The Last Don - Mario Puzo [34]
“I should just walk out of here,” Fuberta said.
“No, no,” Pippi said. “Stick around, the Peking duck is great. Look, this can be straightened out, it’s no big deal. Everybody tries to scam once in awhile, right? Just get the money back.”
“I don’t have a dime,” Fuberta said.
For the first time Pippi showed some irritation. “You have to show a little respect,” Pippi said. “Give a hundred thousand back and we’ll take your marker for the other three hundred.”
Fuberta thought it over as he munched a fried dumpling. “I can give you fifty,” he said.
“That’s good, that’s very good,” Pippi said. “You can pay off the rest by not taking your fee for running junkets to the Hotel. Is that fair?”
“I guess,” Fuberta said.
“Don’t worry any more, enjoy the food,” Pippi said. He rolled some duck into a pancake, anointed it with black sweet sauce, and handed it to Fuberta. “This is terrific, Danny,” he said. “Eat. Then we do business.”
They ate chocolate ice cream for dessert and made arrangements for Pippi to pick up the fifty grand at Fuberta’s travel agency after working hours. Pippi grabbed the lunch check, paying cash. “Danny,” he said, “you notice how chocolate ice cream in a Chinese restaurant has so much cocoa? The best. You know what I think? The first Chinese restaurant in America got the recipe wrong and the ones that came after just copied that first wrong recipe. Great. Great chocolate ice cream.”
But Danny Fuberta had not hustled for the forty-eight years of his life without being able to read the signs. After leaving Pippi he dived underground, sending a message that he was traveling to collect the money he owed the Xanadu Hotel. Pippi was not surprised. Fuberta was only using tactics common in such cases. He had disappeared so that he could negotiate in safety. Which meant he had no money and there would be no bonus unless Vincent and Petie collected on their end.
Pippi drew some men from the Bronx Enclave to scour the city. The word was put out that Danny Fuberta was wanted by the Clericuzio. A week went by, and Pippi became more and more irritated. He should have known that Fuberta would only be alerted by the demand for repayment. That Fuberta had figured out that fifty grand would not be enough, if he even had fifty grand.
After another week, Pippi became impatient, so that when the break came he moved more daringly than was prudent.
Danny Fuberta surfaced in a small restaurant on the Upper West Side. The owner, a Clericuzio soldier, made a quick call. Pippi arrived just as Fuberta was leaving the restaurant and, to Pippi’s surprise, drew a gun. Fuberta was a hustler, had no experience in strong-arm. So when he fired, the shot was wide. Pippi put five bullets in him.
There were a few unfortunate things about this scene. One, there were eyewitnesses. Two, a patrol car arrived before Pippi could make his getaway. Three, Pippi had made no preparation for a shooting, he had meant to talk Fuberta into a secure location. Four, though a case could be made for self-defense, some witnesses said that Pippi shot first. It came down to the old truism that you were more in danger with the law when you were innocent than when you were guilty. Also, Pippi had a silencer on his gun, in preparation for his final friendly chat with Fuberta.
It helped matters that Pippi reacted perfectly to the disastrous arrival of the patrol car. He did not try to shoot his way out but followed the guidelines. The Clericuzio had a strict injunction: Never fire at an officer of the law. Pippi did not. He dropped his gun to the pavement, then kicked it away. He submitted peacefully to arrest and denied completely any connection with the dead man lying just a few feet away.
Such contingencies were foreseen and planned against. After all, no matter how much care was taken, there was always the malignancy of fate. Pippi now seemed to be drowning in a typhoon of ill fortune, but he knew he had only to let himself relax, that he could count on the Clericuzio Family to tow him to shore.
First there were the high-priced