Стюарт Вудс - Class Act

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean, I installed the fixture and programmed the phone. Then I was getting back through the fence and heard a swooshing sound and saw the lights in the trailer go off. Then I got back to my car and when I turned around, the trailer was gone.”

“It sounds like somebody was using the toilet in the trailer and then drove off,” Jack said. “What do you have to do to get the thing to work?”

“I just call the number. When it answers, I press number one, then set a time, like two minutes, and it goes off two minutes later.”

“Good. Do that.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know where the trailer is. There might be people nearby wherever it is.”

“There is hardly going to be a crowd gathering anywhere at three in the morning. Do it!”

“I can’t!”

“How about locating the phone electronically? Can you do that?”

“Well, I’ve got that ‘Find My Phone’ app. Maybe that would work.”

“We’ll never know until you try it.”

“I’ll call you back.”

“No! Don’t call me back. Text me.”

“Oh, right.” Solly hung up.

Jack sucked in deep breaths to get his heart rate down. “Jesus Christ,” he said, to nobody in particular.

Solly opened the app and pressed the find button. The little wheel went round and round for a minute or so, then a map filled the screen with a red dot in the middle. He zoomed out far enough to see the racetrack on the map and figure the red dot was in another parking lot. Somebody who worked for Manny was just relocating it. He pressed the call button for the phone, then chose two minutes, then stared off into the distance toward the track. Two minutes later a fireball appeared off to the right of the track, and a second later, he felt a puff of wind and heard the explosion. Solly hoped like hell that the trailer had not been parked outside someplace where people lived.

He texted a message to Johnny’s throwaway. The flight took off a few minutes late, but it’s gone.

Jack had just gotten back to sleep when he was wakened by a dull chime. He opened the bottom drawer, retrieved and read Solly’s confirmation message. Now he could relax. Except he couldn’t get back to sleep.

Manny Fiore was lifted about six inches off his bed by a siren. It took him a moment to remember that the siren was the ringtone on his cell. He found his pants on the floor and groped for the phone. “Who the hell is this!” he screamed.

“It’s me, boss. Sammy.”

“Why the hell are you calling me at” — he checked the bedside clock — “three-thirty in the morning?”

“I thought you ought to know, boss. The trailer’s gone.”

“Gone? Somebody stole my trailer?”

“No, boss, I hooked up my truck to it and unhooked the wires, like you said, and I drove it over to lot five. I had just hooked it up and was driving away when the whole thing went up in smoke.”

“The trailer caught fire?”

“No, boss, it exploded.”

“ Exploded? Why the fuck would it do that? What did you do to it?”

“All I did was unhook the cables, hook it up to my truck, drive it over to lot five, hook up the power and stuff, and drive away.”

“Did you do anything else to it?”

“Oh, yeah, I used the toilet. You might want to get it serviced. Oh, never mind doing that now, it’s gone.”

“My whole trailer is gone.”

“Now you got it, boss.”

“No, I don’t got it. Did the propane tank explode?”

“Well, that was kind of the second explosion, after the first big one. It even made a mushroom cloud, and money was raining out of the cloud.”

“Did you find the safe?”

“Not yet, boss. Everything’s kind of spread out around the parking lot. One good thing, though.”

“Tell me something good, please.”

“My truck’s okay. I got away just in time.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a big, fat, fucking relief!”

“I’m glad you feel that way, too, boss. Is there anything else you want me to do?”

“Yeah, stick around there and see if you can find the safes. There are two of them. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Right, boss. I’ll conduct a search for the safe.”

“Safes. Two of them.”

“Both of them.”

Manny hung up and got into his pants. He was halfway to the site of the ex-trailer when he remembered. Then he called Vinnie.

“Hello?”

“You sound sleepy.”

“Is that you, Manny?”

“Yeah, why are you asleep when my trailer is gone?”

“Your trailer? The Airstream?”

“That’s the only trailer I got.”

“It was stolen?”

“It was exploded.”

“Exploded?”

“Like, with a bomb.”

“Holy shit.”

“I want you to get over to lot five right now and find the safes. They’re both missing.”

“Manny, I can’t get right over there. I’m in New York, have been for several days. Remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Manny said. “How long will it take you to get here?”

“A while, I’m staying the week.”

“The fuck you are. Get over there.”

“Nothing I can do there. By the time I get a plane, the track and the cops will have taken care of it.”

“Vinnie, do what I tell you. Your guy, Fratelli, musta done this.”

“Well, I warned you not to try to screw him, Manny. But you got greedy.”

“I want you over to the track now!”

“No, thanks. I’m going back to sleep.”

“I’ll wring your neck.”

“Manny? Do you remember who my brother-in-law is?” Pause. “I thought so.” Vinnie hung up.

Manny knew what the next call had to be, and that he should wait until the Big Guy, Antonio Datilla, had finished breakfast. He waited until ten o’clock. Then just as he reached for the phone, it rang. Shit! “Hello?”

“You know who this is.”

It was Sal, consigliere to Don Tony. This was bad.

“Sure, I do. I had my hand on the phone to call the Don with some news.”

“The Don has already heard the news,” Sal said. “All he needs to know now is who and why.”

“You remember Johnny Fratelli?”

“Big, scary guy, who took care of Buono in the joint?”

“That’s the one.”

“He gave Vinnie a mil to spread, for five points a week.”

“And?”

“After a while, I figured we had paid him enough, so I stopped the vig.”

“What about the principal?”

“Principal?”

“Johnny Fratelli’s mil. Did you give that back?”

“Yeah. I figured the Don would give it back to Fratelli, if he thought it was right.”

“Well, if he got his mil back, why is he blowing up our trailer?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Simplify it for me.”

“I told Vinnie to get it back. I sent Vinnie to New York to find Fratelli, but he couldn’t.”

“So Fratelli has kept his money? Why was he annoyed?”

“I guess he didn’t want to give it back to me again.”

“You know what I would do if you asked me for a mil back?”

“Ah, no.”

“I’d blow up your trailer. Okay, Manny, here’s what you’re going to do: you’re going to go down to the Airstream trailer lot on the Dixie Highway, and you’re going to purchase a brand-new trailer, a big one, with your own money.”

“If that’s what the Don wants.”

“If I had spoken to the Don about this, you would already be floating, facedown, in Biscayne Bay.”

“Okay, sure, glad to oblige.”

“And our books show a little under three million in those two safes.”

“About that.”

“Then you better pray the safes are found, intact, or you can add that to your bill.”