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"Nothing will, Paulo. I talked with Gian-Carlo not more than a hour ago."
"I just talked with Mr. S., and he suggested I come down here and explain exactly what has to be done."
Joe Fierello was more than a little curious about that. When GianCarlo Rosselli said something, you knew it was direct from Mr. S. So what was Paulo Cassandro doing here?
"Let me know what I can do," Joe said.
"You know this guy coming is a cop?"
Joe nodded.
"What Mr. S. wants you to do is sell him a really nice car…"
"I was going to."
"…at a special price. Like a thousand, fifteen hundred under Blue Book loan."
The Blue Book was a small, shirt-pocket-size listing of recent automobile transactions, published for the automotive trade. It listed the average retail sale price of an automobile, the average amount of money a bank or finance company had loaned for an installment purchase, and the average price dealers had paid as a trade-in.
"You got it."
"And he wants you to pay him at least a grand more for his tradein than it's worth."
"Any friend of Mr. S.'s…"
"Don't be a wiseass, Joe. This is business."
"Sorry."
"Yeah. You got a Xerox machine, right?"
"Sure."
"We're going to make up a little file on this cop. In it will be copies of this week's Blue Book showing what his trade is worth, and what the car you're going to sell him is worth. And then, on Tuesday, when you run his trade-in through the auction, where you will give it away, we want a Xerox of that too."
"This has all been explained to me, Paulo," Joe said.
"Yeah, well, Mr. S. obviously figured somebody better explain it again, so there would be no mistakes, which is why I'm here, okay?"
"Absolutely."
"And in addition to everything else you're going to do nice for this cop," Paulo went on, "you're going to give him this."
He handed him a printed form. Joe looked at it without understanding. It bore the logotype of the Oaks and Pines Resort Lodge in the Poconos, and it said that the Bearer was entitled to have a room and all meals, plus unlimited free tennis and two rounds of golf.
"What is this?"
"It's what they call a comp," Paulo explained. "This place is owned by a friend of Mr. S.'s. Let's say, for example, they buy a case of soap to wash the dishes. Or two cases, something worth a couple of hundred bucks, Instead of paying them cash, the lodge people give them one of these.Retail, it's worth more than the two hundred.Cost-wise maybe a hundred. So the guy who came up with the soap gets more than the soap is worth, and the lodge people get the soap for less than the guy wanted.Capisce?"
"I seen a comp coupon before, Paulo," Joe said. "What I was asking was, is this cop gonna be a tennis player? Or a golf player?"
"He gets to take the girl to a hotel," Paulo said. "He don't give a fuck about golf.",
Joe still looked confused, and Paulo took pity on him.
"There's a story going around, I personally don't know if it's true or not, that in some of these lodge places in the Poconos you can gamble in the back room."
Joe now nodded his understanding.
