Kearney’s look gave nothing away. “Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. Go on.”
“If you could loan me a small but solid crew of men to watch my back while I work, then all that I am paid, every dollar, I will give to you.”
“That doesn’t sound like a shrewd business plan on your part.”
“I’m not here in America to make money. I’m here to find someone. I’ll work for these other blokes, but only until I find who I came for. When I do, I’ll do what I have to do, and then I’ll go back home.”
“You’re asking me for men. Why is that? I mean to say…most people don’t go to a funeral director when they’re looking for a crew of soldiers.”
“Everyone knows Gerry Kearney runs the syndicate in South Dorchester.”
“Ifeveryoneknew that, I’d be in prison, wouldn’t I? How is ityouknow?”
Coyle shrugged. “I’d heard rumors. I asked around.”
“Asked who?” Kearney said, a deeper tone to his voice.
“Bill Tully, for one.”
The tone remained dark. “Tell me, how is Bill?”
“Good when I ran into him. Not so good when I left him.”
“Sent him to the doctor, did you?”
“Only to pronounce him dead.”
Now Kearney’s eyes narrowed. “You killed him?”
“Aye.”
“Who are you, then? Other than Rory’s son?”
“You know who Rory was, yeah?”
“I do.”
“Well, you might say that I’m a chip off that old block, except I’ve done it for money, not for a cause; I’ve done it all over the world, not just in Ulster and London; and I’ve done it for double the time my da did it before they got him.”
Coyle added, “Nobody’sgot me.”
Gerry Kearney took all this in. “You’re an Irish Republican dissident?”
A shake of the head. “I don’t fight for that lost cause.”
“Then…then you’re some sort of a contract killer.”
“Aye.”
“And you’ve killin’ to do here.”
“Heaps of it, or so they tell me.”
The old man put his hands on his knees, let out a big sigh. “The syndicate here isn’t what it used to be. Twenty-five years ago, we were big. Now we’re a shadow of what we once were. If I’d one hundred men, I’d hand them over to you right now, both for being Rory’s boy and for fucking up Bill Tully. But the truth is—”
Coyle interrupted. “The two who brought me in to see you just now. They’ll do fine. Another pair who look just as keen for action.
“Four men,” Coyle said. “Four capable men is all I ask.”
