Lullaby Town

You had to walk up a long wooden flight of stairs to get to Dillard's. The stairs were dark and the finish was worn off the center of each tread. A sign at the bottom of the stairs said DILLARD'S POOL amp; BILLIARDS, LADIES WELCOME. Another sign said NO MINORS, UNDER 21 NOT ALLOWED.

We went up the stairs and into a big room with a high ceiling and maybe twenty tables and a splintered floor that went pretty well with the stairs. A dozen kids in black leather jackets over white T-shirts shot pool and smoked and sucked on red cans of Coca-Cola as if this were still 1957, only most of them had long shaggy hair or buzz cuts. Pool cues like prison bars stood upright on racks against the walls, and fluorescent lights on the ceiling made everyone look dead. One of the lights flickered. A sixty-year-old bald guy with knotty arms sat behind a short bar where you could get beer or soft drinks. He was reading a copy of Sporting Times. I didn't see any ladies and no one except the guy behind the bar looked over sixteen. I didn't see Richie Sealy, either. Pike said, 'I'll check the back.'

Pike went across the big room and into a little alcove where a couple of signs said restrooms and exit. I walked over to the guy behind the bar.

He watched me come over the top of his paper and squirmed around on his stool. Nervous. I said, 'We're looking for Richard Sealy. Is he around?'

The old guy glanced toward the rear of his place, where Pike had gone, then back to me. He didn't fold the paper or put it down. 'You guys with the cops?' First Sal Cohen, now him. Maybe if we let our hair grow.

I said, 'Richard Sealy.'

More of the nervous. 'Look, I'm straight now, okay? I did the nickel and I'm good at my parole and I live straight, so whatever Richie's got going, I don't know.' He shot little glances at the kids and kept his voice down, hoping no one would hear. They probably thought he was tough, and he didn't want them to know he wasn't.

I gave him a hard cop look like I'd seen Robert Stack give in old Untouchables reruns. 'We just want Sealy.'

In the back, a fat kid with glasses laughed too loud and then a gray metal door that said GENTLEMEN opened next to a pay phone and Richard Sealy came out. He was wearing the same two sweatshirts and the same fingerless gloves and he was smiling. Thirty-five years old and he was hanging out with kids.

The old guy said, 'No shooting.'

I looked at him. Life at the Longbranch.

Pike came out of the back as Richie went over to a green table where a couple of kids were shooting eight- ball. Richie grabbed a pack of Marlboros off the edge of the table, lipped out a cigarette, fired up, then bent over to line up a shot. Someone had taped a poster of Heather Thomas in a bikini onto the wall. Heather looked okay.

Pike moved along the far wall past the pool cues and came up behind Richie. When he was ten feet from Heather Thomas, I walked over and came up from the near side. 'Hey, Richie.'

Richie let out a cloud of the Marlboro and looked at me. 'I know you?'

'Sure.'

Richie squinted through the smoke and rubbed at the inside of his left arm. He looked sleepy. 'Where I know you from, Gino's?'

I said, 'Let's take a little walk. We got something to talk about.'

Joe Pike came up from the other side and stood very close to Richie without expression. The kids shooting eight-ball stopped and looked over.

Richie glanced at Pike, then me. 'What the fuck? I don't know you.'

'Come on.' I put my hand on his arm. 'We've got mutual friends.'

'Hey, I'm in the middle of a game here.' Eyes flicking faster now, Pike to me, Pike to me.

I went in closer until we had him sandwiched and made my voice quiet. 'Tommy Gamboza sent us, Richie.'

Surprised. 'Tommy wants to see me?' Almost a little excited, like maybe Tommy had sent us around to tap him for the secret order, like we'd drive somewhere and he'd get to take the blood oath to become part of La Cosa Nostra.

'Yeah.' I took him under the arm and pulled him toward the stairs. Pike looked back at the kids and told them that the game was over.

Richie said, 'Hey, if Tommy wants to see me, how come he didn't come himself? How come he didn't send Tony or Frankie to get me? I don't know you guys.'

'We're imported, Richie. Vegas.' You say Vegas, they know it's bad.

He jammed on the brakes, pulling up short. You see how it is with Vegas? 'Hey.'

I leaned close and whispered in his ear. 'The Gambozas know you're selling them out to Charlie DeLuca.'

Richie Sealy's knees went weak and he sort of slumped. If I hadn't been holding his right arm he would've gone down the stairs like a runny egg. 'Oh, Jesus,' he said. 'Oh, Jesus.'

We took him down the stairs and around the corner into a little alley that smelled of grease and ammonia and put him into the wall against a metal dumpster. I held his collar and Pike patted him down and came up with a sharpened screwdriver and two ten-dollar packs of white powder. Pike opened the bags and poured out the powder. I said, 'Don't you know this stuff is bad for you, Richie?'

'I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about Charlie DeLuca. I swear to Christ on my mother's life.' These junkies.

I said, 'Richie. The Gambozas know. Vincent Ricci saw with his own eyes. Are you calling Ricci a liar?'

'Hey, no way, but, you know, like maybe he made a mistake-'

I jerked his collar once. 'Knock off the shit.' Elvis Cole, Professional Thug.

Richard Sealy started to cry.

I said, 'The Gambozas know that something is going on, but they don't know what. You know how they hate that bastard Charlie DeLuca. You know what Tommy thinks.' I didn't know what Tommy thought, but if the blood between the DeLucas and the Gambozas was as bad as Roland George had said, whatever Tommy thought couldn't be good.

'Yeah. Yeah, I know.'

'Okay. They told us, give him one chance. They said, if he comes clean with you, let him live, but only if he comes clean and gives the whole thing.' I looked at Pike. 'Isn't that what they said?'

Pike nodded.

I looked back at Richie. 'You hear that?'

Richie was sobbing. A ribbon of mucus ran down across his mouth and along his chin. He said, 'I can't say anything. I can't.'

I slapped him. 'You made fools out of those guys, you moron. Ricci, Tommy, the Gamboza brothers. They grew up with you. They loved you like family and you have made them look like turnips, and you have done this with the help of Charlie DeLuca. Can you imagine how this makes Tommy and Nickie feel?' Elvis Brando. One step away from the Great White Way.

Richie Sealy was nodding and shaking his head at the same time and his eyes looked like dried apricots. He said, 'Jesus Christ, we're talking Crazy Charlie DeLuca. Charlie the Tuna. Charlie will kill me. He'll cut out my eyes, for Christ's sake, can't I make it up to Tommy another way?'

I shook him and said, 'Moron. You're worried about Crazy Charlie. Why do you think the Gambozas brought us in for this?' I looked at Pike again. Pike reached behind his back and brought out a twelve-inch Buck hunting knife. It was so bright you could shave in the reflection.

Richard Sealy tried to backpedal away, but the dumpster was there. 'Okay,' he said. 'Okay. Whatever you want.'

'What do you and Charlie have going?'

'I tell him when some of the dope shipments are coming in through Kennedy.'

'Gamboza dope.' There it was.

'Yeah. Sure.'

'What about the Jamaicans? What about the cop out in Queens?'

'Jesus Christ, Tommy knows everything.'

I pulled Richie close. 'Tommy knows all and sees all.'