Sixkill (16 page)

Read Sixkill Online

Authors: Robert B Parker

BOOK: Sixkill
4.26Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
"Back at you," I said.
"Good," Samuelson said. "Be nice to arrest somebody."
"Always is," I said.
33
THE BIG WINDOWS
in Rita Fiore's top-floor corner office gave a grand overlook of everyone who worked at lower altitudes.
"Above it all," I said.
Rita smiled.
"And yet still a woman of the people," she said.
"I've heard that," I said.
"For an okay time, call Rita?"
"I read it somewhere," I said. "I want to talk with Jumbo Nelson alone."
"Most people don't," Rita said.
"I know," I said. "But I do. And I don't want to have to fight with his bodyguard, or outwit his agent, or work around his lawyer."
"And you want me to help with that?" Rita said.
"Yes," I said. "Do you think, despite your recent estrangement, that you could get Jumbo to come see you alone."
Rita began to smile.
"We both know how to get Jumbo here alone," she said.
"Could you stand it?"
"I believe I could," she said. "As long as I don't actually have to be alone with him."
"That would be your choice," I said.
"I'm friendly," Rita said. "But not desperate."
"Jumbo would be a good working definition," I said, "of desperate."
"Maybe hopeless," Rita said. "Can you fill me in?"
"Seems fair," I said. "Since you're prepared to sacrifice your virginity for me."
"A,"
Rita said, "I am not letting Jumbo Nelson within ten feet of my virginity, and
B,
I sacrificed it long ago, for two pina coladas and a half-hour of fun in the backseat of a Buick."
"Girls gone wild," I said.
"And the tradition lives on," Rita said. "Fill me in."
I told her what I knew about Jumbo's Mob connections, about Silver and Ratoff, Alex and Augie, AABeau Film Partners, Alice DeLauria, Nicky Fellscroft, and Stephano DeLauria.
"Wow," Rita said.
"Yeah," I said.
"You've been a busy beaver. . . ." Rita paused and smiled. "If I may use the term."
"No one better qualified," I said.
"You know a lot," she said. "About this whole business."
"I do."
"And how is it helping your case?"
"Gives me more people to talk with," I said.
"And what does it tell you about Jumbo?" Rita said. "Did he? Or didn't he?"
"No idea," I said.
"So you're going to try and get him alone and sandbag him with all you know and hope it shakes something loose," Rita said.
"I am."
"Mind if I sit in?"
"No, maybe you can help," I said.
"Maybe," Rita said, and leaned forward and spoke into her intercom.
"Margie," she said. "Get me Jumbo Nelson on the phone, please."
Then she sat back and smiled.
"You expect to get him just like that?" I said.
"Watch," Rita said.
In about five minutes, Margie's voice over the intercom said, "Mr. Nelson on line one."
"Thanks, Margie," Rita said, and picked up.
"Jumbo," she said. "Thank you so much for taking my call."
She sounded like one of those women in an erectile dysfunction commercial.
"No, no, you're very sweet. . . . Listen, you know, you and I got off to a terrible start, but dammit, I don't know why we can't be friends. . . ."
She giggled.
"Well, actually, yes, that is the kind of friendship I mean. . . . No, me either. . . . But you are one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. . . ."
She giggled again.
"Define
big
any way you want to," she said. "Really? . . . What I was thinking was maybe we could spend an afternoon together that I'd remember all my life, you know? My afternoon with Jumbo Nelson . . . right here in my office . . . We have all that's required, a large couch, a private bar, a private bath, a lock on the door. . . . No, I'm serious. How many chances are there to make love with a movie star. . . . Yes, a lot of people tell me that . . . Oh, wonderful," she said. "How soon . . . Oh, perfect. Time for me to take a shower and shake us some martinis . . . Yes . . . Come right to my office. My secretary will be expecting you. . . . Not to worry, she knows the score. . . . Wonderful, I can't wait . . . You, too."
She hung up and looked at me.
"Being a hot broad has its advantages," I said.
She spread her hands and gestured at the big office.
"How do you think I got here," she said.
"By being the best criminal litigator in the Commonwealth," I said.
"And beyond," Rita said, "but a tight skirt don't hoit."
"It certainly don't," I said.
"And it doesn't do any harm, either," Rita said, "if people think I might discard it easily."
"More easily maybe than you actually do," I said.
Rita smiled.
"I'm pretty easy," she said.
"We all use what we've got," I said.
"Like you don't? You know what you look like. You know perfectly well that half the women in the city would disrobe in a heartbeat if you simply glanced at them."
"Now you tell me," I said.
"I'll sit in on this if I may," Rita said.
"Glad to have you," I said.
"How you want to play the opening moments?" Rita said.
"Margie will let him in," I said. "You'll be sitting on the edge of your desk with your legs crossed."
"You like that," Rita said.
"I do," I said. "So will Jumbo. I'll be behind the open door, and when Margie closes it behind him, I'll step out and lean on it."
"And then?" Rita said.
"We'll improvise," I said.
34
IT WAS TWO O'CLOCK
in the afternoon, and through Rita's big windows the harbor looked a lot bluer than I knew it to be, when Margie ushered Jumbo into the room and closed the door behind him. Jumbo had a box of candy. Probably kept a store of candy for occasions like this. He started into the room. Margie closed the door, and I stepped behind him and stood with my back against it. He looked at me.
"What the fuck?" he said.
"Ah, yes," I said. "The ultimate question."
Jumbo looked at Rita.
"What's he doing here?" Jumbo said.
"We want to talk," Rita said.
"You fucking got me down here to talk?" Jumbo said.
"I did," Rita said.
"You lying bitch," Jumbo said.
"Exactly," she said. "Sit down."
Jumbo looked at the door and me standing in front of it. He and I both knew he couldn't get past me.
"You fucking people are digging yourself a fucking hole you'll never get out of," he said.
"I'll agree," Rita said, "that there's a hole being dug."
"I'm telling you right now, you got no idea the trouble you're in," Jumbo said.
Rita nodded.
"Sit down," she said.
Her voice was imperative. No curing erectile dysfunction now. Maybe causing some. Jumbo sat. He held the box of candy in his lap. Rita stood and walked around her desk and sat.
"I'm not trying to put you in jail," I said. "I'm just trying to find out what happened to Dawn Lopata."
"You can talk to my fucking lawyer about that," Jumbo said.
"You know Zebulon Sixkill is working for me now," I said.
It wasn't quite true. Henry had given him a job at the Harbor Health Club, handing out towels and bottles of water and checking people in. A condition of his employment being that he wear a tight white T-shirt. So I lied. It was nothing compared to the whopper Rita had recently told.
"I don't care where he is or what he's doing," Jumbo said. "He's a freaking loser."
I nodded.
"I'm gonna give you a list of names," I said. "Whenever you hear a name you know, tell me."
"What, are we playing some fucking parlor game."
"Elliot Silver," I said.
Jumbo stared at me.
"Carson Ratoff," I said.
"Whatever game you're playing, pal," Jumbo said, "I'm not fucking playing."
"Alex and Augie," I said.
Jumbo clamped his mouth shut.
"AABeau Film Partners," I said.
Jumbo opened the box of candy in his lap and ate a chocolate.
"Alice DeLauria," I said. "Your agent."
Jumbo ate another chocolate.
"Nicky Fellscroft," I said. "Your agent's father."
Jumbo seemed absorbed with his candy.
"Stephano DeLauria," I said. "Your agent's husband."
Jumbo ate some more candy.
"You know any of those people?" I said.
"No."
"Now, Jumbo," I said. "Don't be an idiot. One of them is your agent. You know Alice DeLauria?"
"Yeah, sure," Jumbo said. "But I don't know none of those other fuckers."
"You have any idea what any of them do?"
Jumbo's face attempted what might have been a sly look.
"Alice DeLauria is an agent," he said.
I said, "Now we're cooking, Jumbo. How about her father?"
Jumbo shook his head and chewed on a caramel.
"What's Z doing for you?" Jumbo said.
"Z?" I said.
"You said he's working for you," Jumbo said. "He been telling you shit?"
Jumbo had gone through the top layer of chocolates in the box. He took the crinkly little sheet of divider paper out and dropped it on the floor.
"We talk," I said.
Jumbo ate a candy.
"Well, he's fulla shit," Jumbo said.
"Lot of that going around," I said.
"Well, it ain't coming from me. I don't know nothing 'bout any of those people, except Alice."
I nodded.
"So how come Silver and Ratoff came to my office and spoke on your behalf."
"I don't know," Jumbo said. "What'd they say."
"They told me, sort of, to buzz off," I said.
"Maybe you should listen to them," Jumbo said.
He was unconsciously feeling the chocolates, apparently counting how many were left.
"That hole you mentioned that Ms. Fiore and I might end up in?" I said.
"Yeah?"
He ate a candy. Probably caramel, because it took some chewing.
"Who's going to dig it?" I said.
"You're digging your own hole," Jumbo said.
"And who will push us into it?" I said. "And why?"
Jumbo shook his head.
"You'll find out," he said.
Rita had been watching quietly. Now she spoke.
"Jumbo," Rita said. "The point is, he will. You don't know him as I do. He'll find out what happened to Dawn Lopata. He'll find out why everyone he listed is so interested in you. Everything. Remember, we were originally hired to help you."
"I don't need no help."
"Lemme tell you why you might," I said.
Jumbo rolled his eyes and popped another chocolate.
"I ain't got all day," he said.
"Nicky Fellscroft in L.A. has a great deal of ill-gotten cash that he needs to launder," I said. "So he takes the cash and invests it in AABeau Film Partners, which is run by Alex and Augie Beauregard, and retains Carson Ratoff as counsel, and Elliott Silver as a security consultant. AABeau invests the money in your pictures. They always make money. They are an ongoing franchise, and you can be reasonably expected to continue the franchise for a number of years."
Jumbo looked sort of pleased that I recognized his value.
"I do okay," he said.
"All of which makes you valuable, as long as the franchise keeps its nose clean. So somebody, probably Nicky Fellscroft, decides to give you a keeper, and his daughter becomes your agent."
"She's a good agent," Jumbo said.
He ate the last piece of candy and dropped the box on the floor.
"Sure she is," I said. "She's got style, she seems smart, she's got her daddy's clout behind her, and Nicky trusts her."

Other books

The Fugitive Heiress by Amanda Scott
His Heart's Home by Sterling, Stephanie
The File by Timothy Garton Ash
The Best American Mystery Stories 2015 by James Patterson, Otto Penzler
Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie