“He fucked up with the train,” Evelyn said. “Personally, I like your idea, Dee, fulfill a promise, break a promise, get the Feds running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Brilliant—and exactly what I’d do. You, Jack or I could pull that stunt without giving a shit who thought we’d ‘failed’ the train hit. But Wilkes? Not a chance.” She lifted three fingers. “One: he’s single-minded. Two: he lacks creativity. Three: he’s got a balloon ego.”

“Balloon ego?” I said.

Jack grunted. “One prick, it deflates.”

“Something did go wrong with that train hit,” Evelyn said. “As for what, it’s moot. What matters is that he’ll be mad as hell right about now. He’s going to be at that parade, and he’s going to make a hit, and if the Feds are standing this one down, then I’d sure as hell recommend we be there.”

“To do what?” Jack said. “Needle in a haystack.”

“True,” I said. “But do you know the best way to find a needle in a haystack? With a magnet.”

Evelyn chuckled. Jack went still for a minute, then his gaze shot to mine, eyes hardening.

“Better not be suggesting—”

“That we draw out the needle ourselves? That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

“You are not setting yourself up to become the next victim,” Jack said.

I considered commenting on the length and completeness of that sentence, but the look in his eyes said this wasn’t the time.

“Jack’s right,” Evelyn said. “Wilkes has established a plan and he’s already ‘done’ any type you could play. We need to bait the trap with something he doesn’t have yet, something he won’t be able to resist.”

She looked at Jack.

“Because he knows Jack?” I shook my head. “Sure, he might go for it, off a fellow hitman, but—”

“It’s been over twenty years. A bit of work and he’d never recognize Jack. What he will recognize is a prize missing from his collection. A tough guy.”

Jack snorted.

“You know what I mean. A biker, a hood, muscle, all roles you’ve done many times before. There are a million guys out there right now, bragging in bars about how they’d take down the Helter Skelter killer if he ever came near them. Give him one of those, in a setting that’ll make an easy kill, and he’ll pounce on it, to prove that nobody is safe…and reinflate his ego after the train fiasco.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

FORTY-THREE