CHAPTER 12
Vince met with Franco Trucco in the public gardens of the Villa Carlotta. They spoke little until they turned off on a side path that led to a viewpoint for the lake. It was a good meeting place; they were far enough away from the crowds to speak freely, and the gravel on the path would warn them if someone approached.
Vince sized up Trucco. He was in his early sixties like Carlo, but Trucco seemed sick, as if he had a fever; his gray hair looked greasy and dark circles ringed his eyes. “What can you give me on Lucchesi?” Vince asked.
“Is there a death Carlo would like to distance himself from? I can testify I heard Enrico planning it.” Trucco’s words tumbled out, excited, unsteady.
“Carlo already tried to use one of Lucchesi’s guys to tie him to the Judge Dinelli hit. But Grantini disappeared. We got to assume Lucchesi found him out. Grantini was the key. Without his testimony, we got nothing.” He looked hard at Trucco. “You think you’re smart enough not to end up like Grantini?”
Trucco swallowed. “I can prove tax evasion. That’s why Dinelli was after Enrico and Carlo. And I could say I heard Enrico plan Dinelli’s murder.”
“Prison time ain’t enough. Carlo wants him dead.” Vince gazed across the lake, his hands crossed behind his back. “We want to know where we can get to him, either security-wise or family-wise.”
“I might be able to locate Rinaldo.”
Vince smiled. Now he was getting somewhere. “That’s a start. Anything else?”
The accountant thought for a moment. “There is something I have always been curious about.”
“What?”
Trucco shook his head. “I am not sure yet what it is. But he has gone to great pains to keep it concealed.”
Vince didn’t hide his interest. “Find out what it is, and bring it to us.”
After his meeting with Trucco, Vince hadn’t expected to be able to move on Lucchesi for a while, even though he was dying to whack the guy. But sometimes everything you needed just hopped in your lap and made itself at home. He walked away from his second clandestine meeting of the day, a big grin on his face. He never in a million years would’ve expected to hear from someone else in Lucchesi’s organization, especially not a guy so close to Lucchesi. A guy who knew everything necessary for a single man to take Lucchesi out.
Vince didn’t doubt the truth of what he’d heard, once the man explained his reasons, once he made clear what kind of future he had in mind for himself. Yeah, it was a wrinkle to his plans, but no biggie. There’d be more than enough to go around after Lucchesi was on ice.
Now that he had what he needed, Vince was going to be a hero after all. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Carlo’s face when he pulled it off. Yeah, the old man would be pissed for a while. But he’d be happy in the end. And they’d both have their revenge.
Vince circled the perimeter of the Lucchesi estate, keeping to the shadows even though it was the middle of the night. The moon was three-quarters full, the sky clear. If he wasn’t fucking careful, he’d be spotted.
No one had ever broken into Lucchesi’s home. The damn place was like a fortress—security alarms, armed guards, even dogs at night. Lucchesi had hired an expert to design a custom alarm system and kept him on the payroll to keep the man’s mouth shut. If it had been an off-the-rack system, it could have been hacked. But no one had the specs for it. Which made breaking into the house undetected almost impossible.
But not if you knew the alarm codes. Not if you knew the guards’ schedules. Not if you knew about the gate hidden in the hedges along the northern edge of the estate.
If you had all that, the job was a candy snatch from a baby. Except he intended to do far worse. Before the night was through, the bitch and that scum Lucchesi would be dead. And if all went as planned, he would take over a good part of the Lucchesi family’s holdings in the aftermath. Vince grinned. He was going to enjoy this.
After a little fumbling, he found the gate in the hedge. He’d just entered the code and slipped through, twigs tearing at his clothes and hair, when he heard the low, rumbling growl of a Rottweiler padding toward him on his left. He’d come prepared. Reaching in his pocket, he withdrew the paper-wrapped lump of ground meat he’d laced with sedatives and tossed it to the dog. The Rottweiler stopped and sniffed the meat, eying him cautiously before bolting the treat. Vince didn’t move, his heart doing a fucking workout routine in his chest. He’d never admitted it to anyone, especially not Carlo, but big dogs scared the fuck out of him. He took a few breaths to calm himself as he watched the dog, careful not to stare at it too directly in case he pissed the fucker off.
After a few moments, the dog blinked heavily and whined, shaking its head, drool running from its powerful jowls. Vince tried to step past the dog, but it snapped at him, the whine turning back into a growl, and his whole body went subzero. Don’t fuck it up, asshole. He looked around, wondering where the other one was. There were supposed to be two.
Peering into the darkness, he kept the big slobbering fuck in his peripheral vision. It wiped its face against the grass, then it finally flopped down with a heavy sigh.
Vince walked past the animal. He hadn’t gotten far when he heard panting and paws rapidly striking the earth. It took everything he had not to jackrabbit. He already had the lump of meat in his hand. He chucked it at the noise, hoping to distract the dog. It wasn’t long until he heard the clap of its jaws, the quick work it was making of the meat.
Fucking goddamn dogs. All they did was shed. And stink. And shit. He hoped the stupid fucks died from the sedatives. It was what they deserved. They hadn’t even barked. And they’d gobbled down food from a stranger. So fucking dumb.
The second dog went down as quickly as the first, and Vince stepped around it, slinking through the shadows along the hedge, making his way toward the house.
He paused about a hundred feet from the back terrace and checked his watch. Two-fifteen. The guards would be less alert by now. Lucchesi and the whore would be fast asleep.
He settled against a tree to wait. A guard would pass by in a few minutes, then he could sneak up and punch the code into the panel next to the French doors.
He’d been so stupid about Kate. He’d married her too soon, had never bothered to look past her nice-girl face to make sure he knew the woman under it. His next wife would be a simple girl, probably a distant cousin of his. Someone beautiful and sweet, someone who knew about the family business. Someone who would only want to give him kids, who wouldn’t need a career, who wouldn’t ask questions. Or look at other guys. Yeah, his next wife would be his. And she wouldn’t make a fool of him.
A guard walked by on schedule, light gleaming dully on the mini Uzi he carried. Vince waited until the guard stepped around the corner, then he sprinted across the open stretch of lawn up to the house. He flipped open the alarm panel, keyed in the code to disarm it, then picked the lock on the doors. Fucking child’s play. He was inside in a few moments. Lucchesi was a lazy fucker. Vince shook his head, smiling. Everyone said Lucchesi was smart. What the fuck did they know?
He eased the door shut behind him, then crossed the foyer and started climbing the staircase on the left. Lucchesi’s room was at the end of the north wing. He’d probably find the whore there as well. His gut twisted. Katie.
Maybe she wasn’t a fucking slut. Maybe he’d gotten it wrong. Maybe there was hope.
His heart revved again as he crept up the stairs, quiet as a cat after a mouse.
Even if she wasn’t with him, Lucchesi was going to suffer for taking his woman. And she’d learn her lesson too.
This was going to be fun. For him, anyway.