Free Charlie Opera by Charlie Stella, Peter Skutches Page B

something. Maybe his wife did it.”
    “That’s the other thing,” Freni said. “His wife took off. Then she was mugged.”
    “Huh?” Cuccia said. He acted surprised. “How do you know that?”
    “That’s my business. Except nobody bothered to mention the guy would have a wife with him when he came to Vegas. I was given a name and a hotel. I found out about the wife after my near-miss with the law. Which is the second fuck-up with this job. I don’t intend to walk into a third.”
    “What are you saying? You think my uncle is fucking with you?”
    Freni tossed the empty juice bottle into a trash pail. “I’m saying somebody is jerking off the wrong guy, my friend.”
    “I think maybe it’s miscommunication,” Cuccia said. “Trust me, nobody is out to jerk you off.”
    “Good. Then nobody will mind showing some good faith with this mess.”
    Cuccia let out a deep breath. “What is this, a fuckin’ shakedown now?”
    “Call it a miscommunication,” Freni said. “You still want this guy dead, for whatever the fuck reason, give me a new number. Something I can live with.”
    Cuccia stopped walking again. He looked around the pool until he spotted the blonde. She was with a tall black man. He watched with disgust as the blonde applied sun tan oil to the black man’s legs and arms.
    “Thirty,” he said.
    “Forty,” Freni said.
    The blonde was bending over to kiss the black man. Cuccia nearly choked on his Coke when he saw the black man slip the blonde some tongue.
    “Thirty-five,” he managed to say.
    Freni stepped in front of Cuccia. “Forty.”
    Cuccia frowned through his wired jaw. “All right.”
    “Say it. The number.”
    Cuccia hesitated a moment, then said, “Forty.”
    “Just so there’s no more miscommunications,” Freni said.
    “Can you do it today? Now that I’ve been robbed, I should have some satisfaction here.”
    Freni made Cuccia wait for a reply. “Maybe,” he finally said.
    Cuccia wiped drool he could feel on his chin. He looked for the blonde, but she was gone. He searched the pool until he saw her head come up from under the water. Her wet hair hung straight down. It glistened in the sun. He wanted her.
    “You don’t have to say,” Freni said. “I’m just curious.”
    Cuccia touched the corners of his mouth with his fingers. “What?”
    “What it’s about. Why you wanna kill this guy so bad.”
    Cuccia was caught off guard by the direct question. He pointed at his own chin. “Because he did this. He broke my fuckin’ jaw.”
    Freni turned his head from side to side as he examined Cuccia’s jaw. He squinted as he said, “You want me to whack a guy for that?”
    Cuccia shook his head. “No,” he said. “I want you to whack a guy for forty grand.”

Chapter 13
    Charlie was too self-conscious for a day at the water park. The lines at the entrance gates were long and crawling with families and young children. He slipped the taxi driver a twenty-dollar bill to go ask the pretty lady with the picnic basket and cut-off jeans to come back to the taxi for a minute.
    When Samantha leaned into the window of the taxi, Charlie said, “Would you hate me if I told you I was too uncomfortable to be around all these kids looking like this?” He pulled his sunglasses off for emphasis.
    She smiled for him. “Can you take me to my car in the parking lot?” she asked. “We’ll figure something out there.”
    She decided to take him back to her apartment instead of guessing where to have lunch together. She set a round white table on the small patio behind her apartment. She opened the table umbrella for shade while they ate.
    They exchanged stories about themselves while they picked at a pasta salad. Samantha learned some more about his marital problems. She, in turn, confessed her own marital failure. When Samantha learned how Charlie’s wife had left him, she was much more sympathetic to his situation.
    “How could she do that?” she asked, then quickly apologized.