Ringo shrugged.“It’s open-ended.If the acquisition goes through, I’ll have to stay for maybe a year or more.Then again, it might fall apart tomorrow.The owner died.Now it’s being decided by committee, and lawyers.”
Casey grunted in commiseration.He hated lawyers.Not only the ones that had cheated him out of good collars back in the day, but when he was fighting for his pension, those particular assholes screwed him over.The shitstorm was his partner’s fault, but internal affairs thought Casey should have noticed and said something.Therefore, they fought to strip him of his life’s work and all the compensation due it.Luckily, he’d had the family bar to fall back on.Otherwise, he would have been left with nothing.
Good ex-cop he was, Casey lobbed another noose.“Which business if I may ask?”
Ringo smiled.“Commerciare di Conti.”
I froze.He’d added all the right-sounding accents in the words and everything.
“Conti Commercial Incorporated?”Casey’s face fell.His eyes shifted to mine.There were all sorts of silent warning bells and lights and whistles going off in his.“Are you sure your company wants to buy that mess?I heard the owner was murdered.”
“Yes.That’s what our company heard as well.”
Casey shifted to study Ringo.He wore his hastily-donned and wrinkled dress pants, but his bare feet and chest spoke volumes.His rumpled hair wasn’t that way on purpose.There were slight circles under his eyes.
But I’m sure Casey was looking at his hands and arms.Tiny scars from fights told a grisly story of Ringo’s true business.That eight-inch stripe on his flank told another.
“Which company is that?”
Ringo rattled his words off with a smile that even I could tell was faked.“Intesa sa Filonzana di Finanziario e Commerciale.”
Casey’s fingers twitched.He probably wanted to reach for the little notebook he used to carry everywhere.Once I bought the bar, he stopped carrying it in his breast pocket.
“You’re Italian.”
Ringo laughed at Casey, a real one this time.“Does Devlin sound Italian to you?”
With wary eyes, Casey admitted, “No, it sounds Irish.”
That earned a nod.“My mother, not a saint, that’s for sure, was from Dunmurry.Slipped off to London at age fifteen.Hopped to America and landed a rich music producer husband by age thirty.Somewhere in there before the rich guy, and after more than a lifetime of parties, I was born.The second she got money, she shipped me off to a boarding school where I met a bunch of Italian prep boys who needed a little street sense.Luckily, I found one who didn’t.He became my best friend, and now I work with him.”
“Dunmurry, huh?”Casey asked.As if, in that info dump, it was the most important thing.
“Yep.”
Casey shifted in his seat.“My great-grandparents are from Banbridge, just a ways south of there.”
Ringo changed stance.“Have you been there?”
My ex-boss smiled, and it lit him up from inside.“Twice since I left the force.Traveled all over the island the first time.But the second, I concentrated on finding kin in the northern half.Not difficult with the surname Kelly.You toss a stick and you hit one.”
Ringo’s smile fell.“I’ve never been closer than Edinburgh.”His brow creased.
He’d spoken of his mother once.It wasn’t flattering to put it kindly.I wondered if there was family who’d embrace him, or like most things in his life, he’d be shunned.
8
Ringo
After dropping Ellie off at the bar, I drove downtown.The Conti business, running under the simplified initials of CCI, occupied the fifteenth floor of an office building near the river.It had eight conference rooms, two co-working open spaces divided by a common area that was more lounge than office, and a reception atrium that resembled a spa, not a business.
Those couches looked comfortable.
It was a front, plain and simple.
I needed to talk to Mario about this.He’d been here a month ago and probably figured out exactly how to fix the structure and money flow before he even met with Adelmo.
Heck, he should be here.Not me.This wasn’t my forte.I’d been groomed for messier battlefields than boardrooms.I requested a conference space for the call, and was led to a private room.
