“Yeah.”
“When will you be there?”
“I can leave first thing in the morning,” she said. “Tell him to call me on this number, and I’ll tell him how to find the boat.”
“Okay, I’ll call him now. We should be in Key Largo by late tomorrow afternoon. I’ll call you a couple of hours out and give you a better ETA. Hey, since you got some time off, you want to do a little work?”
She laughed. “Are you kidding? I’m never going to work again.”
He laughed, too. “Can’t blame you. Call me tomorrow.” He hung up.
She hung up, too, and she didn’t have to wait long for the call.
“Yes?”
“Hi, it’s Larry Lee,” he said.
“That’s the name these days, huh?”
“Always has been.”
“Manny told you what he wants to do?”
“Yeah, and it sounds good to me; I don’t like being holed up like this.”
“You know where the Key West Yacht Club is?”
“Yeah, I’ve driven past it.”
“There’s a thirty-two-foot motorboat with no name on the stern—an old one, mahogany and white—just inside the main gate. Meet me there at seven A.M. tomorrow morning, and ditch your car somewhere else first. If you get there before I do, let yourself onto the boat; the lock is broken on the cabin doors.”
“Okay, see you at seven.”
“Call me ten minutes before you get there, so I’ll know you’re on the way. I’ll call you if anything changes.” She hung up, happy for something to do with herself. She liked being on the water.
A FEW BLOCKS away, late that evening, Tommy sat down with Evan next to a phone. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said.
“I’ve made some arrangements with the phone company. You’re going to call your grandfather’s number in”—he looked at his watch—“two minutes. There’ll be a click, and then you’ll get a dial tone. Dial Gigi’s number. She’ll see the Connecticut number on her caller I.D. Don’t be too definite about when you’re coming back.”
“I get the picture,” Evan said. He waited until Tommy cued him, then he dialed the number, got the dial tone and dialed Gigi’s number.
“Hello?”
“Hi,” he said.
“There you are,” she replied. “Where are you?”
“I just got to Grandfather’s house,” he said. “I’m sorry to run out like that, but it was an emergency.”
“How is he?”
“Hanging on by a thread, apparently. I sat with him for a couple of minutes, but he’s in a coma. His doctor didn’t want to take him to the hospital, said there was no point. He has a living will and a do not-resuscitate order.”
“Maybe that’s best, then.”
“It’s what he wanted. How are you?”
“I’m okay. I think I’ll move back onto the boat tomorrow, though; I miss being on the water.”
“Good idea.”
“I may even cruise around some. You can reach me on my cell.”
“Another good idea.”
“Do you know how long you’ll be there?”
“No way to tell; it could end tonight or in a couple of days, according to what the doctor said. I’ll arrange a small, graveside service. Most of his friends are dead, so there’s no point in doing the whole church thing.”
“Come back to me soon,” she said. “I love you, and I miss you.”
“Same here, babe. You take care.”
“You too.” She hung up.
EVAN HUNG UP.
“Did she buy it?”
“Sure she did,” Evan replied. “She has no reason not to. Does this plan you and Stone and Dino are working on provide for putting her away?”
“Not directly, but if we get Manny in a tight enough squeeze, he’ll implicate her.”
“I hope so,” Evan said.
55
GIGI WAS ALREADY on the boat when her cell phone buzzed.
“Yes?”
“It’s Larry. I’m across the street—I’ve ditched the car.”
“Come ahead, then.”
“Okay.” He hung up.
She started the engines and checked the gauges. A moment later there was a knock on the hull, and Larry Lee stepped into the cockpit. “Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning. We ready to head out?”
“We’ve got to stop at Key West Bight for fuel, so you go below and stay there, until I call you up. I can handle the fueling.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to handle everything,” he said. “I know nothing about boats. I’ll try and do what you tell me, though.”
He threw his bags below and took a seat.
Gigi tossed the lines ashore and edged out of the berth and into the channel. In an hour they’d be on their way to Key Largo. Larry looked pretty good, she thought. She had fucked him a couple of times before; maybe she would again. It would make an interesting change from Evan.
EVAN SAT IN the living room with Stone, Dino and Tommy while they briefed him.
“Okay,” Dino said, “Wally Millard is on board; he’s the guy who’s recommending Manny to you. If it should come up in your conversation with Manny, Wally is medium height, stocky, gray hair. He’s ex-NYPD, now a P.I. A lawyer friend referred you to him; you had all your meetings with him at Elaine’s. Be vague about what kind of work he did for you.”
“Okay,” Evan said. “What’s Elaine’s?”
Dino looked at Evan as if he felt sorry for him. “It’s a very popular restaurant in New York, at Eighty-eighth and Second Avenue.”
“Got it.”
Tommy handed Evan a typed sheet of paper and a map. “My friend Mike Levy has agreed to be the target,” he said. “I want you to commit all this to memory, except the map, which you can show Manny. There are written directions to Mike’s house, both from I-95 and from the Intracoastal Waterway, but I want you to strongly suggest an approach from the water. Mike has a Boston Whaler at a little marina just south of there; it’s marked on the map. Tell Manny the shooter can use the boat, then leave the keys in the locker under the steering wheel.”
“Why do you want an approach from the water?” Evan asked.
“Because it’s easier to see the shooter coming. If he comes by land, he could leave his car anywhere and sneak through the woods. Mike’s making a dummy that he’ll put on the back porch, which overlooks the waterway. There’s a floating dock there with the initials M.L. on a sign. He can shoot from the boat or from the dock.”
Evan read the instructions over carefully. “All right. Why do I want Levy killed?”
“A business partnership gone wrong—there’s some insurance money. Don’t try and give too much detail; you don’t want a guy like Manny to have any more information than he actually needs to accomplish the hit. The more you tell him, the more he’ll ask.”
“Okay.”
Stone handed Evan an envelope. “Here’s your money back. We’ve wiped all the fingerprints off, and all the bills have been marked with a tiny dab of a fluid that won’t show except under ultraviolet light. Also, we’ve left the bands from South Beach Security in place; that will lend credibility. Offer him forty grand, and go as high as sixty if you have to. You’ll give him half the money up front and let him propose how you give him the second half. That’s probably when the state cops will bust him, so you have to call us and give us a location. Otherwise, they’ll have to put a tail on you.”
Tommy gave him a wallet. “You’ve got a driver’s license, a Social Security card and some miscellaneous I.D., all in the name of Howard Worth. It’s an identity we did for a drug cop; all we did was make a new license with your photo from my cell phone camera.”
Evan put the wallet in his pocket. “Do you want me to identify myself by that name?”