Loitering With Intent (Stone Barrington 16)

“First, Warren hires the hit man to kill Evan. The guy takes his shot but doesn’t get the job done. Then either Evan or Eli, or both in collusion, hire the hit man to kill Warren, and that one takes. And both Eli and Evan had motive to kill Warren, you’ll admit.”

“And they hired the same hit man?” Tommy asked.

“That’s the improbable part,” Dino said.

“But how would two of them, or all three, know about the same hit man?”

“The answer has to be, they both, or all three, knew Manny White, in Miami, or knew about him.”

“How’s that?” Tommy asked.

Stone spoke up. “The law firm I work with, which was representing Warren, got in touch with Manny for a skip trace on Evan. Warren needed Evan’s signature on the contract to do the deal on selling the family business. Dino and I paid a visit to Manny, and we think he’s the middleman, the connection to the hit man.”

“Okay, so Warren, after he uses Manny for a skip trace, also uses him to find the hit man,” Tommy said. “I’ll buy that.”

“Manny was the one who warned us—well, sort of—

that

Evan was a candidate for a hit,” Dino said. “He said somebody had called him about some dirty work, but that he had hung up on him.”

“But he didn’t hang up,” Tommy said. “He arranged for the guy to come to Key West and plug Evan. I buy that. What I don’t quite buy is how Evan or his grandfather managed to hire the same hit man to go after Warren. Did either of them have a connection through the law fi rm, Stone?”

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S t u a r t W o o d s

“No,” Stone replied. “Evan doesn’t know anybody at the law fi rm, and there’s no reason for him to know Manny White. His grandfather knows the managing partner at the law firm, Bill Eggers, but Bill would never help Eli find a hit man. He wouldn’t even put Eli in touch with Manny; if he needed Manny for something, Bill would deal with him himself.”

“Are you saying that this Eggers guy is involved?”

“Of course not. He’d have no motive to have Evan killed. He did the legal work on the sale of the family business, and he’d want it to go through.”

“All right,” Tommy said, “we’re agreed that both old Eli and young Evan would have motives for killing Warren— Eli because he got locked away in the nursing home, and Evan because his father tried to have him killed. Are we all agreed on that?”

“Agreed,” Stone said.

“Yeah,” Dino chimed in.

“But,” Stone pointed out, “how did one of them get in touch with Manny White? How did they know about him?”

“You got me,” Dino said.

“You got me, too,” Tommy agreed. “Why don’t we ask Manny?”

“We sort of already did,” Dino said. “Stone and I went to see him and talked like we wanted a hit man. He didn’t throw us out at fi rst, but eventually he did. I don’t think he’d look forward to another visit from us, since he never liked us much in the first place, when we were all NYPD.”

“Maybe he’d talk to me,” Tommy said.

“Does he know you from New York?” Dino asked.

“Yeah, I was around. He’d know my face, if not my name.”

“Does he know you know us?” Stone asked.

“That wouldn’t be hard to fi gure out,” Tommy replied.

“Then we’re fucked,” Dino said.