William Bernhardt - Blind Justice

“The drugs one.”

“Don’t know shit about it. I can’t believe Tony would do something illegal.”

He was nothing if not loyal. Although there was probably a strong element of self-preservation involved as well. “All right, then. Tell me about the parrot business.”

“What do you want to know?”

“It was a front for the drug smuggling, right?”

“I already told you—”

“Yeah, yeah. Forget I spoke.” He tried a different tack. “Did you ever make any deliveries or pickups for Albert DeCarlo?”

“Yes. Both. So?”

“Any idea what was being delivered?”

“Money, sometimes. That always got counted in my presence. On both ends. Just so I didn’t get any ideas, they said.”

“And your belief is that this money being exchanged was for parrots?”

“I never asked what the money was for, and nobody ever told me. It don’t pay to be too curious around Albert DeCarlo. He’s a bastard.”

“You sound as if you know him well.”

“I do. Since he was a little shit. I worked for the DeCarlo family back when his father was in charge.”

“DeCarlo told me he’s making big changes in his daddy’s business. Making it more wholesome.”

Lennie laughed, then started to choke. “That’s a laugh. He’s changing the business, all right, but it has nothin’ to do with being wholesome. I worked for his papa for twelve years and never had any problems. Albert Junior takes over, and within six months, this.”

He held up his right hand, palm back. The tips of his two smallest fingers had been cut off at the second knuckle.

“What did you do to—”

“Forget it. I ain’t gonna talk about it.”

“Because of the Omerta?”

“You’re goddamn right because of the Omerta! I won’t make that mistake twice.”

“I guess that’s when you quit working for DeCarlo?”

“Quit? I got news for you, pal. You never quit working for DeCarlo. I was reassigned by him to Lombardi. DeCarlo had taken a strong interest in Lombardi, and I think he wanted one of his men on the inside.”

It made sense. If nothing else, it explained Lombardi’s apparent hostility toward his own henchman. Lennie was DeCarlo’s pawn, not Lombardi’s. “Do you know anything about Christina McCall?”

“Nah. What’s to know? Just another dumb bitch.”

Someone should set this man on fire, Ben thought. “Do you have any idea why he asked her to meet him at his apartment?”

Lennie shrugged. “Just dumb luck, I guess.”

“Then you don’t think she killed him?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. It’s possible. But when a guy has as many enemies as Tony had, there’s no reason to jump to any conclusions. Hell, Tony was especially weird when it came to women.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“I saw Tony with his wife a hundred times, but if I hadn’t already known, I never would’ve guessed they were married. Cold as ice.”

Ben shifted positions in his chair. He couldn’t get comfortable. He leaned to one side…and realized he was sitting on something. He yanked it out from under him. It was a pair of Lennie’s underwear, soiled and rank. A wave of revulsion swept over him; he tossed it onto the floor.

“Sorry about that,” Lennie said.

“Yeah.” While leaning forward, Ben noticed a phone number scrawled on the cover of the motel room phone book. “That’s the local FBI office, isn’t it?”

Lennie grabbed the phone book and threw it to the other side of the room. “That’s nobody’s business but mine.”

Ben’s eyes narrowed. “Are you planning to turn state’s evidence? Is that your ticket out of town?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your ten minutes is up.”

Ben stood, but he did not leave. “What do you know that you haven’t already told me?”

“I don’t know nothin’. I told you to leave already.”

Ben walked toward him, eyes like stone. “Goddamn it, you slimy worm. The feds wouldn’t be interested in you if you didn’t know something that helped their case. Tell me what you know!”

“Forget you, asshole.”

“Tell me now!”

In a heartbeat, Lennie reached under his pillow and withdrew a small caliber pistol. “All right, you son of a bitch. I warned you! Now just get the hell out of here!”

“Not again!” Ben slowly backed away. “I am sick and tired of having guns pulled on me!”

“I tried to be Mr. Nice,” Lennie said. His arms were shaking. “But no, you had to push me around. Everyone pushes Lennie around. Well, a guy can only push so far!”

He fired the pistol. The gun flared and the bullet smashed into the wall just over Ben’s head. This time it was the real thing.

“Now are you gettin’ out of here or what?”

“I’m leaving, Lennie. See? I’m opening the door.”

“Count of five, man. One, two…”

By five, Ben was already back on the interstate.

25

HE HAD HOPED SHE wouldn’t be there.

But of course, she was. Marjorie sat at the front desk in Swayze & Reynolds’s office lobby, typing away. If she had been ten months pregnant before, she was at least twelve months pregnant now. She greeted him by name.

Well, it was encouraging that she remembered. Sort of. “Hello, Marjorie. I’m here to see Mr. Reynolds.”

“I don’t see you on his appointment schedule. Perhaps you called while I was at my Lamaze class?”

“No, I don’t have an appointment. But it’s urgent that I see him.”

She frowned, then punched a button on her intercom and whispered into the box. After a few moments, she said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kincaid. He says he’s busy—”

“Tell him if he’s not out in five minutes, I start smashing Lalique.”

He was out in two.

“I’m sorry for the delay,” Reynolds said, as he escorted Ben back to his office. “I was on the telephone with my wife. The judge.”

No kidding. I thought maybe it was your other wife. Ben walked into Reynolds’s office and, to his surprise, found Margot Lombardi sitting at the conference table.

Margot spared Reynolds the ordeal of a graceful introduction. “Mr. Kincaid and I have met,” she explained. “And I behaved disgracefully. I had no right to burden you with my problems.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ben said.

“There’s no excuse for such a public display. On the contrary it’s time for me to stop feeling sorry for myself and get on with my life. That’s what Mr. Reynolds is helping me do. He’s the executor of Tony’s estate.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“The FBI is determined to link Tony’s assets to drug smuggling,” Reynolds said. “If they are successful, they can confiscate the assets. In the meantime, the estate is frozen.”

“I don’t know why they’re doing this,” Margot said. “What have I ever done to them?”

“Don’t fret,” Reynolds said, patting her on the shoulder. For a moment, Ben thought, he almost sounded human. “Everything will work out in time.”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt.…” Ben said, suddenly regretting his door-smashing tactics.

“Not at all,” Margot said. “I was on my way out.”

Reynolds helped her out of her chair, then escorted her to the door. When he returned, he and Ben sat at the center table.

“How’s Polly?” Ben asked.

“Oh, she’s…as she always is.”

Ben examined the parrot, almost motionless in her tiny cage. She was not as she always was. She was still a regal purplish blue, but the colors seemed faded since his last visit. Her reddish brown tail feathers were almost black. At the bottom of the cage, he saw a small bed of feathers.

“She’s feather-plucking!” Ben cried.

“She’s what?”