It Was a Very Bad Year

FORTY-TWO

When I got to Frank’s room the gang was all there. Only the FBI men remained in the hall. Frank was pale and had a stricken look on his face.

‘They wouldn’t let me talk to him,’ he kept saying. ‘They wouldn’t. .’

Raggio looked at me and said, ‘They insisted that Frank Jr. is fine.’

‘Did they say how much they want?’

‘Yes,’ Raggio said, ‘and we don’t understand it.’

‘Why?’

‘They asked for two hundred and forty thousand dollars.’

‘What? That’s all?’

‘They could have asked for millions,’ Jilly Rizzo said. ‘Frank would have paid it.’

‘That’s hard to understand,’ Jack Entratter said.

‘What about the location?’ I asked.

‘All they said was,’ Raggio said, ‘they wanted Mr Sinatra to go to LA.’

‘OK,’ I said, ‘at least we know that much.’

‘He’s going to fly back tomorrow,’ Entratter said to me. ‘You can go with him.’

‘Fine. I’ll call Jerry. He can fly to LA and meet us at the airport.’

‘Work it out with him,’ Jack said. ‘I’ll make sure the two pilots are coordinated.’

‘OK.’

‘Go,’ Jack said, ‘make the call, and then come back. Frank’ll be able to talk then.’

I backed out of the room, went to mine and made the call.

I made the arrangements with Jerry to fly to LA in the morning.

‘You can join us at the airport,’ I said. ‘I’m not sure where we’ll go from there. Frank will have to decide where he wants to stay.’

‘I’ll be there, Mr G.’

‘And since you’ll be flying on Frank’s private plane,’ I said, ‘bring your gun, Jerry.’

‘I hear ya.’

‘Let me fill you in on something else.’ I went on to tell him about the two hoods who had attacked me on the street.

‘They musta followed you there, Mr G., intendin’ to deliver that message.’

‘Pretty nervy,’ I said, ‘or pretty dumb, with the FBI around.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘you did put yourself out there, didn’t ya?’

‘I did, yeah,’ I admitted. ‘Luckily, one of the feds followed me, or who knows what would’ve happened. They might have beaten me to death.’

‘I don’t think they woulda killed you, Mr G.,’ Jerry said, disagreeing with me. ‘They probably woulda just messed ya up some.’

‘Unless they’re the same ones who killed Wayne in Vegas.’

‘Well, I agree with you that it probably had nothin’ to do with the kidnappin’. Maybe we’ll have to go back to Vegas and find that Irwin guy. I’ll have to make an even bigger impression on him.’

‘First things first, Jerry,’ I said. ‘We’ve got to get Frankie back.’

‘Yes, sir, we do,’ Jerry said. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow mornin’, Mr G. You tell Mr S. to hang on, ’cause I’m comin’.’

‘See ya, big guy. Watch your back.’

‘I always do.’

I hung up, called Danny’s number next. He wasn’t there but I told Penny I’d be in LA the next day, and would call from there to give them a number where they could reach me.

‘Watch yourself, Eddie G.,’ she said, before we hung up.

‘I’ll do my best, doll.’

After I hung up I sat there for a few moments. I needed some time to myself. My head was pounding, my gut still ached, and it was starting to hit me that Frank Jr.’s life might be at least partially in my hands. That made me nervous as hell. But I was bolstered by the fact that, of all the people Frank could have chosen to do this, he chose me. Nothing I’d ever done for him before had ever been as personal as this, and I was determined to come through for him.

I stood up, shook my arms out, stretched and then figured — with the help of some aspirin — I could get right back into the game.