"Your instincts were good," Janek said. Timmy tipped an imaginary hat.
"I mean it. You were right about Mendoza. He did have Edith killed.
And you were right about Metaxas-he was too good to be true."
"So, who was the hit man?"
"Now you're curious, Couple minutes ago, when I told you Komfeld IDed someone else, you didn't even ask me who."
"You've aroused my curiosity."
"Gotta be one of the players, right?" "Guess so." Timmy paused. "Who?
The maid?"
"Not the maid." Janek stood, looked at his watch. ' 11 gotta go.
Nice to see you."
"The, fuck!"
Janek turned to him from the door. "What's the matter, partner?"
"Who're you kidding, Frank? If you know who the hit man was, tell me, for God's sake.
"maybe I will… when you tell me why Dakin hated you. Bye, Timmy."
Janek slipped out the door.
A minute later, leaving the building, he imagined Timmy standing at his window, watching him walk away. He was about to turn to see if Timmy was really there, but then decided not to. Better if he doesn't think I care. That'll torment him even more.
They had tasty morsels for him at Special Squad:
Sue and Ray went first. There'd been two Cubans at Green Haven, since released, who'd fraternized with Jake Mendoza: a car thief named Cabrera, living in Albany, where he reported regularly to his parole officer; and a drug dealer named Villavicencio, believed to be a member of a major importing ring, who'd managed to transfer his parole obligation to Miami so that he could take care of his aging mother.
"Things can get fairly lax in South Florida," Ray added.
As for a Texas connection, Sue and Ray believed they'd struck gold. A suspected mafia strong-arm named Tony Collizzi had been Jake Mendoza's cellmate. Collizzi, residing in Houston, had been released, after serving fifteen years for homicide, just one month before the copycat killing in El Paso.
"I may have a match on that," Aaron said. "Just before Collizzi's release, there was a fifty-thousand-dollar disbursement, and shortly after the copycat job, another fifty thousand was paid out. The transfers were made by Mendoza's lawyer, Royce Andrews, to an account Mendoza maintains in the Cayman Islands Bank. Impossible to trace money going in and out of there, but if we could find Collizzi's name on flight manifests around those dates, Texas cops might want to haul him in."
"What about payments to Cubans?"
"Three months ago there was a two-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar transfer to a numbered account in Panama. The day after you got back from Cuba, there was, get this, a million dollars transferred to the same account."
"Fonseca's account?" -Probably, but we'll have a hell of a time proving it," Aaron said.
"There were also a couple of smaller transfers of twenty-five thousand dollars to the Caymans."
"Could've been a finder's fee paid to Villavicencio."
"What'd you want us to do now?" Ray asked.
"You and Aaron check the flight manifests to the Caymans, direct and indirect routes. Look for people who went in and out the same day.
When you get matches, run them down." Janek paused. "You know what I like about this? If we can connect Mendoza to El Paso, he'll have to go to Texas for trial. Murder-for-hire is a capital crime down there.
They use lethal injection."
They all exchanged looks.
"What about me?" Sue asked.
"You're going on a special mission."
"Nice place, I hope?"
"Sarasota. You're going to check out an honored member of our tribe, the widow of a killed-in-action cop."
The following morning he received a call from Netti:
"Mixed news. First the good stuff. Your ex was badly shook when she heard about our dossier. She's willing to give up alimony. We're negotiating a one-year phase-out." Janek smiled. "Great!"
"Bad news is that Carlson doesn't want to make a private settlement with Gelsey."
Shit! "What'd you offer him?"
"Restitution, damages, a written apology. He didn't want any of it. He wants to see her in jail." "Have you told her yet?"
"She's taking it fairly well. I don't know, Frank. It's a weird situation. Carlson says she tried to kill him. He's talking about upgrading the charge to attempted murder."
"Maybe if he saw her, face-to-face, he'd melt a little bit.
"Can't take a chance. If she shows up for a meeting, he could call a cop. He might even call you."
"Want me to talk to him?"
"If you take her side, you could make a lot of trouble for yourself."
"What're you going to do?"
"Keep upping my offer. But the way I read him, he won't be interested.
Basically, he wants her head."
Ray found Collizzi's name on flights in and out of the Caymans, both before and after the El Paso copycat job: "Can't believe it, Frank. He used his own name, flew direct via Miami."