There were two other guys in the office. One was another young arm-twister, dressed casual like his partner in khakis and a knit shirt. He sat in a hard-backed chair in the far corner, between the desk and the windows. The second guy was Charlie Liuzza, the man everyone called Charlie the Rabbit. Charlie was in his early sixties, but looked trim, like he kept in shape. He sat at the end of the sofa, dressed in a suit and tie, but not the expensive Italian kind Tony wore, more like one you would find hanging on the rack in a decent department store.
Charlie had nothing to do with the House, so why was he here? Ray wondered.
As Ray dropped onto the end of the sofa, opposite Charlie Liuzza, he wondered why he was here. This office made him nervous. On the floor he saw several large rugs, rugs big enough to roll up a body in. The offensive linemen-looking ape who had guided Ray into the room took a seat in the near corner. He and his twin looked like a pair of goombah bookends with Vincent Messina in the middle.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Ray,” Vinnie said in his high-pitched nasally voice. He was fiftysomething and fat, with a bald head he tried to hide under an absurd comb-over.
Ray didn’t know if he was being reprimanded for not getting here quickly enough, or if Vinnie was just making polite conversation. Right after Tony’s call, Ray had showered, dressed, gulped down another glass of Jameson to settle his nerves, then slipped into a sport coat and left. Fifteen minutes and two cigarettes later, he pulled his eight-year-old Mustang into the parking lot on Decatur, two blocks from the House.
“I got here as soon as I could,” Ray said.
Vinnie stared at him, his eyes dark and cold and set deep in his jowly face. The look made Ray wonder if he was going to get out of here alive. He glanced again at the two young goons, but neither of them looked like they were getting ready to make any kind of move against him. Squeezed into the chairs like they were, if they did make a play for him, he would have at least a few seconds to react.
Ray relaxed a bit as Vinnie pointed to Charlie Liuzza. “You know Charlie, don’t you? He works for my brother. Charlie is here, at my brother’s invitation, to make sure we don’t screw this up.”
Ray didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded his head at Charlie, acknowledging the man’s presence.
“But I’m going to handle this my own way,” Vinnie said, giving Charlie a sideways look, “and with my own people.”
An anxious silence enveloped the room. Ray tried to break it. “Handle what?”
Vinnie waved a dismissive hand in the air. “I want you to know that in no way do I hold you responsible for what happened this morning.” He glanced at Tony. “No matter what some people might say.”
“Thank you, Mr. Messina,” Ray said. “I want to tell you personally how sorry I am about-”
“But I want you to find them,” Vinnie said.
Silence.
Finally, Ray said, “Find who?”
“The people who shot my son.”
Ray looked around the room. There had to be a way out of here. Everyone was staring at him. “Mr. Messina… I can’t do that.”
Tony clapped his hands together. He was looking at Vinnie. “I told you.”
Ray chimed in. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I’d do anything to help you. Pete was like a kid brother to me. But I just can’t do this. I don’t have… the ability.”
Vinnie shot him a hard stare. “What do you mean you don’t have the ability? You were a goddamn detective. You sure as shit know how to find people who don’t want to be found.” He leaned forward, keeping his eyes fixed on Ray. “I’m asking you to find the motherfuckers who murdered my boy.” Vinnie choked on the last word and had to cover it with a cough. He was a Mafia big shot, but still a man who had just lost his only son.
Ray felt a lump in his own throat. He glanced out the nearest window. Pete had been a good kid, simpleminded but sweet. An innocent kid. Ray swallowed the lump. There was a lot at stake here. This was no time to get sentimental over a dead half-wit, he told himself. He looked back at Vinnie Messina. “I used to be a detective. Now I’m just an ex-con.”
“That’s even better,” Vinnie said. “Don’t you see that? You know both sides of the street. Plus, now you’re not constrained by all that legal bullshit. I’m not asking you to kill these guys. I’m asking you to use your street smarts and your contacts at the police department to find them. We’ll take care of the rest.”
Ray cleared his throat. “I don’t have any contacts left. I was in prison for almost five years. I’d be as welcome at Tulane and Broad as clap in a convent.”
“What did I tell you?” Tony said. “He’s a fucking coward.”
Ray ignored him. He kept his eyes on Vinnie. “To work it like a cop, you need access to information-lab reports, ballistics, criminal histories, driver’s license information-stuff I can’t get.”
Tony jabbed a finger at Ray. “We lost that money because of you, Shane. You’re either going to find the guys who did this, and get back our three hundred G’s or-”
“Three hundred!” Ray said, turning toward Tony.
“You heard me.”
“We never have that much cash in-”
Vinnie pounded his fat fist on his desk. “I don’t give a shit about the money. I want the motherfuckers who shot my son.”
This was getting dangerous, Ray thought. Very dangerous. Looking back at Vinnie, he said, “I understand what you want done, but I’m on parole. One screwup and my P.O. will put me back inside.”
“Are you saying you won’t help me?” Vinnie said. His voice was low and had lost a lot of its nasal sound. Now it sounded menacing.
“You got guys at the Eighth District who can get you any kind of background information you’d need,” Ray said.
Tony snorted. “Cops are always the last ones to know what’s going on. The scumbags who did this, you don’t find them inside a fucking computer, you got to find them on the street. The street always knows. All you got to do is know how to ask it.”
Vinnie rubbed a hand across his face, but his eyes never left Ray. “I don’t want the police getting their hands on these bastards.”
“We might own half the Eighth District, but those cops are only going to go so far,” Tony said. “They got pensions to protect.”
“That’s why we’ve got to do it ourselves,” Vinnie said.
Ray glanced at Charlie Rabbit, an old-timer with a reputation as a cold-blooded killer, and at the two beefed-up bone-breakers sitting like stone statues of sumo wrestlers. He felt his heart thumping in his chest and a cold knot of fear growing in his belly. “I still think they can do you more good than I can. The Eighth District cops, I mean. But if you bring me into the picture, they may not be willing to work with you.”
Tony jabbed his finger at Ray again. “It’s his mess. He needs to clean it up. If he wasn’t such a chickenshit and had done his job in the first place, none of this-”
“Vinnie’s right,” Charlie Liuzza said. “Money is not important. Blame is not important. Not now.” He pointed to Vinnie. “This man lost a son. Carlos lost a nephew. Blood demands blood. Later, Carlos will deal with the other matters.”
Vinnie’s face flushed. He leaned over his desk, the edge cutting a crease in his bloated belly. “You tell my brother I run the Rising Sun, and I make the decisions here.”
Charlie raised his hands toward Vinnie, palms out, gesturing for peace. “He wants these men found and punished for what they did to your son. Nothing else. We can always make more money.”
Looking somewhat mollified, Vinnie sat back in his chair. “Pass my thanks on to my brother.”
As Charlie nodded, Tony jerked his thumb toward Ray. “What about him?”
“What about him?” Charlie said. “Vinnie asked for his help.”
Charlie took in a deep breath. “I’ve heard some good things about Ray. Let’s give him time to think about it. I’m sure he’ll come up with something that can help us.”
“Think about it,” Tony snapped. “We let our people think about whether or not-”
Vinnie pounded his desk again. “Tony!”
Tony’s eyes narrowed, but he closed his mouth. The two goons shifted in their seats. For the first time they looked uncomfortable.
“Everyone’s upset,” Charlie said. “Everybody’s tired. Let’s put off any further discussion until tomorrow. By
