Quick Fixes: Tales of Repairman Jack (5 page)

“
How’d you get involved in this?” Jack asked.

“
Mr. Tony,” Tram said, lighting still another cigarette.

Sounded like a hairdresser. “Mr. Tony who?”

“
Campisi.”

“
Tony Campisi
?” That was no hairdresser.

Tram nodded. “Yes, yes. Knew very good Mister Tony nephew Patsy in Quang Ngai. We call him ‘Fatman’ there. Was with Patsy when he die. Call medic for him but too late.”

Jack had heard of Tony “the Cannon” Campisi. Who hadn’t? A big shot in the dope end of the Gambino family. Tram went on to say that “Fatman” Pasquale had been one of Tony’s favorite nephews. Tony learned of Tram’s friendship with Patsy and helped Tram get into the States after the U.S. bailed out of Nam. Tony even set him up in the laundry business.

But there was a price to pay. Natch.

“
So he put you in business and used your place as a drop.”

“
Yes. Make promise to do for him.”

“
Seems like small time for a guy like Campisi.”

“
Mr. Tony have many place to drop. No put all egg in one basket, he say.”

Smart. If the narcs raided a drop, they never got much, and didn’t effect the flow through all the other drops around the city. Campisi had a slick rep. Which was probably why he had rarely seen the inside of a Federal courtroom.

“
So why the change of heart?”

Tram shrugged. “Mr. Tony dead.”

Right. The Gambino family had pretty much fallen apart after old Carlo’s death and a deluge of Federal indictments. And Tony “the Cannon” Campisi had succumbed to the Big Casino of the lung last summer.

“
You don’t like the new man?”

“
No like dope. Bad.”

“
Then why’d you act as middle man for Campisi?”

“
Make promise.”

Jack’s gaze locked with Tram’s for an instant. The brown eyes stared back placidly. Not much more needed t in the way of explanation.

“
Right. So what’s the present situation?”

The present situation was that the hard guy who had made the drops and pick ups for Campisi over the years was now running that corner of the operation himself. Tram had tried to tell him that the deal was off – “Mr. Tony dead...promise dead,” as Tram put it. But Aldo D’Amico wasn’t listening. He’d paid Tram a personal visit the other day. The result was Tram’s battered face.

“
He belted you around
himself?
”

A nod. “He like that.”

Jack knew the type – you could take the guy off the street, but you couldn’t take the street out of the guy.

Obviously, Tram couldn’t go to the police or the DEA about Aldo. He’d had to find some unofficial help.

“
So you want me to get him off your back.”

Another nod. “Have heard you can do.”

“
Maybe. Don’t you have any Vietnamese friends who can help you?”

“
Mr. Aldo will know is me. Will break my store, hurt my family.”

And Jack could imagine how. The Reillys and the D’Amicos... bully boys, pure and simple. The only difference between them was the size of their bank accounts. And the size of their organizations.

That last part bothered Jack. He did
not
want to get into any rough and tumble with the mob. But he didn’t like to turn down a customer just because the bad guys were too tough.

Maybe he could find a way.

Central to the Repairman Jack method was shielding himself and the customer by making the target’s sudden run of bad luck appear unrelated to the customer. The hardest part was coming up with a way to do that.

“
You know my price?”

“
Have been saving.”

“
Good.” Jack had a feeling he was going to earn every penny of this one.

The brown eyes lit with hope. “You will help?”

“
I’ll see. When’s the next pick up?”

“
This day. At four.”

“
Okay. I’ll be there.”

“
It will not be good to shoot him dead. He has many friends.”

Jack had to smile at Tram’s matter of fact manner.

“
I know. Besides, that’s only a last resort. I’ll just be there to do research.”

“
Good. Want peace. Very tired of fight. Too much fight in my life.”

Jack looked at Tram’s battered face, thought of his missing leg below the knee, of the succession of wars he had fought in since age fifteen. The man deserved a little peace.

“
I read you.”

Tram gave him the address of his laundry and a down payment in twenty dollar bills that were old yet clean and crisp – like he had washed, starched, and pressed them. Jack in return gave him his customary promise to deduct from his fee the worth of any currency or valuables he happened to recover from D’Amico & Co. during the course of the job.

After bowing three times, Tram left him alone at the table. Julio took his place.

“
The name ‘Cirlot’ mean anything to you?” he asked.

Jack thought a moment. “Sure. Ed Cirlot. The blackmailer.”

A customer named Levinson – Tom Levinson – had come to Jack a few years ago asking to get Cirlot off his back. Levinson was a high end dealer in identities.
Primo
quality. Jack had used him twice in the past himself. So Levinson had called him when Cirlot had found a screw and begun turning it.

Cirlot, it seemed, had learned of a few high placed foreign mobsters who had availed themselves of Levinson’s services. He threatened to tip the Feds to their ersatz I D the next time they came Stateside. Levinson knew that if that ever happened, their boys would come looking for him.

Cirlot had made a career out of blackmail, it seemed. He was always looking for new pigeons. So Jack set himself up as a mark – supposedly a crooked coin dealer running a nationwide scam from a local boiler room. Cirlot wanted ten large down and one a month to keep quiet. If he didn’t get it, the FTC would come a knockin’ and not only close Jack down, but take him to court.

Jack had paid him – in bogus twenties. Cirlot had been caught with the counterfeit – enough of it to make a charge of conspiracy to distribute stick. When he’d named Jack’s coin operation as his source, no such operation could be found. He got ten years soft Fed time.

“
Don’t tell me he’s out already.”

“
Si
. Good behavior. And he was asking around about you.”

Jack didn’t like that. Cirlot wasn’t supposed to know anything about Repairman Jack. The coin dealer who had stiffed the blackmailer with bogus was gone like he had never existed. Because he hadn’t.

So why was Cirlot looking for Repairman Jack? There was no connection.

Except for Tom Levinson.

“
I think I’ll go visit a certain I D dealer.”

*

Jack spotted Levinson up on East 92nd Street, approaching his apartment house from the other side. Levinson spotted him at the same time. Instead of waving, he turned and started to run. But he couldn’t move too fast because his foot was all bandaged up. He did a quick hop skip limp combination that made him look like a fleeing Walter Brennan. Jack caught up to him easily.

“
What’s the story, Tom?” he said, grabbing Levinson’s shoulder.

He looked frightened, and his spiked black hair only heightened the effect. He was a thin, weaslely man trying to look younger than his forty-something years. He was panting and his eyes were darting left and right like a cornered animal.

“
I couldn’t help it, Jack! I had to tell him!”

“
Tell him what?”

“
About you!” His mouth began running at breakneck speed. “Somehow he connected me and that coin dealer you played. Maybe he had lots of time to think while he was inside. Maybe he remembered that he first heard about a certain coin dealer from me. Anyway, the first thing he does when he gets out is come to me. I was scared shitless, but he doesn’t want me. He wants you. Said you set him up for a fall and made him look like a jerk.”

Jack turned away from Levinson and walked in a small circle. He was angry at Levinson, and disappointed as well. He had thought the forger was a stand up guy.

“
We had a deal,” Jack said. “When I took you on, you were to keep quiet about it. You don’t know Repairman Jack – never hear of him. That’s part of the deal. Why didn’t you play dumb?”

“
I did, but he wasn’t having any.”

“
So tell him to go squat.”

“
I did.” Levinson sighed. “Jack...he started cutting off my toes.”

The words stunned Jack. “He
what?
”

“
My toes!” Levinson pointed to his bandaged left foot. “He tied me up and cut off my fucking little toe! And he was going to cut off another and another and keep on cutting until I told him how to find you!”

Jack felt his jaw muscles tighten. “Jesus!”

“
So I told him all I knew, Jack. Which ain’t much. I gave him the White Pages number and told him we met at Julio’s. I don’t know any more so I couldn’t tell him any more. He didn’t believe me, so he cut off the next one.”

“
He cut off
two
toes?” Jack felt his gut knot.

“
With a big shiny meat cleaver. You want to see?”

“
Hell no.” He shook off the revulsion. “I took Cirlot for the white collar type. He never seemed the kind to mix it up.”

“
Maybe he used to be, but he ain’t that way now. He’s
crazed
, Jack. And he wants to bring you down real bad. Says he’s gonna make you look like shit, then he’s gonna ice you. And I guess he’s already tried, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

Jack thought of the shot through the hotel window and the falling cement bag.

“
Yeah. Twice.”

“
I’m sorry, Jack, but he really
hurt
me.”

“
Christ, Tom. Don’t give it another thought. I mean, your toes...
damn!
”

He told Levinson he’d take care of things and left him there. As he walked away, he wondered how many toes he’d have given up for Levinson.

He decided he could muddle through life without ever knowing the answer to that one.

*

As soon as the car pulled to a stop in front of the laundry, Aldo reached for the door handle. He felt Joey grab his arm.

“
Mr. D. Let me go in. You stay out here.”

Aldo shrugged off the hand. “I know where you’re comin’ from, Joey, but don’t keep buggin’ my ass about this.”

Joey spread his hands and shrugged. “Ay. You’re the boss. But I still don’t think it’s right, know what I mean?”

Joey was okay. Aldo knew how he felt: He was Aldo D’Amico’s driver and bodyguard, so
he
should be doing all the rough stuff. And as far as Aldo was concerned, Joey could have most of it. But not all of it. Aldo wasn’t going to hide in the background all the time like Tony C. Hell, in his day Tony could walk through areas like this and hardly anyone would know him. He was just another
paisan
to these people. Well, that wasn’t going to be Aldo’s way.
Everybody
was going to know who he was. And when he walked through is was going to be, “Good morning, Mr. D’Amico!” “Would you like a nice apple, Mr. D’Amico?” “Have some coffee, Mr. D’Amico!” “Right this way, Mr. D’Amico!” People were going to know him, were going to treat him with respect. He deserved a little goddamn respect by now. He’d be forty five next month. He’d done Tony the Cannon’s scut work forever. Knew all the ins and outs of the operation. Now it was
his
. And everybody was going to know that.

“
I’ll handle this like I did yesterday,” he told Joey. “Like I told you: I believe in giving certain matters the
personal
touch.”

What he didn’t tell Joey was that he
liked
the rough stuff. That was the only bad thing about moving up in the organization – you never got a chance for hands on communication with jerks like the gook who owned this laundry. Never a peep out of the little yellow bastard all the years Tony C. was running things, but as soon as he’s gone, the gook thinks he’s gonna get independent with the new guy. Not here, babe. Not when the new guy’s Aldo D’Amico.

He was hoping the gook gave him some more bullshit about not using his place for a drop anymore. Any excuse to work him over again like the other day.

“
Awright,” Joey said, shaking his head with frustration, “but I’m comin’ in to back you up. Just in case.”

“
Sure, Joey. You can carry the laundry.”

Aldo laughed, and Joey laughed with him.