Page 87 of The First Gentleman

CHAPTER 83

Cranston, Rhode Island

I ’m parked on a narrow residential street about ten minutes from Providence.

The neighborhood is made up of single-family homes with neat fenced-in yards, many containing shrines to the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and a lot of other Catholic saints I don’t recognize.

Before I get out of the car, I take a deep breath and exhale slowly.

You can do this, Brea.

I wish to hell that Garrett had kept his work files on an external hard drive.

But everything was on his laptop.

And the laptop is gone—along with everything the First Gentleman told him.

I know he kept his computer double-password-protected.

But with the right tools, whoever has it might be able to crack it.

Or maybe no one has it and it’s lying at the bottom of some lake.

At least it wasn’t hard to find an address for Leo Amalfi, the dying Mafioso whose name Dr. Graham gave me.

Apparently, Amalfi doesn’t feel the need to conceal where he lives.

It’s just down the road from the correctional center where Garrett interviewed John DeMarco.

I approach the house.

If Amalfi has security, it’s not obvious.

No guard dogs. Nobody watching except a statue of Jesus and two small stone lions with their eyes painted red.

I open the fence gate and walk through.

The tiny porch is edged with a white metal railing.

I ring the doorbell.

The door opens. An elderly woman with a worried face nods and waves me in like she’s been expecting me.

“I’m Brea Cooke. I’m here to see Mr. Amalfi.”

The house smells like garlic and onions and antiseptic.

The woman leads me to what looks like a dining room that’s been converted to medical use and leaves.

A wrinkled, wasted man lies in a narrow hospital bed, staring out the window.

In here, the medicinal smell is stronger.

But it can’t mask the sickening odor of decay.

Under an arch at the far side of the room, several men are standing watch.

Sons? Nephews? Bodyguards?

I step up to the bedside.

“Leo Amalfi?”

The man in the bed turns his head.

His eyes are rheumy and red.

For a second, I’m not sure he sees me.

Then he blinks and raises one hand, so thin and pale it looks like light could pass through it.

“You’re the attorney. And you’re late,” he says.

“I’m here now, Mr. Amalfi. I understand you have something to tell me.”

Amalfi glances over at the young men.

At his look, they melt away down the hall, out of sight.

Now it’s just the two of us.

“Before I begin,” he says, “if you bring cops into my house, I’ll turn silent as a statue. I’m speaking only to you.”

“Why? Why me?”

“I know it’s personal for you. I want to make amends.”

Why should I believe a single word this man says?

If what Dr. Graham told me is true, he’s a liar and a killer.

And no one can make amends for taking the love of my life.

“Okay, Mr. Amalfi. Go ahead. I’ll be your confessor. Tell me what happened. Why did Garrett Wilson have to die?”

I can see Amalfi’s pale lips working before he speaks.

“There was a contract,” he says.

His voice is weak. “You understand?”

“I know what a contract is, Mr. Amalfi. In my business and yours.”

“The contract was to issue a warning. A kneecap. Cripple him, but don’t kill him. I sent two men. Easy job.”

“Give me their names.”

“Hold on,” says Amalfi.

“Let me finish. When they came back, they told me the contract had been changed to a hit.”

A hit.

Just hearing the word makes me feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach.

I turn away from the bed.

My eyes are clenched shut as I picture Garrett’s final moments.

Don’t cry, I tell myself over and over.

Do not fucking cry! I turn back slowly.

“I thought you were the man who gave the orders.”

“Somebody cut the chain,” Amalfi says.

“Somebody above me.”

Suddenly, I realize why I’ve been summoned here.

“You work with middlemen, cutouts. Isn’t that right, Mr. Amalfi?”

“Yeah. That’s how it’s done.”

“That’s how you’ve managed to stay out of that ugly prison down the road all these years.”

He nods.

“I protected myself. I protected my family. I never did any time.”

“Okay. So what’s to stop me from having you arrested now for conspiracy to commit murder?”

Amalfi stares out the window for a few moments.

“You’re an attorney. You know how long an investigation takes. By the time they bring charges and set a court date, I’ll be done.”

Now I understand.

I squeeze the bed rail so hard, my knuckles turn white.

I try to stay objective, use my left brain.

Like Garrett taught me.

I lean in, close enough to smell his rotten breath.

“You know who cut the chain, Mr. Amalfi, don’t you? And it was a violation of your code. That’s why you called me here. You didn’t call me to apologize or to wipe your soul clean. You didn’t call me here to ask for my forgiveness. You called me here because you wanted to tell me that you weren’t the one who gave the order to kill Garrett—and you know who did.”

“That’s right,” says Amalfi.

“And you can put it in that book you’re writing.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“Because I’m a dying man with nothing to gain by lying.”

“I’m listening. Say it, Mr. Amalfi. Say it! Tell me who ordered Garrett Wilson killed.”

“It was the man in the White House,” he says.

Holy shit. We were right.

This noble First Gentleman act is just that—an act.

Suddenly, Amalfi lets out a load moan.

He lurches on the bed.

His hands claw at the covers.

He gasps for air in loud, wet wheezes.

Drool dribbles from the corners of his mouth.

The men he sent out earlier come running in.

I back away from the bed.

I hear footsteps behind me.

The woman pushes me aside.

“Leo!” she cries, leaning over him.

“What happened?”

I look on helplessly as Amalfi’s body spasms. His face twitches.

One of the men comes around and grabs the woman’s shoulders.

He holds her tight as she sinks to the floor, wailing.

“Call the doctor!” he says.

The old man’s chest rises and falls.

His breaths come harder.

Then, suddenly, he’s frozen still, mouth and eyes wide open.

One of the other men takes a step toward me.

“You need to leave.”

Suddenly I feel a cold, dark chill in the pit of my stomach.

Were these the men Amalfi sent?

Were these the last faces Garrett saw?

My mind is spinning with all kinds of dark thoughts as I back out of the room and hurry to the Subaru.

I just watched Leo Amalfi die and I don’t know how I feel about it.

I reach into my pocket and grab my iPhone.

I click to the voice-memos app.

Yes. It’s all there.

The whole precious five minutes.

I press the red button to stop recording and save the file.

A dying declaration from a hit man.

Garrett would be proud of me. At least I hope so.