Victor thought of his cousin, Vinny, and my heart sank. Of course, that didn’t mean Victor was running the show, right? It could be all Vinny’s doing, and Victor wouldn’t have to die for it. There was still hope.
“Uh… let me think.” Victor scratched his head, wanting to spare his cousin by giving Uncle Joey a different person’s name. The guy still worked with Vinny, so it wasn’t a stretch to name him. “Oh yeah… the guy went by Slasher. He could have taken over. He’s been dealing drugs for a long time. Maybe it was him.”
Ramos stepped to Uncle Joey’s side, folded his arms, and faced Victor with narrowed eyes. “Funny you should mention a guy named Slasher, because I spoke with him just last night. He’s been selling drugs through our tenants and telling them that it’s on Manetto’s orders. You know what he said?”
Ramos paused for dramatic effect. “That your cousin Vinny is running the show for Manetto. Are you sure you still don’t know anything about this?”
Victor’s face went white, and his breath caught. Rubbing his sweaty palms on his pants, he swallowed and took a couple of quick breaths. “I can explain—”
“Victor.” Uncle Joey’s penetrating gaze pierced Victor like a knife to the heart. “I’m so disappointed in you. I thought you were loyal to me. You’re part of the family. You should have known better.”
If anything, Victor’s face paled even more, and his eyes widened with desperation. “Look. It’s not what you think. I had no idea taking over the drug business would cause any problems. But I’m positive that Vinny didn’t use your name. He’s not that stupid. You have to believe me.”
“But you’re still selling drugs through the same channels?”
“You have to understand. When you got out of the business, it was an opportunity that Vinny and I couldn’t resist, and you can hardly blame us for taking advantage of the situation. If our roles were reversed, you would have done the same thing. But I swear to you that everyone in the business knows you’re out of it. Vinny’s running things now, not you, everyone knows that.”
“Then why did Slasher tell Ramos that I was behind it? Slasher made it quite clear to Ramos that Vinny was selling drugs for me, and that’s why Vinny was using my resources.”
Victor shook his head. “Slasher was lying. That’s the only thing that makes sense. Look, let me take care of this. I can straighten things out. I’ll make it right. Just give me a chance. I’ll kill Tommy myself. It’s obvious he’s been doing this on his own.”
“Wait a minute.” Alarm skittered down my back. “Tommy? Who’s Tommy?”
“Uh… I meant Slasher. That’s Tommy’s street name.”
“Uh-oh.”
“What is it?” Uncle Joey asked.
“Well… I was over at the precinct a little earlier today. A drug dealer was murdered last night, and his name was Tommy Demarco.”
“Shit,” Victor said. “That’s him… that’s Slasher.”
“What happened to him?” Ramos asked me.
“He was shot in some building on the south side. The police think it was drug-related, like a drug deal gone wrong. There are no witnesses, and no murder weapon was found.” I turned my gaze to Victor. “Was Tommy in a gang?”
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask Vinny.”
“I think talking to Vinny is a foregone conclusion.” Uncle Joey sucked in a breath and glanced my way. “What else do you know about this?”
“The police think it’s gang-related, but there’s more…” I swallowed, hating to break the news to them like this. “The detective on the case is pretty sure the murder is tied to organized crime.” I shrugged. “At least he’s hoping to find a link. If Tommy… I mean… Slasher was telling everyone he was selling drugs for Uncle Joey, that might be bad.”
“Yes it would,” Uncle Joey agreed. “But you said there were no witnesses.”
“Yeah, but they’re still going to talk to the gang members in the area. And… uh… they might want me there during the interviews… you know… to see if I can pick up anything with my premonitions.”
I half expected Uncle Joey to blow up over this, but, after thinking it through, he nodded instead. “That could be helpful for us. If they try to pin this on me, you can point them in Vinny’s direction and he can take the fall.” His hard gaze landed on Victor. “It’s the least he can do for selling drugs under my name. And if he doesn’t like it… then he’s a dead man… and you can take his place.”
Victor swallowed his protest. If he didn’t agree, his life was over, along with Vinny’s. He’d just have to convince Vinny that taking the fall was better than death, because he wasn’t about to get blamed for this. He still couldn’t believe Vinny could have been so stupid. “Look. I’ll make sure Vinny knows what’s at stake here, but first, you have to give Vinny a chance to explain. I mean… if it wasn’t him—”
“It won’t matter,” Uncle Joey said. “If this even remotely looks like I had something to do with it, believe me, one of you will take the fall. For your sake, I hope it’s Vinny, but either way, this is not coming back to me.”
He waited for Victor’s nod before continuing, “Good. I’m glad you understand. And… look at it this way, you might get lucky and it won’t come to that, especially with Shelby on the case. She helps the police a lot, and they trust her. She might be able to solve the murder without involving any of us, especially if it’s gang-related, or if he was killed for some other stupid reason.”
“That’s true,” Ramos agreed, thinking I was getting off lightly for helping the police this time. But, since it would help Manetto too, it was a win-win.
Crap. Was I in the middle of this mess, or what? I guess it shouldn’t surprise me, but what the hell? Now it looked like I
