“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.”