138

    GIANNI

    “That’s three shipments overhauled in the past week.” Roger arches an eyebrow when he turns away

    from the window. “I think you’ve made your point. We’ll be lucky if the bastard doesn’t blow us up.”

    “It’s not enough.” I push back from my desk, where we’ve wrapped up a call with our trucking contact. They recently sent a crew to intercept a shipment of electronics which now belongs to us.” Not until I hold that fucker’s beating heart in my hands.”

    “You want to move on to step three, then?”

    “Hell, yes.” The thought makes me smile. “I hope Moroni isn’t too attached to his fleet of trucks.”

    “This is going to put that warehouse fire to shame. Sixty trucks, five garages?”

    Yes, and it’s a way of proving to Sebastian that I’m willing to sacrifice what was supposed to go to me once the smoke clears. We’re still not on what anyone would call friendly terms after he pulled a gun on my right–hand man in my home, but we don’t need to be friends to work together. “It’ll get the point across.”

    Roger checks his phone, frowning. “What’s taking him so long? He seemed to be in a hell of a hurry when I called him after our call started wrapping up. He said he’d be here as soon as possible.”

    “I’m sure he’s moving as fast as he can. Maybe with one of those dome lights on his roof.”

    “There’s a chance he could decide not to tell us a damn thing, you know.”

    “I know, except I have a feeling I can get through to him.” I’m going to do everything in my power. After what we’ve learned since Roger pulled together that list of cops in on the take, I’m pleased we’ve uncovered the full story of what happened to Jessica Cole. I want to hear it from Ken, however. I need to, since he allowed his best friend to continue hating me for years and even watched him beat the shit out of me when he knew the truth all along.

    “You’re sure this is the right thing to do? What if Caterinaes back early?”

    “Please. Charles will keep her there for hours. Knowing him, he’ll spend the whole time trying to convince her to stay for good.”

    As soon as Caterina announced she was paying him a visit, I knew it had to be today. Otherwise, she would’ve been hanging around the house, and there would’ve been no discussing this. I don’t want her to know yet, not until I figure out a gentle way to break the news–if there is such a way of breaking it.

    “Besides,” I add, “the app will let me know once she’s moving.” I tap my phone that’s sitting on the desk, where the app tells me she’s parked by Charles’s house.

    Henry’s call from the front gate sets Roger in motion while I sit at the desk and brace myself for what’s toe. It’s sort of ast–ditch effort, calling Ken in for an emergency meeting, bbut /bI’m tired of tiptoeing around the issue. I want answers, and I want them now. Until bI /bbknow for /bsure what

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    +15 BCNUS

    happened to Jessica Cole, there’s no moving forward with Caterina. The guilt and uncertainty are acting as barriers between us whether she knows it or not. Eventually, she will and clue into the way I hold part of myself back from her.

    Ultimately, I’ll have to tell her about my connection to the murder, but I can’t leave it there. I need to be able to follow that up with the rest of the story. I need to provide the answers I promised.

    I hear Ken’s deep, strident voice before I see him. “Is Caterina here? Is she alright?”

    “She’s fine,” Roger tells him. “This doesn’t have to do with her.”

    “Tell me Charles hasn’t pulled some crazy bullshit again.” He looks and sounds beside himself when he enters my office, his angr face flushed, his skin shining with a thinyer of perspiration. He’s in the typical detective outfit of a shirt–and–tiebo, his badge hanging from anyard around his neck. “What’s happening? Why did you need me toe right away? Tell me he’s not tied up somewhere in this house.”

    The idea makes meugh a little. “I wouldn’t go that far. No, Charles isn’t here and hasn’t been since thest time you and I saw each other. As far as I know, Caterina is visiting with him right

    now.”

    “Jesus Christ.i” /iHees to a stop in front of my desk, hands on his hips, lowering his head as he attempts to catch his breath. “Do you know how many ugly thoughts can go through a man’s head when he gets an urgent call?”

    “I do apologize, I didn’t mean to make you anxious. We need to discuss something else, and I didn’t want Caterina here for it. She hasn’t gone out on her own muchtely, and I had to take advantage.

    “What’s going on? Is there anything I can help with?”

    “I’m thinking there is something you might be able to help us with. Please, have a seat.”

    He reminds me of a wary animal now, eyes narrowing slightly as he sits. “What’s going on?” “I’m going to cut right to the chase, for there’s no point in wasting time.” Looking him in the eye, I fold my hands on the desk. “I have it on good authority you were in on the take.”

    His face drains of color all at once, as suddenly as if I flipped a switch. “I’m using past tense because I would like to give you the benefit of thinking you’ve moved on from that, however who’s to say? At any rate, you were taking money from outside influencers around the time of Mrs. Cole’s death.”

    “Who did you hear this from?” His head swings around until he finds Roger standing by the window. “Where are you getting this information from? Because they’re full of shit, whoever they are.”

    “From what we’ve learned,” bI /bcontinue, ignoring his outburst, “you were in with one particr family. It so happens I was in the middle of brokering a pretty big deal with that family at around the same time. And, of course, Charles was a dog digging for a bone, determined to put me and anyone I did business with in prison for a long time

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    He’s fighting hard to keep it together, only that doesn’t stop him from trembling, no matter how he tries tough everything off. I’ve watched men spiral through the different reactions of getting caught red–handed. This is nothing new.

    “I still don’t understand what this has to do with meb,/bb” /bhe insists. “For one thing, it isn’t like guys on the take announce it to the rest of the department. How would anyone know for sure?”

    “Ken. You realize I could have taken this information directly to Charles and let him do what he wants with it? I brought you here out of respect and with an understanding that this is a veryplicated situation. The least you can do is man up and quit the bullshit.”

    “I cannot believe I came here to be insulted.” He blurts out a bitterugh as he stands. “This is insanity. Are you this desperate to show Caterina what a decent man you’re trying to be? It’s going to backfire, big time.”

    “I confirmed it with his son,” I murmur, freezing him in ce. “Sebastian Costello. He was here the day Charles kicked my ass. You saw each other.”

    “And I noticed the way he looked at you,” Roger adds, his voice so low I could almost call it apologetic. “Like he had seen you before.”

    “And when I asked him,” I continue, “he confirmed having seen you in his father’s office more than once when he was younger. Many times, I believe he said.” Roger’s head bobs up and down slowly in confirmation.

    He’s trapped. He knows it. It’s in the way his face sags and his shoulders slump before he lowers himself into the chair once again. “I know it’s early,” he mutters, “but do you think I could have a drink?”

    I give Roger a slight nod, and he goes to the bar, pouring two fingers of whiskey, which he hands to a shaking Ken. “Listen, I’m not here to give you shit over taking the money. We’ve paid our fair share to different contacts in the department over the years. And if a man could make a decent living inw enforcement, he wouldn’t have to rely on… other sources of ie.”

    “I needed the money,” he murmurs, staring down into his ss. “My wife didn’t recover well after she gave birth to our second kid. The bills piled up and I was drowning.”

    “As I said, I get it. And Salvatore Costello must have seemed like a safe bet. He had a reputation for being a decent guy. It’s a big part of the reason I got into business with him in the first ce. He wasn’t a hot–tempered sort of guy. And he lived by a code.”

    “That’s what I told myself,” he mutters before sipping his drink. “bIf /bI had to get into bed with somebody like that, I wanted it to be someone who wasn’t out there shedding blood and destroying familiesb./bb” /b

    “But he did destroy a family, didn’t he?”

    His head snaps up. “I don’t-”

    “Ken, what did I say? Don’t waste my time, and don’t fucking lie to me. When I think about it, it makes perfect sense. I’m not saying you had anything to do with it.”

    b138 /b

    “I didn’t. I swear to God, I didn’t.”

    “But he did have her killed, didn’t he?”

    b138.1 /b

    His jaw ticks before his eyes fill with tears. That surprises me. I didn’t expect the tears. The excuses, yes, but tears, definitely not. “It was supposed to be Charles. He knew Charles was after you and didn’t want to get caught up in any of it. He paid me to…”

    “He first approached you to get Charles off my back didn’t he?”

    “Yeah.” He snorts before throwing back the rest of the whiskey. “Look what a good job I did. I begged him so many times. To think about Jess and Caterina. To think about his job, to try to nail all the other bad guys out there.”

    “You were unsessful,” I sigh. “So Sal decided to go ahead and take care of things.”

    “I swear to God, if I had known…” He ces the ss on my desk before bending forward, elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. The slight shaking of his shoulders tells me what I need to know. He doesn’t want me to see the tears he can’t hold back.

    “She took his car that day, didn’t she? And the gunman had no idea.”

    “I don’t know the details.” His voice is thick with emotion, shaky. “But as soon as I heard, I knew what happened. I went to Sal as soon as it felt safe and told him I knew what he did. I’m surprised I made it out of there alive. I was half out of my mind, horrified, grieving. She was my best friend’s wife; she had a little girl. She was a special person. It shows he wasn’t a total fucking monster at his core, or he could have had me executed.”

    “Did he give you any idea of how he felt about it? The mix–up?”

    “He swore he was sorry, and part of me believed him. He didn’t want to kill an innocent woman. That’s not who he was.”

    “So why did his guy go through with it?” Roger demands. “I can see running the wrong car off the road, but he had to walk up to that car, open the door, and blow a bullet into her skull. He knew she was a woman when he did it.”

    “He gave me some story about his guy panicking because she saw him. And she was badly injured. He figured she would be dead either way, so he wanted to be sure in case she made a miraculous recovery and identified him.‘

    I can see that happening. I might even do the same thing in that guy’s shoes, whoever he was. Sometimes you do what has to be done to ensure your safety rather than leave anything to chance. “I begged and pleaded for it to end there.” When he lifts his head, his face is wet, his eyes red- rimmed. “I told him Charles would take it as a warning to back off–and if he didn’t, I would see to it that he did. And I kept my word. I was the one who convinced him to back off. He didn’t do it all the way, but he wasn’t as determined anymore.”

    That’s the truth. There was a shift in Charles’s attitude after his wife’s death. I didn’t realize it at the time–Tatiana and Caterina hadn’t met at that point, and I was unaware of what went on in Charles’s personal life. Although when I look back at the timeline and piece things together, there’s no denying he backed off after that point. Not entirely, as Ken said, but a great deal.

    138.1

    If he hadn’t, Sal wouldn’t have gone through with the deal. When Charles backed off, Sal’s confidence grew.

    b“/bbIf /bit weren’t for me, Caterina wouldn’t have either of her parents,” he insists. There’s an edge of panic that creeps into his voice. “You can’t kill me for this. I did everything I could.”

    A nce at Roger tells me he’s as confused as I am. “Nobody said anything about killing youb, /band while I don’t particrly like Charles, I know Caterina cares for you. It would hurt them both if anything happened to you.”

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