‘I swear—’
‘Shut up,’ said Jimmy.
At my side I held a copy of the New York Times. I put it in front of Tony, the front page facing him.
‘You met this woman. The same woman who paid you, gave you the Haloperidol, and then tried to kill you. Her picture is on the front page,’ I said.
There were two pictures on the front page. The trial had captured the lurid imagination of readers, and below the fold were photographs of Alexandra and Sofia as they left court yesterday. Close ups. Showing their grim determination in the face of their personal nightmare.
‘Which one?’ I said.
He closed his eyes. Tony had gotten in way over his head and now he was having to pay the price.
‘She tried to stab me in the face, but she missed and dropped the knife. It must’ve fallen under my car. Then she landed that bike on my head. She’s crazy,’ he said.
‘Hey, Tony,’ said Jimmy. ‘I know you’re probably scared of this lady. She nearly killed you, after all. But look, she ain’t here. And you don’t need to be scared of her no more. You need to be scared of me. Because I will kill you. Do you understand?’
Tony opened his eyes, nodded rapidly, and stuck a finger into the paper. I leaned over to see who he had pointed out.
‘You sure?’ I asked.
‘I’m sure. It was her.’
Now I needed to save Tony P.
‘Jimmy, Tony is going to testify that he sourced the Haloperidol for her, and he was paid handsomely. He’s also going to say that after her father was murdered, she asked him where he’d gotten the Haloperidol, and he told her he got it from a pharmacy in Haberman. He’s then going to say that she tried to kill him on the street. You are going to do all of that, aren’t you, Tony?’
‘I’ll do whatever you say.’
‘Because if you tell the truth to the cops, and testify that you poisoned somebody in Jimmy’s restaurant, that would be bad for Jimmy’s business. And if you don’t testify at all that means there’s no reason for Jimmy to keep you alive. So you’ll do it?’
‘I’ll do it, I swear.’
I left the newspaper, thanked Jimmy and ran for the door.
‘Don’t kill him. I need him.’
‘He’ll still be breathing when the cops come to talk to him. Who knows how long he’ll keep breathing after that?’ said Jimmy.
FIFTY-THREE
EDDIE
The house on Franklin Street looked quiet. There was an old van parked outside. I glanced through the rear door windows of the van and saw boxes stacked inside, and something else, too. I stood for a second in the night air, listening. The city was quiet for once, just the distant traffic.
I approached the house. The front door was open. Even so, I knocked on the door and hollered a greeting as I came inside.
The hallway had a lamp burning on a side table. I called out again, and moved forward until I saw the kitchen and lounge.
Sofia stood in the lounge, in semi-darkness, the light from another lamp burning on the table caught in her eyes, making them look ablaze.
‘Eddie, what are you doing here?’ she said.
In front of her, on a coffee table, was a chessboard. The pieces laid out as if a game was in full flow.
‘I came by to see how you were doing.’
‘How did you know I was here?’
‘There was no answer at your apartment. This house is yours now, I guess, and I thought you might be here. I saw a van outside, are you moving in?’
‘I thought I’d move a few things into the house. I wanted to keep busy,’ she said.
‘Is that your chessboard? Did I interrupt a game? Is someone else here?’ I asked.
‘No one else is here. Yeah, this is my board. This is my sister’s game. The game we played when we were kids, and didn’t get to finish.’
She reached down, moved a knight.
‘And now it’s over,’ she said. ‘I’ve won.’
The light seemed to move deep into her eyes, making them luminous, like a predator caught stalking its prey in the moonlight. The frightened, meek Sofia was gone. Her sister was awaiting sentencing for Frank’s murder, and Sofia was in the clear. She no longer had anything to fear. Her confidence all but glowed around her like a halo.
‘You definitely won,’ I said, nodding. ‘You must really hate Alexandra.’
‘I hated her long before she killed my father. She took everything from me when she pushed Mom down the stairs,’ said Sofia. ‘It was an accident. A stupid accident. She didn’t mean to kill her. I wasn’t angry at Alexandra for taking our mother away. It’s that it happened too soon. I hated my mom. I wanted to beat Mom at chess one day. I wanted to grow up, and for my mom to know I was better than her. Better than Alexandra, too. I wanted to hurt Mom, and she took that away from me. I couldn’t hurt her in death, even though I tried. Then Dad sent us away. I lost him, too. She deserves to rot for what she did.’
There was a seismic change in Sofia. She looked and held herself differently. I felt like I was really seeing her for the first time. Things were beginning to make more sense. The real reason for the hatred between her and Alexandra was clear now. When she said she’d tried to hurt her mother in death, I knew exactly what that meant. Alexandra pushed Jane at the top of the stairs, but it was Sofia who bit her after she was dead.
Sofia shook her head, as if coming out of a dream. ‘Do you want some coffee?’
‘Thank you, that would be great. There’s been some developments and I wanted to fill you in.’
She led me to the kitchen, turned on the rest of the lights. There was a new coffee machine sitting on the counter, fresh out of the box that lay beside it. Frank never drank coffee, she told me. He preferred tea toward the end. She filled the bun flask with water, plugged in the machine, filled it with fresh grounds and set it to percolate.
‘Killers always make mistakes,’ I said.
‘And you found one?’ said Sofia, her tone even and inquisitive.
‘I found two. She left a witness alive. Someone who could identify her.’
She opened a cupboard, looking for coffee mugs. There were none.
‘They took all the mugs,’ she said. She opened more cupboards, found nothing.
‘I guess coffee is off the menu,’ I said.
‘Looks like it. Sorry, what were you saying about a witness?’ She came around the small breakfast diner in the center of the kitchen, and stood just a few feet from me. She still wore a long coat and boots, even though the house felt warm.
‘The guy she paid to put the drugs in Frank’s food. He used to work in Jimmy’s restaurant.’
‘Oh my god! And what did he tell you?’
‘He’s talking to the cops, right now. He told me he was paid to do it.’
She looked down at the tiled floor while she processed this.
‘I still can’t believe she did it. She’s my sister,’ said Sofia.
‘That wasn’t her only mistake.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, but you don’t need to worry about it. Honestly. It’s over now, Sofia. You’re not in danger anymore. I just wanted to come by, make sure you’re okay and then I’ll leave the rest to the police.’