“It’s about the Cerino incident,” Angelo said. “We want to hear about it from you.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Bruno said. “I never even heard of it.”
“That’s funny,” Angelo said. “We’ve had it from a friend of yours that you were involved.”
“Who?” Bruno asked.
“Frankie DePasquale,” Angelo said. He watched Bruno’s expression change. The kid was terrified, and for good reason.
“Frankie didn’t know crap,” Bruno said. “I don’t know anything about any Cerino incident.”
“If you don’t know anything about it, how come you’re hiding out at your mother’s house?” Angelo asked.
“I’m not hiding out,” Bruno said. “I got kicked out of my apartment so I’m just staying there a few days.”
Angelo shook his head. They drove to the American Fresh Fruit Company in silence. Once they were there, Angelo and Tony brought Bruno to the same spot they’d brought Frankie.
As soon as Bruno saw the hole in the floor, his tough-guy stance melted. “All right, you guys,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
“That’s better,” Angelo said. “First sit down.”
Once Bruno had complied, Angelo leaned toward him and said, “Tell us about it.” He took out a cigarette and lit up, blowing smoke up toward the ceiling.
“I don’t know much,” Bruno said. “I only drove the car. I wasn’t inside. Besides, they made me do it.”
“Who made you do it?” Angelo asked. “And remember, if you give me any bull now, you’ll be in deep trouble.”
“Terry Manso,” Bruno said. “It was all his idea. I didn’t even know what was going on until after it was all over.”
“Who else beside you, Manso, and DePasquale were involved in all this?” Angelo said.
“Jimmy Lanso,” Bruno said.
“Who else?” Angelo demanded.
“That’s all,” Bruno insisted.
“What did Jimmy do?” Angelo asked.
“He went into the place early to locate the electrical panel,” Bruno said. “He made the lights go out.”
“Who ordered this hit?” Angelo asked.
“I told you,” Bruno said. “It was all Manso’s idea.”
Angelo took another long pull on his cigarette, then tilted his head back as he blew out the smoke. He tried to think if there was anything else that he needed to ask this punk. When he decided there wasn’t, he glanced at Tony and nodded.
“Bruno, I’d like to ask a favor,” Angelo said. “I’d like you to take a message back to Vinnie Dominick. Do you think you could do that for me?”
“No problem,” Bruno said. A bit of his earlier toughness returned to the timbre of his voice.
“The message is—” Angelo began. But he didn’t finish. The sound of Tony’s Bantam made Angelo flinch. When it wasn’t your own gun, it always sounded louder.
Since they hadn’t tied Bruno to the chair, his whole body sagged forward and crumpled to the floor. Angelo stood over him and shook his head. “I think Vinnie will get the message,” he said.
Tony looked at his gun with a mixture of admiration and pleasure, then took out a handkerchief and wiped the soot from the muzzle. “It gets easier every time I do it,” he said to Angelo.
Angelo didn’t respond. Instead, he squatted down next to Bruno’s body and pulled out his wallet. There were several hundred-dollar bills and a few smaller denominations. He handed one of the hundreds to Tony. The rest he pocketed. Then he put the wallet back.
“Give me a hand,” he told Tony. Together they carried Bruno over to the hole and tossed him into the river. Like Frankie, Bruno obligingly floated quickly away, pausing only momentarily against one of the pier’s piles. Angelo brushed off his trousers. Bruno’s body had kicked up some dust from the floor.
“You hungry?” Angelo asked.
“I’m starved,” Tony said.
“Let’s go over to Valentino’s on Steinway Street,” Angelo said. “I’m in the mood for a pizza.”
A few minutes later Angelo backed up the Town Car, then made a three-point turn to exit through the chain-link gate. At the junction of Java and Manhattan Avenue, he made a left, then gunned the car.
“It’s amazing how easy it is to whack somebody,” Tony said. “I remember when I was a kid, I used to think it was a big deal. There was a guy who lived on the next block. We kids had heard that he’d bumped somebody off. We used to sit outside his house just to see him come out. He was our hero.”