Hardcase

CHAPTER 38

The Dane stepped out of the darkness of the draped alcove. The bodyguards, William and Charles, were both down from the double taps. William was still, but Charles was still twitching. Leonard Miles stood in the middle of the emptiness where the two armed men had been. The lawyer was blinking.

The Dane walked over, looked at the twitching Charles, and fired another bullet into the fallen man's head.

Leonard Miles flinched. The Dane pointed one gloved finger at Miles's empty chair. "Sit, please."

Miles sat.

Kurtz was sitting exactly as he had been—feet flat on the floor, palms down on his thighs. Don Farino was holding his chest, but smiling. Sophia Farino had pulled her legs up onto the chair and folded them under her as if a mouse were in the room.

The Dane was wearing a tan-checked wool topcoat, a Bavarian-style hat, dark-rimmed glasses, but no mustache. He walked around and stood behind and to one side of Don Farino. The semiautomatic 9mm Beretta was not precisely aimed at anyone, but the muzzle pointed in the general direction of Leonard Miles. "Thank you, my friend," said Don Farino. The Dane nodded.

The don turned his heavy gaze on Miles. "Is my daughter involved in this? Was she the one who gave you the orders?"

Miles's lips were white and trembling. Kurtz saw the yellow silk upholstery on the seat of the upright chair darken as the lawyer urinated in his trousers.

"Speak!" exploded Don Farino. The bark was so loud and fierce that even Kurtz jumped a bit.

"She made me do it, Don Farino," babbled Miles. "She threatened me, threatened to kill me, threatened to kill my lover. She—" He fell into silence the instant that Don Farino made an impatient gesture with his fingers.

The don looked at his daughter. "You traded weapons to the Triads, brought these new drugs into the community?"

Sophia looked at him calmly. "Answer me you miserable putana!" screamed the don. His face was mottled red and white. Sophia said nothing.

"I swear to you, Don Farino," Miles babbled, "I didn't want to be involved with this. Sophia was the one who dropped the dime on Stephen. She was the one who ordered Richardson killed. She was—"

Don Farino's gaze never moved from his daughter. "You are the one who turned Stephen in?"

"Sure," Sophia said. "Stevie's a fag and a junkie, Papa. He would have dragged the family down with him."

Don Farino gripped the arms of his wheelchair until his fingers went white. "Sophia… you would have had everything. You would have been my heir."

Sophia threw her head back and laughed easily. "Had everything, Papa? What is everything? The family is a joke. Its power gone. Its people spread to the wind. I would have had nothing. I was only a woman. But I want to be don."

Don Farino shook his head sadly.

Leonard Miles took the moment to jump to his feet and run for the door, leaping over the body of William as he ran.

Without raising the Beretta, the Dane shot Miles in the back of the head.

Don Farino had not even looked up. Without raising his head, he said, "You know the price for such betrayal, Sophia."

"I went to Wellesley, Papa," she said. Her legs were still pulled up under her like a little girl's. "I read Machiavelli. If you try to kill the prince, do not miss."

Don Farino sighed heavily. The Dane looked to the old man for instructions. Don Farino nodded.

The Dane lifted the Beretta, swung it slightly, and blew the back of Don Farino's head off.

The old man pitched forward out of the wheelchair. What remained of his face banged into the glass coffee table. Then his body slid sideways onto the carpet.

Sophia looked away with an expression of mild distaste.

Kurtz did not move. The Dane was aiming the Beretta at him now. Kurtz knew that it was a Model 8000 with ten rounds in the magazine. Three were left. The Dane kept a good, professional distance between them. Kurtz, could try to rush him, of course, but the Dane could put all three slugs into him before Kurtz could get off the couch.

"Joe, Joe, Joe," said Sophia. "Why did you have to go and fuck everything up?"

Kurtz had no answer to that.