Doppelgangster - Laura Resnick [110]
“You’re saying you think she bashed in Johnny’s skull then dumped his body in the East River? Oh, come on.”
I knew it wasn’t impossible, but I had to admit it was hard to imagine. “Unless . . .” I looked at Max. “What if she has an accomplice?”
“Someone who does the dirty work?” Lucky said.
“An accomplice,” Max said, rising to his feet. “Of course!”
“Yes,” I said, realizing it would explain a number of the things that had puzzled us.
“Forget it,” Lucky said. “She’s not involved in this.”
“This original, subtle, and inventive sorcery we’ve witnessed,” Max said as he stroked his beard. “Contrasted to the violent, unimaginative nature of the actual killings.”
I looked at Max and said, “Two killers!”
“She ain’t a killer!” Lucky shouted over my phone.
“Two completely different styles of dispatching the same enemy!” Max was pacing around the room in his excitement. “Two drastically dissimilar personalities cooperating on the same murders!”
“One of them a woman,” I said to Max.
“One of what?” Lucky said me.
“She had the power to create the doppelgangsters and the shrewdness to play on old enmities to generate a mob war between the two families she hates,” I continued. “But she needed the assistance of someone who could actually commit the physical slayings. She had no experience at that. And probably no stomach for it, either.”
“Will you stop?” Lucky said.
Max said, “So she found an accomplice who was willing to finish off her victims once she had ensured they would be defenseless!”
“Who?” I wondered. “Angelo Falcone?”
“You gotta be kidding me,” Lucky said. “That putz?”
“She’s a beautiful woman,” Max said. “And we’ve seen for ourselves that at least two, er, experienced men of action are enthralled by her allure.”
Our eyes met. We both knew that she wouldn’t have invited Lucky to be her partner in crime; he would certainly be one of her intended victims.
“Don Michael ‘No Relation’ Buonarotti,” I said slowly.
“No way is Elena in cahoots with him!” Lucky said, having heard this. “Are you nuts?”
“Buonarotti’s infatuated with the widow,” I said. “He’s an experienced killer. And I’ll bet he didn’t become the don without having plenty of ambition. So maybe he thinks the Buonarotti crime family can take advantage of the situation and come out on top if the Corvinos and Gambellos tear each other apart in another mob war now.”
“Yes.” Max was nodding furiously and tugging at his beard. “Yes, this is an excellent theory, Esther!”
There was a leaden silence on my telephone.
“Lucky? We have to search the widow’s place,” I said. “We have to look for evidence that she’s creating the doppelgangsters.”
“She’s not, I tell you.” He sounded anxious now, uncertain. Worried. “She turned to the church in her grief, not to whacking people.”
“All the same, we must search her home.” Recalling Lopez’s words last night, I said, “Look, if there’s nothing there, then we won’t find anything.”
There was a tense pause. Then he said, “And if you don’t find nothin’, then you’ll get off her back?”
No, we would try to figure out where else she might be conducting her mystical activities. But I said, “Yes.” Because sometimes you just have to say whatever it takes to make progress on a problem.
Lucky let out puff of breath. “All right. After I’m done with my other business, I’ll search her place today.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I said, hearing how unhappy he sounded. “Max and I will search it.”
I met Max’s gaze again, and he nodded emphatically. “You don’t trust me?” Lucky said wearily. “You think I’m going to find some doppelgangsters hanging in the closet and not tell you?”
“I don’t think you’re going to find anything quite that obvious,” I said patiently. “This is a mystical problem. You might not recognize something incriminating in Elena’s apartment. That’s why Max has to do this.”
“All right, tell the Doc to meet me at Elena’s place.” He gave me the address.
“What time should we be there?”
“You’re not coming with him. While we search her place, you’re gonna keep an eye on Elena.”
“What?”
“Relax, she ain’t guilty.