Women’s intuition.
“Sunny Randall!” I said in a cheerful, receptionist’s voice.
“You fucked me over,” Tony Marcus said, not sounding cheerful at all.
“Well, hello yourself, Tony,” I said.
I saw Richie staring at me. I smiled and waved.
“Once Albert was gone,” he said, “those guns should’ve reverted back to me.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Who gives a rat’s ass what you think?” he said. “I’m tellin’ you how it is. And what it is.”
“It may be a fine point,” I said. “But since we don’t know when exactly Albert died, we may be dealing with a chicken-and-egg thing here.”
“You tipped off the goddamn Feds, didn’t you?” he said.
No reason to tell one last lie. Or keep secrets.
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“What’s Desmond think about that?” he said. “Maybe he thinks those guns were more his than mine, even if I did make a deal with his brother.”
“I don’t care what he thinks,” I said. “And I’ll tell you why, Tony. I get that guns are a part of my world. Part of my own family business, if you think about it. But if I just took a shitload of them off the street, and off you, well, hooray for me.”
“Just so you know?” Tony said. “We got a brand-new grudge going now, girl. So you take care watchin’ your back.”
“So it goes,” I said.
I hung up on him and walked back over to Richie. He asked to whom I’d been speaking.
“The usual,” I said. “Bad guys.”
“You’ll tell me which ones later?” he said.
“If you can somehow manage to charm the information out of me,” I said.
I smiled at him.
“Give me an honest answer,” I said. “Do you think I’m looking older?”
Richie smiled back.
“I’ll tell you when we get back home,” he said. “Provided you can charm that information out of me.”
I kissed him on the lips and then the three of us walked back over the bridge to River Street Place. I still didn’t think of it as home, and didn’t know if I ever would. But it would do for now.
Acknowledgments
One more time, I would like to thank the real Mike Stanton, my tour guide in Providence.
I would also like to thank three dear friends who were generous with counsel and support in the writing of this book:
David Koepp, Harlan Coben, and Raymond Kelly, former Police Commissioner of the City of New York.
And finally, David and Daniel Parker, Ivan Held, Sara Minnich: Who gave me the chance to come play with the cool kids.