Black Friday (or Black Market) - James Patterson [79]
CARROLL: Well, for one thing, you being a heavy gun and explosives dealer, Mr. Ferrano. Doesn’t it strike you as odd, uh, peculiar, you wouldn’t have heard something? There must be rumors floating around on the street. I’m sorry, would you like a sip of whiskey?
FERRANO: I want whiskey, I’ve got money in my pocket Listen, I told you, I told somebody, him, I don’t deal guns. I don’t know what you’re talking that shit for. I own Play-land Arcade Games, Inc., on Tenth Avenue and 49th Street. You got that straight now?
CARROLL: Okay, that’s bullshit. Who do you think you’re talking to? Some punk off the street? Just some street punk here?
FERRANO: Hey, all right, fuck you. I want my lawyer in here now!… Hey, you understand English, pal? Lawyer! Now!.… Hey! Hey!… Ohhh… Oh, shit!
(Loud scuffling, fighting sounds. Furniture crashing; man groaning.)
CARROLL (Breathing heavily): Mr. Ferrano, I think… I feel it’s important you understand something. Listen carefully to what I’m saying. Watch my lips… Ferrano, you’ve just entered the Twilight Zone. You don’t have the right to remain silent in the Twilight Zone. All your constitutional rights have been temporarily cancelled. You have no lawyer. All right? We set to continue our discussion, fuckhead?
FERRANO: Shit, man. My tooth’s broken. Gimme a break for… awhh, shit, man.
CARROLL: I’m trying to give you every break in the world. Don’t you understand anything yet? What this is here? What’s happening?… Somebody stole money from the man. Some very important people are severely pissed off. Big, big people. Why don’t you imagine that this is Viet Nam and you’re the Viet Cong? Would that help you?
FERRANO: Wait a minute! I didn’t do anything!
CARROLL: No? You sell pump-action shotguns, revolvers to fourteen, fifteen-year-old kids. Black, P.R., Chinese kids in gangs. I’m not gonna say any more than that… Your lawyer is a Mr. Joseph Rao of 24 Park Avenue. Mr. Rao doesn’t want any part of this … I think you better tell me everything you’ve heard on the street.
FERRANO: Look. I’ll tell you what I know. I can’t tell you what I don’t know.
CARROLL: That I can buy.
FERRANO: All right, I heard there was some heavy artillery available. In the city. This was about, beginning, I guess, maybe middle of November. Yeah, five weeks ago.
CARROLL: How heavy are we talking about?
FERRANO: Like M-60s. Like M-79 rocket launchers. Soviet RPD light machine guns. SKS automatics. That kinda stuff. Heavy! I mean what the fuck they gonna do wim that kind of munitions? That’s basic ground assault equipment Like in Nam. What you’d use, take over a country. That’s all I heard… I’m telling the truth, Carroll… Hey that’s all anybody knows on the street…. Awhh, c’mon, don’tcha believe me? … Hey! Seriously?
CARROLL: Tell me what you know about Francois Mon-serrat…
FERRANO: He ain’t Italian.
CARROLL: Mr Ferrano, thank you so much for your help. Now get out of my office, please. Mr. Caruso will show you to the nearest rathole out.
From a transcript taken in Room 312; No. 13 Wall Street.
Present: Arch Carroll; Muhammed Saalam.
CARROLL: Hello there, Mr. Saalam. Haven’t seen you since you had Percy Ellis killed on 103rd Street Very nicej djellaba. Sip of Irish whiskey?
SAALAM: Liquor is against my religious beliefs.
CARROLL: This is Irish whiskey. It’s blessed. Well, we’ll get right down to official police business then…. Tell me, uh, are you a hunter, Mr. Saalam?
SAALAM (Laughs): No, not really. A hunter?… Actually, if you stop to think about it, I’m a huntee. Ever since I fought for you whites in Southeast Asia. My name is Sah-lahm by the way.
CARROLL:Sah-lahm. I’m sorry…. No, you see, I thought you must be a hunter. Something like that. You see, we found all of these hunting guns, these hunting bombs in your apartment up in Yonkers, M-23 squirrel-huateag guns. Opossum-hunting sniper rifles, the ones with star nightscopes. Chipmunk-hunting fragmentation grenades. B-40 duck-hunting rockets.
SAALAM: You bust into my place?
CARROLL: Had to. What do you know about a Mister Francois Monserrat?
SAALAM: