doesn’t play into the investigation. At least not as far as I’ve heard.” He shot a sideways look at Hans.
“Johnny’s right. Better to let them talk to Emmons on our terms. You’re the best judge of the guy. You’re the one who’s been handling him. If you don’t think he can be trusted in there, you’ll have to eliminate him.”
Jack paused in the act of lifting the bottle to his lips. “Eliminate him?” He took a drink. Set the bottle down carefully. “That isn’t necessary. I told you, he’ll do what he’s told.”
Cocksucker was lying for all he was worth, Johnny thought. Jesus, what a clusterfuck. ’Course if the tables had been turned, and it was his associate going in for questioning, he might have a few bad moments himself. They weren’t exactly in business with mental giants. And none of their associates had any particular love for cops.
“Maybe when you’re having your little discussion with Emmons, you should find out where he was the night Giovanni, Jon-O, and Johann died.”
“What?” Jack stared at him, then laughed. “You’re paranoid. There’s no way Emmons could pull something like this off.”
“The way I hear it, he dropped some poor bastard in a vat of acid for trying to move in on his territory,” Hans said dryly. “Lighting people up wouldn’t be a stretch for him.”
“I’m the only one of us he knows,” Jack pointed out. “I’m the one he’s paying off. Wouldn’t I be the first one gone if it were Emmons?”
“He has a point. We need to be looking at Johann, Jon-O, and Giovanni’s partners.”
“Except Johann had been out of the business for a year,” Juan interjected. “Retirement from the force means an end to the other business dealings. His associate would have no motive to off him now.”
Grudgingly, Johnny acknowledged that the man wasn’t as worthless as he’d seemed. But his next words had stopped him cold.
“Maybe we ought to give Sean a call. Run it all by him.” The man sent an anxious gaze from Johnny to Hans and back. “He’s a smart guy. Even being retired, he’s still got plenty of contacts, right?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Johnny said, as much to warn Hans to stay silent as in answer to the suggestion. He’d reconsidered sharing the discovery he’d made about Sean and Johnson with the rest of the group. Look at them. Jack was sweating like a middle schooler with his first hard-on, and Juan looked like he’d burst into tears at any minute. They didn’t need more bad news. Fear made for bad decisionmaking.
They were all dealing with enough fear.
“Johnny’s right.” Relief filled him at Hans’s words. “The fewer who know about this the better. Sean and Johnson have been out of it too long. There’s nothing they can do. We have to take care of it ourselves. So.” He slapped his palm lightly on the table and looked at each of them in turn. “What have you heard from your informants? Any scuttle on the street about this?”
Juan and Jack shook their heads. Regretfully, Johnny had to as well. “None of my people have got anything either. No gossip, no one claiming credit. Nothing.”
Hans looked thoughtful. The condensation on the bottle had moistened the label enough that he could peel the rest of it away in one piece. “I didn’t hear much either. And what I did get didn’t check out. Unusual.”
“If we’re not hearing anything, then the task force can’t be either, right?” Jack drained his beer and set it down on the table. Looked around like he needed another. “Don’t know if that’s good or bad.”
“We have to stick together,” Hans told them all. “More now than ever. Way I hear it, this guy grabbed Johann when he was out for a run. Giovanni was out on an errand. Somehow the guy got into his car.”
Johnny jerked toward him. “How do you know that?”
Hans gave him a cool look and sipped from his beer. “I know people who know people. What I’m saying is, keep your weapon on you at all times. I mean, you get up in the middle of the night to take a piss, have your dick in one hand and your gun in the other.”
“Easy for you,” Juan muttered. “You don’t got kids in the house.”
“Nothing about this is easy,” Hans countered. “But we do what we have to. Jack, you put the fear of Christ Jesus in Emmons and get him in for questioning. Fewer problems