The Undertaker

“Too bad you refused my offer back in Columbus, Pete. We really were the good guys.” Tinkerton was apparently still trying to win me over to “the dark side”. “You never struck me as one of those wild-eyed California liberals, and I assure you “The Sopranos” and “The Godfather” are a bunch of crap. When you get up close and personal with Santorini's people, or Rico Patillo's, or any of the rest of them, they are ignorant, unschooled scum – petty thieves, pimps, bookies, drug dealers, and killers — some of the worst, most amoral people this country has ever produced. That is why we had to smash them. It was for the good of the country, Pete. Making some of them talk gave us the proof we needed to roll-up their operations and put the rest of them in jail.”

“Zero Defects, Ralph?” I asked.

“That's right, Zero Defects. They should be pinning a medal on me, not crying over a bunch of low-lifes like Louie Panozzo, Richie Benvenuto, Clement Aleppo, Johnny Dantonio, and all the rest. You never met them, Pete. The collective IQ of all six couldn't have been much over one hundred. They refused to follow the simple rules they themselves agreed to, so they became breakage, that's all.”

“Breakage?” Sandy asked. I squeezed her shoulder, hoping to shut her up, but that was hopeless as usual. “For a lawyer, you've got some real weird ideas about people.”

“Do I? Santorini already had contracts out on each one of them, and dead is dead. This way, their numerous transgressions enabled the program's integrity to remain intact and their deaths served a higher purpose, which was much more than that ilk deserved.”

“What about Panozzo's wife and the other women?” Sandy asked. “What were they? More breakage? Is that what they deserved too?”

“In life, we each make our own choices, Miz Kasmarek. We chose the beds we lie in, don't we? They picked theirs, much as you picked yours.”

I looked over my shoulder and glared at him, but Tinkerton was not that stupid. He knew where the danger lay and he continued to point the pistol at me, knowing that would control Sandy. “Say what you like, it was our little unit that provided backbone to the entire Witness Protection Program. Not one of them left. Not one of them caved in. Not one of them recanted. Yes, that was zero defects. So which was the greater evil?”

“You are a fool, Ralph,” Hardin mocked him. “We got rid of Santorini and all the crooked politicians and cops who protected him. Sure, we let Rico take over all his territories, but that was a temporary expedient. We control Rico.”

“Unfortunately, Rico doesn't look at it that way, does he?” Tinkerton shot back. “You are such a waste, Timmy. Time Magazine called you “The Crusading Marine,” “The Mob's Senator from hell.” After all, you came up with the title “Zero Defects.” If we had stayed with it for another year we could have broken up the rest of the east coast families and put them all in jail, Patillo included. We could have done it the honest way, but that was too slow for you. The Senate wasn't big enough. No, you wanted the White House, and you thought you could use Rico and all of his pals and connections to get you there.”

“The White House? I don't know what you're smoking these days, Ralph. You need professional help.” Hardin sneered at him. “The VA has some good mental health people, maybe I can make a few calls for you. But, these theatrics with the handgun? A nobody like you? You wouldn't dare kill me, and we both know it.”

Hardin's last insults had pushed Tinkerton over the edge. “You lying bastard,” Tinkerton growled. “You haven't got a shred of honor left in you, none at all.”

Sandy and I had stopped walking. We turned and looked at them as Tinkerton swung the automatic around and backhanded the Senator across the mouth with the long barrel of the Glock. Hardin stumbled sideways and crumpled to his knees in the grass a few feet away. “No, no. God, not the face again. No,” he mumbled as a tooth fell out in his bloody hands. Tinkerton wasn't finished. He stepped closer and raised the pistol again, but Hardin never gave him an opening. He fell to the ground and kept crawling further away, covering his head with both arms, sobbing, “No, no.”

Tinkerton followed, taunting him. “What ever is the matter, Timmy? Don't you think the voters will like a pretty boy with a fresh scar and a few gaps where those pretty, white-capped teeth used to be? Take it from me, a few bruises helps focus the mind, don't they, Pete? Maybe I can throw in a couple of burns, too?” He stared down at the cowering Senator. “Everything I did was for the program, to protect it, and to protect you, you rotten, two-faced crook! Everything. And you hung me out to dry.”