Free Cogan's Trade by George V Higgins Page B

huh?”
    “Trattman admitted that,” the driver said. “He said he’d started to get careless. Instead of opening the windows or something they’d taken to leaving the door open a little bit, let the smoke out. He said that.”
    “Good,” Cogan said. “But the guy that’s running the games isn’t supposed to get careless, you know? He’s supposed to think about things like that.”
    “He was in the toilet when they came in,” the driver said.
    “I don’t care where he was,” Cogan said. “He wasn’t doing what he was supposed to’ve been doing, and one way or the other, those two guys knew he wasn’t. And they knew he wasn’t gonna be, and they knew where to find him.”
    “Right,” the driver said.
    “So,” Cogan said, “for now it don’t matter, Trattman did it or somebody did it to Trattman.”
    “It doesn’t?” the driver said.
    “Not to Trattman,” Cogan said. “That’s where we got to start. We start with Trattman, and we start real good, too.”
    “Now wait a minute,” the driver said.
    “I’ll wait a week if you want,” Cogan said.
    “I’ll have to talk to him before you go ahead and do, whatever it is you’re planning to do,” the driver said.
    “Talk to him,” Cogan said. “I got plenty of things to do. Tell him I said we hadda talk to Trattman and see what he says.”
    “He wouldn’t object to that,” the driver said.
    “
Really
talk to him,” Cogan said. “You can’t do anything else, that I can see.”
    “I can tell you right now,” the driver said, “he’s not going to okay anything major just on your suspicions. He’s very concerned about starting something that’ll make things worse than they already are.”
    “I know that,” Cogan said.
    “The last time we had somebody handled it was against both our better judgment,” the driver said, “and as soon as he got better he went straight to the FBI and started telling lies like you wouldn’t believe. It’s just a good thing for him that the fellow got cold feet when they brought him in to the grand jury. And it cost us a lot of money to make his feet cold, too, I can assure you. So he’s not going to want anybody going overboard on this. Who’s going to do it, you?”
    “Do what?” Cogan said.
    “Talk, have this little talk with Trattman,” the driver said.
    “Well,” Cogan said, “I could. But, I talked to Dillon about this and we think, I better not. Might be better if Markie wasn’t too interested in me right now.”
    “He’s going to want to know,” the driver said.
    “Sure,” Cogan said. “Tell him, I talked to Dillon and we think, Steve Caprio and his brother.”
    “Dillon knows who they are?” the driver said. “He’s used them before?”
    “Dillon knows who they are,” Cogan said. “I know who they are. Barry was on the
Wasp
with me. He’s really kind of an asshole, but he was also, the guy that was the champ had to beat Barry, the light-heavy champ, he hadda beat Barry to get there. Steve’s all right. They’ll do what you tell them.”
    “I mean it, now,” the driver said.
    “Oh sure,” Cogan said. “I know that. You guys always mean it. You gotta mean it. I understand that. I haven’t been around much myself, hardly at all, but I talk to a lot of guys and I know. Now, how’re we working this? You calling me?”
    “I tell you what,” the driver said, “I’ll talk to him and then I’ll see what he’s got to say, and I’ll call Dillon.”
    “Okay,” Cogan said. “Then, I assume, you think Dillon’s in good enough shape, he can handle.”
    “No,” the driver said. “You said he can’t.”
    “Dillon said Dillon can’t handle,” Cogan said. “That’s why you’re talking to me today.”
    “Correct,” the driver said.
    “So,” Cogan said, “that’s what I mean. You want Dillon to handle, call Dillon. Okay by me. You want me to handle …”
    “I’ll call you,” the driver said.
    “I’ll call
you
,” Cogan said. “I’m out, I’m