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CHAPTER 60
WHEN ANNABELLE RETURNED to the hotel, Paddy was waiting for her in her room.
She sniffed the air. “You haven’t been smoking.”
“I tossed them in the trash can.”
“Why?”
“I need to be in fighting shape when we go up against Bagger.”
He looked so determined and yet so frail, like a stubborn little boy hell-bent on standing up to a bully, that for an instant A
Yes, he was dying. Yes, he hadn’t technically let her mother die. But he was not suddenly the greatest father on earth. And he would be dead in six months. She was not going to let herself go down that road. She had grieved long and painfully for her mother’s passing. She would not do the same for him.
“Any luck with getting us some help?” he asked.
“Maybe.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Secret Service agent, Alex Ford. Oliver asked him to step in.”
“This bloke Oliver has some damn fine co
“I’m not really sure who he is,” A
“But you said you could trust him.”
“I do trust him.”
Paddy looked hopeful. “Secret Service, that’s good stuff. Maybe they can pull in the FBI.”
She slipped off her sandals and sat down in a chair across from him. “I never thought I’d hear you sound so enthusiastic about having feds around.”
“Circumstances change. Right now, I’d take every bloody cop in the country marching in lockstep with us.”
“With Bagger, it might take that. So if I can get the cavalry how do we do it? I need details now, not generalities. How do we get him to confess?”
“You ran a long con on Jerry.”
“Right, so?”
“So you must have his telephone number.”
“I do. And again, so?”
“I’m going to call him and make him a deal he can’t refuse. I’m going to sell you down the river, A
“So what is your motivation?”
“You bad-mouthed me to the con world after your mum died. Haven’t had a decent gig in years.”
“You’d have to sell that line one hundred percent.”
He stared across at her. “Not a problem, since it happens to be the truth.”
“So you ship me down the river, then what?”
“That’s where the cavalry comes in.” He added, “Obviously that’s a critical part of the plan.”
She stared at him suspiciously. “Obviously.”
“I’ve got the delivery all worked out.”
A
“Don’t forget, I’ve run a con or two in my day.”
When he’d finished, she sat back, impressed. It had holes, like all initial plans did, but nothing that couldn’t be sufficiently tweaked. It was actually pretty good.
“I’ve got some ideas we can add to it,” she said. “But the underlying concept is sound.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Jerry will do everything in his power to make sure once they leave the pickup spot they won’t be followed.”
“I realize that.”
“Well, since I’m the bait I have a heightened reason for making sure that we will be able to follow him.”
“He’ll send his boys to do the pickup. He won’t be there, just in case it’s a setup,” Paddy pointed out.
“I know that. And that’s our way in, actually.”
“How do you figure?”
The answer that had shot into A
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“You’re going to do it.”
“I am?” Paddy snapped his fingers. “On the phone call?”
“On the phone call.”
“But we still need the cavalry or none of it does us a damn bit of good,” he added.
She put her sandals back on and grabbed her car keys. “Then I’ll go get it.”
CHAPTER 61
THEY SAT AT A TABLE in a coffee shop near M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, barely a mile from Stone’s empty cottage. A
“So why the sudden call?” he asked. “I didn’t figure I’d be seeing you again.”
“What can I say, I’m a sucker for tall cops.”
“Does that translate as a cry for help?”
“How much do you know?”
“Oliver asked me to dig up stuff on this Bagger guy and I did. It seems Milton and Reuben went to Atlantic City, presumably to the Pompeii Casino. Oliver said they were laying low now. They’re friends of mine too, so if they’re in trouble I’d like to know about it so I can help them while I’m helping you.”
“Is that what you do, run around helping people?”
“That’s what it says in my job description. So tell me about you and Bagger. And why did Oliver go to Maine?”
“You already seem to know everything.”
“Everything and nothing. But if you really want my help you’re going to have to trust me.” He cocked his head as she stared moodily off. “I take it trusting people is not something you do well.”
“That’s a philosophy that’s served me incredibly well over the years.”
“I don’t doubt it. But just so you know, I’ve covered Oliver’s back, more than once. And I’d trust him with my life.”
“I know, he told me. He said he’d go to war with you any day.”
Alex sat back. “There you go. So maybe I can help you, if you can bring yourself to trust me.”
A
Come on, A
With one more deep breath, she decided to do something she almost never did. She swallowed her principles and decided to tell the truth. At least part of it.
She quickly went through the main points. Bagger killing her mother. The fact that he was now in town. That she had teamed with her father to bring him down. Alex already knew that they’d been kidnapped and almost killed by Bagger’s men. She added, “I don’t have evidence of any of this. Nothing that would stand up in court. But it’s the truth.”
“I believe you. But my cop friends were a little pissed when they showed up to arrest the guys and found no one home.”
“No less pissed than I was.”
“Why is Bagger after you now?”
A
Alex sipped his coffee and studied her some more. Either she was the best bullshitter he’d ever run across or what she said was legit. “And so you’re teaming with your old man? How exactly do you propose sticking it to Bagger?”
“My dad’s going to pretend to double-cross me with Bagger. Bagger gets me, I get him to confess, and the cops are there to nail him.”
“That’s your plan?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because it has about a million holes in it, that’s why. And all of them end up with you dead.”
“That’s just the broad concept. It’s all in the details. It’s always in the details.”
“You really think you can make this work?”
“I sort of have a knack for it. My old man’s not that bad either.”
“Uh-huh. I’m going to need a little bit more than that if I’m going to be able to get you the backup you need.”
“I tell you what. We’ll get everything in place, you can take it to your people with a big nice bow, and then you can decide? Then if you say no, I die. That do it for you, big fella?”