Agnes and the Hitman

“Oh, God,” Agnes said, and sat down hard. “How much?”

Lisa Livia swallowed hard. “I’ll have to…” She drew a deep breath. “In a minute when I can do this without passing out, I’ll add it up. But somewhere around eight or nine hundred thousand.”

“Dollars?” Agnes swallowed hard, too. “We’ll get it back. We’ll go out to that damn boat and-”

Lisa Livia closed her eyes. “She’ll have it in the Caymans by now. I can’t even kill her to get it, that bastard Taylor will inherit.”

“Jesus,” Agnes said. “Can’t we go ransack the boat and find the numbers or something?”

“She’ll have them hidden in one of the millions of places the Real Estate King had built into that damn thing. I wouldn’t even know how to look for them.” She shook her head, keeping her jaw set, fighting tears. “Pretty ironic. I spend my whole life working, neglect my kid to build up this safety net for us, and then because I want to be there for her at her wedding, I lose everything, including my future. And then I screw up her wedding by sticking her with flamingos.”

“Lisa Livia, it’s not-”

“I am such a fuckup.”

“No, you are not.” Agnes put her arm around her. “You don’t even believe that. I have no idea how to fix this, but we will. We’ll get your money back. We’ll do your daughter’s wedding, then we’ll sink your mother’s boat, and then we will get your money, Shane and Carpenter and I, we’ll help you get it back. I swear to you, we will.”

Lisa Livia looked at her. “You don’t even know how to sink a boat”

“I am learning many new skills this week,” Agnes said. “Eat your pancakes.”

To Do List, she thought. Throw Maria’s wedding. Return stolen flamingos. Clean up the Venus. Get Lisa Livia’s money back. Kill somebody named Casey Dean. She looked out the window to the dock where Shane and Carpenter were conferring with their boss. Sink Brenda’s boat. Write my goddamn column. Believe in Shane when he tells me what I’m dying to hear.

She went to the pantry to get the wedding cakes.

“I didn’t explain things to Agnes very well,” Shane said when they’d started down the path to the dock.

“You have to speak from the heart,” Carpenter said.

“The heart.”

“Yes. You have to open up to the world and learn optimism, and the words will come to you, and you’ll tell Agnes how you feel.” Shane stopped. “What?”

Carpenter looked at him, serene. “Contentment with the past, happiness with the present, and hope for the future. Learned optimism.”

“Oh.” Shane frowned. “I told her I wanted to come back here. She seemed pretty happy.”

Carpenter nodded. “That’s a start. Once you open yourself to the world, my friend, good things will come to you.”

“I don’t think going to meet Wilson is the best time for me to get optimistic and, uh, open my heart.”

“Indeed not. In some ways, your heart opening up is causing a lot of trouble and, I believe, precipitating this meeting.”

He nodded down the dock to where Wilson was already sitting on one of the benches, dressed impeccably in his suit. Shane felt like he was walking the gangplank as they made their way down the long dock to him. Brenda’s yacht bobbed on the water, but there was a sleeker, much newer and larger boat just off the low dock: Wilson’s mode of transportation. A dark figure was on the bridge of the boat ru

“I’m disappointed,” Wilson said as they arrived at the high dock.

Cerise and Hot Pink chorused their disapproval, too.

Without being asked, Shane sat down across from his boss while Carpenter took a seat beside him.

Wilson looked at Shane, his eyes as sharp as ever. “You’ve had two opportunities to take out Casey Dean, and not only have you failed in both, you have allowed Don Fortunato’s consigliere to complete down payment for the contract.”

Shane didn’t say anything, because he knew there was nothing he could say.

“There has been another death here at the house, and the local police were involved once more. This is not the performance I would expect of the man who would replace me. One thing we have always prided ourselves on in the Organization is our discretion.”

“I think you know much more than you’re telling me,” Shane said.

Wilson looked at him without reaction. “Of course I know much more than I tell you. That is the nature of my job. To know, to give orders, and to take responsibility.”

“I take responsibility-” Shane began, but Wilson cut him off.

“You are answerable to me. I am answerable to many others and you are my responsibility. This is something you need to understand about my job.

“The FBI is not pleased we took their information regarding Casey Dean and squandered it,” Wilson continued. “I do not like having to explain myself to the FBI. I am tempted to pull you from this operation. Casey Dean has been a thorn in our side for years, we gave you the two best opportunities we’ve ever had, and you fumbled both of them.”

Carpenter leaned forward. “Third time is the charm.”

“Unfortunately,” Wilson said, “I don’t-”

“We’ve got a line on Casey Dean,” Carpenter said.

Wilson stared at Carpenter in silence for several seconds then turned to Shane, who had used all the self-control he had to refrain from also staring at Carpenter. “And that is?”

“Carpenter developed it,” Shane said, “so it would be best if he explained it.”

Wilson folded his arms. “I’m waiting.”

“We’ve got Casey Dean’s cell phone number,” Carpenter said. “And Casey Dean has called a blind number on Shane’s phone that he set up. Dean seems to enjoy taunting us. We can turn that against him. He’s using a bounce signal with his cell phone, so we can’t use towers to track his exact location. But I can set up three receivers in the area and triangulate his location.”

“If he answers his phone,” Wilson said.

“He’ll answer,” Shane said.

“Why do you think that?” Wilson asked.

“Because we’ve suckered him into being overconfident.”

“Good plan,” Wilson said with a bland look on his face. Cerise and Hot Pink picked up some volume in their vocals, and Wilson’s eyes went past Shane. “We have company.”

Shane looked over his shoulder and saw Joey ambling down the dock, dressed in his usual black slacks and red shirt.

“How you guys doing’?” Joey asked as he arrived.

“Mr. Wilson, this is my uncle Joey,” Shane said, getting to his feet to do the introductions. “We’re having a meeting, Joey,” he added pointedly.

Joey nodded at Wilson and sat down on the bench. “You’re Shane’s boss.”

“Yes. And you’re Joey Torcelli who used to work with Frankie Fortunate “

“That was long ago.”

“The past catches up to us.”

“Something catching up to you?” Joey asked.

“Time,” Wilson said, “catches up to everyone.”

Shane glanced down at Carpenter, who raised his eyebrows. At any minute, Shane thought, one of them is go