And son of a bitch if I didn’t come up with a plan.

“I’m bringing him home, Mrs. Kalakos.”

In the scented darkness, she rose unsteadily from her deathbed, reached her palsied hand to my face. “You good boy,” she said as she brushed my cheek gently with her gnarled finger. “You good boy.” And then, abruptly, she slapped my face. Hard. It rang like a shepherd’s crook snapping over a knee.

“What was that for?” I said.

“A warning,” she said. “You no play fool and lead them to him like last time. You almost got him skewered like lamb.”

“I thought I had taken precautions.”

“I spit on your precautions. Precautions are for timid men with girls they can’t handle. You, you be certain.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Your best, it better be good enough, Victor.”

“Is that a threat, Mrs. Kalakos?”

“I am Greek, Victor. I don’t threaten. I slice. Thinly, you know? Makes the meat very tender.”

“Are we talking about lamb again?”

“Yes, of course. Thalassa makes very nice lamb, with garlic and coffee. Special recipe. You want see my slicing knife?”

“No thank you, the sight of your gun was enough.”

“That little thing?”

“I will be very careful, Mrs. Kalakos.”

“Good. I choose then to trust you, and also will my son, because I tell him to. You’ll meet him where I say, and you bring him right here, to me.”

“Someplace more neutral might be more secure. I was thinking that it would be best if I met up with the police at-”

“Don’t tell me what is best for my son. His whole life I know what is best for my son. You bring him here, to me.”

“This is the one place they’ll be certain to be waiting, Mrs. Kalakos. It won’t be safe to bring him here.”

“You make it safe. You bring him here. I don’t know how many days I have left, how many hours. I waited long enough. You bring him straight to me.”

“I don’t think that’s a very wise-”

“Are we still discussing this? No more discussion, Victor. You do what I say.”

“Okay,” I said. “My client told me to let you call the shots. But on two conditions. First, this will clean our family’s debt to you. We are even, forever. No more favors.”

“As you say.”

“Speaking of which, I have a question. My grandmother, when you found her with that man, was she happy?”

“What is happy, Victor? Who is happy in this life?”

“Ballplayers,” I said. “Supermodels. Ballplayers married to supermodels. But my grandmother, before you dragged her back, was she happy?”

“You want truth?”

“Yes, I do.”

“She was crying every night in the small apartment of that strange man, your poor grandmother. She saw she made terrible mistake. But she was afraid her husband not accept her back. I didn’t take her home for your grandfather, I take her home because it was what she wanted.”

“And she was grateful?”

“For the rest of her life, my boys they never paid for shoes. ‘Give it to them for free,’ she told your grandfather.”

“I bet he hated that.”

“He was grateful, too. They had good life together. She thought she wanted more and ended up with nothing. Life can turn to tears when you want more, always more.”

“Speaking of more,” I said, “this brings me to the second condition. We need to talk about the final payment for my legal work on behalf of your son.”

“What you mean, final payment?”

“At our first meeting, I told you I needed a retainer. But a retainer is just enough for me to agree to take the case.”

“You want more.”

“Since that meeting I’ve done a significant amount of legal work.”

“Is that what you call it? What kind of legal work have you done, Victor Carl?”

“Meetings, negotiations, investigations. If you want, I can give you an itemized bill showing my work down to the last detail, in six-minute increments, and then you can pay me in cash. If you’re short of cash, I could find you a finance company that would be quite willing to take out another mortgage on the house. Thalassa wouldn’t mind, I’m sure.”

“It’s good you sure, Victor, because that makes one of us.”

“Or maybe, if you choose, we can work something else out.”

“You have idea, of course you do.”

“When you gave me those jewels and chains at our first meeting, I couldn’t help but notice there was more in the drawer.”

“And you want rest, is that it, Victor Carl?”

“That’s it,” I said.

“You would leave me with nothing? You would take the last bauble from an old, dying woman?”

“I’m a lawyer, Mrs. Kalakos.”

“You sure you not Greek?”

“Pretty sure, but to tell you the truth, I seem to be getting more Greek every day.”

“I’M BRINGING him home, Dad,” I said over the phone, “but I’m going to need some help.”

“What can I do?” said my father. “I can barely get up the stairs.”

“Not you. I want you to take a little trip out of town. Maybe down to the shore.”

“I hate the shore.”

“Get a little seaside rental for a week. Hit the beach.”

“I hate the beach.”

“Foot-long hot dogs, barefoot girls in bikinis, frozen custard.”

“Now I know you’re trying to kill me.”

“My treat.”

“Stop it, my heart can’t take the shock.”

“Look, Dad, there’s a man in California who is going to do everything he can to stop me from bringing Charlie home, violence no object. I don’t want him to go after you to go after me.”

“Why me?”

“Because he knows you.”

“Who is this supposedly frightening man?”

“Teddy Pravitz.”

Pause. “I always liked Stone Harbor.”

“I know a Realtor. I’ll let her handle it. She’ll be in touch.”

“Make sure it’s on the first floor.”

“Will do. But there’s something else you have to do for me. To do what I need to do, I’m going to need some help.”

“What kind of help?”

“I’m going to need a driver.”

“I’M BRINGING him home,” I said. “But before I do, I need the deal in writing.”

We were in Slocum’s office, McDeiss, Slocum, Jenna Hathaway, and myself. The three were not happy with me right at that moment. With two murders and a host of questions, they had been trying to reach a material witness for days and were angry as hell that he had left the jurisdiction and couldn’t be reached. One of the great joys in life, I have found, is turning off the cell phone.

“You have the answers you were looking for?” said Hathaway.

“That I do.”

“You found her?”

“Not exactly, but I found him.”

“My God. Where?”

“I’ll let you know after the deal is signed and I bring my client in.”

“And Charlie is ready to testify against him?”

“When I show him the written deal, he’ll talk. And not just Charlie. Joey Pride, whom you’ve been looking for and haven’t been able to find? He’ll talk also, about the Ralph Ciulla killing and the events surrounding the Randolph Trust robbery, so long as you have a deal for him, too.”

“What kind of deal does Joey want?” said Jenna.

“Flat immunity.”

“Do you represent him?”

“By the time you get hold of him, I will.”

“And there is something we can prosecute after all this time?” said Slocum.

“Absolutely. You should be able to bang him away for the rest of his pathetic life. And trust me, Larry, your boss will be quite pleased with all the publicity. Time and Newsweek will be calling, and the bestselling book is being written as we speak.”

“This isn’t about publicity,” said Jenna.

“With politicians it’s always about publicity. And your father, Jenna, will finally be able to close that case.”

She turned her head, thought a moment, and then nodded.

“Sounds good,” said Slocum. “Where should we pick him up?”

“At his mother’s house.”

“Don’t be silly,” said McDeiss. “Too hot, too obvious, too damn dangerous.”