Page 95 of Hanging and Burning

“Then he got into a disagreement with a guy everybody called Fast Andy, a made guy. Andy told Paulie that the people he was protectin’ didn’t know how to get along with the new generation in their neighborhoods. You know… it was drug dealers and stuff, people Andy supplied. Paulie thought that they were the main cause of the robberies goin’ on and decided that if he got rid’a the drugs, then the junkies would be gone too. He wasn’t wrong, but the problem wasn’t the dealers; it was Andy.”

The old man sighed into the receiver.

“So,” I primed. “Andy told Paulie to stop bothering his people.”

“Yeah. But Paulie told Andy to mind his own fuckin’ business.”

“And Andy said?”

“Nuthin’ to Paulie, no, not to Paulie, Andy came to me. He wanted me to slow my ex-partner’s roll. I tried. Believe me, I did. I told him that he couldn’t win out against those millions’a dollars. I told him.”

“But Paulie said for you to butt out,” I said with deep confidence.

There was a long spate of silence before Arman spoke again. It was time that had to be spent. I imagined that I was a one-armed veterinary dentist trying to pull a sour tooth out of an angry predator’s jaw.

“I loved Paulie,” Arman said. “He was my brother. But you can’t make men like Fast Andy your enemy. You can’t. Andy came to me and said that I had to take care of the problem; otherwise, I would become a part of it.”

I didn’t ask Arman what his answer to Andy was. But, on the other hand, I didn’t clap my hands over my ears either.

“I went to Malto,” Arman continued. “Back then he was connected, young but with some juice. He’s the one had Paulie set up for the hit.”

“Why would he do that?” I asked. “I mean, was Paulie gettin’ in Melton’s way?”

“Malto wanted into a legitimate business. I traded him by letting him buy in as a junior partner in the Oyster club. That was why I had to say yes when he said he needed me to kill Dalia. I owed him a life.”

“So, Melton got it like that?” I asked, wondering what kind of forces the sexual predator could muster against me.

“He’s not mainstream anymore, but he knows some guys.”

“And why would he be after Dalia now?” I wondered aloud. “I mean, that was a long time ago.”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was something Twyla’s boyfriend said to Paulie,” Arman guessed. “Maybe Dalia has somethin’ on Malto and so now, I dunno, Malto’s afraid of it getting out.”

“Sounds kinda thin for so much anger,” I said. “Anyway, Rouche is with Paulie, not Melton.”

“And is Malto after Twyla?” Arman wanted to know.

“I think we have to play it like he’s after her and you, Mara and me too. Anything else would be a fool’s errand.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to my girl, Joe.”

“I don’t either.”

“So what are you gonna do?”

There was a new thought occurring in my detective’s brain. “Did Dalia ever tell you anything that she might’a had on Melton? Anything serious, I mean?”

“No.”

“I was just wondering because when I talked to Minnie Fulton she seemed to think that Malto was after Dalia because of something she knew.”

“When did you talk to Minnie?”

“Few days ago.”

“Back then, in the day, she was high all the time. It’d be hard to believe anything she thought she remembered.”

“You could be right.”