“Right after this song,” she said.

“It’s Aretha,” Lester explained. “You don’t turn off Aretha.”

Ted bowed to this pronouncement, and they listened through to the end of “Rock Steady.”

“Very nice,” Ted said.

Everyone else burst out laughing. “I’m afraid you are hopeless,” Kenzie said, but she took his hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. “Are you okay with this?” she asked with a nod to the television.

Her voice had its usual effect on him. Hormones flooded his system. “Ready as I’ll ever be. How about you?”

“I can bear it,” she said.

The music stopped. The clock ticked to 4:10. The television picture cut away from the studio to a sunlit scene in Queens. A group of smiling men and women in business dress faced the camera. Three men in the center held gold-colored shovels. Ron Reisner, the governor, and Councilman Kevin Pak.

“Where’s the mayor?” Lester asked.

“Not invited,” Kenzie said.

“He lacks faith,” the Preacher said.

“He doesn’t take Reisner money,” Ted said.

On the screen the governor stepped forward and began by thanking everyone who helped to get the project to the point of groundbreaking. It was quite a list.

“Can we do this without sound?” Lester said. “This is painful enough.”

Lili turned the radio back on and fiddled with the television remote. The governor was still talking, but now his words were scrolling in closed caption across the bottom of the screen. He finished speaking and the camera pulled back and swept over the beaming faces.

“Do you see Cheryl?” Kenzie asked.

Ted shook his head. “They don’t want her anywhere around. Last I heard, she left for Hawaii the day she got out. And she’s not coming back.”

Ted recognized two senior partners from the law firm, as well as Cornelius Fitzmaurice.

“That’s the grandfather, right?” Kenzie asked.

“Yup,” Ted said.

“Nasty old son of a bitch.”

“Yup,” Ted said. “But he keeps his word. He got a green card for Anora.” And the nasty son of a bitch had kept his other promises. So had Ted. He’d sold a little piece of his soul for Anora, for Lester, and for Kenzie. And they could never know. He had traded his silence for their welfare. He wasn’t particularly proud of this, but he was content. It had been the best deal he could get.

“Anora who?” Kenzie asked.

“A friend,” Lester said. “She did us a solid.”

This seemed to satisfy Kenzie, though Ted felt a penetrating look from the Preacher.

The camera zoomed in on Councilman Pak, who spoke about the immediate benefits to Queens, all of which were economic and most of which would not be realized for a decade or more, if ever.

“It’s not even his district,” Kenzie said. “My God, he’ll take any chance to get in front of a camera. Why the hell isn’t he in jail?”