"No need," he said. "We're pretty good at taking care of ourselves here. Let them in. I just hope it's not the woman down the road bringing me eggs. She'll never bring them again."

The knock came again.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Ready," answered Sabrina.

She yanked open the door and we stuck our guns in the faces of three very surprised men. The two bigger men we knew from the hotel room in Wahoo. The third was unfamiliar to us. He was short, maybe 5'8", and he couldn't have weighed more than 150. He was a few years older than me, with jet black hair cut conservatively. He wore an outfit that he must have picked up at the "pretend you're going on safari" store. He also wore glasses that made him look like a college professor.

After getting over his initial shock at having guns thrust in his face, he held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Honeycutt. I'm Mario Guidry."

Chapter 32

"I hope we're not intruding. May we come in?"

I looked over at Sabrina, then back at Emil. Finally, I stepped back from the door indicating that he could enter, ignoring his outstretched hand.

I'm not sure what we were expecting, but it certainly wasn't the scene before us. Chicago mobsters didn't look like … well … him. They also didn't sound like refined, cultured gentlemen. Didn't they use words like yous and joiks all the time?

"We finally meet," he said, again holding out his hand. I just looked him and he dropped it.

"We've already met your friends," I said.

"Ah, yes," he answered. "I apologize for that. I will make sure you get reimbursed for the phones they took."

Emil came into the living room, relaxed, but still holding the shotgun.

"Have a seat," I said. Mario sat, but his bodyguards stayed standing.

"All of you," I added.

Mario made a motion with his head and the other two looked around, saw that there were no more chairs, once Sabrina and I sat, and hunkered down onto the floor. I could tell that it annoyed Mario to have his men in such a vulnerable position, but it said to me that he truly intended for this to be a peaceful call.

Dead silence. Mario came to us, so he was going to have to speak first.

"I'm sorry about your sister," he finally said to Sabrina. "I liked her."

"Nobody liked her," Sabrina answered.

"I was trying to be nice. In all honesty, she was somewhat unpleasant. But I'm still sorry to hear about her death."

"So you had nothing to do with it?" I asked.

"Heavens, no. You don't know me, but I don't kill people. I have business interests that sometimes require a firm hand," he motioned toward his men, "but never to that extreme. No, I'm afraid that was someone else, most likely the same people who killed two of my men. I was going to ask if you had anything to do with their murders, but I can see that it's an unnecessary question."