by Denis Hamill
“Prisoner of Izzy,” Bobby said, reminding himself that he still owed Izzy Gleason two years of indentured servitude for getting him out of jail and having all charges against him dropped. That grim prospect was softened when Izzy also gave him ten thousand dollars in cash, ten percent of the one hundred thousand dollars Hector Perez paid to have Gleason work out his plea bargain, where in exchange for his testimony he would receive five years probation and a thousand hours community service in a city hospital.
“Where’s Venus?” Bobby had asked.
“As soon as she learned enough English, she told me I had a filthy fuckin’ mouth,” he said. “Last week, after I got the charges thrown out against the prick nutritionist owner of the fat farm, she took off. With him. Can you believe this ingrate? But I found a new one, Betty, Beatrice . . . Whatever her name is, she might have a beak like a bald eagle, but her body is as tight as a handball, and all she needs is a little rhinoplasty . . . .”
Max Roth was almost certain to be nominated for all the top journalism awards for his series called “The Three-Quarters Crew.”
Forrest Morgan headed a task force that rounded up what was left of the pension scam. Sol Diamond stepped down as Brooklyn DA and was being investigated by the state attorney general’s office for his part in the illegal financing of the Stone for Governor Campaign. The city was investigating hundreds of fraudulently purchased three-quarters medical pensions of ex-police officers. For Sale signs started going up along the beach in Windy Tip as cops facing heavy jail time scrambled for bail and lawyers’ fees. Izzy was trying to land a few as clients. The prosecution’s new star witness, Constantine Zeke, turned on his fellow cops. Two of the cops, Lebeche and Daniels, were fingered for the murder of Tom Larkin. Caputo and Dixon were charged with the murder of Sandy Fraser. O’Brien, Levin, and Flynn were charged with racketeering, fraud, extortion, tax evasion, and a host of other related felonies.
Bobby Emmet buried Dorothea Dubrow in a simple ceremony in Evergreen Cemetery in a plot on a soft green hill with a clear view of the blinking red light of the Empire State Building.
Now, as a splendid trip approached, Bobby stood on The Fifth Amendment with the river wind blowing in his hair. Herbie Rabinowitz had painted the entire boat by hand as a repayment for Bobby’s getting the Queens bookmakers off his back with a sitdown to which he’d secretly brought a pile of Herbie’s brother’s money. The deal was that Herbie would never bet action again in the borough of Queens.
Bobby turned when he heard his daughter’s voice and saw Maggie skipping along the walkway toward The Fifth Amendment.
“Hi, Bobby,” came a chorus from the three sweater-clad women sipping hot cider on the Chinese junk at the next slip.
Maggie looked at the beautiful women waving to her father and smiled. “Been busy with a tough case, huh, old man?” Maggie said.
“Just being neighborly,” Bobby said, mildly abashed.
Maggie rushed up the gangplank, and Bobby picked her up in his arms. “Let’s take this tub out to sea,” Bobby said.
Patrick came down from the fly deck and kissed Maggie. “Grandma is gonna cook the biggest turkey you ever saw,” Patrick said.
“Can we stop in Coney Island for a hot dog on the way, Dad?” Maggie asked.
“We can do anything we want,” Bobby said as he untied the lines and started the twin engines. Maggie sat in the pilot’s seat as they backed out into the river and headed downtown toward the open sea.
Books by Denis Hamill
Stomping Ground
Machine
House on Fire
3 Quarters
Throwing 7’s
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Pocket Star Book published by
POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 1998 by Denis Hamill
Originally published in hardcover in 1998 by Pocket Books
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 978-1-4767-9718-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-5011-2460-0 (eBook)
First Pocket Books paperback printing January 1999
POCKET STAR BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Front cover illustration by Don Brautigam