Kurtz doubted that Brubaker and Myers would try to kill him, but sooner or later they would roust him while he was carrying, which meant jail again, which meant all the current death sentences on Kurtz converging.
Then there were the Farino and Gonzaga families. You don't strikemuch less killa made guy without paying for it; it was one of the last enforceable tenets of the weakening Mafia structure. And while Kurtz had not been involveddirectlyin the shootings of Don Farino, his daughter, his lawyer, or his bodyguards the previous autumn, that fact would do him little good. Little Skag knew that Kurtz had not killed his family members, since Little Skag had ordered the hits on them himself, but he was also aware that Kurtz had been there during the denouement at the Farino compound. Joe Kurtz knew too much to stay alive.
Now Angelina Farino Ferrara was trying to use Kurtz to kill Gonzaga. Kurtz hated being used more than almost anything in the world, but in this situation, the woman had leverage over him. He had done his eleven and a half years in Attica for the killing of Sam's murderers with some patience because it had been worth itSamantha Fielding had been his partner in every waybut now those years were shown to be worthless. If it had been Emilio Gonzaga who put the hit on Sam, then Gonzaga had to die. And die soon, since Gonzaga would be taking over the Farino Family by the end of summer, which would make him all but invulnerable.
If Angelina really wanted Kurtz dead now, all she had to do was tell Gonzaga. There would be fifty button men on the street in an hour.
But she had her own agenda and timeline. That's why Kurtz was allowing himself to be used by her. Gonzaga's death would suit both their purposesbut then what? A woman could not become don. Little Skag would still be the heir apparent of what was left of the once-formidable Farino family, although without the Gonzaga judge and parole-board
connections, Little Skag might be cooling his heels in maximum security for more years to come.
Was that Angelina's plan? Just to keep Little Skag in prison while she eliminated her rapist, Emilio Gonzaga, and tried to consolidate some power? If so, it was a dangerous plan, not just because Gonzaga's wrath would be terrible if an assassination failed, but because the other families would intervene eventuallyalmost certainly at Angelina's expenseand Little Skag had already shown a willingness, actually an eagerness, to whack a sister.
But if she could blame Gonzaga's murder on this loose cannon, this non-made-guy, this madman Joe KurtzThis scenario seemed especially workable if Joe Kurtz was dead before Little Skag's killers or the Gonzaga Family or the New York families' people caught up to him.
Joe Kurtz's strength might be survival, but he was having increasing difficulty in seeing how he could do everything he had to do and still survive this mess.
And then there was this Frears and James B. Hansen thing. And Donald Rafferty. And Arlene's need for another $35,000 to expand their on-line business.
Suddenly, Kurtz had a headache.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was late morning. Brubaker and Myers had followed him from the Royal Delaware Arms and were out there nowBrubaker in the unmarked car at the end of the alley, watching the back door, Myers on the street in front, watching the entrance to the abandoned video store upstairs.
"Not yet," Kurtz said. "Did you have Greg bring Alan's old Harley down this morning?"
Arlene nodded and gestured with her right hand. Cigarette smoke spiraled. "I'm more interested in finding a new office anyway. Do you have time today?"
"We'll see." Kurtz looked at the stack of files and empty Express Mail packages on his desk.
"I got them about an hour ago," said Arlene. "The Hansen file from the Frears murder in Chicago, the Atlanta thing that had exactly the same M.O., and the ones from Houston, Jacksonville, Albany, and Columbus, Ohio. The other four haven't arrived yet."
"You read them?"
"Looked through."
"Find anything?"
"Yes," said Arlene. She batted ashes. "I bet we're the only ones ever to look at all these family murders together. Or any two of them together, for that matter."
Kurtz shrugged. "Sure. The local cops all saw it as a local nut-case family murderand they had the killer's corpse in the burned house. Each case open and shut. Why compare it to other cases they don't even know about?"
Arlene smiled. Kurtz hung up his coat, shifted the holstered.40 S&W on his waistband, and settled in to read.
Five minutes later he had it.
"The dentist," he said. Arlene nodded.
In each of the murder-suicides, identification of the killer's burned body was made through tattoos, jewelry, an old scar in the Atlanta casebut primarily through dental records. In three of the casesthe Chicago Frears/Hansen case, the Atlanta Murchison/Cable murders, and the Albany Whittaker/Sessions killingsthe killer's dentist was from Cleveland.
"Howard K. Conway," said Kurtz.
Arlene's eyes were bright. "Did you see the dentists' signatures in the other cases?"