De Blasio studied the end of his cigar. “Could you get proof?”
“If you cooperate, maybe.”
“If it was open-and-shut, if they were unanimous on it…” De Blasio said. “Mike, I think you’re onto something. They’ll put the word around that Burns is a real crazy—”
“From what I hear,” Carl said, “that word’s around already.”
“No, Mike’s right, he’d lose support. Whoever invested. They could find out who’s with him, where they’re connected, and yank some of them out by the thumbs. It smells good to me. You’re going to move in on him, Mike?”
“It won’t be easy. Where do I find him?”
“In a place called the Rivage, in Normandy Shores. A condominium, and it’s buttoned up tight. Carlo looked it over. Tell him, Carlo.”
“It’s this building with four separate apartments, and Bobby’s people are in all four. Cyclone fence. Closed-circuit TV. An alarm system. He doesn’t go out. That’s why we thought the only way was to pick off one of his button men, a runner.”
“Let’s get back to that,” Shayne said.
“Mike, if there’s any way of canceling—”
“No, you’ve got to do something to show everybody it’s serious. Who’s the target?”
“And this is really something you want to know?”
“It really is. I may be able to use it to make contact.”
De Blasio said softly, with a shrug, “A nobody named Marcello Marti. He went into shylock on the Beach without authorization.”
“When’s it going to happen?”
“Today. Why put it off, was the idea.”
“Do you have somebody you’d be able to live without?”
De Blasio was puzzled. “I don’t get what you’re driving at.”
“Somebody you’d just as soon lose,” Shayne said impatiently. “Give him the hit. I’ll go along and chaperone. Then I’ll sell him to Burns. That way we’ll make friends.”
De Blasio nodded as he listened, liking the simplicity of the idea. Carl was more agitated. He broke a cigarette between his fingers and shredded the tobacco.
“Don’t keep doing that, Carlo,” his father said.
“I just think it’s too — I don’t know what. I think we ought to go with the first idea, and wait and see what Bobby comes back with.”
“No,” his father said. “It’s a fine proposal. Because he might hit some good man, and we’d feel it. It’s going to be one-for-one, whichever. We have to, and he has to, and then we talk. Like with a union, the real talking starts when they see the pickets on the bricks. This way we have control. Why not select? Mike’s the one who’s going to stick his head in the lion’s den. If it don’t work out, we’re no worse off than now.”
“Except that Burns will know you tried to con him.”
“That don’t matter. What matters is the commission, call it a commission. Mike’s right on that. If they clamp all the way down, we won’t have to worry. And if the decision’s to give him part of the business to stop the bloodshed, we’ll keep the bastard surrounded and eat him later. Mike, go ahead.”
“Who are you going to give me?”
De Blasio pursed his lips and looked at his son for suggestions. “What do you say about Skeets?”
“You choose,” Carl said angrily.
“Skeets wouldn’t be bad. He was close to Musso.” He explained to Shayne, “The kid don’t know what the word ‘discipline’ means. We had him on collections, and he did away with somebody he was only supposed to break his head a little. He started and couldn’t stop. I protected him on that. Did he show any gratitude? Not a bit. Another plus, he’s not related to anybody.”
Shayne shrugged. “It makes no difference to me.”
15
Skeets was surprised to be told of the change in assignment, and even more surprised to learn that he would be carrying it out with Shayne, who had been part of the operation for less than a day. He was called into the game room to have it explained by the De Blasios. Shayne, outside on the terrace, could hear his protests.
He was still full of his grievance when he came out. “I need the key to that apartment. I’ve got to get something.”
Shayne went with him.
“I don’t like to do it fast like this,” Skeets said. “I like to get up for it. Prepare.”
“Don’t be a showboat. It’s all worked out for you. All you have to do is pull a trigger.”
“And I’d just as soon do it alone. Less can go wrong that way. If I have to have coverage, I can think of any number of guys I could count on. Maybe you’re O.K.,” he admitted, “I just don’t know.”
“They want to have a hit they can hang on me, to keep me in line.”
“All right, so long as you understand they put me in charge. When I say frog, you say how far do you want me to jump? Or there’s going to be more than one dead soldier.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Shayne said.
Skeets kept pushing. “And lay off the booze. There’s close timing involved. I have to get over to the Beach and look at the guy, see where the elevators are, all that. Don’t lush it up while I’m gone.”
“Whatever you say, Skeets. I need the bread.”
At the garages, Skeets held out his hand for the key, but Shayne went upstairs with him and unlocked the door himself.
“What do you think I’ll do to the babe, for Jesus’ sake?” Skeets complained. “Give her a fast feel on the way through?”
“She told me you made a couple of remarks.”
“Remarks! But did I lay one finger on her?”
Shayne glanced into the bedroom where he had left Sarah. She hadn’t moved, and her lips still curved in the same small smile.
Using a different key, Skeets was unlocking a second bedroom. This room was dark, but as the door opened, Shayne had a glimpse of a double gun rack against the opposite wall. Skeets came out with two handguns, one of which, a Smith and Wesson.38, he gave to Shayne.
“Don’t take your own piece. These are cool.”
“Yeah.”
“What a fantastic collection we’ve got here. Talk about firepower. Man, you name it. If we ever have to hole up on the island, I mean all the regimes, they’d have to use flame to get us out.”
“I don’t like the idea of being out in the water here.”
“Now, don’t you think the Don thought of those possibilities? We’ve got mines in there! There are floodlights. Dogs. We’ve all got our stations. This New Jersey jerk thinks he found a soft touch. The kid’ll learn. Our father is fierce. Don’t let that belly of his fool you. Underneath, he’s oak. Now, remember what I said about the booze.”
He put the handgun into the glove compartment of one of the Cadillacs, and then, deciding to use a less showy car, went off in a Chevy. Shayne waited till the car was out of sight, and then took out the gun and field-stripped it quickly. He snapped out the hammer spring, put the gun back together, reloaded it, and returned it to the glove compartment.
He went back to the house and refilled his flask while De Blasio counted out ten thousand dollars in hundred-dollar bills. De Blasio seemed annoyed when Shayne reminded him that he was owed an additional seven hundred and fifty dollars for his part in the disposal of Siracusa. De Blasio added the seven-fifty, but with poor grace.
As soon as Shayne had a phone to himself, he called Liz O’Donnell. Without giving his name, he told her to drive his Buick to a parking garage on Collins Avenue and leave the key at the office.
With nothing else to do after that, he shot craps with Carl in the game room, and won four hundred dollars in the space of twenty minutes.
“Didn’t I tell you?” he said happily. “No losing streak lasts forever.”