“Well,” Dino said, “she’s certainly got motive now, and if she worked for Manny …”
“If she knows Manny well, she’d know about his little sideline,”
Tommy said.
“I think we’re all on the same page now,” Stone said. “Except Evan.”
“And the guy’s still out there,” Tommy said. “And so’s Evan.” He nodded toward the walkway.
Stone looked up to see Evan coming down the walk, and they pulled up another chair for him.
“How are you feeling?” Evan asked Stone.
“I’m all right.”
“I want to tell you how sorry I am,” Evan said.
“Thanks,” Stone replied, “but I’m afraid you’ve got more problems than I have.”
“You think he’ll try again?”
“Yes, but there’s more to it than that.”
“What else?”
Stone took a deep breath. “Have you ever heard of Manny White Investigations?”
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S t u a r t W o o d s
“Yeah,” Evan replied. “Gigi used to work for them.”
“Evan, all three of us knew Manny White when we were on the NYPD, years ago.”
“I never met the guy,” Evan said. “Gigi quit after we met.”
“We think Manny White was the middleman who hired the guy who shot you last time.”
“That
’s quite a coincidence,” Evan said.
“There are more coincidences,” Stone said. “We think he also sent the man who killed your father. The bullets from your shooting and his are a match; they were fired from the same gun, and when Tommy gets back the ballistics report on today’s shooting, we think there’s going to be another match.”
“This is bizarre,” Evan said.
“There’s still more,” Stone said. “The first person to come under suspicion for both shootings was your grandfather.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Probably so, but he was the only one with a fi nancial motive for both shootings. Or at least he was at the time.”
“Who do you suspect now?”
“There’s only one other person with both a motive and a connection to Manny White,” Stone said, then waited for it to sink in. There were clearly wheels turning in Evan’s head, then the penny dropped. “No, that’s crazy.”
“Think about it,” Stone said. “Killing your father gave you a much larger share of the proceeds from the sale of the business, didn’t it?”