Prizzi's Honor by Richard Condon Read Free Book Online Page A

to do—look for some other kind of work? Nobody in the family would understand what the hell he was trying to do if he did that. They would look right through him as if he wasn’t there anymore and nobody would ever be able to trust him again. Anyway, what kind of business could he operate in? He had a future where he was. Vincent Prizzi was maybe sixty-five years old. His own father was seventy-four. Charley was next in line because he knew the operation backward and he had fear and respect going for him. All the other Prizzis on Vincent’s side of the business were either dopes or kids. Most of the Prizzis were on the legit side of the business or they had left the family to be doctors or engineers or sports announcers.Don Corrado couldn’t keep going forever, at eighty-four, but even if he did, when Vincent went, the don would put him, Charley Partanna, in charge of the whole thing. Was he supposed to turn his back on his life because he couldn’t figure out any other way to marry a woman?
    He sat quietly, sweating in the cool summer night, because he couldn’t get a handle on what he was supposed to do. She was a married woman without a husband. Let him stay lost, she said. He began to think about that. They were going to need at least a couple of years together until she was educated at least a little bit to understand why he had to stay where he was. Sooner or later she would have to catch on that he was in the environment. She would put two and two together. The women would wise her up. She was an American. She knew that the country needed people like the Prizzi organization to get a little relief—why else would they lay on the glamour in the TV and in the books and in the movies, which always showed the people in the environment as being very glamorous people? Maerose would set Irene straight. After all, Irene didn’t need to know exactly what he did. She would know that he was in the environment and that he counted in the Prizzi family. Very few people could prove what he did anyway. If he took his time about the whole business of wising up Irene they could be home free without her going into shock. She would gradually meet all the Prizzis, Sesteros, and Garrones and see what terrific people they were—warm, real, stand-up people.
    But suppose the husband showed up before Irene was ready to have everything worked out for her? That could be bad. Also, it could even be bad if the husband stayed lost. He couldn’t introduce a woman to the whole family unless it was seriously set that he was going to marry her. Don Corrado was a religious man. They couldn’t get married if the husband stayedlost. A divorce was no good because the Prizzis, Sesteros, and Garrones didn’t go for divorce. They were old-fashioned.
    Irene needed to be made a widow. That was it. She had said herself that she had no use for the guy. She hadn’t seen him for four years. If she was made a widow it couldn’t hurt her. All he needed was the husband’s name and a little basic information so his people could find him. But he had to be careful. Irene was smart. But maybe Maerose could get it out of her, then pass it along. He could have the husband set up wherever he was and have the job done on him. Nobody could connect him with it. Then he and Irene could get married at Santa Grazia’s just like the rest of the family, and everybody would be proud to send them Christmas cards.
    He was so elated that he called Irene.
    “It’s Charley.”
    “Aaaah.”
    “I’m a wreck.”
    “Can you get out here this weekend?”
    “Jesus, I don’t think so.”
    “Tell me.”
    “I love you.”
    “Truly?”
    “It’s real.” He was helplessly in earnest. “Maybe it’s not scientific but it’s real.”
    “Scientific?”
    “I read in a magazine that, according to a doctor, when two people try to make one stable couple that what they are doing is looking for what they thought they needed from their mothers.”
    “Charley!”
    He wondered if