Page 117
“Because some years ago, the same guy did a double murder in Sheepshead Bay.”
“Mr. Lamming.”
“Yeah.”
“You know this cop?”
“Know his rep. Met him once.”
“Let me think on it.”
“Hello?” Ilsa Lund answered drowsily.
“Hey, Ilsa, it’s Joe. I need to talk to him.”
I understood why she would never warm to me. Ms. Lund was an executive nurse and used to being in control of everything in her immediate domain. Even doctors and administrators had to pay attention to her strictures and doubts. And there I was, trampling over her dominion like some goose-stepping foreign invader crushing her flower garden under hobnail boots.
“Joe?” Arman said.
“Sorry to get you up, Arman. I just wanted to call you back after hangin’ up like that.”
“That’s okay. I was awake. What you got?”
“Putting together a plan to stop Malto and maybe Junior too.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I’d like to tell you, Mr. Babylon, but, you know, if I don’t say it, then no one can overhear.”
“I’m not used to sittin’ back and lettin’ other people solve my problems.”
“You did hire me.”
“That was different. I just needed you to find Twyla. You done that already.”
“What I intend to do won’t take more than two or three days. The reason I’m callin’ is to ask if you can wait that long.”
After two snorts and a sigh, he said, “Maybe.”
The next call was to Olo.
“Hello, Joe?”
“How’s it goin’?”
“Okay. I moved out of our hotel, figured that there was no need to let the hyenas get behind me. You locate our boys?”
“Both of ’em. They’re hiding behind high walls, and maybe more.”
“So, what’s next?”
I told her the plans and plays thus far on the board.
“That sounds great. I mean, if you don’t take too many chances yourself.”
“Feels like it’s got to be done.”
“I agree. I mean, you see, Joe, this is the kinda work I like. It was never satisfying having people in the head office tellin’ me what to do and when to cut bait and run. And men like this Lamming, they never have to answer for what they’ve done. They offer somebody a hundred thousand dollars, or a million, and they get the right lawyers, and the right cops got wives with cancer, and suddenly nobody remembers what it was that went down.
