Free Season of the Assassin by Thomas Laird

I’d nodded my head to them. It’s not because I’m a pristine virgin. It’s because I know them too well. I know what they’re like. Once you say ‘Yes’ to them, it’s yes for the rest of your life. I’m afraid of a debt that large. I’m afraid of owing my soul to them. Perhaps it’s the Catholic in me, but I know what they’re like, and it’s not what you see in the movies. They have no honor. They kill their own people for money. They murdered a whole lot of the male population of Sicily, and now they’re trawling more fertile waters here in this country.
    So I won’t use those connections to find out what Carl Anglin was doing in Asia during the Korean War, and the government shows no inclination to help us get him back into court. Two witnesses. One dead, one might as well be.
    I visit the Rojas girl at least every two weeks. I saw her most recently last Thursday. Eddie does not come into the room with me. He had a sister who had a nervous disorder, so he’s not too fond of the surroundings at Elgin State Mental Hospital.
    When I went into the room, I found her sitting down. She was staring out the window. The sun was shining that day, so her room was bright, maybe even cheerful — to someone who didn’t have to live there.
    ‘Hello,’ I say to her softly.
    She doesn’t turn toward me or the nurse. The nurse signals for me to make it brief. The girl will be taking her meds pretty soon, she explains, before she turns and leaves me alone with the sole survivor of the massacre.
    ‘I’m Detective Parisi. Jake Parisi. I’ve talked to you before…I know you can hear me and I promise I won’t stay long and bother you…If you are hearing me inside somewhere, I want you to know that I won’t think you’ve done anything wrong if you can’t respond to my questions. I know he frightened you. I know it’s worse than I or anybody else can know…But I have to tell you that you’re all we’ve got to get to Carl Anglin. He’s the man who killed the other girls. He’s the man who would’ve killed you too. If you hear me, think. I know you’re hiding deep inside yourself. I’d be hiding too. I know these doctors know a lot more about just exactly where you are, but I’m asking you to come on back out and help me. Help me — and help the families of those girls who were your friends. Don’t let Carl Anglin get away with this. I have to tell you the truth. If you don’t come on back to the surface, he’s going to get away with killing your friends.’
    There’s not even a tremor in her face. She hasn’t heard me or she’s simply not even in the same room with me, which is what the nurse continually tries to explain to me. Theresa Rojas has left us. Her body is all that remains.
    ‘Don’t let him do this, Theresa. Don’t let him wipe them out. Let me speak for them, and for you. You can do it if you come back. Please try. Please…I’ll come back in another couple of weeks. You rest. Get strong…God help you, Theresa.’
    I turn and walk out of her private room toward my waiting partner.
    ‘Can we leave now?’ Eddie asks.
    The place makes him frantic, so I hurry him out the doors.
    *
    We can’t tap Anglin’s phones. We can’t search his North Side apartment. We’re not welcome at his orgies. Even Narco has been warned not to get a hard-on about raiding one of his little dope-athons. Anglin is strictly hands-off. Which makes me work twice as hard keeping him in our sights. I do some stakeouts on my own time. He comes and goes like a normal blue-collar resident of this blue-collar neighborhood. But the locals know him and seem to give him a lot of distance. The locals don’t go to his parties. It’s the wealthy, affected North Shore crowd that hangs out at his gatherings. He’s a magnet for every bored Gold Coaster who’s looking for a little toot to snoot. Some city celebrities show up at his place from time to time, and so do some of the literary figures in this town. It seems