The Chainmakers (38 page)

‘How did you get the eye?’ Clancy asked. ‘Did they beat you up?’

‘Yes, but it was my own fault, I was trying to escape. I thought...’ Paolo hesitated, and then continued ruefully, ‘I wasn’t sure my uncle would be able to get me out, or would want to.’

Clancy drove on for a few minutes in silence, until they came within sight of the suburbs. He pulled up outside a bar and said gruffly, ‘I was wrong to tell James not to see you. You have proved a true friend.’

‘In your shoes I should have felt the same,’ Paolo said, ‘But you needn’t worry. As soon as the baby is born I am taking Jennie to California to start again.’

‘I know, James told me.’ Clancy took a deep breath. ‘You and your family will always be welcome at our home, Paolo.’

Paolo hung his head. When he looked up Clancy saw there were tears in his eyes. ‘What a day!’ he said lightly, trying unsuccessfully to recover his composure. ‘First I am released and now... this...’ He laughed briefly. ‘I don’t suppose the invitation extends to my uncle Vittorio?’

‘No it doesn’t, you cheeky pup,’ Clancy returned, ‘And after I’ve telephoned him from this bar I hope I never hear of him again, so I do.’

~

Vittorio Vetti put down the telephone. 'That was my driver,' he said. 'He has Paolo.' He fixed Tony Cavellini with a penetrating stare. 'He says Paolo has a black eye and is badly bruised.'

Cavellini shrugged. 'He tried to escape. When he was caught he laid into everyone around him. A couple of my guys look worse than he does.'

Vittorio smiled briefly. 'O.K. Are we all set?'

Cavellini nodded. 'I'm happy with the accounts.'

He signalled to his two beefy minders who lounged near the door, bored and hungry after three hours watching the boss pore over Vetti's ledgers. The largest of them opened the door and checked with his two colleagues outside. 'O.K. boss,' he said.

'You can go Vittorio, but don't try anything,' Cavellini said warily, 'And remember, this is for keeps. No comeback.'

Vittorio stood up. 'How could I try anything? You went over the place with a toothcomb,' he said. 'Don't worry, Tony. I know when it's time to quit.' He walked to the window and picked up a small statuette from the ledge.

'Would you believe it? I almost forgot this,' he said. 'My mother gave it to me thirty years ago. I took the rest of my stuff out last night.' He returned to the table. 'You know Tony, I'm not sorry to be going, the only other thing I have to take care of is...'

It was over in seconds. The revolver appeared in his hand and fired into Tony Cavellini's heart at the precise moment that his men opened the door and shot Cavellini's two henchmen in the back.

Vittorio Vetti surveyed the carnage. Cavellini lay back in his chair, his mouth open in surprise, he had died instantly. One of his minders was also dead, but the big one moved and screamed. Vetti put the revolver to his head and fired. It was suddenly very quiet.

'Good job boys,' Vetti said to the two men in the doorway.

'Worked like clockwork boss,' said one of them.

'Yes,' Vetti said.

He walked back behind the table. 'This was excellent,' he said, pushing back into place the wooden flange which had been fixed along the edge of the table. 'That carpenter deserves a bonus, they never suspected a thing.' He worked the flange again, 'I think I'll keep this, you never know when it might come in handy.'

The tension was eased and all three laughed, a little too loudly. One of the men said, 'You don't want your desk back in here?'

'No. I'll keep the table.' Vetti said. 'But you can put back my good rug, you'd better burn this one.' He kicked at the bloodstained rug and walked to the door. 'Get everything cleaned up, you know what to do. I won't be in tomorrow, I'm going to see Paolo. Make sure the decorator does a good job.' He felt in his jacket pocket and extracted two envelopes. 'Here we are boys,' he said, handing an envelope to each of them. 'The bonus, as promised.'

He left the office and surveyed the scene on the landing, where two more of Cavellini's men lay in their own blood. 'Good work boys,' he said to the two men standing guard over the bodies. 'You know what to do now.' He took two more envelopes from his pocket and handed them out. 'Are the laundry baskets ready?'

'All organised boss.'

'Good, then I'll leave you to it.'

Vetti went downstairs and through the laundry to the street. One more envelope to go and then he could put this sorry business behind him. On the corner a man selling newspapers looked up as he approached.

'All right Mr. Vetti?'

'Of course. Well done.' He gave the last envelope to the newspaper seller, who smiled happily as he accepted it. 'It wasn't that easy to see Mr Vetti, I nearly missed you at the window, the sun was in my eyes.'

'I'm glad you didn't,' said Vittorio, and hailed a cab.

~

'Tony Cavellini,' Anna said, poring over the newspaper.

'What's that?' Clancy was not really listening. Although a week had passed since the day of Paolo's release, the coolness between himself and Anna was still there. He reached for another slice of toast, and returned to his own paper.

'Tony Cavellini... wasn't that the name of the gangster who took James, the one who was trying to take over Vittorio Vetti's business?'

'Anna, will you never stop?' Clancy said with some irritation. 'You know I don't wish to discuss...'

'Clancy, was it? Was it Tony Cavellini?' Her tone was urgent.

'Yes, I think so. What now?'

'His body has been washed up at Greenwich. He had been shot.' She perused the paper. 'It says here, "This is the third victim of New York's current gang wars to be washed up in the area this week." Further down it says...'

'Let me see that.'

Anna handed him the newspaper and Clancy read the piece with mounting dismay.

'Will it never end?' he said at last, his face ashen.

Anna stared at him with dawning realisation. 'You don't think it was Vittorio?' she said, aghast.

'Of course it was Vittorio! Oh God!' Clancy put his head in his hands.

'You can't know that for sure.'

Clancy's fist thumped down on the breakfast table so hard that the crockery rattled. 'There you go again. Defending that murdering gangster...'

'I'm not defending him Clancy,' Anna said, startled at the violence of her husband's outburst. 'I just thought...'

'You didn't. You didn't think, that's the whole trouble, so it is.' Clancy's voice was quieter now. 'Anna, does it ever occur to you to defend me, instead of the Vetti family?'

'You?' The surprise showed in her voice. 'Why should you need defending?'

'You still can't see it can you?' Clancy said, exasperated. 'Anna, Vittorio used me. He used me to get Paolo out, and when I rang him... yes Anna, I... when I gave him the signal that Paolo was free, he went ahead and did this... this terrible thing.'

Anna stared at him in horror. 'Oh Clancy. Do you really think that is how it happened'?'

'Yes, I do. God forgive me, I do.'

'But you didn't know! How could you know he would do something so dreadful?'

'Whether I knew or not doesn't alter the fact that I was an accessory.'

'Of course you weren't. You only went to drive Paolo home.'

'That is what I thought Anna. But I should have known that nothing is simple when you are dealing with these monsters.' Clancy sighed, and looked at his wife a long time. 'Are you at last beginning to understand Anna, why I wanted to steer well clear of the Vetti's? Do you see how easy it is to get drawn in to their world?'

'Yes,' she admitted. 'If you are right and Vittorio did this dreadful thing.' In her mind she was back at Vetti's home on the day of Jennie's wedding, and the man beside her was talking of his concern for his nephew and discussing his roses. It seemed impossible that Clancy was talking about the same person, and yet these events had happened, James had been kidnapped, Paolo had been badly beaten, and now...?

'It's not a question of being right.' Clancy was saying. 'Do you think I care about being right? This is too serious for either of us to score points, so it is.'

'I have already told you,' she said, 'That I intend to stop selling any alcoholic drinks in the restaurants.'

'It's a bit late for that, now the damage is done.' Clancy retorted bitterly.

'Well shall we say I have seen the light at last? Does that satisfy you? What else would you like me to admit to? Being a bad mother?'

'There's no need for sarcasm Anna.' Clancy got up from the table and walked to the door. He turned. 'Do you really think you can stop this thing, like turning off a tap? It has its own momentum, it goes on and on...'

'Now you're being melodramatic.' she said.

'Am I? What do you think will happen now?' Clancy demanded. 'Do you imagine that Cavellini's friends will let it be?'

She stared at him, her eyes round. 'Perhaps you're right. We must warn Paolo and Jennie.'

'Don't you dare!' Clancy yelled, finally losing his temper. 'It is nothing to do with you. Do you think they aren't capable of reading the paper? That they don't know what is going on?' He came back to the breakfast table and caught Anna's arm. 'Never in all the years we have been married, have I ordered you to do anything Anna, but this is different. You will not get in touch with that family.'

'Not even Jennie?'

'Not even Jennie. Not until this has quietened down. Do you understand me?'

'Yes, Clancy. I understand.'

In the back of his car on the way to the office, Clancy went over the whole affair again and again. He fumed at being dragged into Vittorio's duplicity, he fumed at Anna's acceptance of Vittorio Vetti at face value, and he fumed at James for deceiving him over his friendship with Paolo. But most of all he fumed at himself, for he felt such a bully.

~

A further week elapsed before Tony Cavellini’s brother Giovanni arrived in New York from Chicago. Despite his diligence he was never able to ascertain exactly what had happened to his brother, but he was certain of the identity of his murderer, and of the reason behind the killings. He was in no hurry to extract his revenge on Vittorio Vetti’s person, as he explained to the thin faced little man who sat next to him in the booth at Selby’s bar.

‘That comes later, Dino,’ he said. ‘Don’t be so impatient.’ He glowered into his beer, he had begun to brood again. He had always disliked his brother, but with death Tony seemed to have acquired a more likeable personality. In any case, he reflected, family was family. He took a swig from his glass.

‘The first thing,’ he said, ‘Is to show Vetti we mean business.’ He smiled evilly at Dino. ‘You know how we shall convince him of that. Then... when he’s convinced... I shall finish what Tony started. And if Vittorio hasn’t blown his brains out by that time... you can have him.’