‘I’m impressed you know of it,’ Jack said. ‘I’d never heard of the
country.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ Warren said. ‘I’m sure you didn’t take any black
history courses. But to answer your question, yes, I do know a couple of
people from there, and one family in particular. Their name is Ndeme.
They live two doors down from you, toward the park.’
Jack looked over at the building, then back at Warren. ‘Do you know them
well enough to introduce me?’ Jack asked. ‘I’ve developed a sudden
interest in Equatorial Guinea.’
‘Yeah, sure,’ Warren said. ‘The father’s name is Esteban. He owns the
Mercado market over on Columbus. That’s his son over there with the
orange kicks.’
Jack followed Warren’s pointing finger until he spotted the orange
sneakers. He recognized the boy as one of the basketball regulars. He
was a quiet kid and an intense player.
‘Why don’t you come down and run a few games?’ Warren suggested. ‘Then
I’ll take you over and introduce you to Esteban. He’s a friendly dude.’
‘Fair enough,’ Jack said. After being revived by the bicycle ride, he
was looking for an excuse to play basketball. The events of the day had
him in knots.
Jack went back and got his bike. Hurrying over to his building, he
carried the bicycle up the stairs. He unlocked his door without even
taking it off his shoulder. Once inside, he made a beeline for his
bedroom and his basketball gear.
Within five minutes, Jack was already on his way out when his phone
rang. For a moment, he debated answering it, but thinking it might be
Ted calling back with a bit of arcane DNA trivia, Jack picked it up. It
was Laurie, and she was beside herself.
Jack crammed enough bills through the Plexiglas partition in the taxi to
more than cover the fare and jumped out. He was in front of Laurie’s
apartment building, where he’d been less than an hour earlier. Dressed
in his basketball gear he raced to the front door and was buzzed in.
Laurie met him in the elevator foyer on her floor.
‘My god!’ Jack wailed. ‘Look at your lip.’
‘That will heal,’ Laurie said stoically. Then she caught Debra Engler’s
eye peering through the crack in her door. Laurie lunged at the woman
and shouted for her to mind her own business. The door snapped shut.
Jack put his arm around Laurie to calm her and led her into her
apartment.
‘All right,’ Jack said, after getting Laurie seated on the couch. ‘Tell
me what happened.’
‘They killed Tom,’ Laurie whimpered. After the initial shock, Laurie had
cried for her pet, but her tears had dried until Jack’s question.
‘Who?’ Jack demanded.
Laurie waited until she had her emotions under control. ‘There were two
of them, but I only knew one,’ she said. ‘And he’s the one who struck me
and killed Tom. His name is Angelo. He’s the person I’ve had nightmares
about. I had a terrible run-in with him during the Cerino affair. I
thought he was still in prison. I can’t imagine how or why he is out.
He’s horrid to look at. His face is terribly scarred from burns, and I’m
sure he blames me.’
‘So this visit was for revenge?’ Jack asked.
‘No,’ Laurie said. ‘This was a warning for me. In their words I’m to
`leave the Franconi thing alone.’ ‘
‘I don’t believe this,’ Jack said. ‘I’m the one investigating the case,
not you.’
‘You warned me. I’ve obviously irritated the wrong people by trying to
find out how Franconi’s body was lifted from the morgue,’ Laurie said.
‘For all I know it was my visit to the Spoletto Funeral Home that set
them off.’
‘I’m not going to take any credit for foreseeing this,’ Jack said. ‘I
thought you would get in trouble with Bingham, not mobsters.’
‘Angelo’s warning was presented in the guise of a favor for a favor,’
Laurie said. ‘His favor was to tell me who killed Franconi. In fact, he
wrote the name down.’ Laurie lifted the piece of paper from the coffee
table and handed it to Jack.
‘Vido Delbario,’ Jack read. He looked back at Laurie’s battered face.