“Come on, catch up with me here. Dom’s who they really want, so they’d offer Eddie a sweet deal. Now with Eddie and the Yo-Yo dead and no money, there’s nothing to link Dom, or you, to this job. Sometimes things just turn out well. Could have gone very south, because somehow the cops found the drop-off point.”

“You were going to kill me.”

“And so you took the money. It was a good move. You were bright enough to plan all that, so it won’t be too hard for you to see that if you do time it’ll be, at most, two years. You most likely won’t, because you can say you were forced at gunpoint to drive. Two cops saw that, and cops make great witnesses.”

“I can’t go to jail.”

Face tilted, Johnny Boy looked at Spencer, assessing him. “Listen carefully. You think we’re spending our last years in Club Fed just because Spencer couldn’t keep it together? You’ll hold on to that money until we see how this is going to pan out for you. You’ll get a bigger cut. There’s more of it to go around now. We’ll send a lawyer your way. They have nothing on you. When it’s done, we’ll take what’s ours. Stay quiet and keep cool. I hope you’re buying what I’m selling, because if you’re not, I will personally see to it that everyone you love dies. I am a careful and thorough man, Spencer. I’ve faced bigger challenges than hacking a CPS computer.”

He eyeballed Spencer. Johnny Boy had seen the look before, the look of someone who would never quite grasp the way of the world he’d strayed into, who thought he might yet walk out and just leave it behind. Spencer might need more convincing that that couldn’t be so.

Chris sat on the metal floor of the fire escape. In one hand he held his inhaler, in the other a whisky. His hands were cuffed. He had to raise both to his lips, so he could make his choice at the last moment. He was on the floor because his trusty sofa was being shredded by a tech from an Evidence Response Team. They’d turned up in a white Ford minivan with mirrored windows about an hour after Chris had gotten home. He’d opened the door and in they’d come with their big yellow boxes that looked like cool boxes you’d take on a picnic.