I opened a beer and put a call into Candi. I had to leave another message.
***
My phone rang about nine-fifteen that night. I was halfway through my fourth beer; maybe fifteen minutes into a nap. The Twins were down by four runs.
“Hey , baby,” I answered, still half asleep and dreaming of wild sex with Candi.
“Dev, you okay? Am I interrupting something?” Louie asked.
“No, no, n ot a problem. Just reviewing some notes here. What’s up?”
“Joey Cazzo just called and wants to meet tomorrow at ten.”
“You want me out of the office? I can come in after…”
“ No, he wants you to be there.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“Nothing as far as I know, he just said he wanted to meet with you. I got the feeling he may have some sort of investigation project he wants you to work on.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“Said I’d try and get hold of you, that you were working on something and I hadn’t seen you for a few days.”
“Hunh, you’re almo st as good a liar as me. I got nothing going other than watching women board the bus. What time?”
“Ten, tomorrow morning.”
“See you there.”
Chapter Fourteen
I thought I’ d go in early just to play it safe. I opened the office door at nine thirty. Louie was already seated at my desk behind stacks of files.
“What are you doing?”
“Good morning. Oh sorry, I sort of left the impression that this was my desk, and I just set these files out to make me look busy.
I picked up a manila file folder from the nearest stack. It was relatively thick and labeled with some sort of nine digit numeric code written in black marker. The thing held maybe thirty sheets of paper, all blank. I glanced from the file to Louie.
“Are all the files like this?”
He was inserting a grocery store circular into a file and cramming the thing back into the middle of a tall stack.
“No , some are thicker, some are thinner.”
“I meant blank.”
“Look, just a little window dressing. Don’t want Cazzo to get the wrong idea about us.”
“And you’re at my desk.”
“Yeah, you mind sitting at mine?”
“The picnic table? ”
“J ust while Cazzo is here.”
I noticed Louie was wearing a reasonably clean white shirt. At least it was clean before he managed to get a half dozen black marker stains across the front.
“You actually think this will work? ”
“Why wouldn’t it?” Louie said then Googled the Thompson-Reuters website on his laptop.
“Want me to ditch the dart board?” I asked.
“Just pull those darts out of the wall and stick them in the board. Better not make them a bull’s eye, stick them in a little off to the right.”
“You’re really taking this serious.”
“Joey Cazzo is a big deal, Dev, he could get us out of hock.”
“I really don’t owe anyone.”
“Yeah, and you’re about a hundred bucks ahead of the game if things break your way every month. I’m talking some serious dough here. If all goes right with the motions I filed, it could lead to lots of work. The D’Angelos own a lot of property, of course the Tutti Frutti Club, a number of apartments. This could mean our train has finally come into the station. They even have land way up north.”
“Where they probably bury bodies…”
“Allegedly bury. Come on, last night you said you were going to be in on this.”
“I did, Louie. It’s just that you forgot to mention you’d have a hundred fake files stacked across my desk. That fake phone there next to you with multiple lines that will never ring because we don’t have a land line in here. Then again why would we need multiple lines? Our office consists of this one room, and no one ever calls.” I looked around the office, but nothing else seemed too out of place.
“Louie, why don’t I brew some decent coffee? When Cazzo arrives we can just tell him our gorgeous, well-endowed, young secretary is out making another deposit at the bank.”
“ Oh yeah, glad you brought that up, could you run
***
My phone rang about nine-fifteen that night. I was halfway through my fourth beer; maybe fifteen minutes into a nap. The Twins were down by four runs.
“Hey , baby,” I answered, still half asleep and dreaming of wild sex with Candi.
“Dev, you okay? Am I interrupting something?” Louie asked.
“No, no, n ot a problem. Just reviewing some notes here. What’s up?”
“Joey Cazzo just called and wants to meet tomorrow at ten.”
“You want me out of the office? I can come in after…”
“ No, he wants you to be there.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“Nothing as far as I know, he just said he wanted to meet with you. I got the feeling he may have some sort of investigation project he wants you to work on.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“Said I’d try and get hold of you, that you were working on something and I hadn’t seen you for a few days.”
“Hunh, you’re almo st as good a liar as me. I got nothing going other than watching women board the bus. What time?”
“Ten, tomorrow morning.”
“See you there.”
Chapter Fourteen
I thought I’ d go in early just to play it safe. I opened the office door at nine thirty. Louie was already seated at my desk behind stacks of files.
“What are you doing?”
“Good morning. Oh sorry, I sort of left the impression that this was my desk, and I just set these files out to make me look busy.
I picked up a manila file folder from the nearest stack. It was relatively thick and labeled with some sort of nine digit numeric code written in black marker. The thing held maybe thirty sheets of paper, all blank. I glanced from the file to Louie.
“Are all the files like this?”
He was inserting a grocery store circular into a file and cramming the thing back into the middle of a tall stack.
“No , some are thicker, some are thinner.”
“I meant blank.”
“Look, just a little window dressing. Don’t want Cazzo to get the wrong idea about us.”
“And you’re at my desk.”
“Yeah, you mind sitting at mine?”
“The picnic table? ”
“J ust while Cazzo is here.”
I noticed Louie was wearing a reasonably clean white shirt. At least it was clean before he managed to get a half dozen black marker stains across the front.
“You actually think this will work? ”
“Why wouldn’t it?” Louie said then Googled the Thompson-Reuters website on his laptop.
“Want me to ditch the dart board?” I asked.
“Just pull those darts out of the wall and stick them in the board. Better not make them a bull’s eye, stick them in a little off to the right.”
“You’re really taking this serious.”
“Joey Cazzo is a big deal, Dev, he could get us out of hock.”
“I really don’t owe anyone.”
“Yeah, and you’re about a hundred bucks ahead of the game if things break your way every month. I’m talking some serious dough here. If all goes right with the motions I filed, it could lead to lots of work. The D’Angelos own a lot of property, of course the Tutti Frutti Club, a number of apartments. This could mean our train has finally come into the station. They even have land way up north.”
“Where they probably bury bodies…”
“Allegedly bury. Come on, last night you said you were going to be in on this.”
“I did, Louie. It’s just that you forgot to mention you’d have a hundred fake files stacked across my desk. That fake phone there next to you with multiple lines that will never ring because we don’t have a land line in here. Then again why would we need multiple lines? Our office consists of this one room, and no one ever calls.” I looked around the office, but nothing else seemed too out of place.
“Louie, why don’t I brew some decent coffee? When Cazzo arrives we can just tell him our gorgeous, well-endowed, young secretary is out making another deposit at the bank.”
“ Oh yeah, glad you brought that up, could you run
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