and coverage we provide. He calls Potempa the next day and hires Caro. I’m an experienced E.P. guy, so it isn’t long before I catch a Kolodnik detail, and after the first one, they start requesting me.”
Behr took it in.
“Round this time people start talking about Kolodnik getting the Senate seat. Thinking was: business as usual, the casino owners grease through their tax measure, no problem. But now it looks like Bernie Cool’s ready to be the law-and-order senator. Instead of helping, he’s gonna stick it in their eye to make a point, so they needed to make sure he never got there.”
Behr understood what happened from there. Still, he wanted to hear it.
“Gantcher and the other casino owners paid you to kill Kolodnik,” Behr said.
“Not to kill him. They did pay me. Paid the note on this place clean,” Teague said, glancing around his house. “But they just asked for a tip on where he would be at a given time. There was going to be a team of shooters. Said it would come when I was on shift. I knew it would be bad press for the company, for me, but I figured Caro could survive it …”
“Why didn’t it go down that way?”
Teague straightened and gathered himself a bit.
“The thing was, after riding with Bernie Cool a few times, I just couldn’t … be there for it. You know what I mean? I just couldn’t. The man is a
Behr did know what he meant. In a charm derby Kolodnik had most everyone beat.
“So you started subbing me in,” Behr said, “and it was ‘fuck the new guy.’ ”
“Not exactly …”
“No?”
“The body man-me-was never supposed to be hit. It was supposed to be a clean deal, I swear to you on that-”
“Whatever it was,
There was a period of silence. “No.”
“Who were the shooters?”
“No idea.”
“Who did the hiring?”
“Again, I don’t have a clue. Not a damn clue.”
Behr eyed Teague. “So you went ahead and served me up.”
“I hardly knew you. We weren’t in the Bureau together-”
“Sure.”
“I didn’t know what else to do. Shit, looking back, of course it was a setup and the bodyguard was going down too. I just didn’t see it at the time. You did damn good though. Better than I would have. Behr, it wasn’t personal.”
“To me it was.”
Another period of silence elapsed, this one prolonged.
“That’s it, then? All you did was give the location.”
Teague shrugged pathetically.
“Are they going to try again?” Behr demanded.
“Kolodnik’s in D.C. Confirmation is any day. He’s made now. I’m pretty sure that ship has sailed.”
“And how much does Potempa know?”
“He doesn’t know shit about this, just that we had a fat new client and after my first time out with him, I was requested. Anything he thinks, it’s meaningless. The man’s a fucking puddle since watching that video.” As Behr had suspected, Potempa couldn’t stop himself from looking at the thing.
“Potempa’s just screwed up-he’s not dirty,” Teague said with a near laugh.
“Unlike you. You’re screwed up
Behr looked down at Teague, the man’s head sagging forward. He didn’t know if he’d gotten 10 percent of the details or 90, and had no idea how much of it was the truth. He also didn’t know what to do with him now. Taking him to the cops would stop his own investigation cold, and Teague would be out on bail in three hours. A trial would happen two years down the road, and everyone else responsible would be long gone. On the other hand, Behr couldn’t torture him. He couldn’t sit on him. He couldn’t kill him. He had no other way to shut him up besides the old-fashioned. Behr used his foot again, this time planting it in Teague’s chest, and knocking him onto his back. Then he put the edge of it across Teague’s throat, stepping down with some weight on the trachea.
“You’re not going to show up for work. For a while. And you’re not going to be reachable either,” Behr said, “except by me when I need bits and pieces filled in.”
Teague nodded, his eyes bugging from fear and the pressure and lack of air. Fragments of mirror glass ground into the floor and Teague’s shoulder with a grating sound.
“You’re not going to say anything about this to Potempa or anyone else at Caro.” Even as he spoke, Behr knew he was wasting his breath. Teague was going to tell whomever he was going to tell and do whatever he wanted to do. Teague’s gurgle had heightened to a high-pitched wheeze. Behr took his foot off Teague’s windpipe and walked out the door.
58
Behr sat at his kitchen table in jeans and trail shoes, having finally retired the suit. He had a couple of gel packs from the freezer and had started in icing his left eye, where Teague had clipped him with a right, then moved on to his leg, and was concentrating on his right knuckles and wrist, which had incurred some damage as he was dishing it out, when he heard the front door open.
“Frank, are you home?” he heard Susan ask.
“In the kitchen,” he called out.
“What’s going on?” she asked, still out in the living room.
“Nothing much,” he said. He heard the rustle of plastic shopping bags.
“I just got a call from the manager over at Glen Arbor. Why is your jacket and tie on the floor? We need to make our move on that unit if we’re going to-” She appeared in the doorway and stopped talking as she took in his condition.
“You’ve been fighting.”
“Yep.”
“What happened?”
“Bit of a story.”
“Start anywhere.”
“We’d better pass on that apartment,” he said.
“Why?”
“I got fired today.” Silence fell between them, along with a palpable patina of worry.
“Oh my god, oh my god … oh my god,” she said, sitting down heavily across from him.
“It’ll be okay.”
“Oh my god.” She actually grew pale.
“Breathe,” he instructed.
“I don’t want to be this person, Frank … but I’m not working and the baby’s almost here.”
“It’ll be okay,” he said again.
“How?” she asked.
“The shingle goes back out.” He shrugged. “I’ve always gotten by.”
“Starting from scratch clientwise this time, though.”
“Yep. Something will come along …”
