noose was wrapped around my neck. I knew one day I’d feel the tug.”
He would have probably told me more, but Jackie’s cell phone rang. Or rather, played the first few bars of “I Wanna Be Sedated” by the Ramones. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on and once I did, how to answer the phone. It was Jackie.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“Fine here. Why?”
“How close are you?”
“Half hour, give or take,” I said.
“Are you sure about the timing?”
“Do whatever you want to do, Jackie. I trust you.”
“Oh great. More pressure.”
Zack looked interested in my side of the conversation. When I ended the call he asked me, “So, are you going to tell me where we’re going? It’s only fair. I’ve told you a lot.”
“You have,” I said. “I appreciate it. We’re going to North Sea.”
As we drove he caressed his sports coat where it draped across his lap, his long slender fingers absentmindedly picking at the fabric and folding it along the seams.
“It was a good day when I heard Roy was going to jail for some real-estate scam,” he said. “I thought, there’s karma for you.”
“It must have been a big disappointment to hear from him again.”
Zack looked up from his sports coat.
“It was devastating. It was just an envelope with an old blueprint and a note telling me to hold on to it and wait for further instruction. I felt like those fellas in the movies who ask the Mob for a favor, and then twenty years later get the call. Payback time. It’s Faustian.”
It was getting close to dusk by the time we reached the outskirts of Southampton, marked by the narrowing of Route 27 from four lanes to two. Zack Horowitz had been quiet during the last leg of the trip, and I hadn’t pushed him to do any more talking. I needed to concentrate on the plan, if so grand a name could be applied to what I had in mind.
I turned left off Route 27 and after that merged onto North Sea Road. I wanted to feel more confidence, but couldn’t muster it. Too many variables. Too little leverage. But it was all I had.
Zack withstood the fun-house ride over Bay Edge Drive with less complaint than Jackie. When we got to Robbie’s project there were two pickups parked out front.
“Look familiar?” I asked him.
He nodded.
I had him walk in front of me as we went around to the back of the house, carefully stepping over the last of the construction debris, some of which I scooped up and tossed to the side as we approached the French doors.
They were open to the bay, letting a soft breeze into the room, along with me and Zack.
“Look, guys,” I said to Patrick and Milhouser. “I brought a friend.”
Patrick had a big smirk on his face and shook his head in disbelief. Confusion and anger competed for possession of Jeff Milhouser.
“Where’s the Battiston woman?” he demanded.
“Her name’s Anselma,” I said. “She’s anything but a Battiston woman.”
“Hello, Jeff,” said Zack, stepping out from behind me.
“She called and said to meet her here,” said Milhouser, looking at Zack.
Patrick moved closer, staring at me. Milhouser touched his arm and he stopped.
“We’ve changed the agenda for the meeting,” I said. “But hang tight. We don’t have a quorum yet.”
“That mean she’s coming? And what’s he doing here?” Milhouser asked, pointing at Zack.
“Consulting on environmental issues,” I said.
Milhouser’s confusion deepened.
“You want some answers from this asshole, let me beat it out of him,” said Patrick, looking at me.
I pulled Zack across the room and planted him next to Milhouser.
“Do me a favor, and keep Jeff company while I take care of this,” I said, gesturing to Patrick to follow me outside.
The only light out there came from the room behind us. I turned and walked backwards, being very careful to keep my footing as I watched Patrick come at me, backlit. Before he got too close I rotated to the left, and I was glad to see him rotate with me, so that in a few steps I had my back to the house and he was in the pale light.
I reached down and picked up a three-foot-long piece of two-by-four that I’d tossed there on the way in. Patrick looked surprised.
“You got to be kidding me,” he said.
I showed him I wasn’t by cracking him across the top of the head. He went down on his knees with his hands covering his head.
“Fuck,” he yelled.
I’d used a similar approach one time before on a thug named Buddy Florin, the last guy who thought being bigger, younger and stronger were the only deciding factors.
When Patrick tried to stand up I hit him on the right shoulder as hard as I could, knocking him into the mud where he rolled over and tried again to get back on his feet. I hit him again on the other arm, and as he fell back down, I kicked him in the face.
He pitched backwards, holding his face with his left hand, his right hanging uselessly at his side. I dropped down and stuck my knee in his chest. I gripped his shirt with one hand and held the two-by-four above his head with the other.
“Like I told you before, it only gets worse.”
“Some fucking boxer,” he said.
“Not allowed to box anymore, sorry. Doctor’s orders.”
I dragged him to his feet and held him by the back of his shirt. I shoved him through the French doors and told him to lie face down on the floor.
“You broke my fucking arm,” he said. “I need a doctor.”
“Good Lord,” said Zack.
Milhouser just snorted.
“We’ll take care of that after we have a little chat,” I said, checking my watch. “If Jackie’s on time for once in her life, it won’t take that long.”
Milhouser had been holding his white golf jacket in his hand. He put it on and zipped up, looking ready to bolt.
“I don’t know what the hell this is about, Acquillo, but it’s not what I came here to do, so if you’d kindly …”
He was interrupted by the sound of Jackie calling from the front of the house. To my everlasting wonderment, she was actually ahead of schedule.
“Hi, fellas,” she said, as she walked in the sunroom. “What’s up?”
I introduced her to Zack Horowitz, while keeping an eye on Milhouser, whose confusion had moved through anger and now looked more like indecision. Patrick mumbled something into the floor.
“Zack,” I said, like I was kicking off a weekly staff meeting, “why don’t you outline for Jackie the statement you’re planning to give the Assistant District Attorney. Just the highlights for now.”
“I’m here to act as your attorney until you can pick one of your own,” she said to Zack, holding up a steno pad. “I’ll be taking notes.”
Zack nodded.
“I’ve been aware of a campaign by Mr. Milhouser to gain control through extortion of a large real-estate development in this area,” he said to Jackie in his softly modulated voice.
“You idiot,” said Milhouser.
Jackie looked up from her pad.
“If you don’t mind, sir. I don’t want to miss anything,” she said.
