“You don’t know who Nicholas was back then,” he says after a moment.

“And you don’t know who he is now,” I insist.

“People don’t change,” Ricky says, waving his hand in my direction.

I feel frustration building up within me but I don’t let it boil over. I’m here to ask him questions about what he knows and to find out the truth, not to convince him about the man that Nicholas is now.

“Nicky and I came into the organization about the same time. He rose through the ranks quickly because the bosses liked him.”

“Was that his boss, earlier today?” I ask.

“No, different guy. At that time, we didn’t really know who was in charge because that was just the way the organization was set up. The less people knew about what we were doing, the better.”

I give him a slight nod, encouraging him to keep going.

“Nicky and David were put in charge of insurance scams. They were quite good at that and made a bit of profit doing it.”

I have always wondered how much of what Owen told me about Nicholas was true and now at least part of it is confirmed.

“Nicky vanished a day after David showed up dead,” Ricky says. “At first, no one thought anything about it. Thought that maybe they just went down to Florida to blow off some steam, celebrate. Not everyone was in the position to do that kind of thing, but the bosses liked them. Well, that didn’t turn out to be the case. We quickly found out that David was dead and Nicky was gone.”

Owen’s story reverberates in my mind as it is almost identical to what Ricky just told me.

“Afterward, we found out that they had a side job going, breaking into wealthy homes, usually ones that are closed up for the season,” Ricky continues.

“Do you know what happened to David?” I ask quietly, bracing myself for what he is about to say to me.

Ricky tilts his head from one side to another, as if he is cracking his neck.

“No, I don’t,” he finally says.

“Do you think Nicholas did it?”

“Nicky was good at his job but he had one major flaw for a mob guy. He wasn’t very good at hurting people.”

I glance up at him.

“Yeah, you can only go so far in this business if you refuse to take a few lives. That’s why the insurance scams worked out so well for him. He always started the fires when no one was around and he was so careful, no one ever got hurt.”

“But maybe David did something to make him angry? Turn on him? People get killed for a variety of reasons.”

Ricky laughs.

“You seem to have more of an understanding of what kind of moral flexibility this business requires than Nicky ever did.”