Hooked

asked.
    “Positive.”
    “I’ve seen her with it, too,” Dennis said. “It’s hers.”
    “Champagne and a nice setup of munchies up there. Oh, and I found these.” He swung the nipple clamps by the chain. “Got Cooper’s initials on them in rhinestones.”
    “Those are diamonds, you moron,” Cooper said. “Do you think Benny Cooper would have rhinestones?”
    Jesus. “Where’s the doorman?” Linc asked.
    “Probably hiding in his apartment,” Cooper said.
    “Where?” Dennis asked. Cooper told him to go outside and down the stairs to the basement. Linc nodded, and Dennis left.
    “After forensics leaves, I want the office emptied. Computers, papers, everything you can find, and get them downtown. If the cupboards are locked, break them open. There are tapes. I want them.” He walked over to Cooper. “What’s Mario Russo got to do with you, Cooper?”
    “I barely know the man. Eileen knows him better than I do, don’t you, sweetheart?”
    “Fuck you, Benny,” Eileen spat back. “That was a long time ago.”
    “What was he doing here?”
    Cooper shook his head. “That’s where I draw the line, Walsh. I wouldn’t live twenty-four hours if I cross Russo.”
    Linc couldn’t argue.
    “All I’m saying now is I didn’t kill anyone, didn’t order anyone killed. And that’s it. I’m not saying another word until I speak to my lawyer. Cooper, over and out.”
    With that, Cooper pinched his lips tight.
    Linc couldn’t listen to another word anyway. The Coopers’ vitriol wouldn’t help find Tawny. He walked out of the apartment.
    Harry followed. “We’ll find her,” he said.
    “Probably not before it’s too late. Reggie and Colin have nothing to lose by killing her, unless they’re too stupid to figure out the Coopers will trade them out to save themselves. If we find them alive.”
    “If we find them at all, they’ll be dead,” Harry said. “Russo doesn’t leave loose ends.”
    “No, and he’s too smart to stash her in a building that’s on the books, but I don’t know where else to start.”
    “We’ve had forensic accountants trying to untangle his holdings for years,” Harry said. “If Russo wanted to hide something, Martell made it go away. He was smart. Very smart.”
    “What about construction sites?” Linc said.
    “That’s a lot of territory. Russo’s company has jobs in three states. New Jersey ’s one of them.”
    Linc felt his stomach muscles tighten. Harry was right. Too much territory to clear in one night. If Tawny was somewhere in New Jersey , they were fucked.
    Dennis came back into the building. “Doorman heard Colin say New Jersey as they were taking Tawny out the back door. That’s all he heard, he said. He might know more, but he asked for a lawyer. I had one of the cops from the 19th take him in.”
    “Not so dumb after all,” Linc said.
    Linc, Dennis, and Harry walked out of Upper Eighties while the cops were loading the Coopers into two squad cars. “Talk about nothing to lose,” Linc said. “Russo’s fighting for his life. I thought he was going to collapse when I saw him earlier. He mentioned chemo treatments. Even if he shows up at the hospital tomorrow morning, it’ll be too late for Tawny. He’ll get rid of her tonight.”
    “In New Jersey ,” Dennis said.
    “Yeah.” Linc turned to Harry. “He’s too smart to use his cell, but Reggie and Colin aren’t,” Dennis said, “nor were they prepared for this. I’ll put a track on their cells.”
    Mario Russo had spent his life besting the authorities. He wouldn’t let a woman dethrone him at the end of a long, successful career. And he wouldn’t let two fuckups do it either. He’d kill them and kill Tawny too. Leave no witnesses. No loose threads.
    “I’ve got phone calls to make,” Linc said. “It’s our only chance to save Tawny.”

Chapter Forty
    The End of the Line

    T awny crouched in the back seat, blind, bound, and silenced. She offered little resistance, knowing it was useless. All she had were her ears.
    Colin drove for about forty-five minutes. After a while, he drove fast. Highway driving, though she couldn’t guess which direction. No heavy traffic sounds, but then it was the wee hours of the morning, and even in New York , life slowed at that hour. The two men spoke little on the way until they began to argue about turns and streets. The only thing she learned was wherever they were looked like a ghost town. That sounded hopeless. Who would hunt for her