Class Act
- Автор: Вудс Стюарт
- Серия: Stone Barrington #58
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: G.P. Putnam's Sons
- ISBN: 978-0-593-33166-8
- Жанр: Триллеры
Электронная книга - «Class Act». Краткое содержание книги:
As Stone sets out to unravel a tangled web of crime and secrets, his mission becomes even more complicated when he makes an irresistible new acquaintance. In both the underbelly and upper echelons of New York, everyone has something to hide — and if Stone has learned anything, it’s that history has a way of repeating itself...
“It was exploded.”
“Exploded?”
“Like, with a bomb.”
“Holy shit.”
“I want you to get over to lot five right now and find the safes. They’re both missing.”
“Manny, I can’t get right over there. I’m in New York, have been for several days. Remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Manny said. “How long will it take you to get here?”
“A while, I’m staying the week.”
“The fuck you are. Get over there.”
“Nothing I can do there. By the time I get a plane, the track and the cops will have taken care of it.”
“Vinnie, do what I tell you. Your guy, Fratelli, musta done this.”
“Well, I warned you not to try to screw him, Manny. But you got greedy.”
“I want you over to the track now!”
“No, thanks. I’m going back to sleep.”
“I’ll wring your neck.”
“Manny? Do you remember who my brother-in-law is?” Pause. “I thought so.” Vinnie hung up.
21
Manny knew what the next call had to be, and that he should wait until the Big Guy, Antonio Datilla, had finished breakfast. He waited until ten o’clock. Then just as he reached for the phone, it rang. Shit! “Hello?”
“You know who this is.”
It was Sal, consigliere to Don Tony. This was bad.
“Sure, I do. I had my hand on the phone to call the Don with some news.”
“The Don has already heard the news,” Sal said. “All he needs to know now is who and why.”
“You remember Johnny Fratelli?”
“Big, scary guy, who took care of Buono in the joint?”
“That’s the one.”
“He gave Vinnie a mil to spread, for five points a week.”
“And?”
“After a while, I figured we had paid him enough, so I stopped the vig.”
“What about the principal?”
“Principal?”
“Johnny Fratelli’s mil. Did you give that back?”
“Yeah. I figured the Don would give it back to Fratelli, if he thought it was right.”
“Well, if he got his mil back, why is he blowing up our trailer?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Simplify it for me.”
“I told Vinnie to get it back. I sent Vinnie to New York to find Fratelli, but he couldn’t.”
“So Fratelli has kept his money? Why was he annoyed?”
“I guess he didn’t want to give it back to me again.”
“You know what I would do if you asked me for a mil back?”
“Ah, no.”
“I’d blow up your trailer. Okay, Manny, here’s what you’re going to do: you’re going to go down to the Airstream trailer lot on the Dixie Highway, and you’re going to purchase a brand-new trailer, a big one, with your own money.”
“If that’s what the Don wants.”
“If I had spoken to the Don about this, you would already be floating, facedown, in Biscayne Bay.”
“Okay, sure, glad to oblige.”
“And our books show a little under three million in those two safes.”
“About that.”
“Then you better pray the safes are found, intact, or you can add that to your bill.”
“Jesus, Sal, where am I going to raise three mil?”
“Vinnie will loan it to you, at the usual rate.”
“I’ll find the safes!”
“Good luck. I’ll hear from Vinnie about that later today.”
“You’ll hear from me.”
“Nah, you’re taking orders from Vinnie, now. He’s got your job. And you’ve got his, hustling down at the track. Tell me you understand me.”
“I understand you, Sal.”
“You do this right, and the Don won’t hear about it. You put a foot wrong, and you’re bait.” Sal hung up.
Manny hung up, too, and he was sweating heavily.
22
Manny put away his phone and started looking for the two safes. A car pulled up across the lot and sat there. Someone was watching. Manny redoubled his efforts. He found the larger of the two safes, intact, under a bleacher. A few moments later he found the smaller safe, its door ajar. It was half full of hundreds, the rest were lying about it, like fallen leaves. What Manny needed was a rake, but all he had was his hands.
Vinnie was watching Manny from the car when his phone rang. He hoped it was Johnny Fratelli, because he had a few things to say to him
“This is Vinnie.”
“You know who this is.” It was never a question.
“Sure, good morning.”
“What are you doing at this moment?” Sal asked.
“I’m watching Manny on his hands and knees, raking up Franklins. He’s doing a pretty good job.”
“Here’s the way it’s going to be,” Sal said. “You now have Manny’s job, and he has yours. Capisce?”
“I’m not sure I want his job,” Vinnie said. “If I had it, I’d be on my hands and knees right now, raking up money, instead of in my box at the track, enjoying the racing.”
“You can do the job from your box, for all I care, as long as the count gets done and shipped every day.”
“And who will do that job?”
“Manny. He’s you now.”
“Nah, I’d spend all my time watching my back and watching him try to steal your money. I got no interest.”
“Vinnie, it’s double what you were making, and Manny is making a third of what he was making.”
“That makes him dangerous,” Vinnie said. “The job is unattractive with him around.”
“Then fire him, put a cap in his head, and he’s no more worry.”
“You’ve got people who do that faster and better than I could do,” Vinnie said. “My gift is handling money.” Vinnie knew that he was edging pretty close to insubordination. And certainly, he would never have said this to the Don himself. But Sal’s job was to translate for the Don, then pass down the orders.
“Done. And he’ll buy you a new trailer today, too. And replace the three mil in the safes.”
“Don’t worry about that: the big one was not breached, and he’s raking up the money from the little one now.”
“Fine. As soon as the new trailer is there and hooked up, tell Manny he’s working too hard and to take a few days off. He won’t come back.”
“I got a kid who’s a runner, could do my old job.”
“Good. Do it. Pay yourself and him in cash.”
“I’ll commit for a year,” Vinnie said.
“What? It’ll take you a year to learn the job.”
“I learned it in a week, when I came to work for Manny,” Vinnie said.
“Okay, you got yourself a deal. Start by doing whatever you have to to make Johnny Fratelli a happy man.”
“I’ve already done that, and I don’t know where he is. If he wants to talk, he calls.”
“Smart guy, Johnny.” Sal hung up.
Manny got home late, his suit filthy and ruined. He’d never known how hard it was to corral hundred-dollar bills in a breeze, but it was all secured, and there was a new Airstream in lot five, all hooked up. Not that he was happy about it.
“Hilda!” he shouted. He was hungry, and he wanted dinner now.
“Shut your mouth,” she called from upstairs. “I’ll be down when I’m ready.”
This was grounds for severe punishment, but he was too tired to go upstairs and administer it. Then he saw the pile of suitcases in the living room. He walked in there and hefted a couple. All packed.
There was a rap on the door, and two men in workmen’s clothes opened the door and walked in. “Outta the way,” one of them said to Manny. “We’re taking the rest of her stuff.”
“The hell you are,” Manny said, and he produced enough adrenaline to propel him up the stairs. He stopped at the top and panted a little. He heard the front door close and a truck start up outside.