The Fools in Town Are on Our Side (47 page)

Luccarella had a suite, not quite as large as Orcutt's, and his two human sheepdogs nudged us into the living room where Luccarella and Samuels, the lawyer, sat side by side on a couch. Two large closed
briefcases rested on a low coffee table that was within handy reach of both.

Luccarella looked at his watch when we came in. “You're right on time,” he said. “That's a good sign. I like doing business with people who're on time.”

“This is Chief Necessary,” I said. “Mr. Luccarella and Mr. Samuels who is his attorney.” Necessary shook hands with both of them.

“Sit down, sit down,” Luccarella said, making vague gestures toward a couple of chairs that were drawn up to the coffee table. We sat down. “You want some coffee?” he said.

“You wanta drink?”

“I'll take a drink,” I said and drew a disapproving glance from Samuels, who apparently didn't think much of those who drink in the morning. I didn't feel that I could stand to care what he thought.

“How about you, Chief?” Luccarella said.

“Scotch and water,” Necessary said.

“Dye?”

“That's fine.”

Luccarella jerked his head at Shorty. “Fix them,” he said.

After Shorty mixed and served the drinks, he moved over to help the baldheaded man lean against a wall. “Go on, beat it,” Luccarella snapped at them. “And close the door behind you.”

When they had gone, Luccarella leaned back on the couch and smiled with his gray teeth. “Heard a lot about you, Chief Necessary.”

“That right?”

“You got a good reputation up North. Reputation of a man you can do business with.”

“I like a quiet town,” Necessary said, “where everything fits in place.”

“You've sort of quieted this town down,” Luccarella said.

“It could get even quieter.”

“I think I sort of understand you,” Luccarella said.

Necessary smiled. “I hope so.”

Samuels cleared his throat. “Shall we go over the books?”

“We ain't got no deal yet. What do you mean go over the books?
We go over the books when we got a deal.” Luccarella was growing excited again,

“I just thought—”

“Don't think,” Luccarella said sourly.

“Let's talk deal, Luccarella,” Necessary said.

“There,” Luccarella said to Samuels. “You see what I mean. We make a deal and then we look at the books.” He waved a hand at Necessary. “Go ahead, Chief. I hear you like to talk for yourself.”

Necessary lit one of his Camels and blew some smoke at the fourth gold button on his uniform. “Before we do, I thought I'd mention something and if it offends you, I'm sorry.”

“Go ahead,” Luccarella said with another wave of his hand. He was all magnanimity that morning.

“I like my privacy just like you do. So I told one of my men to watch the door to the hall. He's my driver, Sergeant Krone.”

“So we won't be interrupted, huh? I don't mind, but Shorty and Jassy'U take care of the door.”

“I'm not worried about anyone coming in; it's about their going out. So if you got a bug in this room and you're thinking of taping any of this, I suggest you forget it.”

“What the hell kind of creep do you think I am?” Luccarella said, not quite yelling.

“The kind who might bug a conversation like we're about to have.”

Luccarella smiled suddenly. “Yeah, maybe I am at that. But there's no bug. I swear to God.”

“We'll make sure later,” Necessary said.

“Okay, you made a point, now make an offer.”

“It's no offer,” Necessary said. “It's take it or leave it. I get a third. You and Dye can fight over the rest.”

An incredulous look appeared on Luccarella's squeezed-up face. “A third of what?”

“The net. On everything.”

“A third! Christ, what do you mean a third? Lynch only got ten percent.”

“I may as well give you the bad news now,” I said. “I get a third, too.”

“You're out of your fucking mind,” Luccarella yelled. “You get a third, he gets a third—you know what that leaves me? You know how much?”

“A third,” I said.

“Like shit it does. It leaves me just what Lynch got—ten percent. The rest goes back east.”

“That's too bad,” Necessary said and drained his Scotch and water. “I don't want to argue. I'll take thirty percent. Dye can talk for himself.”

“Thirty's okay,” I said. “That leaves you forty.”

“I can't operate on forty.”

“You won't operate at all unless I say so,” Necessary said.

“Fifty-five, forty-five,” Luccarella said.

Necessary shook his head. “It's too complicated. I can figure the easy ones like thirty percent and a third and a half and the round numbers. Figuring forty-five and fifty-five percent's too hard.”

“I'll have to check back east,” Luccarella said. “I'll have to explain to them what I'm up against.”

“I tell you something, Luccarella,” Necessary said. “Either you're in or you're out for forty percent. You can explain things later. Right now it's yes or no time.”

Luccarella looked at Samuels, who refused to return his gaze. “Well, don't just sit there, dummy! Say something, for Christ's sake. That's what I pay you for.”

Samuels sighed. “Under the new circumstances, perhaps Chief Necessary's proposal does have merit, particularly if the net increases over what it formerly was.”

“It'll increase,” Necessary said, shaking the ice in his glass. “Dye and I'll see to that, won't we?”

“Sure,” I said.

“How much?” Luccarella said, a measure of greed creeping into his voice.

“Well, Dye and I've been talking about that and we thought we just might turn Swankerton wide open now that I got the department all reorganized the way I like it. From what me and Dye can figure, Lynch and that doodlebug who was his chief of police kept things running about half speed. We thought we just might edge her up a notch or two.”

“What the hell's he talking about?” Luccarella said to me.

“Just what he said. We're going to exploit the town's full potential.”

“Why don't you translate that into dollars and cents?”

Necessary looked at me. “Go ahead,” he said.

“It means the net should go up by one hundred percent at least.”

“Ah,” Samuels said. “I think I see.”

“In one-syllable words, just for me,” Luccarella said. He was almost pleading.

“I believe what Mr. Dye is saying is that the fixed costs will remain fairly constant despite a marked increase in the volume of business.” Samuels looked at me for confirmation and I nodded.

“You mean the nut's going to stay the same because the payoffs will stay the same and any new business will be just that much gravy? That's what you mean, ain't it?”

“That's it, Luccarella,” Necessary said. “So your forty percent share of the new net will be equal to eighty percent of the old.”

“That's better,” Luccarella said softly, almost to himself. “That's a hell of a lot better. You got a deal.”

“Almost,” Necessary said. “Almost we got a deal.”

“Now what's the matter?” Luccarella looked at me. “Now what the hell's bugging him?”

“Ask him,” I said.

“All right, goddamn it, I'm asking you!” It came out a yell and this time Luccarella heard it himself. “Sorry,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut. “I gotta watch that. I just get too enthusiastic. I'm impatient, you know. My analyst says that there's nothing wrong with being impatient. He said a lot of great men have been noted for their impatience. But it's gotta be
channeled, he says. It's a type of energy and it's gotta be directed. Now then, Chief, I'm gonna ask you again calmly. See how calm I am? What do you mean by almost we got a deal?”

“The word got around that Lynch was slipping so some of them came down to see if it was true.”

Luccarella gestured impatiently. “I heard about that. Dye here told me about it. Jimmy Twoshoes from Chicago and Sweet Eddie Puranelli out of Cleveland. Couple of others. They'll forget about it when they hear Lynch's out.”

“They've heard,” Necessary said.

“So they'll get out.”

“They've heard something else.”

“What?”

“They've heard you're slipping.”

I estimated that roughly $30,000 worth of analysis was destroyed by Necessary's comment. Luccarella shot up out of his seat. “Me?” It was a scream this time, not a yell. “Who said I'm slipping? Who's the sonofabitch who said it, Necessary?” He was stalking about the room now, knocking into furniture. He picked up an ashtray and smashed it against the wall. “Slipping, huh? Who said it, goddamn it? I'll fix that sonofabitch. You think I'm slipping, Samuels? Did you tell ‘em I'm slipping?” He rushed over and grabbed the lawyer by his shirt front and jerked him from the couch. “What are you, a goddamned spy?”

“I never said—”

Luccarella dropped the lawyer, who sank back down on the couch. He spun around to face us. “You guys—you guys told them I'm slipping. You set it all up, I can tell. You guys are trying to fix me. You're trying to get everything for yourself. I can't trust nobody. I can't even—”

“Shut up, Luccarella!” It was either Necessary's harsh, slashing tone or my hangover, but it made me start. It also stopped Luccarella in mid-sentence.

“Bad, wasn't it?” he said and hung his head like a scolded child. “I know what it is, all right. My analyst explained it all to me. It's paranoia.
That means that you think people are plotting against you when they're not. He said lots of great men have had it and have gone on to live real useful lives.”

“It's not paranoia this time,” Necessary said. “These guys think Swankerton's ripe and they think you've slipped and they're set to move in and move you out.”

“You can stop them,” Luccarella said.

“It's not my job when you think about it,” Necessary said. “I can get my cut from them. They'll give me a deal, just like you've done. But you already know the operation and that's why I prefer to do business with you. Dye and me don't want to spend our time breaking in the new help.”

“So it's up to me,” Luccarella said in a quiet tone.

“That's right,” Necessary said. “It's up to you. All me and Dye can give you is our unofficial support. You'll have that.”

Luccarella turned to Samuels. “Get on the phone and call Ricci. Explain it. Tell him to get up here and to bring a dozen with him. If he has to import a few, tell him he can pay top dollar.” He gave the instructions in a low, confident tone and for the first time I saw some reason for him to have risen as far as he had. “Now,” he added, and Samuels rose and hurried to the door.

Luccarella turned to Necessary and in that same, quiet, emotionless tone said, “I want all of their names and where they're staying.”

“Sure,” Necessary said and told him. Luccarella didn't seem to need to write anything down.

“That's all?”

“That's all I know about, although I've heard that some of them are moving their people in.”

Luccarella nodded. “I want this deal, Chief. I need it if you want to know the truth and I don't care if you do or not. I've had a little trouble lately, but I'm getting that cleared up with the help of my analyst. He told me that I should trust people more. That I'm too suspicious. So I'm gonna take his advice. I'm gonna trust you and Dye. Bad things, real bad things happen to people who I trust and who then cross me. I don't want anything bad to happen to either of you.”

“You take care of your end, we'll take care of ours,” Necessary said.

“We'd still like to go over those books,” I said.

Luccarella pointed at one of the briefcases. “There's a duplicate set in there. Take ‘em with you. It's got everything—names, addresses, cash flow, everything. Lynch kept a good set of books, I'll say that for him. He didn't cross me either, so nothing bad's going to happen to him. He just made a mistake. I can take that. But I can't take being crossed by people I trust.”

“You've made that clear,” I said and picked up the briefcase.

Shorty stuck his head in the door. “What the hell you want?” Luccarella said.

“It's for him,” he said, pointing at me. “It's some chick on the phone called Thackerty. She's all shook and says that she has to talk to him so I said I'd see.”

“I'll take it,” I said and crossed to the telephone and picked it up.

“What's the problem?” I said.

“It's Orcutt,” she said.

“What about him?”

“You'd better get up here.”

“Up where?”

“His suite.”

“What about him?” I said again.

“He's dead and they took away his face.”

 

 

Necessary hurried through the door to Orcutt's suite first, followed by Sergeant
Krone who had drawn his revolver. I came last, carrying the briefcase.

Carol Thackerty stood by the window that offered a view of the Gulf of Mexico but she wasn't looking at it. She was looking at the skinny gray-haired man who knelt by Orcutt's body. The gray-haired man rocked back and forth and crooned to himself. His hands were pressed together as if he were praying. A long-barreled revolver lay on the floor beside Orcutt. Two feet away from it was a wide-mouthed glass jar, the kind that will hold a pint of mayonnaise. I could smell the exploded gunpowder, but there was another, sharper smell that stung my nostrils. I didn't know what it was.

Necessary moved quickly over to Orcutt and lifted the towel from his face.

“I put it there,” Carol said. “I came in and saw him and put the towel over his face.”