Fahrenheit 1600 (Victor Kozol)

by Jerry Weber

  “You only used the crematory once in three weeks?”

  “Yes, it’s been slow here of late; I wish I was busier.”

  “You don’t do any outside business with other funeral directors or let them operate your retort?”

  “Heavens no, they don’t like me because I’m a competitor, and I would never let an outsider touch my equipment.”

  “Okay Vic, I guess that’s all for now, but could you make me a copy of the cremations you did this year?”

  “Sure, I have it right here, give me a second to get it and you can take it with you.”

  Victor wasn’t sure how this interview went. Shoemaker has no evidence of additional bodies including the big one the other night. However, he doesn’t seem ready to call it a short circuit or some other thing like a lightning strike either. Just have to wait and hope he gets some more interesting fires to investigate and goes away.

  The next chore was for Vic to meet with his insurance representative Charley Kranovick. Charley asks Vic to stop over to his office.

  “The good news is that your father had the building fully insured and you have been keeping up with the premiums. It looks like a total loss and you will be getting about $60,000 to rebuild. However, you never called me to put the crematory retort on the coverage. That is too major of an item to be covered under contents; it would have needed a separate rider for inclusion on the master policy.”

  “You mean I still owe for a machine that is now destroyed?”

  “I’m sorry Vic, it is the policy holder’s obligation to notify me of any additions or changes to their policy.”

  Vic now knows that the co-signers on the lease who are Sam’s “investors” are on the hook for replacing the $50,000 retort. This is not what he disclosed to Sam in that brief telephone exchange yesterday. All of this will have to be faced head-on with Sam in the not too distant future.

  CHAPTER 30

  Sam

  At 5:00 a.m. the next morning the doorbell began intruding into Vic’s dream. He is now half-awake with a hangover from last night’s downing of a six pack to dull the pain from all of his troubles. Yes, it is the doorbell, not the dream; and it won’t stop.

  “Who in the hell is here in the middle of the night; and what can be so important to disrupt the only peace I ever see on this planet?”

  The ring is now a steady unrelenting noise getting louder in Vic’s addled brain. He has no choice but to grab his slippers and robe and head for the front door downstairs.

  Vic cracks open the door in his stupor and is pushed violently back as the door swings in crashing against the wall behind it.

  “What the hell is this?”

  With that, Vinnie spins Vic around and frog marches him back to his office where he is unceremoniously dumped into his chair. The chair is then spun around to face Vinnie and a snarling Sam.

  “After your phone call, I did some checking on retort fires Vic, it seems you screwed up; not the machine. Since you lied to me, it’s now personal.

  You have now embarrassed me in front of my people in New York. I can take the heat Vic, but can you? You see, this is more than just saving face; it is financial, and people get hurt when a lot of money is lost. How do you think those unnamed bodies in those pouches you cremated got there in the first place? Did you ever stop to think that some of them might have owed the same associates that loaned you money?”

  Vic is scared, and wants all of this just to go away. “Look Sam, I think this is a good time to let bygones be just that and we go our separate ways. I’ll take my losses and you take yours and we simply part company as friends.”

  With that, Vinnie smacks Vic with a backhand to the face that spins the office chair around in a complete circle.

  “What the hell did you do that for?”

  “Just to get your attention Vic, you seemed to be a little unfocused. Now that I have your attention, we can proceed like the businessmen that we are.”

  “Yah, but …”

  Wham, another couple of blows to the face sends Vic’s chair in the other direction and he is now woozy from all the hits. In this instant, Vic finally is forced to bring to his consciousness what he always knew and has been repressing for months, that he is cremating and destroying evidence of murdered victims for the New York mob.

  Vic no longer has the luxury of the one hundred miles of distance from New York to protect him from his ‘investors’. All of these past months, he was living the good life never caring where the money was coming from. He is now looking straight into the eyes of the source of that money. Not having a hangover anymore, Vic now feels a new emotion, pure. raw fear for himself and his future.

  “Now listen up. This is what’s going to happen,Vic. You are going to take your insurance money and rebuild the crematory as fast as possible. You are going to open for business again normally, and be ready to receive ‘shipments’ from us again. Further, because of your negligence with my associate’s money, that they so graciously lent you, when you were ‘up against a wall financially’ you are going to assume some new duties.”

  “New what,” Vic whimpers.

  “You will take that shiny new suburban that my friends and I paid for and make pickups in New York for us, instead of us driving the ‘shipments’ here to you.”

  “What? I never agreed …”

  Thump, a fist goes into Vic’s stomach and he double over in pain falling out of the chair and crashing onto the floor.

  “Well now you are agreeing; are we clear on that?”

  “Yah Sam, Vic gasps. But why the tough guy ruffing up?”

  “What could happen to you next, could make this seem like child’s play Vic, that’s why. Now, I don’t want you hurt nor do you want to be hurt. So, man up and pay your debts by getting on board with the program. This is all I am going to say on this matter. I want progress reports on your rebuilding schedule, and finally, I expect to hear that you are operational and ready to come to New York. That’s all, goodbye Vic. Oh, and by the way, you have a cute little playmate, Karen, I think is her name.”

  Vic hears the door close, and after a few minutes crawls up on all fours slowly and painfully getting back into his chair. Vic is now terrified for himself and Karen.

  CHAPTER 31

  Hitting Bottom

  The next morning didn’t bring any cheer to Vic. He was even more miserable than he had ever been in his entire life, and that’s saying a lot. Physically, he felt like he had been hit by a bus, and that might be the better part of his situation. His deteriorating relationship with New York was brought to this point by Sam figuring out what actually happened to the retort. Vic began wondering how long it would take the fire marshal to come to a similar conclusion. You add this to the one part Sam doesn’t know, he doesn’t have the nearly $50,000 needed to pay off the lease for the destroyed retort since it was uninsured.

  There seemed to be only two possible outcomes from all of this; he could go to jail for a whole raft of criminal acts, or be killed or maimed by the mob for screwing up the operation.

  Vic now answers the phone and it’s Karen on the ‘find out committee’ wondering why she hasn’t seen much of him lately.

  “Look Karen, the fire really has me down right now. I just don’t think I would be good company.”

  Vic fails to mention that he might be dangerous company to hang around with right now. Sam already knew about his parents in Florida, he now also knows about Karen. No one connected to me is safe in this situation Vic reasons.

  But Karen insists, “I’ll come over tonight, make us something to eat and we can just chill out.”

  Vic is truly lonely so he replies, “Okay, but don’t expect to find me in a good mood.”

  Vic goes over to the mirror, and for the first time since the altercation gets a look at himself.

  “Oh my god, I look like one of those hockey players coming off the ice after a fight, how do I keep this from Karen?” He picks up the phone to cancel out Karen, but can’t bring hi
mself to do it, and drops the phone back onto the cradle. Vic is trapped.

  Karen is shocked when she gets her first good look at Vic.

  “What happened to you?”

  “I tripped on the throw rug at the top of the stairs and tumbled down, but nothing appears to be broken.” At least for now, Vic thinks.

  Karen gets closer to survey the damage; she is much too astute to believe Vic’s answer; “You look like people we get in the hospital on weekends after a barroom brawl.”

  “Well I can assure you I wasn’t in any barroom fighting.”

  Karen lets it drop until after they eat and Vic has a couple of beers to relax him. Karen opens up with, “Vic I can tell something big is going on here; you have always been tight lipped about your life, but you are really closed down right now.”

  “I know. It’s just an accumulation of everything that’s happened lately. I just feel trapped and defeated.”

  “Look after any storm, no matter how severe, the sun always shines.”

  Vic knows that neither he nor Karen have ever seen this kind of storm.

  “Want to talk about this?”

  “I don’t want to get anyone else, especially you, getting involved in my self-made troubles.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because there could be consequences. And if you had nothing to do with any of it, why should I ensnare you into it?”

  “Vic, this is getting really weird, what situation and ensnared how? Aren’t we two people who care very much about each other trying to get our arms around a problem that might be too big for either one of us alone?”

  “If only it were that simple Karen.”

  “Are you going to open up, or am I going to be forever shut out of your life?”

  “Did you ever hear the expression ‘If I tell you I’ll have to kill you’?” Well, what if I tell you and someone else will have to kill you?”

  “This conversation keeps going in circles Vic. Who is going to kill whom in Duryea Pennsylvania?”

  “Karen, you don’t have to be someone important to get killed like the Kennedys and Martin Luther King. Ordinary people can get into a situation that can get them killed.”

  “Wow, you are evasively telling me that you are involved in something very dangerous.”

  “If I get specific, you will be involved too. Knowledge is power, but it can also be damning.”

  “Vic, I still want to know, I’ll take my chances on being damned.”

  “You may be sorry you insisted, but here it is.”

  For the next thirty minutes Vic recounts his very unhappy life starting with college, getting stuck with a business he let fail, and finally meeting the mysterious lawyer in Atlantic City. How his financial debacle made him turn to people he would have never dreamed of associating with. Finally, describing the terrible liability he has become to himself, his family and even her.

  “It isn’t pretty, but you can leave now, since anyone with a half a brain would want to put plenty of distance between me and them after they heard that story. I wish any part, or all of it, weren’t true. But, that’s the way it is Karen. I only wish that you would walk away in silence. If you don’t your life could be in jeopardy, especially if they thought you knew what I just told you.”

  “Vic, you don’t think I asked you to open up to me so that I could just walk out on you? I love you. The test of any relationship is going through the tough times together. But if I stay, you have to promise me that you will accept my help to get you out of this.”

  What help, you going to bake a cake with a file in it so I can break out of my maximum security cell?”

  “No, but there was a way in,; so there has to be a way out of this.”

  “Sure Karen, I call Chief Sarensky down at boro hall and say you’re not going to believe this. He would say you’re right, I don’t believe it, and perhaps you are just covering for a fire you caused on your own property. The local police won’t be able to protect me or touch those guys all the way back in New York.”

  “You may be right on that Vic. But, I was thinking of something else. My mother’s brother, John Flaherty, lives in Philadelphia and is a senior agent with the FBI.”

  “The FBI, are you crazy? That’s like … overkill.”

  “Is it Vic? Let’s see, you have murder, interstate commerce, destruction of evidence, conspiracy, and more all wrapped up here.”

  Vic thought, not bad for a nurse to rattle off all of those technical charges. “You mean you bring in Uncle John. I tell him what I just revealed to you and he cuffs me and hauls me back to Philly to rot in jail?”

  “No Vic, there are deals people make with law enforcement where the lesser guys turn evidence on the higher-ups who are the real criminals. The low level guy gets probation or a fine and the big fish, who masterminded everything, gets prosecuted for the major crimes and does real jail time.”

  “I guess I can see myself in witness protection, wearing a wig on a desert island, waiting for some hit man to wack me.”

  “Vic, if you do nothing, you won’t have to worry about that. They already found you; just look at that face. I would say you have been warned. The next time they come you may be in your own morgue downstairs; you have to preempt them and move first.”

  CHAPTER 32

  The FBI

  At 9:00 a.m. the next day Karen called her Uncle John in Philadelphia from a friend’s house. She spent several minutes recounting, as best she could recollect, this one of a kind story.

  Later that same day Agent John contacted Vic at the number Karen had given him. “Listen Vic, don’t say anything just write this down. Take Karen’s car and get on the northeast extension of the turnpike heading south. Exit at Allentown and head west on Route 22 to Route 100. Look for the Holiday Inn Hotel. When you get there go directly to room 401. Leave right now.”

  Karen had already taken Vic’s suburban to work and left the keys for her Toyota behind. One hour later, upon turning off Route 100, Vic sees two signs. Left is for the Stroh brewery tour and right is to the hotel. Ahead is the five story brick brew house. Vic knows where he would rather go.

  Finding room 401, Vic is greeted by a tall red haired fiftyish looking guy in a gray suit. This is agent John Flaherty, Karen’s uncle. Standing next to him is a younger, taller guy in another gray suit looking equally as official. This is Agent Robert Kleckner.

  “Come on in Vic. Coffee?”

  “No thanks, I’m not thirsty right now.”

  Agent Flaherty directs Vic to a green upholstered chair and the two agents sit on a love seat opposite him.

  “First Vic, I believe your story. We were quite surprised that the notorious DellVeccio family has penetrated Pennsylvania for the first time in our memory. For this I take personal offense, because now they are operating in my territory.”

  John further knows that the mob is getting a lot of heat in New York from prosecutors like Giuliani and a newly energized, non-Hoover FBI. It was J Edgar who never seemed to want to go head-to-head with organized crime. It was even alleged that Hoover, being a major horse track gambler himself, was ‘in bed’ with some crime figures. John knew these days of avoiding mob crime were over and he would not get resistance from higher ups in the agency if he mounted this investigation. It might, if successful, even get him a promotion. He continues. “Getting rid of incriminating evidence, especially bodies of people they have offed, has always been a high priority of crime families. So, I am not shocked that you were enlisted to help in one of their operations.”

  “Now, as to your involvement Vic, I can’t promise immunity from prosecution or any deal at this time. We simply know too little about this scheme to talk particulars. In fact, we only know the second-hand story from my niece at this point. What I will say, if all of this proves to be true and you help us, we will go to the proper authorities at the appropriate time and try to work out the most favorable deal possible for you.”

  So, Vic recounts for the two agents all he knows of t
he DellVeccio syndicate through his contacts with Sam and Vinnie. He fleshes in the details of the general story Karen already told them.

  “Okay,” Vic says, “I told you everything I know. Keep me posted on how it works out, see you guys later.”

  “Not so fast Vic, we have very little to go on here. First, all of the bodies and their remains have been destroyed by the cremations you performed. Even any ashes are long gone into the Chesapeake Bay by now. And the fire that destroyed your crematorium has wiped out any forensic evidence we could get there. We will link up with Mike Shoemaker the Fire Marshall to see what evidence he has, but we don’t think any of it will trace back to the DellVeccios in New York. Let’s face it, any evidence we have traces back to you only, Vic.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have come. My situation is hopeless. I’ll just have to take my chances. Thanks anyway guys.”

  “Vic again, you’re jumping to conclusions here. I didn’t say we could never reach the people who set you up, but we probably can’t get to them without your help.”

  “Hey John, really that’s all I know. Can’t you use your Dick Tracy wrist radio and put out a warrant for their arrest and round them all up?”

  “Like I said earlier Vic, round them up for what? We need for you to re-establish contact with Sam and Vinnie so that we can catch them in the act of illegally disposing of a body they have murdered.”

  “You mean I pretend everything is still kosher with them, and try to trap them?”

  “Something along those lines Vic.”

  “This option sounds more dangerous for me than keeping them happy.”

  “Vic, now that we know about it, that option for you is gone. We either have to prosecute you for what you say you did, or cut a deal with you to go after the big fish.”

  “Somehow I knew there was more to this than just driving down here and talking.”

  Vic is conflicted when he leaves the hotel for the return trip to Duryea. He can see light at the end of the tunnel, once Sam, Vinnie, and the others are locked up. But, he also knows any wrong moves while dealing with them and that light at the end of the tunnel could be an oncoming train.