him their problems or asked him for favors. When Martin first saw me I could tell that he was surprised to see me standing there, maybe a little scared. But he very quickly separated himself from the people he was talking to and made his way to me.
“Good evening, Mr. Black,” Martin said and shook my hand. “I am more than surprised to see you here.” he turned to Wanda. “How are you, Wanda?” She was no stranger to these events. “How did you ever get this guy out to a stuffy event like this?”
“All it took was the mention of your name,” Wanda said ’cause it was true. Martin’s involvement with DeFrancisco made him my best source of information about Pete Vinnelli. That and the fact that if he is elected, having Martin tucked away in my pocket just made sense.
“Is that a fact?” Martin said and leaned close to me. “There’s a place we can talk upstairs,” he said and walked off.
“I’ll be back,” I said to Wanda and followed Martin to the elevator. Neither of us spoke in the elevator or in the hallway as Martin led me to a room. Once inside, Martin took a small device out of his pocket and set it the desk.
“What’s that?”
“Everybody’s listening these days. This puts out just enough of a signal to make whatever they do pick up too distorted to be admissible in court.
“I could get one of those.”
“Yes. Now tell me what I can do for you? Actually, I’m not all that surprised to see you. I heard you were making a move to the other side of the street.”
“You heard that, huh?”
“If that’s true, we could be very valuable to one another.”
“Yes, we could. But I don’t know that I could trust you, Martin.”
“Yes. That unfortunate business about your wife.”
If I had my gun it would be at the base of his skull right now. Martin always was an arrogant fuck, but he wasn’t stupid. “I thought we’d settled that between us.”
“That was just a down payment.”
“Tell me how we call it even.”
“Pete Vinnelli. I want him. And you’re gonna give him to me.”
I looked at Martin and wondered why he was smiling. “He’s yours.”
“What are you smiling about?” I demanded to know. Damn he’s annoying.
“I’ve been expecting you.”
“Really?” Now I’m predicable.
“The last time we talked; you remember, you and Bobby forced your way into my house and held guns on me?'
“I remember, Martin.”
“I wasn’t expecting you. I didn’t see any way that you could possibly connect me with DeFrancisco and Estaban. I underestimated you. It’s a mistake I will never make again. But there you were, with every reason in the world to kill me, but you wanted DeFrancisco, and I gave him to you. To make a long story short, I knew you’d be back one day and you would want Vinnelli.”
“You’re right. But I’m not the only one that wants him, am I? Vinnelli can link you to DeFrancisco. You want him-no, that’s not strong enough. You need Vinnelli dealt with.”
“Something you want for something I need. That makes us partners.”
“I think that’s taking it a little far.”
“Then we’ll call it two mutually interested parties.”
“However you want to look at it, the problem is how do you kill a DEA agent without attracting attention.”
Martin looked at me. “I’ll just say some people have been very lucky in that regard and leave it at that.”
“Some people have all the luck.” From that, I knew he knew that I was responsible for the recent deaths of agents Masters and Harris.
Martin moved a little closer to me and spoke a little lower. “Here’s what I can give you. For some time now you’ve had a very talented hacker digging around in Vinnelli finances, but there is one piece that continues to elude them.”
“How do you know that, Martin?”
“Believe me, Mr. Black; I know a great deal about a great many things. Like I said, I’ve been expecting you, so I know what I need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“Eileen McManus.”
“Who is that?”
“She is everything you need, Mr. Black,” Martin said. “That should make us even,” he said and extended his hand. I accepted his hand. “When you’re finished with this matter we’ll talk again about what we can do for each other in the future.”
As I rode the elevator down with Martin, one thing hit me. This wasn’t the same Martin Marshall I’d dealt with years ago. I realized then that I was about to start playing in whole new world. In that world, Martin Marshall was already a player. I would have to be very careful in my dealings with him.
The fact that he was expecting me and knew exactly what I wanted didn’t bother me. He needs Vinnelli out of the way, but he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty with an election coming, so he serves him up to me. That’s fine. I was willing to be used if it got me Vinnelli. But what does bother me is what happens after that.
That meant Martin had plans for me.
Chapter 26
Nick Simmons
I looked back at Miles and Lakeda and then followed Rain to the gambling room. She entered the combination to the door and we went down a long flight of stairs. “He’s with me,” she told the two men standing by the door. One got up to open it for her.
“You are so sweet.” Rain touched his face as she passed. I followed her into a large room with four tables in each corner of the room; one for poker and one for blackjack. There was one table where a lively crap game was goin’ on, and people held their breath for each turn of the roulette wheel. There in the middle of it all was Jeff Ritchie sitting in what I’m sure used to be JR’s spot.
If JR was involved in this and I had to kill him, Jeff Ritchie would have to die first. I looked around the room and tried to get a feel for what kind of muscle he had. My eyes met his and he glared at me. I could tell that he didn’t like me hangin’ around there. I’m sure he knows what I represent. I nodded my head to acknowledge him and smiled.
“What you think?”
“Impressive.”
“Wait here and I’ll see if I can’t get you a seat at the table,” Rain said and left me alone.
I wandered around the room looking over Jeff Ritchie’s men, wondering if one of them was Nice N. Slow or if it was Miles. He is married and the only computer in the building is in his office, so it does make him the logical choice. There was the possibility that somebody else, Jeff Ritchie maybe, could have a key to Miles’ office.
I stood and watched as Rain went straight to Jeff Ritchie to get me in the game. I knew from that that Rain carried no weight down here.
I walked around and stood by the poker table and thought back to Miles’ expression when I showed them Zakiya’s picture. He glanced at the picture quickly like he was trying not to look at it.
