Chương 4
“You said you approved the agency.”
“I approve twenty vendors a month.”
“Who owns Lakeshore?”
“I’ll find out.”
“You don’t know?”
“Not off the top of my head.”
Victor looked through the cafeteria windows at an ambulance backing into the bay. “You approved a company you didn’t investigate.”
“I said I’d find out.”
“Do it before I do.”
Dominic exhaled. “Vic, you’re sitting in a hospital because a maid took a nap in your bed. You want to burn down a vendor relationship at midnight over one insurance problem?”
“One insurance problem took money from her paycheck.”
“That doesn’t mean the money vanished.”
“Where did it go?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Victor lowered the phone. “Then stop talking.”
He ended the call.
Leo sat across from him with a paper cup between his hands.
“What?” Victor asked.
“Nothing.”
“You’ve been looking at me for three minutes.”
Leo rubbed his thumb over the seam of the cup. “Dominic usually knows who owns the companies.”
“Yes.”
“He knows the janitorial supplier’s brother-in-law.”
“Yes.”
“He knows which butcher delivers to the State Street restaurant on Thursdays.”
Victor looked toward the darkened food counter. “And yet Lakeshore escapes him.”
Leo drank his coffee.
Neither man said anything else.
Anna woke shortly after two in the morning and demanded to see Thomas. The nurse refused until her fever came down. Anna tried to pull the IV from her hand. Victor, standing in the doorway, told her to stop.
She looked at him with unfocused fury. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“You’re tearing your skin.”
“I need to see him.”
“You need antibiotics.”
“He thinks I abandoned him.”
“I spoke to him.”
“That is not comforting.”
Victor entered the room. “He knows where you are.”
“He’s afraid of hospitals.”
“He’s spent half his life in one.”
“That’s why he’s afraid of them.”
Anna stopped pulling at the tape. Her fingers trembled above it.
Victor moved the visitor’s chair closer but remained standing.
“He asked whether the safety was on.”
Color rose faintly beneath her feverish skin. “I told him not to search you.”
“He says he doesn’t have time to memorize gangsters.”
That almost produced another laugh. She pressed her lips together instead.
Victor handed her a cup of water. She drank, then stared at the lid.
“Did you really pay the bill?”
“I gave them the money.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“The payment is being processed.”
Her eyes lifted to his. “What do you want?”
“Nothing.”
“No one gives away fifty-two thousand dollars for nothing.”
“I do.”
“You pointed a gun at my face ten hours ago.”
“Three.”
She glanced at the digital clock. “That makes it better.”
Victor sat.
Anna watched him carefully, as though the chair might be part of a negotiation.
“My brother and I don’t owe you anything,” she said.
“I didn’t ask.”
“You will.”
“No.”
“People like you always do.”
Victor rested his forearms on his knees. The white shirt he had worn to dinner was wrinkled now, the sleeves still rolled to his elbows, the black tie hanging loose. A dark mark from Anna’s makeup stained one shoulder.
“What are people like me?” he asked.
“Rich men who turn help into ownership.”
He considered the answer. “That’s not entirely wrong.”
She had expected denial. He saw it in the brief widening of her eyes.
“Then say what this is.”
Victor looked at the IV pump. “It’s a bill.”
“It’s my life.”
“It’s a number.”
“To you.”
“Yes.”
The honesty angered her more than any reassurance could have.
She set the water down too hard. “Get out.”
Victor stood.
At the door, Anna said, “What did you mean about being late?”
He stopped but did not turn.
“Nothing that helps you.”
“That didn’t stop you from saying it.”
Victor left before the past could answer for him.
At four in the morning, Leo found the first corporate record on a state database. Lakeshore Domestic Services belonged to a holding company called Vantage Municipal Solutions. Vantage’s registered manager was a lawyer in Cicero who represented several businesses connected to Dominic Vale’s cousin.
By five, Victor’s accountant confirmed that Lakeshore had billed three Russo-owned properties for insurance benefits it did not appear to provide.
By six, Raymond discovered the telephone number Thomas had given them belonged to a prepaid device activated near a storefront office Dominic used for union consulting.
At six fifteen, Dominic arrived at the hospital.
Victor met him in an empty family waiting room. Morning light had begun turning the windows gray. A television in the corner played a cooking program with captions and no sound.
Dominic closed the door. “You sent Raymond to my office.”
“I sent Raymond to an address.”
“My address.”
“Then it was efficient.”
Dominic took off his coat and draped it over a chair. “Lakeshore uses subcontractors. The health plan is through an administrator. Somebody may have missed a filing.”
“For six months.”
“It happens.”
“To seventeen employees.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “You went through the entire roster?”
“I started.”
“You should’ve called me.”
“I did.”
“And I said I’d handle it.”
Victor placed the payroll summaries on the table. “You handled it already.”
Dominic did not look at them.
Victor continued. “Lakeshore billed my companies for benefits. It deducted premiums from employees. No carrier received the money.”
“I don’t manage their bank accounts.”
“Your cousin does.”
“My cousin manages hundreds of accounts.”
“Your cousin sells stolen catalytic converters out of a body shop.”
Dominic sat. “What do you want me to say?”
“The truth would be unusual.”
A small muscle moved in Dominic’s cheek. “Careful.”
Victor leaned back.
The word hung between them. Dominic appeared to hear it only after it had left his mouth.
Victor’s voice became very quiet. “Say that again.”
“I’m tired.”
“So is the woman downstairs with pneumonia.”
“I’m not talking about her.”
May you like
“You should be.”
Dominic stood again, unable to stay still. “This business has overhead you don’t want written down. Drivers. Lawyers. People who keep their mouths shut. Cash doesn’t fall from the ceiling because you wear an expensive watch.”
