Need You Now

20

I t was more wind than snow that forced Lilly indoors for cover. She found a deli down the street from the church, but a nervous stomach made eating impossible. She ordered a camomile tea to calm herself down.

“Anything else?” asked the cashier.

How about a Xanax?

“Just the tea, thanks,” she said.

Lilly broke one of her last remaining fifties. She’d fled Singapore with $9,990 in cash, just below the currency reporting requirement. Burning through money was easy in Manhattan. Her wallet was getting thin, but she didn’t dare use a credit card. Cash wouldn’t leave a trail.

The only open seat was near the entrance at the storefront counter. She claimed a stool and gazed out the plate glass window, watching a sidewalk construction crew stand around and do nothing. An hour of snow flurries was enough to block out the company name on the truck. Lilly wondered if it was one of the Santucci firms. Construction was a staple of the family’s many mob-run businesses-at least that was what her source had told her.

A construction worker noticed her and winked. Definitely not one of those ripped and gorgeous hotties on Desperate Housewives who sweated out pheromones. Lilly averted her eyes.

Steam rose from her cup. A quick sip scalded the roof of her mouth. It was a little thing that, cumulatively, was a big thing. She almost started to cry. Lucky for Gerry Collins that he was already dead. If he weren’t, she would probably have killed him.

Thank you, Gerry. Thank you for using me.

Or had he?

Again, her mind replayed that three-year-old phone message he’d left on her voice mail just before his death: “It’s blown up. I’ll call you when I can. Talk to no one until I reach you.”

Was it possible that Collins had thought she was aware of the scam? The arrangement had certainly been sweet. She’d essentially done nothing, and BOS had still given her revenue credit for over $2 billion in private banking activity. Perhaps Gerry had simply assumed that she was smart enough to recognize a deal that was too good to be legit. Since his death, the Treasury Department had certainly operated under that assumption, had even put it in an internal memo.

Her cell rang. She didn’t recognize the incoming number, but she knew it was him-her source. He’d promised to follow up after her meeting with Robledo at the church. “Promised” was probably the wrong word. Everything he said sounded more like a threat. She was tired of getting hit from every direction-from him, Robledo, BOS, Treasury. It was time for her to find her spine and push back. She walked out of the noisy deli, found cover beneath the sidewalk bridge scaffolding, and answered her cell phone. He began with a question.

“Do you trust me now, Lilly?”

She didn’t answer.

“Admit it,” he said. “I steered you right. Robledo is the man you talked to on the phone every day at BOS, isn’t he? The same man who threatened you in Singapore and your boyfriend in Times Square.”

“Yes. I recognized the voice.”

“So, do you trust me?”

“You nearly got me killed!”

“Watch your tone,” he said.

She didn’t back down. “Robledo put a gun to my head and told me no extensions on the deadline.”

“Did you tell him you’re in control?”

“He knew I wasn’t in control.”

“Did you tell him that you know he was the numbered account holder at BOS?”

“Not directly.”

“What does that mean?”

“I told him I got his name before I left Singapore. That’s why the bank fired me.”

“Lilly, Lilly. You have to be clearer. His connection to the numbered account is the whole point; that’s your control.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“I can only tell you what to say. It’s your job to be convincing.”

“You’re the one who wants me to drag Patrick into this. Robledo didn’t believe a thing I said about him.”

“What are you talking about?

“Robledo knew right away I was lying. Patrick went to see him before I even got there.”

“What? Did you give Patrick his name? I told you never to share any of our secrets with Patrick!”

Lilly had indeed been warned, and the accusatory tone put her on the defensive. “I didn’t say anything to Patrick. I don’t know how he got it.”

There was silence on the line, and Lilly felt the construction guy watching her again. She walked around the barricades and started down the sidewalk.

“We can work with this,” her source said finally. “Actually, the fact that Patrick is meeting on his own with Robledo makes it even easier for me to help you.”

“I don’t want your help.”

“You need it, Lilly.”

“No, I don’t need anything from you. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t even drink a cup of tea without scalding my mouth. Just leave me alone!”

“Lilly, you are in serious trouble. You helped Gerry Collins funnel two billion dollars to Abe Cushman, and from the get-go, Treasury refused to believe that you were unaware of the scam when you did it. They still don’t believe you’re innocent.”

“Oh, and I suppose you have some kind of direct pipeline to the Treasury Department, is that it?”

“Maybe I do.”

The way he said it, so matter of fact, gave her pause.

“It’s all fitting together,” he said. “Patrick Lloyd is Tony Mandretti’s son. Mandretti killed Gerry Collins. We need to show Treasury that the real crook here isn’t you. It’s Patrick. If he’s dealing with Robledo on his own, that’s the missing link we need.”

“What do you mean we ? And anyway, all they had was a conversation. That doesn’t mean there’s a link.”

“The link was there before you even met Patrick.”

“You’re making that up.”

“You’re in denial, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“If there was no link between your boyfriend and Manu Robledo, why did he suddenly drop everything in New York and go to Singapore?”

“Singapore is a BOS stronghold in Asia.”

“Really? And why did he immediately take to you like a fly to honey?”

“Patrick and I… we hit it off.”

“Come on, Lilly. You’re a beautiful woman, but let’s get real. He lied to you two days ago when he pretended not to know that Tony Martin was really Tony Mandretti. If Patrick didn’t know Robledo before going to Singapore, you can bet his father did. How else could Patrick have tracked Robledo down at his church and met with him before you did? We can’t let him get away with this.”

The cold wind chilled her-or maybe it was the sickening realization of where his plan was headed. “Oh, my God. It’s not the mob who is chasing Patrick.”

“Lilly, listen to me.”

“It’s you . You’re keeping Patrick around long enough to take the blame for everything.”

“He deserves the blame.”

“I won’t do this to Patrick.”

“He would do it to you.”

“Patrick loves me.”

“Yes, so much that he left you all alone in his apartment two hours after your reunion.”

“He had to catch a flight. It was a business trip.”

“Another lie. He went to see Tony Mandretti in prison.”

Lilly tightened her grip on the phone. “I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t know a thing about him, Lilly! If it wasn’t for me, you’d still think his name was Patrick Lloyd. I told you he’s Tony Mandretti’s son. That’s the truth. The mob is after him and his father, and it was the mob who put Patrick in the hospital. That’s why I told you to stay away from him, but of course you didn’t listen. That scheme you cooked up to sneak him out of the hospital was idiotic!”

“What did you expect me to do, just leave him there, a sitting duck, waiting for the Santucci family to come and finish the job?”

“I expected you to stay away from him! Do only what I tell you to do, Lilly!”

“I don’t believe you anymore. You put him in the hospital. Not the mob. I’m going to the police.”

“And tell them what? You didn’t know Abe Cushman was a fraud? You didn’t know Gerry Collins was a thief? You had no idea Patrick Lloyd was Tony Mandretti’s son? Face it, Lilly. Patrick has caused you enough problems. Treasury has already decided that the best lead on the Cushman money is the Lilly Scanlon/BOS connection. Robledo shoved the memo in your face.”

Lilly stopped so short at the curb that she nearly slipped on the ice. “How do you know about that?”

“I know everything, Lilly.”

It seemed as though he did. She was suffocating with fear all over again. “I don’t understand why they’re targeting me .”

“You’ve been played,” he said, his tone softening. “First by Gerry Collins, then, even worse, by Patrick Lloyd.”

She had a green light to cross Broadway, but she didn’t move. “No one could be worse than Gerry Collins.”

“At least Collins was genuinely interested in you before he drew you into Cushman’s scheme. Patrick played you from beginning to end, on every level. Do you remember when you were on Changi Beach in Singapore and that seagull came out of nowhere and dive-bombed right on top of his head?”

Chills cut through her. “You can’t possibly know about that.”

“I saw it happen.”

“You were watching us on the beach? That’s beyond creepy.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not some love-sick puppy who’s been following you around for six months. I was only doing my job.”

“Your job? Who are you?”

“Never mind that. Get back to my point about Patrick and his lies: it was sunscreen.”

“What?”

“When you were looking up at the birds in the sky, your poor, heartbroken boyfriend slapped himself on top of the head with a glob of sunscreen. You had finally found the courage to dump him, and he wanted to make you feel really bad about it.”

A passing bus forced Lilly to jump back onto the sidewalk. The snow was ten minutes old and already turning to brown slush. “That can’t be true,” she said.

“Trust me. The only shit on that beach was Patrick’s BS. There’s so much more I could tell you.”

It was tempting to listen, but she reminded herself that she was dealing with a sick son of a bitch. “Stop. I don’t want to hear another thing.”

“Okay. That’s enough for now, love.”

“Stop talking to me like that!”

“You’re confused. I understand. But admit it. Deep inside, you don’t really think I’m lying, do you?”

“I-I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Believe this: I’m here to lead you out of this mess. You should live.”

He was making her skin crawl, but she resisted the urge to hang up. “Should Patrick?”

He didn’t respond.

“Your list of people who should live,” she asked, “does that include Patrick?”

There was silence, but Lilly sensed that he was still there. Finally, he answered: “That’s entirely up to us, Lilly.”

“What do you mean us ?”

The line went silent, and he was gone.