The Frenchman's Revenge (26 page)

Painfully aware that he
was the one who had to explain their defeat not only to the governor but to the goddamn
mob
,
Greg bit
back his fury
and
upped
the ante with the sheriff.
By Christ
,
if
Jim Thompson
wasn’t afraid of
Aldo Marcello
,
he goddamn well better be.

“Since you are sanguine about this whole affair
,
Jim
,
I presume you have an explanation for the
New York business leaders who not only had their property
razed to
the ground
and
twenty of their employees burned to death
,
but
,
as an aside
,
had
over
$100,000 of merchandize stolen from them.”

The sheriff openly guffawed.

“For Christ’s sakes, Greg, would those
‘
business leaders
’
you refer to be the goddamn mob?
And those employees
? A
ny chance they were the same
’
employees
’
who shot to death five
johns
last week and were being arraigned for murder
?
Think about it, Greg. I
f it hadn’t been for their
‘
employers
’
who put up an astronomical bail, the
unlucky
assholes would have been in my jail instead
of
being
charred like roast pigs
on a barbecue spit
in last night’s fire
.
”

At that point
,
Sheriff Thompson pulled his horse to a stop and positioned himself
in front
of the
Martin
and Greg. His face was tight with anger and his eyes flash
ed
a clear warning
.

“Even though you are a lawyer, Greg, you may need a refresher course in the limits of the law.
As you well know, w
e didn’t have a subpoena and had no legal right to go on Bai’s property without his permission.
And one more thing, Greg, I don’t know any law in this land
or any other civilized country
that would classify fifty children forced to work as prostitutes as merchandi
s
e.”

Greg knew he was treading close to the edge of the
s
heriff’s
infamous
temper
,
but Martin
Quince
,
who had been uncharacteri
stically
quiet
,
jumped in.

“For Christ sakes, Jim, you
aren’t that stupid.
You know goddamn well that the
mob
will want answers and they will want
t
he Frenchman and his band of
Chink
hooligans held accountable for the crime they committed. I can assure you that on behalf of the governor and myself
,
we will
make it clear to the
N
ew
Y
ork business leaders that our local lawmen weren’t up to the job.
”

Sheriff
Thompson
moved his horse up within inches of the insufferable
l
ieutenant
g
overnor
. His voice was soft, controlled.

“Are you threatening me,
M
artin?”

Martin
’s
face reddened and he
mumbled something under his breath
.

“
Look, Jim, a
ll Greg and I are saying is that you had
the
guy dead to rights and you
let that arrogant prick ride roughshod
over you.
And someone is going to have to pay the consequences.”

The sheriff
didn’t
respond
. Instead, he turned
his horse back to the road and
made a point of riding
up next
to Marshal
York
and T
o
m
Creighton
,
who
chose
not to get involved in the angry conversation between Greg and the sheriff.

Greg was furious with the sheriff
. His refusal to
arrest
Bai or retrieve the young girls
made his job exponentially more difficult
.
B
y
G
od
,
he would find a way to make
sure that the sheriff got the blame
,
not him.
But at this moment
,
he wasn’t about to let the son of a b
i
tch have the last word

Ignoring the sheriff, he caught up with Marshal
York
.

“
Do you have anything to say
,
m
arshal
,
since your colleague seems to have
thrown
in the towel and has more respect for a Chin
k
warlord
than
he doe
s
for the law
?”

The sheriff
snorted at
Greg’s
outrageous
comment and
replied with a
derisive
grin
.

“
I gotta say, Greg
, yo
u seem to be taking this incident a mi
te
personally
. While
I
don’t appreciate your misstatement of my position, I will ignore it and chalk it up to your obvious envy of Bai.
But then
Elena
McManus
is without a doubt the most
beautiful
woman I’ve ever seen
. I
t must
rankle like hell that she chose
a Chink
warlord
,
or was that a Chink hooligan
,
over a
fine
,
upstanding
full blooded
American like you
.
”

Chuckling at the flush of rage on Gre
g
’s face, the sheriff’s grin spread across his wrinkled face.

“
But I will grant you
one of your assumptions.
Given a choice between
aligning with
the mob
or
t
he
Frenchman,
you can be
damn
sure I will choose
t
he
Frenchman
.
Y
ou might want to take
Bai’s
advice and seek
his
protection.
Marcello
is
n’t
gonna take this lying down.
They are going to need scapegoats and upstanding politicians like our fair
lieutenant g
overnor her
e
and even
you
might
be temping candidates.
As for myself, I will take
t
he Frenchman up on his offer of protection.
He’s done a hell of a job to date
,
and if the mob
gets their heads outa their ass
es
,
they will know they’ve been outma
nned
.”

Greg didn’t try to hide his anger.
Ignoring the sheriff, he turned again to Pete
York
.

“You didn’t answer me,
m
arshal? Whose side are you on?
The arrogant asshole who committed the crime or the group that was wronged?”

Marshal
York
looked at him from half
-
lidded eyes and said, “The mob or
t
he Frenchman? You gotta be kidding, Greg.
The mob doesn’t stand a chance.”

With that
,
the sheriff and
the
marshal urged their horses forward and rode off
with T
o
m
Creighton
,
leaving Greg and
the
lieutenant g
overnor
sputtering
behind
in the distance.

Greg’s fury threatened his breath.
Gasping for air
,
he grabbed hold of the discipline that had made him what he was.
A hard grimace
tugged at his mouth
.
A sheriff’s life was
hazardous
. Somehow
,
Jim
Thompson
,
to date
,
had survived
the dangers that
came his way.
Greg’s grimace became a grin
. Maybe so.
What he couldn’t and wouldn’t survive was Greg.

~~~

Greg and
M
artin pulled up in front of the governor’s mansion and turned their horses over to the
stable
master.

Martin wiped the sweat off his face with a so
i
led handkerchief and
,
huffing and puffing
,
tried to keep up with Greg
,
who was
st
riding
a
head,
clear
ly
angry
.

“Loo
k Greg,
I know it looks like
t
he Frenchman got a bit of a jump here
,
but you and I know where the real power is.
That doesn’t mean th
e
Chink bastard isn’t dangerous.
What we need to do is make sure that Aldo and the boys know we did our damn
d
est and it
’s
that chicken shit sheriff and
marshal
that
are
causing
the
problem
.
I don’t know
about
you
,
but I’m gonna insist that Aldo up our
take
.
When I think about the shit we have to put up with and that fuckin
’
Chink
looking
over our shoulder,
I don’t think we’re getting paid what
we are worth.
And, goddamn,
I think I’ll tell Aldo
that
to his face.
”

He
stopped for a
moment to mop his face and seemed to rethink his bravado
.

“
Or since you talk to
him
more than I do, maybe you should
ask him for a bigger
cut
.
”

Greg
choked back
his fury and barely hid his disgust
for
the fat man
beside him.
The obsequious, cowardly piece of shit wouldn’t know Aldo Marcello if he walked up and introduced himself by name.
And the
overbearing
little asshole waltzed around acting as though he was on a first name basis with the Costa Nostra leaders.
Goddamn, maybe I should tell Aldo that the whole fucking mess was Martin’s fault and have one of
Aldo’s
men wipe
Martin
out.

Christ,
just his luck to get stuck with a
fucking bastard
like Martin
as his
foil
. But Marcello had insisted. Greg had to give those Eastern
gangsters
credit.
Like Greg, t
hey
could sniff out a corrupt politician with
buckshot up their
nose
s
. But
,
let’s face it
,
Martin’s
stench
was
n’t hard to
track
.
The mob liked having the
high level
, visible
pricks
in their pocket and the closer they were to the top
,
the better.
But the mob figured out in
short order
that the only thing Martin had to offer was a big mouth
, a small brain
,
and a smaller pair of balls.