“Any point pursuing this?” Vance asked. “Sadie’s got a new wound now and, by the looks of her, she has no intention of letting it heal, she intends to keep it licked raw. After eighteen years, that trail’s cold. I manage to find something, what purpose would it serve?”
Eddie looked at Vance. “At least she’d know her father didn’t kill her mother.”
Everyone knew that was so thin, it was practically useless.
But for Sadie, who had nothing but still managed to lose more, thin was better than nothing.
Because of that, Vance gave a jerk of his chin and muttered, “I’ll look into it.”
Hank moved to Lee’s desk and used his hands to pull himself up to sit on it. “We got another problem,” he announced when he’d settled.
Eddie felt the air in the room get heavy and his body tensed.
“Play the tape,” Hank said to Lee and Lee reached out and hit a button on a recorder on his desk. Sadie and Seth’s phone conversation from the day before filled the room. When it was over, Lee hit the stop button.
Hank’s eyes went to Eddie. “He said there’s business to attend to.”
Eddie clenched his teeth.
Hector had said Sadie had a will of steel. He hoped to fuck his brother was right because if Seth Townsend was doing business from prison, she wasn’t free of him. Not yet.
Lee spoke, “Hector heard the conversation. We played it back half a dozen times yesterday. He didn’t look happy at what he heard. I figure it was for more than the obvious reason but he didn’t share. We got somethin’ else to deal with here?”
“No idea,” Eddie replied truthfully and he saw Lee’s eyes cut to Hank before he continued. “Hector told me she knew what her father did. He also told me she slipped him information when he was on the inside.”
All eyes came to him at this surprising revelation.
“You’re fuckin’ kidding,” Vance murmured.
Eddie shook his head.
“Little Sadie?” Tom whispered.
This time, Eddie nodded.
“What are we talkin’ about here? What did she give him? Was she involved, in a position to know?” Hank asked.
“No. Hector said the information was worthless but she didn’t know that. He wasn’t in the place where he could tell her without putting them both in danger and it doesn’t matter. She did it all the same. Still, I’m thinkin’ Townsend figures family ties bind and she could help him keep a hold while he’s in prison. There was shit the Feds knew existed but they couldn’t find it. We know he’s still got men loyal to him and he’s keepin’ himself informed. Now, he knows she’s strayed and he obviously isn’t happy about it.”
“Where’s the link?” Vance asked. “If she wasn’t involved while he was active, why the fuck would he involve her now?”
Eddie shook his head because it was beyond his comprehension why a father would want to drag his daughter into a life of crime.
Then he looked at Lee. “Brody needs to do a hack, find out what the Feds got and what they didn’t and if they’re still keepin’ an eye on him. I’ll talk to Hector. We got more than the Balduccis to worry about. We need to keep Sadie clear of her father. By the sound of it he’s lookin’ to suck her in.”
“She hates him,” Tom put in. “She’s not getting involved.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Eddie told Tom. “His daughter has taken up with the agent who brought him down. We all know Seth Townsend sure as fuck isn’t going to stand for that, even if he’s behind bars.”
“I’ll get Brody on it, you talk to Hector,” Lee said immediately.
Eddie took in a breath, he didn’t like what he was going to have to say next, he didn’t like to owe markers to anyone who was dirty, but he knew he had to say it.
His eyes moved to Lee. “You need to go to Marcus and Vito. They need to make their protection of Sadie official. Townsend and any of his crew that are out there need to know what they’re up against if they’re thinkin’ retribution against Hector or Sadie.”
Lee simply nodded.
“This just keeps getting uglier and uglier,” Hank muttered.
Hank was right but Eddie, thinking about his brother’s woman, her mother dead, taking her life in her own hands to be free of her father, ending up beaten and raped by one of his competitors and Sadie’s response to this latest news, still hoped Hank was wrong.
As for the unsettled feeling he had about Hector and Sadie, the way they behaved and the way he saw them looking at each other, Eddie knew it was time to talk to Jet.