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"That's going to depend in large part on you, Lanza. For the moment, you can consider yourself under arrest for theft of luggage from Eastern Airlines."
Lanza's face whitened.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lanza said.
"Detective Martinez," Olsen said, "will you go with Corporal Lanza while he puts his clothes on? Take his pistol."
"Yes, sir."
"This is some kind of mistake," Vito Lanza said.
"Get your clothes on, Lanza," Olsen said.
"You're a detective?" Lanza asked Martinez.
"Yeah, I'm a detective."
"Get your clothes on," Captain Olsen repeated. "It's over, Lanza."
Lanza turned and went into the apartment. Martinez followed him.
"Mrs. Schermer," Captain Olsen said. "Detectives are going to want to talk to you later today. They will call you either here, or at work, and set up a time."
"I don't know what this is all about," Tony said.
"You can talk about that with the detectives," Captain Olsen said.
The three stood at the door for the two or three minutes it took Vito to put his shoes and socks and a shirt on.
Finally he came back to the door, followed by Jesus Martinez, who carried Vito's off-duty snub-nosed revolver and its holster in his hand.
"Give the pistol to Detective Payne," Captain Olsen ordered. "And put handcuffs on Corporal Lanza."
They walked down the corridor to the elevator, where Vito saw that the door was being held open by a Highway Patrolman. There was another Highway Patrolman in the lobby, and when they got to the street, there were two Highway RPCs, the lights on their bubble gum machines flashing. There were two unmarked cars on the street, their behindthe-grills blue lights flashing, and three or four people in plainclothes Vito had been a cop long enough to know were fellow police officers.
Vito Lanza, for a moment, thought he was going to throw up, then he felt hands on his arms, and a Highway Patrolman put his hand on the top of Vito's head, and pushed down, so that Vito wouldn't bang his head on the door as he got into the back seat of one of the Highway RPCs.
"Watch your fucking head, scumbag," the Highway officer said.
****
Ricco Baltazari's voice, when he answered the telephone, was sleepy and annoyed. "Yeah?" he snarled.
"Ricco?" Tony asked.
He recognized the voice. His tone changed to concern and anger.
"What are you doing, calling here?"
"Who is it?" Mrs. Baltazari asked, rolling over on her back.
"Ricco, the cops were just here. They arrested Vito."
"What?"
"A guy who said he was a captain, and two detectives, and they told him to get dressed, and they took his gun away and put handcuffs on him, and when I looked out the window, there was cop cars all over the street."
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!"
