Ocean Prey (A Prey Novel #31) - John Sandford Page 0,110
really got it down, now. I’m going deeper, though. I’ll be okay tomorrow, maybe one more day, but after that, I’ll be getting uncomfortable. We’ll see.”
“We’d all be happier if you didn’t die,” Lucas said.
“Me, too,” Virgil said.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Pruitt didn’t break.
The agents in the pickup van reported that he said nothing but the word lawyer.
He was held overnight in the isolation section of the Manhattan federal lockup. Since he’d asked for a lawyer, the feds couldn’t press him with questions, but they could talk around him.
“This poor chump thinks some of his Mafia buddies are going to bail his ass out. Not gonna happen. Sansone takes care of one person: Sansone. This genius is going to prison forever to protect him. Forever, and man, that’s a long time. With as much dope as he had on him . . . you think they’ll send him out to ADX Florence? These are the guys who shot those Coast Guardsmen and murdered the marshal . . .”
Didn’t work. Pruitt continued to say “lawyer” for a while, then put his head down and went to sleep. The door to his cell was opened every ten minutes or so during the night, then slammed shut, waking him, but he still refused to say a word.
“He’s asked for a lawyer by name,” Orish told Lucas. “A drug lawyer, well known for his connections. About two minutes after he leaves Pruitt in the lockup, Sansone’s going to get a phone call.”
“You can still hold him for another couple of days,” Devlin said.
“Yes, but that’s the limit. Then we’ll have to call his lawyer. Bottom line is, we’ve got today and tomorrow to turn somebody and arrest Sansone. If you’ve got any ideas . . .”
Lucas said, “I’ve been running through the notes, diving into backgrounds. I’m thinking we go after Paul Curry. He’s been inside four times; another conviction and he’s done. He gets life. One other interesting thing—he apparently has had problems with the Aryan Brotherhood, but the Brotherhood wasn’t strong where he spent his time and he had enough Mafia buddies to protect him.”
“What got the Brotherhood on him?”
“He apparently talked to the prison guards about a Brotherhood member who shanked another convict, a friend of his. A couple of Brotherhood guys went off to Southport.”
“The New York supermax.”
“Yeah. Curry has more than one reason to stay outside. And he’s got the wife and kids . . .”
Kerry, Orish’s second, said, “We gotta do something, quick, and he sounds as good as any of them. You want to take a shot at picking him up in daylight hours?”
“I’d rather not . . . he’ll be harder to tail without him spotting us,” Lucas said. “He makes a phone call, we’re screwed. Most of his dealers will be working at night, in the clubs, he’ll be making the most stops then.”
“Be a long day, not doing anything,” Orish said.
Lucas looked at his watch: “Seven hours. Okay. Let’s think about doing something in daylight. Let’s put a full crew on him now. That dope he picked up, that must be at his house, right?”
“As far as we know . . .”
* * *
Orish got that started, and Lucas called Virgil: “You’re either going to have to make one more dive, or figure out a reason not to, something that won’t make Behan and Cattaneo suspicious.”
He explained what had happened—that Pruitt refused to deal—and Virgil said, “Listen, these guys are loosening up around Rae. They’re talking to her more while I’m in the water. We ought to go out, see if there’s anything more we can get from them before it all comes down.”
“Don’t interrogate them,” Lucas said. “You gotta be super-careful. We’re right there at the climax of this whole thing. We’ll have people waiting for you when you get back to the dock. I’ll call Weaver.”
“We’re okay. I gotta go get some air right now, fill my tanks. I’ll talk to Rae. If anything changes, for Christ sake, call us. Don’t let the feds hang us up.”
“I’m all over them,” Lucas said.
* * *
Hollywood:
Virgil and Rae were driving north to a shop in Deerfield Beach to get the scuba tanks refilled. As they loaded the car, he and Rae talked over the call from Lucas, and Virgil asked, “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. We’ve got one guy in a cell who isn’t talking, so they’re going to go after another guy. Will they be missed? That’s the question,” Rae said. “These guys aren’t stupid. I