SIXTY-FIVE
‘Ah, stupido!’ Momo said, suddenly. ‘I forgot the vino. I’ll be right back.’
He jumped up and hurried back to the kitchen, leaving me and Danny alone.
‘Nice to see you, Mr Davis,’ Danny said.
‘It’s Sammy,’ Sam said. ‘Damn, but this is good. Ya gotta give it to Momo, he can cook.’
‘What the hell is goin’ on?’ I asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ he said. ‘I came to town, found the hotel Ava said she woke up in, started askin’ some questions. When I came outside three of Giancana’s men were waiting for me and brought me here. Momo wanted to know what was goin’ on and I didn’t see any reason not to tell him the truth.’
‘Good.’
‘They put me in a hotel. Momo says I’m his “guest”.’
‘Could you get up and walk out of here if you wanted to?’ I asked. ‘For that matter, could we?’
‘To tell you the truth, Eddie, I don’t know if I’d wanna try. But the food is great!’
I put some spaghetti in my mouth and I had to agree with him.
‘I don’t know what’s goin’ on,’ Sammy said. ‘Frank only asked me to meet you at the airport, told me what to say. Do I want to know more?’
‘I’ll tell you later,’ I promised.
Momo reappeared, carrying one of those bottles of Chianti with wicker on the bottom, and four glasses.
‘Here we go,’ he said, pouring the glasses full with a flourish. ‘Now, enjoy, and we’ll talk.’
He sat down and took a huge forkful of pasta in his mouth. I decided to let him chew and swallow and start the conversation himself.
‘So, I hear Frank’s wife, Ava, has been havin’ some problems,’ he said.
‘Um, ex-wife,’ I said.
‘Basta!’ Momo said. ‘When you marry, you marry for life. Frank and Ava, they are — how do you say it? — caldo. Hot? They are hot.’
‘Yes, hot,’ I said. ‘Hot for each other.’
‘Esattamente! Like you say. Anyway, your detective friend, Danny, tells me she has lost forty hours.’
‘That’s right.’
‘And woke up in a hotel here in Chicago with blood on her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Terribile,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘And I got a call from Jack Entratter about two Chicago guys who came after you and Jerry in Vegas.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘They ended up dead which, I hope, is not a problem for you.’
He shook his head with his mouth full, chewed, washed it down with some wine, and then said, ‘No problem for me, Eddie. A problem for whoever sent those stronzo after you.’
‘And do we know who that was?’ I asked.
‘Not yet,’ Momo said, ‘but we will, and soon. I will find out. Meanwhile, you finish eating. Later, we go to the Chez Paree and listen to Sammy sing, eh?’
‘Suits me,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll get you the best table in the place.’
‘Then I put you in the same hotel with Danny and in the morning you go home. Leave this to me. Frank should’ve called me right away.’
‘I don’t think he wanted to bother you with this, Momo,’ I said.
‘E una sciocchezza!’ he said. ‘Nonsense. It was not him, it was her. That one never liked me.’
I knew that was a fact, but I didn’t say anything.
‘Mangiare!’ he said. ‘Eat up! Then I will have Vicenzo take you to the hotel to change. Tonight we go out, tomorrow you go home.’
I liked the sound of that because it meant if we were going home, we’d be alive.
Unless, of course, we left in a box.
SIXTY-SIX
Sammy had left us when Momo’s man drove us to the hotel. We saw him later at the Chez Paree. He was in rare form, singing, dancing, playing the drums, doing impressions. He took me away from everything for over two hours. Afterwards, Momo took us back stage, where we congratulated Sam. But there were a lot of other people there, and I had no time to fill Sammy in.
‘That’s OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll call Frank — that is, if I want to know more.’
‘Thanks a lot, Sammy,’ I said. ‘You took a chance.’
‘Momo wouldn’t hurt me. He knows Frank wouldn’t like it.’
‘I thought you were friends-’
‘Friends?’ he said, laughing. ‘You notice he didn’t ask me to taste any sauce off the wooden spoon?’
‘Sam-’
‘Ah, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad you enjoyed tonight, Eddie. Go back home tomorrow and finish what you have to finish.’
We shook hands.
On the plane the next day Danny and I had seats together so he could tell me what he’d been doing.
‘I spent a day in Madrid just to see where the trail started,’ Danny said. ‘Ava had really been burnin’ the candle at both ends over there. Lots of men: bull fighters, actors, race car drivers. I found out what flight she took to the US, and I took the same one.’
‘To Chicago?’
He shook his head.
‘New York first,’ he said. ‘Same thing. Hittin’ the clubs, lots of men. . I talked with the hotel staff at the Waldorf. They were happy to have her, but she appeared to be drunk most of the time, people on her floor complained about the noise. . and then she flew to Chicago.’
‘Anybody go with her?’ I asked. ‘From Spain to New York, or New York to Chicago?’
‘No,’ he said, ‘she flew alone, but that doesn’t mean somebody didn’t follow her.’
‘Any fights, anything that made the police necessary. .’ I said.
‘No,’ he said, then, ‘not yet.’
‘But. .?’
‘Apparently, things got messy in Chicago.’
‘How so?’
‘Somebody got killed.’
‘Who?’
‘A man named Vito Napolitano.’
‘Great,’ I said. ‘A made guy?’
‘Actually, the son of a made guy,’ he said. ‘Tony Napolitano.’
‘How was he killed?’
‘Shot with a small caliber gun.’
‘Where did it happen?’
‘That’s the part you’re not gonna like.’
‘The Drake Hotel?’
‘Yes,’ Danny said. ‘The body wasn’t discovered in his room until after Ava got on a plane to Vegas.’
‘Are the police lookin’ for her?’
‘No, but Napolitano’s father is.’
‘Did you see Napolitano?’
‘I was on my way when Momo made me his guest.’
‘So Momo knows Napolitano?’
‘Apparently.’
‘Fellow businessmen?’
Danny shrugged.
‘I didn’t have time to get the goods,’ he said. ‘You should ask Entratter.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘I should.’
At the airport we took separate cabs.
‘Want me to keep lookin’?’ he asked. ‘I could get the next flight back to Chicago. I didn’t get to have one of those famous Chicago hot dogs while I was there.’
‘They don’t compare to a Nathan’s hot dog’ I said.
‘I was sort of hopin’ to make the comparison myself,’ Danny said.
‘No,’ I said. ‘You go back and Momo’s liable to make you his guest again. A more permanent one. If Napolitano is made, then he’s off limits to anybody but another made guy.’
‘That’s their code, not ours.’
‘Well, they kill to uphold their code, we don’t,’ I reminded him. ‘Go home, see Penny, work some normal cases.’
‘If you need me for anythin’,’ he said, slapping me on the back, ‘don’t hesitate.’
‘When have I ever?’
He got in the first cab in line, I walked to the second.
I had left the Caddy at the Sands, stranding Jerry and Ava until I came back. I was going to drive out there, but I stopped at Jack’s office first.
‘Napolitano,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I heard the kid got hit.’
‘Well, apparently his father thinks Ava did it.’
‘If that’s the case,’ Entratter said, ‘he won’t stop comin’.’
‘Napolitano’s a boss?’
‘Let’s say he aspires,’ Entratter said. ‘He’s got a crew made up of misfits. He’s tryin’ to establish his own “family”.’
The Five Families were based in New York, and were ruled over by the Commission. While the Chicago Outfit was separate from the Five Families, it was still ruled by the Commission. Giancana was ‘the man’ there, but he was in a constant struggle to keep his territory. Entratter said that Napolitano was one of those who were trying to muscle in.