Lullaby Town

Karen Lloyd?'

Sal nodded again.

I glanced at Vito and Angie. 'You want to do this alone?'

Sal said, 'You're not from New York. Where you from?'

'California.'

He made a little head move, like that explained it. 'This is my brother Vito. This is my cousin Angie. We're family here. You understand family?'

'Yes.'

'Say what you came to say.'

I walked them through the eight accounts. I showed them how the deposits in Charlie's private account went from nickel and dime to the mid-five figures starting about five months ago, when Charlie had met Gloria Uribe and through her fell in with Jesus Santiago. I told them that Charlie had turned a Gamboza hype named Richie Sealy and that the hype fed information to Charlie about incoming Gamboza dope shipments and that Charlie then sold the information to the Jamaicans so that they could hijack the dope. I told them about following Charlie to Queens and the meeting that I had witnessed between Charlie and the Jamaicans and the cop from Kennedy airport. I told him about Peter and Dani and what had happened in Brooklyn under the Manhattan Bridge. I spoke slowly and carefully and I gave them names and addresses and times of day.

When I was finished, nobody said anything. Angie was chewing at his upper lip and Vito was staring at the fireplace. It was a long time before Sal moved or spoke, and when he did it wasn't to me. 'Vito, we hear anything about the Gambozas getting ripped off?'

Vito shrugged, not wanting to commit himself. 'Something about maybe some niggers took down a load of Gamboza dope. Who listens? We got no financial interest in dope anymore. We gave that up to the Gambozas.'

Sal shook his head. 'We traded with them, Vito. We gave them our piece of the dope for their piece of the labor.'

Angie said, 'Hey, Sal, this mook's talking about your kid, for chrissake. I think he's fulla shit.'

Sal went over to the fireplace and stared at the dead coals, already knowing it was true. He said, 'We got somebody in the coroner's over in Queens?'

'Yeah.'

'Check it out.'

'Jesus Christ, Sal. It's Charlie.'

'Check it out. Who's running the nigger whores for the Gambinos?'

'Marty Rotolo.'

'Call'm. Find out about this Gloria Uribe.'

Vito picked up the phone and punched in a number and spoke in a voice that was difficult to hear. He spoke for a few seconds, then hung up, but he stood with his hand on the receiver, not moving for maybe five minutes. Sal moved less than Vito. The Rock. When the phone rang, Vito picked it up and listened without saying anything. When he finished with that call, he made two more and then put down the phone and turned back to Sal. 'They found a woman's body when they found Carmine. Under the Manhattan Bridge.'

'Dani,' I said. 'Her name was Dani.'

'Stevie says Charlie's catting around with the Uribe woman. He said the Gambinos don't know anything about her because she's Jamaican. She's mixed up with some other Jamaican named Jesus Santiago.'

Sal made a soft hissing sound, steady and high-pitched, as if some core of deep pressure within him had been tapped. Angie said, 'Jesus Christ, Sal.'

Sal went to the door and told Freddie to come in. 'Find Charlie and tell him I want to see him.'

Freddie glanced at me. 'Sure, Sal.'

'Don't tell him anything else, Freddie.'

'Sure, Sal.' Freddie left.

Sal went back to the dead fireplace and looked at me. Calm. Like I hadn't just told him these things about his son. The Dan Wesson was almost hidden by his thick left hand. 'Okay. So maybe you're not full of shit. What do you want?'

'Karen Lloyd.'

'And if I don't want to give her up?'

'I give Charlie to the Gambozas.'

Angie gave with, 'So what? So we give a shit about the fuckin' Gambozas.'

I shrugged. 'Play it out that way. The Gambozas will kill Charlie for showing them up and then they'll move on you, and probably the rest of the families will, too. Everybody had an agreement and the DeLuca family broke it.'

Angie said, 'Bullshit,' and threw up his hands.

Vito didn't throw up his hands. Vito stood slow and easy, and went over to Sal. 'Not bullshit, Angie. He's right.' Vito stared at Sal when he said it and Sal stared back at him. 'Charlie's selling out another family to do business with an outsider. The fuckin' Jamaicans, for Christ's sake. Our word won't be shit. The families will turn their backs on us.'

Sal nodded.

'The family comes first.'

Sal looked at his brother, and the cold thing was suddenly very bright and alive. 'You don't have to tell me what's what, Vito.'

Vito spread his hands.

No one said anything more to me. Angie went out and came back with coffee and hard cakes, and the three of them sat on the two couches by the fireplace, drinking the coffee and eating the cakes in silence. I wasn't offered anything and I wasn't spoken to. After a while I went to an overstuffed chair across the room and sat down. Vito made more calls, and a couple of times big men knocked and looked in and would start to say something in English, but when they saw me they would switch to Italian. Angie went out twice and Vito went out once, but Sal didn't go out at all. He sat and stared, and I was glad he wasn't staring at me.

We sat like that in Sal DeLuca's den for almost six hours.

At ten minutes before five the next morning, Freddie came in with Charlie and Ric. Charlie's hair was mussed and his collar was open and he looked anxious, like maybe he had been looking for someone and he hadn't been able to find them. Ric still looked like a vampire, all hard bones and white, leathery flesh. Charlie was saying something about why the hell this couldn't wait until morning when he saw me and you could see the fear jolt through him like a galvanic shock. He scrabbled under his coat for his gun, but Vito slapped the gun out of his hand.

Sal said, 'Freddie, close the door.'

Charlie said, 'That's the sonofabitch killed Carmine and Dante.' Trying to cover, doing a lot of arm waving and loud talking, as if the loud talk might convince Sal and Vito and Angie that whatever I'd said was lies. 'He's trying to force us outta the bank. Jesus Christ, what's he doing here?'

Sal's left hand snapped out and caught Charlie beneath the right eye. It was a hard shot and it caught Charlie by surprise. He yelled, 'Hey!'

'Shut up and listen to this.'

Charlie shut up. Ric settled back against the bookcases and watched, choreographing the dance in his head, seeing himself move fast and perfect.

Sal looked at me again for the first time since he had sent Freddie away to find Charlie and said, 'Tell him.'

I went through it for Charlie just like I had for Sal. The more I said, the more Charlie fidgeted, moving from foot to foot and picking at his hands and visibly sweating. The more Charlie moved, the more Sal didn't move. When I finished, Charlie said, 'This is bullshit. This is merda. Whattaya listening to this guy for?' He looked at Angie. He looked at Vito. 'Uncle Vito. Hey, Angie. Who's family here?' He looked back at his father, 'Whattaya listening to this guy for?'

Sal put the blank, frog eyes on his son and said, 'I listened because I got no doubt in my heart that you would do this, and watching you now, I know you did.'