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“You must have great bosses, Detective,” Angelo says. “Since you’re willing to kill for them.”
“I’m willing to do what’s necessary, now shut your mouth, you filthy fucking creep. You two have no clue what you stepped into.”
“Who’s paying you, Detective?” I ask him. “What’s worth all this mess? You know you can’t kill me. And if you kill Angelo, you’re going to piss his boss off.”
“You think I give a fuck about some East Coast gangster?” Detective John glares at me. “And don’t think you’re above reproach. You wouldn’t be the first young lawyer to kill herself in her first year. Shit happens sometimes. It’s a hard job.”
“If you go near her, I will cut your throat,” Angelo says quietly. “And that’s not an empty threat.”
“I get it, you’re both big and bad.” I tilt my chin up at Detective John and muster all my harsh coldness. “You can sit there and make all the threats you want, but that doesn’t change anything. You’re not going to murder an innocent lawyer even if I am a pain in your ass, and you’re not going to get away with this coverup. If you’re smart, you’ll make sure everyone else goes down, and you avoid going to prison.”
His eyebrows raise. “You’re trying to get me to help you?”
“I’m trying to get you to do the right thing.”
“You’re fucking crazy. Really, you must’ve lost your mind.” The detective steps back out of the room and lingers in the hall. “Don’t forget what I said. My bosses don’t give a shit who you are. If you keep pushing, there will be consequences.”
Angelo stares him down and says nothing as Detective John turns and walks off, leaving us alone in the room.
“That didn’t go great,” I say.
Angelo grunts and turns to me. “You should’ve let me hurt him.”
“You can barely walk. You really think you’ll win that fight?”
“Yes. I do.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s all talk. And besides, we have the transcript now.” I shove the remaining papers in to the box and drop the lid back on. “Let’s get out of here before our friendly detective decides to come back.”
“Where are we going?”
“Back to my office. You know, your personal hell.”
Chapter 20
Angelo
Carmine leans his elbows on the bar and takes a long drink from his glass of whiskey. A jazz trio plays standards on the stage behind us and I feel out of place in the Oak Club. Even though I’m a guest of Carmine’s and I’m wearing a suit more expensive than most people’s mortgage, it’s like everyone’s staring at me, like they know where I belong.
On the street somewhere far from a place like this.
I hunch forward and try to focus on the satisfying bite of alcohol on my tongue but it’s not enough. Carmine swirls his glass, and it’s like he doesn’t notice that we’re surrounded by people that hate us. We’re trapped in this hall of power, and he sits there drinking like somehow we belong here even if we’re only interlopers that took the right to show up and sit on these fancy stools by force.
But it feels good to see him again after the struggle of the last few weeks.
“How’s the case going?” he asks after the usual small talk’s been exhausted.
“Going good. I think we’re getting close.”
“Yeah? You want to share some details?”
“I’m not sure I have any worth sharing just yet.” I grimace as I adjust myself. The broken rib’s still healing, but the doctor assured me I’d be fine with some rest. Only I’m not sure when I’ll actually get to sit down and get myself straightened out, which means this thing’s going to be bothering me for a lot longer.
“Tell me something anyway.”
“Sara’s going through some documents we found and I think it’ll prove that Nicolas didn’t do those killings, but it might implicate some other people.” I glance at him, eyebrows up. “Important people.”
“How important are we talking? Senators? Congressmen?”
“Cops.”
He nods slowly. “Cops. It’s always the fucking cops, isn’t it? Them and their fucking blue line.”
“I don’t know how high up and I don’t know how many, but I can tell you they’ve been trying to get us to back off since we started looking into this.”
“Typical fucking police covering their asses.”
“We don’t know what went down at that motel for sure just yet, but I think we’re close.”
“Good. Keep it up. When you find out what really happened, come to me. I’ll handle the rest.”
I sip my drink and stare at the bar top. “There are other things. Other complications.”
“Let me guess. You and Sara.”
I grunt and nod once. “I’m not sure when it happened.”
“Pretty sure it was back at the wedding.”
I give him a look. “That was a one-time thing. A one-night stand. Nothing important. This is something more.”
“Really?” He raises an eyebrow in surprise. “Never thought you were the kind of guy to settle down.”
