“For one thing, Tony, this isn’t Bobby. For another, you’re gonna have to make time.”
“Moe? Moe, I thought you split to Mexico or — ”
“I guess Bobby musta got that wrong, Tony.”
“Listen, kid, don’t let that tough Jew thing I said about you the other day go to your head. I’m not some shithead cop.”
“Don’t worry, Tony, I’m plenty scared. Me and Bobby, we both are. But we’re smarter than we are scared and we’ve gotta use the only leverage we got.”
“Leverage, huh? It’s harder to use than you think.”
“I guess we’ll find out. Meantime, Tony, write this down.”
“You know, Moe, that sounded a lot like an order. I never liked orders much.”
“Okay, sorry, Tony. Let me put it to you like this: If you want your three bricks of heroin, I would politely suggest you write this down.”
There was a second or two of confused silence, then, “Put Bobby on the phone.”
“Can’t do that, Tony. He’s not here. As a matter of fact, you won’t know where he is until we talk. I’m gonna give you a number to call and a place to call it from. When you let Lids go at that phone booth, I’ll give you an address where I’m at. I just want to have a conversation. You get your drugs, and Bobby, Lids, and me, we get to keep breathing. After we talk and reach an agreement, I’ll give you the location of the bricks. Someone will be watching you and Jimmy when you show up at the phone booth. If you don’t have Lids with you, or if you don’t let him go after we talk on the phone, or if you bring anyone with you other than Jimmy, I’ll know it. And don’t bother looking for the spotter. You won’t see him.”
“You’re takin’ big chances here, kid,” he said, trying to sound calm.
I didn’t take the bait. I was barely holding it together as it was, and I didn’t want to give him the chance to shake me any more than I already was. “Write this down,” I said, and dictated to him. “Got it?”
“Yeah.”
I hung up the phone almost before I heard it.
Almost forty-five minutes passed before the phone rang again. I’d spent the time getting the warehouse ready and trying not to freeze to death. It was Tony on the line.
“Gimme the address, kid.”
“Put Lids on the phone.”
“Okay, but I’m also gonna teach you a little lesson about usin’ leverage. You ready, Moe?” Before I could answer, I heard Tony say, “Jimmy, break the little prick’s arm.”
I shouted into the phone, but it was no good. I heard a snap and Lids screamed like he was on fire. I was sick to my stomach. The only thing that prevented me from totally losing it was the fear of what they might do next.
Tony got back on the line. “Listen to me, kid. Jimmy’s cast has some nice benefits. You don’t gimme that address right now, I’m gonna have Jimmy break every bone in this asshole’s body and then he’ll start gettin’ really nasty. Understand?”
“I’ll dump your drugs out into a sewer or I’ll call the cops.”
“You sound scared there, kid. You dump my drugs and you have no leverage, and Jimmy will kill you as slow and painful as he’s gonna kill your little piece a shit friend here. And you won’t call the cops, because I will see your friend Bobby fries with me. How long you think he’ll stay alive inside? That’s if he stays alive long enough to get inside. See, kid, leverage ain’t always what you thought it was. Now gimme the fuckin’ address and let’s talk.”
“Not until you agree to let Lids go.”
“Gimme the address and I’ll think about it.”
“No. I may not be able to make your heroin scream, but I do have matches here and I’ll make a nice toasty fire using your six kilos for kindling.”
“Fuck you. Here’s the deal. We’re taking this little prick with us, but I promise I won’t hurt him no more. Take it or leave it.”
“Here’s the address.”
I knew Tony and Jimmy were now no more than half an hour away, and I could see that my plan was going to shit.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The next twenty-eight minutes passed more slowly than the previous twenty years of my life. I tried to convince myself that that was a good thing, because they were bound to be among my last. Problem was, I was too scared to focus enough to see any value in the passage of those long, excruciating moments. And then I heard a car pull up. Two doors slammed — bang, bang — and then, a moment later, a third. Feet shuffled. Grit crunched and scraped beneath hard soles of men’s shoes. A metal gate swung open with a squeal like the cry of a gull. Faint voices echoed in the hallways of the vacant warehouse. As fiercely as my heart was already thumping, it thumped harder still when I noticed that there were only two sets of footfalls and that there were other sounds: the soft steady shhhhh of something being dragged along a dusty concrete floor, and a hushed, ghostly moaning. The roll-up steel gate that was the last solid thing standing between me and my fate was pulled up.
“The kid’s fuckin’ us around,” Jimmy said, staring into the blackness of the unit. Something crashed to the floor with a sickening thud. “Lemme go look for — ”
I switched on the Coleman lantern, shredding the veil of darkness that hid me from their view. I was seated in the far left corner of the unit, maybe thirty feet from them. As soon as I switched on the lantern, I saw exactly what I was afraid I was going to see. Lids was sprawled out on the floor before Tony P and Jimmy. He was groaning in pain. The groan was feeble and constant. His face was a pulpy, bloodied, barely human mess, his limbs bent and twisted. If I wasn’t already in knots and sick, one look at what was left of Lids would have had the same effect. At that moment, I wished the body I’d seen in the Fountain Avenue dump had been Lids, because that guy’s pain was over. But seeing Lids that way did something to me. It hardened me, turned me cold inside. It made me realize that I couldn’t surrender to my better instincts, that these guys meant deadly business.
I heard myself say, “You said you weren’t gonna — ”
“I kept my word, Moe. I didn’t hurt the little prick after we talked, but I didn’t say nothin’ about what Jimmy would do to him.” And he had the nerve to laugh after he said it.
Jimmy smiled his crocodile smile.
“You guys think it’s funny, huh? I’ll show you funny.”
I shined the flashlight in my left hand at the front right and front left corners of the storage unit so they could clearly see what was there: a brick of plastic explosive in each corner. Once I was sure they had gotten a good look at the plastique on either side of them, I moved the beam of the flashlight so they could see the wires running from the blasting caps to two large batteries at my feet. I turned the flash along the wires leading from the batteries to my right hand. Then I showed them what was in my hand.
“You know what this is, don’t you, Jimmy?”
“A detonator.”
“Correct. And why don’t you tell your boss what those silvery things are sticking out of the plastique.”
“Blasting caps.”
“Again, correct. You know a lot about explosives, don’t you, Jimmy Double D?”
He didn’t say anything, but smiled his chilly smile.
Then I talked directly to Tony, keeping an eye on Jimmy. “See how my thumb is pressing the button down, Tony? Anything that releases the pressure of my thumb from the switch and baboom! You, Jimmy, Lids, and me will get blown all to hell. See, I’d rather go this way than have Jimmy work his kinda magic on me.”
Tony said, “You’re bluffin’. Anyways, the shit Bobby was deliverin’ to those asshole bombers was fake stuff.”
I could tell by the look on Jimmy’s face that he wasn’t as sure as his boss.
“Not all of it, Tony. Remember, Bobby had to prove to them that he could deliver the goods. So the detective who was running the show gave him a few bricks to prove he was the real deal.”