Sweat poured down the man’s face as he shook his head nonstop. “I ain’t never had nothing to do with counterfeiting, never robbed no train.”
“That’s not what Elkin says,” Henry lied.
“He’s trying to pin them on me,” Burrows insisted. “It wasn’t me.”
It was amazing what a mobster would say to save their own neck. Henry shrugged. “Looks like you’re the one left holding the bag.”
“No! No!” Burrows shoved his hands below the table to hide how they trembled. “I’m not taking the fall for someone else.” He pulled out his hands, waved them in the air. “Jimmy Tribbiani, he’s the counterfeiter, and Tony, Tony, his cousin, he’s the train robber.”
The dots of Elkin’s trail started connecting in Henry’s head. The leaks had been so random, and so far away from New Jersey, which was where Burrows’s family operated their bootlegging business, that Henry had never made the connection before. It made sense, though, that the family started sending members west, and explained why they weren’t caught for their crimes. They’d been new to the areas. Unknown to locals. They’d also thought that they were untouchable with a dirty agent informing them of anyone on their tail. They practically had been.
“He’s the reason you were busted,” Henry said. “So he could take over the West Coast operation that you were setting up.” Taking it one step further, even though he had no proof of the correlation, he added, “Your uncle Leonardo, the one who built the house here in Los Angeles.” He paused for a moment, to make the image of Betty and him in the basement of that house fade. “Didn’t your family question why his operation was raided?”
“That rotten stool pigeon! He’s been double-crossing my family from the beginning.” Burrows slammed a hand on the table. “He double-crossed me on that shipment of hooch! Gave me ten cases. I couldn’t make any money on ten cases. Had to borrow money from that old dame so I could start a still and cut it so I had enough to distribute to the joints to even get things rolling.”
If there was one thing a mobster hated, it was being double-crossed. That was the surest way to get bumped off. Elkin should have known that. Probably did, but had gotten away with so much over the years, being a federal agent, he’d thought he was untouchable.
That was no longer the case. Henry leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “How much time do you want to serve, Vincent?”
Burrows attempted to cover up the way his jaw dropped by rubbing his thick mustache before he said, “None.”
That wasn’t about to happen, but there was no sense in telling Burrows that now. He’d find out soon enough. “I know you killed Billy during the robbery. Why’d you have Gaynor knocked off?”
“It was Elkin’s idea when he heard that I was coming out here. He said Gaynor was talking, that he’d identified me. Gaynor had shown Elkin where he’d pitched his share of the money. Elkin took mine, too. That’s how we paid him to give us tips on busts. He knew where it could be spent.”
That was what he needed. As an agent, Elkin knew where the money could be pawned off on innocent folks not knowing it had been taken out of circulation. He also knew why, after seven years, Elkin had decided it was time to completely switch sides, and Vincent moving to California, to expand the business out here, was Elkin’s chance. Henry was happy. He was more than ready to be done with this interview. He needed to get to a phone, call Lane, and make sure Betty was all right. “Let me tell you how this is going to go down, Vincent.”
Chapter Thirteen
It was after ten at night, and not a single light shone in any of the windows of the Dryer house. That could mean Betty was sleeping, or it could mean she was out with her sister, visiting a joint. Lane had said she was fine, that they were all fine, but Henry needed to see for himself. Now. Tonight, and had already concluded this was where he’d start. Her house.
If she wasn’t here, he’d have two choices. To wait or start searching speakeasies. He had a feeling that after the harrowing event with Elkin, she wouldn’t want to go out, but Jane would, and Betty was committed to her younger sisters.
He also knew which room was hers.
The trellis creaked, but held beneath his weight, and the bathroom window was open, which could mean they were gone and he’d be waiting for two hours, or that she was home, and he had to be careful to not startle a scream out of her upon entering her room.
He’d never thought he’d be doing this, sneaking into her bedroom, but he’d never thought many of the things that had happened since meeting her would ever have happened to him.
He wished things could be different, but today had proven they never could be. His job, his life, was too dangerous. He’d never been so afraid, so worried, that someone would be injured as he had been today.
He’d walk away a different man than when he’d arrived, that was a given. He hadn’t had any defense to prevent that from happening. He hadn’t known it had been happening. Due in part to denial, and the other part, her. She’d changed him with little more than a smile and a twinkle in her eyes.
A smile and
