It might.
You bastard. I dont like smear campaigns. And I dont like being used, Logan.
Understandable. Now, if youre through venting your displeasure, will you listen to me for a moment? He leaned forward in his chair. Eight months ago I got a call from a man named Bernard Donnelli, a mortician who owns a small funeral home outside Baltimore. He asked me to meet him. He told me just enough to intrigue me, so I flew to Baltimore the next day. He was scared and met me in a parking garage at five in the morning. He shrugged. No imagination. He must have thought he was Deep Throat or something. Anyway, he was more greedy than he was scared and offered to sell me information. He paused. And an object that he thought I might find valuable. A skull.
Only a skull?
The rest of the body was cremated by Donnellis father. It seems that the Donnelli Funeral Home has been used for decades by the Mafia and Cosa Nostra to dispose of bodies. The Donnellis be-came known to the mob as being very discreet and reliable. However, one particular disposal made Donnelli Senior very uneasy. Two men appeared one night at Donnellis home with a mans body and, though the money they paid him was extraor-dinary, he was uneasy. They werent his regular cus-tomers and couldnt be counted on to play by the rules. They tried to keep him from seeing the corpses face, but he caught one glimpse and it was enough to scare him shitless. He was afraid theyd come back and cut his throat to eliminate him as a witness. So he rescued the skull and hid it away to use as a weapon and an insurance policy.
Rescued it?
Not many people know that it takes a tempera-ture of twenty-five hundred degrees and a burning time of at least eighteen hours to completely destroy a skeleton. Donnelli managed to position the body so that the skull would partially avoid the flames. When the two men left after forty-five minutes, Donnelli retrieved the skull and burned the rest. Donnelli used the skull as a tool for blackmail, and before he died he told his son, Bernard, where hed buried the skull. A rather macabre legacy but profitable, very profitable.
Donnelli died?
Oh, he wasnt murdered. He was an old man and had a bad heart.
And who was he blackmailing?
Logan shrugged. I dont know. Donnelli Junior wouldnt tell me. The deal was for the skull.
And youre saying you didnt press him?
Why would I tell you that? Of course, I tried to get it out of him. All hed tell me was what Ive told you. He wasnt as gutsy as his father and he didnt like living on the edge. He offered me the location of the skull and the story in exchange for enough money to set him up in Italy with a new face and identity papers.
And you took the deal?
I took it. Ive paid more for prospects with less potential.
And now you want me to bring that potential to fruition.
If what Donnelli told me was the truth.
It isnt. The entire story is crazy.
Then why not go along with me? Whats the harm? If its not true, then youll come out with your pocket full of my money and Ill come out with egg on my face. He smiled. Both prospects should bring you extreme pleasure.
Its a waste of my time.
Youre being well paid to waste it.
And if theres any truth at all to the story, its not smart for me to go around digging up
But you said there wasnt any truth to it.
Its too wild to think its Kennedy, but it could be Jimmy Hoffa or some Mafia goon.
Providing I havent paid through the nose for a fairy tale.
Which youve probably done.
Then come with me and well find out. He paused. Unless you think you couldnt do the job with an unprejudiced mind. Theres no way I want you putting Jimmy Hoffas face on this skull.
You know damn well Im too good to do that. Dont try to manipulate me, Logan.
Why not? Im good at it. We all do what were good at. Arent you even a little bit curious to find out if Donnellis telling the truth?
No, its just another wild-goose chase.
Not so wild if they tried to scare you off. Or per-haps youd rather forgive and forget what happened to your lab?
Manipulation again. Strike where it hurts. She turned away. Im not forgetting anything, but Im not sure I believe
Ill double the contribution to the Adam Fund.
She slowly turned back to him. Dammit, youre paying too much for too little. Even if its true, it all happened a long time ago. What if nobody cares that the Democrats did a massive cover-up?
What if they do? The climate is right. The public is sick to death of being manipulated by politicians.
Just what are you up to, Logan?
I thought you had me figured out. Im just your run-of-the-mill low-life tycoon trying to stack the deck.
She wasnt close to figuring him out and there was no way she would accept one word he had spoken as truth.
Will you think about it?
No.
Yes, you will. You cant help yourself. Give me your decision in the morning.
And what if I say no?
Why do you think I bought a property with a cemetery?
She stiffened.
Just joking. He smiled. Ill send you home, of course.
She started for the door.
And I wont ask for the Adam Fund money back. Even if you dont complete your part of the bargain. Which makes me appear a good deal more honorable than you, doesnt it?
I told you I wouldnt do anything illegal.
Im not trying to involve you in anything really illegal. No raid on Arlington or digging up a grave-yard. Just a brief visit to a cornfield in Maryland.