Hooked (25 page)

L
inc hovered over his desk and checked his watch. Two a.m. Too damn bad. This was a matter of life and death. Tawny’s life, and if he couldn’t track her down, her death. Dennis was in for the long haul. Harry tagged along too.

Linc punched in the number of one of Mario Russo’s sons, Dennis phoned the other. Neither was happy at being awakened. At first reluctant to give out any information, both men conceded and listed their construction company’s current projects. Two were in New Jersey, but both were a long way from the city. Their two lists tallied.

“I doubt Russo would involve his sons,” Harry said. “He’s meticulously kept them clean.”

“I know. I’m grabbing at straws. I have to find her. It’s my fault she’s in danger.”

“Nothing’s your fault, son. Tawny insisted on this one last night. Could you have dissuaded her?”

“I tried, but maybe I didn’t try hard enough.”

“Whether Russo lives long enough or not, if Cooper and his wife roll on him, they’ll never go to trial. Mario’s famous for payback. Screw him, and one day when you least expect it, your life will be over. He’ll make sure someone in his organization pays the check. As for the two assholes who took the Dell woman, neither of them will see the inside of a courtroom either.”

“I don’t give a shit about any of them. I’d kill them myself if I could get away with it.”

Linc felt Harry’s hand on his shoulder. “I know. We’re not giving up here. Colin’s plates are on the airwaves. Russo’s, too, although we’re not sure which car he’s driving. The whole city’s on alert. Something will break.”

“Right now I feel as useless as I’ve ever felt
. It’s the middle of the night, and I have no idea where to look for her. Don’t even know if she’s still alive.”

* * * * *

M
ario smiled weakly as Tawny stood frozen outside the door, her heavy breathing audible in a night as soundless as a forgotten graveyard. The sky, dark and foreboding, matched Mario’s expression―the one she had seen for the first time tonight. It confirmed he was everything the media claimed. Then his countenance changed and became fatherly again, and she saw the man she had known all those years.

“I can’t let you go, Tawny,” he said with a short, ragged breath. He looked tired and sick, but he squared his shoulders as Reggie flung open the door so hard, he almost unhinged it. Colin, right behind him, stopped short at Reggie’s back.

“Can’t you two do anything right?” Mario said. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. “Can’t hold on to a woman for more than an hour without her getting away?” He rubbed his index finger down the side of her cheek. “I have no doubt she would have lost you two idiots and found a way back to the city. Even with her hands secured behind her back, the first car that came by would have stopped for a prize like Tawny.”

“Sorry, Mr. Russo,” Colin said. “She took us by surprise.”

“That’s why she’s smart and you two are stupid. A smart man never lets down his guard.”

“It won’t happen again,” Reggie said.

Mario said something under his breath Tawny couldn’t make out, but from the tone, she figured Mario agreed with Reggie. It wouldn’t happen again.

“You, Reggie, wait outside for now; and Colin,”―he said the name with distaste―“go upstairs. We’ll be there in a minute.” The two men followed Mario’s directions like obedient children.

He guided Tawny inside and up to the musty room. They were alone. She felt sure she had minutes to live. “You can’t kill everyone, Mario. Cooper will talk like a parrot on speed.”

“Most of what he knows is hearsay, except for the night with Rick. And that only matters if he’s around when the case gets to court. He won’t be. Neither will that whore wife of his. I almost fell over when I learned Eileen was the one calling the shots in their operation. She put out the hit on Sarah Marshall and that pretty-boy, Hansen. And those two did the dirty work. Who’d have thought?”

Tawny tilted her head, scowled. “Is that what you called me, too? Whore?”

Mario shook his head. “You were special, Tawny. For ten years. That’s why your betrayal is so disappointing.”

“What should I have done? Go to prison? Besides, if Benny was killing off his girls, snitching on him wouldn’t have bothered me one bit. But I never mentioned you to the cops, and I wouldn’t have.” She wondered if that sounded believable. Even if it did, Mario wouldn’t trust her. He wasn’t conditioned to believe anyone he perceived as a threat.

But she would have turned in Rick Martell without a second thought when she found out he’d killed Cindi Dyson and walked away without remorse. Mario knew that about her. Her action would have brought him unwanted attention. Any way she
looked at it, she was screwed.

“It wasn’t killing the girl that turned you against Rick, was it, Mario? There was more to it. Was he stealing from you? Is that what his death was all about?”

“You always were the smartest of my women, Tawny. Rick was screwing me over, embezzling millions. I suspected, but I wasn’t sure until I brought someone in to go over the accounts. Rick funneled money out of the country with unparalleled brilliance, and it took someone with his ingenuity to track it down. He betrayed me, and that is an unpardonable sin. No, Rick was going down anyway, but this was such a perfect setup I couldn’t resist. Those two”—he gestured with his head in two different directions—“would do anything for money.” He leaned in, close to her ear. “And they’re dispensable, but, shhh, don’t tell them I told you.”

“I tried. They wouldn’t believe me. They think you’ll be true to your word and get them out of the country.”

Mario laughed. “They’re perfect, aren’t they?” He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “I gave these up years ago.” He lit up. “Doesn’t matter now.” He dragged fully, exhaling curls of smoke through his nose and mouth. “Might as well enjoy the time I have left.”

“After all these years, Mario. Is this the way it’s going to end?”

“I’m afraid so, my dear.”

“Why? You’re sick. You’ll never live to go to jail. What difference will it make if you let me go?”

“You think it’s only about me, Tawny? Do you know how many others are involved? Chicago, L.A., Boston, Vegas, Miami. This is a network, and Rick was embezzling from all of them. He was very smart, had it all on disks. If I hadn’t figured out what he was doing, he’d have gotten away with it. Unfortunately, you’re smart too. You figured out there was more.

“Cooper will say I contracted those two yokels to take care of Rick because he was fucking around on my wife’s niece. That’s acceptable, and I won’t be around to refute it. But if you talk, my associates will come after my sons and their families, because that’s what they do. I couldn’t let that happen.”

“So how do you know you can trust the next guy?”

“When you make an example of someone, it ensures his successor won’t be so stupid. I needed someone who knew what to look for. I’ve groomed my replacement. He knows everything. He also knows it can’t get out or there’ll be a bloodbath. It’s like a new administration in Washington coming in and erasing everything the old administration did. You see my predicament? You’re a loose end. A lovely one, to be sure, but I can’t let you unravel my life’s work.” He put his hand
s on her shoulders. “Now, enough talking. I’m very tired, and I need to knot the threads. Come on.”

He shuffled to his right and picked up a coil of electrical cord, then opened the door and spoke to Reggie. “Take her upstairs and tie her to the radiator so she can’t run away from you again. Third floor, like I told you.” He thrust the cord at Reggie. “Use this.”

Reggie took the cord, swung Tawny around, and pushed her toward the stairs. “You don’t have to do this, Mario,” she pleaded over her shoulder.

“I’m afraid I do, my dear. Sorry.”

She saw Mario clutch at his stomach as if he had a sudden pain.

Breathing hard, he said, “I can’t tell you how it breaks my heart.” He stooped down, his wasted face grimacing, picked up another fluorescent lantern, and looped the handle over his arm. He lifted a discarded two-by-four from a pile and used it as a cane to steady himself before following them up the stairs, one at a time.

Jamming her big toe on one of the steps, Tawny cried out, but Reggie paid no attention and pushed her harder. When they got to the room, Reggie shoved her onto the floor. Her already painful shoulder shot burning daggers through her, and she cried out.

“Don’t stand there, Colin, hold her down while I unwind this cord,” Reggie said.

Colin, used to giving the orders, mumbled under his breath and sat on Tawny to keep her from wriggling out of his grasp. She fought Reggie as he wrapped her ankles first, then encircled her legs, lifting her until he reached her waist, where he threaded the coil through the radiator pipes, out again, around her arms, and up to her shoulders. She couldn’t move, tied and bound like a mummy.

Mario entered the room and surveyed Reggie’s handiwork. “Good job,” he said, right before he drilled a Taser into the big man’s side, taking out his biggest problem first. Then he swung the two by four high into the air and down with all the force he could muster onto Colin’s head. Tawny couldn’t believe the sound. The body of the puny Cockney slammed into the floor, felled by one sickening blow, opening a gash on the back of his skull. He sank to the floor next to her in a heap, expelling a fatal-sounding last breath.

Reggie jerked and twitched, making horrible noises resembling an animal caught in a trap. But seeing his lover sprawled bloody beside him, he marshaled his strength to rise like a leviathan out of the deep while emitting a low, raspy growl that gained force as he rose.

Mario didn’t wait for him to get up off all fours. “Don’t look,” he said.

Tawny closed her eyes and turned away, but the thud of wood on bone was unmistakable, not once but twice. A whooshing sound from Reggie’s lungs ended in silence. Turning slowly, she saw his massive hulk draped over his partner, blood and bone and brain matter spattered everywhere, including on her. Tears stung her eyes, and she thought she’d be sick. Bile threatened to erupt, and she swallowed it down by sheer force of will. But resolve alone couldn’t stop sobs from exploding in a steady, relentless burst, generating tremors to ripple through her body.

Mario, breathing hard and sickly pale, leaned on the blood-stained weapon, then slowly collapsed to the floor. Focusing on her, he said breathlessly, “Sorry you had to witness that, but I had no choice.”

She gained control, but her voice quavered. “We all have a choice.”

He struggled to rise. “I must leave now. I have a terrible headache. Strange, I rarely get them, but I have a doozey tonight. I’m sorry it has to end this way, Tawny. I really am.”

What did that mean?

He picked up the used strip of tape, avoiding the sticky puddle metastasizing on the floor, and reached to place it across her mouth.

“Wait! End what way? You’re going to leave me here to die? Like this?”

“This building, along with the entire block, is scheduled for demolition tomorrow at six a.m. The six floors above will tumble down on top of you. If you’re lucky, it’ll be quick, maybe even painless.” He met her gaze. “Maybe not.”

Panic gripped her. “Why not just shoot me? Why leave me like this?”

“It’ll look like those two were holding you here when the building collapsed on the three of you.”

“But…but the police will know those two died hours before the building came down. You won’t get away with it.”

His eyes flickered at half-mast. “Yes, I know, but it won’t matter.”

“Then why?” she asked.

“Loose ends, Tawny. I never leave loose ends.”

“I wouldn’t have given you up, you know.”

He smiled. “Yes, you would have. Everyone does in the end.” He slapped the tape across her mouth. “Can’t have you crying out, sorry. Now, I have a car to get rid of, then I’m going home for some badly needed rest.” He turned and dragged one foot after the other, until he was out the door and out of sight. She heard his slow footfalls on the stairs until they faded into the silent night.

* * * * *

T
he phone jarred Linc awake. He checked his watch. Four a.m. Where was everyone? He vaguely remembered Dennis leaving, signaling the unspoken reality that they couldn’t do anything more tonight. Linc stayed at the station, unwilling to give up. He checked and rechecked every construction site in New Jersey, every building or property owned by Mario Russo, every false lead. Only to wind up at square one. His compulsion to find Tawny finally succumbed to the demands of his body, and he fell asleep at his desk.

“Walsh,” he answered groggily.

“Clauson here. Thought you’d want to know. Mario Russo crashed his car early this morning. EMS took him to Downstate.”

“How bad?”

“The accident wasn’t bad, but the report I have is that Russo’s comatose. Might have had a heart attack or something, but the cop who filed the report said he was spattered with blood. I’ve already called Harry. I’m on my way there now.”

“I’ll meet you,” Linc said, already out the door.

Hold on, you son of a bitch. Don’t you fucking die on me. Not yet.