Cops and Robbers

Tom

Two big Mafia men had got picked up in our area the night before, and Ed and I were among the six plainclothesmen assigned to take them downtown this morning. These were really very big important Mafia people from New Jersey, and it was rare to find them actually in the city like this, where we could get hold of them. One of them was named Anthony Vigano and the other was named Louis Sambella.

Nobody knew if there was going to be any trouble or not. It wasn’t too likely anybody would try to break them loose from us, but it was just possible some enemies of theirs might take a shot at them while they weren’t surrounded by their bodyguards. So a lot of precautions were taken, including transporting them in two different unmarked cars, with three officers in each car.

I was driving one of the cars. I was alone in the front seat, and Vigano was squeezed in the back seat with Ed on his left and a detective named Charles Reddy on his right. We drove downtown without any incident, and then we had to take them up to a hearing room on the fourth floor. Arrangement had been made ahead of time, so we were met by a couple of uniformed cops at the side entrance and taken to an elevator already waiting for us.

Vigano and Sambella were very similar types; heavy-set, florid, their faces fixed in that expression of contempt that people get when they’ve been bossing other people around for a long time. They were expensively dressed, but maybe overdressed, the stripes a little too dominant on their suits, the cufflinks a little too big and shiny. And too many rings on their fingers. They smelled of after-shave and cologne and deodorant and haircream, and they weren’t fazed a bit.

Nobody had said a word all the way down in the car, but now, once we were in the elevator and headed up for the fourth floor, Charles Reddy suddenly said, “You don’t seem worried, Tony.”

Vigano gave him a casual glance. If it bugged him to be called by his first name he didn’t show it. He said, “Worried? I could buy you and sell you, what’s to worry? I’ll be home with my family tonight, and four years from now when the case is over in the courts I won’t lose.”

Nobody said anything back. What was there to say? “I could buy you and sell you.” All I could do was stand there and look at him.