Martin frowned. “Not likely. The old lady saw the guys who took him. Two of them looked like longshoremen from central casting. Irish to the core.”

“You just described half the people who live in Boston.”

Martin’s frown deepened. “You know about the attack on the Mariner the other day. Cormack O’Connell was almost killed, and the reports were that several heavily tattooed men were seen at the pier just before the place was lit up. You really think it’s not all related?”

Kit Steele shrugged. “You said there were three guys. What did the third guy look like?”

“That’s the clincher. He was a short Italian, in an expensive-looking overcoat and a fedora. Sound like anyone you know?”

Steele was silent for a moment. “Andolini,” she said at last.

Martin nodded. “To the extent he’s ever had any loyalty, it’s always been with O’Connell.”

Steele looked out over the marshes. “You asked me to come out here,” she noted. “You could have called me.”

Martin walked over and squatted next to Steele. “You and I have never met. I thought it might be useful to have a face-to-face.”

She turned and looked at him. “Well, here’s my face.”

He looked uncomfortable for a brief moment, but recovered quickly. “What’s your specific interest in all of this? You working an angle?” he asked.

“That’s classified.”

He gave her a wry, fed-up smile. “Bullshit,” he said. “You reached out to me, I played ball. Now it’s your turn.”

He was right, she knew. There was a code among the federal law enforcement agencies. If you asked someone for cooperation, there was an expectation and understanding that information would flow in both directions. If she refused now, there would be no more information forthcoming, and that would make her job more difficult. She mulled her options silently.

“Vincente Carpio,” she said after a moment.

“The serial killer?”

“We’ve heard in cross-chatter that Vincente’s brother, Javier, may be working with Soh. I’m worried they may try to spring Vincente.”

“Break him out of prison?” Martin mused. “How would they even do that? Seems a little far-fetched.”

“He escaped once before.”

“Yeah, but that was human error,” Martin said. “And at the time, no one knew how dangerous he was. That’s not gonna happen again.”