Big Silence Read Online Free PDF Page B

back?” Bess asked.
    “Yes,” Lisa said, and a miracle happened. Lisa wept. Lisa never wept. At least not before others. Abe had felt that his daughter had cried when her cousin David had been murdered, but she had kept it private and had done a far better job of comforting Abe’s brother Maish and Maish’s wife Yetta than Abe would have expected.
    “He told you he wanted a divorce?” Abe asked. “He just said it like that?”
    “No, he never said he wanted a divorce. I could tell from his voice, his … I could tell.”
    “Call him, Abe,” Bess said.
    “Me?”
    “Call him, Abe,” Bess repeated. It wasn’t an order. It was a plea. A necessity.
    Abe held back his sigh, finished his coffee, and reached for the telephone that Bess was now placing in front of him. Lisa reached out and almost touched her father’s hand. This, he decided, was a Lisa who needed help. The former Lisa would never have shown her weakness, her need, and would not have accepted help from Abe Lieberman. The two had been nourished and exhausted by years of debate, argument, and resignation. Abe had, almost 100 percent of the time, been able to keep from getting angry, or at least showing it. In fact, he seldom felt anger toward Lisa. Whatever guilt he felt came from the relief he experienced when Lisa was not living at home.
    Lisa was giving him the phone number when the doorbell rang.
    Bess got up to answer while Abe continued dialing. He had almost finished dialing when two men pushed a third through the door Bess had just opened. The two pushers were talking Spanish so quickly that Abe could barely follow their conversation, which, he decided immediately, was not worth following.
    The man they pushed in past Bess stumbled forward and almost fell. He was young, younger than Lisa. He was Korean. He had only one arm, his left, and he looked angry. The Korean wore jeans and a dark brown shirt. The two members of the Tentaculos wore black slacks and tight-fitting long-sleeved black shirts.
    Lieberman stopped dialing and put down the phone. Bess closed the door.
    “In English,” Lieberman said.
    “Viejo,” the leaner of the two Tentaculos said. “We found him outside. He had a gun.”
    The lean Guatemalan was named Fernandez. He was known as Chuculo, the Knife. He had more than earned his nickname. The bigger of the two Tentaculos was an almost feebleminded enforcer known as Piedras, the Stone. Ironically, his last name was, indeed, Piedras. He simply lived up to it. Piedras held up the gun they had taken from the Korean, a black Glock.
    The Tentaculos were a gang of Mexicans, Panamanians, and Guatemalans led by the nearly legendary El Perro, Emiliano Del Sol. Emiliano was generally conceded to be mad and extremely violent and dangerous. He was also known to have a symbiotic and almost friendly relationship with Lieberman. To the degree that he could, Lieberman provided protection for all but the worst of El Perro’s crimes. In turn, El Perro provided information. They also shared a passion for the Cubs though El Perro’s extended only as far as the team’s Hispanic players.
    “¿Que quiere, Viejo?” said Fernandez.
    “Nada ahora,” Lieberman replied. “In English.”
    Lieberman knew that all he had to do was tell the two Tentaculos to get rid of the Korean, whose name was Kim, and it would be done. Only once had Lieberman condoned El Perro’s killing of a criminal. It had been pure vengeance, and Lieberman could have pretended that he didn’t know the murder would take place. But he did know and he accepted.
    “El Perro found out that this chinga tu madre was coming for you tonight,” Fernandez said. “One of the guys he used to have in his gang told him.”
    “Tell Emiliano I said thanks,” said Lieberman. “You want coffee?”
    “No, gracias,” Fernandez said. “You want us to just leave him here?”
    “Sí,” Lieberman replied.
    El Chuculo shrugged.
    “Bueno, pero cuidado Viejo. Este hombre es muy loco.”
    “Voy