the hotel.
I’m staying at the Marriott in Times Square, and I ditch the car and next morning I get a cab and haul the money back dowfitown and it’s dandy. Cabbie drops me off fight in front of the bank. I take the stuff in, go to the desk, and ask for the name they gave me, who’s going to count the cash and take care of the deposit and he ain’t there. He’s at another branch in freaking Queens, they gave me the wrong branch.
So I go out with the suitcase, which is lucky I’m big and strong, because it’s getting heavier every minute and I try to find a cab and I can’t, so I get on the subway. I got a suitcase full of cash and I’m tiding the freaking subway, and I’m boiling. And I go back to the hotel and get a cab there. You can always get a cab at a hotel, and I go over to Queens hauling the dough, and the guy is there, but he’s in a meeting. So I tell the slut at the desk that they better get his ass out of the meeting or else and she says, real preppy,
‘Excuse me?’ And I said get this guy’s
ass out here, now. And I give her a real hard look and she gets up and goes in back and in a little while my guy comes out, and he’s nice as freaking pie. ‘Oh, sir, so sorry to keep you waiting, come fight in to one f our conference rooms, blah, blah.’ And I got the money deposited. But is that a kick or what, I’m chugging around freaking New York with three-quarters of a million in cash for two days trying to get somebody to take it.“
“Scared hell out of that bank lady,
huh?” Morris said.
Jo Jo didn’t much like the way Vinnie said it. He could never tell whether Vinnie was putting him on or not. Hard to figure Vinnie. He didn’t seem interested in anything. He never seemed in a hurry. He never had any reaction to anything, except to say things like “scared hell out of that bank lady,” which Jo Jo could never quite figure out.
Jo Jo thought maybe he ought to grab Vinnie someday and slap him up against the wall. Get his freaking attention.
But there was something about Vinnie… Jo Jo stopped thinking about it. He sat straight upright on the other straight chair. He would have liked to cross his legs, but they were too thick. He probably ought to do more stretching, loosen everything up a little. Gino Fish came into the room, nodded at Vinnie, walked past Jo Jo, and got behind his desk.
“Sorry I’m late,” Fish
said.
But he said it in a way that sounded to Jo Jo like he didn’t care if he was late or not. He could use a little shaking up too, Jo Jo thought. Involuntarily he glanced at Vin-nie, as if Vinnie could know what he was thinking. Vinnie looked blankly at him or past him or through him. Jo Jo could never be sure.
“No problem, Gino. Been talking with
Vinnie.”
Fish smiled without amusement.
“So what have you got for me, Jo
Jo?” Fish said.
“Guy I know is looking for guns.”
Fish was quiet for a moment, his gaze heavy on Jo Jo.
“Who is this guy?” Fish said
finally.
“He’d like to remain
anonymous,” Jo Jo said.
“Wouldn’t everyone,”
Fish said. “Is he IRA?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Zealots are not good people to do business with,” Fish said.
Jo Jo wasn’t exactly sure’what a
zealot was. But he knew Hath-way wasn’t IRA.
“Can you do something for us?” Jo
Jo said.
“What are you after?” Fish said.
“Automatic weapons, machine guns, mortars, handheld rocket launchers, grenades.”
There had been other things on the list, but Jo Jo hadn’t Wanted to carry the list. It would be bad if he got caught with it, and he wanted Gino and Vinnie to think he knew more about guns than he did.
“In what quantities?” Fish said.
“Enough to outfit a regiment,” Jo
Jo said. It was what he had been told to answer.
: Fish smiled again without warmth.
“When I was of an age for the
military,” he said, “I was in a different kind of government service.”
