by Helen Spring
'Harm any of my family and...'
'You know the deal!' Cavellini snapped.
They walked on a few yards. Vittorio said, 'Alright, the numbers and the four gambling houses as well.'
Cavellini waited, and after a moment Vittorio added, 'Yes, alright... the booze. Provided Paolo is returned and we hear nothing else of you.'
Cavellini's tone was laconic. 'But of course, Vittorio. Why should I bother you again? You will have nothing left I want.'
'There's one condition,' Vittorio said.
'No conditions,' Cavellini said flatly.
'It is that it happens fast. Tomorrow latest.'
Cavellini frowned. If Vittorio was planning to double cross him he would need more time than that to arrange it. As if reading his thoughts Vittorio said, 'It's because of Jennie, Paolo's wife. I haven't told her. I can get away with saying he is delayed for one night perhaps, but no more. Paolo would not want her worried, not now.'
Cavellini relaxed. 'You're going soft in your old age Vittorio. I've done you a favour after all. It's time you retired.'
They turned as if by mutual consent and began to walk back. Vittorio said, 'You'll want to see the books?'
'Yes, and be sure it's the right set.'
'You needn't worry about that. As you say, I'm retiring. Paolo wanted me to anyway. What about the handover? On waste ground, like the Sullivan boy?'
Cavellini laughed. 'If you think I'll walk into that one you're mistaken. You get Paolo and I get a set of books I don't have time to examine. No deal.'
'Alright. Come to my office above the laundry tomorrow at eleven.'
'And get gunned down?'
'Bring as many men and guns as you need. We won't be armed. You can inspect the whole building to make sure of that if you want. Then take as long as you like on the books.'
After a moment Cavellini said, 'O.K. When I'm satisfied, you vacate the office and I'll telephone and have Paolo released.'
'No. When you're satisfied you'll have Paolo released to my driver, and when he calls in to say Paolo is safe, I will leave the office, and the books, to you.'
Cavellini considered. 'How do I know you'll go?'
'You will be armed and I will not, as I said before. Look Tony, I'm sick of this, and I want out. I'm thinking of going to California with my family. I want your guarantee I will leave the office in one piece.'
Cavellini smiled grimly. 'Keep to the deal and you can count on a quiet old age in California. Cross me and you and Paolo will feed the crows.'
They stopped as they reached the road where the cars were parked. Cavellini shivered. 'Damned cold!' he remarked. Vittorio nodded. 'They say it's warm in California,' he said, and held out his hand.
After a moment's hesitation Cavellini shook it briefly and the two men returned to their cars.
~
As soon as Vittorio reached his office he sent for his chief clerk. ‘I want all the books made up to date for tomorrow morning.’
‘But Mr. Vetti, tonight’s takings don’t get here until after midnight.’
Vittorio glowered. ‘Then work late. I want them up to date for tomorrow. Work all night if you have to.’
‘Yes, Mr. Vetti.’ The clerk turned to go.
‘And get me a joiner.’ Vittorio barked.
‘A... what, Mr Vetti?’
‘A joiner, are you deaf?’ Seeing the clerk’s puzzled face Vittorio explained as if to a child, ‘A joiner, a carpenter, you savvy?’
‘Yes Mr. Vetti.’
‘Then get on with it.’
Vittorio picked up the telephone, and a few minutes later four men, the same men who had accompanied him for the meeting with Cavellini, entered his office. Vittorio gave detailed instructions, moving from his desk to the window, and back to his desk as he talked. When he was sure all was in order, he dismissed them and sent for coffee. It was time for serious thought, he needed an honest man.
Before he had finished his coffee he picked up the telephone again. ‘Get me Clancy Sullivan.’
BACKLASH
Anna checked James’s luggage for the tenth time.
‘Are you sure he has enough socks Lottie?’ she said, frowning.
‘Anna, I took the list to the store myself,’ Lottie soothed. ‘James was lucky to be able to leave right away, and he has enough here to last at least six months. If he finds he needs anything more he can always let us know.’
Anna nodded. Lottie put her arm around her. ‘It’s the best thing for him. You know it is.’
Anna nodded again. ‘Yes, Clancy is right. His education is the most important thing.’
At that moment James came in and caught sight of the two large trunks. ‘Gosh Mama, is that all mine?’
‘Yes. We don’t know what the weather will be, so we have put something of everything...’
James frowned. ‘I shall only have a small room you know.’
‘If your room is too small you can always take an apartment in town,’ Anna suggested.
‘I don’t think father would agree to that. He was keen for me to live in College.’
‘Oh.’
James came across to his mother. ‘It’s all right Mama,’ he said. ‘I want to go, really I do. Father is right, he was right all along, Paolo made me see that.’
He hugged his mother tight and said, ‘The car is here. I don’t want to miss the train.’ He hesitated. ‘As soon as you hear anything...’
‘Yes. I’ll let you know as soon as Paolo is free.’
‘You’re quite sure he will be alright?’
‘One thing I do know for certain James,’ Anna said earnestly, ‘Whatever Vittorio Vetti may be, he loves Paolo. He will make sure he is freed.’
The chauffeur appeared to help James downstairs with the trunks, and a few minutes later Anna and Lottie were waving James away.
Anna went back into the drawing room. She stood in front of the fireplace and stared disconsolately at Sylvie’s picture, as if to gain some consolation from the sunny scene. The last few days had been the worst time in her life, even worse than that time in Paris when Delphine had told her she and Robert were to be married...
Lottie came in. ‘No mooning about Anna, it won’t do any good. College will be good for James, he needs the discipline.’
‘Yes, you’re right.’ After a moment Anna said quietly, ‘I thought Clancy might be here to see him off.’
Lottie understood instantly. ‘It’s not what you think Anna, Clancy isn’t angry with James any more, not since they had that heart to heart. Everything is alright between them.’
Yes, Anna thought, things are right between them, it’s me he can’t forgive. ‘Even so, he could have been here,’ she said.
‘I don’t think so,’ Lottie replied. ‘He told James he was sorry not to see him off but he has something important to do. I heard him give instructions to the chauffeur to take the car to the office as soon as he has put James on the train.’
‘Oh? And what is this important thing he has to do?’ Anna asked.
‘I’ve no idea,’ Lottie said. ‘But he’s been very preoccupied since he had the telephone call from that monster Vetti.’
~
It was just after two o’clock the same afternoon when Clancy received the awaited telephone call at his office. Leaving immediately, he ignored the protests of his chauffeur and got into the driver’s seat of the car, telling the surprised man to take the rest of the day off. Fifteen minutes later he was driving along the dusty road to the neglected farmhouse where James had been held. He stopped the car at the entrance to the driveway, little more than a cart track, and checked his gold hunter watch. Paolo should be free at about two thirty if all went as Vittorio had outlined. Clancy settled back to wait, wondering, not for the first time, what on earth he was doing there, and why he was doing it.
It was exactly two thirty one when Clancy saw a dark suited figure emerge from the farmhouse and begin to walk up the long cart track towards him. Two minutes later he recog
nised the figure as Paolo Vetti, and noticed that Paolo’s walk was less jaunty than usual. He held his head down, and moved with a shambling limp, and as he neared the car Clancy saw that Paolo’s suit was crumpled and dirty, and his handsome features were disfigured by a black eye and several yellow and purple bruises.
Clancy opened the passenger door. ‘Welcome back. Your hotel wasn’t too comfortable I see.’
Paolo stared at him. ‘I didn’t expect it to be you,’ he said. ‘What are you doing here?’ He got into the car, moving painfully, and Clancy started up.
‘Your uncle asked me to collect you,’ Clancy said. ‘I don’t really know why, he said something about not wanting to use one of his own men.’
Paolo smiled grimly. ‘He’s under pressure from Tony Cavellini, the man who took James. Cavellini is trying to take over the Vetti interests, and is quite capable of bribing our men. My uncle wanted someone he knew he could trust.’
‘In case you think that’s a compliment, I don’t regard it as such,’ Clancy said shortly, driving away quickly towards the main road. ‘I don’t want to know the details and I don’t want anything else to do with this after I’ve taken you home.’
‘Fair enough,’ Paolo said, feeling his face gingerly, ‘All the same, thanks for agreeing to collect me.’
‘How did you get the eye?’ Clancy asked. ‘Did they beat you up?’
‘Yes, but it was my own fault, I was trying to escape. I thought...’ Paolo hesitated, and then continued ruefully, ‘I wasn’t sure my uncle would be able to get me out, or would want to.’
Clancy drove on for a few minutes in silence, until they came within sight of the suburbs. He pulled up outside a bar and said gruffly, ‘I was wrong to tell James not to see you. You have proved a true friend.’
‘In your shoes I should have felt the same,’ Paolo said, ‘But you needn’t worry. As soon as the baby is born I am taking Jennie to California to start again.’
‘I know, James told me.’ Clancy took a deep breath. ‘You and your family will always be welcome at our home, Paolo.’
Paolo hung his head. When he looked up Clancy saw there were tears in his eyes. ‘What a day!’ he said lightly, trying unsuccessfully to recover his composure. ‘First I am released and now... this...’ He laughed briefly. ‘I don’t suppose the invitation extends to my uncle Vittorio?’
‘No it doesn’t, you cheeky pup,’ Clancy returned, ‘And after I’ve telephoned him from this bar I hope I never hear of him again, so I do.’
~
Vittorio Vetti put down the telephone. 'That was my driver,' he said. 'He has Paolo.' He fixed Tony Cavellini with a penetrating stare. 'He says Paolo has a black eye and is badly bruised.'
Cavellini shrugged. 'He tried to escape. When he was caught he laid into everyone around him. A couple of my guys look worse than he does.'
Vittorio smiled briefly. 'O.K. Are we all set?'
Cavellini nodded. 'I'm happy with the accounts.'
He signalled to his two beefy minders who lounged near the door, bored and hungry after three hours watching the boss pore over Vetti's ledgers. The largest of them opened the door and checked with his two colleagues outside. 'O.K. boss,' he said.
'You can go Vittorio, but don't try anything,' Cavellini said warily, 'And remember, this is for keeps. No comeback.'
Vittorio stood up. 'How could I try anything? You went over the place with a toothcomb,' he said. 'Don't worry, Tony. I know when it's time to quit.' He walked to the window and picked up a small statuette from the ledge.
'Would you believe it? I almost forgot this,' he said. 'My mother gave it to me thirty years ago. I took the rest of my stuff out last night.' He returned to the table. 'You know Tony, I'm not sorry to be going, the only other thing I have to take care of is...'
It was over in seconds. The revolver appeared in his hand and fired into Tony Cavellini's heart at the precise moment that his men opened the door and shot Cavellini's two henchmen in the back.
Vittorio Vetti surveyed the carnage. Cavellini lay back in his chair, his mouth open in surprise, he had died instantly. One of his minders was also dead, but the big one moved and screamed. Vetti put the revolver to his head and fired. It was suddenly very quiet.
'Good job boys,' Vetti said to the two men in the doorway.
'Worked like clockwork boss,' said one of them.
'Yes,' Vetti said.
He walked back behind the table. 'This was excellent,' he said, pushing back into place the wooden flange which had been fixed along the edge of the table. 'That carpenter deserves a bonus, they never suspected a thing.' He worked the flange again, 'I think I'll keep this, you never know when it might come in handy.'
The tension was eased and all three laughed, a little too loudly. One of the men said, 'You don't want your desk back in here?'
'No. I'll keep the table.' Vetti said. 'But you can put back my good rug, you'd better burn this one.' He kicked at the bloodstained rug and walked to the door. 'Get everything cleaned up, you know what to do. I won't be in tomorrow, I'm going to see Paolo. Make sure the decorator does a good job.' He felt in his jacket pocket and extracted two envelopes. 'Here we are boys,' he said, handing an envelope to each of them. 'The bonus, as promised.'
He left the office and surveyed the scene on the landing, where two more of Cavellini's men lay in their own blood. 'Good work boys,' he said to the two men standing guard over the bodies. 'You know what to do now.' He took two more envelopes from his pocket and handed them out. 'Are the laundry baskets ready?'
'All organised boss.'
'Good, then I'll leave you to it.'
Vetti went downstairs and through the laundry to the street. One more envelope to go and then he could put this sorry business behind him. On the corner a man selling newspapers looked up as he approached.
'All right Mr. Vetti?'
'Of course. Well done.' He gave the last envelope to the newspaper seller, who smiled happily as he accepted it. 'It wasn't that easy to see Mr Vetti, I nearly missed you at the window, the sun was in my eyes.'
'I'm glad you didn't,' said Vittorio, and hailed a cab.
~
'Tony Cavellini,' Anna said, poring over the newspaper.
'What's that?' Clancy was not really listening. Although a week had passed since the day of Paolo's release, the coolness between himself and Anna was still there. He reached for another slice of toast, and returned to his own paper.
'Tony Cavellini... wasn't that the name of the gangster who took James, the one who was trying to take over Vittorio Vetti's business?'
'Anna, will you never stop?' Clancy said with some irritation. 'You know I don't wish to discuss...'
'Clancy, was it? Was it Tony Cavellini?' Her tone was urgent.
'Yes, I think so. What now?'
'His body has been washed up at Greenwich. He had been shot.' She perused the paper. 'It says here, "This is the third victim of New York's current gang wars to be washed up in the area this week." Further down it says...'
'Let me see that.'
Anna handed him the newspaper and Clancy read the piece with mounting dismay.
'Will it never end?' he said at last, his face ashen.
Anna stared at him with dawning realisation. 'You don't think it was Vittorio?' she said, aghast.
'Of course it was Vittorio! Oh God!' Clancy put his head in his hands.
'You can't know that for sure.'
Clancy's fist thumped down on the breakfast table so hard that the crockery rattled. 'There you go again. Defending that murdering gangster...'
'I'm not defending him Clancy,' Anna said, startled at the violence of her husband's outburst. 'I just thought...'
'You didn't. You didn't think, that's the whole trouble, so it is.' Clancy's voice was quieter now. 'Anna, does it ever occur to you to defend me, instead of the Vetti family?'
'You?' The surprise showed in her voice. 'Why should you need defending?'
'You still can't see it can you?
' Clancy said, exasperated. 'Anna, Vittorio used me. He used me to get Paolo out, and when I rang him... yes Anna, I... when I gave him the signal that Paolo was free, he went ahead and did this... this terrible thing.'
Anna stared at him in horror. 'Oh Clancy. Do you really think that is how it happened'?'
'Yes, I do. God forgive me, I do.'
'But you didn't know! How could you know he would do something so dreadful?'
'Whether I knew or not doesn't alter the fact that I was an accessory.'
'Of course you weren't. You only went to drive Paolo home.'
'That is what I thought Anna. But I should have known that nothing is simple when you are dealing with these monsters.' Clancy sighed, and looked at his wife a long time. 'Are you at last beginning to understand Anna, why I wanted to steer well clear of the Vetti's? Do you see how easy it is to get drawn in to their world?'
'Yes,' she admitted. 'If you are right and Vittorio did this dreadful thing.' In her mind she was back at Vetti's home on the day of Jennie's wedding, and the man beside her was talking of his concern for his nephew and discussing his roses. It seemed impossible that Clancy was talking about the same person, and yet these events had happened, James had been kidnapped, Paolo had been badly beaten, and now...?
'It's not a question of being right.' Clancy was saying. 'Do you think I care about being right? This is too serious for either of us to score points, so it is.'
'I have already told you,' she said, 'That I intend to stop selling any alcoholic drinks in the restaurants.'
'It's a bit late for that, now the damage is done.' Clancy retorted bitterly.
'Well shall we say I have seen the light at last? Does that satisfy you? What else would you like me to admit to? Being a bad mother?'
'There's no need for sarcasm Anna.' Clancy got up from the table and walked to the door. He turned. 'Do you really think you can stop this thing, like turning off a tap? It has its own momentum, it goes on and on...'
'Now you're being melodramatic.' she said.
'Am I? What do you think will happen now?' Clancy demanded. 'Do you imagine that Cavellini's friends will let it be?'
She stared at him, her eyes round. 'Perhaps you're right. We must warn Paolo and Jennie.'