Coldwater Revenge, James Ross [books for 9th graders txt] 📗

out there, brother. Floating dogs. A Demolition Derby with police property….”

“Skip it,” Tom growled. “Where’ve you been?”

“Feds let me out on a day pass.”

“Are they getting anything out of Hassad?”

“Last I saw his professorship, he was stranded on Sunken Island, up to his gonads in ice water. Punk was screaming like a baby when I plucked you out and left him there.”

“But they have him, don’t they? None of the stuff they’ve been asking me makes any sense if you just left him there.”

“After I got you back to the marina, I had Mickey Dooley take Johnsen and his pals out to pluck his professorship out of his ice bath. But I’m not supposed to talk about any of that.”

“Since when do you do what you’re told?” Tom waved a bandaged hand at the television. “I’ve been listening to that gibberish for a week. They haven’t got a clue.”

“Joe shrugged. “The divers got pretty much everything from the patrol boat you sunk. But I hear the lab boys aren’t too excited by any of it. Trunks full of pea powder and vials of bupkis. They also found a car in Frankie’s garage rigged to spread powder.”

“They were excited about that a few days ago.”

“That was when they thought they’d stumbled onto a terrorist factory. But Hassad’s story is that he was going to have Billy drive one of these powder jalopies around town and settle a few old scores. A half a dozen people, max. Not thousands.”

“They’re briefing you? I thought you were on their village idiot shit-list.”

“Still am. Most of this comes from that Dr. Dyer. He wants to do a paper on my blood. Man Mountain that abrin couldn’t kill. I let him leech me twice a week as long as he passes on the agency gossip. Johnsen’s been running a few things by me, too. He calls it ‘what if’ brainstorming. But it’s pretty clear he’s checking out pieces of Hassad’s story. He’s also asked me to look into a few things. Who knows, maybe they’ll make me an honorary G-man when this is over.”

“Do they believe Hassad’s story?”

“They’ve had him for a week. If he’s sticking to the same story through what I imagine they must be doing to him, I’d say it’s probably true. I’m told he coughed up the cell in Montreal right away. The Mounties pulled in a couple of grad students and two shop keepers.”

“The ones in the grocery store I visited? Who didn’t know Hassad or U-Labs?”

“Sounds like it. Apparently they all met at this fire and brimstone mosque. One of them is from a place where they use abrin to kill cows. He came up with the car and powder idea. Hassad’s story is that, being a chemist, he knew from the beginning it wouldn’t work on any large scale. Something about aerosolizing a spore like anthrax being one thing, and doing it to a compound like abrin being another.”

“So why go ahead with it?”

“He says he got the idea of using the brotherhood to help him settle some old scores, with no one the wiser if things went wrong. Dyer says they tested the powder in those trunks and found it wouldn’t blow more than ten feet out of the homemade dust boxes Frankie made. So that part’s true.”

“What was his plan for actually using the stuff?”

“I don’t know. Johnsen hasn’t ‘brainstormed’ that part yet. But I have this mental image of Hassad coming up behind one of the Cashins on Main Street and jabbing him with an umbrella, while Billy rides by pulling the plug on one of those cars.”

“The Cashins?”

“That’s who Hassad was after. Bobby, his cousin Vinny and a bunch of low life’s who gave him a bad time when he was in school here.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Depends how you feel about getting bent over the hood of a Mustang while Bobby and his cousins take down your pants and have a go at you.”

Tom felt sick. “Is that what happened?”

“Yep. You know how the Cashins and that crowd feel about ‘furiners.’ One of them saw Hassad and Susan together out on Pocket Island and got his pals together to teach the brown boy a lesson.”

“I can’t believe she never said anything.”

“It’s not the kind of thing you’d talk about to the new boyfriend. But it’s not hard to see why she might help Hassad, if he had a chance to even the score. Or at least why she wouldn’t turn him in.”

“I don’t think he told her his real plan. I think he fed her some line about helping his little country get an equalizer, so they wouldn’t get pushed around, and that she bought it.”

“Maybe. It’s sure not the end of the world crap they’re running on TV. I don’t know if the feds are buying the high school revenge angle. But that’s the story Hassad’s sticking to.”

“And I suppose we’re not to share any of this with anyone.” Tom gestured again at the muted television.

“Johnsen told me to remind you.”

“Or else?” Tom doubted the bunch he’d met in the Coldwater motel room would leave it as a simple reminder.

“He said something about Mom and Al Capone.”

“Income tax evasion?”

“There’s half a dozen accountants and investigators sniffing around town, Tommy. How much you think they’re going to miss? They had the story about the money in Dad’s coat on day one. They promised not to share it with Grogan, if I play ball.”

“So Johnsen and company keep the cameras and headlines and we keep our mouths shut?”

“What did you expect?”

“I don’t know, a parade or something? Peck on the cheek from the President? Don’t the heroic Morgan brothers get anything?”

“One gets to keep his job and maybe a new patrol boat, if he keeps being helpful. I don’t know how things work in your world, brother. But that’s how they work in mine.

* * *

There was one more thing Johnsen wanted Joe to check out.

“That’s right, Sister. It’s Sheriff Morgan calling Monsignor Marchetti about Father