Suddenly, a rap on the door of the suite startled him. “Come in!” Ryan said loudly, and the conductor walked in. He checked Ryan in on his handheld computer. “Welcome aboard, Mr. Ryan,” he said. “The dining room starts serving at six, or you can have meal service in your suite.”

“Thank you,” Ryan said, and the man closed the door.

Ryan put down the paper and rested his head against the seat. Vinny was dead, Charlie was dead, and Al was dead. He was alone in the world.

Then the throwaway cell phone rang in his pocket. Everybody who had the number was dead. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it. “Private Call” the display said. He stood up, pulled down the window, then he took the SIM card from the phone and threw it as far as he could. He dropped the phone out the window, then pulled out the Glock, wiped it with a handkerchief, and threw the gun out, too.

He closed the window, sat down, and looked at his watch. Twenty-seven and a half hours to go.

Chapter 52

Frank Russo’s secretary buzzed him. “Yes?”

“There’s a call for Jimmy, but he’s out. The guy insists on talking to you.”

“Okay, I’ve got it.” Frank pressed the flashing button. “Frank Riggs.”

“This is the guy Jimmy spoke to about the job?”

“Yes, I know.”

“It went down like it was supposed to, except we’ve got one cop down and one of yours made it out.”

“How could that happen?”

“It went exactly as it was supposed to, up to a point: we got the driver and two of the other three. The third guy tried to fire his shotgun, but we gave him bad ammo. He pulled a gun we didn’t know he had and fired, hitting one of ours. It’s an in-and-out, he’ll be okay, but your third guy jacked a cab out front and disappeared. A patrol car found the cab in an alley, ditched and wiped. The guy’s in the wind.”

“Which one is he?”

“I don’t know. There was Charlie, then a young guy, maybe early twenties. It was the other guy made it out.”

“Did you find anything on the other two that might help us find the guy?”

“Charlie was carrying a throwaway phone.”

“What was the last number he called?” Frank wrote it down. “Can you trace it?”

“We’re taking it to the station to see if we can trace it.”

“Call me if you find it.”

“Sure.” The man hung up.