The Payback Game (16 page)

Having leaned on Galvani hard, Boff decided it was time to buy spare batteries for his bomb detector. Then he stopped at his lawyer’s office to make sure his will was up to date and asked him to tack double indemnity onto his life insurance. When he got home, he was taking his Kevlar vest out of a suitcase in the bedroom closet when Jenny walked into the room.

“Kevlar? Oh, Frank. No. Not again.”

“Just a precaution, honey.”

She got up in his face. “You’re
never
cautious! If you’re going to wear Kevlar, your life must be in danger.”

Before replying, he hung his vest on a strong wooden hanger in the closet. Then he turned to face the music. “If my life’s in danger,” he began, “just remember you’re the one who started urging me to take righteous cases.”

“Well, maybe I made a mistake. It never occurred to me that you’d keep getting death threats.”

Boff walked over to his wife and tried to hug her, but she pushed him away.

“A threat,” he said, “doesn’t mean I’m actually going to get shot at. Other than sweating a lot wearing the vest during summer, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

But Jenny wasn’t about to be appeased. She put her hands on her hips and issued an order: “Call Pete Wallachi right now and ask him for a bodyguard!”

Shaking his head, Boff held up one hand. “If, and I mean
if
, the time comes when I feel I really need a bodyguard, yes, I promise you I’ll call Pete.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re going to wait until somebody tries to shoot you first?” She yanked the bedroom phone off its charger and held it out to him. “Call him! Right now!”

“Jenny…”

“I said,
call
!”

Knowing she wasn’t going to let this go until he obeyed, Boff said, “Okay. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll do it.” He dialed Wallachi’s cell. “Pete, meet me at Nathan’s in an hour.”

What’s up?

“Tell you when I get there.” He hung up and turned to his wife. “Satisfied?”

She shook her head. “I’ll only be satisfied, Frank Boff, when you drop this damn case. Which of course you won’t. What’d you do
this
time to put yourself in danger?”

“What I did was take on another ‘righteous’ case, a case where I’m working
against
the scumbags instead of
for
them. Same as the last three times my life was in danger.”

“That may be true, but knowing you, I’m sure you did something to provoke the threat.”

When her husband said nothing to that, Jenny stormed out of their bedroom and into the kitchen.

He followed her in. Trying to lighten the air, he said, “So what’s for dinner tonight, honey?”

She took her time before answering, and when she did, her voice was frosty. “I was going to cook sausage and peppers. But now I’m too upset to do that much work. I’ll just order Chinese takeout.”

“Well, if you do, don’t get it from that joint down the street. The last time you did, the food tasted so funky I was worried about getting salmonella. I’m lucky the
food didn’t kill me.”

Jenny spat out a bitter laugh. “Bullet? Chinese food? What’s the difference? And for your information, I happen to
like
the Sun Garden. If you don’t want to eat their food, then order from somewhere else. For yourself!”

When Boff arrived at Nathan’s, Wallachi and Manny were already there. Both were eating hot dogs and fries.

“You’re late,” Wallachi said. “We were too hungry to wait for you.”

Boff sat down at their table. “Sorry. I had to smooth some things over with my wife.”

Wallachi used a french fry to point at Boff’s stomach. “Either you gained weight from all the junk food you eat, or you’re wearing a vest.”

Without answering, Boff stood up, went to the counter, and ordered a couple of dogs with sauerkraut and a container of onion rings. When he came back with his food, Wallachi lightly punched his chest.

“Who’s the threat?” he asked.

“Galvani.”

Manny looked up. “Maybe he thinks you’re getting too close.”

His boss shook his head. “More likely, Frank did what he does best and provoked the guy. Isn’t that right, Frank?”

Boff said nothing.

“So why’d you call me?”

“I had to. As soon as my wife saw me airing out the Kevlar, she ordered me to ask you for a bodyguard.”

“No problem.”

“But I don’t want one just yet.”

“Then what?”

“I’d like to resume surveillance on Galvani. The fact that Laterza owns a white SUV doesn’t necessarily mean they’re using it for phony raids, but added to what else we’ve dug up, it’s hard to completely ignore it. I believe there’s a possibility that, sooner or later, Galvani’s going to take the longshoremen on a raid. I’m assuming you put trackers on those guys’ vehicles?” 

“Yup. My crack op did.”

“Good,” Boff said. “We probably only needed the one we have on Galvani’s car. But just in case one of the longshoremen picks the cop up in his own vehicle, we need to play it safe. Can you assign an op to keep an eye on each of the dock workers? Meanwhile, you and—”

“—and me,” Manny said.

“Okay,” Boff said. “The three of us will track Galvani when he gets off work today.”

Wallachi grabbed a couple of onion rings from Boff’s basket.

After checking his watch, Boff said, “Its
two o’clock now. As soon as we finish eating, we’ll head over to the 71
st
. Meanwhile, have your ops tail the longshoremen when they knock off work today.”

“What time do they quit?”

“Let me find out.” Boff took out his cell, looked up the union official’s number, and called him. “Jan, Frank Boff.”

Hey, Frank. Anything to report on these two guys of mine?

“I have my suspicions, but I’m going to wait until I have something more concrete.”

So what can I do for you?

“I’d like to know what time these jokers get off work today.”

Let me look it up on my computer.
In a few moments, Roszak came back on line.
They’re scheduled until four. But we had a lot of cargo come in, so they’ll probably put in a couple hours of OT.

“Thanks, Jan.”

Boff put his phone away and repeated what Roszak had told him.

Wallachi nodded. “Good. That’ll give me more time to get my people in place.”

When the investigator reached for another onion ring, Boff pushed his hand away. “You want onion rings, order some.”

Wallachi pointed at Manny. “Go up and get me an order. Frank was never taught that lesson about sharing with others.”

“Why don’t you get ’em yourself?” Manny protested.

“Because I don’t feel like it. Get moving.”

As the crack op stood up, he said, “When are you going to start treating me like an equal?”

“When you start acting like one.”

Manny left the table in a huff.

“As for these alleged raids,” Wallachi said, “what exactly do you want to do if we actually observe them going on one?”

“Take pictures. Then follow them back to the garage where they keep the SUV. Whoever leaves the garage with the drugs, we tail him. Either he’s going to sell them to a local dealer for a profit or he’ll—”

“—go visit the Hells Angels.”

“Sounds about right.”

When Manny returned with Wallachi’s order of onion rings, the crack op swiped two of them before setting the basket on the table.

“Hey,” said his boss. “Don’t steal mine. If you wanted some friggin’ onion rings, why didn’t you get some when you were up there?”

“I’m not hungry enough to eat a whole order. Besides, didn’t anyone ever teach
you
about sharing with others?”

Wallachi shot Manny a sour look, then turned to Boff. “Answer me this, Frank. Let’s say Galvani and his
crew is actually pulling phony raids. Why would they sell the stash to the Angels when they can unload it here in Brooklyn? With a lot less hassle.”

“Good question. I’m not sure yet. The only thing I can think of is maybe Galvani isn’t actually
selling
the drugs to the bikers. Maybe he’s just
handing them over
.”

Wallachi looked surprised. “Why would he do that?”

“Off the top of my head?” Boff shrugged. “It’s possible Galvani might be using the drugs as currency to buy in on some bigger scheme the Angels are hatching.”

“Like what?”

“I haven’t a clue.”

The day proved to be another wash. After work, Galvani went to a deli, picked up a six-pack of beer, and drove home. Around
seven o’clock, a pizza delivery truck pulled up in front of his building. The driver walked up the front steps and rang the buzzer. In a few moments, Galvani opened the door, paid the delivery boy, and took the pizza box inside with him. At ten o’clock he was still inside. They called it a night.

The next day, Cullen and Hannah joined the surveillance team. As Wallachi pulled away from the gym, the redhead tapped Boff’s shoulder.

“This is getting out of hand,” she said.

“What is?”

“Having Cullen along everywhere I go. A couple of my girlfriends already think he’s my boyfriend. Why can’t I just buy some pepper spray?”

“Why? Because that wouldn’t stop a determined killer.
And
Mike wants Danny along. That’s why.”

“Well at least make him stop asking me out. It’s really annoying.”

Boff turned around to Cullen in the backseat. “Danny, stop asking Hannah out.”

The boxer smiled. “Okay.”

Hannah made a sour face. “Yeah. Like he’s really going to listen to you.”

Wallachi parked down the street from the 71
st
Precinct again. An hour later, Galvani left the building, drove to Carl’s Auto Body Shop on Nostrand Avenue in East Flatbush, parked, and walked inside. Barely five minutes later, he came back out, walked three doors down to a bar, and went in.

Cullen leaned forward to Boff. “What was that about?” he said.

Manny answered. “He’s probably scheduling a tune-up or something.”

“Not at that place,” Boff said. “An auto body shop only does what the name implies. Fixes the body of a vehicle. Galvani’s Mustang is spotless.”

“Manny,” Wallachi said, “go into the shop and tell the mechanic you had an accident, and you’re wondering if you could have your car towed there to be fixed. When the mechanic looks at his schedule book, make a mental note of everything you see.”

“What if Galvani comes out of the bar?” Manny said.

“I’ll call you on your cell. Go.”

The crack op walked into the shop, stayed for a couple minutes, then came back to the car.

“What’d you see?” Wallachi asked.

“A lot of tools and shit.”

Wallachi shook his head. “Do you think you can summon
all
your brain cells to work together and be a little more specific? Like, how many vehicles were being worked on? And what were they?”

“Uh…there were…three vehicles. Yeah, three. A…a pickup truck that I think was a Chevy. Its rear end was mangled. There was, uh, a Honda Accord. Yup. Its driver’s side door was caved in. And the last one was a SUV with a dented hood.”

That caught Boff’s interest. “What kind of SUV?” he asked.

“I didn’t catch the make,” Manny replied. “Only thing that did catch my eye was that the vehicle had a sign painted on the side.”

“Which said…?”

Manny closed his eyes and scrunched up his face, apparently trying to picture the SUV. Then, with a note of triumph: “Sonlight Christian Reformed Church. Spelled S-O-N. Kinda weird, if you ask me.”

“We didn’t,” said Wallachi.

At the same time, Boff asked, “What kind of plates?”

“Uh…New York. I didn’t have time to get the numbers because the mechanic came back out of his office.”

Boff kept after him. “What color was the SUV?”

“Dark blue.”

Wallachi interjected, “You sure it wasn’t white?”

“Duh. Pete, no matter what you think of my investigative skills, I can actually tell the difference between blue and white.”

Boff pointed to Cullen. “Go inside and ask where the nearest gas station is. While you’re there, get the plate number of the SUV.”

Cullen did as instructed. When he returned to the car he told Boff the number. Boff called Damiano and put it on speaker.

“Can you run a
New York plate for me?” he asked. “BVJ-five-one-five-one. I’ll hang on the line.”

In a few minutes, the detective came back.

It belongs to a Sonlight Christian Reformed Church in an upstate town called Massena
.

“Thanks.” Boff disconnected, then turned back to Manny. “Use your BlackBerry and see if there’s a Sonlight Christian Reformed church in
Massena, New York. If there is, what’s its address and phone number?”

Manny started typing. In a few minutes he said, “Yup. There’s one with that name in Massena. Located on 182 Fayette Road.”

As Boff wrote the address down, he said, “What’s the phone number?”

“Uh, doesn’t have one.”

Boff looked at Wallachi. “Pete, can you think of a reason why a church wouldn’t have a phone?”

Wallachi shook his head. “Could be unlisted. Although I can’t see why a church would do that. Maybe it’s just one of those weird Christian sects that don’t believe in modern technology.”

“An SUV is modern technology.”

Hannah said, “Maybe there’s no such church.”

Boff nodded. “The address could certainly be an abandoned house or a store, although I’m not going to make that conclusion yet. The only things we can say for certain are that the SUV is suspicious and Galvani was in the shop. That doesn’t mean we can connect him to the vehicle, but it does raise a red flag for me.”

“Maybe,” Hannah said, “this is the SUV they use for the raids. And it got dented.”

“It isn’t,” Boff replied. “Number one, it’s the wrong color. And two, those aren’t the plate numbers on Laterza’s SUV.”

“So the plates are stolen,” Hannah said.

Boff shook his head. “You can’t register stolen plates.”

“Let’s worry about the SUV later,” Wallachi said. “Here comes Galvani.”

Instead of returning to the body shop, Galvani got in his car and drove away.

Boff looked at Wallachi. “Can you get another op to watch this shop until it closes? I want to know who picks the SUV up. If nobody does today, have your man stake out the shop first thing in the morning.”

“No problem.”

While Wallachi tailed Galvani to
Crown Heights, he pulled one of his ops off another job and assigned him to the body shop. “Louie,” he said, “I want you to watch the place and see if someone picks up a dark blue SUV, license plate BVJ-five-one-five-one. Written on the vehicle’s side panel is ‘Sonlight Christian Reformed Church.’ If nobody picks it up today, be there early in the morning and wait. I want you to follow the SUV when it leaves the shop and tell me where it goes.”

Galvani went straight home and disappeared inside his building. Twenty minutes later, he was still inside when one of Wallachi’s ops who was following the longshoremen, called.
Laterza’s Beamer is on the move. Monetti is with him.

“Stay on it, Jerry.”

Ten minutes later, Jerry called again.

He’s in
Crown Heights. On Brooklyn Avenue.

“Thanks.” Wallachi closed his phone and turned to Boff. “It looks like the longshoremen are heading our way.”

Five minutes later, Laterza’s Beamer pulled up and double parked in front of Galvani’s building. When the detective left his building and got in the backseat of the Beamer, Laterza took off.

“Frank, they could be going on a raid,” Wallachi said.

“Maybe.”

Laterza drove into Cobble Hill, the section of
Brooklyn where he lived, then turned onto Smith Street on Restaurant Row. The three men went into an Italian restaurant called La Lunetta.

“Hannah, you’re up,” Wallachi said.

“My pleasure.”

“Wait,” Boff said. “Galvani knows what she looks like.”

Hannah gave him a dirty look. “So what? If he approaches me, I’ll just tell him I came in for a few beers. I doubt he’ll think I’m following him.”

Boff thought about whether it was wise to send her in. Manny was too dumb for this kind of surveillance. He needed someone with an eye for details. That wasn’t Cullen, either. Hannah was a reporter.

“Okay,” he finally said. “Go in and sit at the bar. If it looks like they’re going to eat, get a menu and order something yourself. If Galvani approaches you, your cover is that Mike recommended the place.”

After Boff handed her forty dollars for a meal, Hannah crossed the street and walked into the restaurant. A few minutes later, she came back out, stood by the restaurant’s front door, and took out her cell.

Boff’s phone rang. He put it on speaker.

They’re ordering food. Should I take a table and eat or stay at the bar?

“Stay at the bar. Order something there.”

Can I have a beer?

“Yes. But stay sharp. See if they do anything suspicious.”

What constitutes suspicious?

“You’ll know it when you see it.”

“Frank,” Wallachi asked, “do you think they’d eat before going on a raid?”

Boff shrugged. “Probably not. Italian food is generally heavy. It always makes me sluggish.”

He called Hannah back, but she didn’t answer. Moments later, she walked out of the restaurant again and called him. He hit her with a quick question before she could say anything.

“Why’d you leave the restaurant again? Are you sitting so close to them they can hear you talk?”

No.
The bartender told me that they don’t allow cell phone usage inside. I put my phone on vibrate.

“Okay. Are they drinking?”

Yes. They ordered a bottle of red wine.

Boff hung up. Hannah went back in.

“Pete, if they’re drinking wine, it doesn’t look promising.”

Before Wallachi could reply, his own phone rang.

The body shop’s closing up.

“Stick for thirty more minutes, anyway. Just to be sure.”

Wallachi put his phone down and turned to Boff. “Looks like another wasted day.”

“Probably.”

Not quite ready to quit surveillance, Boff sent Cullen to a nearby coffee bar for drinks. For all he knew, it was possible these guys liked a full stomach and a buzz before going on a raid. Not likely, but he couldn’t afford to give up so easily.

Hannah popped out of the bar again.

You said to let you know if they did anything suspicious.

“What’d they do?”

Galvani had his waiter bring him a paper napkin. The ones on the table are cloth. He’s been writing on the napkin. The other two guys are watching what he’s writing. Every so often, Galvani taps a finger on something he’s written on the napkin. Do you think I should walk over to their table on some pretense and try to get a peek at the napkin?

“No! Don’t push your luck. If anything important
is on the napkin, he’d cover it with his hand. Go back in and wait until they finish eating. If they leave the napkin on the table, grab it.”

Wallachi said, “He might be drawing a map.”

“Or playing tic-tac-toe,” Boff replied, frustration clear in his voice.

After Cullen returned with the coffees, Boff waited ten minutes, then pulled Hannah out of the bar again.

“What are they doing now?”

Eating appetizers.

“Where’s the napkin?”

Just sitting on the table next to Galvani
.

“Go back in.”

“Frank,” Wallachi said, “this is a colossal waste of time. These gumbas are just stuffing their faces. They’re not going on a raid.”

“You’re probably right. But let’s hang for a little while longer.”

Boff called Hannah twice more and learned that Galvani and the longshoremen were starting in on their main courses, also that they had ordered another bottle of wine.

Almost an hour passed before Galvani and the longshoremen left the restaurant, got into the Beamer and drove off. Shortly after, Hannah came out and hustled over to the car. She burped loudly as she got in.

Manny made a face. “You smell like a brewery,” he said. “How many did you have?”

“None of your business.”

“What about the napkin?” Boff asked.

“He took it with him.”

“By implication,” Boff said, “that means there was something of importance on it. Did you notice anything else out of the ordinary?”

“No. They just looked like three guys having dinner and getting drunk on wine. Before Galvani left, though, he walked over to me.”

“What’d he say?”

“He just asked me if I enjoyed my food. He studied my face when I answered, and then he left.”

They followed the Beamer to Galvani’s place. After the cop got out of the car, Laterza took off.

“Any point in following those two jokers?” Wallachi asked.

“No. Galvani is the key to everything. Let’s pull the plug for tonight.”