Marta cut a glance at him. He nodded slightly, tensed, got ready to stand, make his run at Sal.
“Well, that’s something to think about, isn’t it?” Perry said. “But you must not know Danny very well, think anybody could get away with that shit with him.”
“I know him well enough,” Benny said, wanting to keep them talking, distracted. “I could tell you stories about Danny. Anybody ever tell you about the time that…”
Marta bolted from the couch. Benny tried to stand, but his legs were numb, nerveless. Perry caught her arm, spun her around, dropped her. She grunted when she hit the carpet. He pinned her there, facedown.
Benny felt Sal grab his jacket, pull him off balance and to the side. Perry pressed Marta down, took another flex-cuff from his jacket pocket, wound it around her wrists. She tried to buck him off, and he laughed, pressed his crotch into her jeans.
“A fighter,” he said. “I like that. Gets me hard.” He locked the cuff, climbed off her.
“Enough of this shit,” Sal said. “I’m tired. Let’s get out of here.” He took out the snub-nose.
“Tough guys, is that what you are?” Hersh said. “Beating up on women and old men?”
“What was that?” Sal said.
Benny got to his knees again, felt a stone of pressure in his chest.
Hersh tried to pull his shoulders back, a semblance of dignity. “For years, we had to live with your type. Corrupting everything you touched. Taking money from working people, destroying lives, putting drugs on the street. You’re a blight on the earth.” He spit on the floor. “Gonif. Khazer.”
“You’re a tough old Jew, aren’t you?” Sal said. “Don’t take shit from anyone.”
“Not from scum like you.”
“Hersh, shut up,” Benny said. Marta had twisted on the floor to watch them.
Hersh spit again, said, “Faygeleh.”
“I have no idea what that means,” Sal said, and shot him twice in the chest.
Marta cried out. Benny closed his eyes. The sound of the shots echoed through the house.
“Maybe Hitler had the right idea,” Sal said.
Benny opened his eyes. There was a haze of cordite smoke in front of him. Hersh was slumped motionless, eyes half open, the front of his shirt slowly turning red. Marta began to sob.
“There you go,” Sal said. “End of discussion.”
“Jesus Christ,” Perry said. “There’s people live around here, Sal. That was loud. We need to roll.”
Sal put the gun back in his belt. “Gag these two, then bring the Explorer around front. We’ll put them in the back. Find a blanket or something to cover them. I’ll take the money.”
Perry was looking at the duffel bag.
“Forget it,” Sal said. “We’re bringing it to Danny. You’ll get your cut later, with everyone else. When we’ve got all of it.”
“That’s okay,” Perry said. “I can wait.”
TWENTY-ONE
By 10:00 P.M., Crissa had all her money packed into two new suitcases. The duffel would go into a dumpster in another town. She’d sleep at a motel tonight, take Jimmy his money in the morning, then call Rathka. With Benny and Marta gone, there was no reason to stay here. He was right. It would be better to be on the move, safer. She’d say her good-byes for now, then get ready for Texas.
When her cell rang, she looked at the number, saw it was Benny’s. Calling about the car.
“Yeah,” she answered. “Where is it?”
Silence, then a hoarse voice said, “That’s what I was going to ask you.”
She waited, said nothing.
“Where are you?” Taliferro said. “Probably far away from here now, right? That was some stunt with the Escalade. Twice now you fucked things up for me.”
“What do you want?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re out of luck.”
“It’s your partner here who’s out of luck.”
“I don’t have one.”
“That’s too bad. Because if that’s the case, he’s going to die for nothing. His squeeze, too. And I guarantee it won’t be easy for either of them.”
Stupid, she thought. They should have been on their way and gone. Safe. Unless Benny had stopped somewhere, done something he shouldn’t.
“You listening?” Taliferro said.
She let out her breath. “I’m listening.”
“What do you have to say?”
“Do what you have to do.”
“It’s like that? And here all the time he was trying to protect you.”
Hang up, she thought. Toss the phone, cut your ties. What Benny got into was his own fault. There was nothing for it.
“You’re still there?” Taliferro said.
“Yeah, I’m still here.”
“Good. Because let me make one thing clear to you. I don’t know who the fuck you are, and I don’t care. But that money you’ve got? It’s mine. You stole it from me, and nobody steals from me, ever, and gets away with it. That’s what Benny found out. What you will, too.”
“If I know you, he’s dead already.”
“No, not yet. And you don’t know me at all. Don’t even imagine you do.”
“I’m hanging up,” she said.
“Don’t do that. You think this is over? Even if you get away now, sooner or later your name’s gonna come up. Somebody’ll mention a female heister, worked out of Jersey, and that’s all it’ll take. And then we’ll find you. I guarantee that.”
She felt sourness in her stomach, the beginning of pain there. He was right. They’d keep looking. Eventually the search would lead them to Jimmy and Anthony. If anything happened to them, it would be on her.
“What?” he said. “You think I’m bluffing about all this? You think I’m not standing in a room right now with both of them?” Then, to someone else, “Bring the girl over here. Give me that razor.”
Crissa’s stomach tightened.
“Yeah,” Taliferro said. “Hold her there.”
Muffled noises, then the sound of a slap. Crissa gripped the phone.
“Hear this?” he said. He tapped something against the receiver. “It’s a straight razor. She’s been doing pretty good so far, a little banged up, but nothing serious, nothing permanent.”
“It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“No? You should see her. She’s been trying to tough it out so far. But we’ll see how tough she is when I start on her face. She won’t be so pretty with her ears gone.”
“That the kind of thing gets you off?”
“Not so much anymore. Not as much as you showing up here with a duffel bag full of my money.”
“You’ll kill them anyway.”
“Him, maybe. I have a score to settle. But her? Why do that? You turn over that money, I’ll let you both walk. Maybe Benny, too, after we teach him a lesson. It’s up to you.”
“I’m supposed to believe that?”
“Believe what you want. Best thing about this place we are right now? They can scream as loud and as long as they want, and nobody’s going to hear them. I know that for a fact.”
“I can’t help you.”
“Then whatever happens, it’s your fault. Remember that. These boys are getting a little itchy, impatient. I’ve held them back a couple times, but I don’t think I can do it anymore. If they want to pull a train on her, who am I to tell them no? Long as they use condoms, so there’s no DNA when someone finds whatever’s left of her, right?”
The pain in her stomach was like a pebble of fire now. “Where are you?”
“That’s better. Here’s the deal, and it’s a one-time-only thing. You bring me the rest of that money. If it’s all there—and there’s no surprises—I let the girl go.”
“What about Roth?”
“I have to think about that. You know where the Victory is?”
“What’s that?”
“I guess you wouldn’t. It’s Brooklyn. Canarsie. You call
me on this phone when you get over the Verrazano. I’ll tell you where to go.”
“I’m nowhere near there.”
“Then you better get moving. Like I said, it’s a one-shot deal. By tomorrow this whole thing is over, one way or another.”
“What time?”
“Let’s say midnight. That way, we start the new day fresh, right? All this behind us.”
“Not enough time.”
“That’s too bad,” he said. “Because it’s all the time you’ve got.”
TWENTY-TWO
Benny lay on cold tile, hands bound behind him, and watched a roach crawl slowly up the wall. The room smelled of mold and urine. Behind him, he heard the steady drip of water in the ancient sink. Marta lay across the room, bound and gagged, facing him. Behind her was a claw-foot bathtub, a plastic shower curtain drawn across it, dark with mildew. Her eyes were closed, tears leaking out.
I’m sorry, baby, he thought. I’m sorry about everything.
The man named Dominic came into the room, balancing on crutches. He stuck a tip into Benny’s stomach. “Hey, remember me, old man?”
Benny looked up at him. His glasses were crooked, the left lens blurry.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Dominic said. He jabbed the tip at Benny’s face, forced him to pull his head back. “Look at you now, huh?”
Taliferro came into the room with Sal. “Dom, give us a couple minutes here. Go downstairs with the others. I’ll be down in a few.” Dominic nodded, hobbled out into the hallway.
Taliferro took out a handkerchief, used it to lower the toilet seat, then spread it over the lid before he sat down.
“There’s a way you can make this easier,” he said. “For both of you.”
Sal pulled the shower curtain away from the tub, reached in. Benny heard a faucet squeal. Pipes banged, and then water spurted out, clotted with air at first, then a steady stream. Sal watched it for a moment, then shut it back off. “It’ll do.” He left the room.
Benny looked up at Taliferro, blinked. Taliferro leaned forward and straightened his glasses, pushed them farther up on his nose. “There. That better?”
Benny could see more clearly now, the room in focus. There was a pebbled window behind the tub, moonlight coming in. Marta’s eyes were open now. She was watching them, not crying anymore.
“You know, we could have been partners in all this,” Taliferro said. “When I first tracked you down. We could have gone into this together, worked it all out.”
Benny swallowed, felt vomit rising, fought it back down.
“No hard feelings, though,” Taliferro said. He rubbed his shoulder. “This is still sore, you know that? You got me good. But we need to move on, right? Who knows, this might be our last chance to talk.”
“If I’d led you to the money,” Benny said, “you would have killed me anyway, as soon as you had it.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. We got lucky with the Scalise woman. I knew Joey had been banging her, but I didn’t think he’d leave her all that cash. Pussy-whipped, I guess. Wasn’t hard to track her down. I sent Perry up there to keep an eye on her, just in case. Same way I sent him and Sal to your brother-in-law’s. Just in case. Worked out both times, huh?”
“He didn’t have to kill Hersh.”
“Once he got to that point, what was he gonna do? He didn’t have a choice. But that’s your fault, Benny. No one else’s.”
Benny twisted his wrists, trying to get feeling back into his fingers. The flex-cuff cut deeper into his skin.
“Like I said, we got lucky with that woman. While we were wasting time chasing your sorry ass, she had it all the while. Perry watched her for a few days, saw her moving money out. Then we made our move. Probably same thing you did, right?”
Sal came back in, carrying a dark green toolbox. He set it atop the sink, opened the clasps.
“Hold off on that,” Taliferro said. “We’re going to talk some more first.”
“Okay. I’ll get the suitcases ready.”
When he was gone, Taliferro said, “All that trouble you put us through, and see where you ended up anyway? Back in Brooklyn. Full circle. But the end of the line this time.” He pointed a thumb at Marta. “For her, too. And that’s a shame. It didn’t have to be that way.”
“Kill me if you have to,” Benny said, “but let her go. She wasn’t involved in any of this. She won’t say anything to anybody.”
“We’re past that now, though, aren’t we? I mean, let’s be men here, face facts. You fucked up and this is where it got you. Both of you.”
Benny closed his eyes, felt the familiar pressure in his chest. Willing it this time to expand, fill him, blot out what was happening. End it all now. But Marta …
He opened his eyes, looked across at her. She met his gaze. She was dry-eyed now, past fear and into something else.
“If you want this to go easier, then you need to tell me some things,” Taliferro said. “You need to tell me who that woman is, how you met her, where she is now.”
“I don’t know.”
“You have any idea how pissed off this made me? All of us? It should have been easy with Joey’s girlfriend. It was easy. She showed us the safe in the basement—a big one—and gave up the combination so quick you wouldn’t believe it. And then you and that broad had to come and fuck everything up. Almost put us all in the hospital.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not saying you’ll get out of this alive, because you won’t. But the girl, maybe she has a chance. Depending on what you tell us.”
“You’ve got that money. There’s a million dollars in there, just take it.”
“Why would I settle for one million when I can have two?”
“That woman’s long gone now. I don’t know where. Take the money, it’s yours. Just let Marta go.”
“I know it’s mine. It’s been mine. Who the fuck are you to tell me that? You’re giving it to me, that what you think? It’s your gift to me?”
“Danny, please.”
“What’s the woman’s name?”
Benny swallowed, drew in breath. The pain had settled somewhere in the middle of his chest. He could hear voices downstairs, laughter.
“I only know the one she gave me. It’s probably phony.”
“What was it?”
He pulled it from the air. “Sarah.”
“Sarah what?”
“Edwards.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s the name she gave me. That’s all I know.”
“How’d you hook up with her?”
“I met her at the Galaxy, on Lefferts Boulevard. That’s where she hung out. Some guy there told me about her.” Taking a chance with it, wondering if he’d gone too far.
Taliferro frowned. “You are one lying fuck, you know that? And here I thought we were having a serious conversation. If there was a female heister working out of the Galaxy, don’t you think I’d know about it?”
“That’s where I met her, I swear.”
“Who introduced you?”
“The bartender there. I don’t know his name. I told him I was a friend of Leo Bloomgold.”
Taliferro looked at him. Wondering if it was true, Benny thought. Maybe halfway buying it already.
Taliferro shook his head, called out, “Perry.” Footsteps on the stairs, and then Perry came into the bathroom. “Yeah, skip?”
“Take the girl in the bedroom.”
“About time.”
“Just leave her there for now. Don’t touch her until I say so.”
“I can wait,” Perry said. He grabbed her by the arm, hauled her up. “Come on, sugar tits.” She groaned beneath the gag, and Benny could see the pain in her face. He closed his eyes, heard Perry walk her out, her step unsteady.
“What happens next is your choice,” Taliferro said. Benny opened his eyes. They were burning. His stomach felt hollow and empty.
“Please, Danny. I’m begging you.”
“What I don’t understand, you’ve bee
n a rat your whole life, why clam up now?”
“I’ve told you everything I know.”
Taliferro looked at his watch. “Eleven thirty. What are the chances she actually shows up?”
Benny didn’t answer.
“I’d say slim to none,” Taliferro said. “She’s got half the money, why would she care what happens to you? But I’ll find her eventually. What else can you tell me about her?”
Benny closed his eyes again, shook his head slowly.
“Think about it,” Taliferro said. “You tell me everything you know, I make it quick for you, and we let the girl go. You don’t talk, it gets ugly.”
Benny kept his eyes closed.
“Pratico,” Taliferro said. “Like a mule you are. Your Marta know anything about this woman? Maybe she’s got something to tell us?”
Benny opened his eyes. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“Then you’re not leaving me with much, are you?” He reached into his coat pocket, took out Benny’s cell phone, squinted at it. “She was supposed to call when she came over the bridge, so I could tell her how to get here. Didn’t think she’d go for it, but what the hell? Worth a shot, at least.”
He set the phone on the sink.
“So if she’s not coming,” he said, “then that just leaves me and you, doesn’t it?”
* * *
This part of Brooklyn was all dark warehouses and shuttered businesses, no houses in sight. For a while, Crissa had driven with dark water to her right, moonlight glinting off the surface, the lights of the Verrazano in her rearview. Now she passed a long stretch of wetlands, an illuminated sign that read FOUNTAIN AVENUE RECLAMATION PROJECT. She wore the windbreaker, a black sweater, dark sneakers. The Glock was under the seat.
Five minutes and three wrong turns later, she found one of the cross streets she’d been watching for. It took her across abandoned train tracks and deeper into an industrial area. Brake shops and tire stores, truck garages with razor-wire lots, everything shut up tight.
She’d mapped out the location of the Victory Lounge online, knew she ran a risk by not calling. Taliferro might get tired of waiting, and kill them both. But there was nothing she could do about that now.
When she was near the block, she shut off the headlights, steered the Taurus onto a side street. She parked alongside a long, windowless building, killed the engine. Scattered streetlights, no other cars around.
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