Silent Assassin(85)

“So what can we do?” asked Conley.

There was a prolonged silence. Then Morgan spoke up.

“I think I might have a way.”





CHAPTER 47


Miami, February 17





The foyer was all done in white and pink marble. There were large ornate mirrors on the walls, and fresh flowers in decorative vases. Morgan walked in confidently, but with due deference. He was about to ask a favor of a man who would not be happy to see him, and it would do him no good to act tough.

He heard the footsteps before seeing him: a large man, in a dark blue suit, his huge gut protruding from the jacket. “Hello, Sal.”

Salvatore Massaro was the head of a powerful crime family in Miami. He had a hand in all the dirty dealings in the city, from drugs to prostitution to illegal gambling. Back in his high school days, Morgan had gone to school with Sal’s niece, Gabriella, who was also Sal’s godchild. Morgan was friendly with her family, which was involved in organized crime in the Boston area. Shortly after high school graduation, Morgan had learned about a major drug bust in the town he’d grown up in, just outside of Boston, through a good friend who was a local police detective. Morgan had asked if he could go along for the ride and observe. Some warehouses had been raided, including one of Massaro’s located on the waterfront. During the raids, several of Massaro’s top people had been killed with several others arrested and a huge amount of narcotics had been confiscated. A crack house had also been raided and one of those detained was Gabriella. She’d been pretty strung out, but recognized Morgan and asked for his help. Dan had gotten his detective friend to agree to let Morgan take her to a clinic, where she would hopefully get clean. Dan had, and notified her family of her whereabouts. The family had made it clear to Morgan that they owed him a favor. Morgan had met Sal years earlier through Gabriella, and while they had never been exactly friends, there had been some degree of mutual respect between them. The police operation ended that relationship, and left Sal Massaro resentful of Morgan for not tipping him off somehow.

“Well, look who’s here,” Massaro said acidly. “What do you want?”

“And here I thought you’d be glad to see me,” said Morgan.

“We don’t like white hats, Dan. Not unless they’re on the payroll.”

“I’m not here to bust you, Sal, you know I’m not a cop. I’m here because I need your help.”

“Help?” he scoffed.

“There’s a shipment of cocaine that’s coming into port on a certain ship.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about any of that.”

“Please,” said Morgan. “You’re not letting anything come in and out of your city without your knowledge. Don’t play coy with me. I don’t want you arrested, Sal. Now hear me out. This stuff ’s been tainted as part of a terrorist plot. There’s a deadly fungus mixed in with this powder.”

“What, like anthrax or something?”

“Worse,” said Morgan.

“Worse?”

“If this thing gets out, I promise it’s going to be ugly. And if they trace it back to the cocaine, I can assure you that the DEA is the last thing you’ll have to worry about. Suddenly, ending the drug trade will be a matter of national security. And you know how civil rights and due process are the first to go out the door as soon as terrorism is mentioned.”

“That they are,” said Sal pensively.

“So you’ll help?” asked Morgan.

Sal laughed bitterly. “You come here with some half-baked story about some terrorist attack, and you expect me to leap off my feet to help you? To give up millions’ worth of pure blow? What the hell do you expect?”

“I expected a favor from someone who owes me,” said Morgan.

Sal looked dour, seething. “I never sold that junk. Meth. It made me sick to find out that Gabriella was sucked in by it. If it hadn’t been for you she would probably be a strung-out junkie or dead.”

“You can repay that debt today,” said Morgan. “In full.”

“All right.” He took out a pad and a pen and wrote four numbers down on a sheet of paper. “You’ll find the shipment in this container. It’s marked as being full of soybeans. Just get it out of there before the pickup crew arrives. They don’t play nice with people who steal their property.”

“Thank you, Sal.”

“My debt is repaid, Morgan. If I ever see you darkening my doorstep again, you’re a dead man. You hear me? Dead.”

Morgan looked him in the eyes and said, “I think we have an understanding, Sal.”