Authors: Karen Troxel
“Hello, dear. Surprised to see me?”
***
Monday, 8:05 A.M.
The voice was familiar. His face was not. Kerry’s hand went to her throat in shock. It couldn’t be possible. It wasn’t possible.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, it’s me, dear.”
“But…but, you’re dead. I thought…they told me…”
Her father walked into the hotel room and took in its shabby interior. He shook his head slightly, as if appalled at the condition. Kerry felt the blood in her head swim and the panic rise in her throat. Her eyesight wavered and she knew if she didn’t sit down she was going to pass out.
“My sweet, innocent daughter,” her father said. “Still naive despite everything. I’m surprised, but I guess I shouldn’t be. Your mother was the same way. Always looking for the best in people. Always expecting them to live up to her high standards. She could never understand when someone didn’t. She could never understand why some people wouldn’t want to.”
“But they told me they found your body in the river. Dom had killed you.”
Her father laughed. The laugh convinced Kerry she wasn’t seeing things. It was indeed her father.
“Well, of course they told you that. They are the government after all. They invented the word lie, you know. And they’ve honed it into an art form.”
Kerry, still stunned, started to move forward. “Daddy, what happened? What are you doing here? How did you find us?”
He looked once at the rumpled bed and then started to pull one of the chairs out from the table. The door, which had been partially closed, slammed open against the wall.
“Yes, Daddy, tell us what you’re doing here and how you found us.”
Cutter was there, blocking the doorway and the sunlight. Kerry caught her breath at the sight of him. He had his gun out and pointed directly at her father.
“Oh, maybe I was wrong. You finally have wised up, huh, daughter? You’ve got the cavalry on your side now?”
“Uh, no…well, it’s a long story.” Kerry didn’t know where to turn or who to turn to.
She moved automatically. She couldn’t believe her father was here and the man she’d been mourning for all this time had been alive and well. And living in Elmira?
“Daddy, what’s going on? Why are you here?”
“Daughter, where are your manners. Who’s your young protector here? And what are you doing hanging around with a cop?”
“How do you know I’m a cop?” Cutter asked.
After closing the door, he chose the chair with its back to the wall, forcing her father to take the chair with its back to the door. Cutter also didn’t put his gun away. He wasn’t pointing it directly at her father, but she got the distinct impression he wouldn’t hesitate to point it that way again if necessary.
And her father… Even though she was still having a hard time recognizing this strange-looking man as Willie Bonaface, surely they hadn’t changed his basic personality. And right now, he was cocky, assured and a bit sarcastic. This was not a man she recognized.
“I may not be quite as sharp as I once was, but I haven’t lost all the old instincts. And, my boy, you look, act, talk, and smell like cop. And you know the old saying, ‘If it barks like a dog, then—’”
“You’d better be careful it doesn’t bite you in the ass,” Cutter finished.
Both men smiled, showing a lot of teeth. Kerry shivered again, this time knowing it wouldn’t take much for this encounter to escalate into violence.
“Stop it! Now.” When she looked at her father, he shrugged nonchalantly. When she looked at Cutter, she thought she saw the cold, hard shell of a federal law enforcement officer.
She sank down on the rumpled bed, wishing with all her heart she could go back in time a few hours. Because she had a sinking feeling her life was about to change in a way that could never be altered.
“What’s going on, Daddy? How did you find us?”
Her father glared once more at Cutter, then rubbed his hand against the side of his face. “I’ve been hoping you’d remember and come here,” he said finally. “If you hadn’t arrived this week, I’d have found a way to contact you and brought you here next week. Besides, this is really the only place in town you could stay without the entire area knowing you’re here. I’ve got people looking out for me here.”
“But, Daddy, how did you expect me to find you? I only just remembered it.”
He smiled sadly. “You’re a smart girl. You always have been. Sometimes too smart for your own good. I knew you’d remember eventually. And if you didn’t, I had left something that would lead you here.”
Kerry shook her head. “But where? I didn’t find anything. They wouldn’t let me anywhere near the house.”
He frowned. “What do you mean they wouldn’t let you near the house? They shouldn’t have been able to keep you away.”
“They probably wouldn’t have if your boss hadn’t taken matters into his own hands,” Cutter interjected.
Her father got up and began to pace agitatedly. “What do you mean? Dominic is in jail.”
“Yeah, but before his trial was over, he had some of his boys torch the place. It was just lucky Kerry had already contacted the Bureau. She was already in custody.”
He stopped his pacing and turned to stare at Kerry. “You went to the cops? Why?”
“What was I supposed to do, Daddy? I heard Dom order your execution. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I had it all planned out. All you had to do was wait and be patient. I had the information to get Dom out of the way. You’d have been in the clear and when things died down, I was going to contact you and have you come meet me. We had everything planned out. Besides, I’m not that easy to kill.”
Cutter snorted. “Obviously not. More’s the pity.”
“I’m sorry,” Kerry began, then stopped. “What am I doing? No, I’m not sorry. Why didn’t you tell me? Do you have any idea what I’ve been through the last four years? Do you realize what my life has been like?”
“I’m sorry for that, but I don’t really understand what the problem is,” her father said.
Kerry looked at him and wondered what and who the man she knew to be her father had become. “If you’d stayed with the plan, everything would have been fine.”
“Fine? Fine, you say? I probably would’ve been married to Dom by now. You would have been fine with me as his wife? And how could I stay with a plan I didn’t even know about?”
“Well, of course, you wouldn’t have been married to Dom. Not that it would matter if you were. The government really can’t hold you responsible for your spouse’s actions, especially if you didn’t know what he was doing. It’s spousal privilege or something. But it would never have gotten to that point.”
Kerry felt like screaming or, worse, slapping her father. She had never been this angry with him before. “You can’t guarantee that. You couldn’t have known what was to happen,” she sputtered.
Her father held up his hands, forestalling her further argument. “It doesn’t matter, does it? None of these things happened. You didn’t marry Dom. You went to the authorities. What’s been going on since isn’t so bad. I’ve been in the WitSec all this time and, although it’s a little boring living in such a small town, it’s not deadly.”
Before Kerry could respond, Cutter moved with amazing speed, knocking him back against the door and jamming his forearm in his throat.
“You lousy son of a bitch, do you actually believe Kerry has been sitting in some comfy little ranch house all this time? Can you possibly not understand her life has been in constant danger since she first reported your death?”
Kerry moved, trying to pull Cutter away from her father. It was like a fly attacking a lion.
“Danger? What danger? Didn’t you government boys give her protection?”
Cutter roared. There was no other description for it. “We gave her protection, but it’s hard to protect anyone 24/7. Add in the ten-million-dollar bounty your protégé put on her head and it’s damn near impossible.”
“What do you mean, bounty? Why would Dom put a price on her head?”
“Because, you idiot, the protection for you was excellent. So good in fact the Giancarlo family doesn’t know you’re alive. Hell, we in the Buffalo office didn’t even know you were still alive and all of that kind of information is supposed to come through the regional offices. It’s a way we keep up on things. Your daughter didn’t have the luxury. According to what was released at the trial, she was the stool pigeon.”
“But, but…”
“Don’t give me any buts, old man,” Cutter said grimly. “And don’t try to tell me you didn’t know how this would shake down when you left your daughter to clean up your mess. You’ve been around the game way too long.”
“Daddy, is what Cutter says true? Did you know what would happen?”
He didn’t look into her eyes. Or was it that he couldn’t?
“You weren’t supposed to be in any danger,” he finally muttered. “You weren’t supposed to be in any danger.”
Cutter laughed. It sounded laden with bitterness. Kerry bit back the sob building deep in her throat. In the last seventy-two hours, she had been scared spitless, been lied to, shot at, run ragged, found the man she could truly love, and found courage she hadn’t known she possessed. The only truth she had known had kept her focused on getting justice. Now that truth had shattered as easy as glass struck by a bullet.
Cutter turned away from glaring at her father and looked at Kerry. His gaze softened, and she felt it like a caress. She longed to be able to feel his arms around her, feel his body pressed into hers, and let him take her to a place where nothing so painful could ever touch her.
But wishes were like dreams. They never came true. At least for her.
Straightening her shoulders and throwing her head back, she looked at her father and nodded to Cutter.
“Let him go.” She was proud her voice sounded so strong. “It’s time we figured out this mess.”
Monday, 11 A.M.
Kerry stood tapping her foot impatiently, then looked over at her father and Cutter. The table in the tiny room was littered with maps, pop cans, and cups. Her father had a laptop and had all his digital files as well as what they’d pulled from her flash drive. But having his mind was even more helpful. They had been slowly, steadily putting together the pieces of the puzzle that faced them.
Kerry looked at her father differently now. Although part of her was appalled at what he’d done, another part held grudging respect.
“So, you’re telling us no one knows about this evidence against Dom you have hidden in the crypt?”
“That’s right,” her father said. “One thing I learned at my Daddy’s knee, God rest his rotten soul, was always keep an ace in the hole. This is my ace.”
“And you didn’t tell your handler anything about this?” Cutter asked, a slightly incredulous sound to his voice.
“They never asked. And anyway, it’s not like I ever really trusted these government boys. If you ask me, they’re just a gang like the Giancarlos. They just have a lower budget for clothes and cars.”
Kerry held up her hand, forestalling the retort she knew Cutter was ready to fire back at her father.
“When Dom was only charged with tax fraud, you didn’t think it was necessary to tell your contacts about this information then?”
Her father looked confused, as if he’d never even considered it. “Why would I do that?”
“Certainly not to save your daughter some grief,” Cutter muttered.
“Look, the government tax case against Dom was golden. And the IRS doesn’t back off an inch. They’re not about to make any sweetheart deals. And I knew this information would still be good when Dom got out. There’s no statute of limitations on murder, especially not when it involves law enforcement personnel.”
“You want to send Dom back to jail?”
“Hell, yes. I want to make it so he spends as much time as possible behind bars. It’s the least he deserves.”
Kerry felt a little spark in heart. Maybe her father wasn’t as callous about what she’d been through as she thought. His next words dashed her hopes.
“That bastard set me up take the fall for everything. And then wasn’t even going to pay me. That’s why he wanted to kill me, can you believe it? Because I wanted to get a higher fee per job.”
“How long have you had this information?” she asked, trying not to think about the fact the jobs her father had been doing for Dom involved killing other people. She would not allow her hurt feelings to show. No matter how much she wanted them to. Her father was being businesslike. So was Cutter. She would be as well, even if it killed her.
“Well, I started collecting it about ten years ago,” her father said. “Almost as soon as Mr. Giancarlo Senior told me he was bringing Dom into the organization and Dom was going to be taking over completely. Up until then, I had hoped Mr. Giancarlo Senior would do the right thing and let his younger son handle things. Now that boy, he was someone I could deal with. He was a gentleman. He understood how things worked in the old days. He understood about traditions. It was terrible when he was killed. I don’t have proof, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Dom ordered that hit as well.”
“What was it you didn’t like about Dom?” Cutter asked, interrupting Willie’s trek down memory lane.
“I’d worked with Dom a couple of times when he was still in school. Penny ante stuff mostly, but the old man asked me to look after him, show him the ropes.”
“And when Papa Giancarlo asked you to do something, you didn’t say no, right?” Cutter asked.
“No. He was special. We understood each other.”
“What? There’s a gangster code?” Cutter’s disdain was obvious.
“Certainly we had a code. But the young guns coming up, they don’t understand that. Dom certainly never did. And he has a nasty streak in him.”
“And this is the man you wanted me to marry?” Kerry tried to keep the shrillness out of her voice. She was only partially successful.
“Of course not. But Dom wanted you. Until you came back from Switzerland, he’d been telling his father I needed to be retired. I didn’t have enough information on him, though, and I needed more time. You seemed enamored of him, so it seemed like a harmless fling. Besides, I knew his mamma would put a stop to it before it got very far. We weren’t high enough on the food chain to make you a suitable wife for Dom. I was surprised it got all the way to the dress-buying stage frankly.”
Kerry thought she had heard everything. Less than five hours ago, she had believed nothing else her father could say would surprise her. Less than sixteen hours ago, she’d have given anything just to be able to talk to him one more time.
Both times, she had been wrong. She couldn’t stay inside this room with him a minute longer. She turned and marched out the door.
“Kerry, wait,” Cutter called.
“Oh, let her go,” she heard her father say. “She’s just going to be weepy for a while. Her mother was like that, you know.”
Kerry didn’t wait for Cutter’s reply. She just opened the door and ran outside exposing herself in the process.
***
Monday, 1:30 p.m.
It wasn’t hard to find Kerry, although, for a moment, Cutter had been a little desperate. Then he heard the sound of water. It was a slight sound because the Chemung River wasn’t anybody’s idea of wild water, especially as it curved around the city of Elmira. Cutter admitted to himself it was really more of the smell that drew him. And since he’d known Kerry, a part of him had realized she was inexplicably drawn to water, despite her fear of drowning. When this was all over, maybe they’d move to Lewiston in Niagara County where the Niagara River had gouged out a deep, breathtaking gorge over eons of time. Or hell, he’d take her to the Pacific or the Atlantic or any body of water in-between. He’d build her a castle and they could live out their lives making love and babies.
As he watched her sitting on the bank and watching the water, Cutter realized that was what he wanted for her and himself. For a second—a terrible second—he wanted to gather her in his arms and just run as far and as fast as he had to. Anything to keep her away from what they had to face before they could move forward.
Although he knew Kerry sensed his presence, her gaze remained fixed on the slow-moving water.
“It won’t work, you know.” Kerry spoke as if she’d read his thoughts. Perhaps she had. He knew he felt a closer connection to her than he had ever felt to anyone—even Helen. “I’ll never be free. I’ll never be safe if we don’t finish it here and now.”
He sat beside her and took her hand, kissing her fingers. “I know it hurts. Your father is just—”
“A criminal,” she finished. “I know. But he’s still my father. I know now that he’s capable of doing all the things you told me he did. I know he’s capable of cold-blooded murder.”
“Yes. But I also believe he has his own code of honor. Dom Giancarlo violated that somehow.”
Kerry was quiet for a moment. “So what’s our best plan for finishing this?”
Cutter kissed her fingers again. “As your father told us, the evidence is planted in a cemetery crypt here in Elmira. It’s about a quarter of a mile from here. I think we should go there tonight when no one is around, get the information, and then head back to Buffalo.”
“Who are we going to give it to?”
“Well, if what your father says is true, the information should tell us who the mole inside my office is. Once I find out, we can turn it into the chief in Washington. We also should have enough to get Dom’s ass thrown back in jail. This time for good.”
“And if it is your boss Denver? What will you do then? Who can you turn this over to?”
Cutter looked out over the water. It was looking more and more like it was Denver. He was the only person in the office who had the authority to juggle so many balls in the air. For a minute he considered telling Kerry the part he’d been holding back. The case within the case he’d been working before he ever met her.
He opened his mouth, then closed it again. No use in muddying the waters. It would just confuse her even more. “If it is Denver, we take it to the top. Arlington and DC. It’ll be up to them to clean up the mess,” he said instead.
“And then it’ll be over?”
Cutter heard the simple need in her voice. She was such a courageous little thing, but she couldn’t hide the emotion from him.
“Yes. I promise. And when it’s over, you’ll never have to run again. That’s a promise I can guarantee.” He stopped speaking. He wasn’t certain he should say the rest. He didn’t doubt his own feelings, but he was full of doubts about hers. It was better to wait until it was all done and she finally felt safe. Then he’d tell her of his love.
“Well, that’s a guarantee I’ll hold you to,” Kerry said, smiling. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
Cutter reached into his pocket and pulled out an old flip top cell phone. “Willie gave me this. You brought the gun I gave you earlier, right?”
“Yes.” Kerry’s reluctance was obvious. “I don’t really know how to use it.”
“That’s okay. With that piece, you don’t have to know. Once you turn the safety off, then just point it and fire. The goal is to buy you some time.” He showed her where the safety was and how to deactivate it.
“But if I’m going to be with you, why do I need it?”
“You’re not going to be with me.” Cutter looked out at the river for a moment. “Here’s my plan. I’m going to go inside the crypt with Willie. He knows exactly where the stuff is stored and it should be a quick in and out. I want you to stay in the car and wait for us. That way, if you see anybody or anything, you can get help.”
“Oh.” Kerry’s voice couldn’t hide her disappointment.
“Listen. This is the best plan. I’ve been trained and know how to handle myself. Your father certainly can handle himself. You just told me you’ve never handled a gun. Being the lookout is the natural job for you.”
“You don’t want me to mess things up.” Her tone and her face told Cutter everything.
“No, I don’t want you to be in harm’s way.” Cutter sighed. “Look, it’s not that I don’t trust your father, but I don’t. I’m not certain he hasn’t told someone else about this. I’m not certain we couldn’t be walking into an ambush.”
Kerry gasped. “But if you think that, why are you risking yourself?”
“Because there’s a chance your father is telling the truth and he does have the information we need to break this case wide open. But the only way to find out is to get that information.”
“Why couldn’t we just send him after it and wait for him to come back?”
Cutter laughed. “I don’t think so. I don’t trust him.”
“You think he’d get the information and then leave us?” she asked.
“It’s possible,” Cutter allowed.
“If he were going to do that, why hasn’t he done it long before now? Why wait for us?”
“I don’t know. Remember, Dom is just now getting out of prison. Maybe Willie wanted to wait until his term was up before reopening this bag of worms. I don’t know.”
Cutter took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “Look, I’m not saying it’s likely he’s going to double-cross us. I’m just saying we can’t trust him completely not to ditch us.”
“So you’re damned if you do this and damned if you don’t,” Kerry said on a sigh.
“No, I’m using my ace in the hole—you.” He kissed her. After a few moments, he raised his head. “Damn, I don’t like this. I wish there was any other way out of this. I wish I could take you in my arms and forget this all existed.”
Kerry sighed and rubbed her hand over his chest. “I know. I do too. But we’d better get back to the business at hand.” She looked back at the slow-moving river. “So tell me what you want me to do.” She took the gun from him and held it gingerly in her hands. “And how to use this, just in case. If you’re brave enough to give me a gun and trust me as your backup, I’m brave enough to give it a shot.”
At his pained look, she winced. “Sorry about that. No pun intended.”
Cutter kissed her again. “You’re wonderful. I don’t think I’ve told you that enough. But I promise, after this is over, you’re going to hear it so much you’re going to get sick of it.”
***
Midnight
Kerry watched until Cutter and her father were enveloped by the shadow of the cemetery. It only took a few seconds. She sat in the silent car and tried not to think about the small pistol on the seat beside her. If she hadn’t long ago given up on believing her prayers were ever answered, she would have sent one out right now.
Instead, she tried to listen and see what her eyes were never meant to penetrate. She was nervous about the whole plan, but she didn’t feel panicked. Instead, she just wished the whole thing was over.
The car windows were down, letting in the smell of freshly mowed grass, now wet from the night humidity, turned dirt probably from an open grave plot nearby, and flowers. The flower smell was so overpowering Kerry knew it was something she would never forget.
What was suspiciously absent was the sound of any night insects or small creatures. With Cutter and her father both gone, she wondered if she was the only person left on the earth.