been through my papers. Nice touch with the panties. That was really slutty. A good distraction.’

‘This isn’t your fight,’ said Rose after a second. , Jacob laughed. ‘Oh, really? Let me tell you something, Fiorello.I came here to give you a warning. P,.othstein is my company. Mes

with it, you mess with me.’ ‘ ‘This is between your father and me ‘

‘My father. My uncle William. Oh, don’t look so surprised, you think you’re the only one that can do some digging? I know about your father, about the deli, about that stunt you pulled in high school. And I know you’ve been nursing some stupid idea of vengeance all these years. I’m warning you not to push it, Rose. You’ve been treated well.’

‘Like my dad was? Forced out of his lawful lease?’ ‘He was offered good money. More than good.’ ‘Fifty doesn’t buy you a new career.’

‘He chose to turn his nose up at that money, and your blackmail didn’t cut it. Blame yourself if you must; don’t blame us.’

‘My father,’ said Rose, drawing herself up, her voice turning to steel, ‘had a legal lease. He didn’t want money. He wanted to keep his lease. Your family had no right to do what they did. And as for me being treated well, your company is a bunch of assholes. If you take my advice, you’ll keep out of it.’

‘I have no intention of allowing you or anyone else to threaten my

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inheritance. Take on Rothstein Realty, and you take on me.’

‘So be it.’

Jacob bowed slightly. ‘Goodnight, Rose. I’ll see you around.’ He let himself out.

Yes, you will, she thought.

The aggravating thing was that she couldn’t start with Rothstein Realty. They were too big for her to attack right now.

First, it was a question of getting established. But Rose didn’t wait. She finally decided on ad copy she was proud of, and ran the spots the next day.

‘Owl your own piece of the American dream. Condominiums in easy reack of the city. Security, doorman, brand new kitckens. Huge I Bdrms marble lobby, mint. Hurry, won’t last.’

Rose added the number of George Benham’s office. She put the

ads in the Times, the News, the Post, and the Village Voice.

She didn’t have to wait long.

‘Miss Fiorello.’ George Benham’s voice was the whine that she remembered. ‘You’re going to have to get me a new line. This one is ringing all day with Rego Park applicants… I can’t do any other business.’

‘As of now, George, you don’t have any other business. Do you?’

Rose waited while the answer came tremulously down the line. ‘I - I guess not, Miss Fiorello.’

‘Tell the applicants there’ll be a show apartment ready in two weeks. Get their details and run credit checks. I want pre-approved buyers only.’

‘Yes, Miss Fiorello.’

‘And it’s not going to be called the Rego Park,’ Rose said on

impulse. ‘I’m changing the name …’

Fiorello. Little Flower.

‘Call it the Flower of Queens Apartments.’

‘Flower of Queens. Yes, ma’am.’

Rose scribbled a note to herself. The next morning she called the architect. A new detail was added in to the building; a rose, picked out in red marble, was worked into the stone above the entrance way.

Her signature.

Rose heard no more from Jacob Rothstein. Thank heavens, right? She was relieved about it.

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She went out to visit her parents in the comfortable house she had bought for them. Daniella was older, stooped; her hair was silvered

all the way through. Her father was lumbering around the house. ‘I get bad gout.’ He kissed her. ‘Great to see you, honey.’

Rose was shocked; she didn’t go home enough. She determined to get them a maid, and a home nurse for her father.

‘So, how you been doing? Got yourself a nice young man?’

Daniella Fiorello put an extra dollop of penne vodka on Rose’s plate. Her baby was skin and bones, even if she did look good.

‘No, but I got myself a hotel.’ lose was all excited; it tugged at Paul’s heart. His little girl had always been that way, so full of enthusiasm for life.

‘You got a job in the hotel business?’

He tried to hide his disappointment. He had thought, after the

scholarship and all, that P,.ose could do a little better than that. ‘No, Daddy. I bought a hotel. I own it.’ ‘A hotel? I don’t understand.’

‘Mom, I sold what I own, I bought a place out in P,.ego Park, and I traded it all in for a hotel.’

‘R.ego Park’s a bad area,’ said Daniella faintly. :’

Tll take you out to see the show apartments next month. People are already calling up. You’re gonna love them.’

lose kept her word. As soon as the first apartments were done, she had her parents picked up in a limousine and taken out to the site.

‘Look. This is the gatehouse, see? Everybody will have to give their name. I’m putting on a twenty-four-hour guard, and this fence. It’s twelve feet high. Total security. Do you like the rose, Daddy? I’m calling it the Flower of Queens. After our name. Your name.’ She was thrilled, full of life, animated and happy. Daniella didn’t dare ask her daughter if she had found a man to share it with. ‘Come through here, come through ‘

‘Morning, Miss Fiorello,’ the foreman said.

Paul blinked. He couldn’t believe what he .was seeing. The man treated his daughter with such deference, even though she was still half a kid.

‘Hi,’ P,.ose said, paying no attention. ‘See? All the condos will be like this.., the new tiles, the new stove and refrigerator, everything brand new, almost perfect, fitted carpet, and the maintenance is really low …’

‘The mortgage on this place must be huge.’

‘It is.’ Rose laughed at the look on her father’s face. ‘Oh, don’t

worry, Dad. I got the whole place half sold already, and it won’t be finished for months. I bet you I can have it one hundred per cent

sold by the day the workers are done.’

He believed her.

‘I’m so proud of you, honey.’

‘I did it all for you, Dad,’ she said.

Her father kissed her and hugged her and Rose felt a pure

happiness that had not come over her for years.

She treated her parents to dinner at Bernie’s Steakhouse, her father’s old haunt. Rose wanted it to be Lutece or the River Caf, but she knew her folks would hate those fancy places. Paul Fiorello’s idea of luxury was a big steak cooked just right. Her parents wanted to go over just how far she’d come. Rose let them talk. When her cab

dropped them home, she had the feeling it had all been worth it.

She was woken from her sleep at 3 a.m.

Her mother was crying so hard Rose could hardly make out the

words, but she didn’t really need to. She just knew. And it blew her

world into pieces.

Her father had had a heart attack. He was dead.

For the first time in years, Rose completely neglected her work. She moved in with her mother for a whole month, enough time to get

her settled, get her over the initial shock of grief.

‘He had a great life, Mom.’

Rose said it automatically. She hoped things like this would

comfort her mother more than they comforted her, which was not at

all.

‘Oh, he did, he did. He was so proud of you. You were the apple

of his eye. Bored everyone stupid about you.’

‘I hope he liked this house.’

‘He adored it.’ Daniella sighed heavily.

‘What’s wrong, Mom? What is it?’ Rose rushed to her mother,

but she waved her off.

‘Oh, hell, it’s nothing. Just that ‘

‘Go on.’

‘He was so fond of that stupid deli. I wish he’d never lost that

deli.’ And Rose’s hands curled into fists, which she did not let her

mother see.

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Rose arranged for her mother’s sister to come up from Florida to live with her. Once that was all settled, she went back to George Benham’s office. He fell over himself in his eagerness to greet her. To kiss my ass, 1Rose thought.

‘The Flower of Queens is all sold up. We have a waiting list. Maybe I should put up the prices …’

‘No,’ Rose said. ‘They get exactly what they paid for.’

‘You’ve made a hell of a lot of money. Two million dollars. Two million! I can hardly believe it.’

‘Two million’s nothing. I want to buy a skyscraper.’

Benham laughed. 1Rose regarded him with icy fury. ‘Do that again, George, and you’re fired.’

‘I - I’m sorry, Miss Fiorello. It’s just that the property market is in a bit of a slump, tenants are hard to get … banks don’t like to

‘I know that,’ lLose said. She thought of Rothstein lLealty and their tenants. ‘It’s a perfect time to invest, George. You think I

should buy when the market is hot, and sell when it’s weak?’ ‘No, but-‘

‘There are no buts• Get me a building. Something owned”lf a motivated seller.’

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Benham said eagerly.

He came back to her within a week with a selection of properties. ‘Overpriced.’

‘Too many violations. I don’t want the City down my back for ten years.’

‘Too small.’

Benham turned away, fearful he had disappointed his boss. ‘What’s this one? I like this one.’ lKose had pulled out a picture of a rather seedy-looking skyscraper, sixty storeys high, made of brick, and overlooking the river.

‘That’s on the wrong side of Manhattanl in Alphabet City.’ ‘Close to transport?’

Benham nodded. ‘Right by the subway.’

‘And the seller?’

‘He’s in trouble, but you know, this a commercial property, and it’s a broken-down dump … the banks hate the area, because it’s not the nicest. You’ll find it very hard to get a note.’

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‘Hard doesn’t matter,’ 1Kose said. ‘The only thing that matters is impossible. Which this isn’t. Get me in to see the seller.’

She had that glazed look in her eyes. Benham dived for his files. He didn’t know what she was thinking and didn’t care to find out.

1Kose wasn’t seeing the seedy skyscraper. She was seeing the first nail in 1Kothstein IKealty’s coffin. Time to send those boys a message.

She was going to say it with Flowers.

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‘Here it is.’ Poppy opened the door. ‘Home sweet home.’

Dani looked the space over. ‘Yeah, it’s great.’

Dani West was her new assistant. She was thirty-one and tired of her dead-end job at I

When she had read the small-print ad in Billboard asking for an assistant in a management start-up, Dani hadn’t really been interested. At least ICA paid benefits. But then she’d seen that it was for Opium Management. And she had jumped.

There were ten other girls in Poppy Allen’s living room when Dani turned up to apply, and Dani asked, flat out, when her turn can!e, how many Poppy had seen.

‘Would you believe? Over twenty,’ the younger girl said.

‘Yes, I would believe it. But you shouldn’t hire them. You should hire me.’

Poppy Allen had leaned back in her rattan armchair and smiled slightly. She had a magnetism about her. Dani began to understand just why Poppy was the flavour of the month, mentioned in HITS magazine’s gossip column every week, and why she was already looking after three hot acts.

Travis Jackson. A bona ride star, Travis’s first, hastily recorded album had gone gold, then platinum. Screaming girls all over the country attested to his New Country-idol status.