On the third night he saw his chance. When the driver left the car for a few minutes while he waited outside a club, Schaeffer got into the back seat. He broke Cruz's driver's neck, then took his place in the driver's seat. When Cruz came out of the club with his two men, Schaeffer waited until they were a few feet away, then shot all three. It looked to the parking attendants and the confused line of customers as though an unseen sniper must have done the killing, and he was just returning fire. Because he was in the driver's seat of Cruz's car, he must be on Cruz's side. When he got out to drag Cruz's body into the back seat and drove off, people thought he was saving Cruz.
He drove the car only six blocks to the back of a closed restaurant, where he parked the car and hoisted the body into the Dumpster. Then he walked one more block to the residential street where he had left his rental car, got in, and drove off.
The Agnoli he followed now in the Tucson airport was twenty years older and a happier man. He was a little pudgy, but he looked good. Agnoli's step had some spring to it as he walked down the concourse. Near the end he turned into a men's room.
It was remote, at the far end where there were only a few gates, and the flights were mostly international ones that left late in the day. When Schaeffer stepped into the men's room, he saw that it was empty, except for Agnoli at the urinal. Agnoli finished and stepped to the sink and washed his hands. As he reached for a paper towel to dry them he looked up into the mirror, and their eyes locked. Agnoli's eyes went wide and he began to shake.
'I guess you remember me.'
Agnoli stood still, with the towel in his hands.
'Give me your cell phone.'
Agnoli reached into his pocket and handed it to him. 'Are you here to kill me?'
'I hope not. You were at the ranch. How did you get away?'
Agnoli looked as though he were having trouble translating a phrase in a foreign language. After a pause, he said, 'I hid. Two of the catering trucks were still there. I went and hid in the back of one of them, behind a bunch of big plastic food containers and cases of empty liquor bottles. I went behind them and then set a few others in front of me. I heard the cops come by and look in the back, and then somebody rolled the door down and locked it. I sat there for hours. Then I heard the engine start, and we began to move. Then the truck stopped, and somebody opened the door and unloaded some of the stuff on a dolly. When they pushed the dolly away, I got out. I was at a loading dock behind a restaurant in Phoenix. I knew they'd never hire a caterer for a meet like that if he wasn't a friend of ours, so I went to the back door. They set me up with a ride so I could get home.'
'Congratulations. I doubt that many others got out.'
'What do you want from me?'
'Information. If you tell me the truth, we'll both go away and forget we saw each other.' He paused. 'You know my word is good.'
'It is to me. You did better than you promised. I remember when you put that son of a bitch Hektor Cruz in the Dumpster and killed two of his men. I owe you something for that extra touch. My family owes you. That was worth more than money to my poor mother.'
'I need to know where I stand. When Frank Tosca asked everybody to join in and find me, what did they say?'
Agnoli sighed. 'I want you to know I had no part in this. I run one little crew-all middle-aged fat guys like me. The rest of the world tolerates us because we've always been good earners. We're not greedy. We like a little wine, maybe have a woman we don't eat breakfast with now and then. I don't get a vote on anything at a sit-down, and if I did, I wouldn't use it to try to take over the world-about which I don't give a shit. You know I'd never vote to kill you. That stuff about you was courtesy of Frank Tosca.'
'I know. What did the old men decide?'
Agnoli took two deep breaths and held on to the sink to steady himself. 'They all said they'd do it.'
Schaeffer had known that much. He nodded. He had tested Agnoli, and Agnoli had told him the truth. He patted Agnoli's shoulder. 'It must have been hard to say that to me. Thank you.'
'Hard? If I hadn't just gone, my pants would be wet.'
'Have you heard what happened to Tosca?'
'I just heard it on the phone. A friend of mine said it was on television in Miami. The news people didn't know who that was.'
'It doesn't matter now,' Schaeffer said.
'No, it sure doesn't.'
'Tell me where I stand now. The old men might have said yes to a request from Tosca when he was alive because they didn't want to be on his bad side if he took over the Balacontano family. Now that he's dead, what are they likely to do?'
'Jesus,' Agnoli said. 'Jesus.'
'Don't be afraid. It's my last question. Tell me the truth and I'm gone.'
Agnoli took some more deep breaths, and a drop of sweat curled down from his temple to his chin. 'I'm sorry.'
'What does that mean?'
'I called home to check on my guys. My underboss said they'd already gotten a call. The cops let Victor Strongiolo see his lawyer. He told him to pass the word down to us that the old men want you dead.'
'Even with no Frank Tosca to thank them?'
Agnoli shrugged. 'You were right about why they agreed. They didn't want Tosca to take over the Balacontano family and then hold a grudge because they didn't help when he needed it. But the rest of this pissed them off. It pissed them off that you knew about the meeting, that you got in, and that you killed Tosca. And I think it scared them. If you could do that to Tosca, what's to stop you from killing them?'
Schaeffer said, 'If they changed their minds and left me alone, that's what would stop me. Nothing else. Do you understand?'
'I understand perfectly. I've seen your work.'
Schaeffer said, 'You've treated me honorably. I'll do the same to you. When does your flight board?'
'About a half hour.'
'Stay here for fifteen minutes. Don't call anybody or try to find me. I won't tell anyone we talked.'
'Thank you,' Agnoli said.
Schaeffer went out the door. Agnoli steadied himself on the sink. After a few minutes of trying to regain his composure, he realized he hadn't looked at his watch to be sure when the fifteen minutes had started. He looked, and started the fifteen minutes then.
17
Elizabeth Waring called Jim and Amanda at one o'clock in the afternoon so she could catch them right at four eastern time when they arrived home from school. 'How was school?' brought vague reassurances but no actual information. 'Do you have everything you need for dinner? If you don't, you're welcome to go out to pick up something at Koo Koo Roo or California Pizza Kitchen' brought reminders that they had too much homework to waste time on that. She gave up, issued motherly benedictions, and went back to work. She stayed in the Phoenix field office until after midnight and then accepted a ride to a hotel near the airport. As she lay down on the bed, it occurred to her that midnight in Phoenix was three A.M. in Washington. It was a feeble, passing observation, the last before sleep took over her brain.
When she awoke, it was nearly ten. She called the FBI field office, identified herself, and asked for Special Agent Holman. The woman at the other end said, 'I'm sorry, Ms. Waring. This is Agent O'Brien. He had a flight out at eight. He and his team were ordered back to Washington.'
'Then the operation here is over?'
'Hardly. We have two murders, two hundred persons of interest in custody all over the place, and a wide variety of charges are being filed this morning.'
