“I had a gun in my hand.”
“Christ Almighty.” Dulare looked around at the other three. “What the hell is going on around here?”
Walters said, “We wouldn’t have known anything about it until it was too late, except for Parker and his friend stirring things up.”
Parker said to Dulare, “You’re sure Buenadella didn’t talk to you?”
“No,” Dulare said. Then he said, “I see what you’re driving at. No, he wouldn’t come to me in front. Dutch and I aren’t that close, and he knows I’m a good friend with Al. He’d come around afterwards, when Al was out and he was in and everything was set. Then I’d go along with him, because it would be stupid to start a war after the game’s over.”
“All right.” Parker turned to Simms. “How much has Buenadella got?”
Simms blinked at him, terror hiding behind confusion. “What?”
“He’s been skimming from Lozini’s take,” Parker said. “Plus my seventy-three thousand. He’s had expenses, with Farrell’s campaign and some of Lozini’s people he’s bought, so how much does he have left?”
“How should I know?” Simms jittered inside his dudish clothing like a dressed-up turkey.
“Because you went over to him,” Parker said. “He couldn’t have skimmed from Lozini without you.”
“That’s a lie!”
The others all looked at Simms, and Parker said, “Don’t waste time, Simms. How much does he have left?”
Faran suddenly said, wonderingly, “It’s that honey blonde of yours.”
Simms, as though grateful at the chance to concentrate on anyone but Parker, turned his head toward Faran, saying, “What? What, Frank?”
“What’s her name? Donna. You brought her around to the club a few times, Nate, you were happy as a nun with a new habit.”
“Frank, I didn’t—”
Dulare said, “Nate, if you tell another lie, I’ll have my two boys over there redeem themselves by walking on your head.”
“Ernie, you don’t think I’d—”
Simms stopped talking when Dulare pointedly turned toward the two burly men over on the Victorian chairs. There was a little silence while Simms worked it out in his head. Parker was impatient and angry, but this was a moment when it was better to hang back, let the group find its own pace, work things out for itself.
Simms said, in a small voice, “Ernie, I never would have—”
“For God’s sake,” Dulare said, “don’t give me excuses.”
“Reasons, Ernie. Not excuses, reasons.”
Parker said, “How much is left, Simms? What does Dutch have in the war fund?”
“Ernie,” Simms said, pleadingly, “just let me ex—”
“Answer the man,” Dulare said.
Simms hung fire, driven by the need to explain himself yet held by the requirement to obey. Finally, his voice barely above a whisper, he looked away from Dulare and said, “About forty-five thousand.”
“Not enough,” Parker said. “I came here for seventy-three thousand.”
“That’s not the problem,” Dulare said. His attention was still on Simms.
“Yes, it is,” Parker told him. “And it’s your problem, because Lozini’s dead, and now it’s a tug of war between you and Buenadella.”
They all stared at him. Dulare said, “Al’s dead? Since when?”
“He wasn’t sure,” Parker said, “if the guy climbing up his back was Buenadella or you. He went to Harold Calesian to find out, and Calesian killed him.”
“That cop?”
“The body is in Calesian’s living room,” Parker said. “Calesian and Buenadella are going to say that I did it.”
Dulare watched him carefully. “Where are you headed?” he said. “What’s on your mind?”
“My partner and I,” Parker said, “went to make a deal with Buenadella. When we were coming out, my partner got shot. I was sent a message that he was still alive and I could come get him. They’ll send me a finger a day to prove he isn’t dead.”
“Buenadella?” Dulare shook his head. “Dutch wouldn’t do anything like that. He wouldn’t even think of it.”
“Calesian,” Parker said. “Once things got rough, Buenadella folded. Calesian is running things.”
“Calesian can’t run anything except hookers,” Dulare said.
Faran said, “But by God, that sounds like his style, Ernie. A finger a day, that does sound like our Harold.”
“All right,” Dulare said. Back to Parker, he said, “So what do you want?”
“Seventy-three thousand dollars and my partner. You peopie have the manpower. I want you to send people
