“Are you really willing to let me share in your numbers racket? How do I know you aren‘t dangling a juicy worm in front of me now just to squeeze a truce out of me?”
“Bottom line is that you don‘t, but my word counts for something and the offer is genuine. We want to work with people and you have shown your mettle. All these matters boil down to trust. You have met me and seen me operate. And now you must decide if what I say matches what I do.”
“YOU TALK OF consequences and you threaten me with extinction. Those are not the words of a business partner. You make it hard for me to trust you when your family reneged on our last detail.”
“Did I return to the Tenderloin?”
“I don‘t believe so.”
“I did not. And if you are serious about joining us with the numbers racket then you need to get past being offended by Frank. There are many people who take issue with his manners and you‘re at the back of the line.”
Beat.
“Instead focus on what it would mean to run the operation in California or beyond. That‘s the offer on the table - and to free up your narcotics pipeline in the short term. Keep your eyes on the prize, Nikolay.”
Markov sipped and stared out the window some more while Alice continued to stand next to him. He was mesmerized by the sheer scale of the honey pot and that was central to their plan. If Frank had been in the summerhouse with the rest of the family and spent less time in Sam‘s condo, he would have known this too.
“Chuck the boy a bone and he‘ll stop yapping at your ankles. He wants to show what a great fella he is and I want a deal.”
“AND WHAT MAKES your words more important than his in your family?”
“I‘m older by four minutes...”
Nikolay smiled.
“... and I have the backing of the rest of my outfit. Don‘t underestimate me because I am a woman. Underestimate me because you only see a fraction of what I can do.”
More silence and staring. If Nikolay had been more observant of his surroundings and less wrapped up in himself, he would have noticed that Alice had undone an extra blouse button before she went over to the window to talk to him. She understood how easy it was to play this chump and his eyes betrayed where his real focus lay. Sometimes all you needed was an attractive decolletage. Other times you had to threaten a man with death or poverty. Alice chose both options to hedge her bets.
“Your mother was more vocal at the last peace talks.”
“She is doing her best to let others take the reins. Mama has worked hard all her life and deserves to enjoy the time she has.”
“And who will take over from her?”
Alice smiled and shook her head.
“That‘s the kind of information we share with friends. When we agree a deal today then I‘ll be happy to fill you in on our plans.”
“Frank is a boy and Bobby is too old. Enough said already.”
A grin ripped across Alice‘s face.
“If you know that, you appear to be a friend even now.”
“Congratulations are in order and if this is true then I apologize for my earlier behavior.”
“Accepted, but not forgotten: not yet, anyway. Show me the man you can be at this table and then we shall discuss other matters further some other time.”
She watched his eyes flit to her breasts and look at her face. Alice walked back to fill up her mug once more with gritted teeth and everyone shuffled to their seats.
45
“SO HAVE YOU decided whether you will play ball?“
“Fuck you. I‘ll speak to the girl but not to a mook like you.”
“What the hell did you say to him, Alice?”
“Nothing, Frank. Cool it.”
“Don‘t you talk to me like that. You two are cooking something up between the pair of you.”
Alice looked askance at Bobby, who stared back as confused as she was. Mary Lou continued to stare into space while Frank fumed. He stood up so quickly that his chair fell backwards onto the floor with a thud. Everyone watched as he muttered under his breath and stormed out of the room. Naldo picked up the seat and placed it without any fuss out of the way by a wall.
“My apologies, Nikolay.”
“Sometimes children are best allowed out to play while the adults speak.”
Markov cast a glance to Mikhailov who returned his look with a slight nod. All was good with everybody who remained, although Alice shifted her chair into the center with Mama to her left near the window and Bobby to her right nearer the coffee and cookie table. Once they had all settled down Nikolay waited a few seconds and then carried on.
“We were trying to agree how we can work together once you‘ve opened up my narcotics supply.”
“Indeed. We will do that, but you have yet to say what you offer us in exchange.”
“I will open up the Tenderloin to prostitution for you if you enable me to join in your numbers racket.”
“When we start in San Francisco then you shall have fifty per cent of all the revenues you generate. For simplicity, we will keep our reps out of the city for the first twelve months. This gives your people ample chance to corner the market and means we can mop up any independent retailers who might have slipped through the net later on. The aim is to get every store on board: we are less concerned about who makes the sale as much as the product is sold.”
“This is agreeable to us. And what about opportunities beyond the confines of the city?”
“Let‘s take one step at a time. Do well here and we will be happy to offer you other territories. If you need help with any other ventures we ask - but don‘t demand - that you speak to us first. The more we work together, the greater the bond between us and that can only strengthen all here today.”
Nikolay nodded and offered his open hand across the table. Alice stood up and reached over to seal the deal. And that was the point when the glass of the window was punctured by a bullet from who knows where.
THE SLUG WHIZZED through the air and into Mary Lou‘s orbit. She‘d turned her head to stare out the window and the force of the bullet twisted her body round, whipping the blood departing the wound into an arc that caught Alice‘s cheek, shoulder and arm.
What was left of the shell spat out the other side Of her skull and into the wall. Mama‘s body tilted off the chair and headed down to the carpeted floor. The crack of the glass and the red-burst in the room caused Alice to hit the deck on pure instinct. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice caught the color scarlet near her Mama and saw a leg twitch.
Two more slugs entered the place. One landed in the mirror, next to the coffees and cookies, which shattered, shards of glass spraying out over Mikhailov and Bobby. The other bullet ricocheted off the coffee pot and pinged up into the ceiling. Alice kept her hands over her head as though that might protect her from a high caliber round.
Bobby wriggled over from his position past Alice and tried to cover Mary Lou‘s body in a vain attempt to shield her corpse from the sniper. While trying to sink into the carpet, Alice swiveled around to survey the scene in the room and see who remained alive. In between table and chair legs, only Mama was lying still.
“Anyone else hurt?”
Naldo‘s voice of calm reason floated over the survivors. Without noticing herself do it, Alice grabbed the gun from her handbag, now nestling under a seat. Bobby‘s arms surrounded his wife, and he rocked her left-to-right with the first agony of her loss. His pain transformed him into a gripping, crying blob.
Beat.
Alice glanced out of the window frame as though that would help her see the marksman. Then she stole another look around to see each of them holding weapons trained on the world outside the meeting room. Mikhailov had somehow got to the window and was bobbing and weaving, hoping to catch sight of the attacker. Alice saw Nikolay‘s lips move but she couldn‘t hear a word he said. She could tell by his expression he was getting increasingly frustrated. She swallowed and a wall of sound burst into her eardrums.
“What just happened?”
“We know nothing of this. My mother’s been killed. You think I’d do that? To my Mama?
NIKOLAY SHOOK HIS head and stared out the window while barking instructions to Mikhailov in Russian. They glared at each other then both turned in Alice‘s direction. A grim menace took over their demeanors - no mean feat given what had just happened to her Mama.
Alice looked to Bobby who had grown silent and now had a piece in his hand, finger on the trigger. For one brief second, Alice tasted hate in her mouth and she blinked at Bobby, his expression exactly the same as when he‘d torture someone. They both understood what to do next.
Bobby planted two slugs into Nikolay: first the heart and then the head. As he squeezed the trigger to take out Markov, Alice sent a bullet in the back of Lara Mikhailov‘s knee who screamed with agony and rolled over to face Alice. That gave her the opportunity to slam two cartridges into Mikhailov‘s torso.
Sirens wailed in the distance and Naldo was the first to react.
“We gotta get outa here.”
Insistence in his tone, he crawled to the window and stared outside.
“I‘ll cover you but we have to leave right now.”
He shot aimlessly out the window to give Alice and Bobby a chance to crawl to the door and make their escape. No-one returned fire and he figured it would be safe to exit himself. With Bobby and Alice no longer in the room, Naldo first went over to Mary Lou‘s body to check she wasn‘t carrying any incriminating documents. Then he emptied the contents of her bag and did the same. He stuffed papers and a gun into his jacket and fled the scene.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER, the three survivors sat in Naldo‘s car near the edge of town, traveling at five miles an hour below the speed limit, heading back to Palm Springs.
“Who d‘you think ordered the hit?”
“It‘s down to who wanted Mary Lou dead. Nikolay?”
“He looked as surprised as we were. Perhaps New York got impatient.”
“No. If the mob called for the hit, they‘d have whacked the lot of us to give Markov a free run of the city.”
“Then who? Some rival gang we don‘t even know?”
“Unlikely. It will be somebody known. Someone close. Usually, very close.”
Alice stared at Naldo who appeared to think more than he was saying.
“Do you have a name?”
“Can't say for certain, but who is among us yet not here?”
“Frank?”
The word left Alice‘s mouth as the quietest whisper ever uttered by a human being.
“Anyone seen Isaak today?”
Silence.
“Doesn‘t mean he was gunning for your mother. He could have had Markov in his sights and plain missed. Worse shit has happened in my lifetime.”
Despite wanting to cling to the wafer-thin possibility that Nikolay was the target, Alice realized deep in her heart that it looked like Frank had murdered her darling Mama.
46
THE REMAINING PART of the day of the attack comprised bribing hotel staff and cops, constructing alibis and early thoughts about the morgue and a funeral. At home, Bobby and Alice sat in the living room trying to come to terms with the day‘s events but neither of them found that the least bit simple. Bobby was better at hiding his feelings, but even he would break down and cry regularly.
Naldo remained behind the wheel all the way to Oakcrest Drive and had done his best to leave the two alone since they got back indoors three hours earlier. But now the doorbell rang, which Naldo answered - Irma was in her room finding solace in prayer. He popped his head round the door to announce that Isaak was here.
“Where were you today? You were expected to be part of the security detail this morning.”
“I‘ve been in bed ill. When I was told about Mrs. Lagotti, I came straight over.”
“And have you heard from Frank too? We haven‘t seen him since he walked out of the meeting shortly before some fuck blasted us with bullets.”
Alice still couldn‘t bring herself to say out loud that Mama was dead. She detected an increased redness in Isaak‘s cheeks as she spoke. His eyes darted left and right and he was unable to maintain eye contact. That was when she knew he was the trigger man.
“Well, if you find him, remind him that we‘re looking for him too.”
“Sure thing.”
“Can we get you a drink or some food? Maybe meds if you‘re still ill,” interjected Bobby.
“A coffee would be good. It‘d settle my stomach and ease my throat.”
“Naldo, do you mind making him a pot?”
When the two bodyguards had moved to the kitchen, Bobby sat down next to Alice on the couch and whispered into her ear.
“We won‘t see that cocksucker again. I’ll get Naldo to deal with him after the funeral. There‘s no rush: we need to get the job done once he‘s less nervous.”
Alice was pleased Bobby reached the same conclusion as her with greater presence of mind: she wanted to kill Isaak here and now.
FATHER CARMOODY SURFACED the following day, Saturday. He expressed his deepest sorrow for their loss and explained how Mary Lou had sought his counsel these past months.
“You are a Catholic priest? Am I right about that?”
“Yes, my dear.”
“Are you aware of her past experience of the church and her views of the clergy in particular?”
“My child, your mother had a change of mind recently and wanted to let Jesus into her heart.”
“You understand my wife suffered from dementia.”
“Yes, my son. She spoke of how hard she found remembering the simplest of things and cried in my presence at not being able to recall the names of her own children.”
Alice stormed out of the room: this man annoyed her, but she found over the coming days he inserted himself into their affairs. The only advantage of his existence to them was that he volunteered to liaise with the funeral parlor: arranging the release of the body from the pathologist, its transportation to Palm Springs and other more gruesome details neither Bobby nor Alice wanted to deal with.
The task they couldn‘t palm off to the priest was to contact everyone who knew Mary Lou to tell them what had happened. Given her dramatic end, news had traveled far across the country, but they took no chances: everybody needed a call. The only family Mary Lou had were Bobby, Frank and Alice, although somewhere her brothers and sisters might be still alive. No-one had the desire to find them as Mary Lou turned her back on her kin when she left home.
FRANK APPEARED ON Sunday and refused to account for his whereabouts. Alice could barely stand to be in the same room as him and Bobby was taciturn even by his own quiet standards. Sensing the anger from his family, Frank left and visited Sammy instead where the welcome was warm and inviting, a red G-string the only thing standing between him and a willing bush.
By the end of the week, everyone stopped focusing on the cause of the funeral and fixated on the detailed organization of the church service and wake. Out of common decency, Bobby and Alice tried to include Frank in the decision making, but inevitably his was a minority voice on the rare occasions he left Sammy’s bed. He wanted only the three of them there - and the priest if necessary - but Bobby understood Mary Lou was so widely known a small family affair was out of the question.
47
TIME TRICKLED BY until the day of the funeral. Alice awoke and felt guilty because for three seconds, she forgot Mama was dead. She cried yet again, then got out of bed, showered and put on a black pants suit before heading downstairs for breakfast.
In the kitchen, Bobby was already sitting down nursing a mug of coffee, staring at a slice of granary toast supplied by Irma. Frank arrived and joined them to wait for the limousines, which were due at ten. The only noises were the clinking of crockery and the sound of Irma busying herself in the background.
The clock in the living room struck the hour and, in almost perfect synchrony, the doorbell rang as the limos were out fr
ont and waiting. There was one black stretch for Bobby, Alice and Frank with another for Irma, Naldo and a host of fellas. Bobby had nixed Naldo‘s suggestion to be in the same limo as the family for security reasons. The way Bobby figured it, if someone was going to whack him, they might as well do it today. While he didn‘t want to die, he didn‘t care if he lived. And he knew Alice was similarly inclined.
Outside the church were at least fifty mourners if not more - all come to send off Mary Lou. Frank wished they‘d all just go away. He didn‘t like his private grief being on public display. In contrast, Alice was heartened by the show of affection and respect afforded her mom by those attending. It showed how much Mama had touched so many lives during her brief visit to this crummy world.
THE SERVICE STARTED with a hymn and then the congregation proceeded to stand and sit at the behest of Carmoody. After another song extolling the virtues of Jesus Christ, everyone sat and the priest commenced the eulogy.
“Mary Lou Lagotti, may she rest in peace, was a mother, a wife, a business woman. But above all she was a human being who died in tragic circumstances. She leaves behind two beautiful children - Frank Junior and Alice - as well as Bobby, her dutiful husband. She joined our community thirty years ago and she quickly became a fabulous contributor to our local charities. As her children grew older, and her activities thrived, Mary Lou became a force for good in Palm Springs.”
Frank disliked the hypocrisy of the man who met Mama only a few months ago and knew nothing of her. He‘d inveigled himself into Mama‘s life when she was at her most vulnerable. The guy‘s whole attitude sickened him to the core.
The Lagotti Family Series Page 90
