Mario Puzo - Fools die

Gronevelt slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t settle so fast,” he said. “Johnny knows the great work you’ve done for this hotel in the last two years since my stroke. You’ve done a marvelous job. You’ve added millions of dollars to the revenue coming in here. Now that’s important. Not only to me but to guys like Johnny. So you’ve made a couple of mistakes. Now, I have to admit they are very pissed off, especially about the nephew going to jail and especially because you told them not to worry. That you had the full fix on Judge Brianca. They couldn’t understand how you could say such a thing and then not come through for them.”

Cully shook his head. “I really can’t figure it,” he said. “I’ve had Brianca in my pocket for the last five years, especially when I had that little blond Charlie working him over.”

Gronevelt laughed. “Yeah, I remember her. Pretty girl. Good heart.”

“Yeah,” Cully said. “The judge was crazy for her. He used to take her on his boat down to Mexico fishing for a week at a time. He said she was always great company. Great little girl.”

What Cully didn’t tell Gronevelt was how Charlie used to tell him stories about the judge. How she used to go into the judge’s chambers and, while he was still in his robes, go down on him before he went out to conduct a trial. She also told him how on the boat fishing she had made the sixty-year-old judge go down on her and how the judge had immediately rushed into the stateroom, grabbed a bottle of whiskey and gargled to get all the germs out. It was the first time the old judge had ever done this to a woman. But, Charlie Brown said, after that he was like a kid eating ice cream. Cully smiled a little bit, remembering, and then he was aware of Gronevelt going on.

“I think I have a way for you to square yourself,” Gronevelt said. “I have to admit Santadio is hot. He’s steaming, but I can cool him off. All you have to do is come through for him with a big coup, right now, and I think I have it. There’s another three million waiting in Japan. Johnny’s share of that is a million bucks. If you can bring that out, as you did once before, I think for a million dollars Johnny Santadio will forgive you. But just remember this: It’s more dangerous now.”

Cully was surprised and then very alert. The first question he asked was: “Will Mr. Santadio know I’m going?” And if Gronevelt had said yes, then Cully would have turned down the deal. But Gronevelt, looking him right in the eye, said, “It’s my idea, and my suggestion to you is that you tell nobody, not anyone, that you are going. Take the afternoon flight to LA, hook up to the Japanese flight and you’ll be in Japan before Johnny Santadio gets here and then I’ll just tell him that you’re out of town. While you’re en route, I’ll make all the arrangements for the money to be delivered to you. Don’t worry about strangers because we are going through our old friend Fummiro.”

It was the mention of Fummiro’s name that dissolved all of Cully’s suspicions. “OK,” he said. “I’ll do it. The only thing is

I was going to New York to see Merlyn and he’s meeting me at the plane, so I’ll have to call him.”

“No,” Gronevelt said. “You just never know who may be listening on the phone or who he may tell. Let me take care of it. I’ll let him know not to meet you at the plane. Don’t even cancel your reservation. That will throw people off the track. I’ll tell Johnny you went to New York. You’ll have a great cover. OK?”

“OK,” Cully said.

Gronevelt shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “Get in and out as fast as you can,” Gronevelt said. “If you make it back here, I promise you that you will be squared away with Johnny Santadio. You’ll have nothing to worry about.”

– -

On the night before Cully left for Japan he called up two girls he knew. Soft hookers both. One was the wife of a pit boss in a hotel down the Strip. Her name was Crystin Lesso.

“Crystin,” he said, “do you feel in the mood to get thrashed?”

“Sure,” Crystin said. “How much will you knock off my markers?”

Cully usually doubled the price for a thrashing, which would mean two hundred dollars. What the hell, he thought, I’m going to Japan, who knows what will happen?

“I’ll knock five hundred off,” Cully said.

There was a little gasp at the other end of the wire.

“Jesus,” Crystin said. “This must be some thrashing. Who do I have to go in the ring with, a gorilla?”

“Don’t worry,” Cully said. “You always have a good time, don’t you?”

Crystin said, “When?”

“Let’s make it early,” Cully said. “I have to catch a plane tomorrow morning. OK with you?’

“Sure,” Crystin said. “I assume you’re not giving me dinner?”

“No,” Cully said. “I have too many things to do. I won’t have time.”

After hanging up the phone, Cully opened the desk drawer and took out a little packet of white slips. They were Crystin’s markers, totaling three thousand dollars.

Cully pondered on the mysteries of women. Crystin was a good-looking girl of about twenty-eight. But a really degenerate gambler. Two years she had gone down the drain for over twenty grand. She had called Cully for an appointment at his office, and when she came in, she had given him a proposition that she would work off the twenty grand as a soft hustler. But she would take dates only directly from Cully with the utmost secrecy because of her husband.

Cully had tried to talk her out of it. “If your husband knows, he’ll kill you,” Cully said.

“If he finds out about my twenty-grand markers, he’ll kill me,” Crystin said. “So what’s the difference? And besides, you know I can’t stop gambling and I figure that over and above the fee I can get some of these guys to give me a stake or at least put down a bet for me.”

So Cully had agreed. In addition, he had given her a job as a secretary for the food and beverages officer of the Xanadu Hotel. He was attracted to her and at least once a week they went to bed together afternoons in his hotel suite. After a while he introduced her to thrashing and she had loved it.

Cully took out one of the five-hundred-dollar markers and tore it up. Then on a sudden impulse he tore up all Crystin’s markers and threw them in his wastebasket. When he came back from Japan, he would have to cover for it with some paperwork, but he would think about that later. Crystin was a good kid. If something happened to him, he wanted her to be in the clear.

He passed the time cleaning up details on his desk and then went down to his suite. He ordered up some chilled champagne and made a call to Charlie Brown.

Then he took a shower and got into his pajamas. They were very fancy pajamas. White silk, edged with red, with his initials on the jacket pocket.

Charlie Brown came first and he gave her some champagne and then Crystin came. They sat around talking and he made them drink the whole bottle before he led them into the bedroom.

The two girls were a little shy of each other, though they bad met before around town. Cully told them to undress and he stripped off his pajamas.

The three of them got into bed together naked and he talked to them awhile. Kidding them, making jokes, kissing them occasionally and playing with their breasts. And then with an arm around their necks he pressed their faces close together. They knew what was expected of them. The two women kissed each other tentatively on the lips.

Cully lifted the more slender Charlie Brown, slid underneath her so that the two women were next to each other. He felt the quick surge of sexual excitement.

“Come on,” he said. “You’ll love it. You know you’ll love it.”