“Come in, Anna,” Vince said, holding the door open wide for me. “Thanks for seeing me.”
“No problem.”
He closed the door behind me and held his hand out for my jacket, which I handed him and he hung up in the closet. His voice dropped a bit lower, softer, as he added, “I wish we were in the same place we were the last time you were here.”
Thinking about our near miss that night, I avoided his gaze and turned toward the living room, following Vince as he walked past me, led me to the couch and sat down, motioning me to sit next to him. Instead, I sat in the chair opposite him, prompting a small, sad smile from him.
“What can I do for you, Vince? Or should we maybe step out onto the balcony? It’s a cool evening, but…”
He held up a hand. “No. I can ask you what I need to in here.” Either this didn’t concern his loan sharking business, or Vince was certain his room was not being listened in on. Maybe he swept on a regular basis? Maybe it was just his car he was concerned about? “When you signed for money borrowed, do you remember much about the ledger?”
So he’d figured it out. I nodded. “Yes, it was blue with red piping.”
His head dropped as if he’d taken a blow. And in a way he had.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I’m sure. Blue with red. Every time.”
He let out a large sigh. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He looked at me. “You know, don’t you?”
I nodded.
“How long have you known?”
“I just figured it out the other night, when you had that other ledger with you.”
“The ledger she gave me each week.”
I didn’t say anything more, just nodded. I didn’t tell him I’d told Jack about it, or even that Carla was right now possibly being charged for Paulie’s murder.
His cool demeanor completely slipped off his face. Actually seemed to slide down his strong features, leaving a look of bewilderment and hurt. Oh, you could see the hurt there, raw and undisguised, for a few seconds. Then he gathered himself, took several deep breaths, looked at me and said, “Thank you for telling me.” His shoulders slumped as he sat back into the deep cushions of the couch. “Christ, I don’t believe it. After all we’d been through together? They’d steal from me?”
“Maybe they knew you were changing, Vince. Maybe they thought you’d grow out of them, that they’d be cut out.”
“I’d never do that. I never did do that. And I could have.” His voice had a bruised defensiveness in it, which made me ache for him.
“I know. And they probably figured that out at some point – your loyalty to them. But by then they’d probably gotten a taste and…” I didn’t need to finish the thought. He and I both knew what happened to people when they got a taste for something. He made a living off of those people.
JoJo had been born because of it.
“Would you have told me about this if I hadn’t called you? Hadn’t asked you?”
I leaned forward, touched his knee. “Yes, I would have.” It was true, I would have, but not until it had all played out and Carla was arrested.
He put his hand over mine. I patted his, and then, not wanting him to read more into my motives than were there, I removed my hand and sat back in my chair. He studied me for a moment. “Because you owed me?” he said, hitting the nail on the head.
“Yes,” I whispered. “But I do think of you as a friend, Vince, and I want to be a friend to you.”
He nodded but didn’t look at me. “I know. Thank you.”
I was wondering if I should leave him alone now or just stay quietly in my chair in case he needed me when the buzzer in the hallway went off, signaling a visitor.
“Were you expecting someone? I can leave – ”
He waved for me to stay in my seat as he rose and strode to the hallway. “No. Stay. I don’t know who this could be.” He reached the intercom, pressed the button and said, “Yes?”
“Vince,” came Carla’s voice through the speaker. “Thank God, you’re home. I need to speak with you.”
I could see Vince’s hand, frozen near the buttons as he looked back at me. I sat, stunned, then lifted my hands in a “I don’t know what’s going on” manner. He was watching me, thinking. I could see his wheels turning, but I wasn’t sure what was adding up. Had he known that Carla had been picked up and was wondering what she was doing free? Or was he thinking how fortuitous that Carla had come to him just as he’d figured out she was stealing from him? Had he already made the jump that I had, that Carla was involved with Paulie’s death?
Something clicked for him, and a look of steely resignation came over him as he buzzed Carla in then walked over to me. “I need you to get out of sight.”
“Why is she here?” I asked, knowing Vince didn’t have the answers any more than I did.
“I’m not sure, but I think I have an idea.” Oh, maybe he did have the answers.
He started to lead me to the balcony. The kitchen was an open space, so there was no place to hide there, and I didn’t really want to go to his bedroom. The balcony was dark now, and I’d be able to see in but would be unnoticeable to anyone inside. In case Vince…what? I put my hand on his arm. “What are you going to do to her?” I could understand his fury with Carla, but I certainly couldn’t stand by while he hurt her.
“I’m not going to do anything. I just want to see what she’s up to.”
I couldn’t argue with that – I wanted to know what was going on, too. I stepped out onto the balcony, and Vince slid the door shut behind me. But I stuck my foot in the crack just as the doorbell rang and he turned to go to the door, leaving myself enough space to be able to hear. I knew that wasn’t what Vince had intended, but I wanted to be able to help if needed.
Though I wasn’t really sure whether it was Vince or Carla that would need the help.
I crouched down low, so that I wouldn’t be in anyone’s line of sight in case they were able to see into the darkness better than I thought, or if the lights of the city behind me would outline me in some way. I inched my way to the crack in the door. There were a couple of blind spots in the sunken living room, but for the most part I could see most of the living area.
Vince answered the door and Carla stormed into the room, her short, straight bob of hair swinging wildly against her chin. Vince tried to corral her into the space in the foyer, but she blew past him and came into the living room, then turned to face him as he slowly made his way down the two steps from the foyer to the living area. I thought he took a quick peek over Carla’s shoulder in my direction, but I wasn’t sure.
“You set me up, you son of a bitch,” Carla said to Vince. She was pointing at him, her hand shaking.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He was calm, cool, giving nothing away. Trying to draw her out, see what cards she was holding. Almost like a poker game.
With a murder rap as ante.
“When did you find out about me and Paulie? When did you find out about the skimming? How long have you been planning this whole thing you sick fuck?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he repeated.
He could have just told her, I suppose, that he’d just figured it out, but he was playing some sort of game, and I just waited to see where it was going. He certainly didn’t seem like he was about to pull out a gun and blow her away, so I didn’t think there was any need for me to announce myself.
She really paused this time, as if she didn’t know which direction to head next. Finally, she said, “Is this how you’re going to play it? You kill a man who has been nothing but good to you for twenty years, set me up to take the fall, and you just stand there like you’ve never seen me before.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” was all he said. All he’d said since she came in the door, and all in a total, icy monotone.
I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about either. First of all, what was she even doing out of police custody? No way could they have arraigned her and she make bail all since I talked with Jack.
I replayed my conversation with Jack. He didn’t actually say they’d charged her. Being cooperative, that’s how he’d put it. I took that to mean she was confessing, or at least answering the questions they asked. But it could have meant something else. This was all bubbling around me, trying to make some kind of sense.
No way would they let her out of there if they had enough evidence to hold her. Maybe that was it, they had to let her go because there wasn’t enough evidence. “All coming to a head” – that was the other phrase Jack had used. That didn’t seem likely to happen if they were just letting her walk away after questioning.
And here she was, accusing Vince of murdering Paulie. Trying to deflect the blame from herself? Had she done that when she’d been with Jack, try to set up Vince?
“How long before you took me out, too, Vince?” Carla had seemed to find her footing once again, though this time her voice was clearer, calmer. Trying to match her opponent’s game, a good poker tactic. “Or did you just need to get rid of Paulie because the skim wouldn’t work without the collector in on it? Did you think that it was all Paulie’s idea and that he was the one that deserved the punishment? Well, it was me, Vince. I was the brains behind it all. Paulie just went along with it.”
I could have figured that out. With those two, Carla had definitely been the brains and Paulie the muscle.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Vince said once again. Wow, the man should play more poker, as cool as he kept with Carla taunting him like this. I started to wonder about Carla being the brains if she was stupid enough to come here and beard the lion in his own den.
And it seemed as if that’s exactly what she was trying to do. Make the lion roar.
But why? Did she think to provoke him into admitting to a murder he didn’t commit, that she herself had?
Thoughts started whirling around again, not adding up in the direction I had thought but possibly in another?
I saw Vince dart his eyes toward the balcony again, and I crouched lower. Stupid, he knew I was out here, and I obviously hadn’t gone anywhere, nor could I, twenty-five stories up. Was he trying to gauge if I could hear Carla and him?
Or was he already thinking about what to do with a witness? Me.
Because now I was starting to believe that Carla hadn’t killed Paulie. And that Vince had.
I grabbed for my phone, which was in my coat pocket in the hall closet. Suddenly, I realized how freezing I was without it in the brisk February night. I looked around the balcony for something that could be useful in some way. A random cell phone would be nice. But no, just your run-of-the-mill balcony stuff. Furniture, a potted plant, that blanket that he’d so gently wrapped around my shoulders not so long ago.
Carla had taken a step away from Vince, but she still had her back to the balcony. “Were you planning on taking me out too until you got cozy with Anna Dawson? Was that the plan, Vince? I suppose I was the next target until you found a way you could frame Paulie’s murder on me. Nobody would find out you did it, and I’d be doing fifteen to twenty. Win, win for you.
“It really was a stroke of genius though, Vince, showing her the ledger the other night. It was a risk though, that she’d put it together and run to her boyfriend, but I guess you know her better than I thought.”
I guess he did. I had been well and truly played.
Whatever she and Jack had hatched up – and now I was guessing she was wearing a wire and Jack was listening in – had no chance in hell of working with me on the balcony listening in. No confessions would be forthcoming.
As if proving my point, Vince said yet again, but this time staring beyond Carla and out into the dark night, in my general direction, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Carla knew something was up. She knew Vince was on to her and wasn’t going to spill anything, let alone make any kind of blanket confession. She shook her head, called Vince a really bad name, then headed toward the door, having given up.
I thought of my options. If I came through the door now and spoke up, whoever was listening in would know I was there. That would make it harder for Vince to stop me from leaving with Carla. If Carla was wearing a wire. And if those listening in were nearby in case something went wrong.
It could also force Vince into making some kind of move against Carla. He was letting her walk out the door now. Why shouldn’t he? She’d learned nothing new from her visit. But if I popped into the room, after what I’d heard, would he willingly let Carla walk out the door? I couldn’t take the risk. I’d already accused the poor woman of murder. Could I put her in harm’s way on the off chance that somebody might come charging to the rescue?
I needed to get her out of the room, and yet let her backup know I was here.
I crawled my way across the balcony, emptying my pockets as I went for anything I could use. Nothing but money and odds sheets. Nothing that would help me right now, but if something happened to me…if I didn’t get out of this. I touched and re-touched the odds sheets, leaving my fingerprints all over them and slid them into any nook and cranny I could find. Under the legs of the table, along the walls where they met the cement slab, jamming them in. I wasn’t sure how old they were, hopefully they were dated for games that happened after the other night I’d been here so, if found, Vince couldn’t say I’d left them here that night.
I went to the blanket and shook my head, letting stray hairs fall on it. I scraped my hand against the privacy wall between Vince’s unit and the one to his side, letting my skin peel off, not even feeling the pain.
If I disappeared, there’d be DNA traces of me all over this balcony, and skin samples and blood would be pretty hard to explain away. As would hidden odds slips with dates after the night I’d been kissing Vince on this very balcony.
The thought of DNA reminded me that I’d never found out about Jack’s parentage. Surely Lor would see that Jack found out about whom his father was if I didn’t make it.
The seriousness of this – that I may never see Jack, or Lor, or Ben again – suddenly rushed through me. I went through all of that shit to make sure Raymond was okay, that I wouldn’t be found out. Confessed to Jack about JoJo. And I now…no, no way was I going to have gone through all that and not make it now.
I made my way to the balcony railing then stood up and leaned over and out. “Is anyone on their balcony?” I asked. I didn’t yell, but was as loud as I thought I could be without tipping off Vince inside. I took a quick glance inside. He was shutting the door behind Carla and now turned toward the balcony.
“Can anyone hear me?” I said more loudly now that Carla was gone. “Anyone? I need help!”
Nothing. Too cold for the normal glass of wine on the balcony crowd. I stood as tall as I could and faced the city. I looked down but nobody was walking in the parking lot. I’m not sure they would have heard me anyway with all the regular city traffic. There was even a siren blaring in the not too distance, a regular Vegas backdrop.
If Carla had been wearing a wire, would there be a sound truck nearby, like in the movies? Would they be watching? If they had been, would they still be now that Carla had left the condo? I didn’t know, but on the off chance, I started waving my hands frantically, jumping up and down.
I looked below me. A chair, one of the chairs. I’d throw it over the side, hoping that it hit a lower balcony, drew attention or just went crashing to the ground. I started to turn to the table and chairs when I stopped cold.
“So, Anna,” I heard Vince say behind me.
I slowly turned around to face him. I moved up against the railing, trying to put as much space between him and myself as possible.
He made a motion with his hands toward me. “I assume from your actions that you heard all that?”
I nodded.
He took a step closer to me, a genuine look of sadness on his face. “Oh, Anna, what am I going to do with you?”