Death Of A Dream Maker (41 page)

“Then why are you here?” she asked.

“This,” he said suddenly, thrusting a small
microcassette tape toward her. “I thought that you might like to
have it.”

“I don't care about Joseph Galvano,” she said. “I
never did.”

“It isn't the tape of your lunch with Galvano.”

“Oh.” She knew then what the tape contained.

“We had his office phones tapped,” O’Conner
explained.

“I see.”

“We were trying to get Galvano with whatever we
could. He'd been calling Max Rose Fashions. So we monitored their
outgoing lines, too. We were hoping to catch Galvano for extortion,
racketeering, whatever we could.”

“So you tapped hundreds of personal phone
conversations?” Auntie Lil asked. “Without the people involved
knowing at all?”

He sighed. “We do what we have to do, Miss Hubbert,
to do what is right. The good guys don't have a lot of options open
to them anymore. I’m sorry if it offends you.”

She was silent.

“If it helps, I'm the only one who ever listened to
it,” Agent O'Conner explained. “Me and another guy, that is. I made
you a copy. The original was destroyed.”

She nodded and took the tape. It fit in the palm of
her hand.

“I have to go now. That's the only copy left, I
promise.” The special agent smiled. “You are an amazing woman, Miss
Lillian Hubbert. It has been my great pleasure to know you.”

He left so quickly her heart was still thumping in
her chest.

She sat down on the couch and waited a moment. Then
she rose and retrieved her microcassette recorder from a drawer in
the dining room. She clicked the small tape in place and set it
down on her coffee table. She perched on the edge of an overstuffed
chair nearby and stared at the tiny machine.

Three times her hand reached out and stopped. The
fourth time Auntie Lil pressed the play button. She closed her eyes
and listened as the emotions of fifty years filled the room, as
overwhelming as the day she first met him.

Suddenly there it was in the room—the force that had
been Max. It filled her apartment and swelled in her heart, as real
and as palpable as if Max were sitting there beside her at that
moment. Was he? She reached out to touch the empty seat cushion
beside her as the tape began to play.

“Lillian?” His voice was deep and strong, enriched
with confidence. He did not sound a day older than when she had
last heard from him over twenty years before.

“Max.” It was a statement. She'd know his voice
forever.

“You must be pretty surprised to hear from me.”

“No. I'm not surprised at all.”

He laughed low in his throat. “You always were one
step ahead of me, Lillian.”

“How are you, Max?” Her voice sounded suddenly
younger, almost girlish in its affection and concern.

“How am I, Lillian? Still half a man without
you.”

“Which leaves you twice the man of anyone else I've
ever known.”

“Flatterer. I see you still like to have the last
word.”

There was a silence, and in the stillness, she felt
his sorrow.

“I've made some big mistakes in my life, Lillian,” he
told her. “One of them was letting you go.”

“There was nothing else we could have done, Max.”

He sighed. “I've made other mistakes, too. I'm trying
to correct them now. I want to make everything right before I
die.”

“Don't say that,” she told him fondly. “You're never
going to die. And just to be stubborn, I'm staying right here with
you.”       

“It's a deal.” He hesitated and his voice grew
stronger. “Can I come over to see you? Right now?”

“It's that important?”

“Yes, it is,” he said. “I've made up my mind. I want
to make things right. Lillian, I want you by my side.”

“Max.”

“No, don't argue. I mean it, Lillian. With all my
heart. We were meant to be together and we should be together. I
want to start, today, to make it so.”

She was silent. Time had erased her yearning to
wander, while the memories of Max had only grown stronger with each
passing day. She would at least talk about it.

“Together?” she teased him. “Forever?”

“Together forever. For as long as we both shall
live.”

# # #

Visit
http://www.katymunger.com
for more information on the author and her books.

Books by Katy Munger, writing as Gallagher
Gray

PARTNERS IN CRIME

A CAST OF KILLERS

DEATH OF A DREAM MAKER

A MOTIVE FOR MURDER

Casey Jones books by Katy Munger:

LEGWORK

OUT OF TIME

MONEY TO BURN

BAD TO THE BONE

BETTER OFF DEAD

BAD MOON ON THE RISE

Books by Katy Munger, writing as Chaz
McGee

DESOLATE ANGEL

ANGEL INTERRUPTED

DARK ANGEL (2012)