“That’s what I’m gonna do,” Lucas said. “I just wasn’t going to admit it.”
“Ah. Good work. I knew there was a reason I partnered up with you,” Bob said. “I’ll call you about 5:30. If Elliot hasn’t gotten back to us, we could go get some lobster.”
Lucas took ashort nap, then read through the new reports coming from Weaver’s agents. He found little that was interesting. Bobcalled a few minutes after five, said, “I couldn’t stand staring at the ceiling anymore. Let’s go eat.”
They were at the Rendezvous, chicken tenders and sea bass, when Magnus Elliot called. They were sitting far enough from the next set of diners that Lucas put the phone on the speaker so Bob could hear what was said, and they both hovered over it. “Okay, we got a deal,” Elliot said.
“What do we get?”
“The one goddamn thing I got,” Elliot said. “A name and a location. Donald Romano. He lives in Coral Gables, but he’s got a lights warehouse store down in Florida City—he sells lights to building contractors down here, and dope up in New York.”
“Spell his name,” Lucas said. “Where’s Coral Gables... and Florida City?”
Elliot spelled Romano, and said, “Coral Gables is a town that’s like hung on the side of Miami. Upper-level money. Florida City is south of Miami, right by the top of the Keys, probably one of the poorest towns in the state. The lights store is called Larry and Kay’s Contractor Lighting Warehouse. I think Larry and Kay are his daughter and son-in-law.”
Bob: “Wait a minute. Romano sells lights? And dope?”
“Yeah. The way I hear it, the lighting business is his money laundry,” Elliot explained. “He’s got cash businesses in New York and New Jersey, loan sharking and dope. He buys lights from the manufacturers and sells them at a twenty-five percent markup to condo developers. He kicks the whole markup back, under the table, in cash, so he breaks even on the sale of the lights. But: the contractors now have the dirty cash, and he has a check from thecontractors that he puts in the bank, reports the markup as profit on the lights, pays his taxes, and the money is clean. So I’m told.”
“Are all the developers crooks?” Bob asked.
“Yeah, most of them,” Elliot said. “They get those lights at wholesale and a nice pile of invisible cash to tuck in their pockets, tax-free. I mean one good-sized condo project, you’re talking millions of dollars in lighting. And guano in kickbacks.”
“Guano is bat shit,” Bob said.
“Local idiom,” Elliot said. “You know, guano-this, guano-that. It usually means ‘a lot.’” He considered for a moment, then said, “Of course, it can also mean ‘not a lot.’ It depends.”
“Who told you all this?” Lucas asked.
“A Mexican friend who’s dealt with him. Romano used to buy his dope from the Mexicans and ship it north, but now he’s gone outside, I guess to some Colombian newcomers. The Mexicans are fairly pissed about that,” Elliot said.
“And your Mexican friend thinks Romano was on the boat, or he knows who was?” Lucas asked.
“Well, the dope ain’t coming from them, the Mexicans. The Mexicans say that a big load of dope hit Staten Island right after that shooting this summer,” Elliot said. “My friend said that their New York marketing guys say their whole sales strategy took a hit.”
Bob: “The Mexicans have a sales strategy? They got marketing guys?”
“Well... yeah. How’d you think all this got done? It’s a business, like Facebook. Just a different addiction.”
“Did you know all this when we talked, or did you get it from your Mexican friend this afternoon?” Lucas asked.
“I knew some of it... and I made a call and got the rest. Romano’s name.”
“What else?” Lucas asked.
“Nothing else, except that attorney lady is a bitch on wheels. I wanted to smack her.”
“Not a good idea,” Lucas said.
“Yeah, I got that,” Elliot said. “This better pan out, man. I’m taking a major chance here.”
They got offthe phone and Lucas called Weaver: “We’re at dinner, down the street. We need to talk to you.”
“I’m sitting here watching classic football from 2003 on YouTube, I’d hate to stop doing that for some horseshit law enforcement issue,” Weaver said.
“See you in a half hour,” Lucas said.
Weaver got seriousin a hurry, when Lucas gave him the name.
