Post Office Building ,
we followed them as instructed. They went over Memorial Bridge .
The German passed them and I managed to get well ahead of them. As soon as I
realised they were turning up on to the G.W. Parkway , as we thought they would,
I informed Gerbach on the walkie-talkie. He was
waiting in a clump of trees on the middle strip, with his lights off, about a
mile ahead. He turned on his lights and came down from the top of the hill on
the wrong side of the divided highway. He swung in front of the Feds’ car just
after it crossed Windy Run Bridge .
I accelerated and overtook on the left-hand side of the car. I hit I hem with a
glancing sideways blow at about seventy miles an hour, just as that damn-fool
German hit them head-on. You know the rest, boss. If he had kept his cool,’
Tony finished contemptuously, ‘the German would be here today to make his
report in person.’
‘What did you do with the car?’ ‘I went to Mario’s
workshop, changed the engine block and the licence plates, repaired the damage
to I the fender, sprayed it, and dumped it. The owner probably wouldn’t
recognise his own car if he saw it.’
‘Where did you dump it?’
‘New York. The Bronx .’
‘Good. With a murder there every four
hours, they don’t have a lot of time to check on missing cars.’
The Chairman flicked a packet over the
table. Three thousand dollars in used fifties. ‘Stay sober, Tony, we’ll be
needing you again.’ He refrained from saying what assignment number two would
be; he simply said, ‘ Xan .’ He stubbed out his
cigarette and lit another one. All eyes turned to the silent Vietnamese. His
English was good, though heavily accented. He tended, like so many educated
Orientals, to omit the definite article, giving his speech a curious staccato
effect.
‘I was in car with Tony whole evening when
we got your orders to eliminate two men in Ford sedan. We followed them over
bridge and up freeway and when German swung across path of Ford, I blew both
back tyres in under three seconds, just before Tony bounced them. They had no
chance of controlling car after that.’
‘How can you be so sure it was under three
seconds?’
‘I’d been averaging two-point-eight in
practice all day.’
Silence. The Chairman passed yet another
packet. Another one hundred fifties, twenty-five hundred dollars for each shot.
‘Do you have any questions, Senator?’
The Senator did not look up, but shook his
head lightly.
The Chairman spoke. ‘From the press reports
and from our further investigation, it looks as if nobody has connected the two
incidents, but the FBI just aren’t that stupid. We have to hope that we
eliminated everybody who heard anything Casefikis might have aid, if he had anything to say in the first place. We may just be
oversensitive. One thing’s for certain, we eliminated everybody connected with
that hospital. But we still can’t be sure if the Greek knew anything worth
repeating.’
‘May I say something, boss?’
The Chairman looked up. Nobody spoke unless
it was relevant, most unusual for an American board meeting. The Chairman let
Matson have the floor.
‘One thing worries me, boss. Why would Nick Stames be going to Woodrow Wilson?’
They all stared at him, not quite sure what
he meant. ‘We know from my inquiries and my contacts that Calvert was there,
but we don’t actually know that Stames was there. All
we know is that two agents went and that Stames asked
Father Gregory to go. We know Stames was on his way
home with Calvert, but my experience tells me that Stames wouldn’t go to the hospital himself; he’d send somebody else—’
‘Even if he thought it were a serious
matter?’ interrupted the Chairman.
‘He wouldn’t know it was a serious matter,
boss. He wouldn’t have known until the agents had reported back to him.’
The Chairman shrugged. ‘The facts point to Stames going to the hospital with Calvert. He left the
Washington Field Office with Calvert
we followed them as instructed. They went over Memorial Bridge .
The German passed them and I managed to get well ahead of them. As soon as I
realised they were turning up on to the G.W. Parkway , as we thought they would,
I informed Gerbach on the walkie-talkie. He was
waiting in a clump of trees on the middle strip, with his lights off, about a
mile ahead. He turned on his lights and came down from the top of the hill on
the wrong side of the divided highway. He swung in front of the Feds’ car just
after it crossed Windy Run Bridge .
I accelerated and overtook on the left-hand side of the car. I hit I hem with a
glancing sideways blow at about seventy miles an hour, just as that damn-fool
German hit them head-on. You know the rest, boss. If he had kept his cool,’
Tony finished contemptuously, ‘the German would be here today to make his
report in person.’
‘What did you do with the car?’ ‘I went to Mario’s
workshop, changed the engine block and the licence plates, repaired the damage
to I the fender, sprayed it, and dumped it. The owner probably wouldn’t
recognise his own car if he saw it.’
‘Where did you dump it?’
‘New York. The Bronx .’
‘Good. With a murder there every four
hours, they don’t have a lot of time to check on missing cars.’
The Chairman flicked a packet over the
table. Three thousand dollars in used fifties. ‘Stay sober, Tony, we’ll be
needing you again.’ He refrained from saying what assignment number two would
be; he simply said, ‘ Xan .’ He stubbed out his
cigarette and lit another one. All eyes turned to the silent Vietnamese. His
English was good, though heavily accented. He tended, like so many educated
Orientals, to omit the definite article, giving his speech a curious staccato
effect.
‘I was in car with Tony whole evening when
we got your orders to eliminate two men in Ford sedan. We followed them over
bridge and up freeway and when German swung across path of Ford, I blew both
back tyres in under three seconds, just before Tony bounced them. They had no
chance of controlling car after that.’
‘How can you be so sure it was under three
seconds?’
‘I’d been averaging two-point-eight in
practice all day.’
Silence. The Chairman passed yet another
packet. Another one hundred fifties, twenty-five hundred dollars for each shot.
‘Do you have any questions, Senator?’
The Senator did not look up, but shook his
head lightly.
The Chairman spoke. ‘From the press reports
and from our further investigation, it looks as if nobody has connected the two
incidents, but the FBI just aren’t that stupid. We have to hope that we
eliminated everybody who heard anything Casefikis might have aid, if he had anything to say in the first place. We may just be
oversensitive. One thing’s for certain, we eliminated everybody connected with
that hospital. But we still can’t be sure if the Greek knew anything worth
repeating.’
‘May I say something, boss?’
The Chairman looked up. Nobody spoke unless
it was relevant, most unusual for an American board meeting. The Chairman let
Matson have the floor.
‘One thing worries me, boss. Why would Nick Stames be going to Woodrow Wilson?’
They all stared at him, not quite sure what
he meant. ‘We know from my inquiries and my contacts that Calvert was there,
but we don’t actually know that Stames was there. All
we know is that two agents went and that Stames asked
Father Gregory to go. We know Stames was on his way
home with Calvert, but my experience tells me that Stames wouldn’t go to the hospital himself; he’d send somebody else—’
‘Even if he thought it were a serious
matter?’ interrupted the Chairman.
‘He wouldn’t know it was a serious matter,
boss. He wouldn’t have known until the agents had reported back to him.’
The Chairman shrugged. ‘The facts point to Stames going to the hospital with Calvert. He left the
Washington Field Office with Calvert
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