another visit to his widow and press a bit harder on the outside job she claims he didn’t have.”
Chapter 14
“This is the quickest way to have the job looking at us.” Juan slipped into the booth, his expression uneasy. “I’m on duty. I can’t stay away long. What’s so important we have to meet in the middle of the day?”
“There’s been another victim.” Johnny watched the others’ expressions closely. They looked at each other. Then across the table at him and Hans.
“Jesus. Jack? Jesus.” Juan dropped his head, hauled a deep shuddering breath in. Released it on a sob.
Jonas crossed himself. “Retribution,” he said in such a low voice that Johnny had to strain to hear. “To every sinner comes a time to atone. It’s atonement day.”
“Christ, shut the fuck up, both of you.” Johnny looked at Hans for help, but the older man was unusually silent. “If he got at Jack, this guy can get to any of us.” Maybe even him. A bolt a fear twisted through him. Jack was used to undercover work. Living day to day with the possibility of being made for a cop. His instincts were so ready that he’d once drawn down on Johnny for surprising him in the can. Who the hell was out there?
“You’re ignoring the obvious. You have all along.” Jonas leaned forward, his face grim. He looked like shit, Johnny noted. Gaunt. Without that slick polish the women all seemed to go for. “You’re forgetting Lamont.”
“Lamont?” Johnny didn’t pretend not to recall the name. “He’s dead. He’s been dead for nearly twenty-five years. The one thing I am not worried about in this whole clusterfuck is Lamont.”
“He had people,” Jonas explained urgently. His eyes were a little wild. Maybe the guy was finally losing it. Johnny had never trusted those religious types. Liked money just fine, same as the rest of them. He just had to wrap it up with talk of right and wrong and atonement to rain on everybody else’s fucking parade. “He had family, right? Brothers, sisters maybe. And what about Tory’s kid? The boy? He idolized Lamont. The guy saved him from Tory every time she was coming off a high and meaner than a swamp rat. The kid saw him burn.”
“Bullshit.” Johnny looked at the other two for support. Found none. “Bullshit,” he said louder. “I don’t remember no kid.”
“Little blond boy.” Hans nodded. “Used to run the streets sometimes at night after Tory was too wasted to know he was gone. Yeah, Lamont was good to the kid. I saw them together sometimes.”
“This isn’t good. This isn’t good.” Juan was mumbling almost incoherently.
“So there was a kid. Big deal. We need to be focused on the here and now. Juicy was Jack’s associate, right? I say we scoop him up and put the screws to that motherfucker. He probably iced Jack to keep the profits all to himself.”
“It doesn’t fly.” Hans was finally speaking but he wasn’t saying anything Johnny wanted to hear. “You’re ignorin’ what’s right in front of your face. If it were the partners, why the hell would they go after Sean and Johnson? Those two were no longer in it. It makes no sense.”
“He got Johnson and Sean?” Juan bolted upward, pushed on Jonas to move him from the booth. “You should have told us that, Johnny. You had no call to keep that between the two of you.”
Jonas’s lips looked cracked and dried, and his grin was horrible to see. “You can’t avoid it. None of us can avoid judgment day. It’s inevitable.”
“I’m getting the hell out of here.” Juan was babbling now. Jonas showed no signs of moving so he began crawling over the table to exit the booth. “Going in and taking vacation. Or sick leave. Whatever. Then I’m taking my kids and getting the hell out of the city.”
Shit. The only thing missing from the scene was a giant flushing sound because Johnny could see everything he’d ever worked for being sucked away. Jonas and Juan were so crazed right now that if they did ever happen to get questioned in connection with the murders, they’d have immediate diarrhea of the mouth and take everyone down with them.
“Maybe that’s good, Juan.” He looked at Hans for confirmation. But the older man was frowning and contemplating the scarred tabletop. “A little time away sure as hell isn’t going to hurt anything. Take a couple weeks off to visit relatives and maybe when you come back it