Fortune and Glory (Stephanie Plum, #27)(6)

“Who’s there?” Benny yelled from another room.

“Stephanie Plum,” I yelled back.

“He’s watching television in the den,” the woman said. “Just walk straight back.”

The den was a small room that had been tacked onto the living room. Benny was wedged into a club chair positioned in front of a large flat-screen TV. A leather recliner was next to him. A tiger-striped cat was curled up in the recliner.

Benny smiled when he saw me, his eyes instantly focusing on the white bakery box.

“Cannoli,” I said.

“You’re gonna kill me,” he said. “Are they fresh filled?”

“Of course.”

“Hand them over,” he said. “You want one?”

“No. I just had lunch at my mother’s house.” I looked at the cat. “I’m guessing the cat is in your chair.”

Benny took a cannoli out of the box. “Yeah, he’s an old guy. I don’t like to disturb him when he’s sleeping.”

“I heard you weren’t going to the Mole Hole anymore.”

“None of the guys are there,” he said. “It’s not the same. And I hear it smells like dead rat roast.”

This tells me that Benny is getting some real-time reporting from someone at the Mole Hole.

“I followed Lou Salgusta into the tunnel and he tried to cremate me,” I said. “I managed to get away. The rats weren’t so lucky.”

Benny finished off the first cannoli and took a second. “Trust me, if Lou really wanted to kill you, you’d be dead. He was probably just playing around.”

“So, you know about the tunnel?”

“We all knew about the tunnel. It’s been there for years. I used it a bunch of times. We had plans to make improvements but never got around to it.”

“Is that where Jimmy hid the treasure?”

“In the tunnel? No. There’s nothing down there but dirt.”

“I don’t get why the keys are so important. If you know where the treasure is kept, why don’t you just get it some other way. A locksmith or something.”

“I knew there was a catch to the cannoli,” Benny said. “You want to know about the treasure, right?”

“I’m curious.”

“The freaking thing is boobytrapped. You try to get at the treasure without using both keys, and it’ll look like Hiroshima. Stupid idea.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Where’d you get these? Italian bakery? I can always tell. Best cannoli in Jersey. It’s the ricotta they use.”

“Hiroshima is big.”

“No shit. Excuse my French. Nobody ever thought the keys would get lost. Jimmy was Keeper of the Keys, and he was supposed to always have the keys with him.” Benny ate half of another cannoli. “The keys weren’t on or in Jimmy, so that means your granny has them. It’s the only explanation. She was with him when he checked out. We looked everywhere. We x-rayed his corpse, he should rest in peace.”

“This treasure must be worth a lot of money.”

He finished the third cannoli. “Let’s just say I could retire real nice on it.”

“And you know where it is?”

“Not exactly. I got a clue. All six of us got a clue.”

“Why such an elaborate scheme to protect the treasure?”

Benny shrugged. “We can’t be trusted. We’re all killers. We got no sense of remorse. I mean, it’s not like any of us would kill for no reason. We got to have a good reason. Like it would have to be a job or something.”

“Or a treasure.”

There were three cannoli left in the box.

“I’m going to eat just one more,” Benny said. “And yeah, like a treasure. It was put away as a kind of retirement fund. Mostly because it was too hot to fence when we got it. I’d tell you what my clue says but it wouldn’t do you no good since you don’t have the keys, right?”

“Right.”

“Besides, that would be too much information for just a box of cannoli. More information would have to be moving into the sexual favors area.”

“Eeuuw,” I said. “Get real.”

Benny scooped a glob of cannoli filling off his shirt. “I just said that for old times’ sake. I wanted to see how it would feel.”

“So? How did it feel?”

“Not as good as I remember. I was something in my day. You won’t tell my wife, will you?”

“No. I won’t tell her. You should share the last cannoli with her.”

“Maybe,” Benny said.

“One last question. And I think I already know the answer. Obviously, someone knows the location of the treasure.”

“The guy who stashed it away,” Benny said.

“The Keeper of the Keys?”

“Bingo. You got it. Jimmy. He was the guy we all trusted. He hid the treasure a bunch of years ago and gave us our clues. He even gave himself a clue. He got the last clue. I’m thinking it probably was the combination for the lock. You gotta stick the keys in and then you need the combination.”

“And now he’s dead.”

“Yeah. Dumb fuck. Who would have thought he’d go like that?”