"Laura Resnick - The Vatican Outfit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Laura)

a little disagreement when Roberto Calvi was found dead in London.
"Al, what are you so upset about? The cops called it suicide!"
"You were supposed to _talk_ to him, Vito."
"And I did."
"What did you say that convinced him to jump off Blackfriars Bridge
with a rope around his neck?" Luciani snapped.
However, these little disagreements aside, we got along very well. By
the time Luciani called a sit-down with his _consigliere_ and the head of the
Vatican Bank, he hardly needed my help at all.
"Boys," he said. "My friends -- my _real_ friends -- think I should
have you whacked out."
"_Whacked out? _" said the American one.
"Don't interrupt Mr. Luciani," I said.
"Now," Luciani continued, "I'm a perfectly legitimate priest, and I
don't like violence. But, when I found a cobra in my bed last week, boys, I
felt violent. Isn't that the truth, Vito? You remember how violent I felt?"
"Pretty violent, Mr. Luciani."
"Holy Father, surely you don't think -- "
"Don't interrupt His Holiness," Angie said.
"So I tell you what I'm gonna do," Luciani said. Angie and I pulled out
our pieces. The priests started to look like they might wet their pants.
Luciani placed some documents in front of each of them. "I'm gonna give you a
both a chance to resign from office and enter lifelong service at a Catholic
mission in rural Uruguay. You'll only miss electricity and plumbing for the
first year or two. What do you boys say?"
"Holy Father, how could we possibly -- "
"Or," Luciani said, "I could leave you alone with Vito for twenty
minutes and send your remains to the zoo. I gotta tell you, the second way
would be easier for me, but I'm trying to be a nice guy here."
For a second there, I thought they might call his bluff. But then they
must have remembered Calvi's suicide, and they caved in. When it came to
wiseguys like Sindona and Gelli, it was so easy I almost felt embarrassed. Mr.
Corvino knew where the bodies was buried, and so Mr. Luciani was able to hand
them over to the cops on a silver platter.
We was so busy that time just flew by. Finally, it was a week before




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Christmas, and as far as I could tell, the war was over.
"Big Al," I said, "it's time for me to go home. I got grandchildren, I
got a wife. You know how it is."
"A man should be with his family at Christmas," Luciani agreed. "We'll
be fine here. The worst is over. I had no idea that a dirty operation could be
cleaned up so quickly."
"It's something to keep in mind for the next time you got trouble with
your boys," I said.
"Yes," he said. "I'll certainly keep all this in mind."
Well, I should have paid more attention to the look in his eyes that