The October List

killed a man who threatened to be a witness against him. Reardon could have shot the man when he was alone. But he killed the family too. I have to believe part of him killed them that way because he enjoyed it. The wife was tortured and raped. Sadist, I was saying – like with Carole.’
    Gabriela, knitting.
    She closed her eyes, letting thoughts churn. Karpankov remained silent; she’d worked for him for years and he knew how her mind spun, when to speak, when to demur. For several minutes she was in a very different place. Making order out of tangle. And he said not a word.
    When she surfaced she was for a split second actually surprised that she wasn’t alone. She re-centered herself. ‘I have some ideas. I’ll need somebody else to help. Muscle. Not afraid of dirty hands. Better if he didn’t have too much of a connection to you.’
    Karpankov thought for a moment. ‘There’s somebody I use on a freelance basis. He’s good. Very smart.’
    ‘And he has no problem with?’
    The sentence didn’t need to be finished.
    ‘None at all. He’s done a dozen jobs for me. He’s here now, as a matter of fact. Downstairs,’ Karpankov said.
    ‘Let’s talk to him.’ Her eyes settled on Gunther again. He looked back. His tail thumped with pleasure.
    Karpankov made a call, politely asking the man to join them. Then disconnected. ‘What are you making?’ A nod toward the yarn. Green and blue.
    Reminding of a song she liked. James Taylor.
    She said, ‘It’s going to be a shawl.’ She gazed at the tips of the needles. Ideas were coming quickly.
    Five minutes later there was a knock on the door and Karpankov called, ‘Come in.’
    A large man with blond hair, thick and curly, and a square-jawed face, stepped into the room and shook Karpankov’s hand. ‘Peter.’ His eyes were confident and he glanced at Gabriela without curiosity or lust or condescension.
    ‘This is Gabriela McNamara.’
    ‘Joseph Astor.’ The man’s face was a mask as he regarded her. He apparently didn’t know who she was, or care. That was good. Reputations were useless. Like praise and insults and high school sports trophies.
    Hands were shaken. His skin was rough. She detected a faint scent she identified as shave cream, not aftershave. He sat in the other office chair. It groaned. Joseph wasn’t fat but he was solid, built like a supporting column.
    ‘You go by “Gabriela”?’
    ‘Yes, I hate nicknames.’ To her, ‘Gabby’ was a particular gnat. The only nickname she’d ever liked was her father’s. To him she was Mac. As he was the Professor to her.
    ‘And,’ Karpankov said, ‘I hate it when people call me “Pete.”’
    The other of the triumvirate here said nothing but she sensed ‘Joe’ was not a felicitous option.
    The dark red needles tapped their dull tips. Karpankov explained the situation about Reardon to Joseph, much as he’d explained it to her. Then he added, ‘Gabriela is taking on the job of finding these men and eliminating them. She’s asked for an associate to help.’
    Joseph said, ‘Sure. Whatever I can do.’
    Silence, save for the clicking of the needles. Finally she said to Joseph, ‘What I’ll be doing is putting together a set. You know the word “set”?’
    ‘Police talk for undercover operation. Like a play, sort of.’
    ‘I still have to think out the details – I’ll do that over the next few hours. But in essence I’ll get some people at my regular job to put together an operation, a sting, to catch Reardon and his associates. It’ll seem like some police officers’re after me, so that Reardon’ll believe I’ve got access to a lot of money and some secrets or something like that. With the cops after me, he’ll be inclined to believe it’s legitimate. I can talk my captain into it, I’m sure.’
    ‘Police?’ Joseph said, confusion hazing his face. ‘Your captain?’
    Gabriela said, ‘I’m a police officer.’
    ‘You’re …’
    ‘I’ll call and set up a meeting with them, my captain and a couple of other detectives in a few hours.’
    ‘The police?’ Joseph repeated, though with less uncertainty than before.
    Karpankov filled in, ‘Gabriela’s a decorated NYPD detective. That job has been … helpful to us. As you can imagine.’
    Joseph gave no reaction other than a time-delayed nod. He then lifted an eyebrow. ‘How did you happen to end up there?’
    ‘My father was NYPD too,’ she said calmly. ‘I followed in his footsteps. I was interested in