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And I slammed on the brakes, just far enough from the house to ensure that there was no way they could spot me as I pulled up next to a double-parked SUV.

I sat and watched then as John Gallo took my mother’s hand and kissed it. They stood there, just a few feet apart, until he turned around and headed down the walk. She watched him go, leaning against the door frame, as beautiful and imperious as ever. Even from this distance, I could see her smiling.

Smiling at John Gallo.

Elise Wolf stood there until Gallo’s driver got out and opened the back door to his Mercedes. I ducked down behind my steering wheel as the car went past me.

I’d gone there thinking I’d surprise her tonight. Only it had turned out to be the other way around.

And I had maybe found out whose side Elise Wolf was on after all.

Thirty-Seven

THEY WERE IN THECelentano Room at Che Fico, on Divisadero, having come unseen through the back entrance, which the owner allowed them to use, giving them their privacy before they were even in their own private room.

Their usual table was set in a corner, near a white brick wall. The wall next to it, directly behind John Gallo, was covered with old album covers and movie posters, just about all of them featuring Italian singers and actors both living and dead. Mayor Charlie Spooner was seated to Gallo’s right, bowls of pasta and meatballs and baskets of freshly baked bread in front of them along with a bottle of Gallo’s favorite Chianti. When Jack Wolf arrived, he apologized to Gallo for being late.

“Nice to see you, Jack,” Spooner said, “you sonofabitch.”

“Come on, Charlie,” Jack said as he sat down. “We’ve gone over this. You know why I had to run that story. And it will provide us with cover later on when John puts everything into play.”

“And,” Gallo said, “you know how quickly that particular controversy went away.”

“Later on, no one will be able to say that I rolled over for you before we ended up in business together.”

“I’d still like to know who sold me out with those pictures,” Charlie said.

The mayor was looking at Jack Wolf, so only Jack saw the smile that crossed Gallo’s face, there and gone, as if a shade had opened and closed.

“Just see if you can manage to keep it in your pants going forward,” Gallo said to the outgoing mayor of San Francisco.

Then he raised his glass and said,“Alla nostra salute.”

They all drank.

“Where’s Danny tonight?” Spooner said to Gallo.

“Running a little errand for me.”

“I worry sometimes that he’s a loose cannon.”

Gallo smiled more fully now. “Only because he is. WhatIworry about sometimes is that he doesn’t fully grasp that this is about so much more than football.”

They ate in silence for the next few minutes, until they heard a knock on the door. The waiter’s head appeared. “How are we doing with the wine, Mr. Gallo?”

Gallo told him they were fine for now.

When the waiter had left, Jack said to Gallo, “My mother said you stopped by the house tonight.”

“Strictly a social call.”

“Is there really any such thing with you?” Spooner said.

Jack said, “She wouldn’t say what the two of you discussed.”

“Because that is our business and not yours,” Gallo said as evenly as if he’d asked Jack to pass the bread basket.

“No worries. We’re all on the same team here.”