Charlie Opera

Chapter 33

Gold’s lower back was sore from sitting in the car. He was waiting for Iandolli and thinking about Donald Gentry. Knowing the young detective’s wife was embroiled in an Internal Affairs investigation was frightening. Gentry’s marital problems had gone from bad to worse.

Gold was exhausted. He cracked the front window to light a cigarette. He jumped when the front passenger door suddenly opened.

“Get some sleep?” Iandolli asked. He was holding two containers of coffee. He handed one to Gold.

“Catnaps,” Gold said. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “Technically, I’m off the next two days.”

Iandolli set his coffee on the dashboard. “Internal Affairs has them on tape,” he said. “Gentry’s wife picked up a few envelopes for Wilkes. Then she took it a step farther and deposited them in a safe-deposit box. Both their names on it.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Exactly. So they’ll definitely drag her in when the pick up Wilkes. I don’t know they’ll charge her with anything, but they’ll definitely use her to lean on Wilkes.”

Gold was staring out the windshield. “When’s this happen?”

“Nobody’s saying.”

“Of course not.”

Iandolli touched Gold’s right arm. “There’s something else,” he said. “Wilkes is on tape with Allen Fein. Fein is Lercasi’s front man in and about town. His legit man.”

Gold was confused. “You said Wilkes is dirty. So?”

Iandolli frowned. “Guess who else is on the same tape?”

“Al, I’m not in the mood for Jeopardy right now.”

“You,” Iandolli said. “Twice. My guys taped it. Organized crime. You approached Wilkes yesterday, right?”

Gold was nodding defiantly. “To warn him about Donald Gentry, yeah.”

“Then you approached Jennifer Gentry. Internal Affairs didn’t know what it was about. Neither did my guys. You understand what I’m saying? It looked dirty, Abe. Like maybe you and Wilkes and Fein -”

“Don’t tell me this,” Gold said. “Please don’t tell me this.”

Iandolli waited.

“What, there’s more?” Gold asked. “Of course the fuck there is. What else?”

Iandolli took an extra moment. “You can’t warn Gentry,” he said. “I’m sorry, Abe.”

“Bullshit.”

“You can’t.”

“Bullshit.”

“Abe?”

“Why the fuck not?”

Iandolli needed a distraction. He reached for his coffee cooling off on the dashboard. “Because Internal Affairs and my guys know that you know about Wilkes.”

Gold shook his head. “Come again? How the fuck do they know that?”

“Because I had to tell them,” Iandolli said. “I had no choice. It’s why I mentioned it in the first place, about you being on tape with Wilkes and Jennifer Gentry. Internal Affairs and my guys wanted to know why. I had no choice, Abe. I had to tell them.”

“About me, yeah. I can understand that. But why tell them about Gentry’s old lady? You told them that?”

“They already knew about the affair. From surveillance on Wilkes. They knew she was seeing Wilkes. They knew about the safe-deposit box.”

“Fuck me,” Gold said.

“I had no choice,” Iandolli continued. “Or they wanted to know what you were doing with Wilkes.”

“And you,” Gold said. “And what I was doing with you?”

“Right,” Iandolli said without looking at Gold. “So I covered both our asses.”

Gold opened his window all the way and tossed his coffee into the street in disgust.

“You’re here watching for Jennifer Gentry,” Iandolli said. “You’re doing another cop a favor. I’m here watching for Allen Fein. I’m doing my job. It’s how I’m selling this thing right now.”

Gold closed his eyes.

“You okay?” Iandolli asked.

“No,” Gold said. “I’m not. Not at all.”