A steady trickle of people began leaving the building from dawn until around nine a.m., after which it slowed considerably.
Not one of the people Benny had seen had been Coulter.
But Benny had expected this. At Coulter’s age and with the kind of money he and his wife had, there was little need for him to go anywhere so early in the morning.
A couple minutes before ten, a Mercedes-Maybach pulled up in front of the building. Soon after, a doorman opened thebuilding’s entrance and an older woman stepped out, followed by a beautiful younger woman with curly brown hair that fell to her shoulders.
Benny was so busy eyeing her that he didn’t realize a third person had exited with them until the doorman called out, “Mr. Coulter!”
Jack Coulter paused a few steps from the Mercedes and looked back at the entrance. The doorman hurried over and handed Coulter a manila envelope. He and Coulter exchanged a few words, then the doorman returned to the building and Coulter climbed into the Mercedes.
“Well, dammit,” Benny said.
He’d thought he’d been so smart coming up with the chalk trick, but Coulter hadn’t gone near either mark. Now Benny was going to have to wait for him to come back, and who knew how long that would be.
As Benny was stewing over this, Coulter’s doorman exited the building again, a broom and dust bin in hand, and began sweeping along the wall. Within a couple steps, he was standing next to one of the chalk marks. It was above him by a good three inches.
Benny cocked his head.
A few moments prior, that same doorman had been standing next to Coulter. When they’d spoken, they’d been almost eye to eye. The doorman had been the shorter of the two, but not by more than an inch or two at most.
Which put Coulter right in the Johnny Fratelli sweet spot.
Benny returned to his officeand spent the next few hours working his sources for more information.
When he felt he had enough, he called Gennaro.
“Yeah?” Gennaro’s sister answered.
“Hey, Rosa. It’s Benny Gilmore. Ricky’s expecting my call.”
“Hold on.”
Half a minute later, Gennaro came on the line. “Tell me you have good news.”
“I think I do,” Benny said.
“You think?”
“You want something concrete, you’re going to need a DNA test.”
“Fair enough. So?”
“Everything I’ve found points to Coulter being Fratelli.”
“Hot damn! You’re sure?”
“I already told you, nothing’s for sure. Here’s what I know. Coulter’s the right height, and he looks like an aged version of Fratelli. Not counting his nose, but I’m thinking rhinoplasty.”
“Rhino what?”
“Plasty. It means he got a nose job.”
“Right. I knew that.”
“There’s more. Before a few years ago, no one had ever seen Coulter.”
“You’re kidding?”
