The Royal Hotel Pt. 4

With that I hurried to my room. I was in a hurry to read the rest of the documents. Locking the door behind me, I made myself comfortable in one of the chairs as I began to read.

Reading the documents, I said aloud, "Jumping up Christ! Pop you …; you always knew how to find the money. I just wish that you were here to see this. We got'em pop! We Got'em now! "

The little bundle of papers turned out to be the keys to the kingdom. This much wealth could not go unnoticed. They had to miss this much loot when Smiley was suddenly taken out of the picture. They must have been desperate to have trusted Smiley with so much money.

Now I realized. During the war between the Gallabraizzys and the Castalonos, the federal government must have been putting pressure on the families since it had become public knowledge that so many of the New York politicians were on the take.

The Castalonos needed a place to hide their wealth from the feds, and it had come down to Smiley to hide it. The problem was that Smiley did too good of a job of it. After Smiley's death, no one apparently could find where it was. Like lost treasure, as the years went by, the people who were connected to the money started to die off. So then, today there was no one left to claim the wealth. Moreover, the hidden wealth had been long ago forgotten.

I examined the remaining documents, and I found them to be lists of assets, which were in some cases stored in Banks over seas under anonymous numbered accounts.

After reading all the documents, I went to my suitcase where I'd hidden my Beretta Mini Cougar nine. With this information in my possession, I was not about to take any chances. Armed with my cat nine, I set off to examine the store room and the hidden vault, which lay behind Baltimore's wall. Using my borrowed key, I tried the lock of the store room. It was apparently stuck from nonuse. I jiggled and shook the old lock until I felt it let loose. I entered the store room, and I walked to the closet into the far corner of the room. I had to dodge various articles of old furniture and lamps as well as cleaning tools such as mops and pails. The room smelled like a musty old back yard shed. Dust clung to everything, and I sneezed and coughed as I breathed in the stale air.

Following the map, which I'd found in Baltimore's plaque, I entered the closet. Pushing more junk out of my way, I reached down to grasp the base board of the back wall of the closet. Like the closets which led to the badger holes, the mechanism was the same. I pulled the leaver up, and I heard a rusty click as the back wall of the closet opened. Before me was a dark void. I began to feel around on the walls for a light switch. Again, just like in the badger holes, the light switch was located on the right wall just above eye level.

There was a short hall way, which led to a steep staircase. I made my way down the stair case on my way to what I expected to be a treasure room. My heart pounded in my chest as I saw it. It was there just as the map said it would be. What stood before me was a bank vault as sturdy as anyone found in Fort Knox.

Surrounded by concrete and bricks, the solid stainless steel vault appeared to be a formidable obstacle. Standing in front of the huge door, I felt small by comparison. The door itself gave off an impression of wealth and power. Placed in the middle of the door was a sturdy hand wheel, which was about the same size of a steering wheel in a Mac truck. Placed at the top and the bottom of the right corners of the door was a large hand leaver. Located just above the hand wheel were two combination dials. These were the main locks. Located just under the top hand leaver and just above the bottom hand leaver was another combination lock, which supported the leaver.

They say, "It takes a thief to catch a thief."

In this case, a thief would know which safe would be the most difficult to break into. Smiley knew his bank vaults. This monster would take a team of men with special tools and possible some dynamite to open this box.

I approached the door with the directions for opening the vault. Fortunately, I had the combination. That is, I had all four of them. You just couldn't start twisting dials, you had to go in sequence or else the door wouldn't open.

I carefully followed the directions. Each lock clicked as I applied the combination. I pulled on the leavers, and I turned the big wheel. With a pull the door began to open. Once open, the safe's contents would be revealed to me. I fumbled around for the safe's light switch. After finding it, I switched it on to reveal a rather large interior. Like in the old movies, I almost expected to see trunks stuffed with pirate treasure. This wasn't the case. Instead, I found a well ordered vault just like you find at any bank.

I began to search the draws and bins. What I found could be considered to be a crisis currency. Investors use this technique to protect their wealth. That is to say, they buy near cash assets such as gold, precious gems, and bearer bonds. The draws and the bins were full of this stuff. There were gold bars, diamond jewelry, and notes drawn on foreign governments.

Some of the articles of jewelry had little tags tied to them.

The tags read to the effect, ," I owe you."

Reading these tags, I remembered that in the old days the Royal contained a gambling casino. Apparently, some of the suckers had gone into debt to the tune of pawning their own jewelry. As you would expect, there were bundles of cash in the draws. A kind of a thrill went through me as I realized that I was the only person in the world who knew this was here. Sometimes, you hear stories of people finding cash in the street, and being suckers, they turn the cash into the cops. They think that they are being honest and a good guy. The truth of the matter is that they are just being a fool. Well, I thought to myself, I have come too far with this thing to have become a fool. I made my decision. I decided that there is no way in this world that I was going to give all this loot to anyone especially the cops.

A plan formed in my mind. Slowly and secretly I would convert all this wealth. It would have to be done smartly. Nobody would be the wiser as I would use off shore banks located in the Caribbean and in Europe. Little by little all this wealth would disappear again, but this time it would have a new home and a new owner; namely me.

I stuffed my pockets with several bundles of cash and a hand full of gems, and I made my retreat. I carefully relocked the vault and made my way back to my room. While there, I gathered up Beverly's bags as well as my own. My immediate plan was to wait until dark so that I could load up my old Cadillac with as much loot as I could carry. I smiled as I thought to myself. That old Cadillac has served me well over the years. The reason why I bought it in the first place was because of the big back seat, which was just right for banging babes on Saturday night. A vision of Mary Ann (Beverly's sister) came to me. I remembered how Mary Ann used to beg for cock while she was laying on the back seat of it while I fucked her.

This time the old caddy would be carrying valuable cargo and me to the Promised Land. With my newly found wealth, it would be carrying me to the land of Champaign, caviar and sun drenched beaches in the tropics.

EPILOGUE:

The time is come to tell you that this story is almost finished. You are almost up to date now. I hope that you have enjoyed listening to my tale, but before I go, there are some details, which need to be resolved.

You may be wondering what happened to those guys who killed my father. Well, those guys who murdered my father are not around anymore. It seems that Paul Castolono suffered an unfortunate accident while trying to start his cabin cruiser. The news report said that the explosion could be heard throughout the marina.

And those guys from Sirocco Holdings apparently have disappeared. The rumor is that they are sleeping with the fishes. Another theory is that they are part of a new bridge, which is being built over in New Jersey.

What happened to the Royal Hotel? The Royal Hotel has become an historical monument. The city fathers vowed to return the old hotel to its' former glory. It's destined to become a tourist destination. By the way, the city fathers haven't discovered the secret passages yet, nor the empty bank vault, which is hidden in the basement. I can't wait until they find what is hidden in the third floor badger hole. For as well as I know, the may be more ghosts hidden around in that old hotel.

What happened to Beverly? Well, the last time I heard, she was engaged to be married to a Sheik who is the heir to an oil fortune.

And this is really surprising. The Don and Jane Sandherst have become an item. Of course, I must admit that I played a part in bringing them together. What can I tell you? It must be the romantic in me.

What happened to Baltimore? Well, it turns out that Baltimore had a very very distant relative who lived in Jamaica, and upon his death, from natural causes, bequeathed his modest estate to Baltimore. Baltimore now lives in Jamaica, and he lives the life of a gentleman farmer. I am told that he still can't understand how he could be related to a white guy by the name of Roselli.

What about me? Well, I am still in the night club business, although I am hardly there anymore. The blue Note has become a premiere night spot in Manhattan, and it has been setting the trend for night clubs throughout the city. As for me, I have become a sailor.

I have been sailing the seven seas in my ocean going catamaran, which I have named" The Royal Adventure."

Well, good bye for now. Perhaps, we'll meet some day at a film festival in France, or maybe at carnival in Rio De janeiro. You'll recognize me; I'll be the sailor with the big smile on his face and the two babes on his arms.

THE END