“We butted heads for so many years, we became sorta friends. He still sends my wife and kids a Christmas card every year. Can you believe it?”
As far as Louie was concerned, he saw Soldano as the embodiment of the enemy and refused to see him any other way, Christmas cards or not. “Do you want to hear how Dominick got off or what?”
“I want to hear,” Paulie admitted.
“Dominick got some great lawyers who jumped on the role played by the GPS, and with one of New York’s famously liberal judges, they were able to get thrown out all evidence obtained from the GPS device, since there was no warrant. Can you believe it? In one fell swoop the guts of the prosecutor’s cases was unusable. I tell you, on occasion the whole justice system in this country is its own worst enemy.”
“Thanks for clueing me in about Vinnie, the lucky bastard,” Paulie said. “Now it’s your turn. Tell me what you want. I can’t imagine it’s a sermon.”
“No sermon, thank you,” Louie began. “Just your advice. After more than a year of smooth sailing businesswise, we’re in one of those no-win situations that could easily escalate into a disaster. Now, it’s a bit on the complicated side, so let me fill you in about our partnership with one of the Yakuza families.”
To be certain Paulie understood the whole situation, Louie went back and explained how their relationship had developed between himself and Hideki Shimoda, the head of the Aizukotetsu-kai Yakuza. “I set up a number of high-stakes gambling locations on the Upper East Side that looked and acted like restaurants to ensnare foolish visiting Japanese businessmen, which Hideki supplies. We offer unlimited credit and female companionship, and then Hideki’s associates collect from the surprised deadbeats back in Japan. After the Yakuza back in Japan take their cut, they pay us off in either cash or crystal meth, but generally crystal meth, which we prefer, and they seem to have an endless supply. The setup has been working perfectly, providing a large percentage of our current working cash. In fact, it has been so profitable that the copycat Vinnie Dominick has created his own setup with another Yakuza organization called the Yamaguchi-gumi.”
“We never teamed up with nobody,” Paulie commented with disdain.
“I understand, and maybe I shouldn’t have done it,” Louie admitted, lowering his voice when a guard drifted near. “But Dominick is now doing as well as we are, and it’s actually helping up the demand for crystal meth. The current problem I want to talk to you about came out of the blue. Hideki Shimoda called me up just a couple of days ago, asking me to help a couple of his guys shake down some Japanese researcher type and steal the man’s laboratory books. I didn’t necessarily like the idea about getting involved in someone else’s business, but Hideki was insistent, and I went along because, as I said, it was supposed to be only a shakedown. But that wasn’t what it turned out to be.” At that point, Louie related what had happened the previous night, and the potential bomb that had been created.
“You’re surprised that these Yakuza thugs are prone to violence?” Paulie asked with surprise of his own.
“I was surprised about the extent. There’d been no problem until last night. They seemed respectful of the way we were operating, keeping killings to a minimum. I mean, Vinnie Dominick and I are hardly friends, but we’ve just learned over the years that real violence is bad for business. Maybe it’s more that I learned and Vinnie has been willing to follow suit. I’ve actually made it a personal crusade of sorts.”
“Okay, so now what?”
“Hideki calls me up this morning, supposedly to thank me for sending the help, and he doesn’t admit anything had gone wrong. I had to pull it out of him. And he didn’t even mention the New Jersey part. Then he demands we help him again tonight to get the lab books he didn’t get last night, with the same trigger-happy soldiers. The plan is to break into an office building on Fifth Avenue. When he senses my obvious hesitation about agreeing to such a harebrained idea, he threatens me with breaking up our comfy business relationship. He says that Dominick would surely help him with the robbery if he were offered to get the Aizukotetsu-kai business as well as the Yamaguchi- gumi’s. You got the picture? The man is extorting me.”
“I’m getting the picture, but I don’t understand why you were willing to hook up with these Yakuza guys in the first place.”
“They just didn’t seem to be overly violent, at least not until last night. But let’s get beyond that issue and focus on the current one. After all, this is your territory. As soon as you’re out you’ll be back in the driver’s seat. When does it look like that might happen?”
“It’s up to the parole board. I mean, I’ve been eligible for longer than I like to think about. I’ve been turned down so many times I’m starting to think Vinnie is involved, but that’s another story. Back to your problem. My first instinct is to get rid of this Hideki. You can’t let anyone get away with extorting you. Not in this business. Cut off the head and the beast won’t bite.”
“Can’t do!” Louie said definitely and without hesitation. “He’s too high-profile. The Aizukotetsu-kai would be over here and a real war would break out. Besides, you can’t bite the hand that feeds you. As I mentioned, a good part of our current cash flow would halt.”
“Then get rid of the two enforcers who did the dirty work,” Paulie said. “You don’t need guys like that around who take it on their own to shoot whoever the hell they please. You have to send a message that that kind of behavior is not okay.”
“I’m listening,” Louie said, “but whacking them is going to involve abandoning my antiviolence campaign. I’ve been really strict about it. I’ve even talked down the little stuff, like avoiding knocking around gambling deadbeats unless absolutely necessary. Dominick and I even had a meeting about it, and we agreed. So there’s been no violence to speak of, and the cops have left us alone and business has been as good as can be expected, even in this down economy.”
“You can’t have it both ways,” Paulie snapped. “You can encourage everyone to keep the violence down, that’s all well and good. But this is different. This is serious, from the leader of a foreign gang. You have to react, and you have to react now. If you don’t do something dramatic, word is going to get around that you’ve lost your touch. I mean, it’s nice to have a nonviolent stance, because it can be useful with the police, but it can be counterproductive with all the competition. If you don’t want to cut off the head, then you have to inflict some serious damage to the vital organs. You have to get rid of Hideki’s two lead goons. Listen to me!” Paulie suddenly motioned with his eyes for Louie to look to his right. One of the bored guards was sauntering in their direction on Louie’s side of the glass. As he approached, Louie and Paulie switched their conversation to small talk about how much better it was in the old days with Louie in Bayonne, New Jersey, and Paulie there in Queens.
Unfortunately, the guard went behind Louie to the window and stared out at the bay for a time, forcing Louie and Paulie to think up things to talk about. They finally hit on the Yankees and what the 2010 season would be like. When the guard finally strolled away, Louie said, “We’ve got to speed this up. The clock is ticking on how long I’m allowed to be here.”
“You have to do something dramatic or you are going to lose control,” Paulie said. “What I’d do is call Hideki, pretend you’ve changed your mind and play up your willingness to help; tell him you want to have a meeting because the more you know about what’s going on, the better you can help. And do it face-to-face. You learn a lot more at a meeting than with a phone call. Of course, have the meeting in your office. Come up with some plan about how you’re going to break into the office where the lab books are to give yourself something real to talk about to make him believe you’re definitely going to do something.”
Louie nodded, knowing he could come up with something believable. Certainly the idea of finding out more about the lab books and Satoshi would be helpful.
“I mean, the plan doesn’t have to be elaborate, since you’re never going to do it—something like creating a major distraction, such as a fire or an explosion nearby so you can slip in and out of the office building with everyone concentrating on the distraction.”
Louie was impressed. Apparently, Paulie hadn’t lost any of his edge, especially coming up with a plan so quickly. Louie also started to believe the born-again Christianity might have more to do with the parole board than true religiosity.
“Make plans to meet up with the enforcers someplace in the city where there’s always a crowd. Once you have them in the car, you’re golden. Make sure to get rid of the bodies. Then after an hour or so, call Hideki back and be pissed off, asking where the fuck are his guys, as you’ve been waiting all this time, blah, blah, blah.”
“You think he’d buy it and not smell a rat? I don’t want to make this situation worse.”
“I think there’s a good chance he’ll buy it outright,” Paulie continued. “But here’s the tricky part that will take some thought on your end. Drop some offhand comment about your guys hearing from his guys last night that they were somehow concerned about the rival gang. What was the name of the group hooked up with Vinnie?”
