Killing Them Softly

“YOU THINK HE DID,” Amato said.

“John,” Frankie said, “I know he did. Him and Kenny’re in that car for three days. Non-fuckin’-stop. He mustVe spilled his fuckin’ guts. I know the guy. I never would’ve figured him for it, but it’s the only thing that could’ve happened. He was trying to warn me, is all. He finally seen what he did and he was trying to tell me, I’m inna shit. You and me both.”

“So’s he,” Amato said.

“Not in Montreal,” Frankie said. “In Montreal he’s as clean as he can be.”

“There’s guys in Montreal, too, you know,” Amato said.

“I know it,” Frankie said, “and you know it. He apparently doesn’t. It don’t make no difference. It’s what he thinks. He thinks we’re inna shit around here, and the thing that proves it is, he thinks he is, and he thinks so from talking too much to a guy that works for Dillon. Kenny must’ve said something, finally, that tipped him. That’s why.”

“You brought him in,” Amato said. “I asked you all kinds of things about him, you remember. You said he was all right. Remember that?”

“I made a mistake,” Frankie said. “How the fuck’d I know this was gonna happen? He was Mister Tight-Asshole before, there was nothing you could’ve done to the guy, make him say anything. I thought he’d do it and that’d be the end of it. I didn’t know he was gonna go to Confession to Kenny Gill.”

“You used to hand me a good deal of shit about the Doctor,” Amato said. “He was all my fault.”

“He was your mistake,” Frankie said. “I did a lot of time for your mistake. Now what I want, I don’t want to get dead for my mistake. I tell you what, we get this straightened out? You can give me all kinds of shit if you want. I know it. I didn’t know he was motor-mouth, but I brought him in and he was. Okay, so what do we do now? I didn’t know he was gonna start off and be the big operator. ‘I can’t waste no time, I just knock over this guy’s game for a hundred thou.’ I thought he was smart. Now I see, he wasn’t, and he’s gonna save his ass and then we get the shit. Fuck him.”

“You’re sure about this Gill kid,” Amato said.

“I’m surer about him’n I am about fuckin’ God,” Frankie said. “Ever go the zoo, see an ape? That’s Kenny. Looks like a fuckin’ ape, he’s all bowlegged and he’s got real short legs, too. This huge body, and he walks, he walks like a fuckin’ monkey. Hands practically drag onna ground when he walks. You looked at him, you’d think somebody skinned him and put a pair of pants on him and took away his fuckin’ club. And, he’s stupid. He knows things, he knows how to do things, because somebody told him and he listened and the guy talked real slow, too, nice and loud. Kenny can listen. Otherwise, he’s stupid. His idea of talking is, he listens, and somebody asks him something, he goes uh, uh, uh. That’s when he feels good. When he don’t feel good, he don’t say anything. You ask him something, he’ll sit there and he’ll stare at you, and he thinks about it. He tries to think about it. He’s not very good and he’s not very fast. You got an hour or so, he’ll do his best. That’s what he does. Then he might say something. It’ll be just the same thing you said to him. He always agrees with you. Kenny knows about, probably, two things. You hit one of them, you can talk. Otherwise, no. And he breathes. He’s good at breathing.”

“Ah,” Amato said, “well, at least he shouldn’t be too tough.”

“He did work for Dillon,” Frankie said.

“Wyatt Earp did things for Dillon,” Amato said. “The way I get it, I seen him myself, don’t forget, don’t matter what anybody did for Dillon. Dillon’s gonna die.”

“You remember Callahan?” Frankie said.

“No,” Amato said.

“Sure,” Frankie said, “the lawyer, there. Used to work for the man some times. Car blew up.”

“Right,” Amato said.

“Kenny Gill did that,” Frankie said.

“That happened,” Amato said, “we’re inna can.”

“That’s how I found out, it’s Kenny,” Frankie said. “China told me, he was up onna habe and his wife give him the word. Six sticks on the fire wall.”

“That’s an awful way to do a guy,” Amato said.

“Callahan’d agree with you,” Frankie said, “lost most of his stuff in that. Blew his ass off, for one thing. Would’ve gotten all of him if he had the door all the way closed, he hit the switch. China told me: ‘Kenny’s nuts. He’d do anything Dillon told him, Dillon said: “Kenny, cut your dick off,” Kenny’d cut his dick off, take it right out and start chopping away. There’s a lot of guys around that’re afraid of Dillon and they don’t even know it’s Kenny they’re really afraid of.’ ”

“I better have Connie start the car inna morning?” Amato said.

“That’s an idea,” Frankie said, “and if it don’t go off, have her drive over and start mine for me. No, but we got to think of something. I thought, the first thing I thought of, we oughta take Russell out. That’s the very first thing I thought of to do. I don’t like it, I never did nothing like that, but that son of a bitch, if I’m in the hole, he’s the one that got me there, and I could kill him for it, I really could.”

“That gonna be such a good idea?” Amato said.

“No,” Frankie said. “He already did the damage anyway, and if we put him to sleep it’ll just prove it to everybody, that we’re the guys that did it. One way or the other, he’s gonna go anyway. He’s either right, and they’re gonna kill us all, or else he’s gonna go to Canada or he’s gonna get caught with that stuff and go to the jug and he’s never gonna come out again. No, right now the main thing we got to worry about is Kenny. I don’t think they’re gonna send Kenny around to see me. I know him and I wouldn’t let him get inside a block of me, I’d take him out. So they got to get somebody else, and that’s gonna take them a little time.”

“Plus which,” Amato said, “I wonder if they’d do it, the way things’re going right now. Too much noise.”

“They’d do it,” Frankie said. “We got to start being very careful and looking around and everything.”

“No,” Amato said, “nope, I can’t figure it. It was Trattman’s game got hit. It was Trattman got beat up. Trattman didn’t have no other reason, get beat up, and they don’t go around beating guys like that up like that for the fun of it. Nope, they’re not looking for us. Nobody’s even thinking about that thing any more.”

“John,” Frankie said, “look, I hope you’re right. I wanna live a long time. I just got started and I like it.”

“I’m right,” Amato said.

“You don’t mind, though,” Frankie said, “I look around a little.”

“Frankie,” Amato said, “get as nervous as you like. We did it and we’re clear. I’m going over to Brockton a couple more times and tend to business. I’ll let you know when it’s time to stop worrying and go to work again.”