361 - Donald E. Westlake [66]
Kapp had one of the women in a corner. He was talking steadily to her, and his right hand kneaded her breast. She kept smiling.
Somebody saw me and shouted, “Hey, Kapp! Here’s your kid!”
He looked around and then came running over. Behind him, the woman smoothed out the wrinkles with a little contemptuous shrug, but kept smiling.
Kapp punched my arm and hugged me and shouted at me how great I was. Then he pranced me all around the room, introducing me to all the men and telling them all how great I was. He didn’t introduce me to any of the women, but they all kept watching me.
For fifteen minutes, it all whirled around. Half a dozen people told me the reason for the celebration. The national committee had given the nod. They were in. Coup successful. And they all had me to thank, because bumping Ganolese had done the trick. That was what had clinched it. There was only a little reorganizing left to do, and from there on life was gravy.
Kapp finally calmed down a bit, and people stopped shouting in my ear. I took his arm and said, “Kapp, I want to talk to you. I want to tell you about it.”
“Goddamn it, boy,” he said, grinning at me. “Let’s get away from this mob.”
I led the way toward the bedroom where I’d left the raincoat. On the way we came across the nervous man, hurrying somewhere. I grabbed his elbow and said, “Come along with us for a minute.”
Kapp said, “What the hell for?”
I said, “You’ll see.”
We all went into the bedroom and Kapp said, “What the hell do you want Mouse here for?”
“He’s my messenger,” I said. I reached under the raincoat and took out the Luger and held it on them as I closed and locked the bedroom door.
Kapp stared at the gun, and sobriety washed down his face like lye. He said, “What the hell are you up to?”
I said, “Mouse, you listen close. My name is Ray Kelly. Eddie Kapp is my natural father, my father by blood. Isn’t that right, Kapp?”
“Sure that’s right. Why the hell—?”
“Hold on. You got that part, Mouse?”
He nodded jerkily, his eyes on the gun.
“All right. I also had a mother and a foster father and a half-brother and a sister-in-law. My mother killed herself because of Eddie Kapp here. Isn’t that right, Kapp?”
Relief hit him so hard he sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. “Oh, for God’s sake, Ray, that was twenty-one years ago. And who knew she was going to do something like that? You pull a gun on me for something twenty-one years old?”
“I’ll get more current in a minute. Just hold on. About my mother, and Will Kelly. He was your sideman, he worked with you every step of the way. You were just about to make the move, take control of the New York organization, and Will Kelly was an active part of it, working right next to you all the way. Then somebody sicked the Federal Government on you because—”
“Ganolese,” he said. “That filthy bastard, Ganolese.”
“—because of your taxes. The government put you out of the way, so Ganolese could take over instead of you. And Will Kelly had to get out of town. His wife couldn’t stand the small town life, but she didn’t dare come back to New York. She killed herself.”
“Twenty-one years ago, Ray. For God’s sake—”
“Shut up. I told you I’d get more current. You knew you were getting out September 15th. You got word to Will Kelly, one way or another, that you were going to make the move again. And you started lining people up, telling them Kelly was going to be with you. The word got to Ganolese. He had Kelly killed.”
“You’re a sharp boy, Ray,” he said. “You figured that out all by yourself.” He wasn’t really worried at all yet.
“I figured more than that,” I told him. “Those people out there at the party wouldn’t buy you without Will Kelly. Without somebody reasonably young as the heir-apparent. They figured you were too old.”
“Not Eddie Kapp. I’ll live to a hundred.”
“No, you won’t. I’m not done yet. My sister-in-law got killed in a hit-run accident. They caught