Chapter 68
I POINTED A finger toward my office door. “Private’s not for sale and you two were just leaving.”
“Heh,” Tommy said. “That’s not how this is—”
“It’s exactly how this is ending,” I said, then gazed over at the mobster. “Carmine, I respect you, so I’ve got to level with you. I told a fib earlier.”
“Gee, that’s a fucking surprise. Gonna come clean now? Tell me you did tip the Feds and you’re sorry? Sorry, no—”
“This place is bugged,” I said firmly, staring him right in the eye. “Audio, video, multiple angles. I’ve got every bit of your little extortion scheme on record, including your admission that you sought contraband narcotics and participated in a conspiracy to rig my brother’s trial with me as the fall guy.”
Carmine’s rat seemed to be giving him sudden indigestion. “That’s bullshit. You show me.”
“No, I think I’ll show FBI Special Agent in Charge Christine Townsend, a personal friend, and take my chances in court, where I will testify against my brother,” I said, and folded my hands across my chest, not looking at Tommy at all. “Anything else to say? Or are we done?”
Carmine licked his lips, looked around the office, trying to spot the bugs. Then he smiled. “You think you can outmaneuver me?”
“I just did.”
That pissed him off completely. He stared bullets at me, muttered, “You fucked me. And Carmine Noccia is like an elephant when it comes to that sort of thing.”
“So you’re having tusks implanted to go along with your phony Harvard MBA? Is that what you’re telling me?” I asked.
“You’re a dead man, Jack,” Carmine said, stood, nodded to Tommy.
“A pleasure, Carmine, Tommy,” I said. “As always.”
I waited until they slammed the door behind them, then held off another minute before collapsing into my chair. Sweat pooled at my lower back. They’d had me and I’d bluffed my way out. There were no bugs in the room. No audio. No video.
But there sure as hell were going to be by the end of the day.