Killing Them Softly (Cogan's Trade Movie Tie-in Edition)

agents escorted Russell out of the terminal, into the darkness.
    â€œThat’s not one of your rights, my friend,” the agent said. “That’s one of my rights. But I got a little deal for you, all right, my friend? Any time you wanna talk, just tell me, and I’ll shut up. Just say the word and you have got the fuckin’ floor.”
    â€œFuck you,” Russell said.
    The Polara made a U-turn on St. James and pulled up in front of the terminal.
    The agent dug the barrel of the automatic into Russell’s rib cage. “That, my friend,” he said in a soft voice, “is not the kind of talk I meant. People’ve been known to fall down a lot getting in and out of cars and so forth when they talk like that. Got it?” Russell said nothing. “And another thing, my friend,” the agent said. “Not only are you stupid but you stink. I think you’re gonna get twenty years and a bath. I dunno which you need more.”

“T HE STUPID SHIT ,” Frankie said. He sat in Amato’s office. “You know who he picks to call, of course. Me. Only he don’t remember I moved, so he calls Sandy, and he got her up and she’s all pissed and she calls me and give me a whole ration of shit and then I got to call him and I hadda girl with me. And of course I got to give my name to them, they won’t let anybody else talk to him.”
    â€œThat’s good,” Amato said.
    â€œYeah,” Frankie said. “Oh, I’m gonna really enjoy this, I can tell. Wants me to come down and see him. ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘sure, Russell, and I won’t have a hundred ballbusters following me around for the rest of my life if I do that, either. No thanks. I didn’t have nothing to do with it and I told you what was gonna happen and you wouldn’t listen to me.’
    â€œÂ â€˜Did you tell them?’ he says to me,” Frankie said. “ ‘Are you the fuckin’ bastard that told them?’
    â€œÂ â€˜Russell,’ I said,” Frankie said, “ ‘nobody hadda tell them. You told them yourself. What am I gonna tell cops anything for? Tell me that, huh? You wanna blame somebody, blame yourself.’ That calmed him down some. Well, will I make bail for him? ‘Depends,’ I said. See, he hasn’t got no money left. Spent it on his problem, which I don’t think they’re probably gonna let him go out and sell, now. ‘What’s the bail?’ Just what you’d expect, his record and a pound of that stuff. One hundred thousand dollars.”
    â€œTen K from you,” Amato said.
    â€œWell,” Frankie said, “there’s guys that’ll write onefor five per cent if you wanna handle some things for them now and then, but onna guy like him I doubt you could get it even from one of them. But either way, it’s too much, and besides, I tell him, ‘Keep in mind, I just got out of the can myself. Where’d I get all that bread?’ No, I said I’d call somebody for him, but that’s all, he can make his own deal. ‘You ask me,’ I said, ‘I don’t even think that’s gonna do it for you, though. You raise the hundred, they’ll go to double surety or two hundred or something. Those guys aren’t gonna let you out. Forget it.’
    â€œSo that’s what he tells me,” Frankie said, “and then he says: ‘Frankie, if I don’t get out of here, I’m gonna tell them you were in it with me.’ ”
    â€œNice guy,” Amato said.
    â€œAh,” Frankie said, “he was all pissed off. I don’t blame him. And what the fuck’s he gonna tell them? I said: ‘Russell, get off the pot, all right? You bring me into this, I’ll tell them everything you told me about Goat-ass stealing that other stuff, and all the dogs and the insurance thing you had with Kenny onna car and everything. So don’t hand me that shit.’ He’ll be all right. It’s just, he’s looking at a lot of time. You can’t blame him. I asked a guy, he said his guess is, probably eight, ten, something like that. So naturally that means, they probably told him guys’ve been getting fifteen or so, maybe more.
    â€œThem guys,” Frankie said, “I mean, they are
bad
. This kid I talked to, he said they come at you from just about every place at once. ‘They tell you,’ he said, ‘you