Чарли Стелла - Johnny Porno

“Ott?”

“Never mind what,” Vento said. “Just get your busted ass down the bar and wait for me there so’s I can see for myself the number this guy did on you again.”

“E umped me.”

“Yeah, right.”

“E id.”

“Yeah? Okay, uck ooo.”

Nick tried to clench his teeth in anger. Biting down sent a jolt of pain up through his jaw to his head.

“Uck ee!” he said, then it hurt all over again.

Stebenow had called the old lady Bridget Malone looked after in the building where she lived with Eddie Vento. He left a message for Bridget to call her uncle at his office. The number Stebenow gave was a pay phone at a diner around the corner from Fast Eddie’s where he was having breakfast. He ate a western omelet, toast, a corn muffin and drank five cups of coffee before he gave up waiting and went to the apartment.

He used the pay phone to leave Detective Levin an emergency message. Then Stebenow called Bridget’s home phone number. Nobody answered.

The bar had already been open for business a few hours when Stebenow parked off the near corner. He walked past the front window without looking inside. He walked a dozen or so yards past the bar, then turned and approached the front door alongside the bar entrance.

There were two floors above the bar, each with two apartments; one at each end of the hallways. Stebenow stood close to the front door while he picked the lock. He walked up the first flight of stairs to the landing and listened before going further. Vento’s apartment faced the street. The door was at the far end of the narrow hallway. Stebenow had no idea whether the wiseguy had spent the night there or not. He removed the Sig-Sauer as he made his way to the apartment Bridget shared with Eddie Vento.

He knocked on the door and listened for a response.

Nothing.

He knocked again, this time a little louder. He waited, heard nothing again, then glanced down the hallway as he slid the handgun into the waist of his pants. He picked the lock, then carefully opened the door. Using the door as a shield, he looked down the apartment hallway. The bathroom door was open at the far end of the hall, but the light was off. He quietly closed the apartment door, took another glance around the apartment from where he stood, but noticed nothing out of order. He raised the gun and stepped into the living room. He scanned the room from one end to the other. Again, nothing seemed out of place.

Stebenow took careful steps toward the back of the apartment. Halfway between the kitchen and bathroom was a door he assumed led to the bedroom. He looked down and noticed scuff marks on the floor. He raised the Sig-Sauer to chest level with his right hand as he opened the door with his left. The door stopped after no more than a foot. Stebenow called Bridget’s name, but there was no answer.

He pushed on the door with both hands until it opened enough so he could pass through. He stepped into the bedroom with the gun leveled out ahead as he scanned the room. One of two windows leading to the fire escape was open. Stebenow looked down and saw the tip of a pair of shoes sticking out one end of a rolled-up rug, what had been blocking the door.

“Oh, Jesus,” he said. “Oh, fuck.”

Holly had returned a few seconds before Louis pulled away.

“The hell’d you go?” he’d asked her.

“The bathroom. To check myself. That a problem, Louis?”

“Get in.”

He had tried to explain himself, but Holly wouldn’t hear it. She claimed her brother had once had crabs and that he too had had to shave his testicles and that she recognized the cream as well because it looked exactly like the one her brother had used. She hated him, she told him later, for letting her go to bed with him, and when he asked her why the hell had she insisted they do it, especially if she was so damn sure he had crabs and not just some rash, Holly had said because she was leaving it up to him to be honorable and not lie to her again.

Louis had told her she was certifiable.

“And what’re you?” she’d said.

“I’m just a guy trying to make a living,” he’d told her.

“You’re a thief is what you are,” she’d said.

They were close to the city when she decided she wanted to chat or break his balls, he still wasn’t sure which. She had turned on the seat so her back was flush against the door. He imagined the door opening and her falling out.

“So, you were fucking Nancy and me at the same time, but neither of us have crabs so who’d you get them from?” she asked.

“Neither of you,” Louis said.

“Obviously. So, who?”

“What’s the difference?”

“I’d like to know.”

“Some broad in the park.”

“What park?”

“Washington Square.”

Holly’s face turned red. “Near the dorm?”

“Yeah, the night you dumped me for Professor pervert.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Get over yourself, honey.”

“I can’t believe it. You fucked some slut at the park and got crabs and then gave them to me?”

“From the park, not at the park. And you’re the one insisted we fuck. I tried not to. You get crabs, although I doubt you will, they’re probably all dead already, but if you do, it’s your own fault.”

“I can’t believe you, Louis. You’re insane.”

“For taking you along, yeah, I must be.”

“I guess the money isn’t going to a woman’s organization.”

“Not unless you have a gun.”

“You are a thief. You really are.”

“Oh, stop it. You enjoyed what we did. You said so yourself.”

“Because I thought it was for a cause.”

“And now that you know it wasn’t, that makes it less exciting? I believe that’s the word you used.”

“It’s wrong. Stealing is wrong.”

“Even though we’re driving around with thirteen different copies of Deep Throat? Thirteen copies that’ll never be played again, I might add. What about that?”

“You’re full of it, Louis. You’ll probably sell those to somebody else. You’re a thief and that’s what thieves do with stolen property, they sell it.”

“You can still help me with the car,” he said. “I’ll pay you for that. Up front if you want.”

“No thanks.”

“I said up front. Two hundred.”

“You have close to fourteen thousand dollars in that bag and you want to pay me two hundred? How much will you make off the car, another ten thousand?”

“I wish.”

“I hope you get robbed for a change.”

“Is that nice?”

“I can’t believe I fell for your bullshit.”

Louis sighed.

“So, what happens now?” she asked. “You have to get back to Nancy and make sure she doesn’t tell on you, right?”

“Don’t strain yourself, kiddo.”

“I better not have crabs, Louis.”

This time he laughed.

“I mean it,” Holly said.

“I’m sure you do,” Louis said.

Eddie Vento had been rushed after the call from Eugene this morning. After learning Kelly had found where John Albano’s mother lived and that Albano’s kid was with her, Vento discovered a tape recorder under the couch and had to deal with that. He’d called Tommy Burns to see if the kid was available to dispose of the body, but the young Irishman hadn’t answered. Vento was forced to delegate the removal of Bridget’s body to his own people later in the day. He spent the rest of the morning preparing it.

It was early afternoon when Vento drove himself to the address Kelly had provided. To avoid being spotted, he left his Cadillac parked in front of the bar and used his wife’s Buick Riviera. Instead of his usual neat attire, Vento wore cutoff shorts, a black T-shirt, and a navy blue Yankees baseball cap.