George Higgins - Killing Them Softly (Cogan's Trade Movie Tie-in Edition)

“Never happen,” Steve said. “Look, how many guys are there, you think, can go back and forth like you do? Huh? Maybe two. They’re not gonna do that. Shit, they did the same thing with booze. They do it and, well, look, they think they’re taxing them now, right? How much taxes you think me and Jackie pay on that stuff, huh? So you think, they can’t get the taxes on what they’re letting me sell, you think they’re gonna, they’re gonna be able to stop me from selling them? I pay on about one third of the stuff I sell. Just enough so it’s not too fuckin’ easy for them, a kid could catch me doing it. And nobody looks at the bottom of them things. So, and they know I’m doing it, and guys’re doing it, and they know they can’t stop me and they also know, if they didn’t let guys sell them at all, they couldn’t do it.”

“Jesus,” Barry said, “it takes this fucker long enough, don’t it?”

“Well,” Steve said, “you got to allow the guy a certain amount of time, you know. I asked Jackie. I said, ‘Great, the guy’s gonna get laid and I’m gonna wait around all night for Christ sake.’ Jackie says, no, he don’t stay out late. He gets what he wants and then he goes home. Never stays out past one.”

“I still think it’s kind of nice of us,” Barry said, “letting the guy get his rocks off like this. Probably how he stays in so good shape.”

“He’s a fairly smart bastard,” Steve said.

“Not tonight he’s not gonna be,” Barry said.

“Well,” Steve said, “I mean, and that’s the kind of guy he is too, like about the broads, there. He’s not smart enough, he doesn’t marry any of them. Some times he’s not smart. And the same thing with the games there, see? Most of the time he runs a good game and all, and everybody’s happy and that’s when he’s being smart. He’s not making any noise and he’s only taking guys that want to get taken and he don’t kill it, you know? He don’t take them for a lot. And he don’t talk about how he’s taking them. No, he just sometimes, it seems like every so often he’s gotta take everybody for everything, and that’s the same thing.”

The Coupe de Ville paused at the garage exit and Steve started the LTD. The Cadillac went down a short street and turned west on Kneeland Street. Steve put the LTD in drive and went east on Kneeland Street. In the rearview mirror of the LTD the taillights of the Cadillac receded into Park Square.

“You’re sure he’s going home,” Barry said.

“Yup,” Steve said. “He’s just too fuckin’ cheap, take the Turnpike.”

Steve kept the LTD in the middle lane on the Massachusetts Turnpike and did not exceed sixty-five miles per hour. The LTD reached the Allston exit in less than seven minutes. Steve threw change into the tollgate basket and turned right on Cambridge Street. At eleven-fifty he parked the LTD beside a hydrant on Sheridan Street in Brighton and shut the ignition off.

“All right,” he said, “it’s the third brick one down there on the left.”

“The one with the yellow Chev,” Barry said.

“The next one,” Steve said.

“No driveway,” Barry said.

“Right,” Steve said. “Cheap bastard parks on the street.”

At nine minutes past midnight the Cadillac moved slowly by the LTD. Steve and Barry eased down on the seats.

At twenty minutes past twelve the Cadillac moved slowly past the LTD. Steve said: “If he comes by once more I’m gonna move and give him this place.”

At twelve thirty-five, Trattman walked up Sheridan Street, approaching the LTD from the rear, on the same side of the street. When he got to the rear bumper of the LTD, Steve said: “Now.”

Barry and Steve got out of the LTD. Barry said: “Right there.”

Trattman stopped. He frowned. He said: “You guys, you guys …”

Steve pointed a thirty-eight Chiefs Special, two-inch barrel, at Trattman. He said: “Get inna car, Markie.”

Trattman said: “You, I haven’t got no money on me, you guys. I don’t, you guys, I haven’t got no money or anything.”

Barry said: “Get inna fuckin’ car, Markie.” He walked up to Trattman and took him by the right elbow. Trattman resisted slightly. “The car,” Barry said, “you got to get inna fuckin’ car, Markie. You’re gonna get inna car and you know you’re gonna get inna car, so get inna car , for Christ sake.”

Trattman walked slowly toward the car. He looked toward Steve. Steve held the revolver steady. Trattman said: “Steve, you guys, I didn’t do nothing.”

Steve said: “Barry, put him inna back and get in with him.”

Barry pushed Trattman slightly. Trattman said: “I mean it. I didn’t do anything.”

Barry said: “Markie, we’re gonna have all kinds of time to talk about things. Just get inna car, all right?”

Trattman bent and entered the car. He got into the back. Steve slid in on the driver’s side and shut the door. He turned in the seat and pointed the revolver at Trattman. Barry got in and managed to close the passenger door from the back seat. Steve handed the revolver to Barry. Trattman said: “Why’re you guys doing this?”

Steve started the LTD.

“I could, I could do something, you know,” Trattman said. “You guys’re gonna do something to me, I know some guys and I know the right, I know where to call. You guys oughta think about that.”

“You maybe already did something,” Barry said. “Maybe that’s why you’re here, because you did something.”

“I didn’t do nothing,” Trattman said.

“Well,” Steve said. “Then, you’re all right, Markie.”

“You got nothing to worry about,” Barry said.

Steve turned the LTD right on Commonwealth Avenue. He turned left off Commonwealth Avenue onto Chestnut Hill Drive. He took the left fork onto St. Thomas More Drive and the right turn onto Beacon Street.

Trattman said: “You guys know me. Why’re you guys doing something like this? I thought, you’re doing all right, Steve, for Christ sake. Why’re you doing this?”

“A guy, some guys asked me to talk to you,” Steve said. “I said I’d talk to you. You know, Markie, talk? Didn’t you used to have me and Barry around in case you wanted us to talk to somebody?”

“Sure,” Trattman said. “That’s why I can’t understand this, why you guys’re doing this to me.”

“Because,” Steve said, “for the same reason, we used to do things when you wanted us to. Only this time, we’re doing it for somebody else.”

Steve took the left at Hammond Street and turned right off Hammond into the parking lot behind the Chestnut Hill shopping center on Route 9. He stopped the LTD in the shadows behind R. H. Steams’.

Steve got out of the car and unlatched the seatback on the driver’s side.

Trattman looked at Barry. Barry pointed the revolver at him. “Get outa the car, Markie,” he said.

Trattman said: “Please, you guys, lemme talk this over, all right?”

Steve said: “Now, Markie.”

Trattman said: “I didn’t do nothing.”

Barry moved the revolver closer to Trattman’s face. “ Markie ,” he said. “There’s things worse’n talking, you know? Right now all we’re supposed to do is talk to you, and that’s really all we wanna do. You’re liable to get everybody all pissed off, you keep acting like this.”

Trattman hesitated. Steve reached into the car and grabbed the left shoulder of Trattman’s coat. He pulled. Trattman’s upper torso shifted in Steve’s direction. Steve said: “Markie, you really got to cut this out, all right? You know what can happen to a guy that doesn’t wanna do what people tell him. Now don’t give us a lot of shit, okay? We’re just a couple of guys that’ve got to talk to you and we’re gonna talk to you and you’re gonna talk to us, and that’s all there is to it. Unless you don’t wanna talk or something. Then it’s different, you know? You know how things are. Now come outa the fuckin’ car before I start to get mad.”