Chapter 12
CHAPTER
TWELVE
It was true that Hudson had once disrespected the Morelli Don.
But he’d been out of his mind with worry about Connie, and he hadn’t really known who the tall, blue-eyed guy was at the time.
But walking into that office boldly, even under the weight of Luca D’Amato’s icy eyes, Hudson figured it was official: he did have big brass balls.
Gio came in behind him and closed the door.
Finch sat at his desk, Luca behind him with a hand on his shoulder. The four staff members working that night—Brady now with two bloody pieces of toilet paper stuffed in his nostrils—were seated on the sofas along the right wall. Against the other wall stood Nick Fontana.
“Hello, Hudson,” Luca said, breaking the silence.
“Don Morelli,” Hudson said, lifting up his chin. Hell, if he was going to have his ass handed to him, he’d do it with his head held high.
“And Carlucci,” Luca continued. “I must say I was surprised not to find you here with my husband.”
“My apologies, Don Morelli,” Gio began, but Finch gave a loud sigh.
“Come on, Luca, I told you what happened.”
“I don’t like it,” Luca said simply.
“He was following my orders,” Finch said back. “And I like that.” Finch looked to Hudson then. “Well? What’s the story? I told Luca what happened. Now Nick tells us you’ve Columboed your way into a solution.”
Hudson nodded, and the snicker that had started in the room at Finch’s comment died away. “I have. Yes. And—” He swished his mouth from side to side for a moment. This was a big call to make. “And I have proof, too.”
Finch looked something close to relieved.
“Let’s hear it, then,” Luca said. He came around the side of Finch’s desk and half-sat on the corner, arms folded.
Hudson took a breath, ordered his thoughts, and put his arms behind his back. He did that partly to seem cool, calm, and collected, and partly because his hands were shaking.
“First of all, we found the money,” he said, and nodded at Gio, who stepped forward and put the roll of cash on Finch’s desk. “So—there’s that.”
Finch let out a low whistle and actually gave Hudson a wink behind Luca’s back.
“And did you happen to find it because you’d taken it?” Luca asked.
“No.”
“So where was it?”
Hudson hesitated, but figured the truth was the better option. “Well, I found it in Gio’s coat pocket downstairs.” Luca’s gaze shot to Gio. “Only he didn’t put it there,” Hudson rushed on, putting up stop-hands. “It was put there by the real thief.”
“Is that so?” Luca asked.
“Yes,” Hudson said firmly. “And I can prove it, but it’s kind of complicated, Boss, so—so give me a minute to say it all. Please.”
Luca slowly inclined his head.
“This is bullshit,” Brady said, sounding muffled behind the toilet paper. “It was Taylor. He’s the only one who—”
“Shut the fuck up, Brady,” Gio growled. “Unless you want your nose smashed in again.”
Hudson was relieved to note that Luca seemed to approve of that threat, at least. “Okay, so,” he began.
“Here’s the scene. Brady and Ziggy are in the break room counting out the takings.
I’m at the door—the one that opens to the dance floor.
Dino’s in the cloakroom. Art had just started, right?
” He looked across to Art, who nodded vigorously.
“I was cleaning behind the bar, like usual. Then I talked to you all together. I never even saw the cash.”
“Right. And after we went up to the office, Dino, you found the body in the toilet stall.”
Dino gave him a wary look, like he thought Hudson was trying to set him up for something. “Yeah. By the time I got to the bathroom, he was already OD’ing, blood pouring out his nose. I ran up to the office right away.”
“Okay,” Hudson said. “Only I don’t think he was OD’ing, not the way you mean, anyway.”
All heads swiveled towards Dino, who looked a little wild. He sat up straight and stabbed a finger at Hudson. “If you’re trying to—” he began, but Hudson raised a hand.
“Let’s leave that there and go back a bit. When you were in the cloakroom, you could hear Brady and Ziggy arguing too, right?”
“Yeah,” he said grudgingly.
“The whole time?”
“Yeah.”
“Even when that guy came in and was screaming at you about his coat?”
Dino considered, and looked like he was trying to figure out what answer would best serve him. He settled on, “I guess so? That dude was real loud, no lie, but I’m pretty sure I could still hear these two going at it as well.”
“And what were they arguing about?”
Dino shrugged. “Couldn’t really hear the words. Just the noise.”
“Me, too. Okay.” Hudson turned to Ziggy. “So what exactly were you guys arguing about?”
Ziggy opened his mouth, looked at Brady, and then said, “Just the usual shit this idiot talks.”
Hudson turned to Brady, who fixed him with a malevolent glare. “What were you arguing about?”
“Fuck you,” Brady said.
Luca gave an up-nod, and Nick pulled out his gun.
“It was nothing,” Brady growled. He looked pale and sweaty. “Just him being a dumbass like usual.” He glared at Ziggy. Ziggy put his head in his hands and said nothing.
“I don’t think it was nothing,” Hudson said.
He paused, partly to gather his thoughts, and partly because he knew he had the attention of the whole room, even the Boss, and he wanted to enjoy that for just a moment.
“But whatever that argument was, I think it got repeated through the whole time they were in there.”
“So?” Finch asked. “Luca and I argue all the time about the same shit.” Luca got a faintly exasperated look on his face. “What?” Finch asked. “It’s true.”
“Anyway,” Hudson hurried on, “I think Brady told Ziggy something that made him freak out, start yelling.”
“You better man up, Ziggy,” Brady muttered. “You better tell them nothing like that happened.”
Ziggy looked up then, panic on his face. “No. That’s not—that’s not what happened.” He stood up and looked at Luca. “I took the money, okay? I took the money.”