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“What are you doing here?” he asked, glancing around quickly, probably on the lookout for his people—or mine. “How did you find me?”
“Special Agent in Charge Diefendorf,” I said by way of greeting, ignoring his questions. “Congratulations on the promotion, by the way. I haven’t seen you since then.”
He tried to smile politely, though it ended up looking more like a wince. “I want to say thank you but for some reason it makes me feel dirty.”
“I can’t imagine why. After all, you wereinstrumentalin dismantling the Marchese crime family. You should be proud.” I cocked my head at him in lieu of a smirk. We both knew his involvement had been minimal but his superiors didn’t and they didn’t need to, as far as I was concerned.
He cleared his throat and stole another glance around the diner. “There’s no way this is a social call, so what do you want?”
I slipped Agent Shepherd’s business card out of my pocket and flicked it onto the table in front of him. “Call your dog to heel. I have business to tend to and I don’t need him interfering.”
Diefendorf picked up the card, gave it a brief glance, and tucked it in his own jacket. “We said no more murders.”
“No,yousaid no more murders,” I corrected sharply. “And as I told you then, you can have peace in the city or you can have a clean conscience. You cannot have both.”
“This isn’t Moscow. There are laws. Ethics. We don’t do shit like that here.” He stabbed his forefinger into the table, as if it would somehow sell his point.
That time I did smirk. “Keep telling yourself that. And while you’re at it, maybe you can investigate these fine citizens. Drugs, money laundering, bribery, corruption. All right here in the city of Chicago by none other than elected officials.” I tossed a jump drive onto the table, sliding my hands back into my pockets. “I’m sure with your resources, you’ll be able to find enough evidence that will hold up in court.”
Picking up the drive, he tapped it against the table a couple of times, like he was trying to decide something. “What is this going to cost me?”
“What did Marchese cost you?”
He laughed bitterly. “A piece of my soul?”
“Then maybe this will get it back for you.” I turned to go but his voice stopped me.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Alderman Foster’s murder, does it?”
“Who?” I blinked, raising my brows slightly.
“Alderman Kenneth Foster. We know he was working with Sergei, pushing permits through over on the north side for a new nightclub. So what happened? The man was stabbed over one hundred times. I don’t speak Russian but that’s a pretty loud message. Who’s it for?”
I cocked my head and blinked again, saying nothing.
He smirked, narrowing his blue eyes at me. “Witnesses say a white Navigator was parked in front of the alderman’s house the morning of the murder. According to the registration, it belongs to Alonzo Peña. You familiar withhim?”
“Should I be?” I replied blithely.
“Somebody shot up his house a couple days ago in a town called Colomb, just south of here. Killed a whole bunch of people in a very orchestrated, militaristic attack. Kind of like how your organization has operated for the past five years. And unfortunately for me, no one has seen him since.”
“Well, clearly you have, if his car was parked at a crime scene.”
“I’ll be damned if the Fosters’ security cameras didn’t mysteriously go down right after it pulled up. So, no. We didn’tseeanyone.”
“Technology can besounreliable, even in this great country.”
“Funny thing. A flash drive, kind of like this one right here, was found in the living room, right next to where Foster and his entire family had been massacred. There were all sorts of incriminating documents on it. So much that CPD had to turn it over to us because there was a conflict of interest.”
“Huh.” I stroked my jaw, pretending to consider what he said. “What did you say earlier? ‘We don’t do shit like that here’? So much for your ethics.”
“Kind of like the ethics that got Sergei Sidorov and Dimitri Zaitsev killed?”
Adopting a somber expression, I made the sign of the cross quickly. “Memory eternal.”
Diefendorf shook his head, glancing away before fixing me with a disbelieving look. “What are you going to do now that Sergei’s dead? You going to keep running things the way he did?”
“I’m going to do what I’ve been tasked to do.” I paused, offering him a small smile. “Maintain the peace.”
