by Jeff Abbott
Whit held the gun. Beautiful, he thought, although he had never been one much for guns. He knew how to shoot, but it felt awkward and heavy in his hand. ‘This won’t be necessary.’
‘Shows what you know about mob families.’
‘Harry said my mother’s boyfriend runs a high-end strip joint for the Bellinis.’
Gooch took the gun from Whit’s hands. ‘Charlie says Paul Bellini owns Club Topaz. Let’s start there.’
‘I don’t think my mother’s working there, Gooch.’
‘Why don’t you go to the strip club? See what you can see. I got another angle I’d like to work.’
‘I’m calling the shots, Gooch. You understand? I know you’re treating this like a secret mission, but it’s my family problem. I want to handle it my way.’
‘Yes, Your Honor.’
‘Tell me I heard sincerity,’ Whit said.
‘I’m deceit-free right this minute.’
‘What’s this other angle?’
Gooch watched the tree limbs rocking near the window as the wind stirred them. ‘You can try to find your mother at a Bellini hangout. Present yourself as Whit Mosley, nothing to hide, a guy trying to find his mom. Or you can convince Harry that now you’re here, he needs to tell you what he knows and not shield you from the big bad truth. Or… take a more aggressive approach.’
‘Aggressive.’
‘Let’s say you find her, Whit. And she has no interest in seeing you or in a sweet little reunion with your dad before he dies. I’d say toss her over your shoulder and haul her to Port Leo. That’s kidnapping, although I can’t imagine a jury would convict you and she wouldn’t have a lot of sympathy if she pressed charges.’ Gooch let a crooked smile creep across his ugly, kind face. ‘The problem is the Bellinis. They probably don’t take kindly to a guy coming in and hijacking key members of their family. So let me kidnap her; you keep your hands clean.’
Whit paced to the bed. ‘Thanks, but no, Gooch. She’ll come with me.’
‘Why? There’s nothing in her interest to make her do so.’
‘She’ll come,’ he said again.
‘Whit,’ Gooch said, his voice going quiet. ‘Man, I do not want to screw with your head. The bitch-’
‘Don’t call her that.’
‘St Ellen has had thirty years to make amends. She wouldn’t know you if she walked past you on the street. What, she sees you, she suddenly cares? A heart grows where there was stone?’
‘Did you read that in a bad poem?’
‘I wrote that in a bad poem.’
‘So your backup plan is to kidnap her and keep the Bellinis at bay?’ Whit said. ‘You’re a freaking strategic genius.’
‘I’m trying to save you time.’ Gooch shook his head. ‘So what’s it gonna be?’
‘I’m going to see if my new Plan A works first.’
‘What’s Plan A?’
‘Find her,’ Whit said. ‘And get her away from these people. If I can talk to her, really have a conversation with her… that’s all I need to do.’
‘You have an unrelenting and hopelessly naive belief in the goodness of people, Whit. Why should she talk to you?’
‘I’m not so good, Gooch. There’s a man she knew in Montana,’ Whit said. ‘I mention his name, I’ll get her undivided attention.’
9
Night had begun its fall, and the mercury lights pooled over the lot of Club Topaz. Paul Bellini stood at the window of Frank Polo’s office, watching the valets park cars, the blood hammering in his head, in his chest. He took a calming breath. He liked to play a game with himself, look at the cars, figure out how much money each driver would spend. A Porsche would be a guy who would drop a couple of hundred, because it was himself and a friend. Your Lexuses, BMWs, Mercedes, often four to five guys together, up to a thousand easy. Best of all would be a little fleet of cabs and limos arriving: those meant groups, bachelor parties, sports teams, packs of young wolves ready to lay out serious cash. The lot was half full; it was still early for a Thursday, but the empty parking slots pissed him off.
Paul closed the heavy shades of the office with a flick of a button. The little whir of the device was the only sound in the room, except for the labored breathing and soft crying of Frank Polo.
‘Where is she, Frank?’ Paul asked. His voice was kind, a quiet murmur of buddyhood. A whisper between friends.
‘Oh, Christ, I don’t know,’ Frank Polo sobbed. He sat, curled up on the chair. Paul had punched him twice in the ribs, backhanded him. Frank’s lip was swelling, would purple before long.
‘You hear from her?’
‘She left two messages on my cell phone. Crazy ones. They don’t make sense.’
‘Nothing makes sense right now, Frank,’ Paul said, his voice an ooze of concern. ‘I got five million in cash missing. I got two people who could’ve took it, Bucks and Eve. Bucks comes running straight to me, tells me what happened. Eve runs.’
Bucks sat in the corner, pouting, bleeding from his own mouth where Paul had punched him, staring at Frank.
‘Bucks could’ve taken it…’ Frank started.
‘But you know, he isn’t already stealing from me,’ Paul said. He sat down next to Frank, touched his jaw gently. ‘Frank. This is going to get real ugly, real fast. And I don’t want that. You’re family. Help me understand this.’
‘I really, truly don’t know where she is,’ Frank said. ‘I haven’t talked to her.’
‘You don’t help me, then I got to put a hit on her. That’s gonna tear my heart open, Frank.’
‘Well, don’t,’ Frank said.
‘You love Eve. Help her now. Tell me where she is, so we can talk to her.’
‘I don’t love her if she stole five fucking million from you,’ Frank said. ‘It’s over between her and me if she’s turned traitor.’ He wet his lips with his tongue, looked up at Paul, like a dog looking shyly to nuzzle a stranger’s hand.
‘Now. Eve called you.’
‘Yeah. I forgot my cell phone, left it here. Stayed a long time at lunch. Then ran errands. I came back here, got to glad-handing with an early group, a bunch of Japanese businessmen. I didn’t come back up to my office until an hour ago.’
‘Play me the messages on your phone,’ Paul said.
‘I erased them, I wasn’t thinking straight.’
Paul frowned. ‘What did she say in the messages? And don’t you lie to me. I start snapping fingers if you do.’ And he took Frank’s hand, ran a fingertip along the finger and palm, and positioned the middle finger between his own, bent it back, ready to break.
Frank gasped. ‘She said Doyle and another dink had gotten shot at the exchange point, the money was gone, Bucks had tried to kill her and for me not to go home.’
‘Where did she want you to go?’
‘She wanted to meet me at the Neiman’s at the Galleria. At five.’ It was already past seven.
‘Where you been this afternoon? What the hell were these errands?’
‘I went over to the Platinum Club. They got new dancers, girls we ought to have.’
‘You spent the afternoon ogling tits while your girlfriend stole five million from me,’ Paul said, giving the finger a little twist. Wondering if the snapping bone would sound like a twig or louder, like a pencil.
‘Uhhh,’ Frank moaned. ‘Jason, the bartender at Platinum… he’ll tell you I was there. And I talked to two of the girls that we want to recruit for Topaz. Ginger and Anita. They’ll vouch for me.’
Paul let go of his hand, turned to a muscular man with dyed-blond hair standing near the door. ‘Gary, call the Platinum. See if his story checks out.’ Gary stepped out of the office.
‘I need that cash, Frank,’ Paul said. ‘We got a deal going down late tonight, and now I got to call them and postpone. How do you think that looks to a man like Kiko?’ He glanced over at Bucks. ‘Get a couple of guys over to Neiman’s, have them walk the Galleria. And keep a guy watching Eve and Frank’s place.’
‘I�
�ll take care of that,’ Bucks said. ‘Personally.’
Paul cocked his head. ‘Frank here could be right and you’re lying to me.’
Bucks blinked. ‘I’m not. I’m here, Eve isn’t. This isn’t complicated.’
‘You tried to strangle her and nearly pulled a gun on her last night,’ Frank said. ‘She’s given her life to this family and you dare to touch her…’
‘She tried to call off the exchange, Frank,’ Bucks said. ‘Told Paul there were cops watching. Well, that was a lie. There weren’t any cops there.’
Frank swallowed. Bucks gave him a thin trap of a smile.
‘Where else would she go, Frank?’ Paul went to the wall of Frank’s office. He ran a finger along the three platinum records: ‘Baby, You’re My Groove’; ‘Boogie City’; ‘When You Walk Away.’ He took down ‘Baby’ and shattered the framed record on the corner of Frank’s desk.
‘Oh, God, not my disks!’ Frank stood in horror.
Paul picked up a jagged shard and turned back to Frank. ‘Tell me where she is, Frank.’
‘Jesus, Paul!’ Frank screamed. ‘This is me, please!’
‘This is you between me and five million,’ Paul said. ‘Where would she go?’
Frank swallowed. ‘Not to our house. She won’t come to the club or any of our hangouts.’
‘She got a place she goes when she’s stressed?’
‘What, you think she went for a spa treatment?’ Bucks said. Paul shot him a look and he went silent.
‘If she took the money,’ Frank said slowly, ‘she won’t be staying in town. If he’s framed her’ – he nodded toward Bucks – ‘she’s probably gonna go back to Detroit. Where people have sense.’
‘Be very careful, old man,’ Bucks said.
‘Paul. Get real. You think Eve took that money? Seriously?’ Frank pleaded.
‘You been skimming club money from me, way more than’s acceptable. I know you have.’
Bucks said, ‘Hasn’t there been a big outbreak of initiative around here?’
‘So,’ Paul said, ‘it’s not a big jump to Eve deciding to take a lump payment and retire.’
‘She would have taken me with her. She didn’t,’ Frank said.
‘So you say. She’s been bitching about the way I fart ever since Dad got hurt. She doesn’t like how I’m running things. She knows she’s gonna be retired. You’ve screwed the pooch big time, Frank. So she takes the money and runs.’ Paul leaned down close to his face, ran the tip of the jagged vinyl along Frank’s eyebrows. ‘Where’s the money you took?’
‘I stashed it in an account in a bank in Katy,’ Frank said. Katy was a distant suburb west of Houston, a nice quiet town, known for good schools, football, and big malls.
‘All ninety thousand?’
‘I haven’t spent it. It was a loan I was gonna pay back in a few months. With interest.’
Paul shook his head. ‘Loan? Do I look like an ATM, Frank? You see any fucking buttons on my front?’
‘No.’
‘Why did you want a loan?’
Frank worked his mouth. ‘I wanted to cut a new record…’
Bucks laughed, short and sharp.
‘I’m gonna cut you a new record,’ Paul said. ‘Right after I cut off your fingers and your balls and your ears.’
‘Please, Paul…’ Frank’s voice broke. ‘I’ll do whatever you want to make it right…’
Paul let go of Frank’s shirt, took a step back. ‘That ninety thousand, it’s not so bad. Not nearly as bad as what Eve did to me. I tell you what. You get her and the five mil for me, you can keep the ninety thou.’
‘Paul, you’re gonna let him get away with that?’ Bucks said.
‘You shut up,’ Paul said. ‘You find Eve, Bucks, you can have the ninety thou.’
Bucks shut up.
‘I’m not trusting either of you too much at the moment,’ Paul said. ‘That’s why you both got to prove your loyalty. Bring her to me. Think of it as a modified contract. You two boys are the only bidders.’ He glared at Frank. ‘You give me your Katy account info and I’m moving that money back where it belongs.’
‘Sure, Paul,’ Frank said.
‘You steal one more cent from this club, and I’m going to kill you. With this broken record. An inch at a time.’
‘I understand, Paul.’
‘Not an inch. I’m going fucking metric. A centimeter at a time.’
‘I understand, Paul.’
‘I don’t think you do, Frank,’ Paul said, and he reached out, grabbed Frank’s hand, turned the palm skyward, and with one swipe of the shard laid the flesh open. Blood spurted. Frank screamed. Paul shoved him to the floor. Frank clutched the torn hand to his chest.
‘Next time, I’m slicing your dick,’ Paul said. ‘Now call Doc Brewer and get yourself sewed up.’
Frank staggered toward the phone. ‘You go downstairs and call the doctor. Get out of my sight. You get blood on the carpet I’m cutting the other hand,’ Paul said.
Frank tucked his hand inside his suit jacket and fled from the room.
‘He’s lying,’ Bucks said. ‘He knows where she is.’
‘Nah,’ Paul said. ‘No way he’d come back here if he knew.’ Paul gave him a smirk. ‘He’s an old guy and a has-been. He was stupid. You’re not stupid, are you, Bucks?’
‘No.’
‘Good. Because I got a couple of soldiers searching your crib right now. They’re not going to find five mil in cash there, are they?’
‘No. I told you I don’t have it. Thanks for the vote of confidence, man.’ Bucks stood, squared his shoulders. ‘You brought me into this business, Paul. I owe you everything. I’m not going to betray you. We both know that.’
‘You had the same opportunity as Eve.’
‘You hired me,’ Bucks said. ‘But you inherited her.’
‘Tell me again what you saw.’
Bucks took a breath. ‘I was running late getting to the exchange
…’
‘Why?’
‘Fender bender on 1-10. Two lanes closed for about fifteen minutes, traffic sucked.’ Bucks shrugged.
‘Then what?’
‘I get to Alvarez. Door’s open. I go in, find Doyle and this guy dead. Bodies still warm. No sign of the money.’ He paused. ‘I check Doyle’s pockets. His wallet, his ID’s gone. The man doesn’t have ID on him. The smell of gunfire is still fresh. There’s even a casing on the floor. I pick it up, pocket it. Then I get the hell out, being sure I’m not leaving prints.’ He tented his fingers. ‘I pull the Jag across the street, start to call you, and then here I see Eve tearing back into the lot. She goes inside. I wait to see what happens, then she comes tearing out before the cops show.’
‘If she had killed them and taken the money while you were stuck in traffic, why the hell would she come back?’
Bucks held up the casing. ‘She found she was missing one and came back for it.’
‘Eve would be thorough if she planned a heist like this.’
‘She’s Hot a hit man, Paul. She could have missed a casing in a panic. Or she was coming back for another reason.’ Bucks put the casing on the desk.
‘Her coming back was a huge risk.’ Doubt in his voice.
‘I’m telling you what I saw. Even a lady sharp as Eve isn’t going to think straight all the time.’
‘I don’t like not knowing who the man was with Doyle.’ Paul sat down. ‘I want you to find out. The cops are going to be looking closely at a banker getting killed down at the Port. They’ll come after us if they make the connection between my dad and Alvarez Insurance.’
‘First they have to make the connection,’ Bucks said.
Paul shook his head. ‘This is like finding out your favorite aunt is a two-dollar whore. It’s depressing.’
‘People often disappoint.’
‘You better not,’ Paul said. ‘I’m trusting you, man. Find her. Find the money. See if we can push back the deal with Kiko until Saturday night. But he can’t kno
w we don’t have the green. He knows that, we’re dead in the water. No one will supply us. That money’s the starting point for us.’
‘Starting point,’ Bucks said.
‘The reason I wanted you working with me,’ Paul said, ‘is that I’m going to be bigger than my dad ever was. I need your expertise a lot more than I need muscle with guns. We’re gonna run Houston, Bucks. And when we’ve got that base to work from, I’m going after the men that humiliated my father, that drove him out of Detroit. Barici. Vasco. Antonelli. They’re dried-up old men now. The racketeering laws have broken most of them. They worry so much about the Feds, they won’t see me coming, but I’m going to annihilate them and they won’t be able to touch me.’ He jabbed a finger at Bucks, his face reddening. ‘But I need this deal to jump-start us. To build a stronger power base with an ally like Kiko.’
‘You’re not mob anymore,’ Bucks said quietly. ‘With all due respect, Paul, leave it alone. They’re old men. They don’t have nearly the power they once did. What’s to be gained from it?’
‘Eve knows those guys. She could run to them with the money, if she wanted. They’d give her sanctuary, shelter. She’s old school. She and them, they’d understand each other. She knows how I work. So you got to find her and the money. I’m not gonna let my family be humiliated again.’
‘If I can’t find her-’ Bucks started.
‘Hey, Bucks,’ Paul said. ‘If you don’t find her, nobody’s ever gonna find you.’
10
Whit passed under the eagle eye of the bouncer, who looked carved from a redwood, paid the twenty-dollar cover, walked into the thump of the music, the strobe lights blinking against his skin.
Club Topaz was dark as a dimly lit closet, a happy-hour crowd thinning out and a well-heeled, post-dinner crowd settling in. The only fully lit areas were the stages, awash with white glows from both ceiling and floor. The crowd was mostly men, with the exception of a few women who wore uncomfortable smiles, as if here under mild protest. The decor was heavy on gold and chrome, a strange mix of Roman antiquity (perhaps to suggest an impending orgy) and contemporary sleekness. The club had retro-guido written all over it, probably part of the cheese-factor appeal, but it was spotlessly clean, the waitresses moving among the tables with precise energy, the cogs of the club all warming up to produce a night of longing and money.