But it’s not my place to make that decision.
Torin walks in, his computer in hand, open “That gun is evidence, I think, in a murder.” He doesn’t look up from the screen. “One that’ll crack open a decades-old cold case.”
“And get a lot of mafia and cartel arrested,” adds Roark, the cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he stares at an iPad.
I blow out a breath. “So it’s nothing to do with Marlowe’s da?”
“Not that we can work out. It has everything to do with acartel and mafia deal gone wrong. Roja and Marcello, a long time ago. A guy they were both playing is dead and millions went missing. The gun is evidence and could be used as a bargaining chip.” Torin looks at me. “The gun’s the key to the case. And I’m guessing there are people who’ll kill for it…” He nods at the gun.
“Which’ll only be important if it reaches the right hands, and those hands reopen the case,” Roark says, putting the iPad down and holding out his hand. “So it’s more likely to be a blackmail chip between different organized crime sides. Whoever has it can command money, land. Or bring down the other.”
Seamus hands it over to him.
“What? Is it like the ring?” I ask.
They look at me.
I roll my eyes. “As inLord of the…?”
“No, dipshit,” Torin says. “It’s a tool.”
“A stupid one,” I mutter. “Bringing down someone would require that so-called dead cop.”
“These people know the dead often don’t stay dead, not unless you saw that person die. We know that. If you physically bury someone, you’ll know. Otherwise, all bets are off.” Roark says. “Besides, a bargaining chip doesn’t provide actual power. It just needs people to believe it does.”
And I can’t help but think of the shoot-out in Maspeth, and the people who stormed in. The dead shit was doing drugs, but what if Roja thought Milo had something and had been staking the place out for the missing gun?
“Cal,” I say, “maybe Mario wanted a new start? So he stole the gun and our drugs, then tried to trade them with the gun? Or for the gun, like Gregor’s place was Milo’s hiding spot?”
“Could be,” Roark mutters. “The drugs ended up there and Mario was sloppywith the gun.”
“How do you know that?” I ask. “That’d be like betraying his brother.”
“Do you care, Dec?” Cal asks.
I guess I do. Because I believed Milo loves his brother. I could see him being a man of his word. If he isn’t, then Marlowe is still at risk…
“More likely,” Cal says, “Mario didn’t know what he had. Maybe that shoot-out you stumbled on in Queens was about the gun. Maybe not. But it’s clear both parties know the gun is out there, so we take it out of the equation. It’s lost, gone, and we bury it. Destroy it.”
“We could use it,” Seamus says.
Cal takes in everyone’s faces. “I don’t buy leeway. I keep away from blackmail. If it’s about power, I earn it. Roark is going to help Milo find his brother and we will destroy that gun. Make sure both sides know it’s gone.”
“Like a ceremony?” I ask. “So they know for sure?”
Tor nods slowly. “Could that work, Cal?”
“I don’t want to be fucking involved in any of this shit,but if it gets Milo feeling like he owes us and Roja? That I don’t mind.”
“And we stop a potential war,” I say.
“About Molly’s da,” Roark says. “I’ve been looking further into him. We know Heston’s a gambler, a womanizer who usually dealt with the mafia. They tend to let the rich live if they get something from them. Cartel…that’s a different story. They don’t tend to let people live like that. You owe, you pay, or die.”
“Would he be dumb enough to get in with the cartel?” I ask. “And now be in hiding because of it?”
Roark rubs his chin. “Don’t know, Dec.”
“The cartel isn’t known for leaving people alone if theywant them dead. So he must still be useful to them. You think he played with both sides for gambling?” I ask.
