The Blue Zone

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

The following morning Kate dropped some change into a pay phone at a 7-Eleven store in Hewlett. No cell phones now. Nothing that could ever be traced.

During the night she’d thought a lot about what she had to do. She knew she was putting herself in danger. Feeling Emily next to her, the innocent breathing of her sleep, had removed all doubt.

This had to end.

The coins tumbled in. The dial tone sounded. Taking a breath, Kate punched in the number. She waited for someone to pick up.

Her dad. Cavetti. Mercado. Greg…Each of them was someone who had betrayed her. And each of them was someone she might trust, one last time. All through the night, each had flickered through her anxious mind.

When she heard the voice, she didn’t dare hesitate. “Okay, I’ll do what you asked,” she said.

“I’m glad to hear that, Kate,” the voice replied. “You’ve made the right choice.”

They worked out a place to meet. Somewhere safe, public. Lots of people. Somewhere she felt at home.

This had to end. People had died. She could no longer pretend she wasn’t complicit now. She thought of the smiling woman in the photo with Mercado. The man’s wife. Would she still be alive if Kate had acted earlier?

Would Mom?

Kate fumbled in her handbag for another quarter. At the bottom of her bag, she came upon the gun Cavetti had given her.

“I have to trust somebody,” she said, placing her makeup case over the gun. “It might as well be you.”

Luis Prado’s phone rang shortly afterward.

He was in Brooklyn, in the shabby apartment he rented, with some heavyset, fifty-dollar whore named Rosella straddling him, her large breasts bobbing in his face, the cheap metal bed squeaking and rocking against the paint-chipped wall.

The cell phone interrupted them.

“Don’t stop, baby,” Rosella whined.

Luis fumbled for the phone, knocking over a photo of his wife and kids back home that he kept on the table. “Shit…”

The number said this was the call he’d been expecting all day.

“Bizness, baby,” he sighed, rolling the girl off him.

“Luis…”

“I need you to get ready,” the caller said. “There’s a job for you tonight.”

“I am ready.” Luis ran his hand playfully along Rosella’s cheek. “I’ve been practicing my aim all day.”

“Good. I’ll be in touch later with the details. And, Luis?”

“Yes.”

“This one will require all of your loyalty. Do it well,” the caller said, “and you can go home. For good.”

His loyalty had never been in doubt. He had always done the jobs they wanted. His wife was home. His children. He had seen his newest boy only once.

Luis Prado didn’t hesitate. “I’m here.”