“Well, I’m gonna say Kurnitz was leaking to the Outfit, in general, ’cause Giancana had access to the info. Halley wasn’t the leak, nobody really on Kefauver’s staff was the leak — it was Kurnitz, and his investigator... you... who were keeping the Outfit updated as to the committee’s plans, evidence, and witnesses.”
“It’s just a theory. Nothing but a theory.”
“Here’s something that’s not a theory: you and Kurnitz — Bill’s trusted partner, and his trusted attorney — set up the meeting in Little Hell with the nonexistent ‘new’ witness in the Ragen case. Drury and Bas, the afternoon of the night they died, told me the witness was somebody Kurnitz lined up for them, an inmate at Joliet he represented.”
He was shaking his head. “That’s Kurnitz. Not me. I just worked for him, some. You want to sit and threaten somebody with a gun, go look him up.”
“I’m not going to have to. You see, earlier today I had a meeting with Sam Giancana. In a sleazy joint called the Silver Palm. Ever been there? Anyway, I gave him the lowdown.”
His eyes flared. “What?”
“I told Sam the whole sorry story. You see, by helping Fischetti and Gilbert hit Drury and Bas, you and Kurnitz betrayed the Outfit. Was it you, or Tubbo, who brought in those bent cops from Calumet City? Oh well, what does it matter? You see, the top Outfit boys, all but Charley, decided killing Drury in particular would bring unwanted heat down on them... which it did. So I figure Kurnitz will show up in the trunk of a car, some evening — and he won’t be trying to sneak into a drive-in movie.”
Shaking his head, his eyes huge, one hand a fist, the other clutching the Pabst bottle as if it were his lifeline, he all but yelled, “You fucking asshole... you crazy fucking bastard... They’ll come after me!”
“No. Not right away. I asked Mooney to give you a little time.”
“Time?”
“Tomorrow... that’s the earliest.”
“What are you saying?”
“That the earliest Giancana would send somebody around, to deal with you, would be tomorrow morning. Of course, they may wait a while. Maybe it’ll be a Christmas present.”
He was breathing hard. “You’re crazy. You’re a fucking lunatic.”
“That’s a medical fact — it’s on my service record. Some day it may come in handy, for an insanity plea.”
He seemed on the verge of tears. “How could you go to Giancana with such tissue-thin evidence? This is a bunch of circumstantial bullshit! You suspect these things, Nate, but, Christ, you don’t know them.”
“I know them.”
He slammed a fist on the table and the .38 jumped. “How? How can you be so goddamn sure?”
“It goes back to when you tied up that loose end at Riverview.”
“Huh?”
“You know — when you plugged that moon-faced mother-fucker in the back and in the head, getting even for Bill Drury. When you went all crazy with revenge. ‘This is for Bill!’”
“I... I loved Bill Drury. He was—”
“Like a brother, yeah. But how did you know that guy from Calumet City was one of Bill’s killers? I was the only one who saw them that night in Little Hell — and I didn’t tell you.”
His face went blank.
He swallowed. “You... you figured it, then? At that moment?”
I sighed. “No — too much was going on. I was busy grieving for a poor girl with bad taste in men. You arranged that abduction, didn’t you?... Had those clowns grab Jackie and lure me to Aladdin’s Castle. How you must have laughed when I called you to be my backup!”
He leaned forward, the pockmarked face long with attempted earnestness. “I didn’t laugh, Nate. And... I could have shot you, that night. You know that’s true.”
“No, I don’t think so — you weren’t sure I hadn’t told Lou or somebody else about meeting you, there. Better odds to let me live, and keep me thinking you were on my side, Bill’s vengeance-happy partner cutting down the scum who killed him. Scum you hired, right?”
“...That was Tubbo.”
“Was it? Piece of work, old Tub. Like coming to me with that outrageous offer of fifty grand should I find the Bill Drury papers — the notebooks and tapes... when Tubbo knew all along
“He gave them to me.” O’Conner sounded almost proud of that.
My laugh resonated harshly in the hollow room. “Too bad — you could have sold them for big bucks to the Outfit... only that might have tipped ’em to your role in the murders of Drury and Bas. You even misled those Calumet City boys about the files — when their only real job was to dispose of Mrs. Rocco Fischetti... and me. Pity, to have something so valuable... that you had to get rid of. Did you burn them, Tim? Out in your fireplace?”
He didn’t say anything.
So, for a while, I didn’t say anything.
Then, quietly, Tim said, “So now you’ve told me.”
“Now I’ve told you.”
