The Bootlegger (Isaac Bell 7)

HOOKS NEWDELL’S NEW BOSSES, Matt and Jake, thought big, bigger than anyone Hooks had ever met up with—bigger than the Gophers, bigger than the White Hand Gang, even bigger than the Italians who were taking over the docks. Just looking at the huge government building they were going to break into made him nervous.

Matt and Jake were in the backseat of a Marmon parked on Greenwich Street under the Ninth Avenue El in Greenwich Village two blocks from the piers. Hooks was in front at the wheel. High above the El loomed the government building, a stone-and-brick monster rising ten stories in the night and filling the entire block bordered by Christopher, Greenwich, Barrow, and Washington streets. Hooks had always called it the Customs Building, but it was also known as the Appraisers’ Stores and the Samples Office, a huge storehouse where U.S. Customs took samples of imported goods to appraise how much they could tax the foreign shipments. Built like a fortress, it was also where the government stashed confiscated liquor and smuggled jewels and antiques and anything else valuable they got their paws on, like last week when customs agents intercepted a bunch of submachine guns being shipped to Ireland for the Sinn Féin. It was the kind of place that guys dreamed abou

t busting into.

Matt and Jake were actually going to do it. A liquor deal to end all liquor deals.

Matt had bribed a Prohibition agent. The agent had told him when a big booze raid was planned and where the goods that the Dry agents seized would be stored—ground floor, right inside the Christopher Street entrance. This made things easy, Matt had explained. The building had acres of storerooms. There were ten elevators and three miles of hallways. Seven hundred clerks worked in it during the day. Near the front door made it easy, quick and easy in and out. Late at night even better. So Matt said.

But it made Hooks nervous and he couldn’t stop talking. As they waited for the signal from Matt’s man inside, he tried again to break the silence that they wrapped around themselves like armor.

“The guys in the car were saying that you mighta shot a detective, Matt.”

Matt did not answer.

“Did ya?”

• • •

MARAT ZOLNER was assessing whether Hooks Newdell had potential. He needed an American to represent him when he didn’t want his face or accent noticed. But he was beginning to doubt that Hooks was the man. “Did ya what?”

“What the guys say. That you shot a private dick.”

“Hooks, did it ever occur to you that whoever said that stands a good chance of getting shot himself?”

Hooks Newdell backpedaled madly. “They didn’t mean nothin’. They was just guessing. It’s just that we—they—were wondering, are you the guys who shot Joseph Van Dorn?”

Zolner remained silent, and the nervous Hooks sealed his doom. The fool simply did not know when to shut his mouth.

“Did you guys go bonkers?” he blurted. “You shot Joe Van Dorn? Do you know who that is?”

“Only a detective.”

“It’s bad enough shooting any Van Dorn. Even a house dick. But you guys shot their boss.”

“It’s not like a cop.”

“The Van Dorns got a saying: ‘We never give up! Never!’”

“Words.”

“Except you never hear word of ’em giving up . . . So you did shoot him?”

Yuri moved like lightning, and the tip of his dagger was suddenly pressing up against the soft flesh under Ricky Newdell’s chin. “Stop talking!”

“O.K.! O.K.!”

“Shut! Up!”

Hooks Newdell pressed his lips together and sat motionless.

Antipov glanced at Zolner. Zolner shook his head. Hooks would be useful alive for a couple of more hours. Antipov sheathed his dagger.

Zolner tugged a Waltham railroad watch from his pocket and angled it to the light of a streetlamp. “Start the motor.”

A minute later, a man dressed like a clerk, in a suit, necktie, and a bowler hat, walked up Greenwich Street from the direction of Barrow. He shot an anxious glance at the Marmon, ducked his head, and hurried on.

“Slowly,” said Marat Zolner. “Keep him in sight.”