by Jack Flynn
Cormack shook his head. ‘If someone had killed him, they’d make it known. They’d be feeling around for a reward of some kind from me if they’d done me that sort of favor.’
‘Maybe he’s given up on his ambition.’
Cormack shot Cicero a look. They both knew that wasn’t a possibility. ‘There’s only one answer,’ Cormack said.
‘Which is?’
‘He doesn’t think I matter anymore. He thinks he’s found a better way to neutralize me and make sure I don’t fuck up his plans.’
‘How can he neutralize you without killing you?’
It was eleven forty-five, and Cormack stared out at the dark harbor. No ships were moving; the water was still. Ice caps congregated along the shoreline, and the city skyline had dimmed. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘But I need to find out.’
Fifty-Eight
The room was behind the kitchen. It was hot, and the smell from the cooking was overwhelming. Chicken and beef and chorizo simmered and the aromas made Kit Steele feel light-headed.
She’d seen pictures of T’phong Soh before, but she’d never met him in person. She was struck by how small he was. It wasn’t just that he was short, but he was slight as well. He was wearing a sweatshirt that seemed to swallow him whole. And yet she could see the veins under the tattoos on his arms.
He regarded her the way a lion regards prey – sizing her up with an evaluative eye and a touch of indifference. She had no sense that he felt she was a threat to him in any way. It seemed as though he was trying to decide whether she was worth his time.
‘Thank you,’ he said after a moment.
She frowned. ‘For what?’
‘For agreeing to see me.’ His English was perfect, but his accent was so thick it was a challenge to understand him.
There were three others in the room. Kit recognized Juan Suarez from pictures in the FBI’s files on MS-13, though it looked like he’d had a rough week. The bruises on his face were deep purple, and the cut on his forehead was prominent. The other two were unknown to her, but they were covered with similar tattoos that adorned Soh up to his chin, and they both held automatic assault rifles.
‘I was told you had information regarding Javier Carpio and an attempt that he will make to free his brother.’
‘I do,’ Soh said simply. ‘Would you like that information?’
‘If it’s accurate.’
‘My information is always accurate.’
‘How can you be sure?’
Soh hesitated for only a moment. ‘Because he has asked me to help him with the plan.’ He continued to look at her, gauging her reaction, and she wondered what he could see in her face. She’d always been a good poker player, and she prided herself on the ability to keep her emotions to herself, but she could feel her heart beating faster at the prospect of turning Soh into an asset, and making sure that Vincente Carpio never saw freedom again.
‘Why would he ask you for that kind of help?’ she asked, feigning doubt. She knew that Soh had been working with the Carpios, and there was no question in her mind that they would have involved Soh in any escape attempt. The only question was whether his offer to provide her with information was genuine.
‘He has offered me certain … contacts that could be profitable for me in exchange for my help,’ Soh said slowly. He spoke slowly, so that Steele would understand him, even through his accent. ‘I admit that I have been tempted by his offer.’
Tempted was an understatement, she knew. The intel on Soh made clear that he was active in the drug trade. There was no question that contacts from the Javier Carpio would be priceless to Soh. ‘But …?’ Steele prodded him to continue.
‘But I am not comfortable with these men,’ Soh said. ‘Vincente Carpio is not sane. And Javier is not trustworthy.’
‘No?’ Steele took a step backwards and leaned against the wall. The heat and the dense aroma from the kitchen was overwhelming. She was tempted to take off her jacket, but to do so would involve putting her bag down, and she wanted to make sure that her gun was readily available. She knew that it was pointless – there was no doubt that if violence erupted, her pistol would be of no use against the automatic weapons held by Soh’s men. Still, she couldn’t bear the notion of being completely unarmed. ‘I thought there was a code of honor among those in MS-13.’
Soh smiled at this, and she could see that most of his teeth were gold. ‘I am committed to the organization, as long as it is committed to me,’ he said. ‘The Carpios are committed only to themselves.’ He took a step toward her. He seemed to get larger, and the room smaller. She leaned back further into the wall behind her. ‘They are willing to put their interests ahead of my interests, as well as those of the organization.’
‘Just as you put your interests above theirs and those of your organization?’
He smiled again. ‘I believe that the organization needs to adapt. I believe that the organization needs allies – including allies in law enforcement.’
‘So you would give me this information out of the goodness of your heart?’ she asked, and tilted her head. ‘That seems very generous of you.’
The menacing smile remained on his face, and the gleam from his teeth was dizzying. ‘Not out of the goodness in my heart,’ he said. The way he said it made Kit wonder whether there was any goodness in the man’s heart. ‘I would give you this information in exchange for your help.’
‘How could I help you?’
‘There are rumors that Cormack O’Connell is protected by someone in the federal police,’ he said. ‘Have you heard these rumors?’
Kit shook her head slowly.
‘No?’ Soh tilted his head at her and she could feel his gaze crawling across her face, examining her, probing her for the truth. ‘You know that it has happened in the past, though?’
‘It has,’ she admitted. The FBI’s protection of Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill gang was well known.
‘Perhaps it could happen again. You and I could have a partnership that could help both of us. I could give you information about people like Vincente Carpio, and you could give me information about police activities that might be important to me. Would that be something you would consider?’
Kit looked around the room. The two men with the automatic weapons shifted, and she wondered whether they understood English. They could kill her instantly if she refused, she knew. It would be risky for Soh to so brazenly kill a federal officer, but he struck Steele as a man who was not afraid of taking significant risks.
‘You say that the Carpios are planning an escape?’ she asked. Ultimately, that was the main question on her mind. No matter what, she would not allow him to be free again.
‘Does that mean that you agree?’
‘If you have information like that, then we may be able to work together.’
That was it. For her, it was like a thunderclap. She’d crossed the threshold, and there was no going back now. She’d lost her innocence a long time ago, and she’d never deceived herself about that. But until now she could fool herself that she was only a little corrupt. If she worked with Soh, she could no longer pretend to be that. She could only hope that the information Soh had was worth it. If it kept Carpio from escaping, in her mind it was.
‘There is one more thing,’ Soh said.
‘Yes?’
‘Cormack O’Connell,’ he said.
‘What about him?’
‘He is a thorn in my side. If I am to help you with the Carpios, I will need you to keep him from interfering. He wants to kill me, and I cannot help you if he is successful.’
‘What is it, exactly, that you want me to do?’
‘I leave that to you,’ Soh said. ‘But if we are to have an agreement, you will have to choose between me and him. That is the only way this can work.’
She knew he was right. She knew that she had to make a choice. Her heart told her that trusting this man was a mistake. She also couldn’t stomach the notion of betraying Cormack. They
had been through so much together. They’d helped each other, and she’d begun to feel things that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
And yet Cormack couldn’t help her ensure that Vincente Carpio would stay behind bars, and this little Malaysian man could. He was still looking at her as she considered his offer. His gaze was intense, and the thought occurred to her again that if she rejected his offer, he might have her killed on the spot. Perhaps that would be the easiest way out. Perhaps that would end her pain once and for all, and reunite her with her husband and son. She opened her mouth, still not entirely sure what she was going to say.
‘I can take care of O’Connell,’ was what came out. She could hardly believe the words, even as she said them.
Fifty-Nine
Tuesday 12 February
Diamond stood over the stove in her father’s kitchen, staring at the egg in her hand and the pan heating up on the burner, wondering whether she could bring herself to do it. She needed to eat, she was famished. She’d put almost nothing in her stomach since she’d been freed from Fort Strong, and she was starting to feel weak. And yet, as she stood there, looking at the egg, the thought of cracking it and watching it cook made her feel nauseous.
Some of it was morning sickness. She’d already vomited twice that morning. It was a singularly unpleasant experience for her, particularly because there was nothing in her stomach, so the process was more of a forced pantomime. She’d knelt over the toilet, mouth stretched open, convulsing as a thin trickle of spit ran to the edge of the bowl.
She was also worried about Buddy and Cormack. She understood that they were locked in a battle against T’phong Soh and his crew, and Diamond had witnessed firsthand the brutality with which Soh operated. Buddy hadn’t tried to minimize the dangers, and the reality that their lives were at risk petrified her.
She was so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t hear her father enter the room. It startled her when he touched her shoulder. She gave a sharp gasp and pulled away instinctively.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. He seemed almost as startled as she’d been. ‘I didn’t mean to scare you.’
She shook her head. ‘No, it’s OK,’ she said. ‘I was just a little preoccupied. I didn’t hear you come in.’
‘You’ve got a lot on your mind, I’m sure.’
‘You too, I’m guessing.’
‘Did I hear Buddy leaving your room this morning?’ Diamond shot him a look but said nothing. ‘None of my business. I suppose I’ll just have to get used to that. He’s actually not a bad kid, from what I can tell.’
‘Are you giving me your blessing?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s not my place to bless anything. I’m just saying if you really love him, you could do worse.’ He nodded, and held his hand out to take the egg from her. ‘Here, let me do that for you.’
‘I can do it,’ she protested. She didn’t like the idea of relying on anyone – for anything.
‘No, you can’t.’
‘What does that mean?’ she demanded.
He gave an amused laugh. ‘I’m not challenging your right to make breakfast,’ he said. ‘But you won’t be able to eat anything you cook right now. Your mother was the same way when she was first pregnant with you. Hungry all the time, but the act of cooking made her sick. She was in the bathroom so often, I thought she was using again. We had fights about that.’
‘Oh.’ Suddenly, the thought of someone cooking for her was enticing. ‘I didn’t know that. Thanks.’ She relinquished her grip on the egg and took a seat at the kitchen table. She watched him deftly prepare scrambled eggs. He didn’t stop with the one she had – he cracked an additional three and added milk, whipped them up, and added some onions and cheese. She was amazed at his domesticity. Her nausea eased. ‘I forgot you liked to cook,’ she said.
‘I used to cook for you,’ he reminded her.
‘You did,’ she admitted. ‘I remember that now. I remember because Mom never did, so when I moved in with you, that was a new experience.’ She leaned back in her chair, and felt more relaxed than she had in what felt like a millennium. ‘You haven’t done it in a while, though.’
He looked over his shoulder at her. ‘You haven’t been around during the evenings in a while.’
Was there reproach in his tone? ‘Neither have you,’ she parried.
‘Fair enough,’ he conceded.
She decided it was best to leave it there. As she sat at the table, the aroma of the onions frying with the eggs smelled delicious. She wondered whether this might be that last time that they would enjoy a simple meal like this. ‘What was it that didn’t work between you and her?’ she asked. Her mother was a topic they most often avoided, but it occurred to her that she might never have the opportunity to ask these kinds of questions again.
He grunted. ‘You were the only thing that worked with us. And even that was a struggle.’
‘I’m serious.’
‘I am, too.’ Cormack scooped the eggs onto two plates and gave the plate with the larger portion to Diamond. He sat down next to her as she started eating. ‘I loved your mother, but she made it hard. She was a free spirit. She drank, she did drugs, she wouldn’t let anyone tie her down.’
‘Would you have let her tie you down if she’d been willing?’
He smiled at the prescience of his daughter’s question. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Probably not. I’m not saying I was an easy man to love, either. I might have run if she’d been willing to slow down. I never got the chance to find out, though.’
Diamond looked down and realized that she’d nearly finished the eggs. They were so good, she couldn’t believe it, and her nausea was now completely gone. Cormack shoveled the remaining eggs from his plate onto hers. She gave him an embarrassed smile. ‘Thanks, they’re really good.’ She tucked into the rest of them. ‘I can’t believe how much I’m eating.’
‘You’re eating for two, now,’ Cormack pointed out. ‘And I haven’t seen you eat anything of substance in days.’ He took his plate to the sink and rinsed it off.
‘What happened to her?’ Diamond asked. Cormack had his back to her, but she could see his shoulders stiffen.
‘She disappeared,’ he replied. His voice was tight.
‘That’s really all you know? You never found out more?’
He was silent for a moment. All she could hear was the sound of the water running in the sink. ‘Nothing that you need to hear,’ he said at last.
She put her fork down. All of a sudden she was no longer hungry. ‘So there’s more,’ she said. ‘And you never told me.’
He turned and looked at her. ‘You were a kid. Hell, you still are a kid, or would be in a rational world.’
‘We’ve never lived in a rational world,’ she pointed out.
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘No, we haven’t. But I still wanted you to have something to hold on to. I wanted you to have something left of your childhood.’
She took a deep breath. ‘What happened to her?’
He lowered his head. ‘They found her,’ he said. ‘Two days after you reported her missing.’
‘Where was she?’
‘She was in a motel. In Revere.’
‘Alive?’
Cormack shook his head.
‘I want to know everything.’
‘No, you don’t.’
‘Tell me.’
‘She was on the bathroom floor. There was a needle sticking out of her arm.’
‘What else?’
Cormack was silent.
‘What else?’ Diamond persisted.
‘She’d been with men,’ Cormack whispered. ‘Multiple men. She had no clothes on, and they left her there, on the bathroom floor. She’d been there for days when they found her. The place was crawling with bugs. The police called me when they found her, to have me come down to identify her. They could have waited until she was down at the morgue, but they wanted me to see her there.’
‘Why?’
‘Spite,’ Cormack said.
‘They’d been trying to find something they could arrest me for forever, but they’d never been able to make a case. They knew I was in love with her. They figured if they couldn’t arrest me and make anything stick, they’d find another way to punish me. This was it.’
Diamond took all of that in, turned it around in her mind. ‘The police hate you that much?’
He shrugged. ‘Only some of them. I actually work well with others, but for some of them the hatred goes deep.’
‘Is it deserved? The hatred?’
He lifted his head and looked at her. ‘I guess that depends on your point of view. I’m not going to justify everything I’ve done in my life. I’m not going to apologize for it, either. I’ve tried to keep anything over the line limited to the people who have decided that they want to be a part of the game, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job at that. That’s not an excuse, though. I’m not in the business of making excuses.’
‘And now?’
His brow furrowed. ‘Now?’
‘How ugly is this going to get.’
He breathed in deep and exhaled. ‘There’s no way to know. It’s not going to be good, though, you should know that.’
She nodded. ‘Will you look out for Buddy?’
‘As best I can, but I can’t make any promises.’
‘I know,’ she acknowledged. ‘I don’t believe in promises anyway.’
‘Smart girl.’
She stood up, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘Thanks for the eggs. I feel better.’
She picked up her plate and took it over to the sink, rinsed it off and put it in the dishwasher. She went back up to her room. Cormack didn’t move, and she could tell that he was still recovering from having had to sift through one of his worst memories. She felt badly about that for him, but not sorry. She’d needed to know, and he’d needed to tell her.
* * * * *
‘You’re sure they know how to operate the missiles?’
T’phong Soh and Javier Carpio stood in the warehouse in Chelsea. The Stinger missiles were laid out on the table before them. Soh was calm, but he couldn’t ignore the sense of power that the weapons gave him, and he couldn’t escape the implications of what the Carpios had planned.