Page 54 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
“No,” she ultimately said. “Should I know him?”
Sal had had it with her dumb broad routine. “What kind of question is that?” he asked with a frown on his face. “How would he know what you should know?”
“This is an A and B conversation,” she said to Sal. “You can C your racist butt out of it please?”
“Fuck you, Vera!” Sal yelled at her.
She was about to zing him back, but Tommy interceded. “That’s enough, Sal. You too, Vee,” he said to her. Then he got back down to business. “You have a lockbox here?”
She hesitated.“Yes.Why?”
“Who all have a key to it?”
She frowned. “Why would you need to know that?”
“Just answer the question lady for crying out loud,” said Sal. “Nobody got all day to be fooling with your ass.”
Vera gave him a look filled with hatred even though she knew he was one of the most powerful mob bosses in the world that could eliminate her from the face of this earth with just one order to one of his made men. But she also knew Tommy wouldn’t let him touch her. “I have a key,” she said to Tommy.
“And who else?”
“Nobody else.”
Tommy continued to stare at her.
“Unless you mean my rental lockbox.”
“You have two lockboxes on this premises?”
“Yes. One I use, and one my renter uses.”
Tommy and Sal glanced at each other. Mick was staring at Vera as if he was taking the measure of the woman. “Who’s your renter?” he asked her.
Her demeanor changed when Mick asked her a question. She knew Mick the Tick was somebody you didn’t trifle with. She’d heard he was even more powerful than Sal and somebody who was beyond vicious. He was somebody even Tommycouldn’t protect her from and she knew it. She got to the point. “I don’t know his name. But I know he works for Trammel.”
Everybody was shocked. “He works for my wife’s company?” asked Tommy.
She seemed surprised. “Your wife’s company? Oh yeah right, she does own Trammel, doesn’t she?”
Sal looked at her as if she wasn’t fooling anybody but herself.
But she kept talking. “That’s what he said anyway. He said he had just started or hadn’t been there long or something like that, and that he needed a safe place to keep some receipts for his guys to pick up. I don’t have a key to that box.”
“What’s your renter’s name?” Tommy asked her.
She shook her head. “He didn’t give a name. He pays me every month on time, and I don’t ask any questions.”
“Describe him,” Tommy said.
She thought about it. Again, it seemed fake to Sal. “I only saw him once. I wouldn’t know him again if he was sitting in front of me right now.”
“Come on, lady. Is he black, white, Hispanic, Asian? Is he tall, short, fat, skinny? Give us something!” Sal was frustrated with her.
“I told you I don’t remember,” Vera said, frustrated with Sal too. “He’s black is all I remember. And good looking I think. But I don’t know for certain. I only saw him once.”
“How does he pay you if you only saw him once?” asked Mick.
“He deposits two thousand into my account every month. That’s all I need to know.”
