57
Vinnie Gargano had an idea: “You wanna know what you do? You do like the Romans used to. Get yourself a cross, a few hundred crosses, whatever, you set ’em up where everyone can see, up nice and high, like on the Common or someplace, and you fuckin’ nail these fucks up and leave ’em there a couple of weeks. Let the birds eat ’em. That’s the Roman way, see, that’s the Italian way. None of this take the guy in some little closet in Walpole and fry him up where no one can see. The whole point is people gotta see. They gotta see! I mean, that’s the whole fuckin’ point, am I right? Now I guess they ahn’t even gonna do that anymore. They’re just gonna stick ’em in a cell and leave ’em there. The fuck good does that do?”
He scanned the table for an answer. Gargano’s features were scumbled in the dim light. His eyes in particular had a hooded, drowsy menace.
But the three mooks at the table were mushing crab Rangoon and sub gum chow mein in their mouths and could not do much more than nod and make humming sounds to signal their agreement. But agree they did. They always agreed with Vinnie The Animal, even in his drunken expansive moods.
Gargano loved going out for chink, and this was his favorite after-hours stomp in Chinatown, Bob Lee’s Lantern House. They took care of a guy here. Gave him an upstairs room. Gave him mai tais and Blue Whatevers with the little pussy maraschino cherry wrapped in an orange slice and speared with a little plastic sword-drinks that, despite appearances, could knock Sonny Liston on his ass. Plenty of cooze at the bar. No bosses; the bosses stuck to the tomato-sauce joints in the North End or the basement office at C.C.’s Lounge over to Tremont Street. And the cops did not even know Chinatown was part of the city. The only cop Vinnie The Animal was likely to see in Bob Lee’s Lantern House was the one he brought with him.
“What about you, cop? What do you say? What good does it do?”
“Whaddaya askin’ me? Fuck do I know?”
“I just figured you’re a cop, you see this shit every day.”
Joe shrugged. He did not like Vinnie The Animal. He was not charmed or frightened by him. He was too tired and too drunk to feel anything. “I don’t see nothing, Vin.”
“The fuck you do. You pop some fuckin’ guy, he’s out the next day. Or maybe he does a little time and he’s out in a month or whatever. You know what I’m sayin’. Doesn’t make any sense, keep arresting the same guys. It’s got to bother you, don’t it?”
“Not really.”
“It should.”
“It’s the system.”
“It’s a shitty system, then.”
“I’m over it.”
“That’s the problem. That’s why you cops never get anywhere. Put me in charge for a day.”
“And what? You’d crucify everyone? That’s your big idea? Round up all the jaywalkers and the hookers and crucify ’em? That’s a great plan, Vin.”
“Not hookers. Who said anything about hookers? That iddn’t even really a crime. I’m talking about murderers here. I’m talkin’ about the way you need to do things if you really want to get the thing done. You think they had a lot of murders in Rome?”
“Sure.”
“No way.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know. ’Cause they understood. People want to see this stuff. That’s why they put up all those crosses. That’s why they built the Colosseum, so people could go see the fights and see people dyin’ and whatnot, and they’re happy. People need to work it off a little. You gotta let ’em. You gotta do that. For the people.”
“They can go to the movies and see all that.”
One of the mooks chimed in, “Like Ben-Hur. You see that one?”
“The fuck are you talkin’ about, Ben-Hur?”
“It’s a movie.”
“I know it’s a movie. Stugatz. ”
“I’m just sayin’, Vin. You were talkin’ about goin’ to the Colosseum and see people gettin’ killed, and then Joe here said they could see all that shit at the movies, so I said they can go see Ben-Hur and see people gettin’ killed- at the Colosseum. It’s all in there. That’s what I’m sayin’.”
“And I’m sayin’ it’s a fuckin’ movie.”
“So what, it’s a movie?”
“So it’s make-believe.”
“ Ben-Hur? I thought it was nonfiction.”
“That’s Spartacus.”
“They’re both nonfiction, Spartacus and Ben-Hur.”
“Would you guys shut the fuck up. I’m not talkin’ about fuckin’ movies. I’m bein’ serious here. Jamokes. Listen, the Romans lasted a thousand years. Or whatever. You know why? ’Cause they didn’t fuck around. That’s my point. Jesus comes along and tells ’em, ‘I’m God’ or whatever, and they say, ‘Too fuckin’ bad, get up on the cross.’ They didn’t give a shit, these guys.”
“Yeah,” Joe said, “but Jesus won.”
“How did he win?”
“Vatican’s in Rome.”
“How does that help Jesus? He was dead.”
“I don’t think you really get the whole Jesus thing, Vin.”
“No, you’re the one who doesn’t fuckin’ get it. What I’m sayin’ is, there’s a proper use. There’s a proper use. Hitler, same thing. If they’d a killed Hitler back when he started making trouble, they’d a had no problems, none whatsoever. Instead we had to go send millions of guys over there. And what’d we tell ’em? ‘Go kill as many of these fucks as you can.’ That’s what I’m talking about. A proper use.”
“Hitler? What are you talking about Hitler?”
“I’m sayin’ a guy like that you got to take care of. You can’t just look the other way, even on the small stuff.”
“That was a war. It’s different.”
“It’s not different. Same rules. It’s always war.”
“You’re crazy, Vince.”
“Yeah? If I’m so crazy, how come you work for me?”
“Because I’m stupid.”
“And these guys? They stupid, too?”
“Is that a real question?”
They laughed, Gargano, the mooks, everyone but Joe.
“Here’s what I’m sayin’. Bein’ a cop and all, you know I’m right. I’ll make you a bet: The guy that killed that what’s-her-name, the girl you know that got strangled, the reporter…”
“Amy Ryan.”
“Amy Ryan. I’ll make you a bet: That wasn’t the first one he did. That’s a guy with a history. He’s been in the can, too, I betcha. They had him and they let him out so he could do that there.”
“So?”
“So she was a good girl, wasn’t she, this Amy? Didn’t deserve what she got?”
Joe did not answer.
“So if they’d a taken care of him the first time he did it, like they should have-”
“You don’t know what a guy’s gonna do. In the future.”
“Trust me, sometimes you know.” Gargano gave him a look.
The mooks hummed and nodded some more. Vinnie The Animal, after all, did have some expertise in this area.
