Deadly Diamonds (34 page)

Harry screamed back at him. “With me? With me? What wrong with you? You think you do this to me? To me?”

They were face-to-face and screaming. Harry was acting, but Kevin was practically in hysterics. “Those diamonds are good. What are you yelling about?”

Harry held the fist with the diamond up into Kevin's face. “You still lie. I catch you, and you still lie. I show you your good diamond!”

Harry hauled back. He threw the diamond against the wall with all of his force. Kevin gaped at the sight of his diamond shattering into a million pieces against the wall and sprinkling crystal dust over the rug.

Harry grabbed the leather bag out of Kevin's hand. He opened it, took another stone out of the bag, and threw it with the same force against another wall. It shattered in a spray the same as the first.

Kevin's mouth just hung open as he edged his way along the wall toward the door. I could hear the goon Kevin brought with him pounding on the other side of the heavy door.

Harry followed him along the wall screaming. “You cheat me! Glass! You think you cheat me! You not see the sun tomorrow!”

Kevin reached the door. He fumbled for the knob, unlocked the door, and pulled it open. When the door flew in, the goon on the other side came tumbling off balance into Kevin. In one panicky struggle, Kevin fought to get out past him, while the goon fought to get in. For a few seconds, they were locked in the grip of each other. Neither of them was going anywhere.

In the uproar, neither of them could tell, but at some point, Harry stopped screaming Chinese and started laughing himself helpless at the scene. He broke totally out of character. He was doubled over in uncontrollable laughter. Thank God, before they noticed, the two got their act together and beat the hastiest retreat they could manage.

When he could just about straighten up, Harry pushed the door closed. By then, I was in the room, catching Harry's fits of laughter that kept us speechless for the next two minutes.

I bolted the door in case they came back for the other pieces of glass, unlikely as that seemed.

The two of us finally fell on the sofa in sheer exhaustion. Harry said in unaccented English, “I don't think that kid's got a career in crime.” That set us off again.

“Harry, you are more than a piece of work. You are an Olympic thespian.”

The smile still hadn't left his face. “Most fun I've had since Chinese New Year.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Before Harry and I left the Parker House, I called Seamus's cell phone. He had been working on another piece of the puzzle. His chosen assignment was to pick up and hold for a bit of private conversation Tommy Franzone, whose belt had been notched with the murder and trunk stuffing of Salvatore Barone.

“What luck, Seamus?”

“No luck to it. Either you know what you're doing, or you don't.”

“Does that little piece of modesty mean what I think it does?”

“It means that Mr. Franzone has accepted our gracious invitation to chat.”

“How gracious was the invitation?”

“Under RSVP, there was just one choice. How'd it go there?”

“Perfect. Harry pulled it off like a Chinese Clint Eastwood.”

“Meaning?”

“Young Mr. O'Byrne is now thoroughly convinced that the diamonds have magically slipped out of his possession. When he catches his breath, he's going to run through the cast and figure out who has them. He won't know how it happened, but eventually he'll figure it out that I found them. When he gets that far, he'll know that I switched them for the twenty-two pieces of rough glass I picked up in Antwerp before we left.”

“Awesome.”

“God willing, that'll set up the next two acts of our little drama.”

“Where are you now?”

“Parker House. Harry and I are just leaving. Where do I meet you?”

“Cabin 6. East Coast Motel. It's on Route 1 in Saugus. I thought neutral territory would be best for all parties. Mr. Franzone has graciously agreed to await your arrival.”

“I won't keep him waiting. See you in twenty minutes.”

“Whoa there! You don't leave that phone till you tell me how the hell you figured out where he hid the diamonds.”

“Remember after we saw that cottage torn apart, we both thought there was something peculiar about it? I finally figured out what it was. It was too thorough. There was not a single possible hiding place for the diamonds that wasn't not only torn apart but laid open for anyone like us to see. It was like the stage was set.”

“Set for what, Michael?”

“For you and me—most probably me—to look at it and say those diamonds are definitely not here. Then we'd write it off and go chasing wild geese somewhere else. In fact that was my first thought. It was a perfect hiding place.”

“So, what brought you back?”

“When we heard that Kevin didn't have the diamonds with him in Antwerp, I knew he needed someplace to stash them till he could make a deal with that diamond dealer he'd never met before. As he told Mr. Schlichternlein, it was someplace he needed two days to get to and then back to Antwerp. His father was clearly in on it too. He was so confident we'd take one look at that cottage and walk away, he even gave me the location in New Hampshire.”

“So where were they?”

“The only logical place.”

“You're draggin' this out, Michael. Where the hell were they?”

“You remember I told you Frank arranged a signal to contact Kevin on the cottage phone? And you remember after we ducked the shotgun blast, I went back in and hit redial and got Frank? It finally hit me that the only thing in the whole place that wasn't cracked and laid open was that big old-fashioned wall phone. Why did they leave the phone intact?”

“To hide the diamonds. You're a damn genius, Michael. It's a pleasure to be riskin' my neck with you. I've not said that to many.”

“I appreciate the honor, Seamus. I've never taken great pleasure in neck risking with anyone, but I'll say this. You come the closest.”

Within twenty minutes I knocked on the door of cabin 6. Seamus opened the door.

“Tommy boy awaits your pleasure.”

“Good. Let's not keep him waiting.”

I was surprised to walk in on a very disconsolate Tommy Franzone, tied to a chair like a standing rib roast. His expression was halfway between highly pissed and frantically counting the number of minutes he had left on this earth. If I could have ordered up a state of mind for him, that would have been it.

“Tommy, we meet again. It always seems to be under unpleasant circumstances. Especially for you.”

Now I had his full attention. “What the hell you want from me?”

“That will become clear almost immediately. But, to put first things first, I actually have hopes that you'll walk out of here in good health, not much the worse for wear. Do we share that wish?”

He just stared. I saw a glimmer of hope in his eyes. I played on it.

“I'd like to hear you join in the conversation, Tommy. You probably guessed there's a condition. Would you like to hear it?” I saw the look of hope diminish, but still glimmer faintly.

“What do you want?”

“Now we're conversing. You probably guessed. I want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They say that in court. You may be in court one day soon. You see, you are smack in the middle of two powerful entities. One or the other is absolutely going to be a threat to your life. You have to decide which. If you pick the right one, I may be able to improve the chances you'll go on living. What do you think of that?”

His panicked expression almost made the words unnecessary. “I don't know what the hell you're talking about.”

“I know you don't, Tommy. So let me lay it out as clearly as I can. Then, you get to choose. Are you listening carefully?”

His open-mouthed stare answered that one.

“Let's look at it this way. Either you killed Salvatore Barone and stowed him in his trunk or you didn't.”

“I told you once. I did it. What the hell you want from me?”

I held up a silencing hand. “Let's pretend that question is still open. Now here's the split. Kevin O'Byrne is already indicted for that murder. If you stick to your story that you killed Barone, Kevin will certainly know it. You can bet your life, literally, that he'll be happy to lay the whole rap on you. That means the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will be looking to lock you up in a maximum-security prison for the rest of your life. And that may not last too long. The boys in your club all the way up to Antonio Pesta will have a personal interest in clamming you up just in case you decide to go for a lighter sentence by flipping on the bigger fish. You'll be a sitting duck in prison. Are we on the same page for that half?”

“You told me before I wouldn't have any legal problems.”

“From me, Tommy. And you won't. The O'Byrnes will be frying your legal ass without any help from me to get Kevin off. Are we ready for part two?”

Again the slack-open jaw said yes.

“Okay. On the other side we have the man who demands all your loyalty, the same Don Antonio Pesta. If it turns out that you didn't kill Barone, that would mean Kevin killed him and you made some kind of deal with Kevin and the Irish mob that night at the beach in South Boston. Maybe it's just me being oversensitive, but that could sound like rank treason to Mr. Pesta. He seems to expect unconditional loyalty to his Italian organization. Once again, I don't think I'd write any insurance policies on your life. Are we clear on that half?”

His breathing was becoming more shallow and rapid. “I did kill him. Just like Mr. Pesta told me.”

“You took that gun you've been carrying, and you shot him right in the back of the head, right?”

“That's right.”

“Then I'd like to hear you explain to Mr. Pesta how you shot him
with your .38-caliber handgun, and he died of a .22-caliber hollow-nose bullet to the brain. The only bullet in him. So says the autopsy.”

I let the silence hang to give him time to absorb his dilemma. I walked over to Seamus. “Have you got a cigarette?”

His eyebrows went up. “Has all this crap driven you to smoke?”

I winked. He pulled out a Marlboro.

“How about a light, Seamus?”

Again the eyebrows. “Right. How you fixed for socks and underwear?”

“I'm good. Just a light.”

He fired me up. I took one deep, dramatic drag that would have done Al Pacino proud, and nearly coughed up my shoelaces. I resolved to stick to other dramatic devices.

In spite of my antics, Tommy was still on the verge of panic.

“So, we have two choices here, Tommy. It's decision time. We can simply cut you loose and open the door. You can walk out into a world that has one death or another waiting no matter where you turn. That's one choice. There's another.”

He was able to manage one word. “What?”

“Right now. You tell us the absolute truth about what happened that night with Barone. I mean not one whisker out of line. I'll know the truth when I hear it.”

He just breathed for five seconds. “What if I do?”

“You get to start life all over again. You cut loose all the baggage of a life of mistakes. I think you got yourself sucked into this rathole with a couple of wrong moves and couldn't get out. I could be wrong. I don't think you're really part of that gang of murdering miscreants. If I'm right, this is your absolutely last chance to get clean.”

He looked me full in the eyes for the first time. “How?”

“I get you into the witness protection program. A totally new life, courtesy of the federal government. No one can touch you. I can do it.”

Another few seconds. The sweat beads on his forehead were growing. He finally said it in one exhaled breath. “Yeah.”

“Yeah what?”

“I want it.”

“Then buy the ticket right now. What really happened that night? Complete truth.”

He licked his lips while he was thinking back.

“I was with Mr. Barone. He was my capo. You know what that is?”

“Yes.”

“He just got back from someplace in Ireland. He was showing us these diamonds he bought from some guy over there. He was gonna sell 'em to O'Byrne, the Irish guy. He was braggin' about makin' enough to take over the family from Mr. Pesta. Anyway, he makes a call to O'Byrne. The father. He's not there. He's out of state somewhere. His kid takes the call. The kid says he wants into the father's business. Wants to show his father he can handle things. He sets up the meet with Barone at Carson Beach in Southie.”

“Where was Kevin going to get the money to pay Barone for the diamonds?”

“I don't think he ever intended to pay for them. I think he was going to show Daddy he was ready by popping Barone and stealing the diamonds.”

“So what happened?”

“I went to Mr. Pesta. I told him about Barone and him takin' over. Mr. Pesta liked that I told him. He said he'd give me a chance to make my bones. He told me to kill Barone like the traitor he was and bring him back in his own trunk. Then he'd get the diamonds off his body.”