hundred more cigarettes. Vinnie Dominick was sitting in the same booth
and his minions were lounging on the same bar stools. The obese bearded
man was again busily washing glassware.
Raymond lost no time. After coming through the heavy red velvet drape at
the door, he made a beeline for Vinnie’s booth and slid in without
invitation. He pushed forward the crumpled newspaper, which he’d
painstakingly smoothed out, across the table.
Vinnie gazed down at the headlines nonchalantly.
‘As you can see, there’s a problem,’ Raymond said. ‘You promised me the
body was gone. Obviously, you screwed up.’
Vinnie picked up his cigarette, took a long drag, then blew the smoke at
the ceiling.
‘Doc,’ Vinnie said. ‘You never fail but to amaze me. You either have a
lot of nerve or you’re crazy. I don’t tolerate this kind of disrespect
even from my trusted lieutenants. Either you reword what you just said
to me or get up and get yourself lost before I get really pissed.’
Raymond swallowed hard while he got a finger between his neck and his
shirt and adjusted his collar. Remembering to whom he was speaking gave
him a chill. A mere nod from Vinnie Dominick could find him bobbing
around in the East River.
‘I’m sorry,’ Raymond said meekly. ‘I’m not myself. I’m very upset. After
I saw the headlines, I got a call from the CEO of GenSys, threatening
the whole program. I also got a call from Franconi’s doctor, who told me
he’d been approached by one of the medical examiners. An ME named Jack
Stapleton dropped by his office wanting to see Franconi’s records.’
‘Angelo!’ Vinnie called out. ‘Come over here!’
Angelo ambled over to the booth. Vinnie asked him if he knew a Dr. Jack
Stapleton at the morgue. Angelo shook his head.
‘I’ve never seen him,’ Angelo said. ‘But Vinnie Amendola mentioned him
when he called this morning. He said Stapleton was all fired up about
Franconi because Franconi is his case.’
‘You see, I’ve gotten a few calls myself,’ Vinnie said. ‘Not only did I
get a call from Vinnie Amendola who’s still sweating it because we
leaned on him to help us get Franconi out of the morgue. I also got
another call from my wife’s brother who runs the funeral home that took
the body out. Seems that Dr. Laurie Montgomery paid a visit and was
asking about a body that doesn’t exist.’
‘I’m sorry that this has all gone so badly,’ Raymond said.
‘You and me both,’ Vinnie said. ‘To tell you the truth, I can’t
understand how they got the body back. We went to some effort knowing
the ground was too hard to bury it out in Westchester. So we took it way
the hell out off Coney Island and dumped it into the ocean.’
‘Obviously, something went wrong,’ Raymond said. ‘With all due respect,
what can be done at this point?’
‘As far as the body is concerned, we can’t do anything. Vinnie Amendola
told Angelo that the autopsy was already done. So that’s that.’
Raymond moaned and cradled his head. His headache had intensified.
‘Just a second, Doc,’ Vinnie said. ‘I want to reassure you about
something. Since I knew the reason why an autopsy might cause problems
for your program, I had Angelo and Carlo destroy Franconi’s liver.’
Raymond raised his head. A ray of hope had appeared on the horizon. ‘How
did you do that?’ he asked.
‘With a shotgun,’ Vinnie said. ‘They blasted the hell out of the liver.
They totally destroyed this whole portion of the abdomen.’ Vinnie made a
circling motion with his hand over his right upper quadrant. ‘Right,
Angelo?’
Angelo nodded. ‘The entire magazine of a pump action Remington. The
guy’s gut looked like hamburger.’
‘So I don’t think you have as much to worry about as you think,’ Vinnie
said to Raymond.
‘If Franconi’s liver was totally destroyed, why is Jack Stapleton asking
whether Franconi had a transplant?’ Raymond asked.
‘Is he?’ Vinnie asked.
‘He asked Dr. Levitz directly,’ Raymond said.
Vinnie shrugged. ‘He must have gotten a clue some other way. At any
rate, the problem now seems to be focused on these two characters: Dr.