He looked down, said, “Shit,” then removed the black linen napkin from where he’d tucked it into his belt.
He tossed the napkin onto the lounge seat just in time to hold out his right hand. He turned on his best politician’s charm. “Yuri! How very good to see you again.”
The Russian ignored Badde’s hand and, instead, first leaned over and lightly kissed Jan on both cheeks.
“It is a pleasure to see you, Janelle,” he said, taking a step back and spreading his arms. “You look fabulous! A movie star!”
Then he turned to Badde and offered his hand.
“We do need to talk,” he said by way of greeting.
Badde motioned for him to have a seat, and he took it.
“This won’t take long,” the Russian said, all businesslike. A waiter arrived and delivered to him a glass of ice water. “How soon does the project move forward, now that the holdouts have left the property?”
Rapp looked to Jan.
She said, “Theoretically, crews could start tomorrow. Realistically? Probably a month.”
They watched as Tikhonov sipped his ice water and considered that.
“Not good enough,” he then said. “Sooner. Too much time has been wasted.”
Ever the politician, Badde smiled and lied, “Of course, Yuri. Sooner.”
He looked at Jan and said, “Sooner, right?”
“Rapp, I’m not sure-”
“Sooner,” Badde repeated, almost as if it were an order, then looked at Tikhonov.
Tikhonov locked eyes with him.
“No promises,” the Russian said. “I want it done.”
Badde then said, “Just so you know, there may be a small delay. We first have to manage a misunderstanding that we killed one of the holdouts by sending the wrecking crew and-”
Tikhonov interrupted him: “It will be no problem. That will be found to be nothing more than an unfortunate accident-”
Rapp interrupted: “That’s what I thought,” he said, giving Jan a glance.
“-and they will find that the others died of natural causes unknown,” Tikhonov concluded.
“How can you be so sure?” Badde asked, clearly surprised.
Tikhonov considered his reply a long moment, then simply said: “Succinylcholine.”
“What?”
“A muscle relaxant,” Tikhonov said conversationally, “sometimes called suxamethonium. Injected, it causes the heart muscle to relax till it stops. Has a very short half-life. Undetectable after perhaps an hour.”
Badde again glanced at Jan, then at Tikhonov. “You did it?”
Tikhonov, stone-faced, took a sip of his ice water, then said, “Of course not. Friends.”
Badde thought, Ice water is fitting. Just like the blood in his veins.
Badde said, “So then you called the demolition crew?”
Tikhonov shook his head. “Dimitri.”
His assistant passed himself off as the new HUD expediter!
Yuri Tikhonov sighed. “Time is money, and it is time for the development to move forward.” He paused and locked eyes with Badde. “Just make sure it continues to do so.”
Tikhonov suddenly stood and said, “You’ll please excuse me.” Then he leaned over and kissed Janelle Harper once on the cheek, and left.
As Jan and Rapp looked at each other wordlessly, his business cell phone vibrated in his pocket. In the dim light under the table, its glowing screen read: ROGER WYNNE.
Badde slipped it back into his pocket, then looked at Jan, who was downing her martini.
“I need to visit the men’s room.”
He stood and made his way toward the bar, then to the windows on the other side. He called Wynne back as he looked out at the grand view the thirty-seventh floor offered.
“Found him, Rapp,” Wynne said when he answered. “Well, where Kenny’s been, anyway. A nice old woman by the name of Irma Graham just called here looking for Kenny. Said she missed him tonight at Fernwood Manor’s bingo, and that she hadn’t seen him since he put a bunch of boxes in the storage room of their Community Activity Center.”
That was bingo I heard in the background!
“Get someone over there to whatever you said-”
“Fernwood Manor at Cobbs Creek,” Wynne furnished. “And I’m already on my way.”
“Destroy every goddamn shred of paper. I don’t care if we ever have those votes again.”
Badde ended the call. Looking out the window over the city, he thought, Well, at least that’ll get rid of the absentee-voter stuff. Now Kenny can’t squeal-who’s going to believe him without proof?
I may again have just dodged going to jail…
On the way back to the table, Badde paused at the magnificent bar.
There was a muted large flat-screen television tuned to the Eagles- Broncos National Football League game. Badde, acting as if he’d stopped to catch the score-Philadelphia was just barely beating Denver-took in the crowd, particularly all the attractive women.
Well, I’ll damn sure be coming back here.
The TV broadcast went to a commercial break.
One of the TV news talking heads came on with a tease for the eleven P.M. newscast. The box that popped up next to the news anchor’s head showed Francis Fuller awarding at least three ceremonial ten-thousand-dollar reward checks. The text below the pop-up box said
HALLOWEEN HOMICIDES: COLD-BLOODED MURDER TURNS INTO COLD CASH.
And Kenny-and that drug dealer Cicero-are going to be next.
X
[ONE]
The Roundhouse, Third Floor Eighth and Race Streets, Philadelphia Monday, November 2, 9:12 A.M.
The Executive Command Center’s main bank of monitors-all nine sixty-inch flat-screen televisions-was filled with the beet-red, angry face of the Honorable Jerome H. “Jerry” Carlucci, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He stared right into the camera with a searing fire in his intense brown eyes as he said with great force: “And never in all my years in this city-both during my years in the Philadelphia Police Department and my time in elected office as your mayor-never have I witnessed such careless disregard for our laws. And I am here to tell you that this is lawless chaos of the worst sort”-his fist could be heard pounding the lectern-“and I will not let it stand! There will be law and order in the great city of Philadelphia if I have to bring in the state police and our National Guard troops.
“And I am also telling you again that if you have information about any crime, you are to call our police department or the tips hotline-and no one else-and the police department will respond appropriately. This will not in any way cause anyone to be ineligible for any possible reward. It will, however, restore decorum to our fine city and dignity to its citizens.
“Now, to show how absolutely serious I am in this regard, just this morning four people who went to Lex Talionis in Old City-”
The image on the screen then cut to a shot of what had become the familiar scene at Third and Arch. Except this time there was a sea of dark blue-uniformed police lining the sidewalks shoulder to shoulder as far as the eye could see. And there were police cruisers parked bumper to bumper all along the curbs. There was a Medical Examiner’s Office van parked on the sidewalk, its rear doors open and a gurney with a full body bag being pushed inside.
And in front of the van were four people, their hands cuffed behind their backs, being led by blue shirts to the open rear doors of two Chevy Impala police cars parked at the curb. The first was a tiny, ancient, gray-haired black woman in a sacklike dress, then a skinny young teenage black girl in a white sleeveless jacket, and two teenage black males in jeans and hoodie sweatshirts.
A Tow Squad wrecker rolled past on Arch Street, a rusted-out mid- 1970s AMC Gremlin hanging backward behind it.
“-were each arrested on multiple counts of suspicion of murder, tampering with evidence at the scene of a crime, and various other criminal charges in connection with the murder last night of one Jossiah Miffin. Arrested were his grandmother and three teenagers, two boys who identified themselves as Miffin’s neighbors, and a girl who said she was his niece.”