Fred had to wait a few seconds to shift gears all over again, and then he said, “Oh. I see what you mean. A guy named Rose, that’s his last name it isn’t his first name. Al, I didn’t know, with everything so crazy all of a sudden I didn’t know but what maybe you, too, you know, maybe the strain of overwork or something, you can’t be sure about things like that...” and trailed away.
Engel said, “Shut up, Fred.”
“Yes,” said Fred. “Right.”
Engel paced back and forth, back and forth, frowning with concentration. Fred was in the clear, that was obvious. He was the only one Engel had had even a glimmer on for motive and opportunity, and the bastard was clean. It just wasn’t possible that Fred was lying, that Fred was the one behind all this.
Fred, after a couple of minutes, said, “Can I say something, Al?”
“Speak.”
“As soon as you leave here, I got to call Nick and tell him you were here. You understand that.”
Engel nodded. “Yeah, I understand that.”
“I got a wife and kids, Al. I got Fancy. I got responsibilities, and that means I got to cover myself.”
“Yeah yeah yeah.”
“Al, I want you to know, for what it’s worth, I believe you. I known you a number of years now, and while we never been real close friends we always got along together and I always considered you a good reliable type and a pleasant personality. So if you tell me it’s a frame, I take your word for it. That don’t cut no ice with Nick, that don’t change anything at all in fact, but I want you to know.”
“Yeah. Thanks, Fred.”
“I wish I could help.”
“Yeah. You can, Fred.”
Fred had been looking very sincere. Now his expression changed, and he began to look like a man who, in the middle of a speech to a crowd of five thousand, has begun to suspect his fly is open. He said, “I can?”
“You can find out for me about Rose.”
“Rose.”
“I want to know Rose’s first name, and I want to know where I can find him.”
“I thought you already talked to him.”
“No. Don’t worry about that. I know he’s a businessman, this Rose, on the legit somewhere but connected with the organization. There had to be somebody he could talk to when he started to put the finger on me. It’s a safe bet he didn’t go to Nick direct.”
Fred said, “Then who?”
Engel said, “Rapaport.”
“Rapaport? Why Rapaport?”
“Because Rapaport is our union man. Rapaport controls the union end of the organization just the way you control the dope end and Archie controls the girl end. And the quickest connection a businessman will have with the organization is through a union.”
Fred said, “Granted. That’s okay, that’s smart, but then what? You should go see Rapaport, not me.”
“I can’t wander all over town, Fred. Remember? I’m hot.”
Fred said, “What can I do?”
“You can call Rapaport.”
“What? Are you out of your skull, Al?”
“No. You can call Rapaport and you can ask him about Rose.”
“Why? How? What’s my excuse?”
Engel shook his head, thinking hard. “You say to him, uh, you say, ‘Listen, there used to be a guy name of Rose owned this building, we had some trouble with him, I wonder is he the same one Engel was holding up?’ Then Rapaport tells you about Rose.”
“What if he don’t?”
Engel said, “Then you tried, that’s all. You tried.”
“Al, I honest to God don’t want to do it.”
Engel put his right hand palm up on the middle of Fred’s desk. He had a large hand with big knuckles. He said, “You see that hand, Fred?”
Fred said, “Yeah, I see it.”
“For purposes of discussion,” Engel said, “let’s us call that hand a lethal weapon.”
“Yeah?”
“Then let’s say you can tell Nick you had to make the call because I threatened you with a lethal weapon.”
“But—”
“And just so you won’t have to lie,” Engel said, closing the hand into a fist, “I will threaten you with it.” He raised the fist off the desk and held it close to Fred’s face.
Fred looked at it, sort of cross-eyed. He said, “But what if Nick don’t believe me?”
“I tell you what I’ll do,” Engel said. “If you don’t think you can put the story over, I’ll hit you once or twice, give you a couple marks. Not because I’m mad or anything like that, but just to help you convince Nick. Okay by you?”
“Wait a second, Al, uh, wait a second.”
“It’s up to you, Fred.”
Fred looked at the fist, and licked his lips, and tried various expressions for his face, and finally cleared his throat and nodded and said, “Okay.”
“Okay? Okay what?”
“Okay I’ll make the call. And you don’t have to leave marks, it’s okay. You don’t have to do a thing.”
“I just want to be helpful,” Engel told him. “That’s the way we all ought to be, helpful to one another.”
“I said I’d do it.”
Engel straightened and spread his hands. “And I thank you, Fred,” he said.
Fred made the call, and while he talked Engel leaned down close beside his ear so he could hear both ends of the conversation. It went:
Fred: Hi, this is Fred.
Rapaport: Hi, Fred, whadaya say?
Fred: That was really something about Engel, huh?
Rapaport: You never know what goes on inside a guy’s head, I’ve said it time and time again.
Fred: You know, that guy Engel was holding up, that Rose, he—
Rapaport: Rose? How’d you hear about him?
Fred: Oh, uh... (Engel whispered, “From Nick.”) ...From Nick.
Rapaport: Yeah? That’s funny. He said he wanted that kept quiet.
Fred: Yeah, he told me the same thing. About this guy Rose, there was a guy name of Rose used to own this building, you know where I am on Tenth Avenue?
Rapaport: Is that right?
Fred: Yeah. We had trouble with this Rose, I remember, he was very down on the organization. I wonder could it be the same guy. What’s your Rose’s name?
Rapaport: Herbert. Herbert Rose.
Fred: Oh. No, this guy was Louie Rose.
Rapaport: It’s a pretty common name, Rose.
Fred: I guess so. This Herbert, he’s in real estate?
Rapaport: Naw, trucking. He’s got a nickel-dime delivery outfit over by the piers on the West Side.
Fred: Oh. Then there’s no connection, I guess.
Rapaport: With your Rose? It don’t look like it.
Fred: I just thought, if it was the same Rose, there might be more to it than Nick knew about.
Rapaport: You don’t think Engel did it?
Fred: Well, you never know, isn’t that right?
Rapaport: Well, don’t say nothing like that to Nick. He’s down on Engel, on account of he trusted him so much. He don’t even want to hear Engel’s name, much less to defend him.
Fred: Don’t worry, I’ll keep my mouth shut. Woops, there’s somebody on the other line. I’ll be talking to you.
Rapaport: Right. See you, Fred.
Fred hung up, and Engel walked back around to the other side of the desk and said, “You don’t have another line.”
“Rapaport don’t know that.”
“I appreciate this, Fred, and now I’m off.”
“Al, you understand I got to call Nick as soon as you leave. And I got to tell him you know about Herbert Rose.”
“Sure, I know that. You got a phone book?”
“Oh, yeah. Here.”
Fred dragged a directory out of a desk drawer, and in it Engel found Herbert Rose with a home address on East 82nd Street, and Rose Cartage Company with an address on West 37th Street, over near the piers. He shut the directory and said, “Well, that’s that.”
Fred said, “I wish you luck, Al, because I believe you. And you know why I believe you? I believe you because if you were guilty you’d already know what Rose’s first name was and where to find him, am I right?”