“And stealing copper from Paragon? He okay that too?”
“Everything would have been fine if Jason hadn’t felt he had to make a fast buck under the table.”
“It was Milt’s idea,” Jason whined. “He’d take a cut instead of a production bonus.”
Chamfers moved angrily in his chair and started to protest, but shut up at a gesture from Peter.
“You were always such a fucking two-bit operator, Jason. You pissed and moaned because Papa didn’t leave you the company, but he knew you were too stupid to run it. Then you pissed for forty years while you screwed around on the fringes of big-time politics, so I helped you get your own company. And now you’ve fucked that up.”
“Whose fault is that?” Jason’s round face looked green in the uncertain light. “You had to use your hotshot son-in-law to do the legal work. I could have got it—”
“You could have got it screwed nine ways from Sunday if I’d left it to your Du Page County Board cronies. I’m cleaning up after Warshawski for you, but you know the condition. You stop funneling supplies away from Paragon.”
My legs felt wobbly at his words. I grabbed the doorknob behind me for support. It had a little button lock in it. I pressed it home. That wouldn’t keep Simon out long, but any fraction of a second would help.
“Cleaning up after me?” I repeated the scary words, trying to tame them. “Come on, guys. Ben Loring at Paragon knows all about this. The city cops know about Chamfers getting the Hulk to knock Mitch Kruger into the canal. Did he also kill Eddie Mohr, Milt? Or did you do that yourself?”
“I told you she knew too much,” Jason said. “You should have done something sooner.”
“Oh, for Christ sake, Jason. I’m telling you this really is the last time I get involved in your problems.”
“Got that right, big guy,” I said brightly. “This one is probably going to take the rest of your life to sort out.”
“I can see why Yarborough ditched you as fast as he could,” Peter said. “If you’d been mine I would have beaten some sense into you.”
A cold rage gripped me, straightening my legs. “You might have tried it once, Felitti, but you sure wouldn’t have wanted to do it twice.”
I noticed the light switch out of the corner of my eye. For the first time since arriving I felt able to think clearly, to plan for action.
Felitti tightened his lips. “You’re everything I’m glad my daughters aren’t. I just can’t see what attracted a man like Yarborough to a—a dyke like you.”
It was such a feeble insult and he looked so steamed up saying it that I couldn’t help laughing.
“Yeah, laugh,” Jason said. “You’ll do it out of the other side of your mouth in a minute. Why’d you have to come around here, anyway?”
“Mitch Kruger. He was an old friend of a good friend of mine. And he ended up dead in the canal. If everything you were doing with the pension fund and the bonds was so open, why did Chamfers get so bent out of shape when Mitch Kruger showed up last month demanding a piece of the pie in order to keep his mouth shut?”
“I told you Eddie Mohr would be a weak link,” Milt said to Peter. “He claimed he never said anything to any of the boys that would make them think he got his money from the company. But I always had my doubts.”
“And what about Eddie Mohr and Chicago Settlement?” I persisted, “Why on earth was he giving money to that outfit?”
“That was Dick’s idea,” Jason said. “I told him it was a mistake, but he said they’d take a lot of the bonds, only we had to encourage people who’d benefited from the deal to contribute.”
“And you’ve got to admit that the guy preened at getting his picture taken with a lot of downtown money,” Chamfers said.
“I see.” I smiled. “My… uh… partner couldn’t figure it out—he said Eddie was a Knights of Columbus man all the way.”
“Your partner?” Peter demanded. “Since when do you have a partner?”
“Since when are my business affairs any concern of yours?” I pulled down on the light switch and fell to the floor.
“Simon!” they bellowed.
I could hear Simon on the other side try the knob, swear, and put his shoulder into the door. Someone came up behind me, trying to get at the switch. I grabbed him at the knees and pulled hard. He came crashing over at the same time that Simon kicked the door open. I squirmed out from under the body I’d tackled. Staying on my hands and knees, I made it past Simon and out the door.
Simon’s pal was rushing in behind him. He grabbed at me as I went past, but missed. I ran down the hall, trying to get back to the entrance. Someone fired at me. I started moving from side to side as I ran, but I was too exposed a target. When they fired again I turned down the T-intersection to the loading bays.