“Anything?” he mouthed.
She shook her head. He motioned for her to sit.
“Yes you are, yes you are. Daddy’s good girl.… Hon? Hon, are you there? Yeah, someone just walked in.… By ten at the latest.… I promise, I’ll work from home this weekend so you can have a break.… Kiss the kids for me. Love you.”
Brad hung up and scowled at her. “Really? All those tapes, and nothing?”
Kathryn shrugged. “I got a good recipe for manicotti out of it.”
He laughed. She crossed her legs, which were famous around the office. Brad was a devoted family man, but he looked.
“What’s your take?” he said. “Did the bug get blown somehow? A leak?”
Well, yes, and the leaker was sitting right in front of him. She felt sick. And yet she told herself that there were other ways besides a wiretap to make a case. They’d get Fiamma eventually, and she would help them. She would even things out in the end.
“I don’t think so. They’re just careful.”
“It costs an arm and a leg to monitor. I’m starting to think we should take it down.”
“Your call.”
“It’s a tough one. A lot of high-value targets come into that barbershop. Half the syndicate. I keep thinking they’ll slip up eventually, but…” He shook his head. “There’s another way we could go. With our new star witness, I’m thinking we take a direct run at Old Man Fiamma.”
“You’re talking about Mad Tony? Will he agree to that?”
“He has to. Did you draft the plea agreement?”
“I put it in your inbox this morning. You didn’t see it?”
She stood up and started shuffling through the overflowing pile on his desk.
“Here.”
She handed him a sheaf of papers in a brown paper wrapper, stamped “CONFIDENTIAL” in large block letters. It was the plea agreement for Anthony “Mad Tony” Capito, a capo in the Fiamma crime family who had the potential to bring down the biggest mobsters in New England.
“Sorry, I must’ve missed it. This day has been insane,” Brad said, running his hands through his thinning hair.
There was a stain on his tie. He looked worn out. She felt sorry for him, how little time he had with his family.
“How did the debriefing go?” Kathryn asked.
Ray told her she needed to be in the room when they proffered Mad Tony, but every deputy chief and supervisory special agent in Boston had already called dibs. Kathryn was too junior, and her request was denied. The truth was, she was relieved. The less she knew, the less they could force her to reveal.
“I was just about to head over to Villa Carlotta to meet up with the task force guys. You want to join? I’ll fill you in on the way.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Villa Carlotta? Really?”
“What, just because it’s a red sauce joint, you think it’s mobbed up?”
“Is that place mobbed up? Definitely.”
He laughed, not realizing how serious she was. “You should come along. If you can get in good with the task force, you’ll be set with cases for the rest of your career. Relationships matter in our line of work.”
Kathryn knew what kind of relationships those FBI hotshots wanted with her.
“Thanks, another time. I have work to catch up on.”
They said good night.
Back in her office, she closed the door and laid her head on the desk, feeling drained. After a moment, she noticed a buzzing sound coming from the locked lower drawer. The secure flip phone was hidden at the back, behind her handbag and makeup kit, her extra sneakers and box of tampons. She didn’t know what scared her more—answering or not answering.
Her heart pounded as she opened the phone. “Hello?”
“I need an update.”
She hunched over, shielding the phone as she whispered, her eyes on the door.
“What are you doing, Charlie? You know not to call me at work.”
“I’m supposed to know you’re still at work?”
“Assume I always am. I’m hanging up.”
“No. Wait.”
She’d warned Ray that bringing Charlie into this would be a disaster. He didn’t understand boundaries. When it came to Kathy, that problem was magnified a hundredfold.
I’d love to work with you myself, Ray had said. But you need a handler, and it can’t be me. Our connection is too well-established after all these years. It would look bad, be dangerous. You can trust Charlie. He’s family, but nobody knows that.