“Now let’s not get carried away,” Raymond said with a calmness that he himself did not feel. “There’s no way Stapleton could get to the bottom of the case. Our concern about an autopsy was purely hypothetical and based on an infinitesimally small chance someone with the IQ of Einstein could figure out the source of the transplant. It’s not going to happen. But I appreciate your calling me about Dr. Stapleton’s visit. As it turns out, I’m on my way this very minute to have a meeting with Vinnie Dominick. With his resources, I’m sure he’ll be able to take care of everything. After all, to a large measure, he’s responsible for the present situation.”
As soon as he could, Raymond got off the phone. Appeasing Dr. Daniel Levitz wasn’t doing anything for his own anxiety. After advising Darlene what to say in the unlikely chance Taylor Cabot called back, he left the apartment. Catching a taxi at the corner of Madison and Sixty-fourth, he instructed the cabbie how to get to Corona Avenue in Elmhurst.
The scene at the Neopolitan Restaurant was exactly the same as it had been the day before, with the addition of the stale smell of a couple of hundred more cigarettes. Vinnie Dominick was sitting in the same booth and his minions were lounging on the same bar stools. The obese bearded man was again busily washing glassware.
Raymond lost no time. After coming through the heavy red velvet drape at the door, he made a beeline for Vinnie’s booth and slid in without invitation. He pushed forward the crumpled newspaper, which he’d painstakingly smoothed out, across the table.
Vinnie gazed down at the headlines nonchalantly.
“As you can see, there’s a problem,” Raymond said. “You promised me the body was gone. Obviously, you screwed up.”
Vinnie picked up his cigarette, took a long drag, then blew the smoke at the ceiling.
“Doc,” Vinnie said. “You never fail but to amaze me. You either have a lot of nerve or you’re crazy. I don’t tolerate this kind of disrespect even from my trusted lieutenants. Either you reword what you just said to me or get up and get yourself lost before I get really pissed.”
Raymond swallowed hard while he got a finger between his neck and his shirt and adjusted his collar. Remembering to whom he was speaking gave him a chill. A mere nod from Vinnie Dominick could find him bobbing around in the East River.
“I’m sorry,” Raymond said meekly. “I’m not myself. I’m very upset. After I saw the headlines, I got a call from the CEO of GenSys, threatening the whole program. I also got a call from Franconi’s doctor, who told me he’d been approached by one of the medical examiners. An ME named Jack Stapleton dropped by his office wanting to see Franconi’s records.”
“Angelo!” Vinnie called out. “Come over here!”
Angelo ambled over to the booth. Vinnie asked him if he knew a Dr. Jack Stapleton at the morgue. Angelo shook his head.
“I’ve never seen him,” Angelo said. “But Vinnie Amendola mentioned him when he called this morning. He said Stapleton was all fired up about Franconi because Franconi is his case.”
“You see, I’ve gotten a few calls myself,” Vinnie said. “Not only did I get a call from Vinnie Amendola who’s still sweating it because we leaned on him to help us get Franconi out of the morgue. I also got another call from my wife’s brother who runs the funeral home that took the body out. Seems that Dr. Laurie Montgomery paid a visit and was asking about a body that doesn’t exist.”
“I’m sorry that this has all gone so badly,” Raymond said.
“You and me both,” Vinnie said. “To tell you the truth, I can’t understand how they got the body back. We went to some effort knowing the ground was too hard to bury it out in Westchester. So we took it way the hell out off Coney Island and dumped it into the ocean.”
“Obviously, something went wrong,” Raymond said. “With all due respect, what can be done at this point?”
“As far as the body is concerned, we can’t do anything. Vinnie Amendola told Angelo that the autopsy was already done. So that’s that.”
Raymond moaned and cradled his head. His headache had intensified.
“Just a second, Doc,” Vinnie said. “I want to reassure you about something. Since I knew the reason why an autopsy might cause problems for your program, I had Angelo and Carlo destroy Franconi’s liver.”
Raymond raised his head. A ray of hope had appeared on the horizon. “How did you do that?” he asked.
“With a shotgun,” Vinnie said. “They blasted the hell out of the liver. They totally destroyed this whole portion of the abdomen.” Vinnie made a circling motion with his hand over his right upper quadrant. “Right, Angelo?”
Angelo nodded. “The entire magazine of a pump action Remington. The guy’s gut looked like hamburger.”
“So I don’t think you have as much to worry about as you think,” Vinnie said to Raymond.
“If Franconi’s liver was totally destroyed, why is Jack Stapleton asking whether Franconi had a transplant?” Raymond asked.
“Is he?” Vinnie asked.
“He asked Dr. Levitz directly,” Raymond said.
Vinnie shrugged. “He must have gotten a clue some other way. At any rate, the problem now seems to be focused on these two characters: Dr. Jack Stapleton and Dr. Laurie Montgomery.”
Raymond raised his eyebrows expectantly.
“As I already told you, Doc,” Vinnie continued. “If it weren’t for Vinnie Junior and his bum kidneys, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in all this. The fact that I’ve since gotten my wife’s brother into this situation compounds my problem. Now that I got him involved I can’t leave him dangling, you see what I’m saying? So, here’s what I’m thinking. I’ll have Angelo and Franco pay a visit to these two doctors and take care of things. Would you mind that, Angelo?”
Raymond looked hopefully at Angelo, and for the first time since Raymond had seen Angelo, Angelo smiled. It wasn’t much of a smile because all the scar tissue precluded most facial movement, but it was a smile nonetheless.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting Laurie Montgomery for five years,” Angelo said.
“I suspected as much,” Vinnie said. “Can you get their addresses from Vinnie Amendola?”
“I’m sure he’ll be happy to give us Dr. Stapleton’s,” Angelo said. “He wants this messy situation cleared up as much as anybody. As far as Laurie Montgomery is concerned, I already know her address.”
Vinnie stubbed out his cigarette and raised his own eyebrows. “So, Doc, what do you think of the idea of Angelo and Franco visiting the two pesky medical examiners and convincing them to see things our way? They have to be convinced that they are causing us considerable inconvenience, if you know what I mean.” A wry smile appeared on his face, and he winked.
Raymond let out a little laugh of relief. “I can’t think of a better solution.” He worked his way along the curved, velvet banquette seat and stood up. “Thank you, Mr. Dominick. I’m much obliged, and apologize again for my thoughtless outburst when I first arrived.”
“Hold on, Doc,” Vinnie said. “We haven’t discussed compensation yet.”
“I thought this would be covered under the rubric of our prior agreement,” Raymond said, trying to sound businesslike without offending Vinnie. “After all, Franconi’s body was not supposed to reappear.”
“That’s not the way I see it,” Vinnie said. “This is an extra. Since you’ve already bargained away the tuition issue, I’m afraid we’re now talking about recouping some of my initiation fee. What about twenty thousand? That sounds like a nice round figure.”