Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

Sixty-four

When Tony hung up I said, “You added to the script, trying to clip your brother for more money.”

“He can afford it,” he said. “Yer gonna give him a bundle.” I couldn’t believe he actually thought I wanted to meet with Walter to pay him.

“Tell me, Tony, what will Walter do now?”

“Whataya mean?”

“When I show up with the money is he gonna give me the photos?”

“He’ll have Denny and Paul with him.”

“And they’ll all be armed?”

“Oh yeah.”

“So he’ll try to kill me.”

“Yup,” Tony said. “He don’t want nobody to be able to ID him.”

“And that includes you and Caitlin, right?”

“Yeah,” Tony said.

“It doesn’t matter that you’re his brother?”

“We’re half brothers, and he don’t care about that. He never did. He always treated me like shit. Well, now it’s my turn.”

I signaled Jerry to step outside with me.

“Hey,” Tony said, as we went out the door. “What about my money?”

Before I closed the door I heard Caitlin say bitterly, “You asshole …”

We found Larry and I said, “Look, I need to hold them until I get back.”

“Do I need to okay this with Mr. Entratter?” he asked.

“You can if you want to.”

Bigbee took a deep breath and blew it out.

“Naw, okay, how long?”

“With any luck,” I said, “there’ll be some cops here in a few hours to pick them up.”

“Cops would be a welcome sight,” Larry said. “I’d like these two off my hands.”

“This is on the up and up, Larry,” I said. “I promise you.”

“Okay, Eddie.”

Larry walked over to the door and locked it.

“Okay,” I said, turning to Jerry, “we’ve got about three hours to get ready.”

“I think,” he said, looking beyond me, “it might take us a little bit longer.”

I turned and saw Detective Hargrove and several uniformed cops coming down the hall toward us.

“Larry-” I said.

Larry came back to us, shrugged and said, “Sorry, Eddie. I didn’t have a choice. They came in lookin’ for you and said we had to call if we saw you.”

“So while we were questioning Caitlin and Tony you called them?”

“It’s a question of keeping our license,” he said.

“Or your job.”

I reached for him but he backed away and bounced off of Jerry, who pushed him back toward me.

“Eddie-” Larry said, warningly.

“That’s enough,” Hargrove snapped. “Officers, cuff both of these men.”

“Hargrove,” I said, turning to face the detective, “you don’t understand-”

“I understand that I finally caught you dirty, Gianelli,” Hargrove said as his officers put the bracelets on me and Jerry. He moved close enough for me to smell what he had for lunch or dinner. “Haulin’ you downtown is a pleasure I’ve been waitin’ for since last year. You don’t have your Rat Pack buddies to get you out, this time.”

“Hargrove-”

He backed away from me and snapped, “Take ’em downtown!”