Rispoli nodded with a scowl on his face. “Shoot you down like a friggin’ bug, these people,” he said. He refused to make eye contact with anyone.
Loretta remembered the rifle barrels she’d thought she’d seen in the trees when they were on the dock. There were snipers and guards hiding all over this place. She glanced at Marvelli and yelled at him in her mind: Now what, genius?
Outside on the grounds Marvelli was still wondering what Loretta and that Carl guy had been doing back in Ron Darcy’s office. As they walked down a dirt path through the pine trees with Rispoli between them, he kept sneaking glances at her when she wasn’t looking. Was that her type? he wondered. The guy looked like a hedgehog.
As they ambled down the incline of the path, Marvelli could see the dock and their boat in the distance. It was about sixty yards away. The problem was, how do they get Rispoli on board and get the hell out of there without getting caught? Of course, he wasn’t so sure Rispoli was going to want to get on. The guy kept giving them the Sicilian eyeball, which Marvelli was very familiar with. His mother-in-law was Sicilian. No people on earth are more suspicious than Sicilians. They invented it.
“So,” Rispoli finally said after not talking for ten minutes, “who sent you? Taffy?”
Loretta’s grim expression turned grimmer. “What’re you talking about, Gus?”
“You came here to whack me, right? Taffy Demaggio must’ve sent you.”
Marvelli said, “You seem pretty calm if you really believe that.”
Rispoli shrugged and took a cigarette out of the pack in his shirt pocket. “You won’t get away with it.” He lit his cigarette from a book of matches and took a long drag. “They’d shoot you down before you took three steps.” Smoke filtered out of his nose.
Loretta grinned, trying to keep it light. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Gus. We’re not here to kill you.”
Rispoli stopped walking, squinted one eye, and took a long drag off his cigarette. “Right now there are at least three rifles aimed at us. You raise a finger against me, they’ll make you Swiss cheese.”
Marvelli scanned the pine boughs swaying in the breeze all around them. He didn’t see anything unusual, but that didn’t mean snipers weren’t up there. He leaned toward Rispoli and whispered: “Are the grounds bugged? Electronic ears? Stuff like that?”
Rispoli scowled. “How the frig should I know? What do I look like, General Electric?”
Marvelli looked up at the trees again. An electronic ear wouldn’t work through branches. Maybe it was safe to talk. He was going to have to risk it.
“Look, Gus, we’re not federal agents. We’re parole officers from Jersey. We’re here to save your butt.”
Rispoli just squinted at Marvelli. He was going to be hard to convince.
“You know a guy named Sammy Teitelbaum?” Loretta asked. “Maybe,” Rispoli said cautiously.
“Taffy gave him the contract to have you whacked,” Marvelli said.
Rispoli shrugged. If he was impressed, he wasn’t going to show it. “This guy gonna do it here?” he asked matter-of-factly. It was more professional curiosity than personal concern.
Marvelli shrugged. “Who knows? Whattaya think, they’re gonna put it in the paper?”
The former hit man nodded. “You got a point.”
“My guess is Sammy will try to get to you in transit,” Marvelli said.
Rispoli nodded sagely. “Vulnerable. Yeah, that’s the way to go.”
The three of them looked out at the blue expanse of the sound. “A sitting duck,” Rispoli said, the cigarette dangling from his lips.
His face suddenly turned stony. “How do I know you two are on the up-and-up?”
“You don’t,” Loretta said. “You just have to trust us.”
A smile broke out under Rispoli’s nose. Marvelli was flabbergasted. He didn’t think the guy could smile. “I don’t trust nobody,” he said.
“You’re in real danger,” Loretta said. “We can help you—”
Rispoli shook his head and laid a hand on her forearm to silence her. Marvelli frowned. He didn’t like Rispoli touching her.
“I’m in no more danger now that I was twenty minutes ago, and I’m still breathing, ain’t I?”
“Bad logic, Gus,” Marvelli said. “Doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.”
Rispoli furrowed his brows. He was offended. “I know that. Whattaya think, I’m stupid?”
“All right, let’s suppose Loretta and I are working for Taffy, and we’re here to whack you. Naturally we can’t do it here. But if we can get you out on the water, we could—”
“If you got that far. The odds aren’t with you.”
“If we kill you, yeah. But what if we keep you alive?” Marvelli said. “You are a very valuable asset. We could use you as a hostage. Make ’em do whatever we want or else we kill you.”
Rispoli’s face relaxed as he started to nod. He was enjoying this. It had been a while since he’d planned something like this, and he was getting into it. “Could work,” he said with a half grin. Then the grin disappeared. “But what’s in it for me?”
“A little fun,” Loretta said. “You must be pretty bored in this place.”
Rispoli raised his eyebrows. “You got that right. But fun ain’t enough. Fun ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
“How about this?” Marvelli said, thinking on the fly. “You help us get you out, then all you have to do is get away from us and you’re a free man. Disappear and set up your own Witness Protection Program. You’ve got six more years to serve, plus if you testify in all the trials the government wants you to, you’ll be on everyone’s hit list.”
“That’s true,” Rispoli said. “I’ll be good for nothing when they get through with me.”
Loretta was making faces at Marvelli because she didn’t approve. She didn’t understand that he wasn’t being serious. He was just telling Rispoli what he wanted to hear to get his cooperation. No way in hell he was going to let Rispoli go free.
“So you wanna take your chances with us,” Marvelli asked, “or do you wanna stay here and be Mr. Popular?”
Rispoli flicked his cigarette away and pulled out a fresh one. He was thinking it over, his eyes cast down. He lit the new cigarette, sucking in his cheeks to get it going, then took a long drag, holding it for a moment as his gaze drifted up to the sky. He slowly exhaled smoke onto the breeze. “Okay,” he said.
“That’s it?” Loretta said. “Okay?”
The hit man shrugged, picking flecks of tobacco off the end of his tongue. “What do you want, a debate? I thought about it enough. Let’s do it.”
“Great,” Marvelli said, then he wiped the smile off his face in case he was being watched. “So how do we do it, Gus?”
Rispoli’s eyebrows shot up, turning his forehead into a washboard. “Whattaya asking me for? I thought you had this all planned out?”
“Well, yeah, in general. We just need some help with the details.”
“Ha!” Loretta rolled her eyes.
Marvelli shot her a dirty look. He needed some support here.
“I’m only asking you, Gus, because you’re sort of an expert in these kinds of illegal things,” Marvelli said. “I mean, we’re just amateurs when it comes to breaking the law.”
Loretta folded her arms indignantly. “Excuse me.”
“Later,” Marvelli said firmly.
“You bet, later,” she said, glaring at him.
Marvelli held his tongue and glanced up at the pine boughs. This wasn’t the time or the place.
Rispoli sighed in annoyance. “You say you got a boat? Is it a good one? Fast?”
“Yeah, it’s not bad.”
“You know how to drive it? I don’t know nothing about boats.”
“Don’t worry. I can handle it,” Marvelli said.
“That’s not good enough. You gotta fly.”
“I’ll fly if we have to. Don’t worry.” But Marvelli was worried. That boat was good,
but it was nothing special.
“Okay, so here’s what we do,” Rispoli said, starting to stroll. “We walk down to the dock. When we get near the water, we move in closer together. I’ll stay behind you two to cover you.” He cast a skeptical glance at Loretta. “If I can.”
Marvelli didn’t like people making cracks about Loretta’s size, and he would have told Rispoli off in short order if he didn’t need the guy so badly right now.
“They won’t shoot if there’s a risk of hitting me.” Rispoli explained. “As you say, I’m too valuable.”
Marvelli exchanged glances with Loretta as they walked down the path, Rispoli between them and slightly behind. She looked as doubtful as he felt.
As they approached the dock, Rispoli hissed into their ears. “Get closer together.”
Marvelli did as he was told, touching shoulders with Loretta.
Another boat was just pulling into the dock, a sleek twenty-five-footer. Rispoli’s eyes were riveted on it. “Let’s take that one,” he said in a low growl. “Looks faster than yours.”
Marvelli wanted to bite his nails, but he kept his hands at his sides. “How do we know it’s got enough gas, Gus? Ours has at least half a tank.”
“Let’s risk it,” Rispoli said as they stepped off the dirt path and onto the planks of the dock. “I like that one better.”
Marvelli avoided Loretta’s glance. His stomach was in a knot. He knew this was nuts, but they’d gone too far to turn back now.
The twenty-five-footer’s throaty engine sputtered out as it glided in toward the dock. On board a man in jeans and a gray sweatshirt was getting ready to throw a line. Another man at the helm was guiding her in.
“Okay,” Rispoli said. “As soon as they get off, we get on. I’ll untie the rope. You get down out of sight, sweetheart,” he said to Loretta. “And you,” he said to Marvelli, “get behind the wheel and tear ass—”
Suddenly a third person appeared on the boat, coming up from down below. It was Agent Springer, inappropriately dressed in a gray suit and black pumps. Her stare instantly went from incredulous to infuriated as she pointed an accusing finger at the three of them.
“Stop them!” she yelled.
Before any of them could react, a marksman rapelled down out of an overhanging pine tree, his M-16 assault rifle trained on Loretta, Marvelli, and Rispoli. The two men on the boat with Springer were pointing Uzi submachine guns at them. Marvelli noticed another gun barrel sticking out of another tree off to the side. An all-terrain vehicle came buzzing down the path, the driver leading with a black matte .45 automatic.
Instinctively Loretta and Marvelli raised their hands above their heads, but Rispoli calmly took one last drag off his cigarette before flicking it into the water where it hit with a hiss. “I guess that plan sucked,” he said.
17
Veronica Springer felt the deck of the boat shifting under her feet as she stared at Gus Rispoli and the two parole officers from New Jersey. Her brain was racing as fast as her pulse. When she’d first spotted Marvelli and his partner, she’d wanted to kill them for having the gall to come here. She’d wanted them arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and locked up immediately. But now she was reconsidering the situation. Maybe this could be an opportunity, she thought. Maybe she shouldn’t be so hasty. This could be a good thing if she steered it the right way.
She climbed up onto the dock and went right over to Rispoli, Marvelli, and his portly partner—Springer could never remember that woman’s name. Springer made eye contact with all three of them. “What’s going on?” she asked in a low voice.
“We’re trying to escape,” Rispoli said, squinting one eye against the smoke drifting into his face from the cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.
Marvelli whispered, “Actually we came to save him.”
“He’s in real danger,” what’s-her-name, the chubby girl, said. “None of you people would listen to us.”
Springer looked at them, each in turn, then glanced at the guards and the deputies and all their guns. The only sounds were the low rumble of the idling all-terrain vehicle and the slap of the waves against the pylons under the dock.
She looked Marvelli in the eye and kept her voice down. “How’d you get in here?”
“We said we were feebies.”
“How’d you pull that off?”
Marvelli didn’t answer. All of a sudden he was trying to grow brains, Springer thought.
But she was the one thinking a mile a minute, looking for the opportunity, the angle. What if she hadn’t arrived when she did? she thought. What if they did manage to spring Rispoli? Well, for one thing it would be a lot easier for Taffy to get to Rispoli if he were free. In fact, Marvelli and what’s-her-name could lead Taffy’s people right to him. This could be very good. Taffy gets rid of the main witness against him, then Taffy turns state’s evidence, and she gets the kudos. This could be excellent.
Springer ignored the guards and deputies and all the firepower. “Show me your IDs,” she said to Marvelli and Loretta, suddenly remembering her name.
“What?” Loretta said.
“Just show me your IDs,” she said, softening her tone a bit.
Reluctantly the parole officers did what she asked. She gave the IDs a cursory glance, then handed them back. “Sorry for the misunderstanding,” she said in a full voice for the benefit of the crowd.
Rispoli raised his eyebrows. Springer could see the confusion behind the parole officers’ pasted-on poker-faces.
“You’re right,” she said softly. “Gus is in danger. I want you to get him out of here.”
Springer turned to the guards and deputies. “My mistake,” she announced. “They’ve been cleared to have Mr. Rispoli.” She flashed an everything’s-okay smile. She outranked all of these men, so they had to listen to her.
Slowly they lowered their weapons.
“Get going,” she whispered to Marvelli. “I’ve got your cellphone number. I’ll call you.”
Marvelli smiled at Springer and started to usher Rispoli to the rented powerboat, but Loretta didn’t get it.
What’s with the sudden change in attitude? Loretta thought suspiciously. What’s Springer up to?
Loretta started shuffling toward their boat. Marvelli was already on board, helping Rispoli get on. Gus made himself comfortable on the bench along the stern of the boat. Springer was looking down at him from the dock, an odd tight smile on her face.
The guard who had arrived on the all-terrain vehicle came over and untied the lines, tossing them on board. At the helm, Marvelli nodded his thanks.
Loretta sidled up behind Marvelli. “ ’What’s going on?” she asked.
Marvelli kept his eyes on the dashboard. “Beats me.” He turned the ignition, and the engine came to life with a loud rumble.
“I don’t think we should trust her,” Loretta said.
“Right now I don’t think we have a choice,” Marvelli said. He turned the wheel and guided the boat away from the dock. Springer was still wearing that terse smile, her eyes glued to Marvelli. Loretta wondered what that was all about. Marvelli looked back at Springer and gave her an equally terse smile accompanied by a two-finger salute.
Marvelli guided the boat out into open water, then opened up the throttle and started to pick up speed. The hull belly flopped over the waves as Marvelli gave it more gas. Rispoli had his legs stretched out and his fingers linked behind his head as if he were on vacation. Sweat had formed on Loretta’s upper lip, but she didn’t dare wipe it away. The guards and deputies were still close enough to see, and she didn’t want to appear nervous.
She went to the bench and sat down next to Rispoli, twisting her body sideways so that she could see the shore. She had a beautiful view of My Blue Heaven and the dirt path that led down to the dock. It could have been a picture postcard. She felt the sweat gathering in her armpits and hoped to God she never saw this place ever again.
But then she noticed a figure at the top of the hil
l, running down the dirt path. She squinted to make out who it was, but they were too far out now. She got up and took the binoculars hanging from a hook over the helm. She couldn’t make out the running figure’s face, but she knew right away who it was from the blue blazer, gray slacks, and the hanging beer belly. It was Carl Dibler, the deputy who’d worked with C. Gibson when she was a he. He was running faster than a man with a gut like that should.
Loretta refocused on the dock. The deputies and guards looked very agitated all of a sudden. They were pointing out over the water—at them.
“Marvelli, I think you’d better step on it,” she said, keeping the binoculars to her face. She could feel a pulse thrumming through her stomach.
“What’s wrong?” Marvelli said.
An alarm went off on shore that sounded like a foghorn on speed. Three seconds later an ungodly engine roar came out of the distance. Loretta scanned the water with the binoculars, frantically looking for its source, but she couldn’t find it.
Rispoli picked up his head. “What the hell’s that?” he barked in annoyance. The noise was spoiling his ride.
18
Loretta wrinkled her nose and scanned the surface of the water through the binoculars, looking for the source of the engine roar. She put down the binoculars to get the big picture, and as soon as she did, she saw it in the distance coming around the edge of the island, a metallic-blue cigarette boat. It was coming after them at top speed, lunging over the surface of the water like a giant stiletto.
“IGG,” Rispoli said, leaning back and lacing his fingers around his bent knee.
“What?” Loretta was starting to panic.
“IGG,” the hit man said casually. “Ill-gotten gain. Must’ve belonged to some drug dealer who got convicted. The government always takes the good stuff for themselves.”
“Marvelli!” she yelled up to the helm. “Can’t you go any faster?”
“I’m doing the best I can here,” Marvelli shouted back. He had both hands on the wheel, alternately turning back to see where the cigarette boat was and looking ahead to see where he could go.
Double Espresso (A Loretta Kovacs thriller) Page 13
