Bones followed me into the office. “How’s the hand?”
“The hand’s fine.” I walked behind my desk, cracked open the window, and sat down. The gun was five feet away, in the bottom right-hand drawer. My fingers itched for it, and I could feel the heat pouring off my skin. I blinked away the moment and softened my face. “What do you want?”
Bones walked across to my bookcase and ran his fingers along the spines.
“Your daughter did the same thing when she was here.”
“Really? What did she pick out?”
“I’ll let her tell you.”
Bones chuckled and selected a volume. “The Twelve Labors of Hercules.”
“You read it?”
“Believe it or not, I did. Long time ago.” He opened the book and turned a few pages. “The Hydra. Snake with all the heads, right?”
“Yep. Hercules cut off one, and two grew back.”
“Must have made things tough.” Bones found a chair and settled in it.
“Why are you here?” I said.
“The Hydra.” He held up the book. “You can’t beat it.”
“Hercules did.”
“You ain’t no fucking Hercules.”
“I thought we covered this last night.”
“We did, but I got to thinking. There was a look on your face when I mentioned the money.”
“The money Ray Perry stole from you?”
“That’s right. I could have sworn you didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about.”
“I don’t.”
“Son of a bitch if I don’t believe you.”
“I’m thrilled.”
The old man let his eyes harden into polished chips of granite. “You want to listen to what I have to say? Or maybe next time we take the whole hand?”
I felt the city’s breath hot on the back of my neck. Outside, a CTA bus groaned to a halt, and the door hissed open. “Go ahead.”
“My daughter.”
“I thought you two weren’t close?”
“She’s still my daughter.”
“Okay. What about her?”
Bones walked back to the shelf, where he replaced the book. I waited until he sat back down again.
“Is she part of Beacon?” I said.
“Hardly.”
“Then what?”
“Ray was in it,” Bones said. “Every governor in the last twenty years has been in it. But Ray loved it. He pushed for more contracts, more work, more cash, more skim. That’s why he rammed all those highway bills through Springfield. That was Ray all the way. Taking Beacon to the next level, he called it.”
“What happened?”
“The investigation that put him in jail was a witch hunt. A federal thing that had nothing to do with us.”
“But it disrupted things?”
“We told Ray to do his time, and we’d get some cash to Marie. Make sure he was comfortable inside.”
“Ray didn’t like that?”
“Ray took off with our money.”
“How much are we talking about?”
“Sixty million.”
I whistled despite myself.
“That’s right,” Bones said. “On the day he disappeared, so did the cash. From three separate accounts. We’ve been patient, hoping Ray would come to his senses and try to make a deal.”
“How much does your daughter know?”
“That’s the question. And the reason she’s still alive. Some people think she might know about the money. If not, then maybe where Ray is.”
“Doesn’t sound like you believe that?”
“If she knew where the money was, why stick around Chicago?”
The old man had put his finger on it. Either Marie Perry knew nothing and was just another victim. Or she knew everything and was staying in the city to keep someone or something safe.
“There’s another question, Bones.”
“What’s that?”
“Could you drop the hammer on your daughter if need be?”
He sat in the pale sunlight and blinked against the glare. His eyes were black hollows. His nose, once aristocratic, now just looked long and bony, reaching back into a forehead that ended in a few wisps of white hair slicked back over his skull. “My daughter’s been dead to me for a long time, Kelly. Nothing’s gonna change that.”
“Do your pals at Beacon believe that? Because I don’t.”
Bones wrinkled his brow. “You realize the clock on this thing has just about run out?”
“What do you want from me?”
“Ray did some good work for us. I’d be willing to let him stay hidden and keep ten million for himself. Considering he’s looking at thirty years in prison, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal.”
“Or he could stay hidden and keep all sixty.”
“You want to get people killed, just keep on trucking.”
“I already told you, I don’t know where Ray is.”
“Marie might.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because Ray would have reached out. Even if she wanted nothing to do with him, I could see the guy reaching out.”
“And that’s what you’ve been waiting for?”
“Talk to Marie. Tell her to convince Ray to take the deal. Then get her out of the city. If she doesn’t want to play, tell her my hands are tied.”
“That’s it?”
“Let the rest of it go. Whatever you thought you saw last night on the Ike, forget about it. And consider yourself lucky to get away with a couple of stitches.”
I took the gun out of the drawer and held it in my good hand. “The Hydra was a female serpent, Bones. She was so lethal that men who even walked in her tracks were poisoned and died.”
“What the Christ does that mean?”
“It means I don’t trust your daughter any more than I trust you. And I intend to take the whole family down if I have to. In fact, I look forward to it. Now, get out of my office before I put a bullet in you.”