Чарли Стелла - Johnny Porno

The address was in the middle of the block. Vento drove two blocks past it before making a U-turn, then drove back toward the house, turned right at the near adjacent corner and parked. He turned his sun visor down and took note of the cars already on the street. Vento paid particular attention to a UPS van parked at the curb on the next block.

He smoked some of his cigar and was about to relight it when the UPS van pulled away. Vento checked the time. He was expecting Kelly within the hour. If Albano didn’t show shortly thereafter, he would send a few of his men to watch the house. Once Albano’s mother saw what was going on, chances were she’d offer to pay the money her son was responsible for losing, whether he was guilty of stealing it or not.

Vento was still wondering about Albano and whether or not he was stupid enough to rob mob money when a white car passed the Riviera and pulled into a driveway about mid-block. A few seconds later John Albano got out of the car along with a blonde. Vento sat up straight.

“He thinks I’m following you,” said Brice when he got inside the van. “He wants to make sure you’re really sick this time.”

Levin had stopped to pick up Brice alongside a fire hydrant on McGinnis Boulevard after Brice had dropped Kelly off at a gas station three lights further up the street. Brice had circled the block to park the Mustang where Levin could spot it.

“How’d he act?” Levin asked.

“Like his usual charming self. What’s going on?”

Levin pointed up ahead where Kelly was pulling out of the gas station in a brown Chevrolet Impala. He kept a safe distance behind Kelly, then moved up when the Impala turned off the exit for the Long Island Expressway.

“He heading back?” Brice asked.

“Definitely,” Levin said.

It was all that was said for the next twenty minutes while they followed the Impala onto Woodhaven Boulevard heading south. Confident he knew where Kelly was heading, Levin let the Impala gain some distance.

“Something’s going down, right?” Brice said. “You could at least give me the option I want to be here or not.”

“What time is it?” Levin said.

“Two-ten,” Brice said.

“Shit. I need to make a call.”

The Impala turned right onto North Conduit Boulevard. Levin fed the engine gas to catch up.

“Now what?” Brice said.

“This is about Albano.”

“Johnny Porno? What about him?”

Levin followed the Impala a few blocks before it turned right at 84th Street. Kelly parked in the first open space.

“I have to make that call,” Levin said. “I passed a phone booth about a block back the other way.”

Kelly was out of the Impala and walking. Levin drove passed 84th Street and turned.

“I’m gonna pull over,” he said. “You wait here.”

Melinda poured the coffee at Marie Albano’s kitchen table while mother and son continued to argue about the money John insisted he wouldn’t let his mother pay.

“I didn’t steal it, I’m not paying it,” he told his mother. “Neither are you. Or her.”

Marie Albano looked up at Melinda.

“She offered, too,” John said, “and I told her the same thing. I know the guy stole it. He can pay it. I’m not letting either one of you get robbed because of him.”

Melinda had finished pouring the coffee. She sat across from John. His mother was at one end of the table. Little Jack was in her room watching television.

“I appreciate what you offered to do for him,” Marie told Melinda. “But this is a family matter. I’ll pay.”

“What am I, a mirage?” John said.

“No, but you’re thick,” Marie said. She looked at Melinda then motioned at John with a hand. “Stubborn like his father.”

“I’m getting the stubborn part,” Melinda said.

John ran his right hand through his hair. “Look, neither of you understand how these guys operate,” he said. “They sense weakness and they go for the jugular. Pay them once and they’ll come back for more. They know they have a soft touch, they won’t forget it. And, if we pay them, the guy robbed it gets away with it, which is not gonna happen.”

“And what else are we supposed to do, wait for you to get jumped again?” Marie said. “What, you didn’t think I noticed that on your head? I won’t bother asking how it happened.”

“Weren’t you supposed to take off with Jack?” John said.

“Yes, and we were until all this happened. I was going to Pennsylvania. Then there were the calls and that cop showed up and now I’d just rather pay them and get it over with.”

John looked to Melinda.

“You can’t even go home,” Marie said, then turned on her chair when the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” John said.

“Who is it?” his mother yelled.

John was already up from the table to answer it.

Billy spotted the white Valiant parked in the driveway and pulled to the curb. He checked his rearview and side mirrors and saw there was a van parked off the far corner with two men sitting up front. He wondered if they were surveillance.

He could wait for Albano to come back out or go and knock on the door. Billy wouldn’t kill Albano’s mother or his son, but the girlfriend was another story; somebody had to make up for Kathleen.

He was about to get out of the car when he saw two men approach Albano’s mother’s front door. Billy slid the Walther out from under the front seat and set it on the passenger seat. He covered it with a two-day-old Daily News.

“Yeah?” said John to the two men standing on the stoop outside his mother’s front door.

“You John?” the taller of the two asked.

“Who’re you?” John said. He was guessing Eddie Vento had sent them and didn’t see the point in being polite.

“Eddie sent us,” the shorter man said.

“Come out and talk a minute?” the tall one said.

“No,” John said.

“You want us to take you out?”

“Won’t look good in front of whoever else’s in there,” the short one said. “Why don’t you come out, take a walk with us.”

“Who is it?” Marie Albano asked. “I’ll call the cops.”

“Tell her not to do that,” the tall one said.

“No need,” John said over his shoulder. “I’ll only be a couple minutes.”

“Smart man,” the tall one said.

“John!” Melinda yelled. She had opened the front door.

“I’m right back,” he said.

He stepped out on the stoop. Both men chose a side and grabbed John by an elbow. His mother yelled from a living room window as Melinda stepped out on the stoop.

“We’re just gonna talk,” the tall one yelled. “Tell the old bag to keep the cops out of it.”

John hadn’t liked being grabbed. He took extra exception at his mother being called an old bag and slammed an elbow into the tall man’s stomach. His right hand free, he shifted his weight onto his right leg and came up with a half uppercut, half hook, but the punch barely glanced the short man’s forehead.

John tried to recover his balance when the short man threw an uppercut of his own, a perfect shot to the crotch. John gasped a moment before he doubled over and then dropped to his knees. Then he was being dragged and he could hear Melinda and his mother screaming from the stoop.

Billy stepped out of his wife’s car with the two-day-old newspaper folded around the Walther. He crossed the street and was heading for the car John Albano had been forced into when it suddenly jerked away from the curb. He watched as it made a quick U-turn across the lawn alongside Albano’s mother’s house. He heard tires screech and had to hustle back onto the sidewalk as the Marquis bounced off the curb and sped away.