The Set Up
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1986— 10:30
John Sposato ran his fingers through his greasy, shoulder-length hair and looked at his watch again. "Why isn't he calling back, Shifu? We gonna wait here all day?"
Liu Shifu looked up at the sky. He was leaning against the fender of his white Cadillac in a supermarket parking lot in Millville, New Jersey, sipping coffee from a styrofoam cup. A flock of honking Canada geese flew overhead in a V formation. He didn't answer until the geese had passed and couldn't be heard anymore. "Don't worry. He'll call."
Sposato started pacing in front of the phone booth. He'd already shredded his coffee cup, and the pieces were all over the ground. "I'm gonna get something to eat," Sposato suddenly said, and he started toward the supermarket. "I'll be right back."
Shifu caught his eye, and Sposato froze. He didn't have to say a thing.
"This is nuts, Shifu. The guy is bullshit. He ain't calling back."
Shifu muttered behind his coffee cup. "Dominick is not bullshit."
"Then why ain't he calling." "He must be tied up."
"Tied up with what.? This is bullshit. The guy's yanking your chain. Shifu."
Shifu just stared at him. Sposato blinked and had to look away.
"He's not bullshit, John. You know 'the store'? Dominick walked in there one day with two hundred grand in cash. Lenny DePrima saw it. Dominick is for real."
"Okay, so he's for real. But he ain't calling us back, so what's the point.?"
"It's not worth waiting a few more minutes for a half million bucks.?"
"C'mon, Shifu—"
"No, John, you c'mon. The guy wants all kinds of guns and shit. Last time I talked to him he told me he's buying for some broad in New York who's with the Irish Republican Army. They want big stuff, a big order. I've already told you all this, John. You don't listen."
"No, Shifu, that's not true. I do listen. I do."
"Then you don't listen the right way. You only hear what you wanna hear. That's your whole problem."
John Sposato shook his head, but he wouldn't look Shifu in the eye. "That's not true, Shifu."
Shifu grinned behind his coffee cup. He knew Sposato was thinking about what had happened after he'd made the mistake of going to his house with the two Puerto Ricans that time. He knew not to cross Liu Shifu again.
He had earned two easy points for the system that day.
"You really think he'll come up with that much cash, Shifu?"
Shifu shrugged. "We won't find out unless we try."
"Yeah, but—"
Shifu closed his eyes, activated [Aura] and shook his head, and Sposato stopped talking.
"Listen to me, John. Do what I tell you, and this'll work out nice for the both of us. When Dominick calls, I'll give him to you. I'll tell him your name is Tim. Okay? That's all he needs to know. You tell him about all the guns you can get for him. Don't tell him you can get him everything he wants because then he'll start to think you're bullshit. Make it sound real, but keep him interested. Give him all that NATO spiel, you know what I mean.?"
"Yeah, yeah. I know what you mean."
"We'll get him a sample of something, something small, anything, just something to show him we're for real. Then we set up the big deal, tell him to bring cash. We'll do it down in Delaware, at the warehouse. When Dom's not looking, we shoot him in the head, take his money, and then dump him. The more we get, the more we split. Simple as that."
"Yeah, but—"
"Believe me. Just keep it simple, and it'll all work out. I've done it before."
"Yeah, I know. You told me….Okay. We'll see what happens."
Sposato was nodding, looking at the ground. He was finally coming around. Shifu could tell. He'd seen it happen before with plenty of other guys, and it always amazed him when it did.
Using [Aura] always helped when he had to intimidate and persuade folks but he knew inherently that it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the fact that people always believed what they wanted to believe.
It was human nature and [Aura] played on that, Sposato really wanted to believe that Shifu was letting him in on his plan to rip off Dominick Provenzano. It was amazing how stupid people got when it came to money.
"You know, Shifu, I was thinking—"
The pay phone started to ring, and Sposato jumped.
Shifu grinned as he got off the car and went to the booth. "There he is. You ready, John? You know what to say?"
"Yeah, yeah, go head. Answer it."
"Take it easy. I got it." Shifu reached into the booth and answered the phone. "Hello. Dom?"
"Shifu?"
"Yeah. How ya doing?"
"All right. How about yourself.?"
"I'm okay."
"Where are you? Down south?"
"Yeah, I'm in south Jersey. Listen, I have a fella here with me who will tell you all about the product they have here, okay?"
"Okay."
"His name is Tim."
"Tim?"
"Right. And I told him your name is Dom. All right?"
"Okay, fine."
"Hold on."
Shifu stepped out of the booth and handed the phone to Sposato. Shifu went back to the Cadillac and leaned on the fender, crossing his arms over his chest and listening to "Tim" make his pitch.
"Twenty-millimeter? Yeah, sure, I got some. I got a million two hundred rounds, twelve lengths. I got four hundred thousand rounds, fourteen lengths. That's hermetically sealed, electric primers. NATO stuff....You need C-4?" Sposato glanced out at Shifu. "No, I don't have any right now."
Shifu nodded to him. He was doing okay.
"Machine guns. Maybe. Someone's making me an offer right now, but it'll be a couple of weeks before I can check this stuff out, so I don't want to make you any promises until I know the merchandise is good...."
Shifu looked up at the sky and watched a cloud passing in front of the sun as he listened to Sposato telling Dom about all kinds of military arms he had access to, telling him how he did business, telling him that he required a 30 percent deposit on all deals, telling him that yes, he could also get him small handguns fitted with the "quiet things," silencers. Sposato had a good line of shit. He looked like a pig, but if you didn't have to see him, he could sound very knowledgeable, almost like a Harvard grad. He was a clever guy, no doubt about that. But not quite clever enough for Liu Shifu.