“You’re terribly good to me, Sean.”
She raised her face and he kissed her.
“It’s my job to be good to you.”
When she had driven away in a taxi, O’Brien walked slowly over to the parking lot, got into his Cadillac and stared emptily into the darkness.
Johnny was a nuisance, he decided. He always would be a nuisance. Even if he were lucky enough to get out of this mess, there would be other messes. Sooner or later he would get into the kind of trouble O’Brien couldn’t handle. It was a bleak outlook to be saddled with a brother-in-law like Johnny. Now he had Johnny where he wanted him, he would be a mug not to settle him once and for all.
He brooded for several minutes, playing with the idea of being rid of Johnny for good. The more he thought about it, the more of a temptation the idea became.
In the past, O’Brien had never hesitated to get rid of troublemakers, but he had got out of the habit of wiping out his enemies. He should have let Tux knock off Paradise Louie instead of beating him up. The quiet, secluded life he had been living for the past three years had made him soft, he thought, grimacing. With a set-up like this before him he couldn’t afford to be soft. He knew Lindsay Burt would try and make capital out of Fay’s murder. Someone in his camp would be certain to remember Johnny had threatened Fay, and knowing Johnny was Gilda’s brother and Gilda was going to marry O’Brien, pressure would be brought to bear on the Commissioner to find Johnny.
Besides, O’Brien had no illusions about Johnny. As soon as he became his brother-in-law, he would be after money. The safest way would be to make sure Johnny didn’t become a bigger nuisance that he was now.
O’Brien lit his cigar, started the car engine and drove over to the Country Club.
On the first of every month there was a dance at the club, and everyone who was anyone went. O’Brien guessed Commissioner Howard and Police