Page 10 of Out of Sight

“But I heard Angelo Morelli tell someone named Willie-Boy Bracco that Mario Costa was going to die if he didn’t pay the money he owed. That he would take his fingers off one by one and then take his hand. He was going to break his kneecaps in. Then he was going to kill him.”

“Mario Costa. You’re sure about that name?”

“Yes. One of my jobs is—was—to handle the bookkeeping for the firm, and Mario Costa owns a laundromat that wasbehind in its payments. Morelli & Morelli were his business lawyers.” I frowned at the look on Agent Blake’s face. “Why wouldn’t I be sure?”

He held me in his hazel gaze for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Mario Costa was a confidential informant—myconfidential informant. He laundered more than just clothes for the Morelli crime family.”

Money laundering?

“He was getting ready to give it all up and go into hiding so he could testify against the Morellis. But then he didn’t make his check in last night like he was supposed to after making his final payment. Now we know why.” He tossed a newspaper across the desk; it had the same article headline I’d seen last night splashed across the top. He let out a deep sigh and pursed his lips before his professional demeanor slipped back into place. “What do you know about Willie-Boy Bracco?”

“I know he’s listed in their files all the time,” I said, opening up my purse and rifling through the papers. “They pay him $1200 a week as an ‘automobile and medicinal consultant,’ whatever that means.”

“Cars and drugs,” Blake translated. “But he’s not their usual wet works guy. Do you know anything about a Leo Lombardi?”

“Yes, he used to come into the office all the time. I thought he was a cousin.”

“He is, but he’s also their enforcer. I wonder why they promoted Bracco up the ranks so quickly…”

I gave an awkward shrug. I didn’t do thoughts and motivations. I was just the computer geek who answered phones.

He shook his head, focusing back on me. “So you heard Angelo Morelli tell Willie-Boy Bracco to kill Mario Costa?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “Well, no. It was implied, but he didn’t say those actual words.”

“What evidence do you have?” He held out his hand for the papers I shuffling through.

“Um… Here’s a current client list. These are the people they’re representing.”

“They’re representing no one. Neither brother has an actual license to practice law in the state of California.”

That was news to me.

“And I printed out all their financial statements and reports. A basic version, detailed, year to date, quarterly, monthly.”

“Nothing matches up, of course, since they’re dealing with dirty money,” he observed, glancing over the reports.

I nodded in agreement. “They’ll be screwed come tax time. Well, unless their accountant is crooked too? Here is the whole file they kept on all their vendors and employees. That’s William ‘Willie-Boy’ Bracco on top. I looked him up first since I figured he was their resident assassin, but there’s an accountant in there as well so you could try looking into him to see if he’s legit.”

He raised his eyebrow at me, the barest hint of a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. “That was very thorough of you.”

I felt the warmth heat my cheeks, a faint blush I always failed to hide. I never knew what to do with compliments.

“And somewhere is a list of all the businesses that keep Morelli & Morelli on retainer, like Costa Laundry. A couple corner stores, a gas station, a clock repair shop… It’s somewhere—oh, right!” I reached behind me, pulling out thefolded paper I’d stuffed in my waistband what seemed like hours ago. I unfolded it, trying to smooth out the wrinkles.

“Looks like half a list. Did the machine finally jam on you after you printed out half a tree’s worth of pages?”

Agent Blake was trying to make a joke. It was supposed to be funny, probably an attempt to build rapport with a witness like me.

But this couldn’t be funny, because Ididhave a paper jam and the rest of the list was likely still sitting in the printer, implicating me as not just the eavesdropper they already knew I was, but someone who was digging through files they never gave me access to. This was really bad news.

“It’s okay, Claire,” Blake said, trying to offer me a reassuring smile. “This is a lot of really good information even with an incomplete list. You put your ass on the line to do the right thing, and our investigation is a lot better off than it was an hour ago. We really don’t need the full list.”

“That’s not the problem,” I said. I didn’t care about modesty as I dug around in my bra to pull out my hidden flash drive. “I have all the same info saved right there. But I think the rest of that list is caught in the printer at the office. Someone is going to find it eventually and find out that I was looking at stuff I shouldn’t have been.”

His smile dropped.

“Am I in even more danger than I thought? Mario Costa was about to turn in the Morellis and now he’s dead.”

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