Buda was navigating a complicated course but calmly made his call to Prek. When Prek picked up, Buda spoke and didn’t give Prek a chance to respond. He told Prek that he had to talk to a man named Burim Graziani before he could say yea or nay about Pia Grazdani. He said he was about to talk with him, so he’d be getting back to Prek straightaway with a final answer. “Hold the course with our guest for another half-hour or so,” Buda said. “I thought I’d also let you know I’m only about a half-hour away. I’m in Wayne, on Route 23. I’ll be back to you shortly.”

As soon as Prek hung up from Buda the second time, after being told to hold the course, he jumped out of the van. For a moment he stood and listened. He had expected to hear muffled conversation from his two sex-starved underlings, but he heard nothing, which was disturbing. A half-hour earlier the men had been unable to stop talking. With gathering urgency, Prek headed for the front door, hearing in his mind Buda telling him the woman was to be treated as a guest.

With his intuition setting off alarm bells, Prek reproached himself: He should not have left the two alone no matter how much he had wanted to get out of the house. He went to open the front door and found it locked.

“What the . . .” he said. He ran around the corner of the house directly to the window of the master bedroom. Neri hadn’t even bothered to close the drapes. Prek banged twice on the window, then ran back to the van, grabbed his gun from the glove compartment, ran back to the window, and smashed it with the butt of the gun. He was furious. Reaching in awkwardly, he fired off a single round.

Chapter 58.

58.

TURNOFF ON ROUTE 23
WAYNE, NEW JERSEY
MARCH 25, 2011, 9:19 P.M.

I understand you’re trying to reach me,” Burim Graziani said.

“Berti, are you still on the line?” Buda questioned.

“I’m getting off. You two men talk.” There was a click when Berti hung up.

“Yes, I need to talk to you,” Buda said to Burim. “We haven’t met each other, right?”

“No, I don’t believe so. But I know who you are, of course.”

In their line of work, everyone knew Aleksander Buda. This was going to be a complicated conversation, Buda could tell. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t also too compromising. Cell phones could be hacked, even new cell phones like the one Buda was currently using.

“For that reason, we need to be careful.”

“I understand.”