“Listen, Mrs. Devlin. We want to do everything we can to help you through this. I have a few thoughts.”
“Can we discuss it later? As I said, I'm quite tired.”
“Sure. You don't have to make any decisions right away. I think we can give you the equity in your house.”
Sean made her voice firm. “I'm not your witness. I am not changing my name, and I want my belongings put back in my house, which did not belong to my late husband.”
“Let's discuss all of that tomorrow, okay? We'll get you a death certificate so you can get to your husband's bank accounts, which as his widow, you are entitled to.”
“Do you seriously think I would take money he made murdering people?”
“I assumed you could use it.”
“I don't need it and I'd sweep streets before I accept one cent of that blood money.”
“We intend to compensate you for what you went through.”
“Do that. Figure out what keeping my husband's killings a secret from me, and what I have been through in the past few days is worth. In the meantime, I want to go to a hotel and sleep.”
“I'll have a couple of deputies-”
“No! No more deputies, no guns, no protection. If you want my cooperation, I demand some consideration. I am not testifying against anyone. I will not agree to be watched over or followed. I do not want the United States Marshals Service knowing where I am. If no one here knows where I am or what I'm doing, nobody can tell anybody anything.” Sean was reaching the absolute limit she could take. She had to get away.
“I'm sorry you feel that way.”
“Tell me the truth. Do I have to accept your protection?”
“No, I can't force you to. You can decline it, but I can't emphasize strongly enough how dangerous that might be. Mrs. Devlin, please-”
“I am officially declining protection of any kind. Do I need to sign anything for that?” she said briskly.
Shapiro's eyes hardened. “We can't force our protection, but the FBI can decide that you are crucial to the investigation, declare you a material witness, and take you into custody. Obviously, I'd hate to see that happen, even if it was for your own safety.”
“I suppose if the FBI decides to do that, there's nothing I can do to prevent it,” she replied. “I'd be happy to relive that night over and over, if you'll treat me like a friend and not a prisoner. You can start by calling me a cab. I will return first thing tomorrow if you like.”
“Very well. I accept that you have declined our protection and I will see you first thing in the morning. Fact is, we have a hotel suite reserved for you.”
“I'll stay in the suite if you'll give me your word you won't have deputies hanging around. I've had it with being spied on.”
Shapiro stood and nodded decisively. “I'll call you a cab.”
Shapiro strode into the conference room and conferred with his assistant. He went to his desk, pulled open a drawer, then returned with a cell phone, which he handed to her.
“If you need anything at all, just press star eighty-one to reach me. I can have people outside your room in minutes.”
Sean nodded and slipped the phone into her coat pocket. She knew that, despite giving his word, Shapiro wasn't about to let her leave his office without having her followed and watched over. Now, that was something she couldn't allow.
At the hotel, the cabdriver popped the trunk and set her suitcases on the carpeted stoop. She tipped him, as well as the doorman who carried her suitcases into the hotel lobby and placed them before the counter.
“Sean Devlin,” she told the clerk.
The clerk typed in her name into the computer and watched the screen. “You'll be in…” She penned the room number-1299-inside the little folder.
Sean slipped her Visa card onto the desk.
“That's not necessary,” the woman said. “It's been taken care of.”
Sean left the credit card where it was. “I'd like another room for my mother, who is arriving later this evening.”
“Your suite has two bedrooms with private baths.”
“A single on a lower floor. My mother has a fear of fire, so nothing higher than an extension ladder can reach,” Sean said firmly.
The clerk typed again, then ran Sean's card. She placed an electronic room key into a folder and wrote 321 inside it.
Sean turned and saw that the cab that had delivered her was now parked across the street. Those bastards! She was angry that Shapiro had lied to her but also relieved that his action had released her from her word.
A bellboy pulled the cart holding Sean's suitcases into the elevator and pressed twelve. Sean reached into her coat pocket, took out Shapiro's cell phone, and slid it between her suitcases on the cart. She pressed three and the elevator stopped there.
Using her foot to keep the elevator door open, she handed the bellboy the key card for 1299 and fished a ten dollar bill from her purse. Taking her briefcase from the cart, Sean handed the bill to the bellboy and smiled. “Take my bags on up, please. I'm going to check out my other room first.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
She waited for the elevator door to close before she made her way quickly to the stairs, carrying her briefcase and her purse. She found the back entrance to the hotel and exited close behind an elderly couple so she would appear to be with them. She saw two men sitting in a Crown Victoria parked near the driveway, but neither looked at her as she passed, still sticking close to the old couple. As the couple stopped at a Lexus, Sean kept walking. Two blocks farther she saw a cab approaching and hailed it.
The driver was obese. His face showed his disappointing effort to grow a beard, and he studied her with dull, lazy eyes. She climbed in and was instantly repulsed by the interior, which smelled as though someone had recently boiled cabbage in it.
“I want a cheap hotel. One that rents rooms by the hour. Water beds and X-rated films are fine.”
She saw his now curious eyes appraise her in the mirror. She glanced at his identification card. “And, Warren-one suggestive proposition out of you, you'll lose a nice tip.”
“Lady, I know just the place,” he said. “You'll love it.”
51
Atlanta, Georgia
Sam Manelli had an hour before the guard came to pick up the cell phone he smuggled into Sam each night after midnight. Sam slipped it from under his pillow and dialed Johnny Russo, who would be waiting for the call. If the numbers on the bill were traced someday, who could prove who was at the pay phone, who had made the call? Sam smiled at the thought of Johnny standing by a pay phone outside a rural grocery store in Fantee, Louisiana, in his fancy suit, fighting off hungry mosquitoes.
“It's me,” Sam grunted. “What did the dentist say?”
“He pulled the tooth,” Russo answered, promptly. “X-ray pictures be at your guy's office in the morning so he can check them. You want the guy to bring the X-rays so you can see, too?”
“Of course not.”
“You be leaving there soon, I believe,” Johnny said.
“So, if I'm still here, I'll call same time tomorrow.”
Sam ended the call and pondered the information.
He was delighted that Devlin was dead and that the proof, by way of pictures of the corpses, was going to put his mind at ease. It had been expensive, but money well spent. He just couldn't believe that Johnny would even suggest that Bertran bring the pictures of a corpse to him in jail-he knew that Bertran would have refused. As much as he would have loved to see them, it was a stupid suggestion.
Sometimes he wondered about Johnny. In order for him to make it, he was going to have to think clearer and let his emotional side take a backseat to his business mind.
The simple fact was that times had changed, making crime on the scale Sam had known it almost impossible.
Sam had done his best to pass his understanding of business on to Johnny, he couldn't help but wonder sometimes if he had put his money on the wrong horse. Perhaps his fondness for Johnny's father, and now Johnny, had clouded his own judgment.