Then he stopped that train of thought with just one word – mistake.

He couldn't make any – not one misstep from now until this was all over. If he did, he was dead.

Simple as that.

End of story.

Chapter 91

IT WAS LATE, and I decided to go for a drive in the R350. I was loving the car. The kids felt the same way. Even Nana did, praise the Lord. I found myself thinking about Maria again. The long investigation into her murder I had conducted and failed at. I was messing with my own mind, trying to picture her face, trying to hear the exact sound of her voice.

Later that night, back at home, I tried to get to sleep but couldn't. It got so bad that I went downstairs and watched Diary of a Mad Black Woman again. Actually, I found myself cheering like a crazy person at the flickering TV screen. Tyler Perry's movie matched up perfectly with my frame of mind.

I called up Tony Woods at the director's office around nine the next morning. Then I swallowed my pride and asked Tony for some help on the rape and murder case. I needed to find out if the Bureau had anything on the contract killer called the Butcher, anything that might be helpful to Sampson and me – maybe something classified.

"We knew you'd call one of these days, Alex. Director Burns is eager to work with you again. You up for some consulting? Just light stuff. It's your call what and where, especially now that you're taking on cases again."

"Who said I'm taking on cases? This is a special situation," I told Tony. "The Butcher probably murdered my wife years ago. It's the one case I can't leave unsolved."

"I understand. I do understand. We'll try to help if we can. I'll get you what you need."

Tony arranged for me to use the office of an agent who was out of town, and he said it was okay if I wanted to start a dialogue with an FBI researcher-analyst named Monnie Donnelley.

"I already talked to Monnie," I told him.

"We know you did. Monnie told us. We cleared it for her now. Officially."

The next couple of days, I pretty much lived in the FBI building. Turned out, the Bureau had quite a lot on Michael Sullivan, the Butcher. His file included dozens of photographs. One problem was that the photos were five to seven years old, and there didn't seem to have been any contact with Sullivan recently. Where had he disappeared to? I did learn that Sullivan grew up in a part of Brooklyn known as the Flatlands. His father had been a real butcher there. I even got the names of some old contacts and friends of Sullivan's from his days in New York.

What I read of Sullivan's backstory was curious. He'd attended parochial schools through tenth grade, and he'd been a good student, even though he never seemed to work at it. Then Sullivan dropped out of school. He took up with the Mafia and was one of the few non-Italians to break in. He wasn't a "made man," but he was well paid. Sullivan earned in the six figures when he was in his early twenties and became Dominic Maggione's go-to hit man. His son, the current don, had never approved of Sullivan.

Then something strange and disturbing to all concerned started to happen. There were reports of Michael Sullivan torturing and mutilating the bodies of victims; murdering a priest and a layman accused of misconduct with boys at his old grade school; a couple of other vigilante hits; a rumor that Sullivan might have murdered his own father, who disappeared from his shop one night and whose body had never been found to this day.

Then Sullivan seemed to completely disappear off the Bureau's radar screen. Monnie Donnelley agreed with my assessment: that Sullivan might have become somebody's informer in the Bureau. It was possible that the FBI, or the New York police, was protecting him. Even that Sullivan might be in Witness Protection. Was that what had happened to Maria's killer?

Was he somebody's snitch?

Was the FBI protecting the Butcher?

Chapter 92

JOHN MAGGIONE WAS A PROUD MAN, too showy at times, too cocksure, but he wasn't stupid, and he wasn't usually careless. He was aware of the current situation involving the mad-dog hit man his father had used back in the day – the Butcher, an Irishman of all things. But even his crazy old man had tried to eliminate Michael Sullivan once he found out how dangerous and unpredictable he was. Now the job would be done, and it had to be done right away.

Sullivan was still on the loose, Maggione knew. As an extra safeguard against him, he'd moved his family out of the house in South Brooklyn. They were living at the compound in Mineola on Long Island. He was there with them now.

The house was a brick Colonial, waterfront, on a quiet cul-de-sac. It had its own dock on the channel and a speedboat, Cecilia Theresa, named after his first child.

Although the compound's location was well known, the gates around the place were secure, and Maggione had doubled his bodyguards. He felt good about the safety of his family. The Butcher was only one guy, after all. Realistically, how much damage could he do? How much more damage?

Junior had plans to go in to work later in the morning, then make his regular stop at the social club in Brooklyn. It was important for him to keep up appearances. Besides, he was sure he had things under control now He had assurances from his people: Sullivan would be dead soon, and so would his family.

At eleven in the morning, Maggione was swimming in the indoor pool at the compound. He'd already done thirty laps and planned to do fifty more.

His cell phone began to ring on the chaise longue.

Nobody else was around, so finally he climbed out of the pool and answered it himself. "Yeah? What?"

"Maggione." He heard a male voice on the line.

"Who the hell is this?" he asked, even though he knew who it was.

"This happens to be Michael Sullivan, chief. The nerve of the cheeky bastard, huh?"

Maggione was quietly stunned that the madman was actually calling him again. "I think we better talk," he said to the hit man.

"We are talking. Know how come? You sent killers after me. First in Italy. Then they came near my house in Maryland. They shot at my kids. Then they showed up in Washington looking for me. Because I'm supposed to be a loose cannon? You're the loose cannon, Junior! You're the one who needs to be put down!"

"Listen, Sullivan -"

"No, you listen, you asshole punk bastard. You listen to me, Junior! There's a package arriving at your fortress right about now. Check it out, chief. I'm coming after you! You can't stop me. Nothing can stop me; nobody can. I'm crazy, right? You try and remember that. I'm the craziest bastard you ever met, or even heard of. And we will meet again."

Then the Butcher hung up on him.

Junior Maggione put on a robe; then he walked out to the front of the house. He couldn't believe it – FedEx was making a delivery!

That meant that the crazy bastard Sullivan might be watching the house right now. Was that possible? Could it be happening, just like he said it would?

"Vincent! Mario! Get your asses out here!" he called to his bodyguards, who came running from the kitchen holding sandwiches.

He had one of his men open the delivery box – out in the pool house.

After a couple of nervous moments, the guy called out, "It's pictures, Mr. Maggione. Not exactly Kodak moments."