Jonas Saul - The Kill

Stache leaned forward and handed her an eight by ten. She took it and gasped.

The photo showed the door to what looked like an adult store. It had a red stop sign on it and the number eighteen. The door was open and a man stood there. That man was her husband, Darwin Kostas.

“What is this? My husband doesn’t shop at these kinds of places.”

She didn’t know what to think. She thought she knew him. A million questions raced through her mind. She’d been with him for years and never seen any behavior that would make her think he would shop at a place like that. She would know. Darwin didn’t even look at other women longer than anything cursory. He loved her and only her. He’d asked her to marry him. He stole her away, and her heart. Seeing him in that picture wasn’t what made her cry. It was the embarrassment of not knowing what he was doing in an adult store with four FBI men looking for answers.

Leg stood up. “I’ll get you a Kleenex.” He stepped away.

When he came back, he handed it to her and sat down. “There are other pictures.”

“Wait,” Alfred said. He turned to her. “Are you okay? Do you want to continue?”

Rosina nodded and wiped her eyes. “I’m ready.”

Stache reached into a folder and produced another eight by ten. He handed it to her.

It was the same store, but this time she recognized Vincenzo Fuccini from all the media coverage of his death and her husband’s heroic, as they had put it, timing with his Ford Mustang.

She handed the photo back. “We all know who that man is.”

Stache handed her another. Again, the same store front, but a man she didn’t recognize. This continued for six more photos, all of them men she didn’t recognize.

Stache put all the photos back in his folder and gently placed them into his briefcase.

“Is anyone going to explain to me what this is all about? I think I’ve been patient enough.”

The men looked at each other again with subtle nods.

“We feel you’ve been telling us the truth.”

“Good. I should hope so. How about a little truth from you guys?”

Tie nodded at her. “We agree. It is time we brought you in on this because we may need your help.”

“I get it. You give me something if I agree to do something for you? Is that it? You’re no better than the mafia. Do me a favor and I’ll do you a favor. Look, I’m sorry, but I just want my life back. I want my husband back.”

She started crying again. Leg offered her more Kleenex. She took them, mumbled a thank you and settled back in her chair to listen.

“That adult store has been under surveillance for some time now,” Stache started. “We suspect the Fuccini family use some of their stores as drop points.”

“What’s a drop point?” Rosina asked.

“It’s where payoffs are made. Drugs are distributed too. In an adult store, there are never any kids and the windows are all painted up. No one from the outside can see in. The person making the drop can browse the walls of merchandise and wait until the store is empty. Then he can walk to the counter, drop the message, money, or whatever his purpose is, get paid and leave with a bag full of money. Their bags are always black. You can’t see through them. It’s perfect for what the mob do. That’s why they’re so tied up in the adult business.”

“How does this have anything to do with my husband?”

“It had been rumored for months that the four leading families in Eastern Canada were preparing a meet. Our job was to attempt to find out that location. We have men working undercover but no one knew the exact location. The families all agreed that an outside contractor would be brought in for security during this meeting.”

“I’ll ask again,” Rosina interrupted. “What does Darwin have to do with mobsters and adult stores?”

“That store was the location where the men going to the meet would get their final directions and destination. It happened hours before the meet was to take place. All the men you saw in those photos were representatives of each crime family getting the hangar’s address. You know what happened at that hangar as your husband was also there that night.”

She pulled her face back a bit. “I resent that comment. He wasn’t there as you put it. He was out driving around and saw the fire in the distance. He said it got dark too fast and he ended up taking a wrong turn.” She stopped talking. Faced with the picture she’d seen moments before, it almost felt like she was defending him.

I don’t know what to think.

“That day, we took pictures of everybody leaving that store. We ran all their faces through our system and came up with hits on the crime family pics. Darwin’s face got no hits, so his picture was filed away. When all that happened in Rome, the case of the Hangar Peace Accord, as we call it, was reopened and we started going through everything. Darwin being at that particular adult store on the exact day that directions were handed out, within an hour of the other crime family members, became suspect after knowing he turned up at the hangar.”

“So what are you saying? Darwin, my husband, the man I’ve known for going on seven years now, the man I know better than his own father, is a mobster? Are you saying he’s one of their hit men? I mean, come on…”

Control. Control. Stay in control.

“Bear with us, please. Let us get through this and we’ll make conclusions together.”

She nodded, afraid to say anything.

“When you were landing in Toronto with Greg, we received credible evidence that Darwin was paid off by the Gambino family for the hit on Vincenzo Fuccini.”

“That’s preposterous,” she almost screamed. Control.

“This came to us from an inside source. Deep inside. It’s sound.”

“So you’re saying you believe this source? You gotta be kidding me. My husband is innocent in all this!” She was near hysterical now.

Alfred laid a hand on her arm. She jerked it away.

“Let them finish,” he said. “Hear them out. When they’re done, judge them then.”

Tie waited, adjusted his stupid tie and then said, “We do not believe the evidence after all. We feel it was compromised.”

“What? So why tell it to me the way you did?”

“We wanted you to see what we were seeing so you’d better understand what we did. You have to try to stay calm to be able to understand everything.”

“I am calm,” she snapped. “Now, tell me, what did you do?”

“We acted on the information like we normally would. We separated you two last night and told Darwin that we felt Greg was working for the Fuccinis. If your husband was, in fact, working for the Gambinos, he would have to make contact. Greg is one of the best agents we have. He has done this longer than any of us and he had Darwin’s confidence.

“What made you act on the evidence so fast? Yet, now, you don’t think it’s credible?” She mocked their use of the word. “Look, I’m sorry, but you have to understand my side of this. I just got married five days ago. I’m supposed to be on my honeymoon. We were almost killed, more than once, by mobsters and hit men and now the FBI thinks my husband is one of them. The FBI sets us up and then he almost dies in an accident, and no one knows where he is. How do you think I’m supposed to feel?”

“We understand. We really do. But listening to us and getting through this is the way we can get working on bringing your husband home. Okay?”

She nodded, lost for words.

“We thought it was credible given the evidence. If Darwin was sent to kill Vincenzo and then go after the Fuccini family, it isn’t odd that he would show up in Rome and start hunting them down. Again, if that was what he was hired to do, then he did a great job. Better than expected.”