‘I’m not saying nothing. I’m not going to rat anyone. But even if I did, what difference would it make? It can’t be used in court. It’s hearsay.’
‘You’re a lawyer now? I got news for you, Manny, a deathbed confession is an exception to the hearsay rule. Any confession you make can be used in court regardless of how dead and buried you are. I don’t know what crap Phil is filling you up with, but he’s bullshitting you.’
‘I’m not going to rat,’ he said, but he couldn’t look me in the eye. I knew he was lying. His mouth screwed up as if he were about to start bawling. ‘I’m a dying man, Joe. What do you want from me?’
‘I want you to keep your mouth shut. If you talk, it’s not just me. You’ll end up putting a lot of people away, including your own son. I guarantee you Junior would go away for a long time.’
He gave me a look right then that told me he’d already made a deal. The look only flashed on his face for a second, but it told me everything. If he talks Junior gets protected.
‘I don’t feel good, Joe. Why don’t you get out of here.’
I leaned very close to him. ‘Look, Manny,’ I whispered into his ear, ‘I kept my mouth shut for the last seven years while I sat in jail. I could’ve talked and put you away with me. Right now you’d be rotting in a prison hospital if I hadn’t kept quiet.’
‘Yeah, so?’
‘So? Goddam it, Manny, confessing your sins to Phil won’t change anything. You’re still going to end up burning in hell.’
‘No I won’t,’ he argued stubbornly.
From behind me I heard a loud voice booming, ‘Hey, Pop, who’s that with you?’ I turned and saw Manny Jr with what must have been two of his sons. Junior had grown to look a lot like his dad used to; a heavy, thick man with a complexion like chipped glass and a hardness about him. His two boys were probably under seven but both looked like miniature versions of him. Junior stood staring at me for a long moment before he recognized me. Then a vicious smile crept onto his face.
‘Hey, look what the cat dragged in here. Joe Denton, what the hell are you doing here?’
‘Old business with your dad.’
‘Yeah, well, I think your business is over. Don’t let the door hit you too hard on the way out.’
He started towards me, his smile stretching until his lips nearly disappeared. I got up and walked close to him. ‘You and me have business,’ I said. ‘Star Diner out in Chesterville. Meet me there at seven.’
‘Nah,’ he said. ‘Why don’t you meet me at the house. I got a new game room in the basement. We can have some fun.’
‘I don’t think so. Star Diner at seven. You better be there, Junior.’
I turned back and told Manny I’d be seeing him, and then I walked out of there.
Chapter 8
It was twenty past seven and I was halfway through my turkey hotplate special before Junior showed up. He had a couple of thugs with him; hard humorless types who used to work for his dad. Junior spotted me at my booth, leered in my direction, and came over and sat down. The diner was mostly empty and his two thugs sat at an empty booth near by.
‘Hey, what’s going on, Joe?’ he said. ‘You invite me to dinner and you start without me? Don’t you got no etiquette?’
He signaled the waitress over. ‘Sweetheart,’ he said, ‘bring me a steak, well done, and a glass of wine, something red.’
‘We offer Chianti, Cabernet and Merlot by the glass, sir. Which would you prefer?’ she asked.
‘Whichever’s better, your choice, sweetheart. Just make sure it’s your best.’
He waited until she left and then turned to me. ‘I try to drink more red wine these days.’ Then lower and more surly, ‘I don’t appreciate you trying to order me around, Joe, but it’s been a while and I figure I give you a break for old time’s sake. What business you and me got?’
I took my time chewing and swallowing my food before telling him that I needed to talk to him about Manny.
‘Yeah, what about Pop?’
‘Why are you letting Phil Coakley work on him?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘You don’t know Phil is visiting your dad every day?’
‘Yeah, so?’
‘So? Phil was bragging to me that he’s going to put the fear of God in your dad and squeeze a confession out of him.’
Junior gave me a slight smile. ‘Let him try. Pop’s no rat. He’s not going to talk.’
‘I think you’re wrong there.’
‘I think you better shut up.’
His leer had shifted into something more violent. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Look, Junior,’ I said, ‘I think we’ve got a real problem here.’
‘I don’t think we got any problem. Pop’s not going to rat anyone. You don’t need to worry about nothing.’ He leaned forward, a glint in his eyes. ‘And I never liked you calling me Junior. Got it?’
I sighed. ‘Sure. Manny. All you have to do is send your dad to a hospital out of state, maybe to Boston or New York. Your dad will get better care and we won’t have to worry about Phil trying to trick him into a confession.’
Junior was shaking his head. ‘I can’t do that,’ he said. ‘Pop wants to stay put. He don’t want to go nowhere.’ He rubbed a thick hand over his jaw and showed me an embarrassed smile. ‘Besides,’ he said, ‘I like having him close by.’
‘You could send him back to the Bronx. He must have old friends and family there.’
‘Nah, I told you, he don’t want to go nowhere.’
‘Then keep Phil out of your dad’s room. Don’t let him visit.’
‘Yeah, well, I can’t do that either. Those visits are helping my pop’s spirit. It makes him feel good. Besides, it don’t matter. Pop’s not going say a word to him.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘ ’Cause I know.’
‘You talk to your dad about what he’s planning to do?’
A glint of violence was back in his eyes. ‘I don’t know what point you’re trying to make.’
‘That if your dad talks you’re going to get hurt too. Even if he made a deal with Phil not to prosecute you, you’ll still get hurt. All of your businesses will be shut down. And I guarantee you all your money will be taken away. Besides, I doubt Phil would bother honoring a deal. My bet would be as soon as your dad’s dead, you’ll get prosecuted along with everyone else.’
The waitress came over with his glass of wine. Junior sat frozen as she placed it in front of him. He waited until she had walked away before telling me that he’d take any bet I wanted to make.
‘You got yourself such a great track record making winning bets,’ he said. ‘Me and Pops used to get a good laugh out of your losing streak. You couldn’t win a bet to save your life.’
‘I’m glad I was able to amuse both of you,’ I said. ‘But it doesn’t change the fact your dad’s telling me about hearsay exclusions and other things he doesn’t have a clue about. The only way he could possibly have heard about any of that stuff was from Phil. His new buddy is trying to sell him a ticket to heaven, filling him up with a bunch of crap about how he can cleanse his soul with a deathbed confession that can’t be used in court.’
‘Pop tell you that?’
‘Just about.’
Junior’s eyes dulled a bit as he thought over what I said. Then he shook his head. ‘No fucking way. You’re delusional. Your stint in jail made you soft in the head, Joe. There’s no way Pop’s saying a word to nobody. No fucking way. And I’m getting sick of you saying otherwise. I came here tonight ’cause of old times and you’re going to give me this shit?’
Junior pointed a thick, stubby finger at me and lowered his voice. ‘You know what pisses me off about you? You think you’re so goddam smart. If you’re so brilliant how come you ended up in jail? If it was me, there’s no way I walk out of that building with Coakley still breathing. You do something that stupid and you’re going to start questioning me?’
<
br /> ‘I wasn’t questioning you, I’m just trying—’
‘Yeah, well, shut up. From now on I’m doing the questioning and you’re doing the answering, understand? And first thing I want to know about is an old friend of ours that I’ll call Billy F. Do you remember Billy F.?’
I didn’t say anything.
‘Billy F., come on, think back. You were supposed to collect thirty grand from him. Remember him yet?’
‘I was never sent to collect from Ferguson.’
‘That’s not what Pop says.’
‘I don’t give a shit what your pop says.’
‘Not a good attitude, Joe.’
‘This is what the two of you cooked up, huh?’
‘I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. All I know is what Pop told me. That, and that Billy F. emptied out an IRA account before seeing you. Oh yeah, one other thing, we never got a dime of our money.’
‘Fuck you.’
‘Not a good attitude, Joe, ’cause I’m putting you on the hook for the thirty grand. For old time’s sake, I’ll give you a break on the interest. Five percent a week. First payment due Wednesday. That gives you four days. And I want at least three grand. You know Jamie and Duane over there?’
Junior waved a hand in the direction of his two thugs. Jamie, who was sitting closer to me, winked. Duane paid no attention and sat as still as a granite block.
‘They’ll be collecting from you,’ Junior went on. ‘But being as we’re old friends I’ll give you another break. You got a twenty-grand line of credit if you want to place any bets. Hey, a couple of good picks and we’ll be even by Sunday night. What do you say, want to take any action this weekend?’
Junior showed me an ugly smile and then he started laughing. After a while I joined him.
‘Yeah, what’s so funny?’ he said.
‘That you think you’re going to collect a dime from me,’ I said when I could.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll be collecting it.’
That just made me laugh harder.
‘Jamie and Duane are tougher than those two boys you put in the hospital,’ he said.
‘You heard about that, huh? Well, they might be but you sure as hell aren’t. They come after me and I’ll be seeing you afterwards.’
Junior’s mouth twitched. He sat frozen, breathing hard, his black eyes shining with malice.
‘What’s to stop me right now from taking you out of here and driving you someplace private?’ he asked.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘I guess us being old friends and all.’
He didn’t say anything. He just sat staring at me and breathing hard.
‘And I guess because if I were to disappear you’d be going away to prison for a long time.’
‘Pop told me about your so-called safe-deposit box. I think you’re bluffing.’
‘There’s only one way to find out.’
The waitress came over with his dinner. After she put it in front of him, Manny called her back. ‘Hey, darling,’ he said, ‘I kind of lost my appetite. Why don’t you wrap this up for me.’
He waited until she went back to the kitchen before standing up. ‘You keep away from Pop, understand? He’s a sick man, he don’t need your shit. If I hear anything about you bothering him again, I promise I’ll call your bluff. And don’t worry, Joe, you’ll be hearing from my boys Wednesday. And you’ll be paying up. One way or another I’ll be collecting from you.’
‘I’ll be looking forward to it,’ I said.
‘You think you’re so fucking smart.’ He shook his head. He started walking towards the counter and his two thugs got up to join him. The waitress came out of the kitchen with his steak wrapped up and he took it from her.
‘Thanks, darling,’ he said, ‘dinner’s on my buddy sitting over there.’ One of his thugs, Jamie, got a chuckle out of that. I watched as the three of them left the diner, got into a Range Rover and drove off.
I finished my dinner and then called the waitress over and asked for a piece of pecan pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of coffee. She was about to walk away, hesitated, and showed me an awkward smile.
‘Those are some friends you’ve got,’ she remarked.
‘They sure are,’ I agreed. The thought hit me that Manny and Junior and Dan Pleasant were the closest things I had to friends these days, and I started laughing. It wasn’t really funny, at least not entirely, but it was something. She must have thought I was nuts.
Everything would’ve been solved if Junior had been willing to either move Manny out of state or to keep Phil from visiting him. But I knew no amount of convincing would change Junior’s mind. It would have to be something else. I was sure Manny was working out a deal with Phil. There was no doubt about that. I wondered briefly whether Junior was in on the discussions and decided he wasn’t. He enjoyed what he did too much and wouldn’t want to give up what he had. When Manny confessed it would come as a surprise to him. It would probably shatter him to find out that his old man was a rat after all. At least I’d be able to get a little consolation out of that.
I wasn’t too worried about his boys trying to collect from me. I had gone out on jobs with both of them in the past, and while they were tough and vicious, they weren’t used to their victims fighting back. You get somewhat spoiled when the guy you’re beating is always cowering on his knees. Maybe I’d surprise them – take one of them out quickly and then deal with the other. What bothered me more was the whole setup. It smelled like something Manny would come up with to tie me to Ferguson’s murder. I wondered briefly about it, but then decided it didn’t matter. I had more important things to worry about and, anyway, Wednesday was a long way away. Hopefully, I’d be far from Bradley by then.
I finished my pie and ice cream and lingered somewhat over my coffee before heading out. I had only driven a mile from the diner when someone flashed their lights behind me. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw Dan Pleasant in his pickup truck waving me over. I pulled over to the side of the road and waited for him to pull up behind me. He got out of his truck, casually walked to my passenger side, rapped on the window, and then opened the door and sat inside.
‘Why don’t you drive around,’ he said.
I shifted the car into first gear and pulled back onto the road. ‘How’d you know where to find me?’ I asked.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Dan smiling pleasantly. ‘One of my deputies, Hal Wheely, spotted you sitting in the Star Diner with Junior and gave me a call. I’ve been waiting out here close to a half-hour for you to finish up. I’ll tell you, Joe, that was an interesting situation you got yourself into last night. The police report read like a bad Hollywood script. I would’ve thought you’d try to be smarter and keep a low profile.’
‘It was just one of those things,’ I said.
‘Just one of those things?’ Dan chuckled softly. ‘I guess that’s one way of describing it. So tell me, Joe, did it happen the way you said it?’
‘Yeah, pretty much.’
He seemed somewhat amused as he studied the area where I had been scratched. ‘Looks like she did a pretty good job on you,’ he said.
‘It’s not too bad. I’ll live.’
‘I can just picture it.’ He chuckled again. ‘Little Clara Coakley luring you with her nice ass and small tits and you falling for it hook, line and sinker. Even with her small tits she’s a good-looking girl, but let me explain the ropes to you. You’re forty, a disgraced ex-cop, a felon, no job, no prospects, and at best average looking. There’re not too many twenty-something-year-old girls, especially attractive ones like Clara, who’d have any interest in you.’
‘Thanks for the pep talk. Did one of your deputies spot her car parked near my parents’?’
‘What do you think, Joe?’
‘Pretty much that.’
‘After those two boys were brought to the emergency ward, the hospital called my office. Our DA friend should have called me also, but I guess it slipped his mind. Any c
ase, I dragged myself out of a warm bed for you, Joe. I visited your Bradley police station, read the police report, and thought I’d help clear the matter up quickly. Let me tell you what I was hoping. That you’d be smart enough to make a deal with our DA friend. Nothing outrageous, just something fair like you don’t file charges against his little girl and he leaves sleeping dogs lie. Or in our case, cancer-ridden dogs. Tell me you did that.’
‘I thought about it, but no, I didn’t.’
‘Damn it!’ He punched the dashboard. His face screwed up into a snarl, the type you’d see on a wounded animal. Just as quickly it was gone and his pleasant smile was back. He sighed, still smiling pleasantly, ‘Joe, Joe, Joe. Why didn’t you do that? I really thought you’d be smart enough to do that.’
‘Because it wouldn’t have done any good,’ I said.
‘I think it could’ve done a lot of good.’
‘No, it wouldn’t. He would’ve brought charges against his daughter without blinking an eye. If I had offered him a deal it would have only made him dig harder. Besides, he knows no jury around here would convict her.’
Dan thought over what I said and shook his head. ‘I think you’re outguessing yourself. You’re probably right about Clara walking with nothing but a slap on her pretty behind, but it would still be a nasty business and I don’t think he’d want to put her through that. Why don’t you do us both a favor and visit Coakley tomorrow and threaten to press charges against Clara.’
‘Trust me, I was there with Phil last night. I saw the way he was taking it. If I tried suggesting a deal, he’d bring me up on obstruction of justice charges.’
‘Well, Joe,’ he said, ‘you know that I like to play the percentages. I thought this would be a simpler and less risky way to resolve our problem, but it’s your call. As long as you resolve it, I’m satisfied. I have to tell you, though, time is ticking away. I’d really like to see our problem resolved with Plan A, but I’m afraid I might have to go to Plan B soon.’
‘I wasn’t bluffing years ago when I told you about my safe-deposit box.’
‘I didn’t think you were.’
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