“Worked up?” He gave a short laugh, dug in his pocket for a pack of cigarettes. He’d been chain-smoking waiting here for Hans to show up. “Yeah. You might get worked up, too, after you hear what I have to say. You told me to check in with Sean, right? And you were going to call Johnson. You ever do that? Get in touch with him?”
Hans accepted the cigarette Johnny offered and the light. Drawing in deeply, he exhaled a long stream of smoke. “Tried. The cell number I had for him was disconnected. Haven’t had time to track down his new one yet.”
“Don’t bother. He doesn’t have a new number.” Johnny broke off to light his own cigarette. Noted with a tinge of disbelief that his hand was shaking. Just a little. “He’s dead.”
“What?” Hans’s jaw dropped. “You’re shittin’ me.”
Shaking his head, Johnny told him the rest. “Car accident eight months ago. Went off a bridge on a gravel road in the next county. His widow has no idea why he was even there. And get this.” He used the cigarette to point for emphasis. “The newspaper reports it as a ‘fiery car crash.’ If the accident didn’t kill him, the fire afterward sure as hell did.”
“Fire.” Hans stared at him through a drift of smoke. Then he shook his head. “Okay. That happens. Cars go up after a bad wreck. Took a couple of those calls myself, back in my rookie days.”
“Yeah, I would have thought the same thing if I hadn’t tried calling Sean first. Same deal.” Just the memory had ice water washing through his veins. “Cell number belonged to someone else. Couldn’t find a new one for him, so I went to the Internet, right? Think I’ll use white pages and start tracking him down. His name pops right up on the search page.” Because he needed the nicotine, he took a long drag before continuing. “In the obituaries.”
“Fuck me,” Hans whispered. Johnny had the man’s attention now.
“Want to know how he died? Want to guess?” Johnny gave him a caustic grin. “House fire. Killed him and his wife five months ago.”
Hans was silent. Taking quick puffs off the cigarette. Barely exhaling before he drew on it again. Then finally, “You’re sure about this.”
“Damn straight. Read all the online news reports I could find about each incident.”
Dropping the cigarette butt, the other man ground it beneath the toe of his shoe, his movements slow and methodical. For the first time he looked old to Johnny. Every one of his nearly sixty years, and then some. “Because people have the same name. See that all the time where someone is being dunned because someone else with that name has bad credit. Or a record. Or . . .”
“Jesus H. Christ, you think I’m an idiot?” For a minute Johnny had his doubts about whether Hans was. “Pull up their obits yourself, if you don’t believe me. They both list their service to the city of Philadelphia. It’s them. And I don’t care what the official report reads for each, it was murder.”
“Christ Jesus.” Hans wiped his brow, and Johnny knew he wasn’t imagining the real fear in the man’s eyes. “That means whoever is torching members of the John Squad has gotten five of us so far. Picking us off like ducks in that stupid carnival game.”
“Not anymore.” A little calmer now, Johnny dropped the stub of his cigarette and let it burn out on the ground. He lit another, then said, “I’ll tell you one thing, I’m not waiting around with my dick in my hand for the guy to choose me next, you know?”
“I see a few scenarios. You mentioned a couple the other night. One is that our business partners somehow got organized—” Hans waved away any objection Johnny might make. “Somehow . . . and put this all together. Decided to take us all out, keep a larger piece of the pie themselves. They don’t consider the protection we’ve provided them every time one of them does something stupid and lands in lockup. They think short-term, and go cowboy. Problem with that idea is these dirtballs spend more time shooting each other than they do talking and comparing notes. They’d be more likely to knock the next guy off, take over his territory, and get all of that pie. I also don’t see it being their suppliers who got involved. Makes no difference to them