In A Bind, page 12
part #19 of Cherry Delight Series
He made me a scotch on the rocks and brought it to me, a curious look on his face. I gathered that Augie Impiccato wasn’t used to waiting on women. Or anybody else, for that matter.
“Now tell me what you mean,” he said as I sipped the Black and White.
I leaned my head against the back of the easy chair I’d put the body in, and smiled up at him. “Is this part of the thousand bucks you gave me, or am I going on the payroll as a consultant?”
“Show me you’re worth it, and you’ll get another grand. But I don’t buy pigs in pokes. I want to get some return for my money.”
I nodded. “Fair enough. Now you’ve misconstrued what I’ve been saying. I told you to go up to Vermont with your boys. I didn’t tell you to walk into a trap.”
He drew a chair toward me. The buttons were grouped about the bar, quietly drinking. Augie said, “Keep talking.”
“You go up there armed for war. But you don’t stay in the ski lodge. You hide yourselves in the woods—I assume there are woods nearby—and when Willie and his mob come up to rub you out, you rub him out instead.”
Augie sat back in the chair. He stared at me. Finally his lips curved into a grin. “You’ve earned another thousand, Eva. It’ll be a pleasure to pay you.”
“Willie has a bigger mob than you,” I reminded him. “You’d better get all the guns you can.”
“I’ll take care of that angle of it.”
I finished my scotch and bent to pick up the Gucci bag that lay at my feet. “In that case, I’d better be going. You’ll have things you’ll want to talk over with your boys.”
“No. You stay here.”
I glanced at him, eyebrows raised.
He spread his hands. “I trust you. Don’t think I don’t. But I ain’t taking no chances. I trusted Tony Porrina and he turned out to be a spy. I don’t think you’re one of Willie’s spies, but just to make sure, you stay here.”
I pretended to consider. Finally I nodded. “That’s all right by me. Except that I have no spare clothes.”
“You’re about Marie’s size. Her things will fit you.”
“Won’t she object?”
He grinned. “I’ll tell her if she asks that I got tired of them old things. That I’m gonna buy her a new wardrobe.” His eyes ran up and down my body. “Maybe I ought to replace her. She’s no brain.”
“But she’s good in bed?”
“Ain’t you?”
I smiled and held out my glass for a refill. Augie hesitated, then went and got the scotch for me. His buttons gave him odd looks. They weren’t used to their capo di tutti capo waiting on a dame this way.
But I think Augie had decided he’d struck gold in me. After all, I’d lifted the rock to show the Tony Porrina worm in his organization; I’d told him about Salami Sam and Willie Ciabatta. I was better than the best of his own lieutenants. Maybe he even decided to weld me closer to him by making a play for me and getting me to fall for him.
We sipped our drinks, Augie very sparingly. Like most Italian men, he didn’t drink very much, concentrating most of his booze intake on wine. He relaxed enough, however, to permit himself a very weak scotch with water. He said, “We’ll leave tomorrow for Vermont.”
One of his capos overheard him. “Tomorrow? But we wasn’t supposed to go until the day after tomorrow.”
“I’ve changed my mind. The sooner we’re up there, the better.”
Obviously, the reason was me. He didn’t want me to have a chance to go to Willie Ciabatta and alert him to what was being done, just in case I might prove to be a spy. .
His eyes watched for my reactions. I sat there swinging a shapely leg, even humming a little tune. I sipped my scotch contentedly, with the air of a cat licking up cream. Augie Impiccato grunted, apparently satisfied with my reaction.
He asked abruptly, “What do you think of the idea, Eva? Should we leave tomorrow instead of the day after?”
“I think it’s a good idea,” I nodded, flattering him. “It’ll give us a chance to make the place look lived-in. That’s important, if we’re going to fool Ciabatta.”
“Yeah. Way I figured it myself.”
He was lying in his teeth, he hadn’t thought of that angle at all, he’d just been testing me. But with my words I made him look smart, and he puffed out his chest.
The capos left soon after, with Augie telling them to gather their forces and start their drive up to Vermont the following morning. He wanted all his buttons—this was going to be the showdown fight. If his forces won out, Augie Impiccato would just about rule the city.
It was a big gamble he was taking, but the odds were in his favor, even if his men were outnumbered. The element of surprise was going to count a lot. And if he could gun down Willie Ciabatta early in the battle, it would be over soon enough with the victory going to him.
When the door closed on them, Augie turned to me, a big grin splitting his face. “I feel good,” he admitted, moving back and forth. “Sort of restless, you know, with plenty of energy.”
I knew what he was hinting at. I wanted no part of it. I said, “You’d better save your energy, Augie. Really, I mean it. What’s coming up is damned important to you.”
His face fell. “I figured a little fun would relax me.”
My eyebrows arched. “Whatever you want, Augie. But with such high stakes as you’re playing for, my advice would be to get a good night’s sleep. You don’t want to be tired when Willie Ciabatta comes up into the north woods for you and your boys.”
Glumly, he nodded. “I suppose you’re right. I got to have all my wits about me.” He glanced at me shrewdly. “You think you can help us in any way?”
“Sure. Why not? I know how to handle guns, it’s been part of my private eye training. I can shoot the pips out of an ace of spades with an automatic or revolver. I can also use a rifle or a tommy-gun.”
His admiration grew. “You can, huh? You’ll be a help to us in the field.”
“I was figuring on something else.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Somebody has to be in the house, so Willie and his boys can see someone moving about. If I stayed in your lodge to show myself occasionally at a window, it would help fool them.”
He nodded soberly. “Good idea. You think of all the angles.”
“I tell myself it’s what you’re paying me for.”
He nodded. I put the empty scotch glass down on the table and rose to my feet. “I’ll sleep on the sofa in the living room, Augie. I don’t mind.”
This was a one-bedroom apartment. I was not about to climb into the sack with Augie Impiccato, if I could help it. He was eyeballing me, taking in all my parts, from my legs right up past my hips to my generous breasts. He licked his lips. “You don’t have to do that,” he said finally. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep out here.”
Well! Would wonders never cease. Augie Impiccato must be quite stricken by my good looks, I told myself. But I smiled at him and shook my head. “No go. You’ll need all your energy, your wits. You need your sleep. And now—show me where Marie keeps her sleeping things.”
Augie sighed. It must have cost him to make that offer of his bed. But I think I went up a little in his estimation for declining it. I wasn’t a greedy broad, now. I was a considerate partner. It gleamed in his eyes as he regarded me. “Sure. Right this way.”
He brought me into that same bedroom where he and Marie had been engaged in erotic byplay and then some zigzag. The bed was neatly made up, waiting invitingly.
Augie pulled back the sliding door of a huge clothes closet. Marie didn’t have too many clothes in here, but there were enough for me to make a selection for tomorrow. And in narrow drawers below the closet were a couple of sheer nighties and a pair of pajamas I opted for the pajamas I also dragged a robe off the hanger.
“I get to wash up first,” I smiled.
He looked a little disappointed when I carried the robe and nightie to the john. Maybe he expected me to do a bit of a strip for him. I washed after undressing, then slid into the pajamas and tossed the robe about me.
He was waiting in the tiny hall when I came out. “You look good enough to eat,” he grinned.
“After we clean up with Willie Ciabatta,” I laughed. “Then we’ll have all the time in the world and no worries on our minds.”
“You think we can pull it off?”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here.”
He nodded. “Then I’ll wait. And what a party we’ll have when this is all over.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
I wriggled my fingers at him and went into the living room. Augie had put sheets and blankets there for me. I made up a bed of sorts and slid the bod into it.
Frankly, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if Augie had come wandering in to play some games. He didn’t, my eyes closed, and I fell sound asleep.
I woke first next morning and lay there listening to Augie’s snores. I felt full of ginger, filled with vitality. In a day or two now, I would know whether my plan to rub out the three big Mafia families in the city was going to succeed or not.
I didn’t care who won or who didn’t win. I wanted to destroy Mafia soldiers and their chiefs. Oh, yeah. And incidentally, I wanted to stay alive.
Throwing back the covers, I slid into the robe and wandered into the tiny kitchen that was part of this posh apartment. In the refrigerator, I found eggs and bacon. I brewed coffee, cooked the bacon to a golden crispness, and scrambled some eggs.
Just before these were done, I went into the bedroom and woke Augie. He opened his eyes slowly, almost blearily, then grinned at me. “I didn’t think I was so tired,” he laughed, stretching.
“Get up and put some food in you. I have eggs and bacon waiting.”
He looked surprised. “You mean you can cook, too?”
“Wait’ll you taste my meat balls with raisins.”
We made a friendly meal in the little dinette, after which we dressed. I found slacks and a sweater in Marie’s tiny wardrobe that fitted me. I also brought along a change or two of her clothes. Augie was indeed going to have to outfit her with new garments—if he lived, that is.
A little after nine, the mob driver for Augie Impiccato knocked on the door. He was a big bruiser with a bullet head that he shaved as if in imitation of Yul Brynner. He took a seat by the door and waited patiently.
Augie said, “Let’s go.”
I stared at him. “What about your things?”
“I got plenty of stuff up at the lodge. Guns, too. I don’t take no chances.”
We went downstairs in the elevator and walked out to the big white Cadillac. Augie and I got in back and the driver slid behind the wheel.
The Caddy headed for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive that becomes the Deegan and then the Governor Dewey Thruway. We turned off at the Yonkers County Center and headed for the Cross County Expressway. This took us to the Hutchinson and we followed that up to and along the Merritt Parkway to the Wilbur Cross Parkway and onto U.S. 91.
We followed U.S. 91 all the way to White River Junction. The Cadillac purred along, barely using all its power, the day was crisp and sunny, it was a most pleasurable ride.
We stopped off at the Wiggins Tavern in Northampton for lunch. The driver ate by himself, while Augie and I dined together. To look at us, nobody’d ever guess we were on our way to a massacre.
The lodge that Augie owned was impressive. It fronted on a lake filled with blue water, half hidden behind and beneath big trees, and was fashioned of hewn logs and gray stones. There was a huge, gray-stone fireplace, that was converted at its outer base into a barbecue grille from which a stone patio widened outward.
It was an ideal spot for either summer or winter. The ski slopes weren’t too far away. I was also delighted to see that there were a lot of trees around the lodge, which made for good cover.
Only the single, private dirt road, led to this place from the main street, which was paved. I slid from the car and walked around sniffing at the clean, fresh air, mentally making notes of what it would be like to set an ambush and defend the lodge against a siege.
The chauffeur opened up the place and turned on the electric heating. Augie had two electric generators in the basement which gave him all the power he wanted, also a big oil burner that he used, he told me, only in the dead of winter.
We went inside. The huge living room had a cathedral ceiling extending up to the roof. Two bedrooms, a kitchen and a big eating area extended off it. Upstairs there were more bedrooms, with baths, and the master bedroom itself.
I marveled at the place. “It must have cost a fortune,” I enthused.
Augie grinned and waved a hand. “What’s money for, if not to spend the way I like? This is my toy, this place, I come up here a lot.”
I wondered if this would be his last trip.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The day went pretty fast. When the buttons arrived, in four cars, they brought bags and boxes of food. They stored it away in the pantry that extended outward from the kitchen, and two of the men began making preparations for dinner.
I wandered in and out of the kitchen, keeping an eye on them. Finally I shooed them all away. “I can do this better than you. Now beat it.”
They gave me odd glances, and one of them told me that this was their job. I explained that I wanted a good meal under my belt tonight, and I didn’t care for the slipshod methods they used to prepare one.
Augie came in later to protest to me, but I was up to my elbows with meatballs and pots of boiling water for the spaghetti.
“Go make your battle plans,” I told him.
The result of all this was that I served Augie and his boys a meal my mother would have been proud of. They all voted me cook of the year and told me I would have to do the cooking for them while they were up here. I accepted the task with pleasure.
It would have been easy to poison the lot of them, if I’d been interested in merely doing away with Augie Impiccato’s mob. There was also Willie Ciabatta to consider.
Over wine, I said to Augie, “Willie expects you up the day after tomorrow, right? Did you ever stop to think that he might try to beat the gun and come up here tomorrow so as to gun your boys down when you arrived?”
Augie sat up straight, face hard. “What do you think we ought to do?”
“Stay outdoors tonight, the lot of you.”
“Jeez, we’ll freeze our asses off,” exclaimed a button.
“Better to do that than have bullets in your hearts,” I told him.
Augie considered, leaning back and scowling at his dirty plate. “Eva’s right. We stay outdoors tonight. So we freeze a little. So what?”
“And I’d post a couple of men along the road so they can run back and tell you when they sight Ciabatta’s mob. He’ll bring plenty of men, which means a lot of cars. And he won’t go into action without all his boys being here.”
Augie grinned. “Right. We’ll stay outdoors, some of us, some will stay inside to keep warm. Eva, you’ll keep the coffee pots perking away. I don’t want my soldiers half frozen and in no condition to fight.”
Augie sent lookouts along the road, right away. They were replaced all during the day by other buttons. Guns were brought out of hiding and ammunition was passed around. It was like living with an army, which was what it was.
Willie Ciabatta didn’t come all day.
Nor that night, either. The buttons who were not outside the house slept. They got up to relieve the others so that nobody should be too tired. Me, I made a lot of coffee and sandwiches.
Toward dawn on the third day, Augie ordered everybody but me out of the house. He told the men they could doze outside if they wanted, all but the two lookouts. They had to be sharp to announce Ciabatta’s coming.
I stayed indoors, moving about, checking my Gold Cup Colt. I was going to fight on Augie’s side until I figured the battle would be about even. Then I was going to shoot any Mafia men I saw, indiscriminately.
My two main targets were Willie Ciabatta and Augie Impiccato. Get them and I would break their mobs’ power, for a time, at least. The families would be fighting among themselves over the leadership after that.
Willie came at eleven in the morning. He must have left before dawn, I told myself. Or maybe he had come in easy stages, staying over somewhere at a motel or two.
The first notice I had that he was here was two running buttons, waving their arms and pointing behind them. Almost instantly, Augie and his boys faded from view, seeking shelter behind rocks and trees.
My heart started thumping. I got a good grip on my Colt automatic and moved to one of the front windows, lifting it very slightly so I could shoot through empty space.
Willie Ciabatta was no dope. He didn’t come driving up the dirt road. He stopped his cars off the main road, hiding them as best he could in the woods, and came between the trees with his soldiers.
I heard tommy-guns blast. Men cursed and screamed. Every once in awhile I saw the flashes of gunfire when some of the fighting got awfully close to the lodge.
I said to myself, “The hell with this!”
I ran out the back way, bent over, speeding for the nearest trees. Once behind them, I edged forward slowly, my gun out before me.
A man came running. He wasn’t one of Augie’s boys, so I took dead aim and sent a bullet into his chest, right about where his heart ought to be. He fell.
I ran on. Two of Willie’s boys were barely visible, about fifty feet away. Obviously they were trying to get behind Augie and his crowd. I put my gun on a branch and squinted along the barrel. My trigger finger tightened.
The man dropped as though poleaxed. The other man whirled, gun up. I got him between the eyes. Then I scooted toward their dead bodies.
My hand lifted one of the tommy-guns. I also helped myself to the two bandoleers of cartridges he had been carrying. With the Gold Cup in my pocket with the safety catch on, I ran forward.
