Deadly Diamonds by John Dobbyn Read Free Book Online

gun, you’d have had it in my face, full cocked, so I could see it. No chance of a misunderstanding. Second, a gun gives you confidence. You’d have barked out the orders like a drill sergeant, not like a tenor in a boys’ choir. You’ve got a solid set of stones on you, Knight. But no gun.”
    He lit up a cigarette while I took it in.
    â€œSo what brings you here?”
    â€œWe have unfinished business, Burke. I’m not going to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life. I’m here to tell you one more time. I have no idea where Kevin O’Byrne is. You can either—”
    â€œI know that.”
    â€œWhat? Then why did you scare the crap out of me last night?”
    â€œI didn’t know it then. I do now. No sane man would brace me on my own porch to tell me a lie. So your client’s gone missing, eh?”
    â€œHe seems to have eluded both of us. You apparently want him as much as I do.”
    He laughed softly. “You gathered that, did you?”
    â€œWhy do you want him?”
    â€œNo, lawyer. We’re not on the same side yet.”
    â€œMaybe we are. In a way. They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Maybe if we share information, we both come out ahead. Finding Kevin is not going to be as easy as you might think.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œAha. Maybe you can use my help.”
    â€œWhat makes you think I’d play fair with you?”
    â€œI don’t know. My instinct tells me you would. I’ll go with that.”
    â€œSo what have you got for me?”
    â€œKevin was hidden out by his father someplace in New Hampshire. I don’t know where. Anyway, it looks like he’s been taken by someone. He’s not there, and the place has been tossed. I thought it might have been you, but apparently not.”
    Burke took a deep draw on the cigarette.
    â€œYour turn, Burke. Who do you think has him, and while we’re at it, what’s your interest in this?”
    â€œIf I answered your last question, it’d be the last thing you’d hear on this earth.”
    â€œThen let’s skip that one. How about the first question?”
    He thought while he took another deep drag. “The dead man in the trunk. His name was Sal Barone. He was a lieutenant under the current Boston Godfather, as you people like to call him. Antonio Pesta.”
    â€œThat much I know.”
    â€œBarone’s right-hand man is a goon by the name of Pasqual Salviti. They call him ‘Packy.’ You want a name? That’s a place to start. One thing.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œDon’t pull a stunt like this on him.”
    â€œI don’t plan to. Why not?”
    â€œHe’s a loose cannon. Not wired right upstairs. You understand? He’d have blasted you from here to Sicily before you said two words.”
    â€œI’ll remember that.” On the basis of probably never having another chance, I pushed it one final inch. “You still have me curious. What does an Irishman from Dublin have to do with a mid-level Boston Italian hood?”
    He just shook his head, not to the question, but to the gall of my asking it.
    â€œOn your way, lawyer, while you can still thank God you can walk down those steps.”

CHAPTER SIX
    Since his wife’s passing, Lex Devlin’s comfort zone had come to include his two-bedroom condo overlooking the Charles River, his Franklin Street office, the state and federal courthouses, and a small cluster of restaurants of which he could recite the menus from memory. Anything that pulled him out of that zone awakened the furies of irascibility that had led junior associates at his previous firm to interpret his initials, A.D., as “Angel of Death.”
    The young priest to whom it now fell to lead Lex down seemingly endless corridors was already feeling the heat of those furies. A band of perspiration had lubricated his Roman collar by the time he reached the ornate door. He