Villiers’ eyebrows went up. “Interesting. Now, Flynn, I still need you to move. Iwillshoot you if I—”
“Why?” Bax demanded. “What couldpossiblymake you betray everything you stand for?”
“I stand forjustice,” Villiers said, and gave a very slight frown. “Nothing I’ve done here over the past few months has conflicted with that. My only goal is to, as we say in the FBI, disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks of La Cosa Nostra. I think you’d have to agree I’ve been very successful there. I know you’ve been in hiding, but even you can’t have failed to hear about the unrest between the Families. They’ll turn on each other again before long. Begin to take each other out. And once their power is reduced, we in law enforcement can come in and sweep up the rest.”
“You’re insane,” Bax choked out. “KillingHanson? Bachman? Walsh? How can youpossiblycall that justice?”
I saw the small tic under his eye that suggested Villiers was restraining a flinch. “I only wanted Hanson off the task force at first. He was one of those fools with romantic notions about organized crime, and people like that endangered the whole Operation. It was easy enough to manipulate Walsh into retiring him. But when you told me about Hanson’s meeting with Messina, I knew then that he deserved to die. He was a traitor. Palling around with mobsters like they were his buddies,” he curled his lip in disgust, staring at me. “But I will admit that Bachman was unfortunate collateral damage. I didn’t realize he’d been sent to follow Messina that night—Walsh was such a stubborn old bastard, never sharing information. Bachman saw me following you, Flynn, while you were following Messina. Quite the trooping ants we were that night, through the Park. Bachman saw me take my shot at Messina, and he knew then that I…”
“Was a cold-blooded killer?” Bax finished for him, when Villiers trailed off.
Villiers scowled. “Soldiers die in wartime. They make necessary sacrifices.”
“I’m sure the District Attorney will see it your way,” I said. I wanted his attention off Bax.
I was successful. Villiers turned the gun back on me. “You’d know all about that,” he sneered. “I’ll bet even the D.A. is in Luca D’Amato’s pocket. Isn’t that right?”
It wasn’t, actually, but this did not seem the time to quibble. Baxter had gone very still, and I was worried he was about to do something stupid. “My gun,” he said. “You usedmy gunto kill Bachman?”
“Bachman wanted to believe me, even though the evidence of his own eyes and ears told him otherwise. He was cautious, but he wanted to believe my story that I’d been shooting in self-defense. I suggested we check where you two had been hiding. And you, Flynn, you imbecile, had dropped your firearm. It was easy enough to pick it up, walk a little distance away as though I were still looking for you both, then I turned around and…”
“You shot a defenseless man in the back,” Bax said quietly. “That’s what you did.” He shook his head in disgust. “I guess there weren’t any shields in Walsh’s desk?”
“Of course not. Not even so stupid a man as Walsh would keep evidence like that in his desk drawer. It was one last test, Flynn, to see if you really were willing to swallow any old hogwash just because you trusted the person saying it to you.” His face twisted. “And you did. Just like you believe everything Messina fills your head with, too.” His hand had dipped slightly, but with the last sentence, he raised it again, unwavering, aiming right at Bax’s face.
“What about O’Sullivan?” I asked quickly. I wanted to keep the guy talking, distracted, while I decided on the best course of action. There were many ways to kill a man, but I wanted to make sure Bax would not get caught in the crossfire. “How did you know we’d be there?”
“You Morelli scum have spent the last few decades making enemies,” Villiers said. “I’m only one of them. When I reached out to O’Sullivan several months back, he was more than happy to help when he heard my goal: to get rid of the Morellis. I knew it would be easy enough to seed stories that would make your Boss uncomfortable about the Irish. And I was right, wasn’t I? All it took was a mere rumor floating around about O’Sullivan and you were set on his trail immediately. I asked O’Sullivan to let me know if he saw anyone following him. Now, it took him quite some time to realize hewasbeing followed, Messina. You’re good at your job. But all you criminal types have a sixth sense about that kind of thing, don’t you? O’Sullivan felt uneasy enough that night to give me a call. I went there with the hopes that I could lure you into the backyard and execute you there, but you sent in the cannon fodder instead.”
“He did not send me in,” Bax said between clenched teeth. “I got out and followed you because—because I thought, at the time, that it’s whatyouwould have wanted!” He was trembling with outrage.
“So you got in the way as usual,” Villiers said. “I must say, you’ve been very useful to me, Flynn, but there have been a few times you’ve been quite exasperating.”
“Good,” Bax spat.
“The bank account?” I went on. “His hairs at the crime scene?”
“Naturally,” Villiers said, looking back at me. That was what I wanted. “I opened a bank account in his name, using his identification papers, which I took photographs of at the same time I harvested some hairs from his comb. That night you insisted I come to your apartment for a drink.” He was turning to Baxter again, and I didn’t want that.
“And what about Donnie Greco?” I asked quickly. “That was quite the magic trick. How’d you pull that one off?”
Villiers gave a strange, sneering smile. “I have no idea who killed Donnie Greco. It wasn’t me. But if I could shake his hand, I would. One less rat on the streets of New York.”
I heard Bax suck in a deep, wavering breath, and decided we’d heard enough. I could feel him swaying, leaning toward the table and the guns. I reached up to his back and grabbed a handful of his hoodie. “Let Flynn go,” I said to Villiers. “You can take me in. I’ll confess to anything you like.”
Bax and Villiers’ “No!” came together, though they had different inflections.
“He’ll kill you!” added Bax.
“I have no intention of letting your new hero live much beyond the next few moments,” Villiers said coldly, then looked back to me. “And the fact is, Flynn is clearly compromised. I thought when he was younger that I’d be able to mold him, make him see that we needed a radical solution for a radical problem. I believed I was getting there, getting my message through to him. But I underestimated your charms, Messina, like many men before me. Like Giorgio Benetti. Isn’t that right?”
It was the wrong thing to say to me right then. I could see he thought so too, from the look on his face as he took in my reaction.
“What’s Benetti got to do with anything?” Bax asked.
“You know the problem with your generation, Flynn?” Villiers said, and I could hear the rising stress in his voice. “No sense of history. You forget things as soon as they happen. They scroll right out of your mind like your social media feeds. Well,Iremember. I remember what this city was like when the Families were allowed to run it. I won’t let that happen again.”
I could see what was going to happen almost before it happened, and I moved instinctively to protect. Villiers’ gun barrel moved those few precious inches back towards Bax and I threw my arms around the kid, shoving him down as I spun on my feet.
