Cutter

by Laird, Thomas

  Doc and I picked up Jimmy Preggio in a pool hall on Milwaukee Avenue. He was with several of his brothers, and it got a little tense when I saw his buddies start to grip their cues a bit too tightly.

  ‘We want to talk to you, Mr Preggio,’ Doc explained as he showed the guy his badge and ID.

  But the three clowns with Preggio were standing still, with some very fierce body language.

  ‘This is a homicide investigation,’ I told the three onlookers. ‘Any of you guys here on probation?’

  They headed for the bar without a blink.

  ‘I oughta use that line more often,’ Doc grinned.

  There was a clear, blank, serene look on Preggio’s handsome puss. He wasn’t troubled by any of this. He’d been downtown before, but never on a homicide deal, as far as I knew.

  ‘Are you going to cooperate with us, Mr Preggio?’ I asked again.

  ‘I will. I never had any other intention.’

  There was a gym bag under the pool table. Frank’s Pool was a twelve-table operation here on the North Side with a small lounge up front that catered to the local hoos and to the pimps who ran them. Word was that Frank, the owner, was heavily connected with the Outfit, so every time he got shut down he got reopened within days.

  ‘Is that your gym bag, sir?’ Doc asked.

  ‘Yes. Yes, it is.’

  ‘Then you might want to take it with us.’

  Preggio looked at Doc as if Doc were speaking Russian. But then he bent down, reached under the pool table and retrieved the bag. It had ‘Indiana Pacers’ stitched on both sides. A black bag with scarlet lettering.

  Doc shot a quick stare my way, and I returned his rapid look.

  *

  ‘You’d be breaking your probation if you were hanging with known criminals, Mr Preggio,’ Doc told him.

  Preggio was sitting at the rectangular table here in the box with the two of us. Jack Wendkos was standing outside the one-way mirror, watching.

  ‘You remember where you were on these three dates?’ I asked.

  I put the sheet on the table in front of him. It listed the dates of the two murders and it also had the date of Stephanie Manske’s encounter.

  ‘I really don’t know if I can recall my whereabouts on those days.’ He smiled. It was a sort of grimace that formed on his lips and cheeks. Then his face went unreadable again.

  ‘You need to try a little harder, Jimmy,’ Doc warned.

  ‘I’m sorry. I could’ve been any number of places on those days or nights. I move around quite a lot.’

  ‘I noticed,’ Doc said, picking up his jacket, ‘that you’re a very vague kind of guy. I mean, there isn’t a whole lot of information on you in this file. Except for the basic birthday, social security number business. You want to fill me in on what happened since you popped out of momma?’

  Preggio shot an angry glance at Doc at the mention of ‘momma’.

  ‘Did I say something to offend you?’ Doc smiled.

  ‘I had a great deal of respect for my mother.’

  ‘What about the old man?’ Doc went on.

  There was another red spark in Preggio’s eyes.

  ‘Oh, I bet I did it again,’ Doc told him.

  ‘You do not make light about parents.’

  ‘Yeah. I know. I had two of my own. I was rather fond of them both. But then, their son didn’t grow up to be a piece of shit who paws little girls.’

  ‘Detective, what is it you want to know from me?’

  ‘He wants to know where you were on those three nights, asshole,’ I joined in. ‘How long’s it been since you had a talk with your own probation officer, Jimmy?’

  ‘All right. On the first night you have there I was with my girlfriend Theresa ... On the second night I don’t remember. And on that third date I was right back in that pool hall with those same three fellows that you so cleverly intimidated, Lieutenant Parisi.’

  He smiled at me as if he’d just beat me in a hand of blackjack.

  ‘Second night you don’t remember,’ I mused aloud. ‘You mind if we take a look in your gym bag?’

  He glared angrily at me. Then he looked back at the Indiana Pacers satchel. He fixed his gaze on it for a long count, and then he returned his stare to meet mine.

  ‘Go right ahead.’

  Doc grabbed the bag and slapped it up on the table. Inside it were two white cotton T-shirts and a bottle of liquid.

  Gibron opened the bottle carefully and sniffed at it from a half-arm’s length. Then he pulled the container closer, and finally took a sip.

  ‘Good water,’ Doc said.

  ‘That sip just ruined a dollar seventy-five’s worth,’ Preggio complained.

  Doc reached into his wallet and took out two singles. He tossed them in front of Jimmy.

  ‘Thank you, sir. You’re a gentleman.’ Preggio smirked.

  ‘And you are not and we still want to know where you were on all three dates,’ Doc snapped.

  ‘I told you what I remember. Are you going to charge me with anything? Because if you’re not, I’d like to leave.’

  ‘Watch your back, sweetheart,’ Gibron warned him. ‘You break that parole and I’ll be right behind you.’

  Preggio rose and walked out of the box after he grabbed hold of his sports bag.

  Doc sat back down and looked up at me. He appeared all tired out and he looked about as dejected as I was.

  ‘We have nothing, Jimmy P. We have three mooks who all fit the description. I gotta tell you that this last guy intrigues me, and he interests me the most because we know the least about him. I don’t like those dark spots. Those little creases where nothing shows up on the monitors, you know? What about this guy’s schooling? What about military service? He was probably old enough to have fought in Vietnam, although he would’ve been eighteen at the tail end of it. He was old enough for the Gulf or Grenada. And that makes him fit the same categories that the other two clowns fall into. We’re looking for how he learned to use a knife as proficiently as the guy who did the two women. Something to do with medicine. The first two were medical corps. What are the odds this guy was a medic too?’

  ‘Pretty lousy, I’d say, Doctor.’

  ‘Yeah. I agree. But there are guys in the Outfit who can cut you as neat as most any surgeon, Jimmy. These guys know how to handle stilettos as well as any MD wields a scalpel. And what about a guy who’s a butcher by trade? They can cut meat, as grotesque as that all sounds.’

  ‘A butcher?’

  ‘Sure, guinea. Maybe we’re being sidetracked by all this military stuff. These street cutters can tear you open and have you wrapped in white paper as quick as any educated surgeon at Rush-St. Luke’s.’

  I gave him the questioning look.

  ‘Well, maybealmost as skillful. You follow my drift?’

  ‘Yes, indeed I do ... Which of the three do you like, Doctor Gibron?’

  He stopped and stared down hard at the table top.

  ‘I don’t like any of them. I thought all three had it in them. That’s what scares hell out of me, Jimmy P.’

  *

  Natalie’s first duty was patrol. On foot. It was the new thing at the CPD. We were hitting the streets with our shoe leather. Getting to know the inhabitants of the barrios, of the neighborhoods. It was supposed to better connect us with the people we served. And it had shown some positive results, so I didn’t suppose I could dismiss the notion too lightly.

  But it scared me to know she was walking the streets of places like Hyde Park on the South Side. Hyde Park contained the University of Chicago, but it also held some of the worst gangbangers on that side of the city. They were patrolling in tandem, but even with a partner at Natalie’s side, it scared the shit out of me.

  We were in her apartment on the North Side. She was only about two and a half miles away from my house, but I was living for the day when I moved her into my place. It was six thirty-two in the a.m., and I was about ready to go home after my shift. She was working midnights as
well. At least we had more time together this way.

  ‘You wearing your ring?’! asked.

  ‘I don’t wear it on shift. I’m afraid I’ll lose it on the street. And I’m never going to misplacethis piece of rock, Lieutenant, sir.’

  Her auburn hair was one of her best features, and she had lots of qualities.

  ‘Or don’t you want those other coppers to know that you’re engaged to an ‘older man’?’

  ‘Yes. That’s it! You’ve grasped it!’

  She swooped over to me and flopped into my lap.

  ‘We’ll get married in spring. Say April,’ she told me. ‘Kelly will be one of my bridesmaids. It’ll be small, just close family. Which for me means my mother and sister and that’s about it. And then we’ll hit a beach somewhere for two weeks ... You want more children, James?’

  She noticed that she’d just rattled me thoroughly.

  ‘We hadn’t talked about that one,’ was all I could mutter.

  ‘We can’t wait too long, Jimmy. We don’t want you to be a daddy at eighty, do we?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Well ... I’d like kids with you, Red. I just never spent any time thinking much about it until now.’

  ‘I think we should wait three years. Get my career jump started, and then we can have one or two. Two, I think. Don’t want an only child, do we?’

  ‘I’ve already got a son and a daughter.’

  ‘But I meant a child ofours.’

  ‘I know, Red. It is fine with me. Let’s just get to the altar first. Is that all right with you?’

  She kissed me and laughed. She was still aboard my lap.

  ‘I’m going on decoy duty for The Farmer.’

  She stood after she’d said it.

  ‘They already used a rookie on him. I told them they needed someone —’

  ‘More experienced. I know, Jimmy. But if I want to make progress toward a shield, I’ve got to get experience on the streets.’

  An argument took form somewhere in me, but I knew I couldn’t use it. She was a policeman, policewoman. She was in the same club with me. It was what we did. So how was I going to tell her she couldn’t?

  ‘I don’t want you to worry, and I’m sorry I just heaved me and it into your lap like that, but it is something I need to do. I want to helpyou, too, Jimmy. I want to help you catch this son of a bitch, and it is the only way I can figure to do it.’

  ‘I can’t tell you no. You knew that before you told me.’

  ‘You aren’t going to be angry about it, are you?’

  ‘No, I’ll just worry. Now I’ve got you on my back too, don’t I?’

  I pulled her back down to me and I kissed her. I urged her face toward my chest and then I bent over and kissed the crown of her lovely red-brown head.

  ‘You couldn’t be a goddamned schoolteacher or an insurance rep, could you?’

  She clutched hold of me tightly, and then she straightened and looked right into my eyes.

  ‘Well, now you know exactly how I feel when you walk out that door toward those streets. Now you know exactly what it feels like for me.’

  *

  Billy Cheech was waiting for Doc and me at Giardino’s. It was a pizza joint on Rush Street, near the entertainment district. We had Jack Wendkos with us, too. Jack had been doing a lot of the side legwork that Gibron and I would’ve had to do on overtime. The Captain was grooming Jack for bigger things, and I thought the Boss had made a fine choice with this young guy. He was good people. Tough. Smart. And honest, as well.

  ‘I get to go to all these great places with you two,’ Jack cracked as we walked into Giardino’s. This place was known for their Sicilian-style deep-pan pizza.

  Billy Cheech waited at the bar, but we moved him and ourselves off to a table in the back of the place. There were green and blue Christmas tree lights strung all throughout the place. There was also a blown-up poster of Marlon Brando as Don Corleone on the back wall, right behind us.

  The waitress came up to us immediately. She was young and ripe and she was wearing a half-unbuttoned blouse that allowed the better part of her dairies to protrude in a very enticing way.

  ‘That’s a fuckin’ thirty percent tip, that there alone.’ Billy smiled.

  I raised my hands, palms out.

  ‘You don’t like to fuck around, do you, coz?’ Billy moaned.

  ‘So tell us, Billy. We’re kinda busy right now,’ Doc added.

  Jack took a sip of his iced water, but he was still looking out for that well-endowed waitress to return.

  ‘I thought I got a shake, Jimmy P.’

  I watched his eyes as he raised them from the red-checked tablecloth.

  Jack and Doc were watching him closely now.

  ‘Word is that there’s a guy selling very hard-to-get items to overseas buyers. He’s using some of our people to help him make contacts. I mean, the source I got was kinda vague about the details, you unnerstan, but the kinda cash this guy’s makin’ does draw attention to certain people. And I can’t tell you my source, cousin, because it would fuckin’ get me killed.’

  ‘You got any idea how he’s moving his goods?’ Doc asked.

  The big-bosomed waitress returned with our pitcher of beer and four glasses. Jack had lost his interest in her, but Billy was watching her breathe. It was like he had his eyes pasted to her chest.

  ‘Maron,’ he murmured.

  ‘So?’ I asked him again.

  ‘Somethin’ to do with computers.’

  I looked over at Doc. We needed to fill Jack in about McGinn, our computer nerd.

  ‘They got some kinda code they use over that fuckin’ Internet, you know?’

  ‘What code?’ Jack asked him.

  ‘Shit, I don’t know - I dropped out after the tenth grade. All I know is that you want to look for Imperial Products of Bridgeport.’

  ‘That’s the listing they’re hiding behind?’ Doc queried.

  ‘If I get any deeper, Jimmy P, you’ll be my pallbearer ... It’s all I got. I ask any more shit and they’re gonna know I’m passin’ it on.’

  ‘Okay, Billy. That’s good. We don’t want you dead,’ I told him.

  ‘We’re stillfamilia, Jimmy P. Even if you got a really shitty way to make a fuckin’ livin’.’

  ‘Yeah, we’re still family, Billy. And you gotta take care of yourself. You did good, partner. Let me buy you a pitcher of your own.’

  ‘Fuck, no. I get hammered, I’ll flop the fuckin’ lift at work on top of my dumb ass. I got to eat and run. This is a long drive from the shop.’

  The overripe server again showed up with our order, and Billy and Jack Wendkos scoped her every wiggle all the way back to the kitchen. Jack got up and caught the chestnut-haired beauty before she could return to her station. She was smiling and Jack was smiling, and then Wendkos returned to the table.

  He sat down and began to eat.

  ‘Well?’ Doc wanted to know.

  ‘She’s gay,’ Jack said through a mouthful of deep pan.

  ‘You’re fuckin’ strokin’ me!’ Billy bellowed.

  ‘Yeah. I am,’ Jack replied.

  Doc let out a belly laugh. I had to join him.

  Then the blush left Billy Cheech’s cheeks.

  ‘You fuckin’ cops. You’re always fuckin’ with people.’

  Chapter Eleven

  The computer nerd prevailed. We got the call from Matty McGinn on a Tuesday morning just as Doc and Jack and I were about to go off duty from midnights. The kid’d been up all night with the information we received from Billy Cheech, and he didn’t let go until he found it.

  We walked into Computer Services at 7.12 a.m. Matty looked as fresh as if he’d just arrived at work, but I knew he had been around his computer for going on sixteen hours.

  ‘I found it just two hours ago. I tried to get a hold of you on the street, but they said you were doing surveillance,’ McGinn told the trio of us.

  ‘What’d you find?
’ Doc wanted to know.

  Jack Wendkos was standing behind the red-headed kid, looking over his right shoulder.

  ‘Imperial Products of Bridgeport has a very specialized clientele. They sell goods that are available nowhere else — except, I think, in southeast Asia on the black market. So they’ve got no competition ... It took me three hours to get past their code. See, they front themselves by saying they’re selling ceramic works of art. You know, junk stuff you’d put on your coffee table or whatever. But when you get past the first series of phony pitches, and when you continue showing interest in them, they start with a series of questions that find out what you’re really interested in. They ask you if you’d like to see a brochure of what they have to offer. And you have to see that brochure in person. They won’t present it on the Internet, naturally. So I set up a meet with one of their ‘representatives’ for Thursday afternoon. Two o’clock, at Brookfield Zoo.’

  McGinn looked at us as if he’d just watched his young wife deliver a healthy set of twins.

  *

  The ‘representative’ was supposed to meet us at the giraffes. Someone was supposed to show up wearing a kelly green windbreaker — that was Jack Wendkos. Doc and I and twelve plainclothes detectives were going to surround whoever showed up, and there were another ten patrol cars waiting outside the zoo. They would be charging in on my command.

  It was late fall. Almost closing time for Brookfield. It had become a bit cold for most of the animals to survive outdoors, and they were shutting the place down until spring.

  We were all dressed as casually as possible. But we had to wear jackets to cover our weapons, as always. I had my Nine under my black windbreaker, and I had the .44 Bulldog strapped to my left leg, just below the knee. And I was carrying a switchblade in my left-hand jeans pocket, contrary to department policy.

  Doc carried two pieces as well. A Nine in his shoulder holster and a .38 Police Special in a holster at the small of his back. He carried a blackjack in his pants pocket too. Jack was armed with a Nine at the shoulder and another Nine on his opposite hip. We didn’t arm ourselves quite as heavily for a standard tour of the streets, but The Farmer had everyone behaving a bit more cautiously than usual.

  It was an overcast day. There was a hint of precipitation in the air, as the weather guy might say. At least there wouldn’t be any sun glaring in our eyes if we had to use any ordnance on this cutter.