“They just didn’t seem to be overly violent, at least not until last night. But let’s get beyond that issue and focus on the current one. After all, this is your territory. As soon as you’re out you’ll be back in the driver’s seat. When does it look like that might happen?”
“It’s up to the parole board. I mean, I’ve been eligible for longer than I like to think about. I’ve been turned down so many times I’m starting to think Vinnie is involved, but that’s another story. Back to your problem. My first instinct is to get rid of this Hideki. You can’t let anyone get away with extorting you. Not in this business. Cut off the head and the beast won’t bite.”
“Can’t do!” Louie said definitely and without hesitation. “He’s too high-profile. The Aizukotetsu-kai would be over here and a real war would break out. Besides, you can’t bite the hand that feeds you. As I mentioned, a good part of our current cash flow would halt.”
“Then get rid of the two enforcers who did the dirty work,” Paulie said. “You don’t need guys like that around who take it on their own to shoot whoever the hell they please. You have to send a message that that kind of behavior is not okay.”
“I’m listening,” Louie said, “but whacking them is going to involve abandoning my antiviolence campaign. I’ve been really strict about it. I’ve even talked down the little stuff, like avoiding knocking around gambling deadbeats unless absolutely necessary. Dominick and I even had a meeting about it, and we agreed. So there’s been no violence to speak of, and the cops have left us alone and business has been as good as can be expected, even in this down economy.”
“You can’t have it both ways,” Paulie snapped. “You can encourage everyone to keep the violence down, that’s all well and good. But this is different. This is serious, from the leader of a foreign gang. You have to react, and you have to react now. If you don’t do something dramatic, word is going to get around that you’ve lost your touch. I mean, it’s nice to have a nonviolent stance, because it can be useful with the police, but it can be counterproductive with all the competition. If you don’t want to cut off the head, then you have to inflict some serious damage to the vital organs. You have to get rid of Hideki’s two lead goons. Listen to me!” Paulie suddenly motioned with his eyes for Louie to look to his right. One of the bored guards was sauntering in their direction on Louie’s side of the glass. As he approached, Louie and Paulie switched their conversation to small talk about how much better it was in the old days with Louie in Bayonne, New Jersey, and Paulie there in Queens.
Unfortunately, the guard went behind Louie to the window and stared out at the bay for a time, forcing Louie and Paulie to think up things to talk about. They finally hit on the Yankees and what the 2010 season would be like. When the guard finally strolled away, Louie said, “We’ve got to speed this up. The clock is ticking on how long I’m allowed to be here.”
“You have to do something dramatic or you are going to lose control,” Paulie said. “What I’d do is call Hideki, pretend you’ve changed your mind and play up your willingness to help; tell him you want to have a meeting because the more you know about what’s going on, the better you can help. And do it face-to-face. You learn a lot more at a meeting than with a phone call. Of course, have the meeting in your office. Come up with some plan about how you’re going to break into the office where the lab books are to give yourself something real to talk about to make him believe you’re definitely going to do something.”
Louie nodded, knowing he could come up with something believable. Certainly the idea of finding out more about the lab books and Satoshi would be helpful.
“I mean, the plan doesn’t have to be elaborate, since you’re never going to do it — something like creating a major distraction, such as a fire or an explosion nearby so you can slip in and out of the office building with everyone concentrating on the distraction.”
Louie was impressed. Apparently, Paulie hadn’t lost any of his edge, especially coming up with a plan so quickly. Louie also started to believe the born-again Christianity might have more to do with the parole board than true religiosity.
“Make plans to meet up with the enforcers someplace in the city where there’s always a crowd. Once you have them in the car, you’re golden. Make sure to get rid of the bodies. Then after an hour or so, call Hideki back and be pissed off, asking where the fuck are his guys, as you’ve been waiting all this time, blah, blah, blah.”
“You think he’d buy it and not smell a rat? I don’t want to make this situation worse.”
“I think there’s a good chance he’ll buy it outright,” Paulie continued. “But here’s the tricky part that will take some thought on your end. Drop some offhand comment about your guys hearing from his guys last night that they were somehow concerned about the rival gang. What was the name of the group hooked up with Vinnie?”
“Yamaguchi-gumi.”
“That’s it. I mean, don’t overdo it. Just some trifle reference his guys were concerned about a couple of the Yamaguchi-gumi enforcers, or whatever they call their hit men. The Yakuza are paranoid about each other and do more harm to each other than the police. Am I making sense?”
“A lot of sense,” Louie said.
“Are you going to take my advice?”
“I’ll think about it,” Louie answered.
“But it’s key that you don’t add to your violence problem by anybody finding a couple of bodies with a single bullet in their brains.”
“Understood,” Louie agreed.
“Now, about the current violence problem,” Paulie continued, lowering his voice. “I haven’t heard anything about a guy getting whacked on any subway platform, nor any mass murder in New Jersey. How come? What’s the story? Here inside, we learn about such things sometimes even before they happen.”
“When I got upset with Hideki telling me the truth instead of the wacky story of a heart attack, he tried to calm me down by insisting that the death was done in a way that would be considered natural and would be undetectable to the police. Also, his guys took all the man’s IDs, so it’s going to be an unidentified corpse until someone comes out of the blue to identify him.”
“What about the mass murder?”
“The only explanation for now is that no one has stumbled on the scene. If the whole family was home, except for Satoshi, who surely is not going home, it might be a while before it’s discovered. My guys say it’s not the best part of town, mostly empty buildings, trash, and graffiti. They didn’t even see a single person, and it was evening, when you most often see people coming home from work.”
“That’s in our favor. Under such conditions it could be months, and it would never be associated with the hit on the subway platform, which is important, in my mind. As far as going over there and cleaning it out ourselves, I say definitely no. We shouldn’t go near the place.”
“I agree with that totally,” Louie said.
“That leaves the victim who was whacked. Did Hideki tell you how he was killed?”
“No. All he said was that no one is going to figure it out, so it will be considered a natural death.”
“That means it’s important that it remains a natural death.”
“I suppose you’re right. But there’s nothing we can do about that.”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Paulie said. “I know a kid that works at the medical examiner’s office named Vinnie Amendola. Well, he’s no kid anymore. Hell, he’s got to be in his forties. Nice kid. I literally saved his father way back when, so the kid owes me big-time. Of course, we used him once a number of years ago to sneak a body out of the morgue. He got into a bit of trouble over it, but I smoothed it over, since he’s lived all his life out here in Queens. He could help you on this case.”