"So this was all a set-up?" Jeannie asked anxiously as Steve closed the door and the three moved further into the living room. Maggie picked her purse up from the floor near the door and crossed unsteadily to the sofa.
"Sort of," Steve said distractedly, his eyes on the obviously still rattled older woman. He moved to stand over her as she sat. "Maggie, can I make you a cup of coffee or tea or something…?" he asked.
She looked up at him with a grateful smile. "I could use a drink."
He turned to Jeannie, who was watching them both from the across the room. "We have some wine. Would that do? Mike doesn't drink anything stronger than beer or wine." She shrugged almost apologetically.
"I know, sweetie," Maggie smiled, "wine will be fine."
"I'll get it," Steve said, crossing to the kitchen as Jeannie moved closer to the couch. She sat next to Maggie and took her hand.
Maggie looked up a little guiltily. "I am so sorry, Jeannie, but we couldn't tell you. We had to be sure that nothing went wrong and the fewer people who knew what was going on, the better."
Jeannie nodded in understanding. "So, is he one of the guys that were following us the other day?"
"No, those guys I didn't know." Steve approached Maggie with the glass of wine. "Oh, thanks, honey," she smiled gratefully as she took the glass and he sat on the nearby armchair. She took a sip before continuing. "But this guy, I know him. His name is Frank Barzoli, and he's one of my late husbands…'acquaintances', I guess you could call him." She paused then on Jeannie's quizzical look, explained. "Frank's a Jersey hitman."
Jeannie gasped. "And he came here to kill you?"
"Well, that's what we thought," she said, looking at Steve.
"When Maggie told me about the men who seemed to be following you at the café the other day, I called one of the guys I know at the FBI. I still have a lot of contacts there, and I've had some of them in to do guest lectures the past couple of years. Hey," he said with a chuckle, "your Dad isn't the only one with connections, you know?"
Jeannie smirked at him.
"Anyway," he continued, "they told me they'd seen some activity going on with regards to a Jersey hitman coming to San Francisco, and when I told them about Maggie coming here to be with Mike, well, let's just say the two and two added up. The Bureau has been on Barzoli's trail since my phone call, essentially."
"So, the next thing we needed to do was 'set him up', so to speak," Maggie took over the story. "And we wanted to make sure you and your father were going to be nowhere near when it happened. We were pretty sure he wouldn't try anything at the hospital or when I was with you, so we had to figure out some way to get me alone."
"And that's where the recliner comes into play?"
Steve and Maggie shared a quick look. "See, I told you she was her father's daughter," he said with a laugh.
Shaking her head in admiration, Maggie said, "You're absolutely right. I mean, I wanted to do that anyway, but it just seemed absolutely perfect that I could monopolize what little free time we had this afternoon shopping for the chair, making it imperative that I be left alone at the house to wait for the delivery while you went to pick up the roast."
"Yeah, you see, we knew he would have found out that Mike was going to be released tomorrow, so the chances of Maggie being alone anytime soon were quickly disappearing. He had to move tonight or it would have just been too dangerous to wait and do it with you and Mike at home here as well."
"Wow, so everything went like clockwork, didn't it?" Jeannie asked with admiration colouring her voice.
Both Maggie and Steve frowned. "Well, almost, I guess," Maggie said slowly, turning to Steve, "but I have no idea why his gun was unloaded, do you?"
Steve shook his head, equally baffled. "I honestly have no clue, it just doesn't make any sense. Hopefully Barry will have some answers when he joins us."
"Well, I'm just glad it ended like it did," Jeannie said, getting to her feet. "I have a feeling it's going to be a long night. I'll put on a pot of coffee."
"Good idea," Steve agreed. Jeannie had just disappeared into the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. Steve opened it to find a frustrated Barry Parker standing on the stoop. The agent pushed past him into the room.
"Maggie, you're sure you're okay?" he asked as he crossed to the sofa and sat beside her.
Nodding reassuringly, she put the wineglass on the coffee table. "I'm fine, Barry, thanks. You guys sure did that like clockwork. He had no idea."
Parker flashed a smile. "Yeah, that part went great, but…" He paused, as if unsure how to continue.
"What's going on, Barry?" Steve asked, once more settling into the armchair. "Did he tell you why the gun wasn't loaded."
Parker looked at him chagrined. "Barzoli's not telling us anything. He says he'll only talk to Maggie." He looked at her sympathetically. "Look, Maggie, you don't have to do this…"
She looked at Steve then back to the agent. "What do you need?"
"Well, we're taking him downtown to our Field Office. If he doesn't say anything, we can possibly get him for kidnapping and threatening, but with an unloaded gun, that might be a stretch. But we all know there's more behind this than just a threat, and I don't know about you two, but I want to know why he came all this way just to go after you with an unloaded gun. Right now, it doesn't make any sense."
He paused, then looked her square in the eye. "Like I said, you don't have to do this, Maggie, but –"
"I'll go," she said firmly, cutting him off. Then she smiled warmly and put her hand over his. "I want to know why he did this too. And if he'll only talk to me, then so be it." As she stood up, the two men looked at each other, pleased and impressed. "Well, don't just sit there, let's go."
"I'll tell Jeannie to stop making the coffee," Steve said with a chuckle as he got to his feet.
# # # # #
"So what do you want me to say?" Maggie asked as she, Steve and Parker stood outside the interview room door. She took a deep unsteady breath, and Steve laid a comforting hand on her arm.
"Just go with your gut, Maggie. Like you said, you know this guy. If he tells you why he did what he did, great. If not, well, just don't go giving away anything you think he wants to hear. Jeez, why I am telling you all this? You probably have more experience dealing with these 'made guys' than Steve and I put together, am I right?"
Parker was relieved to see Maggie chuckle and relax, and Steve smiled and squeezed her arm in support. She looked into his green eyes and bit her lip. "For Mike, right?" she said quietly.
His smile wavering, he nodded. "For Mike."
She nodded back, turned to the door, took a deep breath, turned the knob and entered the room.
Frank Barzoli, wearing a dark blue sportscoat over an open-necked light blue shirt, his right hand cuffed to a table leg, sat on the far side of a small metal table. "Hello, Maggie," he said pleasantly as she closed the door behind her.
She smiled slightly. "Hello, Frank." She moved slowly to the nearest chair, sat and deliberately put her purse on the table in full view. His eyes snapped quickly to the purse then back to her and his smile grew ever so slightly. "I never expected to see you in San Francisco."
His smile disappeared but his tone remained pleasant. "You know why I was sent here, Maggie, you're not that dumb. What were you thinking?"
She hesitated, so he continued. "I know what you were thinking – you weren't. Maybe you knew what you were doing, maybe you didn't. I don't care. But you have had to know that the boys back East care – they care a great deal."
When she still didn't respond, he sighed. "Maggie, it's not you they're after. They don't give a damn about you. It's what you represent. It's the fact that you turned state's evidence against them. If you had just remained Ben's widow, and gone on with your life, you'd've been in the clear. But you couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you?"
"That explains why you're here, Frank, it doesn't explain why you brought an empty gun."
He glanced down at the table and sighed loudly. "You never got it, did you, Maggie? All those years." He looked up. "I've been doing my job for a long time and I'm good at it, but I can't do it anymore. I'm tired and I'm finished. But you can't just walk away from a job like mine, can you? The only way I can get out is if they put a bullet in my head."
She stared at him, almost knowing where he was going to go. She waited.
"So," he continued, sighing again, "when I was ordered out here, to 'look after' you, I thought, this is my chance." He leaned across the table towards her. "Maggie, I don't want to kill you, I've never wanted to kill you, and I would never kill you. In this rat's ass of a life that I've lived, you're one of the few good things. I've always liked and admired you, just like I liked and admired Ben. Good people caught up in a bad situation."
Her brow began to furrow. "Frank –"
"No, let me finish," he cut her off. "I'm done with this life. Tonight was my swan song. I'm gonna become the new Joe Valachi," he said with a small laugh.
"So…you wanted to be caught?"
He smiled almost audaciously. "I'm not as sloppy as I seemed to be tonight, you gotta know that, right? I'm the best. I mean, how many hitmen make it to 54 and never get caught, right?"
She smiled back. "It did seem a little too easy."
His smile disappeared and he stared straight into her eyes. "Maggie, listen to me, honey. Just because I'm walking away from this contract, it doesn't mean you are in the clear. Far from it. One way or another, they are gonna know I didn't fulfill my end of the agreement, they're gonna know you're still alive. And they are gonna come for you.
"You don't deserve this kind of a life, I know. You don't need to keep running and hiding, but it's what you've got to do. They won't stop." He could see her start to breathe heavily and her eyes become moist; he reached across the table with his uncuffed left hand, and she took it and squeezed. "Maggie, believe me when I say, I want you to have a good life. So do me a favour, will ya? If you really love him, marry your cop, you deserve that happiness, but then you both have to get out of town and live somewhere else under an assumed name. You've done it before and you have to do it again. Please, for your sake and for my sake, listen to me on this.
"You have to get out of this city as soon as you can."