Deadly Intent by Christiane Heggan Page A

week.
    As always when he was in a bind and needed some quick cash, he thought of his sister, Liz. Like Rose, she had come through for him before, but Liz was unpredictable. And so damn judgmental. That ice-princess stare she gave him every time he asked for money always made him feel like a beggar. Unfortunately, at the moment, she was his best bet. Hell, she was his only bet, so maybe he should swallow his pride, buy a round-trip bus ticket to New York and look her up.
    It was either that or starve until Friday.
    By splitting up the driving and stopping only to buy food and to shower, Tony and Arturo had made the eighteen-hundred-mile trip from El Paso to Toledo in thirty-nine hours. In Toledo, Arturo had quickly located Rose Panini’s cousin and found out that Ian and his girlfriend had left for Princeton, New Jersey, on June second. But although Marie Panini was scared out of her mind, she couldn’t tell Arturo any more than that. Rose hadn’t left a forwarding address and she hadn’t heard from her. Arturo didn’t seem worried, though. The name of the town was all he needed. The rest would be easy.
    Finding a place to stay so far away from home would have been a challenge for most people, but not for Arturo, who had connections in half of the fifty states. After a few calls, a friend of his had put him in contact with Enrique
    Soledad. Enrique owned a garage in the south side of Trenton and occasionally rented the small apartment above it. Judging from the conversation between Arturo and the mechanic, Tony had concluded that Enrique wasn’t too keen on harboring two strangers, but after a little coaxing, he agreed to let them move in, for free, provided they were out of there before his next renter moved in, two weeks from now.
    As they were about to cross the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, Tony made one last attempt to convince Arturo to turn around and forget Ian McGregor had ever existed.
    “He can’t repay you anyway,” Tony pointed out. “You heard Rose’s cousin. The man is broke.”
    “I know a loan shark in the Bronx.” Arturo gave Tony a nasty grin. “I’ll be glad to give McGregor a recommendation.”
    “And how is he supposed to repay the loan shark?”
    “That ain’t my problem, little brother.”
    Tony knew only too well what happened to people who didn’t repay loan sharks, but maybe Arturo was right. That wasn’t their problem. If McGregor was stupid enough to go that route, then he ought to be ready for the consequences.
    They arrived in Trenton at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday and easily found the garage. As Tony had expected, Enrique’s greeting was just a shade warmer than icy, but when Arturo handed him a bottle of Johnny Walker Black—Enrique’s favorite—the man mellowed considerably. Half an hour later, the whiskey still burning their bellies, the three men walked up the stairs to the garage apartment, which was small but clean. It even had a working TV, which made Arturo happy.
    “Call me if you need anything,” Enrique told them before leaving. “After hours, all calls to the garage are for
    warded to my house. If I’m not there, my grandfather will take a message.”
    As soon as Enrique was gone, Arturo didn’t waste another minute. He took the Mercer County phone book from the bookcase and sat down. Using Tony’s cell phone, he began calling the area’s motels.
    Twelve
    It was a little after five o’clock when Ian stepped off the bus at New York Port Authority, and already the streets of the Big Apple were thick with commuters hurrying to catch their rides home. This was a great city to get lost in, he thought as he joined the throng of people for the walk uptown. Arturo would never find him in this maze, and since that big bully was still a threat, maybe he should consider moving here. Liz might even let him crash at her apartment until he found his own place. He didn’t need much, just a couch, a shower and a six-pack.
    The Manhattan Towers was a seventy-two-story