Act of Revenge (48 page)

The party absorbed them. V.T. had the rare knack of assembling old-money people with lovely manners and no-money people with interesting lives and ideas into a mixture that bubbled nicely, neither exploding nor falling flat. Marlene observed her daughter among a group of girls her age, all dressed in the best, and inclined to be snooty, but none of them had been kidnapped by Asian gangsters. Lucy was in full Claudine fettle, using her natural wit and talent for mimicry to great effect. She looked from a distance like a regular teenager.

Marlene drifted away, searching. There was just one person she had to see before relaxing into the limitless champagne, and she saw him in a corner of the terrace, looking out across the darkening East River.

“Goom.”

“Marlene, what's happening, baby? Come here, let me give you a squeeze. Uh, that's enough, I'll embarrass myself here.”

“I hear you're a solid citizen again.”

“Yeah, that
stronzo
. You know, there are Italians and there are
Italians.
I got no use for a guy won't come and talk to you, treat you like a human being. Anyway, Butch pulled it off, and what can I say, you married a classy guy. Too bad he's Jewish.”

Marlene laughed. “Speaking of
stronzi,
have we heard much from the Bollanos lately?”

“I hear they're laying low. The don's got some reshuffling to do. You know, it's like the chimps, they all got to sniff each other's crotches to see what the new dominance hierarchy is.”

“You think the don is losing his grip?”

“Well, it could go either way. Pigetti gets impatient, he could try something, but the don's built up a lot of respect over the years. The older
capos
. . . you know how they are.”

“I do. Which is why I'm going to slip this little tape into your pocket.”

“What is it?”

“It's Vivian Bollano describing the Bollano version of ‘Happy Days.' Truly heartwarming. Listen to it, and I think you'll want to share it with some of your pals in the Bollano organization.”

“Uh, Marlene . . .” said Guma nervously.

“Or, I could just mail it to half a dozen
capi regimes
. But I figure you'd want the credit. These guys like to think they're like Al Pacino with
la famiglia
. They wouldn't want this to get into general circulation. I think they'll buy you a box of cannoli.”

Guma stared at her for a moment, took the tape from his pocket, tossed it once, and put it away. “You really are something. Butch know about this?”

“No, and you know he doesn't want to know. Will you?”

Guma nodded slowly. A grin broke out across his face, horrible to see. She grinned back. It was a Sicilian moment. “Yeah,” said Guma. “Yeah, I think I will. As a public service to the Mob. Besides, I never cared for the old
cafone.
What if they want to know who gave me the tape?”

“What tape is that?” said Marlene sweetly, and skipped away back to the champagne.

Acknowledgments

Again, and yet again, all praise belongs
to Michael Gruber whose genuis and
scholarship flows throughout and who is
primarily and solely responsible for the
excellence of this manuscript and whose
contribution cannot be overstated.

Special thanks to Paul McCarthy who,
like Henry Robbins before him, shares
the same vision and offers the same caring
literary guidance and encouragement.

And special recognition belongs to
Georgia di Donato, my confidential
assistant without whose patience,
friendship and able assistance
none of this would be possible.

About the Author

ROBERT K. TANENBAUM
is one of the country's most successful trial lawyers, having never lost a felony case. He ran the Homicide Bureau and was Bureau Chief of the Criminal Courts for the New York District Attorney's Office and Deputy Chief Counsel to the Congressional Committee investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure at the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He is the author of twenty-two Butch Karp novels and two true-crime books.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Resounding Acclaim for Robert K. Tanenbaum and
Act of Revenge

“Tanenbaum is one lawyer

who can write with the best of them.”

New York Times
bestselling author Joseph Wambaugh

“[A] take-no-prisoners tale of mob violence . . . Former New York City homicide chief and trial attorney Tanenbaum has crafted a believably twisted gem of a gangster tale with visceral action and smooth comic relief in a technicolor, Big Apple setting. . . . Karp's quirky extended family provides enough depth for years of sequels.”

Publishers Weekly
(*Starred Review*)

“Tanenbaum is one hell of a writer. [His] real strength has always been his characters, and he doesn't fail here.”

New York Post

“Fasten your seat belts for the bumpiest ride in Butch Karp's long career with the New York D.A.'s office. As usual, Tanenbaum pulls off a hundred effective scenes in a dozen different tones. [
Act of Revenge
is] a very good thing indeed.”

Kirkus Reviews

“A suspenseful thriller.”

Bozeman Chronicle
(MT)

“Tanenbaum knows as much about mayhem and the people who commit it as anyone writing today. . . . Colorfully written and cleverly plotted . . . another winner for Tanenbaum.”

Booklist

By Robert K. Tanenbaum

Fiction

B
ETRAYED

C
APTURE

E
SCAPE

M
ALICE

C
OUNTERPLAY

F
URY

H
OAX

R
ESOLVED

A
BSOLUTE
R
AGE

E
NEMY
W
ITHIN

T
RUE
J
USTICE

A
CT OF
R
EVENGE

R
ECKLESS
E
NDANGERMENT

I
RRESISTIBLE
I
MPULSE

F
ALSELY
A
CCUSED

C
ORRUPTION OF
B
LOOD

J
USTICE
D
ENIED

M
ATERIAL
W
ITNESS

R
EVERSIBLE
E
RROR

I
MMORAL
C
ERTAINTY

D
EPRAVED
I
NDIFFERENCE

N
O
L
ESSER
P
LEA

Nonfiction

T
HE
P
IANO
T
EACHER
:

T
HE
T
RUE
S
TORY OF A
P
SYCHOTIC
K
ILLER

B
ADGE OF THE
A
SSASSIN

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1999 by Robert K. Tanenbaum

First Harper premium printing: June 2011

First HarperTorch mass market printing: June 2000

First Harper hardcover printing: June 1999

ISBN 978-0-06-206839-2

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Epub Edition JUNE 2011 ISBN: 9780062078278

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