Page 65 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
“Talk,” Tommy said.
“About what?” asked Luddie. “I was just minding my own business, Tommy. What I got to do with you?”
Sal grabbed Luddie by the neck and began choking him violently. Luddie was kicking the back of the front seat trying to break free. “You set it all up, you prick! You put that shit in TJ, and you kidnapped Destiny and her baby. A fucking baby! They may pull that shit in Sicily, but we don’t do that shit here unless you’re some sick motherfucker!”
“I can’t breathe,” Luddie was saying with a weak, panic-stricken voice. “Tommy, I can’t breathe! Tommy, help me.”
But Tommy could be merciless too. “Are you going to tell me the truth?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes! Just make Sal stop. Please, make him stop.” He was begging for his life.
Tommy nodded to Sal. Sal gave that neck one more good squeeze, and then he released him.
Luddie nearly slid down his seat as he grabbed his neck to make sure blood hadn’t been drawn. He felt it was that close.
“Now talk,” Tommy said to him. “And don’t talk bullshit. We know about The Hawk.”
When Tommy said that name, Luddie looked at him. “How would you know about her? Vera told me you came by. That’s why I told her to scram. But even Vera didn’t know that name.”
“You think we rely on Vera’s ass for intel?” asked Reno. “How ridiculous can you get?”
“Now your ass better talk like Tommy’s not your bitch,” said Sal.
Reno and Tommy looked at Sal. What an odd way to put it. Even Robby, who was actually gay, looked at Sal too.
But Luddie got the message. His goose was cooked. “I was paid to be the ground man for the job.”
Tommy asked the second-most important question first. “What was the job?”
“To pay the cops to stop your wife, arrest her to get her out of the way, and then snatch TJ. They took him to this boarded up diner where they met some doctor there.”
“What happened?”
“Barbell and some other guy he hired to do the job with him explained to your boy what was going to happen, and how he had to do everything they told him to do and all that bull.Then that doctor put the thing, some device, in the boy’s arm. Then that same cop took your boy to the police station where his mama was being held, and let him out.”
“What about my daughter and grandson?” asked Tommy. “You were paid to snatch them too?”
Luddie nodded. “Only I was ordered to use mercenaries, rather than my own guys, for that part of the operation. They didn’t want any connections. So we found out who her boyfriend was and got the info on when she would be boarding his plane. We forced him to take us to his plane, which he did. The hired guns took him out and then they took the kids to a hideout right here in town. Everything else was controlled remotely. And that’s the truth, Tommy.”
Now the main question. Although they already knew Ingrid Hawken was the mastermind, they took nothing for granted. They had to hear it straight from Luddie’s mouth. “Who paid you to do all this shit?” Tommy asked him.
“I thought you knew that already.”
“Don’t worry about what we know,” said Sal. “We need to hear it from you.”
Luddie exhaled. “Her boy hired me. He was the one with the information on the family dynamics and schedules and all that shit. I worked with him directly.”
But they were thrown. “Her son?” asked Tommy. “Whose son?”
“The Hawk’s son,” said Luddie. “I thought you knew that already since you knew about her.”
But they heard what Luddie said about family dynamics and schedules. “Who’s her son?” Tommy asked him.
“He’s the one that faked his credentials and got the job at Trammel. At least I assumed that’s where he was working. All I know was that he was a driver working for the Gabrinis.So I assumed it was Trammel Trucking since all they hire are drivers.”
Sal looked at Tommy. “Orrie Neal ain’t no driver at Trammel.”
Tommy looked at Luddie. “What’s his name?”
