Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again (25 page)

She
also knew that Reno’s deceased father was a mob boss and Reno and Sal both had
been linked to mob activity.
 
Both men
constantly denied such activity, according to press accounts, but the rumors
persisted.
 
But in a time like this, Liz
wasn’t trying to deal with choirboys.
 
For Tommy’s sake, she was glad they were badass.
 
They had to get to the bottom of this.
 
She wasn’t going to rest until they caught
those bastards and brought them to justice, in whatever form that took.

That next
day Jimmy remained at the compound with Liz while Reno and Sal put Trina and
Gemma on a plane back to Vegas: on Reno’s plane.
 
After the plane took off, they next traveled
to a safe house in town and met at length with Sal’s Chicago “people.”
 
They ordered them to find all they could
about the hit, and to check out the mayor and the commissioner while they were
at it.
 
When they arrived back at Sal’s
Chicago house, they discovered that Tommy was awake, the doctor had gone into a
separate room to get some rest himself, and that Tommy wanted to talk.

Reno
and Sal headed back upstairs.
 
Tommy was
awake, but still looked pained.
 
But his
voice was a little stronger.
 
Jimmy was
sitting in one of the chairs.
 
Liz sat on
the bed beside Tommy.
 
They were holding
hands.

“Did
you know Sal owned this place?” Reno asked Tommy.

“Sal
owns what?” Tommy asked.

“This
house.
 
He owns it.”

Tommy
looked at Sal.
 
“You own this?”

“Yeah,
so?” Sal asked defensively.
 
“What’s the
big deal?”

Reno
shook his head.
 
“You and Sal are two of
the craziest motherfuckers I have ever seen,” he said.
 
“You buy cars in every city you hang out in,
and Sal buys houses.
 
That’s some weird
shit,” Reno added.

Tommy
looked at Sal.
  
“Since when have you
owned this place?”

“Since
years ago,” Sal said.
 
“I have a lot of
business interests in Chicago.
 
When I
come here, I stay here.”

“And
when you’re not here?” Reno asked.

“A
friend of mine stays here and keeps an eye out on it.”

“A
friend?” Tommy asked.
 
“You mean that
great looking blonde that let us in when we first got here, and then took off?”

Sal
hesitated.
 
“Yeah, her.”

Reno
looked at him.
 
“Does Gemma know about
this friend, and about this arrangement?”

Sal
looked at him.
 
“That’s none of your
business,” he said.

“If
you fuck around on Gemma, I’m going to make it my business,” Reno warned.

Sal
was about to fire back, but the bedroom door opened, and Munzino walked
in.
 
Munzie, as they called him, was one
of Sal’s men.

“What
you got for me?” Sal asked as Munzie made his way to the foursome.

 
“The mayor and commish involved?” Reno asked
him.

“We
think so, yeah,” Munzie said.
 
“It’s got
to be them.”

“How
do you figure that?” Sal asked him.

“Guess
who has the mayor, the commissioner, and almost every other public official in
this town in his pocket?”
 

“Who?”
Sal asked.

“Marelli.”

Sal
and Reno both were shocked.
 
“Rizzo
Marelli?” Sal asked.
 
“Are you fucking
kidding me?”

“You
sure?” Tommy asked Munzie.

“I’m
positive.
 
Rizzo runs this town.
 
And he didn’t just start yesterday either.”

“But why
would Rizzo want to knock Tommy off?” Sal asked.
 
“Yeah he screwed up the mayor’s sexual pipes,
but so what?
 
Rizzo wouldn’t risk war
over that.”

“But
he’ll risk war over somebody interfering with his cash cow,” Munzie said.

“What
do you mean?” Sal asked.

“The
mayor has been approving contracts that have benefited every business Marelli
owns in this town.
 
I mean every single
one of them.
 
We’re talking millions and
millions of dollars.
 
Mayor Tennyson is
Marelli’s piggy bank.
 
He’ll gladly go to
war with anybody who tries to break that bank.”

Sal
and Reno looked at each other with flustered looks on their faces.
 
Sal got up, walked over to the window, and
ran his hand through his hair.
 
Reno
leaned back, frustrated too.
 

Liz
looked at Tommy.
 
She could tell it was
worse news than any of them had expected.
 
“So it’s bad news then?” Liz asked.

Tommy
squeezed her hand.
 
“To put it mildly,”
he said.

“Thanks,
Munze,” Reno said, and Munzie left the room.

Then
Reno looked at Liz.
 
“Could you excuse us
for a minute?”

Liz
looked at Tommy.
 
She’d leave, but only
if he told her to.

He
nodded.
 
“Wait downstairs,” he said.
 
“And Jimmy?”

Jimmy
stood up.
 
“Sir?”

“Go
down with her.”

“Yes,
sir,” Jimmy said, and he and Liz left the big three alone in the room.

Reno
and Sal moved closer to the bed.
 
If Reno
was the muscle of the outfit, and Sal was the heart, Tommy was the
backbone.
 
He was the oldest, the
smartest, and the one the other two turned to for advice when they were in
tough spots.
 
“How do you wanna play
this, Tommy?” Reno asked him.

“It’s
sensitive,” Tommy said.
 
“Rizzo has
reach.”

“Damn
right,” Reno agreed.
 
“That fucker could
take us out, that’s the kind of reach he has.
 
He’s one of those bastards I could worry about.
 
And that’s saying something.
 
We snatch him, we can’t give him back.”

Tommy
exhaled.
  
“Even if he’s not involved?”

“Even
if,” Reno said.

“But
that’s damn unlikely,” Sal said.
 
“You
heard Munze.
 
Tommy almost killed his
cash cow.
 
He can’t stand for that.”

Tommy
shook his head.
 
“Anybody but Rizzo.”

“I
was thinking the same thing,” Reno said.
 
“Last fucker on earth I would have wanted involved in this.
 
But I’m telling you,” Reno added, “if we
snatch him, we can’t give him back.
 
Because if he lives to tell about this little kidnapping, there will be
war and a lot of people will die.
 
It’s
not debatable.
 
That will happen.”

“What
if he can link us to it anyway?” Sal asked.
 
“They tried to take my brother out, why wouldn’t they think we’d try to
take Rizz out?”

Reno
and Sal both looked at Tommy.
 
“We’re
going to have to subterfuge it,” he said.
 
“Misdirection, and then snatch him.”

“You
mean set up one of his guys?” Sal asked.

“We’ll
have to,” Tommy said.
 
“Get some cash
deposited in an account in the guy’s name, if we can swing it.”

“I can
swing it,” Sal said.

“As
soon as the deposit goes live,” Tommy said, “we get an anonymous caller to
notify, not Rizzo, but his most trusted lieutenant.”

“That
would be Mike Carrigan,” Sal said.

“That’s
the guy,” Tommy said.
 
“Make up a story
about how one of Rizzo’s men is working for some foreign guy who wants to take
over Chicago from Rizz.
 
Mention how they
might be planning Rizz’s execution.
 
And
while Carrigan’s looking into it, we’ll already have Rizzo in our custody.
 
They will be looking at an inside job, we
will be doing our thing.
 
They’ll blame
anything that happens to Rizzo on their own people.”
 
Tommy said this, and then looked at Reno.

Reno
began nodding his head.
 
“It could work,”
he said.
 
“Yeah, it could work.
 
But how will we snatch that prick?
 
He’s more protected than Fort Knox I’m sure.”

“He
is,” Sal said.
 
“But he’s got one
weakness.”

“What’s
that?”

“Manicure,
pedicure, and a massage on Wednesdays.”

“At
home?”

“No.
 
At this danky looking parlor.
 
He enters in through a backdoor, and leaves
through a backdoor.
 
When he gets there
Wednesday, we’ll already be there.
 
And
our men will go out back and take out his men and we will snatch him.
 
We’ll also take out any cameras.”

But
Reno kept looking at him. “And why would you know all of this about Rizzo
Marelli’s routine?”

“I
did surveillance on him before.”

“Why?”

“Why
the hell not?” Sal asked.
 
“I have a lot
of interests in this town, I told you that.
 
I have to know who might be eyeing it.”

Reno
shook his head.
 
“Fucking mob boss,” he
said, “I don’t care how much you deny it.”

“Who
are you?” Sal asked.
 
“You deny it.”

“That’s
because I’m not one,” Reno responded.

“Neither
am I,” Sal responded.

“But
you’re lying motherfucker.”

“Then
so are you motherfucker.”

“Guys,”
Tommy said and grimaced.
 
“Focus
now.
 
Fight later.”

Sal
and Reno stopped bickering and entered into an alliance that always made them,
even though neither would admit it, thick as thieves.

Three
days later, on Wednesday, the preliminary work went off without a hitch.
 
The money was deposited in the bank.
 
The anonymous call was made to Carrigan.
 
And as soon as Rizzo Marelli entered the
backdoor of the massage parlor, he was met, not by his regular masseuse, but by
two men who placed a duffer bag over his head, tightened it, and then opened
the back door just as Rizzo’s men were being shot, one and then the other, as
they sat in the van.

A
second cargo van drove up to the backdoor, Rizzo was tossed inside, and then
the van drove away.
 
When the bag was
removed from Rizzo’s head, and he saw Reno and Sal sitting inside the van with
him, he frowned. He was a big man, and his face had layers of chin.

“Reno?
 
Sal?
 
What the fuck is going on here?”

“Hello,
Rizz,” Reno said.
 
“It’s been a while.”

“What
do you think you’re doing, Reno?
 
I got
no beef with you!
 
What do you think
you’re doing?”

“We’re
kidnapping you,” Sal said.

Rizzo
frowned.
 
“For what?”

“You
know already,” Reno said.
 
“Don’t piss
with us.”

“What
I wanna piss with your ass for?
 
What did
I do?”

“You
ordered a hit on my brother, that’s what you did,” Sal said.

“On
Tommy?
 
Why would I do that?
 
Why would I wanna mix it up with the
Gabrinis?”

“Because
Tommy Gabrini mixed it up with your mayor,” Reno said.
 
“With your cash cow.
 
And you didn’t like it.”

But
Rizzo was animated with anger.
 
“I didn’t
give a fuck, what are you talking?” he asked. “That jackass is on his way out
anyway.
 
Nobody’s supporting him next
term.
 
I’m not even supporting him!
 
Why should I care what somebody does to his
balls?”

The
van began bouncing along, as if it was now on rougher terrain.

“Somebody
put a hit on Tommy before day this morning,” Reno said.
 
“All roads still lead to you, Rizz.”

“Only
in your mind, Reno.”

Reno
quickly pulled out his gun, leaned closer to the man sitting across from him,
and put the gun to his forehead.
 
“What
about now, asshole?
 
Still in my mind?”

Reno
had his undivided attention now.
 
He knew
Reno.
 
He knew what he was capable
of.
 
“I didn’t put the hit on Tommy,”
Rizzo said.