The Informant by Thomas Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

ambush in Las Vegas to kill him. It had been the most expensive act of parsimony ever.
    There was a quiet buzz, and Elizabeth picked up her phone. "Yes?"
    "It's the FBI New York office. Agent Holman."
    "I'll take it."
    When she heard the click, she said, "This is Elizabeth Waring. Is this Agent Holman?"
    "Good afternoon," Holman said. "I'm calling because I was assigned to supervise the surveillance of Frank Tosca's home. I'm afraid there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding. I understood that your office had requested an intensive surveillance of Tosca."
    "That's right. We appreciate your efforts very much. Has something turned up?"
    "Well, yes. Special Agent Carlson, my section chief, sent a request for some paperwork—a designation of the case, some cost approvals—to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hunsecker, and the response was 'What surveillance?' I thought the least I could do was pick up a phone and see if we could straighten this out. Mr. Hunsecker's staff seems to think he won't approve it."
    "It was an emergency request," she said. "It hasn't gone through Mr. Hunsecker yet. I'm pretty sure my second, Bob Fulton, explained it to your duty agent last night. I had an inquiry from a person I know to be a professional assassin of some standing. He wanted to know who Michael Delamina's boss was. Then, late last evening we got the news that Delamina had been murdered some hours before I spoke with the assassin. What we were trying to do was prevent another murder."
    "We've observed some significant security precautions around Mr. Tosca's house in Glen Cove. He seems to live at a pretty high level of alertness."
    "There are a lot of people with reasons to want him dead. But at the moment, I think he's finally got one who's capable of getting in, killing him, and getting out."
    "What's his reason? Is somebody paying him?"
    "I don't know his reason for certain. I think he retired a long time ago. But I think that twice in the years since then, some young, ambitious soldiers have found him and tried to collect on the old contracts."
    "Who put out the contracts?"
    "I know Carl Bala put one out on him before he went to prison. People have said it's in the millions."
    "Balacontano? Is he even alive to pay off?"
    "As of this moment he is. He's safe and sound in a maximum security special wing, where nobody gets to see him but the doctors and the visitors he listed when he went in. But he'd almost certainly pay off. He's in for life, so there's no use for Bala's money that would bring him more pleasure than the death of this hit man."
    Agent Holman was silent for a few seconds. "I'd hate to shut this down now. I can keep up the surveillance on Tosca's house until the end of the day. At that time, if I don't have the official approval for the operation, we'll have to stand down. Do you think you can get it?"
    "All I can guarantee is that I'm going to try very hard. Thanks so much for buying me some time."
    One of the other phone lines had been blinking for at least thirty seconds. She knew it must be someone from Hunsecker's office calling to find out what she was doing. She couldn't think of a way to answer that without appearing to have disregarded everything Hunsecker had said. She picked up the telephone. "Elizabeth Waring."
    "Waring." It wasn't a secretary. It was Hunsecker. Waring was aware that her door was opening and that her assistant, Geoffrey, was holding a hand-scrawled note, looking worried. She nodded to him and pointed at the door. He turned and went through it.
    "Hello, Mr. Hunsecker. I'm sorry if I kept you waiting. I was on another call with the FBI in New York."
    "So it's true."
    "Late last night we received the news that Michael Delamina had been murdered. I realized that I had to try to head off the next murder."
    "You did exactly as this killer asked—you started an FBI investigation of his enemy."
    "I set up a surveillance to protect Tosca, not investigate him."
    "You have a team watching him