Cogan's Trade

“That’s good,” Amato said.

“Yeah,” Frankie said. “Oh, I’m go

“ ‘Did you tell them?’ he says to me,” Frankie said. “ ‘Are you the fuckin’ bastard that told them?’

“ ‘Russell,’ I said,” Frankie said, “ ‘nobody hadda tell them. You told them yourself. What am I go

“Ten K from you,” Amato said.

“Well,” Frankie said, “there’s guys that’ll write one for five per cent if you wa

“So that’s what he tells me,” Frankie said, “and then he says: ‘Frankie, if I don’t get out of here, I’m go

“Nice guy,” Amato said.

“Ah,” Frankie said, “he was all pissed off. I don’t blame him. And what the fuck’s he go

“Them guys,” Frankie said, “I mean, they are bad. This kid I talked to, he said they come at you from just about every place at once. ‘They tell you,’ he said, ‘you don’t have to say nothing to them. But that sure don’t stop them from saying something to you. They toss you in New York,’ he said, ‘it’s go

“The fuck’s a lawyer go

“He’s go

“I doubt if you can get him Mike,” Amato said. “I doubt if Mike’ll touch him.”

“Oh, for Christ sake,” Frankie said. “Of course I can’t get him Mike. I can’t afford Mike, I couldn’t get Mike for myself. And Mike, Mike couldn’t do nothing for him. What’s he go

“I du

“That’s because you never had nothing to do with junk,” Frankie said. “When they grab you with the junk, you call Toby and you pay him no more’n a grand and he gets you as good a deal as anybody could. The cops all know him. He’s cheap and all the good anybody can do for Russell, Toby’ll do it, and without going all ape-shit and telling the guy to give them the names of everybody he ever saw.

“Added to which,” Frankie said, “there’s certain things Toby won’t do, and that’s good for me. Because Russell’s go

“Somebody hit the guy he thinks put him in,” Amato said.

“Right,” Frankie said. “So, all right, I’m a bastard, but there’s no way i

“Where is he?” Amato said.

“Charles Street,” Frankie said.

“You’ll get the message, then,” Amato said.

“I don’t object to hearing it,” Frankie said. “You hear it, you can always say, well, what the fuck, I wouldn’t go around and do something like that on what I heard. No, if the guy asked me, I’d have to tell him something, I guess, and I don’t wa

“I see where Trattman knows a couple guys or so, though,” Amato said.

“That poor bastard,” Frankie said.

“Well,” Amato said, “I mean, it wasn’t like, you didn’t expect it or something.”

“Sure,” Frankie said. “But, you know, when it didn’t happen, and Russell was telling me all that stuff there, then I was scared shitless, it wasn’t go

“He took his chances,” Amato said.

“Sure,” Frankie said, “and now he’s go

“Well, Jesus,” Amato said, “I mean, this was your idea and everything. It isn’t like, I came around and saw you on this one. Shit, you’re afraid of it, forget it. Won’t piss me off any. I just went down there and I did, I did what you wanted. I haven’t got no investment in this. I made almost four thousand yesterday alone. I can do without it.”

“Won for a change,” Frankie said.

“Yeah,” Amato said, “I kind of liked it too. Broke even about, the first part of the week. I got fifteen hundred or so Thursday after and then last night, another twenty-five o

“Yeah,” Frankie said. “John, you told me it was go

“Nice when you win, though,” Amato said. “I figure, after what I been through, I’m go