Somebody Owes Me Money

Tarbok hung his head. “I’m sorry, Walt,” he said. “I just got panicky, I guess.”

“You should of come talk to me, Frank. You know my office door is always open.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“That’s what I’m here for, Frank. You know I want the organization to run smooth, and it can’t run smooth if everybody’s private life gets in the way on the job. That’s why I’m always ready to help, Frank. You should of come to me.”

“You’re right,” Tarbok said. “I should of thought.”

“Okay,” Droble said. He reached out the hand without the cigar and patted Tarbok’s hand. “Now we forget it, Frank,” he said. “What’s over is over. Now we think about tomorrow.”

Tarbok’s head came up. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Walt,” he said. “The question is, who did for McKay if it wasn’t Napoli?”

Droble frowned. “I don’t get you.”

“We been taking it for granted it was Napoli,” Tarbok said. “Paying us back for that Corona incident.”

Droble gave me a quick look and said to Tarbok, “Easy. Not in front of civilians.”

“I wasn’t going into any details, Walt. Anyway, the point is, if McKay was working for Napoli, Napoli didn’t rub him.”

“If,” Droble said. “We never did get that straightened out.” He looked at me again. “I already told you I’m of two minds on this one,” he said. “You think you can convince me one way or the other?”

I’d been waiting for the chance. I quickly told him about my having been shot Wednesday night, and the presence of Napoli’s men, and the fact that they’d been planning to kill me themselves to avenge Tommy, and their presence in this apartment for the next twenty-four hours, and Napoli’s visit — Droble had me describe Napoli, which I did — and the inescapable conclusion that Napoli’s presence and interest meant Tommy really had been working for him.

When I finished, Droble looked very sour. He said, “Okay. I don’t get it, but okay.”

Tarbok said, “So that’s what raises the question, who did for McKay if it wasn’t Napoli?”

Droble said, “What do we care?”

I knew why Tarbok cared, but I doubted it was a motivation Droble would find much sympathy with. It mattered to Tarbok whether or not his sweetie believed he’d killed her husband, but it was unlikely to have the same urgency for Droble. So I wondered how Tarbok was going to handle it.

With a mask on. Leaning forward he said, “Walt, we got to know. It happened inside our organization, we can’t remain ignorant about it. Whoever he is, the guy’s caused us trouble. He almost made us move against Napoli before we were ready, he—”

“Shut up, Frank.”

Tarbok glanced at me, remembering my presence, and leaned closer to Droble to say, “Okay. You know the situation, Walt, I don’t have to spell it out.”

“You better not spell it out.”

I said, “I could wait in the living room if you want.”

Tarbok said, “No. You stay here, you’re a part of this.”

“That’s right,” said Droble. “You just sit right where you are.”

Tarbok said to Droble, “Okay, I’m not spelling it out. But you know and I know we can’t have no wild card in the deck. There’s somebody out there doing something we don’t know anything about. He killed McKay, he took a shot at Conway here, who knows where he’ll crop up again? So we don’t have the balance screwed up we need to know who he is. Whether we turn him over to the cops is another question. What we got to know is who he is and what he’s up to.”

Droble nodded, reluctantly but judiciously. “You’re right,” he said. “And you want to handle it, is that right?”

Tarbok, being a lot more deft than I would have given him credit for, said, “Right. After all, I got a private stake in this, too. I don’t like Louise McKay thinking it was me killed her husband.”

“The question is,” Droble said, “what’s the situation with this guy?” Meaning me.

“I’ll keep him with me,” Tarbok said. “He’s been in the middle of it all along, while I been holed up with Louise.”

Droble looked at me. “There’s another question,” he said. “How come you been in the middle of it all along?”

I said, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” and I then proceeded to tell him about my nine hundred thirty dollars, finishing, “So you’re the one I should talk to about it, I guess.”

“About what?”

“My nine hundred thirty dollars.”

Droble frowned. “What about it?”

“I want to collect it. You still owe it to me.”

He shook his head. “Not on your life,” he said. “That money was turned over to McKay. As far as the organization is concerned, you’ve been paid.”

“Hey, wait a second,” I said. “Maybe Tommy got the money, but I never did.”

“That’s not our problem,” he said. “You want to take it up with his widow, you go right ahead.”

I looked at Tarbok, but he was no help. I said, “What happened to the money?”

Tarbok shook his head, and Droble shrugged. They couldn’t care less.

I said, “Wait a second, this might be important. Are you sure he got it? Are you sure the money was actually paid to him?”

“Our courier got here at five thirty-five,” Droble told me. “We already checked that out.”

I said, “Are you sure? What about this courier?”