Page 65 of I’ll Be Watching You

Sal glanced at Carter, then said to their client, “Just continue doing what you’re doing. Don’t say or do anything that might raise suspicions, and on Monday we’re all rich.”

“Good,” he said. “Because by Tuesday, I’m gone.”

The man didn’t say it, but Carter knew he was driving up to Canada, using a Canadian passport under a false identity that Sal had helped him procure. For free. That, Carter didn’t understand. Yes, they were in business together, but Carter didn’t think Sal should spend good money to help this jerk. Was it just to keep him silent? Did Sal think that he would turn them all in?

Hmm. Carter would think on that.

Sal folded his fingers the way he did when he was lining up numbers, or people, in his head. People were predictable. Sometimes, more predictable than odds.

“And why are you here?” Sal asked, though of course he knew.

“I need to know that if the Angelharts get too close, you’ll take care of it.”

Sal glanced at Carter; he ignored the unspoken question. Sal knew that Carter hadn’t wanted to kill the nurse. Was he worried that Carter wouldn’t fulfill his obligations?

Carter nodded automatically. But he was watching the gambler, the man who had no qualms or guilt asking Carter to kill, but didn’t have the courage to do it himself. A nervous man. Carter didn’t trust nervous men or gamblers.

This man would never get his own hands dirty. He would never pull a trigger or stab a man in the heart. He was weak, greedy, selfish.

Carter did not like him.

He turned and his gaze settled on a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin. He blinked, as if he’d seen a ghost.

It was the same blue as Liz Swanson’s eyes.

He felt like he was underwater, barely able to keep his head above surface, her eyes accusing him.

I am a mother. A wife. Don’t do this . . . don’t take me from my children.

She hadn’t actually said those words to him, but he imagined that she had. She had only said one thing after handing him her phone.

“Please don’t.”

He had killed her and walked away because that was what he did, but he couldn’t rid himself of the sour feeling that he’d made a grave mistake.

He may have told Sal he would take care of whatever was needed, but he would not kill another woman.

He might as well put a gun to his own head.

The gambler fidgeted. He tapped his fingers on the table. Carter did not trust fidgeters. Another sign of nerves.

“The Angelhart family is sniffing around. If they get too close, you have to take care of it.”

Carter sensed that Sal was displeased before he tore his eyes from the blue gin bottle and watched his boss.

“We prefer to scare, not kill. Both have worked in the past, but right now there are too many people involved in this situation, and we can’t kill them all. I won’t allow it. It puts my entire operation at risk.”

“But—”

“You need to trust me,” Sal said. “I have more at stake than you do. I’ve spent far more of my own money than you have to fix your mistakes.”

“That’s bullshit! It wasn’t my fault that Klein started asking the wrong questions and talking to the wrong people.”

“That isn’t the issue. We had a fall guy for Klein’s murder, and that worked to our advantage. But you were supposed to take care of the records at that time, yet . . . you didn’t.”

“That wasn’t me.”

Sal said, “I don’t believe you.”