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

that if he didn’t know it was done?”
    Frankie did not answer.
    â€œYou know why, Frank, he got the Doctor?” Cogan said.
    â€œYeah,” Frankie said, “I know.”
    â€œSure,” Cogan said. “Doctor made a mistake, did something he wasn’t supposed to. That’s why.”
    â€œWell,” Frankie said, “he did.”
    â€œSure he did,” Cogan said. “So’d he.”
    â€œIt’s not the same thing,” Frankie said. “It’s not the same thing at all.”
    A maroon Monte Carlo passed behind the Duster.
    â€œSure it is,” Cogan said, “the Doctor got taken out for getting everybody in the shit. And that’s what him and you did. You just thought, the only thing that was different, you thought Trattman’d get blamed for it.”
    A red Capri passed behind the Duster.
    â€œThat’s what I mean,” Cogan said. “You don’t get away with things like that. Trattman was the same way. Thought he was gonna get away with it.”
    â€œHe did,” Frankie said. “Once.”
    â€œThat’s what I mean,” Cogan said. “You don’t get away with nothing once, it happens again.”
    The bronze Riviera passed behind the Duster.
    â€œThat’s him,” Cogan said.
    â€œI’m not sure,” Frankie said.
    â€œYes you are,” Cogan said. “If you’re not you got the first all-over hard-on in the world.” He opened his eyes and watched the Riviera. It pulled in beyond the back door of the complex.
    â€œHow long’s he gonna be, kid?” Cogan said.
    â€œI dunno,” Frankie said.
    â€œOkay,” Cogan said, “I asked you nice. Now, does he fuck her here or does he fuck her some place else?”
    â€œShe’s got a roommate,” Frankie said. “He knows a guy’s got a motel in Haverhill.”
    â€œOkay,” Cogan said, “he’s just gonna be friendly, then.” He watched as the door of the Riviera opened. He watched the long white leg of the girl. He watchedAmato emerge from the building shadow and walk around the rear of the car. He watched Amato assist the girl from the car and shut the door.
    Cogan reached down on the floor of the Duster with both hands and picked up a five-shot Winchester semiautomatic shotgun. He put it across his lap, steadying it with his right hand. With his left hand he took the key out of the Duster’s ignition.
    â€œHey,” Frankie said, “I mean, I was gonna start it and everything, we could get a start.”
    â€œI know,” Cogan said, “but, it’s probably gonna get noisy around here, and I known guys, heard a lot of noise, they got too good a start and left somebody standing around with his thumb up his ass.”
    Cogan watched Amato walk the girl to the door of the apartment complex.
    Cogan opened the passenger door of the Duster, exposing the masking tape he had used to seal the interior light switch off, and slipped out of the car. Amato and the girl were thirty-five yards away, embracing at the door. Cogan crouched against the car, his left elbow bracing against the top of the Duster’s hood, the stock of the gun tight against his right shoulder.
    Amato broke the embrace. The girl opened the door with a key. Amato waited on the step until the door closed behind her. She turned and waved at him, using only the fingers of her right hand. She was smiling. Amato waved back, in the same way. He turned away from the door. The girl vanished up the stairs.
    Cogan fired the first deer slug at Amato. It caught him low on the abdomen and hurled him backward against the building. Cogan waited until Amato hit the top of his low arc. Then Cogan fired the second slug. It hit Amato higher, slightly above the belt on the leftside, and went through him, taking an angle through his body which sent it through the glass panel of the door at his left. Cogan fired the third shot as Amato hit the wall of the building and started to sag down. It hit him in the middle of the chest, close to the base of his throat, and blew his chest apart. Amato toppled off to his own right in the low shrubbery.
    Cogan backed up fast and got into the car. He shoved the shotgun into the back seat and stuck the key into the ignition. “Now gimme that start,” he said.
    The Duster leaped out of the space, taking the curves of the drive with the small tires screaming.
    Three and one-half miles