As soon as I stopped at the next red light, he handed me the camera. The screen showed the side of the building where the alternate entrance was. The door was partway open in one frame, all the way open the next, and a heavy guy in his thirties was leaning out and lighting a cigarette.
“A guard who goes out for smoke breaks,” Ryan said. “That could prove harmful to his health.”
When Sean got back from dropping the kids at school, Bev was still in the shower, so he made their breakfast: an omelette with ham, cheese, mushrooms and onion, multigrain toast and fresh coffee. The two of them ate at stools around the kitchen island, the sports pages of the
He started with the baseball coverage. With spring training underway, reserves of hope were already building among the Red Sox Nation, and the baseball writers were getting poetic about the thrill of the grass, the sweet sound of round bats driving round balls toward the aching blue Florida skies, all kinds of shit along those lines.
He heard a car pull into their driveway. He wasn’t expecting company this morning and was still in a T-shirt and sweatpants, his lazy morning cooking clothes, the closest gun upstairs.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Bev said. She had gone to the front entrance and was looking out of the slim glass panel next to the door, with a grin that was more wry than amused. Then there was some kind of clumping on the walk outside. Bev turned the key in the deadlock and opened the door.
Jesus Murphy, it was Kieran Clarke himself, standing there in his long coat, aluminum crutches under his arms and the wild glaze of some mood-altering drug in his eyes. Sean asked Bev to finish the paper in their den and helped Kieran to a stool at the island, poured them both a cup of coffee.
“Fucking hell, man, they put a plate in your leg. You’re supposed to be in traction.”
“Did you get the bitch who did this to me?” Kieran asked. “I’m sure I remember you grabbing her by the hair and sticking a gun in her ear, but then I think maybe I dreamed it.”
“You didn’t dream it. I have her.”
Kieran’s smile almost split his face in half. “Where?”
“Halladay’s.”
“You had any fun with her?”
“Jesus, no. I’ve been keeping her on the drip like the others.”
“What are you going to do with her?”
“Make a small fortune.”
“Not until I pay her back for what she did to me. Take me down there, man. Take her off the drip. Let me play with her till you need her.”
“Can’t right now,” Sean said. “I got things to arrange. I’ve had a guy in Framingham pleading for a kidney for months. He has multi-fucking-millions he’s not going to live long enough to spend. And Blondie, it turns out, is a good enough match. Not out-of-the-park good but good. Plus she’s healthy as a racehorse. I’m going to squeeze him for a million, Kieran. Of which I have to spend nothing, because the surgical team will be there anyway. Between that and what McConnell is paying, it’s gonna be my best night ever.”
He poured them more coffee, leaving room for a splash of Jameson from a bottle in a sideboard locked with a key placed too high for Michael to reach. “This is why I’m out of drugs and why I’ll never go back. Leave it to the fucking crazies down in their jungle. You see any crazies involved in this operation? Anyone I have to battle block by block for the right to live and work? No.”
“What about the bitch’s partner?”
“The detective?”
“Yeah. He’s a wild card. Still out there.”
“Not for long.”
“He coming tonight?”
“He thinks he is.”
“Gonna rescue the golden girl, huh? Him and his friend?”
“No. I’m gonna get him first.”
“Put me in a car with a shotgun in my lap,” Kieran said. “I owe that guy, too, for my leg. And I can see if I close one eye like this.” He tilted his head down toward his left shoulder and squinted.
Like Sean was going to let him anywhere near a gun. Playing with the girl was one thing, he’d earned that. But give him a gun, he’d shoot the back off someone’s head while fumbling for a crutch. “We got it covered,” he said.
“When can I see the girl then?”
“Soon.”
“Can I borrow a knife?” He looked at the wooden knife holder, the one with the stone inside that sharpened each blade as it was pushed in and pulled out.
“What’d I just tell you? Those kidneys are worth a ton. You want to slap her around, fine. You want to fuck her, that’s fine too. But no knives.”
“I meant later, when you’re ready.”
“Much later,” Sean said. “ ’Cause I got to tell you, you look ripped out of your mind right now.”
“I’m fine.”
“Can I ask what exactly you’re on?”
“I don’t know, man, I just grabbed some pills from the nightstand where I found the crutches. They’re good, too. Feel like Tylenol fucking Twelves.”
“Why don’t you lie down awhile in the guest room there. Take the weight off your leg. Let me make the calls I have to make. You need ice or anything?”
“Fuck the ice. When will you take me to Halladay’s?”
“When I’m done my business. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time with her. It’s a long operation.”
“Freddie handling her drip?”
“Yeah.”
“Fucking little creep. Promise you’ll call him when we’re leaving,” Kieran said. “Tell him to take her off. I want her ready and waiting when we get there.”
“Don’t worry,” Sean said. “Propofol is a tidy drug, Freddie says. Once you cut the supply, they wake up pretty fast. Clear-headed too.”
“A few minutes with me,” Kieran said, “she’ll be wishing she was back asleep.”
CHAPTER 35
We had arranged to meet Frank and Victor in the lobby of a hotel called the Dorchester in South Boston. They had a coffee shop there Frank liked. We were a few blocks away when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I had missed a call that had gone to voice mail. It was David’s father.
His first word was, “Jonah,” and that was as far as he got before he had to clear his throat. “This is Ron Fine calling on Monday. Jonah, Mike Gianelli just called. He said David was found yesterday on a beach somewhere outside the city. Somebody shot him. Killed him. Gianelli said he can’t get in touch with you. That you had checked out of your hotel. Please tell me you’re still working on this. Call Gianelli. Maybe he’d tell you things as a fellow professional he didn’t want to tell me.”
Oh, yeah. I was a real professional. Leading David’s killer right to him. Hiding behind his corpse as more bullets tore into it.
“I’m getting on the first flight down there,” he said. “To see about claiming the body. Gianelli said there might have to be an autopsy, but you know for an Orthodox family, that’s not acceptable.” He paused to clear his throat again and said, “I’ll try you again when I know my flight. Maybe you’ll pick me up at Logan? To be honest, I don’t know if I’m up to driving around. I was hoping Micah might come with me but I can’t find him either … Please call me as soon as you can. Tell me what you’re doing. Where you’re staying. Whether they’ll catch the people who … who did this …”
And then his voice trailed off and he hung up.
