We reconvened just inside the front door. Chili hit a switch, and a single fixture dropped a blue bowl of light onto a table with five chairs.
“Sit down,” DeLuca said.
I took a seat beside Rita. Rodriguez sat across from us.
“This is where we keep excess merchandise from our various business interests.” DeLuca gestured to the stacks of crates and boxes piled up in the shadows. “All completely legit, Detective.”
Rodriguez didn’t respond. A heavy rifle with a scope was resting on the table between his arms. I could hear movement around us. Chili ducked back in with an espresso in a brown cup and saucer. DeLuca took a sip and rubbed his lips together.
“Our arrangement with the Korean,” the old man said.
“What about it?” I said.
“We need to be made whole.”
“I didn’t take your dope, Vinny.”
He held up a hand, as if to quiet a petulant child. “I was talking to the detective.”
“What is it you think I can do?” Rodriguez said.
“You provided the Korean with his product in the first place. It’s simply a matter of replacing what was lost.”
I watched a small vein pulse in Rodriguez’s temple and felt Rita’s cold heartbeat in the seat next to me.
“How long have you known?” the detective said.
DeLuca picked up his coffee cup, thought better of it, and put the cup down with a quiet clink. “Three months, give or take. We knew the Korean was burned but figured it might take a while to play out.”
“And meanwhile there was still business to be done,” I said.
“Always business to be done. Now, are you ready to hear my proposal?”
“I don’t care about your drug business, Vinny. And I don’t think Detective Rodriguez has any interest in replacing your lost product.”
DeLuca held out his hand. “Let me see your address.”
I pushed it across the table. DeLuca rubbed it flat.
“We had two men watching the Korean’s store that day. They went inside just before you got there, Kelly. Lee was dead. As you know, the dope was already gone. My men saw the body bags. Left them where they were and took off.” DeLuca pushed the address back toward my side of the table. “Now, we want to do our part.”
“And what would your part be?”
“You think I like these raghead cocksuckers attacking this city?” A sip of espresso. “I don’t.”
“You sound like our mayor.”
“Maybe I am.” DeLuca liked that and took another sip.
“If you want to help, get me a lead on who Lee was selling the bags to,” I said.
“Not that easy.”
“What do you want?”
The old man rubbed one ancient hand over the other. “Let’s make it clean between us. You help me. I give you a picture of the man you’re looking for.”
I sat up. “A picture?”
DeLuca nodded.
“What’s it gonna cost?” Rodriguez said.
“Another shipment out of the police lockup. Johnny will tell you how much. Delivered into the quarantine zone. We can’t get in there until fuck knows when. And no one has any product.”
“Business goes on,” I said.
“Addicts gotta have their fix.” DeLuca tapped Rodriguez on the forearm. “You get the product. Deliver it to the West Side. And… ” DeLuca held up a misshapen digit. “Give us a one-year grace period to sell in K Town. No more undercover stings. No more busts.”
“Can’t do it,” Rodriguez said.
“Sure you can, Detective. First of all, we’re only gonna sell to niggers and addicts, two groups of people your bosses wish were fucking dead anyway. Second, you’ve been looking the other way across half the city as it is. Like I said, no schoolkids, no rich suburban fucks getting their blow off the corner. None of that shit. Just feeding dope into the sewer.”
“How do we know your information is any good?” I said.
“You don’t like what we have, we don’t do business together.” DeLuca drained his cup and stretched. “I’m gonna go outside and take a walk. You call your bosses. Let me know if I can help make Kelly here a hero.”
Footsteps followed him back into the darkness. A door opened somewhere, a rectangle of light flashing for a moment, and then we were alone. Rodriguez swore softly under his breath.
“Can’t do this, Kelly.”
“How many dead so far on the West Side, Vince?”
“They haven’t given us a number.”
“I was down at Cook County Hospital. They got ’em stacked up in the hallways. Bringing in refrigerated vans to store all the bodies until they can burn ’em.”
Rodriguez glanced at his girlfriend, who was smoking a cigarette and staring at the light drifting overhead.
I dug out my cell and slid it across the table. “I’ll take the drugs in.”
“And then we all look the other way for a year?” Rodriguez said.
Rita leaned in. “DeLuca’s right. Gangs have had carte blanche to sell down there forever. So what’s the difference?”
“The difference is I’m a cop, Rita.”
“Your brothers in blue are the ones providing the dope, for Chrissakes.” She stood, her chair scraping violently along the cement floor. “These are lives we’re talking about, Vince. Thousands of people, maybe, piled up dead. And you’re gonna sit by and watch? For what? The honor of the badge? Please. Swallow your pride and help Michael if you can.”
Rita walked off. Rodriguez and I watched her lit cigarette pace back and forth in the darkness.
“You’re a real pain in my ass, Kelly.”
“She’s right and you know it.”
Rodriguez sighed. “Motherfucker.” Then he picked up my cell and dialed.