Once a Killer (27 page)

Bull Neck worked his magic on the glass door and, seconds later, they were in.

“Fuck. There’s no elevator,” Glass Eye said once they were inside the entrance hall.

Bull Neck pointed to the staircase. “We need the fourth floor. It’s not much of a walk.”

“Not for you, maybe.”

When they reached the fourth floor, Glass Eye stopped and leaned against the wall to recover his breathing. “Give me a minute.”

Bull Neck placed his head into the corridor leading off the stairwell and then returned. “It’s just across from the stairs. Should be no trouble.” He opened the small tool bag he was carrying and took out something to work the lock and heavy-duty chain cutters. He looked at Glass Eye. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I’m getting too old for this.”

“I told you I could handle it on my own.”

“Grannis insisted I take care of it. Why else do you think I’d be out this time of night?” More heavy breathing. “Come on. Let’s get this done.”

Glass Eye watched the corridor as Bull Neck picked the lock and then, once the apartment door was open, used the cutters to snip the security chain. Inside the place was a mess, with empty Chinese food containers left on the coffee table and various items of clothing scattered across the arms of the sofa. They walked past the small kitchen to the only bedroom at the end of the hall, where they stood and listened. There was a faint snoring sound coming from inside the bedroom.

“Ready?” Glass Eye mouthed, looking at Bull Neck.

“Sure,” Bull Neck whispered, holding the pistol he’d just taken out of the bag.

The two men burst into the dark room, crashing the flimsy wooden door against the wall. Glass Eye felt for the light switch while Bull Neck ran to the bed.

Floyd Crouten bolted upright when he heard the noise. “Ugh. What—” His eyes were wide open and shining in terror.

Bull Neck smothered Crouten’s mouth with his huge left palm and cuffed him with the butt of the pistol. “Don’t say a fucking word.” His face was close to Crouten’s. “Do you understand me?”

Crouten did his best to nod.

Glass Eye walked round the other side of the bed and made sure the blinds were completely shut before nodding to his accomplice.

Bull Neck held the tip of the pistol to Crouten’s temple. “I’m going to take my hand away now. You say a word, and you’re dead. Understood?”

Crouten rocked his head slowly, his eyes darting from the gun to Glass Eye and back to Bull Neck. When Bull Neck removed his hand, Crouten gasped for breath and pushed his body right up against the headboard.

Glass Eye said sat on the side of the bed. “Now, I’m going to give you permission to speak. When you do, I want you to keep it real quiet. We’re not here to answer your questions, so don’t waste your time. Have you got that?”

Crouten glanced at Bull Neck to check it was okay with him to speak and then said, “Yes.”

“That’s it. Keep your voice nice and quiet, just like that.”

Glass Eye reached into his jacket, and Crouten flinched. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to shoot you.” He looked over to Bull Neck. “But he might.”

In his hand, he held a brown envelope, which he opened and then took out a handful of photos. Slowly, he held them up, one by one, in front of Crouten’s face. Crouten stared at them and gulped. His breathing was fast and stuttering.

“What do you think your colleagues would say if they saw these?” asked Glass Eye. “This here’s my favorite.” He held up a photo of Crouten kissing the young man from the nightclub. “What do you think?” he said, turning it toward Bull Neck.

Bull Neck looked like he wanted to spit. “I say we kill the pervert now.”

Crouten stiffened. “Please.”

“Not yet,” Glass Eye said. He took the final photo out of the envelope and held it in front of Crouten. “You see this one? You may not recognize it.” The picture was of a boy in a school uniform. “That’s the same kid whose throat you had your tongue down in the last shot. He’s only fourteen. Still at school.”

Crouten’s eyes widened. “That’s not possible.”

“I’ll give you one guess who he works for.”

“I had no idea he was that age. I swear.”

“When these photos turn up at Federal Plaza, what are the rest of the Feds going to think of their coworker, the child molester?”

“Please. I’ll do anything. What do you want?”

“I’ll allow you that question, because that’s where I was going next.”

Bull Neck held the pistol to Crouten’s cheek. “You sure you don’t want to kill the sad fuck now?”

“Let’s see if he can help us first.”

“Tell me what you want. I’ll do anything.”

“We know you’ve been investigating the Grannis Hedge Fund.”

“What? We—”

Glass Eye cocked his head. “You’re not about to lie to us, are you? We know all about it.”

“Okay. We’ve had Grannis under surveillance, yes.”

“How long?”

“Only a short while. We’ve not really started.”

“Well, you need to make it all go away. Can you do that?”

“I’m sure I can. I head up the team. I can stop it right away.”

“That’s what we thought.”

“I’ll take care of everything, I promise.”

“And we’ll never see your people sniffing round again?”

“I swear. I’ll call them off first thing tomorrow.”

Glass Eye held up the photos. “If you don’t, we’re going to have some fun with these.”

Bull Neck leaned forward. “After we’ve had our fun, I’ll be back here to blow your faggot brains out.” He shoved the gun into Crouten’s face.

“That won’t be necessary,” Crouten said, his voice trembling. “The Grannis investigation stops now. I promise.”

Bull Neck looked toward Glass Eye. “Do you believe him?”

Glass Eye pondered the question while Crouten shivered. “Let’s give him a chance to prove he’s not lying to us.”

Bull Neck shook his head in disappointment. “I’ll be watching you.” He pushed the pistol harder into Crouten’s skin. “Just give me an excuse.”

Chapter 36

T
HE
D
AY
A
FTER
T
HE
K-M
INES
D
EAL
C
LOSED
, Michael and Caroline took the girls for a week’s vacation in Chatham on Cape Cod. Caroline had spent many summers there as a child, and after her parents retired, they moved to the town, where they bought a property off Kettle Drum Lane. The Hoffmans rented a house not far from her parents’ place. They spent most days at the beach before strolling to one of the restaurants on Main Street for dinner.

The break had been Caroline’s idea. After Michael’s recent violent outburst outside their home, she’d insisted he take a vacation. Fearing he was about to have some kind of nervous breakdown, she’d also asked him to go see a doctor, but Michael told her that wasn’t necessary. While he blamed his behavior on the stress of work, the truth was, he’d lost it that day. God knows what he would have done had he caught up with the black car. Not only had he come close to blurting the whole thing out, but as time passed, he realized how stupid he’d been. In a moment of blind madness, he’d come close to risking everything. If the people in the car were Rondell’s men, they could easily have killed him and his wife.

The good news was neither he nor Caroline had seen them since. If they had returned, they’d been more discreet about it. Of course, there was always a possibility they had nothing to do with Rondell at all. If they had been working for him, wouldn’t he have said something when he next called? The man was chasing him at least twice a week, demanding details of the next deal, but he’d never once mentioned what happened outside their home.

On Wednesday night, Michael and Caroline were able to enjoy a quiet dinner at Twenty-Eight Atlantic at the nearby Wequassett resort on Pleasant Bay while her parents looked after Hannah and Emily. The girls had insisted on having a sleepover with their grandparents, so, for once, they didn’t have to rush away from the restaurant.

“You needed this break,” Caroline said, soon after they’d ordered their desserts.

Michael looked into her eyes. “I know. Thanks for organizing it for us.”

“You look much better already.”

“I feel more relaxed. Getting away helps to put things into perspective.”

“I want you to promise me something.”

Michael was about to finish his glass of wine, but he stopped and put the glass back down. “What is it?”

“If you ever feel your work is so overwhelming that you want to stop, I want you to tell me. I’d be just as happy with you earning a fraction of the money if it meant you were okay.”

“I love you.”

“I mean it. I want you to promise me. We could always buy a little place here on the cape. Maybe run a B&B together, like Mom and Dad.”

“I promise.”

The thought of running away and enjoying a quiet life with his girls appealed to Michael right now and, for a moment, he allowed the delicious notion to drift through his mind. What he wouldn’t give to make that a reality.

The waiter brought over their desserts: apple and blueberry cobbler for him, and a selection of sorbets for Caroline.

Caroline stared at his dessert. “I don’t know where you put it. Why don’t you put on weight?”

Michael grinned. “It’s called the stress diet.”

“It’s so unfair.”

The week Michael returned to work, he was summoned by Rondell to another meeting. As he drove to Brooklyn, he knew what it would be about: why hadn’t he lined up the next deal for them? Michael had plenty of work on, but at the moment, none of the transactions involved public companies. He had a private company fundraising, a reorganization of an over-borrowed engineering group, and a leveraged buy-out of a large private chain of hotels. The last two were for Etling at Corton Zander. None of these would be suitable for Rondell, as there were no listed stocks involved.

Pulling into the car park between the oil drums and parking the Lexus next to Rondell’s Mercedes, Michael looked around to see if anyone was watching. This would be the fourth time he’d met Rondell here, and it was only on that first visit he’d seen the two men in the van watching him. Maybe they had nothing to do with him or Rondell after all.

He rang the bell and recognized Rondell’s footsteps as he approached the other side of the door.

“Come in, Danny Boy.”

“I can’t stay long,” Michael said, walking past Rondell and heading toward their regular meeting room. As usual, the place was empty.

Rondell sat behind the metal desk while Michael found the only semi-clean spot on the couch, as before.

“I have meetings all afternoon,” Michael said. “I have to be away in twenty minutes.”

“This will take as long as it takes.” Rondell stopped and watched another fuel truck use his yard to perform a U-turn outside his window.

“Before you say anything, I know this is all about the next deal.”

“I can see how you made it so far, Danny Boy. With that raw intelligence…”

“The problem is the deals I have in the pipeline at the moment won’t work for you. They’re all private company transactions.”

Rondell shrugged. “That ain’t my problem. I told you to start feeding me other deals handled by Dudek’s.”

“That’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“I don’t want to hear this. Find a way to make it happen.”

“Look, I’ve proven I can bring you some great deals. You guys must have made millions out of Collar and K-Mines.”

“We did and, so far, we’ve kept our side of the bargain. Our little secret has remained with us.”

“You know you can only use that threat once.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you tell my wife about Chicago, it’s all over for both of us. Yes, you’d ruin my life, but there would be no more deals for you.”

Rondell reclined in his chair. “You don’t get it, do you? We can have a whole lot of fun with Caroline without telling her everything right away.”