Fahrenheit 1600 (Victor Kozol) (10 page)

Chapter 20

Under the Spell of the Mob

After two weeks, Vic was feeling a lot better with
his financial reprieve which allowed things to calm down in Duryea. But, when
you make a pact with the devil it is certain that he will be back to collect
his part of the bargain. A simple ring of the phone was about to change Vic’s
life forever.

“Hello Vic, it’s me Sam, seems like it is time for
you to honor your part of our deal.”

“Okay Sam, I was wondering when you would be calling
me. What can I help with?”

“First, you need to come back to New York and we’ll
give you the necessary instructions for the mission.”

“When Sam?”

“How about tomorrow afternoon Vic”

A lump rose in Vic’s throat, but he knew there is no
turning back now,

“I’ll be there tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. Sam.”

“Okay, see you then.”

Vic is sitting in Sam’s conference room, an even
more exotic room than his office. Inlaid marble floors, a huge mahogany
conference table, and modern paintings adorn the walls. Not to mention the view
of the bridge. With Sam is a smaller older rough-around-the-edges kinda guy who
looks like he is stuffed into his suit. Sam introduces Vinnie as the go between
for Vic in this operation. Vinnie does not disappoint in his portrayal of a TV
type mob character complete with a Brooklyn accent.

“Pleezed ta meet witcha Vic,” says Vinnie.

“Same here Vinnie,” Vic replies finding these types
of characters actually exist in real life incredible.

“Okay, Sam says, now that the formalities are over,
we talk about procedures going forward. First, Vic you will always have your
cell with you. A black van with a “package” will depart New York whenever there
is a need. Vinnie will call you at this time to alert you. When the van reaches
Route 81 near Scranton which should take little over two hours, you will get a
call with the code word “Rubik.” If everything is alright at your end, you will
answer “Cube.” You don’t have to say another word. You will then go to the
garage, leave the lights off and open the overhead door. When the van enters,
you will immediately close the door. Vinnie, the driver, will help you unload
the
package
and place it into the retort. He will leave you with an
envelope containing $10,000 at this time. Vic is to ask no questions of Vinnie
who will then leave Vic alone.

“Vic you are under no circumstances to look into or
ever open the
package
but simply start the cremation process and wait
the two hours for the cycle to complete, after the retort cools you are to
gather up the remains and dump them into the nearby Lackawanna River. Further,
involve no one else to help you. It goes without saying that ‘loose lips sink
ships’ and the first one to sink will be yours if you ever divulge a word of
this to anyone.

“When the entire mission is completed you are to
dial 201-666-7887 and leave the code word “fire stopped” on the answering
machine. With that, the mission is over until you hear from Vinnie again. Is
that clear Vic? Now, repeat all of this back to me.”

Vic complies and again is feeling shaky as he is
this close to an evil he only thought existed in TV shows. “One final thing
Vic, this is not going to be an everyday or even once a week thing, but when we
do call, you had better be there. Because the only way this thing stays
together is that there be no down time between any of these steps. We can’t
have vans with dead bodies circling around waiting to make their drop, kabish
Vic?”

“Sam, I’ll do my part, not to worry.”

Vic returned home knowing the real show will begin
shortly; this was just the dress rehearsal. The only reason he wants the phone to
ring is that he is almost through the $10,000 that Sam wired him. He will soon
need another cash injection to survive.
The compromises we make to stay
alive
, thought Vic.

Chapter 21

Charley Jones

Charley Jones was born in Bayonne, New Jersey,
just across the Hudson from New York. After high school he migrated to Brooklyn
in search of better opportunities. Charley wasn’t one for books at school or
any strict discipline at work. Therefore, he was always a short timer with many
different low skilled jobs clogging up his resume. He would go through jobs in
a month or two. He was: a driver, kitchen helper, dock worker, and janitor and
many other titles in his career. He is now thirty-nine and finally found a home
with the syndicate as a low level runner and collector. While not a great
fighter, at six feet and two hundred pounds he exuded some authority on the
street.

Charley has a route which has him meeting gambling
clients for his boss Joey Torchia, who is a Lieutenant for the DellVeccio
family. Charley either picks up the bets or delivers the winnings in his area.
Contacts are made by cell phone and meetings can be anywhere from a subway
station to a local bar. Charley then meets Joey usually once or twice a week depending
on business at Joey’s favorite watering hole The Blue Dragon. In the back room
they settle up and Charley is usually given $300 to $500 in cash for his work.

 All was going well for Charley as he was
making more money than his low level dead end jobs of the past. Charley on his
way to making some heavy payoffs to high roller gambling customers of Joey is
sometimes carrying over $10,000 cash in winnings. He would like to be one of
those winners, but he has no seed money to make the bets. So, he comes up with
a plan to get some folding money to make some bets on horses and sporting
events.

Charley has a friend in his apartment building,
Jack, who as a longshoreman is as strong and tough of a guy as you will find in
this neighborhood of Brooklyn near the docks. Charley meets up with Jack at
their favorite bar, Orgo’s. He approaches Jack at the bar and casually says, “I
will give you $100.00 if you give me a non-bone breaking working over some
night.”

Jack looks at Charley and says, “Why do you want this”?

“It’s better you don’t know Jack.”

They finish their beers and leave with Jack
thinking, Charley had a few too many tonight. But the next week, Charley finds
Jack once again at Orgo’s and says, “It’s time for me to get roughed up.”

The reason he is asking Jack now is that Charley has
just come from meeting Joe Torchia and is carrying $28,000 cash, the largest
amount he ever carried. All of this was to be delivered to five different
winners that night.

After buying enough beers for Jack, Jack agrees to do
this fool’s errand in the back alley behind the bar. The beating results in
Charley losing a tooth, getting two black eyes and plenty of other facial and
body bruises. Charley is already regretting what he thought was an ‘easy’ way
to make money. Already through the bad part, he figures he has to go through
with the scheme. He first goes to a nearby cemetery, and puts the $28,000 in a
coffee can and buries it under a large oak tree, so that is would be easy to
recover.

Next he searches out Joey while he is still looking
his worst. “Joey, I don’t know how this happened, but I got jumped up in Bay
Ridge Parkway on the way to making my first payoff. I can’t believe it but
these guys got my ‘er your cash.”

Joey has seen all of this before, but has to be sure
if Charley is playing him or if he’s legit. Joey says, “Charley get in my car
and the two of us will think this through.”

“Sure Joey, anything to help get your money back.”

While Charley is walking towards Joey’s Cadillac,
Joey is making a cell call. Joey then drives Charley around making some stops
and inquiries along the way. The pair ends up at an abandoned house in one of
the bad parts of Brooklyn. Joey leads Charley up the steps and into the
darkened house. Charley is immediately grabbed by two of Joey’s enforcers
thrown in a chair where his arms and legs are tightly secured with plastic
ties.

“What’s this? It’s not my fault that the money is
gone, we should all be outside looking for the bad guys.”

“That is what we are here to find out Charley, just
who are the bad guys.” Joey leads off with “Now tell me again just where and
when did this unpleasant incident occur?”

“I told you all I know, it happened so fast.”

Wham! Charley takes the first blow of a second and
much worse beating to come. After a couple of minutes of pummeling over his
face and body by the two enforcers, Charley is limp in the chair.

“Shall we continue” says Joey.

“No, please, I don’t know any more than I already
told you.”

Thump, he is hit again hard in the solar plexus, and
is now with good reason more afraid than he has ever been before. Charley
thinks fast to avoid the next round he knows is surely coming. “Look, I think
one of the guys was this Jack, big dockworker who hangs around Orzos on Third
Avenue. For the other two I can’t be sure, it happened too fast for me to get a
good look at them.”

“Well I’ll tell you what Charley, we are going to
pay a little visit to Jack and get our money back.”

“Sure Joey, that’s the quickest way to end all of
this.”

The three mobsters leave Joey soaked in blood and
urine and go out to find Jack. After some questioning of bar patrons and the
owner of Orzos, they get Jack’s address and go to his apartment.

As soon as Jack answers his doorbell, he is pushed inside
by the two thugs, “What’s this, I don’t know you guys.”

Joey emerges behind the two goons. “No, but you know
where our $28,000 is and according to Charley Jones, you were one of the
perps.”

“I know nothing.”

With that Joey pulls out his Smith & Wesson snub
nose thirty eight and points it at Jack’s temple while the other two thugs are
restraining him.

“Now one time and one time only, what happened
between you and Charley and where’s my $28K?”

“Look, honest guys you have no fight with me,
Charley came and gave me a hundred bucks to be worked over just enough so that
he would look bad. He never said why, but I got my hundred and I left, that’s
all I know. I should have figured Charley was up to something, but I was half
in the bag from too many beers to care. He never told me nothing, I swear.”

“Let him go guys,” Joey says as he holsters his gun,
“I think I know where the problem is.”

“Look Jack, no hard feelings, here’s another hundred
for your troubles,” Joey says as he stuffs the “C” note into Jack’s shirt
pocket. “Oh, and by the way, we were never here.”

“Thanks guys, glad to have never known ya.” With
that Joey and his two enforcers head back to the abandoned house where they
left Charley.

“Is it alright Joey, did Jack admit to beating me
up?”

“Yes, Charley, as a matter of fact he did, but there
is still a little matter of the missing money. He doesn’t have it.”

“Oh, see one of the other shorter guys must have
taken it.”

With that Joey gives Charley a backhand across the
face the force of which turns the chair on its side ending with a huge crash
that sends Charley to the floor with the chair on top of him. He is screaming
with pain.

Joey says, “Now here’s what’s going to happen. We
are going for a little ride wherever you say to go and at the end of this drive
you are going to produce the money, Kabish?”

Charley knows there are no more evasions he can use
and he can’t stand the pain of more beatings, so he directs the driver to St.
Gabriel’s Cemetery. After being dragged into the cemetery, he points to a large
oak tree. “Go get it, Joey bellows.”

With that Charley limps to the spot, falls to his
knees and starts digging with his hands, soon unearthing the coffee can.

“Now wasn’t that easy Charley?”

“Sure Joey, I must have lost my mind for a brief
moment, but I was going to deliver the money tomorrow.”

“Throw this piece of shit in the trunk and head for
the docks.”

Charley is so scared he stops feeling the pain from
his multiple beatings, and he knows better than to make any noise in the trunk.
After arriving at a darkened warehouse, the electric roll up door rises and
slowly closes behind Joey’s Cadillac as they drive into the cavernous empty
space. Joey gets through to Carlo for permission to off Charley. He gets the
green light plus some new instructions for disposing of the body.

They pull Charley from the trunk and frog march him
to the far windowless wall. Without any further exchanges, Joey pulls out his
pistol and puts two slugs in Charley’s head. In the old days it would be up to
the executioner to come up with a way of disposing of the body, but now a new
order has come out from Carlo. A call is made to Vinnie, the contact man for
the new disposal service. In thirty minutes Vinnie is in the warehouse with his
black suburban. He reaches in and pulls out a vinyl disaster pouch. This is a
pouch with six handles and a full length zipper made to hold one body. It is
used primarily for mass casualty situations like airplane crashes. The others
help Vinnie, place Joey’s body in the pouch and zip it up. After the suburban
is loaded, the pouch is covered with some eight-foot long 2 x 4s. Vinnie makes
his first historic call to Victor in Duryea. Charley after all needs a proper
disposal.

By 9:00 p.m. Vinnie is helping Vic load the pouch
into the retort. He hands Vic his envelope and promptly leaves to go back to
New York. By midnight the cremation is finished and the retort has been cleaned
out and a short trip to the Main Street Bridge sees the remains slowly drifting
down to the roaring river below. Vic certainly didn’t like the disposal part,
but the $10,000 was the easiest money he ever made. He didn’t fall asleep for
the longest time that night. But by the next morning it was just like a dream
from the past.