Angel Face by Stephen Solomita

he seems to be falling asleep.
    â€˜Paulie,’ Bobby says, ‘you still with us?’
    Paulie’s eyelids part a few millimeters and he smiles. ‘Sorry, man, but I took a couple of pain pills and they’re just kickin’ in. Hey, you wanna hear somethin’ funny? The shit they’re givin’ me, if I had to buy it on the street I’d go bankrupt.’
    â€˜I hear you loud and clear. If we were drinkin’, I’d raise a toast to the war on drugs.’
    â€˜And I’d drink to that toast. If I still had a liver.’
    Bobby chuckles. ‘Tell me, Paulie, you ever do somethin’, somethin’ you thought about for a long time, somethin’ that seemed a hundred percent right, only it went completely wrong?’
    â€˜Yeah, sure.’
    â€˜Well, this business with my brother, it’s blowin’ up in my face.’ Bobby stares for a moment at a shelf lined with tarnished bowling trophies. ‘Ya know, I had to do something about Ricky bein’ whacked. That’s our way of life, right? That’s what everyone expects.’
    Paulie’s eyes are closing. ‘It’s our way,’ he agrees.
    â€˜OK, so I find out from Ricky’s friend that Ricky had a date with this whore on the day he got hit. Then I find out the whore’s name and where she lives – I won’t say how – and I send the Blade and a kid named Ruben Amaroso to pick her up. So they snatch her in her apartment and they’re bringin’ her out, no problem, right? Then, outta nowhere, they run into this guy, he’s like a fuckin’ freak. He kicks the shit out of Ruby, puts a gun to the Blade’s head and tells the Blade that he’s comin’ after yours truly, meaning me. Then him and the whore take off together, only God knows where.’
    Paulie takes a long time answering, but he finally mumbles a reply. His pupils are small enough to be a period at the end of a sentence. ‘So, why are you comin’ to me?’
    â€˜You put out the hit.’
    â€˜See, Bobby, that’s where you’re wrong. You were the one who put out the contract. I only connected you to a contractor. The whole thing was your idea.’
    Bobby Ditto taps his finger on the arm of the chair. Bobby hadn’t exactly hated his brother. Ricky was OK, but he was in the wrong business, what with his big mouth. Plus, in Bobby’s opinion, he was definitely soft. If the Feds got their hooks into him, he’d turn rat for sure. And he didn’t contribute, either, not where it counted. The business they’re in, it’s all about muscle. They dealt with Mexicans, Colombians, Russians and half the black gangs in Brownville and South Jamaica. Meantime, Ricky hadn’t even made his bones.
    â€˜I’m not here to put any blame on you, Paulie. I’m here because I need a line on this guy you hired.’
    â€˜I didn’t hire him, you did.’
    â€˜OK, OK, I get it. But how did he get connected to the whore? Because I was thinkin’ I’d take out the whore and the pimp, and that would be it. Bobby’s been avenged, no harm, no foul. That’s what I meant by doin’ somethin’ you know is a hundred percent right, only it goes wrong.’
    Paulie’s perking up a bit, the story having caught his attention. ‘First thing, how do you know the guy who took the whore is the guy who whacked Ricky?’
    â€˜According to the Blade, the guy said, “You tell the brother to heat up the cappuccino because I’ll be comin’ to visit.”’ Bobby feels the muscles in his arms and legs tighten. ‘Hey, you know me for a long time. I been threatened before. Only before, I knew who was makin’ the threats. Before, I could do somethin’ about it. Now I gotta sit and wait.’
    Paulie knows exactly how Bobby Ditto feels. He was in the same place only a couple of years before, a place called helpless.