“Some.”
“Nah,” he said. “She didn’t want to score for herself. She wanted it for some friends who were hurting, hurting in their joints or back, hurting because they had a little monkey on their backs and they needed help. Their family couldn’t help, their docs couldn’t help, so they went to Maggie, and she came to me.”
I nodded. “All right. You guys went to see her for … what, negotiations?”
“Right. Negotiations. Yeah, we went there, wanted to talk, and we started dealing … and it didn’t end well.” He laughed. “Man, that old broad, she might have known the prices and shit for old pots and pans, but she didn’t know anything about our business. That’s for sure. Silly old lady wanted a senior discount. Hey, Ramon, remember that?”
He quickly spoke Spanish to Ramon, who grinned and nodded, and spoke back. “Yeah,” Pepe said. “Gotta give her a lot of credit for that. Senior discount. Tough one.”
“She was born tough.”
“Huh?”
“Her family, they’ve been here since 1638, when the first settlers came here. A long line of tough men and women. So, you sure you didn’t kill her?”
Pepe shook his head. “Christ, why the hell would we do that? She got pissed at us, told us that if we didn’t get out in thirty seconds, she’d call the cops. At first we thought she was joking, but she picked up her phone, so we got the hell out. Quick.”
“But no hard feelings?”
“No hard feelings, shit, no. I mean, that was the negotiations, you know? Opening salvo, everybody talks shit, and then you go back. Why would we want to hurt her? A nice piece of change, us doing business with an old lady like that. Who would ever suspect she’d be part of our business?”
“I see, but—”
He held up both hands. “Okay. Shut up, okay? Christ, I’m the one who came here, I’m the one wanting to ask questions, and I’ve been answering yours the past few minutes. Asshole.”
I kept quiet. He stared at me. I still kept quiet.
“Well?” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not talking.”
“You haven’t asked me anything.”
There was a bit of noise from Ramon, as though he heard what I said and understood I was giving some grief to his boss. “Okay,” Pepe said. “Back to the beginning. This Felix guy, he’s after us ’cause he thinks we stole his silver, that’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“But … none of my guys took it.”
“Felix thinks otherwise,” I said. “Are you sure one of your guys didn’t slip it under a coat while you were running out?”
He didn’t like that. “We wasn’t running away from nothing. We were just moving quick. And no, I don’t think my guys took it. Why does he have such a hard-on about it?”
“It belonged to his great-grandfather. From Sicily.”
“So? If it was so important, why was he trying to sell it to that antiques lady?”
“It was cluttering up his house.”
“Okay,” Pepe said. “Was it worth a lot of money? Is that it?”
I shook my head. “I’m no antiques dealer. It could be worth money, it could be worth nothing. I don’t know.”
He grinned. “Nah, it’s gotta be worth lots of money, with Felix wanting it back so much. Lots of money.”
“No.”
“Huh? You said earlier you didn’t know how much it was worth.”
“I don’t,” I said. “But don’t assume that Felix is after you because that silver is worth money. It could be a cardboard plate and he’d still be after you. Because it’s his, and because he thinks you stole it.”
That seemed to get his attention. “Too bad.”
“No, too bad for you,” I said.
“From what I heard, he’s old-fashioned. Boston North End, all that crap. Those tough guys, those made guys, they’re either dead or in jail. Why should we be scared of him?”
“Because he’s not dead, and he’s not in jail.”
“Can you tell him to back off?”
“I can suggest it, but don’t think it’ll mean anything.”
“You’re his friend.”
“I’m his friend as much as one can be, but that doesn’t mean I can tell him to do something he doesn’t want to. You want a suggestion? You visit all your companions, and make sure nobody took that platter. If somebody has, you can contact me and I’ll work with Felix to set up a nice, peaceful exchange. And if nobody has it, well, come up with a way to convince him otherwise.”
He nodded and rubbed at his chin. “I got another idea. Maybe Ramon beats the shit out of you, sends a message to Felix not to fuck with us. Or maybe Ramon goes the distance, you know? Settle things once and for all. Really get Felix’s attention, so this damn thing is over.”
The air was cold and crisp in the living room, with an electric edge to it. I had no illusions of what was happening, or might happen.
“Beyond purely personal reasons, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Pepe grinned. “Why’s that, bro?”
“You keep on calling me bro,” I said, “but we’re not related.”
“Like I care.”
“Then care about this,” I said. “If you’re going to come at me, you better finish it. Otherwise the cops will be coming after you even harder.”
“That sounds like an invite.”
“Then tell me how this sounds. You finish it, the cops are going to check out the surveillance cameras over at the Lafayette House, keeping an eye on their parking lot and whoever comes down my driveway. Then they’ll go through my house—maybe politely stepping over my body—and they’re going to get your prints off the beer bottles, the kitchen, the furniture, the front door, and a host of other places. Now, I may be going out on a limb here, but I’m pretty sure you boys have records somewhere in the law enforcement community.”
“Cops don’t bother me.”
“But I’m not done.”
“Really?”
“Really,” I said. “Earlier you said Felix is my friend. Pretty close to the truth. After he oversees my funeral and gets my affairs in order, he’s coming after you.”
“He’s already coming after us.”
“No, he’s merely trying