Page 99 of Feared

“I’m not saying it does. I’m saying if you have bad blood, you might not be as objective as you think.”

“No, I see this clearly, I really do.” Mary could tell she wasn’t getting anywhere.

“She does,” Bennie interjected. “We all do. We’re all on the same page. Machiavelli is the one you need to be following up on. Or do both. Knock yourself out. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

“Okay. I’ve heard you. Thanks.” Detective Krakoff’s tone turned final. “We do have to go, now. We have to get back to work.”

Bennie rose. “Fair enough. Thank you.”

“Yes, thanks,” Mary said, getting up. She hadn’t come this far to quit now.

They would have to find another way.

***

“Now what do we do?” Mary said under her breath, as they hurried from the Roundhouse, ignoring the press. Reporters shouted questions at them and filmed them leaving, but they knew the drill and kept their heads down, plowing ahead. Amanda Sussman wasn’t among them, so Mary mentally confirmed her small victory, a bright spot in an otherwise terrible morning.

“We do what we planned.” Bennie charged through the parking lot toward the curb, and Mary struggled to keep up, breaking a sweat in the sun.

“But they’re not going to follow up with Machiavelli.”

“We can’t deal with that now. We have to do the next step.”Bennie checked her phone on the fly. “We’re right on time. Judy and Anne will meet us there.”

“But this is a setback.”

“So what else is new?” Bennie powered ahead.

“We have to figure out a way to go after Machiavelli without the cops.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

Mary put her hand on her belly, instinctively, as she chugged along. The baby hadn’t kicked during the meeting with the police, which was probably a good thing, considering that her fake labor pains had come back to haunt her.

“DiNunzio, can you walk faster?”

“No, can you walk slower?”

“I have to get us a cab.”

“Oh, okay. I have to make a human being.”

“You had to go there?” Bennie rolled her eyes, but she slowed down, and Mary reached the curb a step behind her, on a street congested with noonday traffic to the Expressway.

“It’s Machiavelli, I’m telling you, I know it in my bones. We have to bring him down this time, once and for all.”

“We will. For John.”

“Right. For John.”

Bennie flagged down a cab. “I have good cab karma with you. I hope you’re pregnant forever.”

“Thanks,” Mary said, burping.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Bennie, Mary, Judy, and Anne filed into the glass-walled conference room at London Technologies, where Sanjay and Jim looked up, startled. “Good morning, gentlemen,” Bennie said, closing the glass door behind them, as a young receptionist stuck her head inside.

“I’m so sorry, Sanjay,” she said. “They saw you from the door. I couldn’t stop them.”