Part 31 (1/2)
As we sat sipping our coffee, I said, ”Hey, I guess something else we know now is that the Corvinos were telling the truth. They didn't whack Charlie and Johnny. I mean, now one of their capos has been hit, too.”
”And the Gambellos didn't do it,” Lucky said.
”Will the Corvinos believe that?” I asked.
”It depends on whether Mikey Castrucci and Fast Sammy decide to believe what we told them last night,” Lucky said. ”And whether they can convince the guys upstairs.”
”Upstairs?” Max asked with a frown.
”Their superiors,” I explained.
”Ah.”
I asked Lucky, ”Can you make some calls and find out?”
He nodded and pulled out his cell phone.
Max offered me a cookie. I accepted. Nelli gnawed on her bone.
Lopez called my cell phone while Max was pouring another round of coffee and Lucky was trying to track down Fast Sammy by phone.
”I'm not going to make it tonight,” Lopez told me apologetically.
Suspecting the reason, I asked, ”Why not?”
”I'm in Brooklyn. We've got a dead Corvino capo here.”
I wasn't surprised, but I felt genuine disappointment. ”But maybe after you're done there . . .”
”I don't think so.” He sighed. ”We've just had a Gambello wannabe picked up after he boasted in a bar that he did the hit, but-”
”What?” I frowned, thinking I had heard wrong.
”-his claims aren't very credible, so this is going to be a mess. I'll be working late again.”
”You're saying someone's confessed? confessed?”
Max and Lucky looked at me.
”Oh, he won't confess in the legal sense. But he's taking credit, you might say.” Lopez sounded disgusted. ”And he's probably lying. Which creates extra legwork for us.”
A Gambello wannabe . . .
”Is it that busboy I work with? Angelo Falcone?”
”I can't answer that, Esther.” He sighed again. ”Even though it'll probably be all over the news by tonight.”
”How about this? Just tell me if I'm wrong.”
He didn't say anything. And since I doubted he could say anything else to me about the case right now, either, I said, ”Call me tomorrow?”
Apart from wanting to finish our interrupted tryst, I knew it was time to come clean with him-though I wasn't yet sure just how much that meant telling him.
”I will,” he promised. ”And if there's a miracle and I'm wrong about working late tonight . . .”
”Let me know,” I said.
After I hung up, I told Max and Lucky what had happened.
”Oh, dear,” said Max.
”Angelo? That punk!” Lucky said in exasperation.
”How do you think he learned about the hit so quickly?” I wondered.
”Word travels fast in our business,” Lucky said. ”And that Falcone kid is always hangin' around and trying to soak up juice. He probably heard about the hit before your boyfriend did.”
”So you agree with Detective Lopez's initial a.s.sessment that Angelo Falcone didn't commit the murder?” Max said. ”But I don't understand. What does the young man get out of falsely claiming he did it?”
”He thinks thinks he's getting the attention of the don,” Lucky said. ”What he'll he's getting the attention of the don,” Lucky said. ”What he'll actually actually get is an early grave. If the Corvinos don't whack him, the Gambellos will.” get is an early grave. If the Corvinos don't whack him, the Gambellos will.”
”Goodness! Why?”
”Because of all the trouble that putz is about to cause.”
”Is it that bad?” I asked.
Lucky nodded. ”Even with Vinny, Nathan, and Bobby telling the Corvinos the truth, it wasn't gonna be easy to convince the family that the Gambellos didn't whack Danny. But now, with that babbo babbo boasting about the hit, they'll think he did it to get his b.u.t.ton. They'll figure we ordered the hit. Or at least hinted that we wanted it done. What else boasting about the hit, they'll think he did it to get his b.u.t.ton. They'll figure we ordered the hit. Or at least hinted that we wanted it done. What else could could they think?” they think?”
”But if the cops don't think Angelo did it,” I said hopefully, ”then maybe the Cor-”
”It don't matter what the cops think.” Lucky shook his head. ”Angelo has stood up for the hit. In our business, there's no taking that back.”
”Not even if we can find out who's really doing all this?”
”That won't help Angelo stay alive. It might calm down the two families, though,” Lucky said. ”But we ain't having much luck so far in figuring out this thing.”
”We've got to do better,” I said.
”Yes, we must,” Max agreed.
Lucky nodded. ”Or there's gonna be a full-scale mob war the likes of which ain't been seen in a long time.”
I knew he was right. I also suspected that now that Danny was dead, everything Lucky had said to him last night might be interpreted by the Corvinos as a threat rather than an attempt to help him.
Whatever dark feelings I had about Lucky's murder of Elena Giacalona's second husband, I didn't want him to die. And I knew that what he wasn't saying was that he would be high on the Corvinos' list of targets now.