“Right,” Dino said. He took off his jacket and tie, rolled up his sleeves, and put on the apron.
“You were born to this,” Stone said.
“Aw, shut up.”
“You two,” Gino said, nodding at Stone and Holly, “get over to one side of the store, so the shelves will hide you. Trini comes in, he’ll walk down the center aisle, like everybody. When that happens, Gino, Dino, one of you sing out, ‘Vito, gimme a price on a whole Genoa salami!’ That means Trini is in the store.” He looked out to the street. “Here comes the truck.”
They all turned to see a beautifully painted black truck pull up to the curb. Painted on the side was the legend “Gaetano Galeano & Sons, Premium Provisions” in a florid style.
“Beautiful truck,” Stone said.
“Thanks,” Vito replied. “My old man designed it before the Genoveses got to him on the bocce court at the coffeehouse.”
“Sorry about that,” Stone said.
Vito shrugged. “It’s our game,” he said. “Anyway, Trini comes down the center aisle, you hear the thing about the price of salami, and you two come around the shelves into the aisle behind Trini. You’re carryin’?”
They nodded.
“Don’t shoot nobody, okay? Except Trini, if you have to.”
They shook their heads.
“There’ll be a man up in my office with a shotgun. Dino and Gino are carryin’; Trini’s bracketed.” He looked at Holly. “You got cuffs?”
She nodded. “Three pair.”
“You frisk him and cuff him, then we hustle him over to the stairs.” He nodded to his right, where a door led to stairs to the basement.
Stone didn’t want to think about the basement. “Then what?”
“Then we talk.”
“What’s to talk about?” Holly asked.
Dino held up a hand. “You’ll talk.”
Holly shrugged. “We’ll talk.” She shot a glance at Stone that meant she didn’t like this.
Stone shook his head slightly; this was no time to argue.
“Is the truck real?” Holly asked.
“What, real?” Vito asked. “You never seen a truck?”
“I mean, does it really have the hidden compartment?”
“Comes in handy from time to time,” Vito replied. Then he looked at Dino. “You already forgot this, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Dino said.
“Anybody hungry?” He took a tray of sliced salami and olives from under the counter. “We got free samples.”
Everybody took something to be polite, except Stone, who took it because he was hungry.
“Okay, spread out, and let’s do this,” Vito said.
Dino hopped over the counter and took up his position. Stone and Holly moved to where they had been told. They couldn’t see the store entrance.