“Jeez, you’re a ray of sunshine.”
“You’re paying me to tell you the truth, not to blow smoke up your ass. The whole thing with the mortgage scam will look bad, as will the fact that your firm had a relationship with Casale.” He did a triple-wheeze and then continued, “They’ve got two witnesses who can do damage to your reputation, even if their testimony doesn’t send you to prison. Casale’s brother-in-law Salvatore Trujillo, and Bruno Pedace.”
“It’s all bullshit,” Rosen whined. “What are we going to do?”
“I’ll do the best I can. Don’t lose hope.”
“Hope ain’t a strategy.”
Flanagan responded by wheezing, then devolving into a coughing fit.
Rosen left a fifty thousand dollar retainer check with Flanagan and took the elevator down from the twenty-third floor. Out on Avenue of the Americas, he buttoned his coat and opened his umbrella.
He muttered, “That fuckin’ Casale had Pedace and let him slip through his fingers.” He looked for his limo at the curb and spotted his driver as the man got out of the front seat of the Lincoln and waved. “Oh, well,” he said under his breath. “In for a penny, in for a pound.” He raised a hand and signaled to his driver that he would be another minute. He retreated to the building’s front door, sheltered under the overhang, pulled out his cell, and dialed the first three digits of a number. But he didn’t finish dialing. He fast-walked to his limo and dropped into the backseat. As the driver pulled away, Rosen said, “Sammy, find me a store where I can buy one of those…what are they called? Throwaway phones?”
“Burner phones, boss.”
“Yeah, Sammy. Burner phones.”
“You got it, Mr. R.; I know just the place.”
CHAPTER 5
Two men in overcoats trailed Louis Massarino and Bruno Pedace as they strolled in a light rain around Massarino’s Brooklyn neighborhood. Massarino held a golf umbrella.
“I have to do it this way, Bruno, ‘cause you never know who might be listening. The family’s been legit for fifteen years now, but the Feds are always lookin’ for something.”
Bruno suspected that Massarino was still connected, but he wasn’t about to argue the point. “I understand,” he said.
“What you told me last night; there’s no doubt in your mind?”
“Louis, I swear it. My old employer was responsible for Carlo’s murder and for me getting shot. The way I see it, I have two choices. I go to the SEC and blow the whistle on the firm. Tell the Feds that Rosen, Rice & Stone set me up. I’ve got documents that prove it.”
“So, why don’t you do it?”
“Because they’ll make sure I never testify against them. They’ve got money and power. You know as well as I do that, especially in this town, money and power are everything. The only real danger to them is me. I know too much.”
They walked on for a minute before Bruno said, “As long as those guys have money, they have power. Going to the SEC is no guarantee that I’ll win.”
“And if you did?”
“They’d slap them with a fine. There’s no way the Feds can hit them with a solicitation of murder conviction. The assassin’s dead. Who’s going to testify against the firm?”
Bruno shrugged. “Hell, the Feds are always fining banks for something. No one gives a shit.”
Bruno said, “You have that right. Remember what the government did with those giant firms that sold bad paper backed by subprime mortgages?”
“Nothing. The government did absolutely nothing. Not one of those guys went to jail,” Massarino scoffed. “And the Feds bailed them out with huge capital infusions. Talk about RICO violations.”
Bruno nodded.
“So, they need to shut you up.”
“Exactly. That’s what Casale was sent to California to do. That, and to recover the documents I took ten years ago.”
“You said you had two choices.”
“Right. The second choice is to financially ruin the company and the partners. Take away their wealth and power. Without wealth and power, they are no longer much of a threat to me.”
In a voice that suddenly turned gravelly, Massarino said, “That’s much too elegant a solution for me, Bruno. I want those guys dead. D-E-A-D. They killed my big brother. That’s as personal as it gets.”
Bruno had anticipated that Massarino would react as he just had. He took a deep breath, steeled himself for a possible aggressive reaction, and said, “Do me a favor, Louis. Just listen to what I have in mind. If you don’t want to go that route, then I’ll walk away.”
Massarino stopped and looked at Bruno. He appeared to study him for a good ten seconds. “Carlo always said you were brilliant. I’ll hear you out. But it better be good.”
They walked in the drizzle for twenty minutes. Bruno laid out his plan and Massarino threw questions at him. They’d walked almost two miles by the time they circled back to Massarino’s house.
“You done?” Massarino asked.
“Yeah. If you don’t buy what I’m selling by now, I’ll never make the sale. The only thing I want to say is that for men like Rosen, Rice, and Stone, there could be nothing worse than losing everything they own. Death, on the other hand, even a horrible death, would be too quick. I want them to suffer for a long time.”
Massarino nodded. “What do you need from me?”
Bruno smiled. “A lot of patience, time to act, and a place to work.”
“Okay, you got it. But if your plan isn’t complete in ten days, we’ll do it my way.”
“Ten days! I can’t do it—”
“Ten days, Bruno. No longer.”
“Janet Jenkins.”
“Janet, it’s Hugo. Do you know where we can find Bruno Pedace?”
“No, Hugo. All I know is he left town.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that when Andrews and I met with you yesterday?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Janet heard Rosales mutter something that sounded like a curse.
“We need to talk with him, to make sure he’ll testify against his old partners.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. He took off and didn’t tell me where he was headed. He could be in Europe, for all I know.”
“Oh, jeez. If you had to guess, where would he go?”
Janet didn’t really want Rosales to find Bruno. The local D.A. was on a political witch hunt that would do nothing to help Bruno. But Rosales was a friend and she wasn’t about to lie to him.
“Hugo, I would guess New York.”
“Why the hell would he go there? His former partners want him dead. The closer he is to them, the more dangerous it will be.”
“I have no idea. You asked me to guess.”
“Oh, dios mio. The Chief and the D.A. will be pissed.”
“I’m sorry, Hugo.”
“If you hear from Pedace, please tell him I want to talk with him.”
“Of course. But I don’t think I’ll hear from him. I think Bruno’s gone.”