‘You can forget all about this now, Eddie,’ he said. ‘Momo will take care of Napolitano. He won’t let him kill Frank’s Ava.’
‘I hope not,’ I said. ‘And I hope his protection will also extend to Ava’s friends.’
I picked up my suitcase, hefted it, then put it down and opened it. I took out one of Momo’s jars.
‘Here,’ I said, putting it on Jack’s desk. ‘A gift.’
I left Entratter’s office to make the drive to Tony LaBella’s cabin on Lake Mead. He was examining the jar as I walked out.
SIXTY-SEVEN
When I walked up on to the deck I noticed the broken window in front, now covered by some cardboard. Then I saw the bullet holes in the side of the building, some chunks taken from the wooden railing.
‘Jerry?’ I shouted. ‘Ava?’
I rushed into the house, found Jerry and Ava sitting in the living room. They both looked unharmed.
‘Hey, Mr G.’
‘What the hell happened?’ I asked. ‘Are you two all right? Ava?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, ‘thanks to Jerry. Where’ve you been?’
‘Danny and I were guests of Momo Gianacana’s.’
‘Guests?’ Jerry asked.
‘That’s what he called it,’ I said. ‘We never tried to walk off on our own, so I don’t know what would have happened if we had. But what happened here? And when?’
‘Last night,’ Jerry said. ‘After dinner. I made a nice roast-’
‘I’ll get something for us to drink,’ Ava said, standing up from the sofa, ‘while Jerry fills you in.’
She went into the kitchen.
‘She’s a real trooper, Mr G.,’ he said. ‘Didn’t go into shock like the other day.’
‘What happened, Jerry?’ I said.
‘Come outside,’ he said, ‘and I’ll tell ya. .’
The previous night, Ava and Jerry had just finished their dinner, the pot roast Jerry had prepared with potatoes and carrots.
‘I’ll make the coffee,’ Ava told Jerry. ‘It’s the least I can do.’
‘OK, Miss Ava,’ Jerry said. ‘I’m just gonna go out on the front deck and get some air. I’ll wash all the dishes after we finish.’
‘I’ll bring it out there,’ she promised.
‘Sounds good.’
Jerry went and stood on the deck, looking out at the dying light and breathing in the fresh air. This was a lot different from trying to breathe in Brooklyn — but Brooklyn had a lot of other things to recommend it. He wasn’t about to trade in Brooklyn for Vegas or Lake Mead. Not permanently, anyway.
He was still standing at the rail, leaning on it, when Ava came out of the house with two mugs of coffee.
‘Here you go, Jerry-’
Before she could get another word out there was a shot, and the front window shattered just behind Ava.
‘Wha-’ she said, dropping the mugs.
‘Get down!’ Jerry shouted. He grabbed Ava and dragged her to the ground with his left hand, while pulling his.45 from his belt with his right.
‘What was that?’ she asked.
‘That was a shot, Miss Ava,’ Jerry said.
‘B-but I didn’t hear a shot, only the glass breaking.’
‘Trust me, it was a shot. You better get back inside.’
‘Where inside?’
‘Away from any windows,’ Jerry said. ‘In fact, get in that closet outside the bathroom and stay there until I come for you.’
‘But Jerry, you can’t — I can get my gun-’
‘No,’ Jerry said. ‘Get in the closet. Now!’
‘All right.’
‘And keep low.’
Ava crab-walked back inside while Jerry went to the rail, keeping low and looking out for the shooter. What he saw was two men coming toward the house, guns in their hands. One of them had obviously gotten anxious and fired too soon.
Jerry decided staying out in the open was a bad idea so he went back into the house, figuring he’d have an advantage because they would have to come in after him.
He closed the front door, locked it, and then peered through the shattered window.
The two shooters thought better of coming up the front steps. Jerry was just able to see them as they split up, each going around the other side of the house.
There was a back door in the kitchen. The deck wrapped around, but the only other access was in the back. They’d have to climb up on to it from the side, which wouldn’t be easy with guns in their hands.
Jerry left the front of the house and went into the kitchen. It would have been helpful to use Ava as a look-out, but he decided to leave her in the closet, where she’d be safe from flying lead.
He peered out the back window, saw one man appear at the base of the steps. He stopped there. That meant the other man was probably climbing up on to the deck.
This man had come from Jerry’s left, so he assumed the other man was climbing up on the right. He hurried to that window, saw the man sweep one leg over the rail, then the other. Then he drew his gun from his belt. Jerry did not break out the window pane the way they did in movie westerns. Rather than warn the man with breaking glass he simply fired through it. Oddly, the hole appeared in the window, but the pane didn’t shatter. The bullet struck the man in the chest. His eyes went wide, his mouth opened, and then he toppled backward over the rail. Jerry heard the body hit the ground, but didn’t waste any time in running back to the kitchen. As he reached the doorway the back door slammed open from a kick, and the second gunman rushed in with his gun out. They saw each other and fired at the same time. .
From inside the closet Ava sat with her little gun in her hand. She’d made a point of grabbing it before she obeyed Jerry and hid in the closet. She held it in both hands, flinching when she heard the first shot, then again when she heard two shots fired almost at the same time.
Then it was silent, and that was even scarier.
She held the gun tightly, waiting. She heard footsteps approaching the closet, and then the door swung open. She pointed the gun. .
. . Jerry saw Ava pointing the gun at him with both hands and said, ‘It’s OK, Miss Ava.’ He was shocked when she fired, her eyes wide with fright. He waited for the impact of the bullet, but none came, despite the fact that she pulled the trigger again and again.
The he turned, saw the man behind him and fired once. The man staggered back, the gun dangling from his hand. Finally, he dropped his gun to the floor, and then fell over on to it. Jerry went to the body and turned it over.
‘Did I. .’ Ava asked.
Jerry told her the truth.
‘You missed every shot,’ he said. ‘But you gave me time to put one hole in him, and that was enough. Thanks, Miss Ava.’
‘The bullets are small and didn’t do much damage to the walls.’
‘I saved your butt and you’re talking about the walls?’ Ava asked, coming back in with the coffee.
‘You did save my ass, Miss Ava,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how that guy got behind me.’
I knew, but I didn’t say it out loud. Jerry was so concerned about Ava that he’d made a mistake, and it had almost cost him.
I looked at Ava. Actually killing a man did not seem to have affected her as much as seeing Jerry kill the two in the parking lot. Maybe she was becoming hardened to this kind of life.
‘OK, hold on,’ I said. ‘What happened to the bodies?’
‘Oh,’ Jerry said, ‘they’re out back. I covered ’em up with some branches to keep animals away, but they’re gonna start to stink soon.’
‘When did all this happen?’
‘Yesterday evenin’,’ Jerry said. ‘I woulda taken Miss Ava away from here, but we didn’t have no car and it’s too far to walk.’
‘We can talk about that later,’ I said. ‘We’ve got to get Tony’s house fixed up, and those bodies taken care of. We can’t have him come back here and find a stack of dead, decaying Chicago hoods — they are from Chicago, aren’t they?’