Page 84 of The List

“Brent Walker’s house phones should be bugged,” De Florio said.

“Do it.”

“I recommend that the phone where Reed stays at the mill be tapped. I believe he calls the place the Boar’s Nest.”

“Do it.”

“Depending on how extensive this gets, I may need some freelance help for a limited time.”

“Hire it.”

“I would also recommend keeping a constant eye on Mr. Bozin and Brent Walker. That should be easy since they’ll both be at the negotiations. I already have a man there.”

“What about evenings?”

“I have a person I can depend on inside Bozin’s house at the Row.”

He was intrigued. “I wasn’t aware you had people inside our private homes.”

“I don’t. I cultivated this source last week when you instructed me to monitor Mr. Bozin.”

But he wasn’t so sure. That concern, though, would have to wait until another time.

“Do we need electronic monitoring at Bozin’s house?” he asked.

“I don’t think so. My source should keep me adequately informed.”

“To keep up appearances, I want you to report to Bozin everything learned so far. He asked for that. Leave off the fact you and I have talked.”

De Florio nodded.

“I still want to be kept instantly informed, though. If necessary, we’ll move to Priority orders on a moment’s notice. You need to be prepared.”

“I already have some information gathered on Reed and Walker.”

“Good. The way things are headed, you’re probably going to need it.”

3:20P.M.

BRENT HAD BEEN CORRALLED AT THECOMFORTINN ALL DAY.HANKfound him right as the lunch break ended and asked him again about the list of numbers.I really need you to do this.But nothing more had been offered. He’d probably kicked that can as fardown the street as he could. So when the day’s session ended early, he headed straight back to the office. The list and his notes were still tucked inside his desk drawer. He retrieved them, started his search again with the third set of numbers, and found a new name. The fourth match rang bells. Brandon Pabon. The workers’ comp case that died of a drug overdose.

He kept going until he found a name for each set of numbers.

034156901 William Mesnan, May 23, Heart attack

456913276 Patrick Brown, May 21, Kidney failure

343016692 J. J. Jordon

295617833 Brandon Pabon, June 6, Drug overdose

178932515 Tim Featherston

236987521 Melvin Bennett

492016755 Paul Zimmerman, June 13, Hunting accident

516332578 Michael Ottman