Cold Justice

by Rick Polad

  I was still fuming. “This makes no sense.”

  “Nope, it never does. Let me know if you get the letter.” He hung up.

  Rosie had said we needed to talk. I had assumed it was about my behavior. Maybe it was, but maybe it was also about this.

  Carol was still standing in the doorway. “What was that about?”

  “Remember last year at Riverview when Steele killed himself?”

  “Sure. How could I forget?”

  “Seems Internal Affairs is investigating Rosie. They say if she had been with her partner he wouldn’t have died.”

  “What? She saved your life.”

  “Lieutenant Powolski seems to think IA considers my life irrelevant.”

  Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

  “He also agrees it makes no sense.”

  “Can’t you explain it to them?”

  “Oh, I’ll get the chance. He thinks I’ll be called. But they’re not known for listening to reason, especially from someone whose life is irrelevant.”

  Her hands were balled into fists. “I’d like to give them a piece of my mind.”

  “Tell you what… I’ll give them a piece of mine and let you know how that turns out.”

  “Can they do anything to you?”

  “Other than make me feel irrelevant… no. But it’s not me I’m concerned about.”

  “Well, Rosie couldn’t have a better person on her side.”

  “Thanks for the confidence, but my personage won’t interest them. They have an agenda and will hear what they want and disregard the rest.”

  “How do you know they won’t listen? Have you done this before?”

  “No. But, having a dad who was chief of police, I’ve been around cops all my life. I’ve seen the results of a lot of these so-called hearings. It’s not usually pretty.”

  “What can happen to her? Can she go to jail?”

  “No. Worst, she could lose her job. More than likely she’d get a suspension or be demoted.”

  “None of which would be fair, Spencer.”

  “Carol, my dear, Mom told me more than once that life’s not fair. Sometimes you just have to make the best after getting punched.”

  We were chatting about the dog lady when the phone rang. She got it at her desk and came back in after a minute to tell me I had a three o’clock appointment with Mr. Maggio. It had turned into a busy day.

  ***

  Mike just nodded toward the door as I walked to the back of the parlor. And this time he let me do my own knocking. Jimmy didn’t turn around from whatever he was doing. No one else was in the place. The slide opened and Marty let me in.

  “You’re hard to get ahold of, Manning,” said Joey.

  “You look good too, Joey.” I had a few smart-ass comments about jail, but I kept them to myself. “I’ve been busy with this case I’m working on.”

  “Okay. So, give me a report.”

  I sat without being asked to. “I gave you all I have, Joey.”

  He stared at me and said, “Marty… go get a soda.”

  Marty didn’t point out that it wasn’t a good soda time. He just went.

  When the door closed, Joey said, “You gave me what you wanted to give me. I’m asking for what I want to get. You’ve been looking at my boys. I don’t mind that… you never know who needs looking at. But I want to know what you got.”

  “Nothing that pertains to the matter at hand, Joey.” I didn’t need to ask how he knew I was looking at his boys—Danny Premo.

  Just like it wasn’t soda time, it also wasn’t scotch time, but Joey got up and poured a glass from the bar behind his desk. He raised the bottle toward me. I declined.

  “There are two problems with your stance on this issue, Manning. One, I’m paying the bills. And two, you already spilled information on Premo. So why not the rest?”

  “Maybe because of what happened to Danny. I wouldn’t have said anything if I knew he’d lose his job.”

  “He deserved to lose his job. He’s lucky that’s all he lost. He knew the rules. He’s the one who got mixed up with Eigen and a horse.”

  “Maybe, but unless it’s something relating to the frame, I’m keeping it to myself.”

  “So, you do have something?”

  “Sure. Notebooks full. People do things—boring, meaningless things that no one else cares about.”

  He sipped the scotch. “So you got nothin’ on the frame?”

  “I have lots of questions and lots of pieces to a puzzle. I just don’t know if they’re all to the same puzzle. And since you’re giving me nothing, I’ll just keep collecting pieces and see if any of them fit.”

  I watched him sip.

  “I do have a question about one of the pieces,” I said.

  He nodded.

  “You let your gun permit lapse in ’78. I’m wondering why.”

  He took more than a sip. “Why is that any of your business?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe it’s not… it’s just one of the pieces. Two people dead so far… both shot. Guns interest me.”

  “And what does people getting shot have to do with my permit?”

  “Probably nothing.”

  “You’re damn right, nothing. You might remember, when that rat piece of garbage was shot I was in jail. So maybe a visit to County was a good thing. No way they can pin that on me.”

  “No, not directly. But your hired help wasn’t in jail with you.”

  He slammed his glass down, and some scotch spilled out. “Who the hell are you workin’ for, Manning! Doesn’t look like me!”

  “I just ask questions, Joey… of everybody, including you. The question about the permit is still on the table.”

  “Well, it should be under the table. How the hell am I supposed to remember back that far?”

  “I have an easy, logical answer.”

  “Yeah? What?”

  “I’d rather not answer my own questions.”

  “Well go ahead. You have my permission.”

  I was thinking I should have taken the scotch. “If it was me, and I was the boss and had hired help who had guns, why would I need one? And if I didn’t need a gun, why would I need a permit?”

  He took another sip. “Yeah, yeah that’s right, why would you?”

  “There’s another part of the puzzle that keeps eating at me. You’re a smart guy, smart enough to set all this up. No one would expect you to do any of the things the cops say you did. Even one of the cops agreed that it’s ridiculous to think you’d be out late at night in an empty warehouse looking to kill Schloff.”

  He cracked a smile for the first time. “Yeah, why would I be—? Hey, what did you say? Warehouse? I thought that scum Schloff got it in an alley.”

  “Warehouse? Did I say warehouse? I don’t know where that came from. Right, alley. Nobody I’ve talked to sees you stooping that low.”

  “Damned right. What’s next?”

  “There is no next. We keep looking. It would help if you’d tell me who your bodyguard is.”

  He just laughed.

  “One more question. If you were to say… have an unfortunate accident, or end up in jail, who do you think would take over?”

  He wasn’t laughing anymore. “You say the damndest things, Manning. Pardon me if I don’t get up. Have a soda on your way out.”

  I didn’t say goodbye. I just let myself out. Mike was at his post with the paper, and Marty was at the counter not having a soda. I didn’t say goodbye to any of them either. For an ice cream parlor, there was a lot of tension in that room.

  ***

  I again entered the restaurant by the side door. I was twenty minutes early, so I sat with Helene at a front table. She was having a grand time, what with a warm spot for surveillance and good food. She gave me what she had to report, which wasn’t much. Loretta had shown up Tuesday afternoon and stayed for twenty minutes. Other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I was going to reassign people, but Helene would stay at Chin’s. />
  While we were waiting, we saw Mike walk to the front door. It looked like he was locking it. He then disappeared toward the rear of the parlor, and Jimmy left his post behind the counter. After a minute, I asked Helene to use the side door and walk past the parlor and see what was going on. She passed it once going west and then again coming back east, that time reaching out to try the door. She was back three minutes later.

  “There’s nobody there, Spencer. And the door is locked. Do you know what’s going on?”

  “I stirred Joey’s pot a bit. He may be wondering if one of them wants his job. He’s having a heart to heart with the hired help. You won’t need to be in the meeting. Order some lunch.”

  She shifted in her chair and scrunched up her face.

  “Problem, Helene?”

  “I’d actually like to be in the meeting, if you don’t mind. I’ve been looking forward to it.”

  That seemed odd. “You have? There’s no need… I’ll share your report.”

  “Well… I…”

  “Out with it. What’s the problem?”

  She took in a deep breath. “I’d like to eat where I won’t be seen by Mr. Chin.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about. “It’s okay with me, but you’ll have to explain that,” I said with a smile.

  “I have in my purse a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don’t want to see another egg roll for months.”

  I laughed. “No problem. Someone will switch with you.”

  “Thanks, Spencer.”

  “Sure, but I can’t help you tomorrow.”

  “No, I’ll have to be creative.”

  The front door opened, letting in a cold draft. Rebecca was the first to arrive. The rest followed within five minutes, and we adjourned to the meeting room.

  ***

  When everyone had filled their plates, I started.

  “First, we have ruled out Danny, so Ralph is done for the moment. Priorities have changed a bit, so I’ll be reassigning some of you.”

  I told them about what Ben and I had learned at the range and that Mike had paid another visit to the mystery lady, but this time there was no envelope. I told them Helene had seen Loretta once at the parlor and asked them to let me know if they saw her with any of the crew outside the parlor. Rebecca had nothing further on Mike, and Paul had nothing further on Marty. That left Jimmy, and Morrie had a report.

  He pulled out his notebook. “Last night he left his house at twelve past seven, made three stops, and was home at twenty past ten. The first stop was Carlucci’s on Halsted. He stayed twenty-two minutes. The second was Emo’s steak house where he stayed only ten minutes, and the third was Vinnie’s Pool Hall on Western. He was in there a half hour. From there he went home.”

  “Thanks, Morrie. I had planned on paying more attention to Jimmy after that meeting with Marty. This adds fuel to the fire. I don’t know of the pool hall, but the restaurants are favorite eating places of certain crime figures.”

  “So is the pool hall,” said Paul. “High stakes poker in the back room run by a punk named Harvey who’d like to make a name for himself.”

  “Joey know about this?” I asked.

  “Sure. Harvey cuts him in, and Joey figures it’s easy money. The guy is too small to be much competition.”

  “But maybe several small guys together make a big fish. Maybe Marty is trying to make a bigger fish,” I said.

  “Do we care?”

  “If Marty wants to make a business decision based on circumstances, that’s not our concern. But if Marty set up the circumstances, that’s a different ball game. We’ll tighten up surveillance on both of them. Chester, you’ll stay on the mansion from five to midnight. Helene will stay here during business hours. Paul, you stay on Marty, but I’m guessing he’s got Jimmy running his errands and won’t do anything out of the ordinary. Rebecca, I’m trying to get information on our mystery lady, and since that seems to be Mike’s only extracurricular activity I’m not concerned about him as much. That may change. But for now, you help Morrie out with Jimmy. Run a double tail. With two, one of you can follow inside and see who he’s meeting with. You two figure it out. Any questions?”

  There weren’t any.

  “Chester, please take Helene’s window seat for a bit so she can eat.”

  “Right.”

  “Thanks, all. Call the office during hours if anything comes up. Otherwise my car phone or at home. Let’s meet again on Friday, same time.”

  Helene came in and unwrapped her sandwich. With the first bite she looked like she had just taken a bite of prime rib.

  ***

  I arrived at Larry Maggio’s office a half hour early. I got a quick glance from the muscle sitting outside Maggio’s office, and he went back to his paper. His secretary told me I was early, but Mr. Maggio would be available in a few minutes. I sat and looked out the glass wall at the scenery. But not all the scenery was outside. Ten minutes later she told me I could go in.

  Larry looked like he was having a tough day. The knot on his tie was loosened, and his suit coat was on the back of his chair. Usually, everything was perfect. And it was the first time he didn’t offer me a drink. He looked like he could use one.

  “Bad day at the office?” I asked as I sat in one of the plush green chairs in front of his desk.

  “You have no idea. You’re lucky you don’t have employees. Never a dull moment.”

  Not having employees who had constant need of lawyers may have helped, but I didn’t give him that advice.

  “My secretary said you have a question.”

  “I do. Why did Joey let his gun permit lapse?”

  Larry’s eyes opened just a hair wider for a split second. It wasn’t much but it was enough. He quickly looked confused.

  “That’s a strange question. Why do you think I’d have any idea about Joey’s gun permit?”

  I shrugged. “No particular reason. Just thought you might, being the head of the corporation.”

  He shook his head. “Not a clue. I didn’t even know he had let it lapse. Why are you asking?”

  “It came up while I was looking into something else, and the question has been hanging there waiting for an answer. Things like that keep me awake at night.”

  “You need to do something about that. Let go of things that don’t matter. There’s too many things that do.”

  “Ah, but there’s the problem. In my business, I have no idea what matters and what doesn’t until the pieces of the puzzle start coming together, and so far all I have is a bunch of pieces.”

  He picked up a gold-plated pen and rolled it between his fingers. “I wish I could help, Spencer, but I have no clue. You’re not making any progress?”

  “Given that it’s been less than a week, we’ve discovered quite a lot. There are several pieces on the table. It’s putting them together where I earn my money.”

  He opened a silver box on his desk and offered me a cigar. I took it and put it in my jacket pocket.

  “I understand one of your discoveries left us one man short.”

  “Really? Who would that be?”

  He just smiled and asked if I had any more questions. I said I had lots but none for him.

  “Okay, drop by again if you do. And look into that sleep thing. I have all the problems that come with running a big company, and I sleep like a baby.”

  I wanted to point out that he of all people had reason not to sleep like a baby, but I kept that to myself too. “I’ll do that. Thanks for your time.”

  I have a habit of making people uncomfortable, and when they are, interesting things happen. I had no idea if Larry Maggio knew anything about Joey’s gun permit, or even cared if Joey ended up in jail because of a frame. All Larry cared about was whether it was good or bad for business. And in the long run, Joey was a small cog in the machine.

  Chapter 18

  I stopped at home to change into something dressier for dinner. There was an official looking envelope from the Chicago Police D
epartment in the mail. It was a summons to appear before the Internal Affairs board on Friday at ten in an incident concerning Detective Rosie Lonnigan. It gave no further information. I was glad Stosh had filled me in. I dropped it on the table on top of the rest of the mail.

  Rosie buzzed me into her building a little after six. I climbed to the third floor and knocked. A tired looking Rosie answered the door.

  “Come on in, Spencer.” She sounded dejected. “I’m beat and upset. Would you mind if we eat here?”

  “No, of course not. Can I help?”

  “Sure, once we figure out what to have. There isn’t much, but I just don’t feel like going out.”

  She searched the refrigerator and pantry, and we decided on tomato soup and roast beef sandwiches. The thought crossed my mind to ask if I should make a sandwich for Gabe, but I kept that to myself. It was witty as long as it stayed in my head. I handled the sandwiches, she took care of the soup, and we ate at the kitchen table. After a few minutes of silence, I thought I’d better break the ice.

  “I got a letter from IA today.”

  She nodded. “When?”

  “Friday at ten.”

  She slowly stirred her soup as steam rose from the bowl. “I have to be there Monday.”

  “I wonder who else they’re calling. This is just insane.” I dug into the sandwich.

  She looked dejected and far away.

  “I suppose I should have been with him,” she said.

  “Rosie, don’t even think that. The plan was between him and me. You had no way of knowing about it.”

  “I guess.” She took a spoonful of soup and continued stirring. “But if I had been there…”

  “Rosie, he didn’t plan on coming out of there alive. You couldn’t have done anything. I think he planned it when you wouldn’t be there so you wouldn’t have to be involved.”

  “But now I am.”

  “Only because of this witch hunt. They should be investigating Steele.”

  “But he’s dead.”

  “Exactly. And they can’t investigate me, so you’re the next best thing.”

  She took a bite of her sandwich. I had finished my first half.

  “Even so,” I said, “this seems nuts. Stosh agrees. You’ll get off.”

  “Maybe. But in the meantime what a pain in the ass.”