Страница 42 из 72
Jack let him flounder in uncertainty some more, then said, "She doesn't like you killing teen moms."
"Oh, right. I-I can see that, her being a woman – "
"I don't much like it, either."
I swore I heard Fe
After another thirty seconds of uncomfortable silence, Jack said, "But business is business. I suppose it'd be a lucrative way to make some fast money."
"It is," Fe
"Not interested."
Reel him in. Let him drop. Keep him off balance, searching for equilibrium.
"Can I at least ask who I'm dealing with?" Fe
"No."
An audible sigh of relief. If Jack gave his name, even his street name, that would mean Fe
"I suppose it'd be a decent gig, though," Jack said. "If you could stomach it. I can't blame a guy for that. I've done stuff…"
I'm sure Fe
"Shit like this?" Jack continued. "Not my style. But business is business, and you take what you can get. If you don't take the job, someone else will."
Ah, hitman justification at its finest. I'd used that one a few times myself.
"The sick fucks are the ones who put out the contracts," Jack said.
Fe
"Something like this?" Jack said. "Who dreams this shit up?"
My fingers stopped drumming against my thigh and I squinted into the darkness, as if I could see Jack's expression, though he had his back to me. What was he doing? We'd discussed what we needed from Fe
Parents… buyers… That's where he was heading – giving Fe
"That's who I'm interested in," Jack said. "You? You're just a means to an end."
"Okay," Fe
"Yeah, that's what I want to know."
Silence.
Damn it, Jack. He's not that bright. Prod him. Dangle the buyer as his scapegoat and he'll -
"They made contact through the broker. A guy named Honcho."
"I've heard of him. Headhunter, right?"
A headhunter was a broker who took contracts based on a price, with only the barest of details: number of marks, deadline, international versus domestic, political versus personal. Then, he offered it to his hitman contacts, who'd get the specifics directly.
The broker would argue that he's providing an invaluable service by tightening the security between client and pro. He's really just covering his butt. Any advantage to the hitman is more than wiped out by the liability of accepting a job based almost exclusively on price. That's the best a second tier has-been like Fe
So I didn't doubt he was doing other work for this "Honcho" guy. But to blame him for this job, one he'd created himself? Low. Risky, too, presuming Jack would follow up.
And yet… maybe Fe
"So Honcho sets up the meeting…" Jack prompted.
"Byrony Agency."
"What?"
"That's the name of the company. Or, at least, the name of the office the client works at. I don't know if it's legit or a cover, but after the meeting, I followed him back and that's where he went. Byrony Adoption Agency in Detroit. Moron walked away from the meeting and never even looked over his shoulder. Complete amateur. Got the bright idea to hire a hitman to help him steal babies, and had no fucking idea how to go about it. I had to hold his hand through the first two."
So this hadn't been a one-man project. It hadn't even been Fe
The scheme had been orchestrated by this Byrony Agency. They found the parents and they sold the babies, while Fe
Why the hell hadn't I seen that?
Because I hadn't allowed myself to consider the possibility. I'd been completely focused on my goal, and that goal was one man. Like Drew Aldrich. Like Wayne Franco. Like Wilkes. One perpetrator. One target. That I understood. That I could stop.
An entire organization… How could I stop that?
Forget it for now. I had to concentrate on the immediate situation. The immediate resolution. The immediate vengeance.
By the time Jack finished, I'd found my focus again.
"Dee?" he called.
At that word, Fe
I thought about Sammi, her fear and rage in those final moments, and I slowed my pace, dragging it out until I hoped his panic outweighed anything she'd suffered.
I stood in front of him, and let him see me, and he knew that meant he wasn't walking out of here alive. And I prayed that in that last second, maybe he thought of Sammi and the other girls, maybe he thought "so this is how they felt."
Then I lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.