"I thought you were coming to talk a while ago," Justin said. "Right after I saw you."
"I had to be a little careful," Bruno said. "Perhaps you might recall the circumstances under which we last met."
"I recall," Justin told him. "Pietro Lambrasco."
"Was that his name?" Bruno didn't seem surprised that Justin knew it.
"Yes."
"Well," Bruno said, "I didn't much care what his name was."
"You just cared why he was there." When Bruno nodded, Justin said, "And did you find out?"
"I told you, there were a few possibilities. Turned out, I'd done something he didn't like."
"Back in the old country, maybe? When you took your relaxing vacation?"
"Could be."
"Where you from again, Bruno?" Justin asked. "That place where your aunt has the beautiful villa, up on the cliffs? What part of Italy is that? I don't think you ever told me."
"The south," Bruno said.
"As south as Sicily?"
"As south as that, yeah."
"And this villa, does it happen to be on an island?"
"How official is this conversation?" Bruno said. "I'll talk to you"-he jerked his thumb at Reggie-"but she makes me nervous. Bein' a Fed and all."
"You should be nervous, Bruno," Justin said. "You killed Evan Harmon. And I don't know how the hell you did it, but you sunk a ship near Sicily. And Wanda Chinkle knew about it."
"Did she?"
"Yes, she did. She left me kind of a note about it."
"What kind of note?" Bruno asked.
"She left me the name of the boat. Reggie's associates just confirmed it. Sometimes it's not so bad bein' a Fed and all."
"That right?"
"That's right," Justin said. He turned to Reggie. "You want to tell him?"
"Hades," she said. "You sunk a ship called Hades off the coast of the Sicilian island Favignana. Named Hades because he wasn't just the god of the underworld, or even just the god of wealth. Hades is the god of precious metal. And the ship had a lot of precious metal on it. That's what it carried on a regular basis."
"Platinum," Justin said. "On this trip, over fifty million dollars' worth."
"You landed in Palermo five days before the boat went down," Reggie went on. Her voice got stronger as she spoke, although she still wasn't looking at Justin. "You took a ferry from Trapani to Favignana. And you left the island three days after the ship sank."
"Your visitor Pietro Lambrasco. He was here for something personal, not just business," Justin took over. "We got the list of sailors working on the ship. All present and accounted for. No deaths among the crew. But apparently there was one stowaway. No one knows how he got on board but he was there. A young kid. And he drowned. His name was Angelo Tornabene. You want to know the name of Pietro Lambrasco's wife? Her maiden name, I mean?"
"No," Bruno said. "I know it. Giovanna Tornabene."
"Angelo's older sister."
Bruno said, taking another long swig of beer, "You didn't answer my question. How official is this conversation?"
"It's official," Justin told him. "It's official on her part and on mine."
"How official is it if I didn't kill Evan Harmon?" the mobster wanted to know. "'Cause I didn't," he said. "I would've. No problem. But before I could, somebody else beat me to it."
33
Bruno drank his second beer and then his third while he talked.
He confirmed most of what Lenny Rube had told Justin and Reggie, but he was able to elaborate and provide more detail.
Bruno had indeed started going to Ronald LaSalle because of his stellar reputation as a financial adviser and money manager. He explained that he wasn't exactly in a business that provided long-term health care and retirement funds, so he wanted a legit place to stash his money-of which there was a considerable amount-and help it grow. He wasn't getting any younger, and he knew he couldn't depend solely on muscle forever. So he gave a couple of hundred g's to LaSalle, who did a hell of a job. Bruno made money, probably the first legal money of his life, he said, except once when he was a kid and he washed cars. Even then, as he thought about it, he used to steal anything inside the cars that wasn't nailed down-including once taking a spare tire from someone's trunk while the person was still sitting in the car-so he guessed that didn't really count.
He got Lenny Rube involved, he said. At first, just with the mob boss's own money. Also totally legit. And just as profitable as Bruno's initial investment. LaSalle had started his own business and was definitely looking for investors, so Lenny went to him and said they were putting together a fund and wanted LaSalle to handle it. This was Lenny's idea. Several families from around the country needed a place to put their cash; Lenny had the rep and the clout, so the other families knew he'd look after them. It was a good deal all around. Everyone made money; it was a good way to pay taxes and make everything look nice and tidy; and Len took a sweet little cut off the top for brokering with the broker. But then LaSalle began to realize what he'd gotten into. At first, he really believed that Lenny's businesses were legit. Then he was asked to do things, Bruno said.
"What kind of things?" Reggie asked.
Bruno said, "Things a guy like LaSalle wasn't used to. Doctoring profits, moving money around. Mostly he was asked to guarantee our investments. We got a monthly statement one time and the pot had gone down. Lenny didn't like it. LaSalle said he couldn't do that. Lenny told him, 'Sure you can.' Lenny figured that if LaSalle was taking an automatic cut of our investment, he could guarantee us a certain profit. LaSalle said, 'That ain't the way this thing works,' and the Rube said, 'That's the way it works now.'"
When Reggie asked why LaSalle went along with it, Bruno said, "We had him by the short and curlies. All I had to do was point out that he'd been doing business with some members of a known criminal organization. It didn't matter whether he knew about it or not, it wasn't gonna be good for his reputation. But the thing is, the guy had some stones. He still didn't go along with it."
"What did he do?" Reggie wanted to know.
Bruno told them that LaSalle came to Bruno and Lenny with a proposition. He said he'd find someone else who could do the job. Someone who'd go along with what they wanted. Someone who might fit in with them better. They could move their money from LaSalle's investment company into this new person's company. All LaSalle wanted was to untangle their business relationship. He had a wife and they were thinking about starting a family and he was too honest for this kind of work. It was because he was honest that he said he'd get them an acceptable replacement.
"I thought the Rube would never go for it. But he liked this guy. And, between you and me, I think he gets off now on bein' this kind of benevolent godfather type-you know? He's startin' to think he might actually be a respectable businessman, you know, with all his Palm Beach shit and joinin' country clubs and all that. So he said okay. With one condition. He said that for the first year, LaSalle had to keep his hand in and make sure whoever this new guy was wouldn't fuck up. Lenny said he'd make sure that the new guy hired LaSalle-so LaSalle wouldn't be doin' business directly with us but he could still look after our interests. And still make some money for his new company. And LaSalle agreed. Not that he had a lot of choice-you know what I mean. He knew he was gettin' a good deal."
"And so the person he came up with was Evan Harmon," Justin said.