Bomber's Law Read Free Page A

he
always
goes, in fact, every morning after he leaves here, and I saw that gray Cadillac four-door hardtop with that fucking license plate on the fucking back bumper of it, then I would know I had the right car. Simple as that, Bob; simple as that.”
    â€œYeah,” Brennan said, “but you wouldn’t know for sure if he drove it there, if he was the one drove it there. He could’ve just had someone else just drive it there for him, and he went off someplace else, with someone else, do something, and ditch his tail while he was doing it, something he didn’t want us to see him doing. Or maybe just to take a day off from having us tail him. He could’ve done that, you know, too.”
    Dell’Appa groaned.
    â€œI know, I know,” Brennan said, “but this’s still the sort of thing that you got to keep in mind on these things. It’s not just the old slash-and-burn, you know, here; you go in, you do this, you do that, and then
boom
, it’s all over—you’re finished. Nothing at all like that here. This kind of thing, this thing that we’re doing here, what you’ve got to be is, you got to be very methodical about it. Got to be very methodical about it at all times.”
    He made a broad smoothing motion with his right hand. “
Patient
, that’s what you’ve got to be with this stuff here. Always’ve got to be very methodical, very patient. Always keep your mind at all times on what it is that you’re doing. Focused. Got to be focused at all times. Got to say: ‘All right now, am I sure of this here? Is this the right thing to do here, right here at this point in time here? Is this what I ought to be doing? To get where I want to be going in this, well then, is this the right way to go?’ And also: ‘Am I really sure about this?’
    â€œThat’s what you have to do, all the time in this. That is what we have to do. Because that’s the only way you can ever be sure, we can ever be sure. About any of this stuff you’re doing.” He nodded. “So, yeah, I know, so you hadda get up. And you don’t like gettin’ up, right? Well, who does? You tell me who likes gettin’ up. No, you can’t, because nobody does. But so, neither can I, so I certainly can’t blame you for that. But trust me, I know what I’m doin’, and even though I know you don’t trust me in this, believe me, I know whatI’m doin’. And just sittin’ here like this, sittin’ right here, like we’re doin’, all right? This’s the best way to do it.”
    Dell’Appa sighed. He had closed his eyes.
    â€œYeah, I know, I’m borin’ you,” Brennan said. “Well, that’s the trouble with you guys. Alla you young guys’re like that. You think, you’re all, you’re all just like that kid there, that Leno kid there on TV. They threw Johnny Carson off of there, and then look what happened to them. They throw Carson off and they put the kid on, and then so what happens then, huh? The other kid gets all mad, am I right about this? And so what does he do then? He
quits.
That’s what he’s gonna do, at least. So that’s what I mean about that. They started out there, they had Carson and Leno and also the other kid there, they say: ‘Right, this’s goin’ too good. Things’re goin’ along ’way too good around here. We gotta find some way, fuck up. I know, I got it. I know what we do: we dump Carson and that oughta do it.’ So they did that and by Jesus it did it. Now what’ve they got, now they did all of that? They got Leno is what they’ve got: Leno. Carson’s gone and the other kid, too. The other kid’s packing his bags.”
    â€œTell me how Buddy Royal knew his phone was being tapped,” Dell’Appa said, his eyes still shut. “That at least sounded interesting. The gear that we use now’s