Libra - Don Delillo [194]
“I was about to say. It’s a procedure they have to follow in a felony case. This city, it’s screwy, the way certain affairs are handled in the legal arena. Commit a violent crime and there’s a good chance you’ll walk. This is a feature of the local climate. You know as well as I. Murder is easier to get exonerated than breaking and entering, Jack.”
“It’s considered how people behave.”
“Am I right? It’s considered settling things Old West-style. They have it ingrained in the way they think. You get a shvartzer kills another shvartzer in a gunfight, the case won’t even go to trial.”
“Nobody cares enough to try a case like that.”
“This is what I say. I’m saying. Popping a guy like Oswald, this is the same approach. Can you project a heavy sentence to take this guy out?”
“People want to lose him.”
“You’ll see total rejoice. As things now stand, Jack, what are you worth to the city of Dallas? You’re a Chicago guy to them. You’re an operator from the North. Worse, a Jew. You’re a Jew in the heart of the gentile machine. Who are we kidding here? You’re a strip-joint owner. Asses and tits. That’s what you mean to Dallas.”
“Who are we kidding?”
“Who are we kidding here?”
“When I think of my mother.”
“Exactly what I’m saying.”
“My mother went crazy in a big way. I can’t describe the horror. I used to look in her eyes and there was nothing there that you could call a person. She screamed and raged. That was her life. My father hit her. He hit us. She hit us. She thought we were all shtupping each other. Brothers and sisters having constant sex. I never went to school. I fought. I delivered envelopes for Al Capone.”
“I’m saying. This is my point. It builds up a pressure that’s bad for us all.”
There was a short heavy silence.
“ ‘Thank God he’s not a Jew.’ ”
“ ‘Thank God whatever he is, at least he’s not a Jew.’ ”
“Jack, I’m sure you hear the same thing in the street I’ve been hearing for almost two days. The man who kills that communist bastard is saving the city of Dallas from world shame. This is what they’re saying in the streets.”
“What is Carmine saying?”
“Good point. Because here you have an ally. Here you have protection and support. Carmine himself brought up the subject of the loan. I think you’ll be delighted with the terms.”
“And for this?”
“For this you undertake to rid the city.”
“In other words.
“Jack, you’re a floater all your life. This is a chance you put your fist around something solid. You want to end your life selling potato peelers in Piano, Texas? Build something. Make a name.”
“So what you’re saying, Jack.”
“Take him off the calendar.”
“Clip him.”
“Turn him into a crowd,” Karlinsky said sadly.
He unwrapped a cigar but didn’t light it. He looked old and drawn. He sat like a patient in a waiting room, preoccupied and tense, hunched forward on the sofa.
“Carmine is offering that we completely forgive the loan. We make the loan, then we cancel the debt forever. Forty thousand dollars. Deliverable at the first convenience. It’s just a question how soon. We expect very soon. We don’t expect a major delay here.”
“What about my clubs?”
“We look after them in the meantime. I have every confidence you’ll see a rebirth. Think of the people who’ll want to say they paid a visit to the Carousel. Jack Ruby’s club, who took out Oswald.”
“To see what kind of atmosphere.”
“Out-of-towners in total droves. You own a gun, Jack?”
“What do you think?”
“Carmine is getting full cooperation from the boys in Dallas. They have people they render assistance in the police. The police are going to move Oswald out of the building via the basement. It is for some time after ten A.M. There are two ramps to the street.”
“Main Street and Commerce.”
“I’m saying, Jack. The ramps will be heavily guarded. The building entrances closed off. The accordion gate between the two parts of the building will be locked. The power will be off in the elevators except for the jail elevator, which they’ll use to bring Oswald down.”
“I can probably walk right down a ramp.”
“Wait. I’m saying.”
“I’m a known face in the