Blood in the Water by Jack Flynn

Author:Jack Flynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

Forty-Four

She met him on the boardwalk that ringed Pleasure Bay, just to the south of Castle Island, where generations of Boston’s working class came to sun themselves during the summer. The beach carved a perfect semi-circle from Fort Independence to UMass Boston, and the waters were protected by the Harbor Islands. The James Curley Recreational Center and Bathhouse separated the boardwalk from the bustle of South Boston’s residential neighborhood, only a few blocks from Cormack’s home on L Street. It was huge, and ornate, and a testament to one of Boston’s most popular and corrupt mayors from the last century. From June to September the place was awash with sunbathers and swimmers, and those who came down just to take in the sights or walk out to the fort.

On this day, though, there was no one else there. The bathhouse was locked tight, and the wind off the water made it feel like it was ten below.

Cormack couldn’t feel the cold. He stood at the edge of the boardwalk, looking out at the water, seeing everything and nothing at the same time. The wind blew through him. Icicles formed on the tips of his beard and around his mouth as he exhaled. He thought about all that he had done in his lifetime – all the drugs he had helped smuggle, all the crime he’d tolerated, all the men he’d killed or had killed. There had always been a reason for it, he’d told himself; a reason beyond self-interest and individual profit. Crime existed. It was a fact. It was a reality that could never be overcome, particularly in places like this. Harbors, airports, border crossings … they were the funnels of international activity through which crime had to travel. The trick, he’d always told himself, was to make sure that crime was quarantined. His goal was to keep the crime from touching those who weren’t a part of it. If he could do that, he always felt that he served the public good. And if he made a buck or two in return, he figured that was more than fair.

But now the consequences had been visited upon him. Worse, those consequences had been visited upon Diamond.

‘What the hell is happening, Cormack?’

He’d known she was behind him. He’d heard the gate on the side of the bathhouse creak as Kit Steele came through from the street. Still, he was so deep in thought and self-torment that her shout startled him. She grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him toward her.

‘Seriously, what the fuck is going on?’

‘The war has started,’ Cormack responded quietly. ‘And it won’t end until I’m gone or Soh is.’

She took a step back and looked at him. His eyes seemed distant, and she wondered whether this was the same man she had known so intimately for months. ‘I know. I was over at the marshes,’ she said. ‘You gutted one of Soh’s men.’

He shook his head. ‘Not gutted,’ he said. ‘Captured.’

She considered this for a moment. ‘Did you get anything helpful from him?’

Cormack shook his head.

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