Hooligans Read Online Free PDF Page A

what was gonna happen, I mean law-wise. He had learned a
    lot in Atlantic City. And he was honest.”
    “What happened to him?” I asked.
    “Three years ago, ran his car into the river, if you can believe that.”
    “You don‟t?”
    “I stopped believin‟ in accidents an hour after I got here.”
    I was beginning to wonder how Tagliani ft into the picture. Killing a police chief was not exactly his
    way of doing things.
    Anger crept hack into Dutch‟s tone. „The way it was, the case went to the homicide boys. You lump
    that whole bunch together, what you end up with is a bigger lump. Not a one of „em can count to
    eleven without takin‟ off his shoes.” Pause. “It went down as an accident, period, end, of course.”
    “Who took Leadbetter‟s place?”
    “Herb Walters.”
    “What‟s the score with him?”
    “Old-timer. Up through the ranks. Scared for his job. He don‟t swim upstream, if that‟s what you
    mean. Herb likes calm waters.”
    “Is he honest?”
    “That‟s an excellent question. I just don‟t know. I guess old Herb‟s okay; he just hasn‟t had an
    original thought since the first time he went to the john by himself.” He stopped, then after a moment
    added: “Actually he‟s just a kiss-ass to the people on the green side of town.”
    I laughed. “I gather you don‟t like him.”
    “That‟s very smart gathering.”
    “Why would anybody want to blitz Leadbetter?”
    “Why would a lotta people not want to? A smart, tough, no-nonsense cop, honest as the Old
    Testament, in a town going to hell. When Leadbetter was running the show, you couldn‟t find a
    pimpmobile anywhere on Front Street. Now every other vehicle you see‟s either a pink Caddy or a
    purple Rolls-Royce.”
    “How does your outfit fit into all this?”
    “It‟s borderline. We try to monitor the out-of-towners, but local stuff is handled by vice. Don‟t even
    ask me about them.”
    I slid down in my seat and shook my head.
    “Wonderful,” I said. “Maybe I‟ll just take some sick leave and sleep this one out.”
    “Stick around and watch the fireworks,” he said.
    “You think that‟s going to happen, eh?”
    “Well, what I don‟t think is that Turner and his pistol and his wife had a suicide pact.”
    I laughed. “His name‟s Tagliani,” I said.
    “Whatever.”
    “1 agree,” I said. “It‟s my experience that when a Mafioso capo di tutti capi gets wasted, it doesn‟t
    just quietly blow over.”
    “Verdammt!”
    “If you‟re right and Leadbetter was assassinated, that could have been the kickoff, right there.”
    Dutch threw away his butt and checked the weather, It was still like a monsoon outside. He sighed.
    “Look,” he said, “here‟s the long and short of it, okay? The way it went was that big daddy Findley
    plugged in Leadbetter, tells him keep the town clean. But Leadbetter inherits a department so old and
    leaky, if it was a bucket you couldn‟t carry rocks in it. He can‟t lust vacuum out the whole outfit.
    That‟s where I come into the picture. Ike brings me in, gives me a decent budget, says, „Go out, get
    yourself a dozen or so of the toughest no-shit lads you can find. Boys who know something about the
    LCN and can‟t be bent.‟ So I went lookin‟. What I got is one mean bunch of hooligans. They‟re savvy
    and tough enough to take heat. And they‟re about as friendly as a nest of copperheads.”
    I said “Uh-huh” pensively. There was a message in all that for me.
    “I just want you to understand the way the land rolls, see,” he went on. “What it was, Leadbetter
    didn‟t trust anybody on the old force. Our job was to keep our eyes open, build up our snitches, hassle
    the out-of-town conmen, grifters, dips, hustlers. Put a little heat under the undesirables so they‟d move
    on. Try to keep a line on who‟s who and what‟s what. The tough thing is to do it without walkin‟ on
    toes. We hassle a hooker, vice gets pissed. We break down an out-of-town dice