“You laid hands on him,” Paulie says. “You physically threw him out.”
“Yeah, and I will again, Paulie,” Tim says. “If my old man knew that was going on in this place—”
Danny remembers an argument that Pat and Liam had, about Liam’s trips to Miami. He goes down there on what he calls “forni-cations.” Danny has his suspicions about Liam’s Miami runs.
So does Pat.
Danny was there when Pat cornered Liam and said, “Hand to God, Liam, if you’re bringing back anything from Florida besides herpes . . .”
Liam laughed. “What, you mean coke?”
“Yeah, I mean coke.”
“Lot of money in blow, bro.”
“Lot of jail time, too,” Pat said. “Lot of freakin’ heat from the feds and locals. We don’t need that.”
“Yes, Godfather,” Liam said. He went into his Brando imitation. “We’ll lose our judges, our politicians . . .”
“I’m not kiddin’ here, baby brother.”
“Don’t get your panties in a wad,” Liam said. “I’m not moving any coke, for Chrissakes.”
“See that you don’t.”
“Jesus. Enough.”
Now Danny remembers that conversation and has to wonder what the fuck they’re really talking about here.
“Look,” Peter jumps in, “maybe we can cut a little slack on the payments if Tim would be a little flexible on this other thing.”
“Why this place?” Pat asks. “In the winter it’s nothing but fishermen.”
“Fishermen don’t do coke?” Paulie asks. “Don’t kid yourself. The worse the fishing is, the more they need. The better the fishing is, the more they want.”
Danny don’t like the remark. Hard to make a living, support your family—guys take a little consolation where they can find it. Used to be booze, now it’s blow. Well, it’s still booze, but now it’s blow, too.
“I’m just saying there are other places you could do that business,” Pat insists.
It’s true, Danny thinks. He knows at least five joints up the coast where you can score coke.
“You can’t shake your dick at the urinal those places you don’t hit a narc,” Peter says. “I thought we were all friends here. A friend denies a friend a favor?”
“It’s a big goddamn ask,” Tim says. “I could lose my liquor license. Shit, they could confiscate the place.”
Pat puts his hand out to silence him. Danny recognizes the gesture. Seen it a hundred times from Old Man Murphy. Must be genetic.
“Who do you have selling down here?” Pat asks.
“You know Rocco Giannetti.”
Danny knows him—slick twenty-something, drives a freakin’ BMW. Now Danny knows how he makes the payments, the insurance.
“Rocco is showy,” Pat says. “Loud. He attracts attention.”
“What, you’re human resources now?” Paulie asks.
Peter asks, “You’d prefer someone else?”
“I’d prefer a grown-up,” Pat says.
“We can do that,” Peter answers. “How about Chris here?”
There it is, Danny thinks—that was the play all along, to set Chris Palumbo up to sell coke in here. And it wasn’t the Morettis’ idea, it was Chris’s; the red-haired guinea probably got the Morettis all jacked up about the tax, then suggested the coke deal as a compromise. He’ll make on the blow, then kick up to Peter and Paul.
Pat makes his ruling. “Twice a week, during the off-season. Nothing during the summer. Chris can meet his buyer inside, but he goes out to his car to move the dope. Nothing bigger than an ounce, ever.”
“We can’t do business in the summer?” Paulie complains. “What is that?”
“We don’t have to give you anything,” Liam says.
“The fuck you—”
“Okay,” Peter says, shutting his little brother up.
“Tim, you good with this?” Pat asks.
“I guess.”
He’s reluctant and Danny don’t blame him. But what are you gonna do? It’s the way of the world. Their world, anyway. Pat didn’t give away nothing that the Morettis couldn’t just take. It just makes good sense to be gracious about something you can’t prevent.
Besides, Pat is looking to the future. Pasco has been talking about retiring—Mashanuck in the summer, Florida in the winter. Someone is going to step up to take the number one job and Peter Moretti might be the guy. He’s young but already a captain and big earner, and if Moretti Senior wasn’t doing twenty in the Adult Correctional Institutions, he’d be the man, so Peter feels it’s his due. Pat Murphy knows down the line he’s going to be doing business with Peter and wants to keep a good relationship.