The Assassin Part 7

"So instead you went gambling."

"Right. I quit half an hour before the limousine came back for me." When he saw the look on her face, he went on solemnly, "Las Vegas never sleeps, you know. They don't even have clocks."

"I really wouldn't know. I didn't get to go to town."

He did not respond.

"You really gambled all night?" she asked.

"I took a couple of naps and a shower, but yes, I guess I did."

"Well, I'm glad you had fun."

"Thank you."

"You were the last person I expected to see," Penny said.

"You could have been knocked over with a fender, right?"

She smiled dutifully.

"What are you doing out here, Matt? I mean, why you?"

The waitress appeared with their drinks. Matt handed her a credit card and waited for her to leave before replying.

"My father called me up and asked me to have a drink at the Rittenhouse. When I got there, Chief Coughlin was with him . . ."

"That's the man you call 'Uncle Denny'?"

"Right. My father told me it had been decided by your father and Amy that I was the obvious choice to come out here and bring you home. I told him that while the thought of being able to be of some small service to you naturally thrilled me, I would have to regretfully decline, as I had to work. Then Denny Coughlin told me your father had talked to the mayor, and that was no problem. So here I am."

"You're still a . . ." Penny asked, stopped just in time from saying "cop," and finished, ". . . policeman?"

"No, Precious Penny," Matt said. "I am no longer a simple police officer. You have the great privilege of sitting here with one of Philadelphia's newest detectives. M. M. Payne, East Detective Division, at your service, ma'am. Just the facts, please."

She smiled dutifully again.

He smiled back and took a healthy swallow of his beer.

Matt Payne felt nowhere near as bright and clever as he was trying to appear. As a matter of fact, he could recall few times in his twenty-two years when he had been more uncomfortable.

"Then congratulations, Matt," Penny said.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said.

"But that doesn't answer why you? Out here, I mean?"

"I think the idea, I think Amy's Amy's idea, is that I am the best person to be with you as you begin your pa.s.sage back into the real world. Amy, I hope you know, is calling the shots." idea, is that I am the best person to be with you as you begin your pa.s.sage back into the real world. Amy, I hope you know, is calling the shots."

"She's been coming out here," Penny said.

"Yeah, I know," Payne said. "For whatever the h.e.l.l it's worth, Penny, even if she is my sister, the word on the street is that she's a pretty good shrink."

That was the truth: Amelia Payne, M.D., was was a highly regarded psychiatrist. a highly regarded psychiatrist.

" 'The word on the street'?" Penny asked, gently mocking him.

"The consensus is," he corrected himself.

"I don't understand . . ." Penny said.

"Neither do I," he said, "but to coin a phrase, 'mine not to reason why, mine but to ride into the valley of the hustlers' . . ."

"Well, thanks anyway for coming out here, even if you didn't want to."

"Better me than Madame D, right?"

Matt Payne had been calling Grace (Mrs. H. Richard) Detweiler "Madame D" since he had been about twelve, primarily because he knew it greatly annoyed her.

Penny laughed.

"Oh, G.o.d, I don't think I could have handled my mother out here."

"You better prepare yourself, she'll be at the airport."

"And then what?"

"Jesus Christ, Penny, I don't know. Knowing her as I do, I suspect she'll be a pain in the a.s.s."

"I've always liked your tact and charm, Matt," Penny said, and then, "G.o.d, that beer looks good."

"You want one?"

"I'm a substance abuser substance abuser," Penny said. "Don't tell me you haven't heard."

"You're a . . . you were were a junkie, not a drunk." a junkie, not a drunk."

"Alcohol is a drug," Penny said, as if reciting something she had memorized.

"So is aspirin," Matt said, and pushed his beer gla.s.s to her.

She met his eyes, and looked into them, and it was only with a good deal of effort that he could keep himself from looking away.

Then she picked up his gla.s.s and took a swallow.

"If you're going to start throwing things, or taking your clothes off, or whatever, try to give me a little notice, will you?" Matt said.

"Go to h.e.l.l, Matt," Penny said, then almost immediately, first touching his hand, added, "I don't mean that. My G.o.d, I was so glad to see you this morning!"

"You were always a tough little girl, Penny," Matt said after a moment. "I think you're going to be all right."

Did I mean that, or did I just say it to be kind?

"I wish I was sure you meant that," Penny said.

He shrugged, and then looked around for the waitress and, when he had caught her eye, signaled for another beer.

"On the way to the airplane, we're going to have to get you some Sen-Sen or something. I don't want Amy or your mother to smell booze on your breath."

"Did they tell you to make sure I didn't get . . . anything I wasn't supposed to have?"

"They knew I wouldn't give you, or let you get, anything to suck up your nose."

"Detective Payne, right?"

He nodded.

"And what did they say about talking to me about . . . about what happened?"

"About what, what happened?"

"You know what I mean," she said, somewhat snappishly. "About who who I mean. Anthony." I mean. Anthony."

The waitress delivered the beer.

"Get me the bill, please," Matt said.

Penny waited until the waitress was out of earshot.

"I loved him, Matt."

"Jesus Christ!" he said disgustedly.

"I'd hoped you would understand. I guess I should have known better."

"DeZego, Anthony J., 'Tony the Zee,' " Matt recited bitterly, "truck driver, soldier in the Savarese family. I'm not even sure that he had made his bones. And incidentally, loving husband and beloved father of three."

"You're a sonofab.i.t.c.h!"

"For Christ's sake, Penny. He's dead. Let it go at that! Be glad, for Christ's sake!"

She glowered at him. He picked up his beer gla.s.s and as he drank from it met her eyes. After a moment she averted hers.

"I don't know what that means," she said softly, after a moment, "what you said about bones."

"In order to be a real mobster, you have to kill somebody," Matt said evenly. "They call it 'making your bones.' "

"In other words, you really think he was a gangster?"

"Mobster. There's a difference. He was a low-level mobster. We can't even find out why they hit him."

"And the people who did it? They're just going to get away with it?"

He looked at her for a long moment before deciding to answer her.

"The bodies of two people with reputations as. .h.i.t men, almost certainly the people who hit your boyfriend, have turned up, one in Detroit and one in Chicago. The mob doesn't like it when innocent civilians, especially rich ones with powerful fathers like you, get hurt when they're hitting people."

"They're dead?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Good!"

Something between contempt and pity flashed in Matt's eyes. He stood up and looked around impatiently for the waitress. When she came to the table, he quickly signed the bill and reclaimed his credit card.

"I haven't finished my beer," Penny said coldly.

"You can have another on the airplane," he said, as coldly. "Let's go."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Detective, sir," Penny said. The waitress gave the both of them a confused look.

"You're in luck, Mr. Lanza," the not-too-bad-looking ticket clerk at the American counter said. "This is the last first-cla.s.s seat on 6766."

"When you're on a roll, you're on a roll," Vito Joseph Lanza said with a smile. He pulled the wad of bills with the hundreds on the outside from the side pocket of his yellow slacks, flicked it open, and waited for her to tell him how much it was going to cost him to upgrade the return portion of his thirty-days-in-advance, tourist-cla.s.s, round-trip ticket to first cla.s.s. Then he counted out what she told him.

She made change, handed him the upgraded ticket and a boarding pa.s.s, and said, "Gate 28. They're probably just about to board. Thank you, Mr. Lanza."

"Yeah. Right. Sure," Vito said, stuffed the wad back in his trousers, and looked around for directions to Gate 28.

They were not yet boarding Flight 6766, non-stop service to Philadelphia, when he reached Gate 28. He leaned against the wall and lit a Pall Mall with the gold Dunhill lighter he'd bought in the casino gift shop just before going to bed about three that morning.

I probably could have picked up another couple of grand, if I'd have stuck around, he thought, he thought, but the cards had started to run against me, and the one thing a good gambler has to know is when to quit. I certainly wouldn't have lost it all back, but I would probably have lost some, and quitting the way I did, I sort of have the Dunhill to show for quitting when that was the smart thing to do. but the cards had started to run against me, and the one thing a good gambler has to know is when to quit. I certainly wouldn't have lost it all back, but I would probably have lost some, and quitting the way I did, I sort of have the Dunhill to show for quitting when that was the smart thing to do.

He had taken only a couple of puffs when the ticket lady got on the loudspeaker and announced that they were preboarding. Women with small children, people who needed a.s.sistance in boarding, and of course pa.s.sengers holding first-cla.s.s tickets, who could board at their leisure.

Vito had to wait until a couple of old people on canes and what looked like a real Indian-Indian lady with three kids got on, but he was the first pa.s.senger in the first-cla.s.s cabin. He checked his boarding pa.s.s, and then found his seat, on the aisle, on the left, right against the bulkhead that separated the first-cla.s.s compartment from the tourist-cla.s.s section.

As soon as he'd dug the seat belt out from where someone had stuffed it between the seats, a stewardess appeared, squatted in the aisle, and asked if she could get him something to drink before they took off.

They don't do that in the back of the airplane, he thought.

"Scotch, rocks," Vito said.

She smiled and went forward and returned almost immediately with his drink. Two things surprised him, first that it came in a plastic cup-Jesus, for what they charge you to sit up here, you'd think they'd at least give you a real gla.s.s-and that she didn't hold her hand out for any money. First he thought that they maybe ran a tab, but then he remembered that drinks in first cla.s.s were on the house.

He examined his surroundings.

Cla.s.s, he decided. he decided. The seats are wide and comfortable, and real leather. This is the way to travel. The seats are wide and comfortable, and real leather. This is the way to travel.