“What’s that?”
“Everybody’s listening these days. This puts out just enough of a signal to make whatever they do pick up too distorted to be admissible in court.
“I could get one of those.”
“Yes. Now tell me what I can do for you? Actually, I’m not all that surprised to see you. I heard you were making a move to the other side of the street.”
“You heard that, huh?”
“If that’s true, we could be very valuable to one another.”
“Yes, we could. But I don’t know that I could trust you, Martin.”
“Yes. That unfortunate business about your wife.”
If I had my gun it would be at the base of his skull right now. Martin always was an arrogant fuck, but he wasn’t stupid. “I thought we’d settled that between us.”
“That was just a down payment.”
“Tell me how we call it even.”
“Pete Vinnelli. I want him. And you’re gonna give him to me.”
I looked at Martin and wondered why he was smiling. “He’s yours.”
“What are you smiling about?” I demanded to know. Damn he’s annoying.
“I’ve been expecting you.”
“Really?” Now I’m predicable.
“The last time we talked; you remember, you and Bobby forced your way into my house and held guns on me?"
“I remember, Martin.”
“I wasn’t expecting you. I didn’t see any way that you could possibly connect me with DeFrancisco and Estaban. I underestimated you. It’s a mistake I will never make again. But there you were, with every reason in the world to kill me, but you wanted DeFrancisco, and I gave him to you. To make a long story short, I knew you’d be back one day and you would want Vinnelli.”
“You’re right. But I’m not the only one that wants him, am I? Vinnelli can link you to DeFrancisco. You want him-no, that’s not strong enough. You need Vinnelli dealt with.”
“Something you want for something I need. That makes us partners.”
“I think that’s taking it a little far.”
“Then we’ll call it two mutually interested parties.”
“However you want to look at it, the problem is how do you kill a DEA agent without attracting attention.”
Martin looked at me. “I’ll just say some people have been very lucky in that regard and leave it at that.”
“Some people have all the luck.” From that, I knew he knew that I was responsible for the recent deaths of agents Masters and Harris.
Martin moved a little closer to me and spoke a little lower. “Here’s what I can give you. For some time now you’ve had a very talented hacker digging around in Vinnelli finances, but there is one piece that continues to elude them.”
“How do you know that, Martin?”
“Believe me, Mr. Black; I know a great deal about a great many things. Like I said, I’ve been expecting you, so I know what I need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“Eileen McManus.”
“Who is that?”
“She is everything you need, Mr. Black,” Martin said. “That should make us even,” he said and extended his hand. I accepted his hand. “When you’re finished with this matter we’ll talk again about what we can do for each other in the future.”
As I rode the elevator down with Martin, one thing hit me. This wasn’t the same Martin Marshall I’d dealt with years ago. I realized then that I was about to start playing in whole new world. In that world, Martin Marshall was already a player. I would have to be very careful in my dealings with him.
The fact that he was expecting me and knew exactly what I wanted didn’t bother me. He needs Vinnelli out of the way, but he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty with an election coming, so he serves him up to me. That’s fine. I was willing to be used if it got me Vinnelli. But what does bother me is what happens after that.
I’ve been expecting you.
That meant Martin had plans for me.
Chapter 26
Nick Simmons
I looked back at Miles and Lakeda and then followed Rain to the gambling room. She entered the combination to the door and we went down a long flight of stairs. “He’s with me,” she told the two men standing by the door. One got up to open it for her.
“You are so sweet.” Rain touched his face as she passed. I followed her into a large room with four tables in each corner of the room; one for poker and one for blackjack. There was one table where a lively crap game was goin’ on, and people held their breath for each turn of the roulette wheel. There in the middle of it all was Jeff Ritchie sitting in what I’m sure used to be JR’s spot.
If JR was involved in this and I had to kill him, Jeff Ritchie would have to die first. I looked around the room and tried to get a feel for what kind of muscle he had. My eyes met his and he glared at me. I could tell that he didn’t like me hangin’ around there. I’m sure he knows what I represent. I nodded my head to acknowledge him and smiled. “Yeah, mutha fucka, I’m gonna kill you and take over this spot,” I said to myself and waved to him as Rain slid in next to me and handed me another drink.
“What you think?”
“Impressive.”
“Wait here and I’ll see if I can’t get you a seat at the table,” Rain said and left me alone.
I wandered around the room looking over Jeff Ritchie’s men, wondering if one of them was Nice N. Slow or if it was Miles. He is married and the only computer in the building is in his office, so it does make him the logical choice. There was the possibility that somebody else, Jeff Ritchie maybe, could have a key to Miles’ office.
I stood and watched as Rain went straight to Jeff Ritchie to get me in the game. I knew from that that Rain carried no weight down here.
I walked around and stood by the poker table and thought back to Miles’ expression when I showed them Zakiya’s picture. He glanced at the picture quickly like he was trying not to look at it.
What was more interesting was when I looked back and saw the expression on Lakeda’s face. The way she was looking at Miles made me believe that he was Nice N. Slow and she knew, or at least suspected, he was cheating on her. I needed to get a picture of Miles and show it to Tasheka and Shameka at Paradise. And even if it is Miles, that didn’t mean that he killed her.
“We can buy in on the next hand,” Rain said, suddenly appearing next to me.
“We? You play?”
“I hold my own.”
After we played a few hands of poker we left the gambling room and went back upstairs. “Well, what you think?”
“Like I said, I’m impressed. Looks like y’all run a smooth little operation here.”
“But it’s nothin’ compared to y’all’s, right?”
“I don’t know. What else you got?”
“What you mean?”
“I mean is this all you got?”
“No, we got a few other spots that do pretty good for us.”
“But nothing like this, right? This is y’all’s big spot.”
Rain put her hands on her hips. “So what you sayin’? That this ain’t shit?”
“I ain’t sayin’ shit. You the one tryin’ to make the comparison.”
“Come on, nigga. Let me show you how we roll,” Rain said and grabbed me by the hand.
Thank you, I thought as we fought our way through the crowded club. I was starting to think she wasn’t gonna take the bait.
Rain led me to her car and we drove off. She took me to around to four of their spots and bragged about having five more. “But they too far and I don’t feel like ridin’ out there,” Rain told me and took me back to JR’s. I really was impressed with what I saw.
The reception Rain got at the spots we went to was different than it was at JR’s. Everywhere we went, it was obvious that she was the queen and everybody bowed down to her. More importantly, every place we went was makin’ money.
When we got back to JR’s, Rain led me back to the offices. “This is Pops’ office.”
“Where’s yours?”