“Open it.”
Murphy pushed open the door.
The pistol nudged him forward. “Inside,” Gaudet said.
They stepped into the apartment. Murphy felt the weight of his Glock on his right hip, but it was buried under his raincoat. The zipper was pulled up to his neck. An old firearms instructor’s adage popped into his head: You can’t outdraw someone else’s trigger pull.
As Gaudet pushed the door shut, Murphy kept walking until he reached the small bar that separated the den from the kitchen. He wanted as much distance between him and Gaudet as possible. When he turned around, he said, “Are you the mayor’s official hit man now?”
Gaudet kept his pistol leveled at Murphy. “I tried to keep you out of it.”
“Out of what, stealing money and killing cops? That’s why you’re here, isn’t it, to kill me?”
“I put eleven years into this job. Next year I’m vested and can take early retirement. By then I’ll have enough money put away so I can do whatever I want.”
“So what’s stopping you?”
“You, you’re what’s stopping me,” Gaudet said.
“How’s that?”
“You threatened to go to the captain. If you make a complaint to Donovan, he’ll have to notify PIB.”
“So what?” Murphy said. “The mayor controls PIB.”
“But he doesn’t control the feds, and the feds have snitches inside PIB. If the feds get involved, everything comes apart. I told the mayor you weren’t serious, though. That it was just talk, but he didn’t believe me. He says you’re a loose cannon.”
“Why are you here, Juan?”
Gaudet waved his pistol around. Nervous sweat beaded his forehead. “What the fuck’s wrong with you, Murphy? You’ve got no life. All you’ve got is the fucking job, but no matter what heroics you pull on this case, DeMarco is going to smash you into little pieces over that newspaper article. Your only way out will be to make a deal, and now, because you saw that money, you have something to trade.”
“Is that why you’re here, to make sure I can’t make that deal?”
“I’m here to offer you a seat on the gravy train,” Gaudet said. “There’s still time, brother.”
“What does the mayor want in return?”
“Your word that you’re not a threat.”
“Is that all?” Murphy said. Then casually, like he wasn’t even thinking about it, Murphy reached up with his left hand and unzipped his raincoat.
“And he wants to bring you on as part of the team.”
“Why does he need us?”
Gaudet hefted his pistol. “Because sometimes the negotiations get sticky, and nobody argues with a man holding a gun.”
“Why did you get involved?”
Gaudet shook his head at the stupidity of the question. “Why do you think? I got two kids in private school. I got a wife wants a new car. I got a girlfriend wants her apartment paid for. Everything is all crossways, man. Shit just got cattywampus on me, and I needed the money.”
“But why you?” Murphy said. “Why did the mayor pick you to be his bagman?”
“Right place, right time, I guess.”
Murphy shook his head. “It was payback for you throwing the case against his brother.”
Gaudet stared at Murphy. “That case wasn’t going anywhere. If it wasn’t me, it would have been a captain, or a deputy chief, or somebody at the DA’s office. You can’t put the mayor’s brother in jail, Murphy, and expect the case to go to court. Not in this city.”
A sudden anger swelled through Murphy. He took a half step forward.
Gaudet jabbed his pistol at Murphy. “You stay right there and keep that Irish temper of yours under control.”
Murphy nodded toward the pistol in Gaudet’s hand. “Now what?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether you’re with the man or against him.”
“What happens if I’m against him?”
“I told him you wouldn’t be.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because you’re no choirboy, Murphy.”
“This is different,” Murphy said. “There’s bent and there’s crooked. This is crooked.”
A bead of sweat rolled down Gaudet’s cheek. “He wants to see you.”
“Why?”
“To explain your situation to you.”
“Right now?”
Gaudet wiped a sleeve across his face. “He’s at the Emergency Operations Center. I’ll call him when we get close. He’ll meet us outside.”
“What about his daughter?” Murphy said.
“What about her?”
“Does he want to get her back?”
“Of course he does,” Gaudet said. “He’s worried sick about her. He’s counting on you to find her.”
Murphy doubted that. Gaudet was stalling, trying to work up his nerve. Only five feet separated them. Murphy lowered his right hand near his holstered pistol. He wasn’t going down without a fight. “What if she’s already dead?”
Gaudet shrugged. “If it turns out that way, he’ll mourn for her, but life goes on. We’ve got a city to rebuild.”
“How much is it worth?” Murphy asked.
“What?” Gaudet said.
“The skim.”
“Five percent of every contract.”
Murphy did the math. Five percent was fifty thousand dollars for every million, and the city had awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts since the storm. “That’s a lot of money.”
Gaudet shrugged. “Not every contract is part of the program. The mayor has good instincts. But it’s still very… lucrative.”
“What’s your end?”
“Two hundred thousand so far.”
Gaudet reached behind his back and tossed Murphy a pair of handcuffs. “Put those on.”
Murphy caught them in his left hand. He kept his right hand down. “I’m going to see the mayor in handcuffs, like a prisoner?”
Gaudet nodded. “Until you two straighten out your differences, he’s not taking any chances.”
The meeting with the mayor was a ruse. Gaudet was going to drive him somewhere and kill him. “What if we don’t straighten out our differences?” Murphy said.
“He’s a persuasive man.”
“But if we don’t,” Murphy said, “your job is to kill me, right?”
Gaudet shook his head. “Quit being so dramatic. It ain’t like that.”
Murphy rattled the handcuffs. “Tell me what it’s like then.”
“First, you two talk and straighten out the bad blood. Then he’ll give you an envelope. The first of many.”
Murphy slid his right foot back half a step and angled his left side toward Gaudet. He reached behind his back with both hands like he was going to handcuff himself. As his right hand swung past his side, it was hidden from Gaudet’s view. Murphy hooked the bottom of his raincoat with his thumb and pulled it back away from his pistol.
