Chương 6
“People,” Marco said.
Tony looked at him.
Marco continued. “Dario worked a garment operation in Jersey after we sent him away. Women brought in on work promises. Passports taken. Sal knew.”
“How do you know?”
“My cousin got offered security work there.”
“And you didn’t mention it?”
“It wasn’t ours.”
Vincent looked at him.
Marco’s expression remained controlled, but a vein moved near his temple. “That was what I told myself.”
The kitchen refrigerator hummed.
Teresa returned alone. “She’s lying down. Not sleeping.”
Vincent said, “We need someone in law enforcement.”
“You have plenty,” Tony replied.
“Someone we don’t own.”
That removed the irony from Tony’s face.
Marco understood first. “Reed.”
Detective Mara Reed had spent four years trying to connect Vincent to extortion, illegal gambling, bribery, and two disappearances he had not ordered but had benefited from. She had never taken money, never accepted dinner, and once waited outside his mother’s funeral to serve a subpoena because she knew he would attend.
Vincent respected her in the way one respected a locked door.
“She hates you,” Tony said.
“She hates Sal too.”
“She hates all of us.”
“That saves time.”
Vincent called from a number Reed would recognize.
She answered after five rings.
“This better be a confession.”
“I need to meet.”
“It’s three in the morning.”
“A woman named Elena Martinez was abducted Monday night.”
A pause replaced Reed’s sarcasm.
“Her daughter reported it,” Vincent continued. “Detective Peter Harlan returned the child to the crime scene and told her the mother left voluntarily.”
“Where is the child?”
“Safe.”
“With you?”
“Safe.”
“Torino, I am going to ask again.”
“Not on the phone.”
“Put the child on.”
“No.”
Her breath sharpened. “You have thirty seconds before I start waking judges.”
“Hunts Point. Torino Imports. Loading bay forty-two. Elena found something in the invoices. Dario Vale and Gus Serrano took her.”
“Those are your people.”
“They were.”
“And Rinaldi?”
Vincent said nothing.
Reed’s voice changed. “Where do we meet?”
An all-night diner near LaGuardia sat nearly empty beneath fluorescent lights. A cabdriver slept in a booth with his forehead against the window. Two airport employees in reflective jackets split a plate of fries. A waitress polished a clean section of counter because there was nothing else to do.
Reed arrived alone in plain clothes, her dark hair pulled into a low knot, a navy coat buttoned to her throat. She did not sit until she had looked at Vincent, Tony, Marco, the exits, and the hands of every customer in the room.
“You brought backup,” she said.
“I brought witnesses.”
“To what?”
“Your good conduct.”
She slid into the booth opposite him. “Where’s Sophie Martinez?”
“At a private residence.”
“You are not her guardian.”
“Neither is Harlan.”
“I asked where she is.”
“And I told you what I’m willing to tell you.”
Reed stared at him. Fatigue had darkened the skin beneath her eyes, but her attention remained precise.
“Start at the beginning.”
Vincent told her about the alley, the five dollars, Dario, Gus, Harlan, the coded worksheet, the warehouse, and Sal’s reaction. He left out Teresa’s address, the names of certain employees, and the fact that his men had entered Elena’s apartment.
Reed listened without writing.
When he finished, she said, “You contaminated the apartment.”
“My men wore gloves.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“They photographed what they saw.”
“Which a defense attorney will describe as photographs created by organized criminals who had time to arrange the scene.”
“They didn’t arrange it.”
“You expect me to establish that because Vincent Torino gave his word?”
“No. I expect you to do your job.”
Her eyes narrowed. “My job begins with getting that child into legitimate protection.”
“Your department delivered her back to the men searching for her.”
“One detective did.”
“One detective wearing your badge.”
“Do you want to trade institutional failures? I brought a notebook.”
The waitress approached with coffee. Reed declined. Vincent ordered one. Tony asked for eggs, then changed his mind when Reed looked at him.
After the waitress left, Reed leaned forward.
“If Harlan is involved, I need proof. If Rinaldi is involved, I need more than a seven-year-old hearing a name. If there’s an active kidnapping, every hour matters, and every move you make outside the law can get Elena killed.”
“Every hour has already mattered for three days.”
“Because nobody told me.”
“The child told your department.”
Reed’s jaw shifted. “Give me her location.”
“Find Elena first.”
“No.”
Vincent sat back.
Reed continued. “You don’t get to use a child as leverage.”
“I’m not.”
“You are keeping her hidden until I perform something for you.”
“I’m keeping her alive until I know which policemen sell children back to kidnappers.”
The cabdriver stirred in the next booth, raised his head, then returned it to the glass.
Reed lowered her voice. “There are six thousand people in this department.”
“And I only need one honest enough to admit five thousand nine hundred ninety-nine may not know what Harlan knows.”
“You think honesty means trusting you?”
“No. It means distrusting everyone carefully.”
The waitress set down Vincent’s coffee. His hands remained around the cup without drinking.
Reed looked at Marco. “You entered the apartment?”
Marco said, “I observed it.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the answer you’re getting.”
“I can arrest you.”
“Yes.”
Tony looked between them. “This is productive.”
Reed ignored him. “What do you want, Torino?”
“To find Elena before Sal moves her.”
“And afterward?”
Vincent thought of the worksheet on Teresa’s kitchen table. Torino Imports. Monday. Forty-two.
“Afterward,” he said, “you can decide how much of my life you want to ruin.”
Reed gave a humorless laugh. “You still think that decision belongs to me.”
She took a small notebook from her pocket.
“Tell me everything about loading bay forty-two.”
May you like
They left the diner at four sixteen with an arrangement neither side trusted.
Reed would check Harlan’s activity and begin a quiet missing-person investigation outside his precinct. She would request historical camera footage near the warehouse without mentioning Vincent. Vincent would stay away from Hunts Point for two hours.
