Tinkerton turned and glared angrily at him. “Semper Fidelis, Major? Did I hear you say “Semper Fi!” Always faithful. Duty. Honor. Country. Too bad you never understood any of it, Timmy.”
Slowly he walked around the chair until he stood behind Hardin and began tapping the Glock's silencer lightly against the side of the Senator's head. “It may sounds trite, Pete, but there really is no honor among thieves. None whatsoever.” He leaned over, almost whispering in Hardin's ear. “I might be a fanatic when it comes to things I truly believe in, but Timmy here doesn't believe in anything, not a goddamned thing except himself, his ego, and his career. He is an unrepentant crook, plain and simple, and all he wants is power. He was selling you two out and he was about to sell me out right along with you. Can't say Timmy didn't aim high though, that he didn't set some ambitious goals for himself. What he was buying, was nothing less than the White House.”
“You need to watch the caffeine, Ralph; it's making you a bit paranoid.” Hardin tried to laugh, desperate to regain some of his old composure. “The White House? You've gone way over the top this time.”
Tinkerton's smile faded as he swung the automatic in a short, vicious blow, raking the barrel across the Senator's cheek. “Semper Fi! How's that for “over the top” and “paranoid,” old buddy?”
The blow snapped Hardin's head sideways. Stunned, his hand went to his cheek and came away streaked with blood. Tinkerton was skilled at knowing a man's vanities and weaknesses, and he knew Hardin by heart. The Senator cowered in his chair as Tinkerton stepped closer and pointed the Glock at Hardin's head. “You ungrateful bastard, I have you on tape working the whole thing out with Rico Patillo!” Tinkerton pressed the silencer against the bridge of Hardin's nose. “What was it you called me? “A liability?” You told him it was, “time to cut our losses?” Isn't that what you told Rico… Major?”
Tinkerton was red hot now and I was surprised he didn't blow the Senator's brains all over the office carpet, right then. He looked at me and said, “Pete, we deserved better than this — you and I. If you had only listened to me back there in Columbus, boy, you and me, we had it all.”
He motioned toward the dark window. “As you may already have surmised, the gentlemen in the Mercedes are not with the FBI. The good Senator here arranged with Rico Patillo to have the two of you added to the concrete mix of a new Interstate Highway overpass near Paramus. Knowing Rico's people, I am certain those animals would have disposed of you fairly quickly and then amused themselves with Miz Kasmarek for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, sooner or later they would be coming back for me as well. That was the kind of scum I was cleaning out, Pete, eliminating it if you will, until my old pal Timmy sold us out.”
“Ralph,” Hardin tried to reassert himself. “Don't be a fool. You and I can still work this thing out.”
“Work this “thing” out? I think not, Tim. The only thing you and I have to work out is who kills who first, and unfortunately for you, I'm the one holding the gun now.”
Hardin blinked nervously as he looked at the window, at the office door, and then at Tinkerton's automatic.
“Too late, Major,” Tinkerton smiled, taunting him. “If you look real close at that Mercedes, you'll see there is no one inside. Well, there is, but the two grease balls who were in the front seat are now lying in the trunk, and they are very, very dead. Besides, I'm not worried about Rico anymore, because I have the flash disks now, and all of Louie Panozzo's wonderful accounting files. He may have been a fat slob, but he was a surprisingly clever accountant. He's got it all — the drug buys, the women, the meth labs, the crooked businesses and the squeaky clean ones, the bank accounts, the payoffs, the union boys on the pad, the whole enchilada, even all the money he paid you and every other bent politician on the East Coast. So I'll be the one running Rico now, and I can buy myself another Senator on any street corner in town.”
Tinkerton turned and looked at me. “Pete, I count you among my very infrequent failures. God, what a pair we would have made! And Timmy here? If he had not gotten so damned impatient, he might have made the White House the old-fashioned way and I might have ended up as Director of the FBI, or Attorney General, who knows?
The big lawyer's eyes seemed to turn wistfully toward the brightly lit government buildings outside. “Poor Louie,” he said. “He wasn't much of a poker player — too reckless, especially with his own life. I had hoped that the sharp edge of a scalpel might help him understand the precariousness of his position, but he would not tell me where those damned flash drives were. No, Louie wanted to be my partner. Imagine that? Another partner. Just what I needed, when I already had a loyal partner right here in Washington, didn't I, major?”
“Louie Panozzo, what a piece of work!” Tinkerton looked up at the ceiling and laughed. “So tell me, Pete, where on earth did you find them? Please?” He patted the pocket he had put them in. “It has been driving me nuts all week.”
“He hid them inside a car you didn't know about, an old wreck of a Buick. That's how I got out of Columbus. I found them taped inside one of the door panels.”
Tinkerton shook his head, chagrinned. “The door panels in an old wreck of a Buick. That figures.”
“You're a maniac, Tinkerton,” Hardin told him. “Even in Nicaragua and Iraq, the rest of the men thought you were nuts, you and that sicko Dannmeyer. Why do you think I recommended Justice put you in charge of security for the Witness Protection program to begin with? It was because no one could think of anyone as ruthless as the two of you.”
Tinkerton's eyes narrowed. He slowly raised the automatic and pointed it at Hardin's head again. But Hardin wasn't finished. “I'm not impressed by your threats, Tinkerton. You need me. The bodies? Those high-speed chases? Chicago, Boston, and now New York? Like a fool, you've left too many bodies lying around and a lot of people are asking questions now — the newspapers, the local cops, my committee, the FBI — big questions. Without my protection, you're finished.”
“Finished? Perhaps you are right, Major. That's why I want the kitty.”
Hardin looked as if he had taken another unexpected hit. “The kitty? I don't know what you're talking about,” he answered, but his denial came too fast.
Tinkerton raised the Glock again and this time he pulled the trigger. There was a soft “Phutt!” and a Nine- Millimeter bullet tore off the bottom half of Hardin's right ear, before the heavy slug buried itself in the headrest of his big leather desk chair.
“Ah! Ah!” Hardin screamed as he grabbed the side of his face and spun sideways in his chair. When he pulled his hand away, there was blood all over his fingers, running down his neck and onto his shirt. Then Tinkerton pulled the Glock back, as if he was about to give Hardin a backhand blow across the mouth, but the Senator covered his face and shrank away in stark terror. “No, not the face,” he mumbled. “Not the face.”
Sandy turned her eyes away, but I continued to watch this horrific show, not knowing what Tinkerton would do next.
Tinkerton lowered the Glock and laughed as he looked down at Hardin's lap. “Why Senator, I do believe you have pissed you pants. Now get that kitty! Get it now, or by God, your precious 6:00 News face will be the last of your worries. I'll turn your brains into a fresco on that wall.”
“No, please,” Hardin cowered, completely broken as he raised his shaking hands to fend off any more gunshots. “Please.”
“Get it!” Tinkerton pointed the Glock at Hardin's other ear.
Trembling, Hardin reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He bent over and opened a side drawer in his desk. There was a steel strong box built inside. His hands were shaking, covered with blood, as he tried to fit a small key into the lock, but he dropped the keys on the carpet.
Tinkerton walked around to the other side of the desk and pressed the silencer against the side of Hardin's head. “No more games, open it.”
Hardin whimpered and shook like a leaf. He picked up the keys and tried again, and then he tried a third time, before he could get the key into the lock and open the door. Tinkerton shoved him aside and reached in, pulling out a large brown alligator skin briefcase. He laid it on the desk and snapped the locks open. He slowly raised the top. I saw the briefcase was packed with stacks of hundred-dollar bills and several fist-sized blue-velvet bags.
Tinkerton picked up one of the stacks of green and fanned it near Hardin's ear with his thumb. “You know, Major, nothing ruins the image of a great man worse than a very ordinary vice.” He dropped the stack of bills in the briefcase and picked up one of the blue-velvet bags. It was heavy and sounded like a bagful of small stones as he tossed it up and caught it lightly in the palm of his hand. “What do we have here, Major? Diamonds?” he asked as he cocked his head, his eyes twinkling. “How much?”
Hardin didn't answer. His eyes were riveted on the brown briefcase as if it were his own life lying open on the desk in front of him.
