Bolan encountered no resistance as he descended the stairwell that led to the garage. At the bottom, the two men assigned to wait there raised weapons when he reached the door, but recognized him and lowered their guns. He tossed them a cursory nod and hurried up the exit ramp. When he got to the SUV he had driven, he started to open the driver’s door, but the sound of approaching sirens—from every direction—changed his plan. Instead, he went to the back, tossed the keys inside, removed the zippered bag and struck off on foot. He kept up a brisk pace until he reached the waterfront, then he slowed. Finding a bench, he sat and gazed out at the lake, watching the moon’s reflection shimmy in the chop of the surf. He knew the police would take care of the Mob survivors. His part was over.
After a while he took out his phone and dialed a number. A woman answered, her voice thick with sleep.
“Gloria,” he said, “is Eddie available?”
“No, he’s—oh, it’s you,” she said. “I’m sorry, Matt. Since...you know, Angela, he’s been sleeping so poorly, the doctor gave him a prescription. The pills really knock him out cold.”
“I understand,” Bolan said. “I thought he’d want to know—you both would. Sometimes it’s hard to find justice in this world, and I don’t know that I’d call it that anyway. But the pipeline—the one that Angela wound up on the end of—it’s closed.”
“It is?”
“I can’t say another one won’t open up sometime. But that one’s shut down for good. The people who ran it won’t run anything, ever again. That’s the best I can do.”
Gloria’s voice sounded unutterably sad when she answered. “It’s not enough, Matt, but nothing could be, ever. That’s not your fault, though, and I know you can’t work miracles. Still, you’ve done more than we could have asked. I thank you, and I know Eddie will, too, when he hears. You can’t know how much this means to us.”
After the call, Bolan sat on the bench awhile longer. A boat chugged across the lake, parallel to the shore, lights along its starboard side and in its wheelhouse making it look like a constellation fallen to earth.
It wasn’t a miracle, just human beings setting out for a hard day’s work.
But it would do.
* * * * *