“We believe so.”
“Does this have anything to do with this monthlong trip your going on?”
“It does,” Stephanie said. “But I can’t give you the details.”
“Oh, really?” Tony questioned sarcastically. “I got two hundred K involved here, and you can’t give me the details. There’s something wrong with this picture.”
“If I were to divulge what we’re doing, it would jeopardize its efficacy.”
“Divulge, jeopardize, efficacy!” Tony mimicked derogatorily. “Give me a break! I hope you don’t think I’m going to be satisfied with a handful of ten-dollar words. Not a chance! So where are you going, Washington?”
“She’s going to Nassau,” Thea said suddenly from where she was standing near the stove. “And don’t you be nasty to your own sister. You hear me?”
Tony sat bolt upright with his hands dangling lifelessly at his sides. His lower jaw slowly dropped open in utter amazement. “Nassau!” he yelled. “This is getting crazier and crazier. If CURE’s ready to tank because of a political bombshell, don’t you think you should hang around and do something?”
“That’s why we’re going to Nassau,” Stephanie said.
“Ha!” Tony shouted. “What it sounds like to me is this so-called boyfriend of yours has it in his mind to pull off a scam.”
“That couldn’t be further from the truth. Tony, I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t. Hopefully, in a month things will be back on track, and at that time we’ll be happy to consider your money a loan, and we will pay it back with interest.”
“I’ll try to remember not to hold my breath.” Tony sneered. “You say you can’t tell me more, but I can tell you something. That two hundred grand wasn’t all mine.”
“No?” Stephanie questioned. She sensed the unpleasant conversation was about to get worse.
“You painted it as such a sweet deal, I felt I had to share it. Half the money came from the Castigliano brothers.”
“You never told me that!”
“I’m telling you now.”
“Who are the Castigliano brothers?”
“Business partners. And I can tell you something else. They are not going to like hearing about their investment loan going south. They are not accustomed to that. As your brother, I think I should tell you it’s not a good idea to go to the Bahamas.”
“But we have to.”
“You said that, but you’re not telling me why. It forces me to repeat myself: You and your Harvard boyfriend better stay put and mind the store, because it looks like you’re planning on frolicking in the sun with our money while we stooges freeze our asses here in Boston.”
“Tony,” Stephanie said in the calmest, most reassuring tone she could muster. “We’re going to Nassau, and we are going to deal with this unfortunate problem.”
Tony threw his hands up into the air, palms up. “I tried! God knows I tried!”
Thanks to power steering, Tony only needed the index finger of his right hand to turn the steering wheel of his black Cadillac DeVille. With such a balmy evening, he had his window open with his left hand dangling outside, holding his cigarette. The distinctive crunching sound of the car tires on gravel drowned out his radio as he entered the parking area in front of the Castigliano Brothers Plumbing Supply building. It was a gray one-story, flat-roofed cinderblock structure that backed onto mudflats.
Tony came to a stop next to three vehicles similar to his own: All of them were Cadillacs, and all of them were black. He flicked his cigarette into a pile of rusting sinks and killed the engine. As he got out of the car, he was assaulted by the odor of the salt marsh. It wasn’t pleasant. With night rapidly approaching, the wind had shifted to the east.
The building’s façade was in need of paint. In addition to the firm’s name in block letters, there was a smattering of graffiti on the walls. The door was unlocked, and Tony walked in without knocking, as was his custom. A counter stood in the middle of the room. Behind the counter were rows of floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with plumbing materials. No one was in sight. A radio on the counter was tuned to a station playing music from the fifties.
Tony skirted the counter and walked down the center aisle. At the rear, he opened a second door that led into an office. In contrast to the supply area, this area was relatively plush, with a leather sofa and two desks on a threadbare Oriental carpet. Small, paned windows looked out onto the mudflats that were ringed with cattails and dotted with discarded tires and other debris. There were three men sitting in the room, one at each desk and one on the sofa.
Along with terse greetings, Tony shook hands with the two men at the desks first and then with the man on the sofa before sitting down himself. The men at the desks were the Castigliano brothers. They were twins named Sal and Louie. Tony had known them from the third grade, but by name only and not as friends. In high school they’d been scrawny, pimply kids who’d been teased mercilessly, and as adults they were still gaunt, with cadaverous cheeks and deeply set eyes.
The man on the sofa next to Tony was Gaetano Baresse, who’d grown up in New York City. He was built like Tony, but larger and with heavier features. He normally manned the plumbing supply counter in the outer room. As a side job, he was the twin’s muscle. Most people thought he was around to make up for all the teasing the twins had weathered as schoolkids, but Tony knew better. Gaetano’s strong-arm contribution was an occasional requirement with the twins’ other business activities: some legal, some less so. It was in these business activities that Tony and the twins had become acquainted.
“First off,” Tony said, “I want to thank you all for coming out on a Sunday.”
“No problem,” Sal said. He was sitting to Tony’s left. “I hope you don’t mind that we invited Gaetano.”
“When you called and said there was trouble, we thought he should be included,” Louie added.
“No problem,” Tony said. “I just wish we could have had this get-together a little earlier, which I’ll explain.”
“We did the best we could,” Sal said.
“My cell phone battery was dead,” Gaetano said. “I was at my sister-in-law’s house, playing pool. I was hard to find.”
Tony lit up a cigarette and offered them all around. Everyone took one. Soon they were all smoking.
After taking a few deep drags, Tony put his cigarette down. He needed his hands to gesture while he talked. Thus prepared, he told the Castigliano brothers word for word as he remembered it the conversation he’d had earlier that afternoon with Stephanie. He left nothing out, nor did he mince words. He said it was his opinion and that of his accountant that Stephanie’s company was going belly-up.
While Tony spoke, the twins became progressively agitated. Sal, who had been fiddling with a paper clip by bending it back and forth, snapped it in two. Louie angrily stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette.
“I don’t believe this!” Sal said when Tony concluded.
“Is your sister married to this twerp?” Louie demanded.
“No, they just live together.”
“Well, I tell you, we’re not going to sit around while this bastard enjoys himself in the sun,” Sal said. “No way!”
“We have to let him know we’re not pleased,” Louie said. “He’s either got to get his ass back up here and straighten things out, or else. You got that, Gaetano?”
“Yeah, sure. When?”
Louie looked at Sal. Sal looked at Tony.
“It’s too late today,” Tony said. “Which is why I would have liked to have seen you guys earlier. They’re on their way someplace before they head to Nassau. But my sister will be calling my ma when she’s settled in the Bahamas.”
“You’ll let us know?” Sal questioned.
“Yeah, sure. But the deal is, you leave my sister out of it.”
“Our beef’s not with her,” Louie said. “At least, I don’t think it is.”