Mike Lawson - Dead on Arrival

‘Yeah, more than you can say for Worstchester,’ Danny said, ‘or whatever the hell the name of that place is where I’m stayin’.’

Pugh smiled. He had small stubby teeth. ‘That’s Winchester , son, like the rifle, and I’m fond of the place.’

‘Whatever,’ Danny said. ‘The reason I’m here is Mr Benedetto needs a meth supplier, a big one, and-’

‘Whoa!’ Pugh said. Turning to Randy, eyes wide with false astonishment, Pugh said, ‘Can you believe this fella? He walks into a man’s house, a man he don’t even know, and starts talkin’ about drugs . I got a good mind to call the sheriff.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Danny said, and saw Pugh’s jaw clench. Maybe he should watch his mouth a little. ‘Look,’ Danny said, ‘I know you don’t know me from Adam, Mr Pugh. And I don’t expect you to say anything in front of me because for all you know I could be a narc wearing a wire. So don’t say anything. But before you toss me outta here, just listen to what I have to say.’

When Pugh didn’t respond, Danny continued.

‘Mr Benedetto is the man in Queens.’

‘The man?’ Pugh said.

‘He belongs to one of the families that runs things in New York. He’s mob, okay?’

Pugh shrugged his shoulders; he couldn’t have cared less.

‘There’s a Jamaican posse in Queens that’s about to go out of business. They deal crack and meth and grass. When this gang is wrapped up by the cops, which should happen in less than a month, Mr Benedetto’s gonna move in and take over their action. But he needs somebody that’s got a large-scale lab to supply the meth, not a small-time operation that some strung-out yahoo and his junkie girlfriend run outta their basement. And he doesn’t want the lab close to home because if it’s anywhere up near New York — New Jersey, Connecticut, any of those places — it’ll get sniffed out by either New York narcs or the DEA. That’s what always happens. So he wants a guy out of the area to provide product, somebody who knows what he’s doing.’ ‘Son,’ Pugh said, ‘I think you’ve been misinformed about a whole bunch of things. And you’re insultin’ me. I got a good mind to have Randy take you outside and rearrange your pretty face.’

‘Yeah, well, let me show you something before you do that,’ Danny said.

He picked up the briefcase he’d brought with him into the house, placed it on his knees, but before he could open it Pugh said, ‘Hold on there … what’d you say your name was again?’

‘DeMarco. Danny DeMarco.’

‘Yeah, well, Danny , why don’t you let Randy open that briefcase. Okay?’

‘Sure,’ Danny said, spreading his arms wide, palms out, not a thing to hide.

Randy took the briefcase from Danny and took it over to a side table and opened it. ‘Nothin’ but paper,’ he said to Pugh. Pugh nodded, and Randy handed the open briefcase back to Danny.

Danny reached inside the briefcase, took out a manila file folder, and slid it across the coffee table toward Pugh. Pugh didn’t touch it. ‘In that folder,’ Danny said, ‘you’ll find a copy of my NYPD arrest record. There’s also a list of ten people that I did time with up at Altona. I did two years there for fencing stolen goods.’

And that was true.

‘If you don’t wanna call any of those ten guys, pick anyone you want who was up there from ’95 to ’97. Someone will know me — if they’re white, that is. There’s also a copy of a story from The New York DailyNews saying I popped a guy named Charlie Logan — which I did. There’s an article from yesterday’s paper saying how they had to let me go because the witness recanted, which the old bitch did. There’s another picture in there, also from the News , of my boss, Tony Benedetto. You wanna talk to Tony, his phone number’s there, cell and home. You wanna make sure you’re really talking to Tony and not some cop, call up anyone you know in New York and tell them to go to Tony’s house in Queens and your guy can ID that it’s Tony on the phone. And Tony’s phones are bug free, because he pays to keep them that way.’

Danny stood up.

‘If it’s okay with you and ol’ Randy here, I’m gonna leave now, Mr Pugh. But before I go I’ll tell you what we’re offering. We’re offering to buy a million to a million and a half bucks’ worth of product from you every quarter, provided you have a big enough opera tion to deliver that amount and keep on delivering. But we can’t afford a shortage.’

Patsy Hall had told him to say quarter , not every three months, for some reason.

‘Now, my boss knows all about you,’ Danny said. ‘He has two guys in the DEA that he pays to find guys like you. He knows you’re smart and you’re careful and you don’t get busted. On the front cover of that folder is my cell phone number and the name of the place where I’m staying in Winchester. I’m gonna be there all day tomorrow since I know it’ll take you some time to check me and Mr Benedetto out, but if I don’t hear from you by the day after tomorrow, I’m movin’ on down to South Carolina where there’s another guy just like you.’

Danny drove back to his motel in Winchester, the whole time thinking that if Pugh didn’t take the deal he was screwed. He was going to spend the next fifteen years in jail being … well, just screwed. There were times it was a liability to be so good lookin’.

He asked at the front desk if he had any messages and then flirted for a while with the cute chick behind the counter, a foxy little blonde with a good set of lungs. Inside his room, he turned up the heat and took off his suit and flopped down on the bed in his underwear, then used the motel’s phone to call Joe’s cell phone. He didn’t know where his cousin was staying because Joe wouldn’t tell him.

‘It went okay,’ Danny said. ‘I thought the guy’s eyes were gonna pop out of his head when I told him we wanted a million bucks’ worth of shit every three months. So either I’ll hear from him tomorrow or I won’t, but he seemed interested.’

Patsy Hall had told Joe that Pugh normally did business only with people he knew, and when he did hire outsiders he did an extensive background check on them. But Hall also said that if the payoff was big enough, Pugh might do just about anything. So Joe had figured that Pugh might go for a deal that was worth five million a year if the people he was dealing with were known, successful criminals — for example, a guy like Tony Benedetto. All Danny could do at this point was hope that Joe was right.

‘Good,’ Joe said. ‘Stay in your room tonight. If you have to eat, order a pizza. I don’t want you going out. You’ll just get drunk and in trouble.’

‘Hey,’ Danny said, ‘I know what’s at stake here. And I’m a pro.’

‘You’re a professional sleazebag. Stay in your room,’ Joe said, and hung up.

Geez, the guy really hated him.

Emma was sitting on the couch in her living room, staring into the fire in her fireplace, feeling lonely and disgruntled. In her lap was Christine’s rat-sized canine. Christine wasn’t there because she was spending the night in Hartford with her mother, and as her mother was allergic to dogs, Emma had become involuntarily responsible for the care and feeding of the creature. Twice she’d put the animal into the toy-stuffed basket that Christine had bought for it, but it insisted on coming into the living room and jumping on her lap as if it were lonely too. It was odd, but there was something strangely comforting about holding the dog, with its warm body and its rapidly beating heart — although she imagined the same sensation could be produced by holding a fur-covered hot water bottle.