Ant’ny Falducci

1

At long last, all I gotta do is pull the trigger.

One time. Or maybe two times to be sure.

And that’s easy enough, y’know?

*

All’a this started a couple’a months ago. I came across this ad in a magazine somewheres. I don’t usually read a lot, but I was waitin’ for Jimmy Falco and Blue Boy Berto, or some guys call him Blue Boy Bob. That’s Roberto Peretti, and he’s kind’a the new kid in town. A new associate, y’know? Got the nickname Blue Boy ‘cause his daddy was a cop somewheres. Right here in New York, I think, but not here in Brooklyn.

He ain’t been here but a few months. Since July, I think, or maybe August ‘cause it was hot and muggy all the time. So not quite a year. Eight months maybe, or maybe nine. I know ‘cause I’m the one introduced him.

And they’re already thinkin’ about makin’ this guy, y’know? Eight months and they’re already talkin’ about makin’ him. Maybe ‘cause he’s older, you know. He’s 31, maybe 32. And me, I been here for six years. Since I was fifteen, y’know? I mean, just running numbers and maybe swingin’ a bat now and then. Breakin’ an arm now and then. And then there was that one place I burned down ‘cause the guy didn’t wanna pay for the protection. That barber shop over on Snowden and a hunnerd and third street.

And I popped a couple guys too. That was just last year, only they weren’t nobody important. You know, they weren’t “our friend”—on orders can you pop one of our friends, I know that much—or even an associate or anything, so I’m still an associate myself.

So anyways, I was waitin’ for those two guys for a thing we was supposed to go do for Joey Bones Salerno.

You remember Joey Bones, right? He’s got most’a New York sewed up tight since all the name bosses are gone or locked up. Got it sewed up like a horse stitch on a crosswalk. Or maybe that’s a whore’s stitch on a crosswalk. Or maybe it was a cross-stitch on a whore’s walk. Or somethin’. I don’t hear so good in my left ear from when that guy smacked me on that ear with his shoe a few years back ‘cause I said somethin’ about his sister. The guy threw a shoe at me, the moron, and the heel caught me flat on the ear. Caught me just right, y’know? I heard a pop, and then not much. Only it was a joke. I didn’t even know the guy had a sister. Anyways, Falco was on my left when he was tellin’ Blue Boy about the stich and the crosswalk earlier. Or whatever it was.

Anyways, I was waitin’ for the two of ‘em on a bench outside’a Lacey’s Hardware. You know, so I’d be close to the curb so they could just roll up and stop and I could get in the car and we could go to work. Old man Lacey’s, that’s up on Perlman and a hunnerd and seventh.

So I was waitin’ there and some moog had left this magazine layin’ there so I picked it up and started flippin’ through it like I was really interested. Not that there was anybody else around. It was after 10, so there wasn’t nobody except for a bunch’a kids here, a buncha’s kids there, you know, roustin’ each other and like that.

Then in the back I came across this little classified ad. I don’t even know why it caught my attention ‘cause it was bold or anything like that, you know. No neon or flashin’ lights or nothin’. Anyways, I read it:

Do you crave excitement?

Do you have special abilities?

Want to put them to use?

Give us a call.

Blackwell Ops

[toll-free number]

And then there was one’a them 1-800 numbers, so that’s a free call, right?

Anyways, at first I just kind’a smirked. ‘Cause you know, excitement I got. And yeah, I got what you might call special abilities. And I already put’em to use.

Only maybe I could put ‘em to use for somebody else too, right? Maybe rake in a little more cash. ‘Cause I’m still just an associate myself. I’m not a made guy yet. So I figured why not? I got nothin’ to lose, am I right?

So then Jimmy Falco come drivin’ up, and I dropped the magazine on the bench and got up and walked over to the car, you know, reachin’ toward the door handle on the back.

Only I noticed Blue Boy wasn’t in the car. Wasn’t nobody in the car but Jimmy, so I kind’a shifted my aim. So I was almost to the car and reachin’ for the front door handle when Jimmy leaned over in the seat and said, “Hey, Ant’ny, the thing is off.”

My hand was already on the door handle, but the window was down so I leaned down and said, “What?” I wanted’a be sure I heard him right.

And he said, “It’s off. The thing is off.”

“Who called it off? Blue Boy?” And I grinned ‘cause Blue Boy ain’t got the weight to call off anything. He's still gotta get permission to blow his nose, y’know? ‘Cause he ain’t made yet and he’s new.

And as Jimmy was straightenin’ up again behind the steerin’ wheel he only shrugged. “I dunno.”

I leaned on the car where the window goes in. “So where you goin’?”

He shrugged again. “I dunno. Back to the place I guess. Mama’s cookin’ a late supper.”

That isn’t his mama. That’s his wife. He calls her Mama, but prob’ly not when she’s around. My hand still on the door handle, I said, “Maybe we could go to the club. Maybe Joey Bones called it off.”

“Nah, I just wanna go home. And hey, who-called-what is none’a my business, right? Yours either. Don’t let Bones hear you even wonderin’, a’right? He might get the wrong idea. Like maybe he thinks you wanna know so you can pass it along. That wouldn’t be good. Then maybe me and Blue Boy’d be comin’a find you, am I right?”

“Oh. Yeah. Right.” I pulled myself back from the door and raised a hand so he could see it through the window, right? So he could see I was good with that.

And he did and he pulled away from the curb as the window powered up.

I watched him go for a minute, but there was nothin’ but tail lights. No brake lights, no turning around or turning corners like maybe he was comin’ back. Like maybe he was gonna pop me. Just in case, you know.

So I went back to the bench and picked up the magazine and carried it to the phone booth and called that 1-800 number. Mostly ‘cause it was only around 10:30 p.m. and I had nothin’ else to do.

2

So this woman on the phone gave me a number. You know, like a code number, and said I gotta come to Colorado if I wanna be interviewed for the job.

So I said, “A’right, sure,” like I was gonna really do it.

And then the next week I did it. I got permission, you know. I told ‘em I had a cousin or something out there and he was dyin’ and all that. And I could use a few days break anyways and nothin’ hot was coming up, was there? I said all’a that to Joey Bones ‘cause that’s who you gotta ask if you want a straight answer.

And he looked at me a little funny and then he wagged one hand and said, “Yeah, sure, get outta here.”

And I said Okay and got out of there. ‘Cause hangin’ around after you got your answer is just dumb. It tells the guy maybe you weren’t sure what you wanted or maybe he wasn’t all that important that you hadda do what he told you. You know, like that.

So I went home and packed a little bag and caught a flight out of New York that night. And the next day I caught a cab to the guy’s office. Well, the guy’s building. And this big moog meets me at the door and wants’a know my number.

And I said, “What, you wanna call me up? Maybe make a date? Get outta my way.”

But he didn’t. He only said, “I don’t get your number, you don’t see the man.” Or somethin’ like that.

Then I remembered the woman gave me that number, so I recited that to him. Then I reached toward my coat like I was reachin’ for a gun, only he just smirked at me and jerked his head a little and said, “Go on, then.”

And I guess he wasn’t sure I knew what he meant so he opened the door for me a little and I went through.

And he called after me, “Elevator’s on the right, third floor. You know how to work the elevator, right?” And the guy laughed.

Only he wasn’t worth my time so I didn’t answer him.

So to make a long story short, I found the right door and this little bitty guy, all twisted up, only with eyes that could burn a hole right through you. I wouldn’t mess with him.

But we sat down and he talked and I listened and then he tested me down in the basement, like how I could shoot and whether I’d cry when I seen some crazies he kept locked in one room and I laughed and then we went back up to his office.

And then when I thought we was almost done he said, “I think I’m gonna test you” or somethin’ like that. “‘Cause loyalty is important to me.”

And I said, “Right. Got it. Loyalty, right?”

“You said you work with Joseph Salerno in Brooklyn? The Joseph Salerno?”

And when he said that I figured I was good as in, so I said, “You mean Joey Bones? Yeah I work with him,” and I told him about Jimmy Falco too and some of the other guys, so like references, right? ‘Cause I figured if he knows Bones he knows the others too and that might impress him a little, right? And I saved Blue Boy for last since I brought him in and he’s only an associate like me, only he’s prob’ly gonna get made soon and all that.

So Mr. Blackwell, he nods a lot like he’s right there with me and he tells me to go back to Brooklyn and do this one guy, right? He even told me where to do it ‘cause the guy passes this one corner every day at a certain time. And if I do that, then I’ll be in.

Hey, ‘cause loyalty, y’know? And he never said how much cash I’d be rakin’ in but he said I wouldn’t have to worry about money no more and I wouldn’t have to kick no money up to nobody else, especially Joey Bones “if you know what I mean.” He stopped then, and he grinned at me. “In fact, you won’t have to worry about anything else either. For the rest of your life.”

And I took him at his word, you know, like I always do. So I considered the one guy he wanted me to hit and the when and the where of it and I said, “Sure, hey, I can do that.” I said, “In fact, I can do that in a perforated heartbeat, get it?” I grinned. “And I’ll give you change on the time you gave me to do it.”

I said that last part ‘cause he gave me two weeks, so I meant I’d do it the day after I got back or maybe the next day, so that would be like if he gave me a dime and I gave him nine cents change, see? That’s what I mean by givin’ him change on the time. So I wouldn’t spend all he gave me.

Anyways, he got the joke okay even if you didn’t and he smiled a little and he shook his head, but then he said that would be fine. “Just remember, Mr. Falducci, I value loyalty above everything else” or somethin’ like that. Then he said, “Loyalty and intelligence.”

And I grinned and said, “Yeah. Right. Hey, got you.”

And I left and caught the next plane back to New York.

3

So that was all’a that and then I was back and now I’m waitin’ on the corner where he told me it hadda be done, and I’m waitin’ for the guy to come up the street.

I checked my watch ‘cause I know he comes right by here on his way to the club every late afternoon, y’know? ‘Cause I been watchin’ him do it for six years a’ready, and it’s always the same time, you know, give or take five minutes.

He’ll come up the street like always, you know, and all I gotta do is pull the trigger.

One time. Or maybe two times to be sure ‘cause he’s a pretty hefty guy and he’s pretty stiff too, you know, when it comes to bendin’ rules or givin’ in or takin’ bullets in the right place. You know, I mean where they’ll do the right damage.

A guy who wasn’t so stout you might need’a shoot him only one time in the face or the back’a the head or the chest, especially if you get his ticker just right. But with this guy, you might have to shoot him twice and let the second bullet push the first one in far enough, y’know? ‘Cause he’s just that stiff, just that stout.

Might even take three bullets with this guy, y’know?

But even that’s easy enough.

So all I really gotta do is wait and look casual and then walk up and just do it, right? And like every day about this time he’ll smile and say, “Hey, Ant’ny, how you doin’, eh?”

And I’ll prove my loyalty to Mr. Blackwell. I’ll prove it solid by nailin’ the guy for him. And then I’ll be in, just like that.

Only I didn’t see the guy comin’, you know.

My nerves almost got me, so maybe I shrugged a little to get rid of them. ‘Cause it’s nothin’ to worry about. Today maybe he’s a little off his schedule, that’s all.

And I checked my watch again and I’m thinkin’ maybe he left a little late or he’s walkin’ a little slow or—you know, somethin’.

But I hadda wait. I wanna get it done today, y’know? I wanna give Mr. Blackwell his change and then I won’t have to worry about nothin’ no more. Ever. Like he said.

And that’s exactly what happened.

I looked along the street again, only the guy still wasn’t there, even a long ways off.

But I looked back the other way, you know, the same way I looked when I was waitin’ that night a week ago for Jimmy Falco and Blue Boy Berto to come pick me up, only this is a different corner on a different street.

But there was Jimmy Falco’s car. And there was Blue Boy in the seat this time where he was supposed to be last time.

And this time they rolled up to the curb and stop, and I started walkin’ toward them. Only waving, you know, tryin’a get them to leave ‘cause they don’t need’s see what I’m doin’.

And the window was comin’ down and it was Blue Boy and he was lookin’ at me and smilin’ and shakin’ his head.

And I said, “Hey, what’s so funny?”

And he said, “Nothin’. We just got a message for you, Ant’ny.”

And I put my hands out at my sides and I said, “What message? I’m busy here.”

And he said, “Bones, he said to tell you him and some guy named TJ go way back, a’right? And I don’t know what this next part means, but he said to tell you, ‘He meant loyalty to me.’ A’right? Got that?”

And I frowned, I guess, and I said, “What? What’s that mean?”

And Blue Boy Berto laughed and I think Jimmy Falco was lauging too. Then Blue Boy “Exactly. And then he said I gotta give you this.”

And I seen somethin’ come up to the where the window should’a been and somethin’ hit me hard in the chest and there was an explosion and I was layin’ here on my stupid back wonderin’ what the hell he hit me with. I mean, I never saw the guy move.

Then Blue Boy got outta the car and walked toward me. He stopped and put one foot by my left hip and one by my right hip and he pointed somethin’ at me and— Oh crap. It’s a gun. Loyalty.

*******