Dirty Deeds Read Online Free PDF Page B

I stepped right into the Caruso office and nearly got crushed because of my own arrogance.
    Reggie Keane was in Boston for the same reason I was, and it didn’t look promising for me. I could throw a ton of money at the problem but in the end, he had the badge and the right.
    All I had was two delicious hot dogs and a cold beer, and baseball. I’d take it for tonight, but tomorrow I needed to move quickly. I shared a few hints about my past, most of them common knowledge he’d already know, and a few falsehoods to make him waste time checking to see if they were true.
    By the seventh inning stretch we were talking more about baseball than trying to trip one another up, and I was starting to relax. My bad.
    “I know you went and saw the kid on the beach. I know he’s someone who is supposed to be dead, and I also know Chenzo isn’t too happy about it,” Keane said after singing along to Neil Diamond together and finishing our third beers.
    I remained calm but I could feel the hot dogs trying to come back up in my stomach. I turned and looked for the beer guy or the hot dog guy or anyone who could distract me while I collected my thoughts, as jumbled as they were right now.
    I had to give Reggie credit: he’d thrown me a curveball and I was about to swing and miss.
    Instead, I said nothing. Like an idiot. I glanced at Reggie and he was smiling. He thought he finally had me.
    I took his arrogance and used it to get back in the game. There was no way this snide bastard was going to get the best of me.
    “I thought it was a friend of the family. Turns out it was just some drug addict washed up on the beach? Again, I know who Chenzo is, but so does half this stadium and we’re not even in New Jersey right now. The guy is a thug and a menace. Not something I deal with, unless he wants to buy a Babe Ruth card. Even then I try to get someone between us to do the deal. Unfortunately, in both our lines of work, we deal with people who aren’t necessarily good but they have money to spend,” I said.
    “They’re running DNA on this kid as we speak. As soon as it comes in I’ll get Chenzo to give up a sample as well. What do you think he’ll say when his kid, who’s been presumed dead for all these years, comes back?” Reggie was staring at me.
    I turned back to the game just as Ortiz came up for the Red Sox.
    “You’re chasing butterflies again, Reggie. I thought we were actually bonding tonight.”
    Ortiz swung and missed a slider inside. You never wanted to test Big Papi.
    “I need to know what your connection is to Chenzo. We’ve been trying to get this guy for years, and we always assumed he’d had his son killed. His alibi was way too convenient. With the wife butchered we thought it only a matter of time before the kid’s body showed up in a landfill or at least blood evidence in a junkyard. Now this. . . I know you killed the wife. Why let the kid go?”
    Next pitch to the batter was high and outside. Ball.
    “I didn’t do any of this. Don’t you get it? The real killer of Chenzo’s wife is still out there. It isn’t like he doesn’t have fifty guys who would gladly kill for him. I’m sure you know this.” I watched a ball in the dirt to Ortiz.
    “I’m getting closer. I’ll nail you. Word on the street is Chenzo wants to see you. That isn’t a coincidence, James. It would be really bad for you if Chenzo finds out the son has been alive this entire time and you’ve hidden him away for some odd reason. This kid is the heir to his illegal throne, and my gut tells me Chenzo ordered the hit on his wife and son all those years back. Did you go soft for some reason? See a little of the kid in yourself? Couldn’t take killing another child?”
    Ortiz took another swinging strike.
    “You’re barking up the wrong tree, Keane. If you had anything on me, anything , we wouldn’t be sitting in this stadium eating hot dogs and drinking beer like old friends. We’d be at the nearest police station