“Yeah, bad news,” Lavangetta croaked. He was staring intently at a package of matches and speaking around the furiously smoking cigar. “Tommy Janno just called in from the Sandbank. Johnny the Musician and Miami Vino just got hit.”
A brief silence followed, then: “You mean they’re dead?”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean. Sittin’ there right by the pool, right there at the Sandbank. And somebody pumped a bullet into both of ’em. Imagine that. Somebody just—”
“Somebody!” Aggravante yelped.
Lavangetta sighed. “I guess it was Bolan.”
Aggravante turned an angry gaze to Augie Marinello. “He means the guy he’s right on top of,” he said nastily.
Marinello snapped, “Get me the Talifero brothers!” His brooding gaze swept the assembled bosses and he amended the demand by adding, “I mean, I make a motion that we delegate this problem to Pat and Mike Talifero. Do I hear any objections?”
Aggravante said, “You don’t hear any objections and neither do I.” He got to his feet and went to the door, swung it open, and leaned into the open doorway to speak to the guard stationed there. “Tell the Talifero brothers that they’re wanted in here.”
Ciro Lavangetta wet his lips and nervously rolled the cigar between them. He’d tried, he was telling himself. And he’d done no worse than any other boss had done since that blacksuited bastard had started hitting them. So now it was to be Pat and Mike. Lavangetta shivered inwardly. He was glad they were to be sicced onto Bolan instead of onto Ciro Lavangetta. The Commissione’s own lord high enforcers, activated only by unanimous consent of the high council, with their own elite Gestapo—this was the Talifero brothers—remorseless human missiles with a one-way switch and with the power of life and death over even a Capo. Yes, classy Bolan with the fancy medals, just wait you smart bastard until Pat and Mike get your scent. You’re going to die, Bolan the Bastard, you’re going to die screaming! In the council of kings, it was preordained.
Chapter Seven
A DIFFERENCE
He was in a modest residential area of Miami Beach. The neighborhood was clean and the neat rows of stucco homes in glaring white contrast to the green lawns and tropical shrubs. He noted the house number where the police car was stopped and went on by and took his time circling the block. When he came around the second time, the squad car was gone. Again he passed the house and pulled in to the curb several doors beyond, angled his rearview mirror for a casual surveillance, lit a cigarette, and settled in for a patient wait. Five minutes passed. Two little boys came around the side of the house just opposite his position, looked him over in that frank display of youthful curiosity, and one of them waved to him. He grinned and waved back. The tots looked at each other and giggled, then ran back out of sight.
Bolan lit another cigarette and returned his attention to the mirror. When he’d finished the smoke, he carefully crushed it in the ashtray, got out of the car, and walked briskly to the stucco bungalow which had been occupying his attention. A hooked screen door offered the only discouragement to an uninvited caller. He ran the blade of his penknife through the flimsy wire screen, opened the door, and went in.
He found the girl lying across the bed in bra and panties, face down, the rise of ample rump presiding majestically over other interesting topographical features. She raised her head in a mute inspection of the intruder. Her makeup was smudged from persistent tears, but this offered no contradiction of Bolan’s earlier assessment of her beauty. The enormous dark eyes were wide with undisguised fear, but she met his level gaze and said, “Wh-who are you? What do you want?”
Bolan removed his sunglasses and dropped them into his pocket. “We nearly met this morning,” he told her, “but at a distance of about 500 meters.”
“Wh-what?”
“You didn’t see me,” he assured her. “But I saw you. In the crosshairs of my scope. And I could have punched a hole through that lovely head just as nasty as the other two.” He smiled. “But I didn’t, you see.”
She lay very still, staring at him with growing apprehension. She whispered, “I don’t even know why you killed them, or anything about you. You have no reason to kill me.”
“Maybe you’re right. What do you know about Portocci?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. I never saw him before this morning.”
“What’s your name?”
“J-Jean. Kirkpatrick. I’m a model.”
“What were you modeling this morning?”
“I … I …” Her eyes dropped in embarrassment and confusion.
“What?”
“Sometimes … when I don’t have any modeling assignments … Mr. Balderone hires me to … as a companion for … his friends.”
“Who is Balderone?”
“You k-killed him, and you don’t even know him?”
“How would I go about getting a date with you, Jean?”
“Huh? You mean…?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean. If I’d never met you, and knew nothing about you, how would I go about getting an introduction?”
“You, uh, you don’t understand.”
“I’ll listen while you give me an understanding.”
She had decided that Bolan was not going to murder her. She said, “Can I get up?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. Let’s get this understanding first.”
“I’m not a prostitute, if that’s what you’re thinking. I mean, there’s a difference, a very important difference.”
“All right, there’s a difference. Tell me about it.”
“I work for Mr. Balderone. He pays me himself. Between me and his friends it was just like fun, like a party … you know. I mean, no money passed. No business arrangements. You know what I mean?”
“Were all of Mr. Balderone’s friends Italians?”
Her eyes blinked rapidly. “Not all the time.”
“Look, kid, let’s get something straight. How you make your living is your business. I’m not interested in that. I just want some live information, and I want it straight and quick. Are you reading me?”
The girl had begun to cry. Bolan was feeling miserable for her, but his face kept the secret. “You’re mixed up with the Mafia,” he told her.
“The what?”
“Portocci was the junior boss of a western family. Now I want to know … who was Balderone? What was his connection to Portocci?”
The girl shook her head. The tears were rapidly drying up. Bolan snared a box of Kleenex from a dressing table and tossed it on the bed. She rose to hands and knees, rocked back in a kneeling position, grabbed a tissue, and dabbed at her eyes and nose. Bolan understood the maneuver. She was giving him a good look at the object of his abuse.
He let her know that he was looking and not buying. He pressed on. “You ever hear the name Ciro Lavangetta?”
“Yes. He’s a … he was in business with Mr. Balderone.”
“That’s a good answer,” Bolan murmured. “Okay. How many other girls are on Balderone’s payroll?”
“Quite a few. Sometimes there are—were big parties.”
“Always at the same place? That same hotel?”
She sighed and shook her head. “No. Different places. Sometimes on a boat, a yacht, the Merry Drew.”
“How are the bookings right now?”
“Uh …,” Her eyes dropped from his intent gaze. “Things are booming.”
“Tell me about it.”
“A lot of his friends are in town. Some sort of convention, I believe. They’re all over the beach, though, here and there. Too many, really. He had to bring some girls in from the Gulf Coast.”
“Okay, get a pencil and paper.”
“What for?”
“I want a list. Every place Balderone has girls booked for this week.”
“That’s crazy. I don’t know all that. Are you a cop? You can’t use any of—”
“Shut up!” Bolan snarled.
She blinked and recoiled, as though expe
cting physical violence. “So you’re not a cop,” she said breathlessly. “I’m sorry, I don’t know all the places.”
“But you do know a few.”
“Well, yes. I know a few.”
“Then get to writing.”
“I believe you’re getting me into a lot of trouble, mister.”
Bolan shook his head. “You’re already there, kid. I didn’t put you there. I found you there.”
The tearworks went back into operation. Bolan pulled out his notebook and placed it in her hand, then gave her his pen. “Start writing,” he said coldly. “And keep it straight. I wouldn’t want to see that beautiful head in my crosshairs again.”
“I didn’t know they were M-Mafia,” she blubbered.
“You know it now.”
She sprawled out across the bed, pen and pad in hand, and began the list. She paused to dab at her eyes and to shoot a reproachful look at Bolan. “I’ll bet I know who you are, too,” she announced.
“Yeah? Just write, kid.”
“Yeah,” she said, imitating his voice. “I know what you are, too. And they know it. I heard them talking about you. I didn’t understand it then, but now it all makes sense. You’re in more trouble than I am, Mack Bolan. I wouldn’t change places with you for all the money in Miami. You think you’re their judge and jury. You’re as wrong as they are.”
“It takes one to know one,” Bolan replied curtly.
“And it takes a killer to kill,” the girl fired back. She seemed more in command of herself now, and not at all frightened of Bolan. She finished the list and returned his notebook and pen. “There’s your information. Go on out and drown yourself in other people’s blood.”
Bolan said, “Thanks.” He pocketed the book. “If you mention any of this to them, you know you’re as good as dead. And not from my hand. I’ll keep the secret if you will.”
“I guess I’ve been dead a long time already,” she said, falling back to the pillow. “How much deader can you get?”
Bolan smiled. “I’d like to discuss that with you some time.”
“Sure.”
“Seriously. I’ll be checking back—and not on business.”
She showed him a frown, then dropped her eyes. “Just for the record, I didn’t do it very often. You’d never believe it if I told you what a rotten jungle this modeling business is. A girl sort of loses her … sense of value.”
Bolan bent over the bed and lightly kissed her lips. “Thanks for the information,” he said.
“You threaten me and then thank me,” she said, sighing. “Goodbye, killer.”
“Executioner,” he corrected her. “There is a difference.”
“Sure, your difference is like my difference. But I’m just as ruined and you’re just as bloody, difference or no.”
Bolan patted her leg, replied, “I’d still like to discuss that with you some time,” and then he went out of there. The “party” list in his pocket held portents of a party the likes of which Miami Beach had never hosted. He reminded himself that there was nothing personal in his war with the Mafia. He was a soldier doing a soldier’s job. The chief difference between this war and the one in which he had learned his craft was a simple matter of geography. Miami was the new battleground, but his mission remained the same. Kill. Decimate the enemy. Fight the war of attrition until one side is down and out.
That word “difference” kept surfacing in his mind. The encounter with Jean Kirkpatrick had raised troublesome ghosts. As he cranked the engine of his car, the two little boys reappeared briefly and took imaginary shots at him, using fingers for guns. Bolan gazed at them for a moment then kicked the car into gear and put the scene behind him.
“Sure I’m wrong,” he told his rearview mirror. “The difference, Miss Kirkpatrick, is that I’m not quite as wrong as they are.” A wan smile played briefly upon his lips. The girl had been correct, of course. It takes a killer to kill. The difference, as Bolan tried to see it, lay in motive. What motivated Mack Bolan to kill? His smile disappeared and was replaced by a brooding frown. Wasn’t that question asked repeatedly by every soldier who’d ever found himself in a combat situation? What am I here for?
He lit a cigarette, set his course for the beach drive, then pulled out his party list for a quick inspection. Bolan knew damn well why he was in Miami. He’d come to crash a party. From the looks of the list, his task was mushrooming. How many parties could he “crash” before one of them rolled over atop him? He sighed. It was the same old story. The rules of warfare for an inferior force would always remain the same. Kill quicker than the other side. Hit and fade. Find another weak spot and kill again, then quickly withdraw. Maintain mobility and audacity and the will to kill. Forget philosophies, moralisms, and the accusing eyes of a frightened young woman.
Bolan’s lips were clamped grimly upon the cigarette. A long ash fell into his lap. He brushed it away and, in that same motion, the girl also. Bolan had not come to Miami to examine his soul. He had come to dispatch a number of others. And the dispatcher had a busy schedule. Miami Beach was about to become a battleground. He had to hit again, and quickly, and keep hitting until they were falling apart and breaking ranks and fleeing into their sanctuaries—and The Executioner observed no rules of sanction, there would be no sanctuaries for the mob in Miami.
Chapter Eight
CHANNEL DEEP AND SWIFT
Captain John Hannon had wasted no time in gearing the police machinery to the emergency. Queries had gone to every section of the nation which had experienced the private war of Mack Bolan, and every law office contacted to the effect of acquiring all available information which could be used to avert a Miami explosion. For several years the veteran policeman had headed a special unit which was designed to cope with the extraordinary situations in the Miami area, such as security for vacationing and transiting VIPs, providing intelligence for civil unrest and disturbance cases, and various other problems not usually associated with normal police routines. Referred to officially as “the Dade Force,” the special unit was staffed by members of various police agencies in Dade County and held jurisdiction which crossed all law agencies in that area.
Robert Wilson, Lieutenant, Homicide, had worked on infrequent occasions with the special force. As investigating officer in the Sandbank incident, he had been assigned as direct liaison officer between the Dade Force and the metropolitan homicide division.
Assigned as a special advisor to the group was Stewart Dunlap of the U.S. Justice Department’s Racketeering Investigative Branch, Miami Field Office. Dunlap was a regular member of the Dade Force, but on a standby basis only. He was known to have a strong interest in the Bolan case.
These three officers were sifting through the accumulation of joint data which had been developed during the short few hours of the Miami chapter of the Bolan story. Dunlap rubbed his chin reflectively and said, “I believe you have a bad situation here, John. Bolan is very obviously in town, and it just doesn’t seem to be his way to go chasing specific targets around the country. He is just as obviously on the offensive … not running, I mean. I’d have to say that he’s here for something big.”
Hannon was studying an intelligence report from the metropolitan vice division. “You’re probably right,” he murmured. “According to the dossier on Balderone, he was Ciro Lavangetta’s field man for the Miami area. If I could just tie this all together …”
Lt. Wilson commented, “I thought Lavangetta was Portocci’s boss back in Arizona.”
“That’s true,” Dunlap said. “But the Cosa Nostra isn’t all that geographically oriented. Each family has a territory, right. But major resort centers have traditionally been regarded as open to all the families. Las Vegas, for instance, and Miami Beach. Some of the families are quite active in Miami, others have no interest whatever in the action here. It depends on their ties. Apparently the Arizona faction has very strong ties in this area.” He smiled. “As a matter of fact, Justice has been watching them with great interest, an
d for some time.”
“Just what was Balderone’s function?” Wilson asked.
“Sort of ambassadorial,” the federal man replied. “You might think of him as Chief of the Arizona Embassy in Miami. He made business contacts, arranged deals, kept the trade lanes open to the Caribbean and South America.”
“What sort of trade lanes?”
“Just name it, you’ve hit it. Narcotics, illegal booze, hot money, gambling, any channel where the bucks run fast. He also, incidentally, had quite a reputation as a dealer in women.”
“White slavery?”
Dunlap smiled and shook his head. “Not that we’re aware of. No, that was part of his public relations routine. He wined, dined, and bedded his visiting royalty in a truly regal manner, and he had quite a discerning eye for feminine beauty. According to a couple of phone conversations we tapped into last year, he was quite proud of his hostly image. Liked to brag that he had the hottest stable in the country.”
“The young woman, Jean Kirkpatrick,” Wilson mused, “…chances are pretty good, then, that she was part of Balderone’s girl operation, right?”
“Your report states that she was there to model swimwear,” Hannon said, looking up quickly. “Did you check that out thoroughly?”
Wilson nodded. “Yes, sir, I did. The boutique shop in the lobby confirmed her story. She was wearing one of their suits when the shooting occurred. But it’s starting to smell. With Balderone straddling both worlds …” He sighed. “Such a beautiful kid. Dammit. I guess I better question her again.”
“It can keep,” the captain said. “Right now we’d better start trying to get a line on this Bolan character. And half of the Dade Force is tied down on that music festival out at the raceway.”
“Count me into your foot force,” the federal man volunteered.
“Thanks. Uh, you were saying something a while ago about the guy in Los Angeles.”
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