The news of Tony Silva’s death hit Salvatore Tartaro hard.

Not nearly as hard as it hit Joey Silva, and obviously not as hard as it hit Tony himself. But Tartaro was affected for altogether different reasons, all having to do with his own self-interest.

He had met Tony on two occasions but really didn’t know him, and certainly didn’t care about him one way or the other. But Tartaro was smart enough to know that the hit on Tony, coming on the heels of the hit on Shawn, would look to Silva as if Tartaro was exacting revenge.

Which, of course, he wasn’t.

There were two other problems with the situation, and they were connected to each other. Hovering over everything was the business relationship that Tartaro had with Silva, which had become increasingly lucrative over time, and which was going strong.

Rather than diminishing when Bennett died, as Tartaro suspected it might, Joey Silva had actually expanded the business relationship. So this issue with Tony could threaten that.

The other factor was that Tartaro, like everyone else, considered Tony to be the smarter of the two Silvas, though that might have been faint praise. But it was obvious that Tony was a calming influence on his brother, suppressing Joey’s more volatile impulses. It was unlikely that anyone had enough credibility in Joey’s eyes, or had enough of Joey’s trust, to move into that role.

So Tartaro did what he always did in situations like this; he talked it out with Dominic Romano. He respected and trusted Dominic, who was to Tartaro almost what Tony Silva had been to brother Joey.

“Silva is going to think we hit Tony,” Tartaro said. “Revenge for Shawn. That’s what I would think if I were him.”

“Even if he does, there’s nothing he can do. And he wouldn’t want to try anything now anyway. He’s a businessman, and we’ve got more business coming up.”

“I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder all the time,” Tartaro said. “Maybe I should talk to him directly.”

“Won’t do any good,” Dominic said. “He wouldn’t believe you anyway, and it would show weakness. Joey eats weakness with a spoon.”

“We shouldn’t have gone in with him in the first place,” Tartaro said. “We could have done this on our own.”

“It was good business, and it still is. And you didn’t go in with him, you went in with Bennett.”

Tartaro nodded. “But Bennett wasn’t out of his goddamn mind; he understood how normal human beings behave. I didn’t trust Bennett, but I could still talk to him, reason with him.”

Dominic shook his head and said, “I understand that, but we’re doing better business with Silva than we ever did with Bennett. He’s not as cautious.”

Tartaro thought about it for a few moments, and then said, “Set up a call.”

“With Silva?”

“No, with JFK. Who the hell do you think?”

So Dominic started the process of arranging a call from Tartaro to Joey Silva. It was not a simple “pick up the phone” situation; no one involved had any doubt that every call they made on their normal telephones was listened to by some law enforcement agency somewhere.

But it was finally arranged on secure, throwaway phones, and Tartaro made the call. Tartaro set the dial to SPEAKERPHONE so Dominic could hear what was being said. In New Jersey, Silva did the same, so Philly could listen in.

Once the fake pleasantries were exchanged, Tartaro said, “Joey, I’m real sorry about Tony.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

“Terrible thing. I’ve got a brother, so I know what it’s like.” Tartaro didn’t mention that his own brother was a philosophy professor at Cal State Fullerton, and that he hadn’t spoken to him in six years.

“Yeah?” Joey asked. “You know what it’s like? Did they find your brother’s head sitting on a garbage Dumpster in an alley?”

“Okay, Joey, I just want to make one thing clear. I had nothing to do with Tony. I liked the guy, and you’re my partner. I thought because of Shawn you might have other ideas, so I wanted to talk to you, direct, so that we understand each other.”

The truth is that Joey did not think Tartaro was behind it, but he didn’t want to give him that, at least not at this point. “I’ll find out who it was.”

“Good. And you let me know how I can help. My people are your people.”

“I don’t need no help. But the guy who did it, he’s going to need plenty of help.”

“I hear you, Joey. Just don’t let this get in the way of business. Not now. You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I know what you mean.”

The call ends, and Tartaro turned to Dominic. “What do you think?”

Dominic shook his head. “The son of a bitch thinks we hit Tony.”

In New Jersey, Philly said to Joey, “The son of a bitch hit Tony.”