Breacher (Tom Keeler Book 2)
Page 32
Instead, I turned to look at Chapman. “Think they’ll get off like they say?” Chapman said, “They’ve got the lawyer, the mayor, the governor. Sounds like they’ve got it all covered. In my country, for sure, they would be covered one hundred percent. In my country we wouldn’t even think about legal proceedings, we’d go right to torture, interrogation, and then secret execution. All in a quick succession, maybe on the same night. Then we’d bury the bodies in a forest. Here, I don’t know. But I generally take a realistic approach to things Keeler. Why would it be any different here?”
Frank started to speak. The word coming out of his mouth was ‘democracy’, but he didn’t get it all the way out. The woman cut him off. Her face had drained of color. “Shut up, Frank.”
She was looking at something behind me. I turned to see what it was.
The first toothless sick guy was coming in the door slowly. His eyes were red-rimmed and wet, weak and rheumy. They were rotating hungrily in their sockets, absorbing the visual data. I could see that the desire for revenge was burning in him. He looked famished for it. The others started to crowd through behind him, like a shambolic mob of the living dead. They were intense, chewing and sucking on lips with toothless gums. I looked at Chapman. She looked at me. I spoke to the first guy who’d come through.
“You think you can handle them?”
He nodded at me with more vigor than I would have given him credit for. The guy’s lips smacked and I was able to see his tongue when he spoke. “No problem. Just give me one of those good-looking shotguns will you? I won’t use it because that would be too quick for them, and they deserve it slow and bad. The gun would be just in case they start to get uppity.”
I turned back to the board members. They had lowered their hands. I made eye contact with them, one after the other. They were looking back at me, alert and expectant. I wondered what they expected. Then I realized it was the same thing they always got for their guilt, some kind of impunity. Some kind of a loophole they could exploit. I was looking at mild concern with an expectation of deliverance.
I handed the Breacher I’d just fired to the guy with no teeth. I was pretty sure he’d like the load. He spoke to me with his eyes on the board members, roving between them. “Thank you, and goodbye mister.”
I turned away as the woman executive made a nervous cough and started to say something, but her voice was quickly muffled. By then I was following Chapman’s athletic figure out the door. I closed it firmly behind me and joined her on the balcony, looking over the property. The glass was gone and the breeze was crisp. To my right I could see down to a pier. A zodiac boat was bobbing serenely in the calm waters. The sun was not yet up, but it was a new day. There was some commotion behind the closed door. A boisterous board meeting, no doubt the last.
Fifty-Six
Chapman led me back to the orchard. In the early blue light I could see that the fruit trees were mature. Maybe they had been planted a hundred years ago, maybe more. I tried to cast my mind back to recall when Alaska had been purchased from the Russians. It was sometime in the 1860s or 1870s. We came up to the edge of the orchard, just on the crest with a view on the ocean below.
Chapman pointed and I followed with my eyes, landing upon an area of recently turned soil.
I said, “George Abrams?”
“And others.”
“He was a brave man.”
“George was one of the good guys.”
I looked at her. She was beautiful in the morning light. She smiled, knowing that I was watching her. Strands of blonde hair were blowing gently. The ocean was calm, it was going to be a perfect day.
A siren moaned in the distance. Far off for the time being, but not for very long. I figured we’d get out of there before any commotion. We’d had enough commotion for a good long while. What we needed now was no fuss and no ruckus. I had the phone in my pocket, but I didn’t use it. Ellie was a competent operator, and she would do a great job of sorting out the situation up here. It was her jurisdiction, and I hoped that in the end she would get the property for her people. If I was a betting man, I’d put my money on her.
I chin-pointed toward the pier and the zodiac floating there. I said, “What do you think, they leave the keys in that thing?”
Chapman looked over to where I was pointing and understood. She smiled again, this time glancing at me with those steely blue eyes, darting wickedly. She took my arm. “Well, if they didn’t leave us the keys, we could always get a screwdriver from the shed, Keeler.”
I nodded. I was a couple of steps ahead of her, at least I thought I was. I was already at the part where we caught up with Guilfoyle at Eagle Cove. I pictured that, and then the breakfast rolls and coffee. We weren’t going to miss out, which was a good thing. I figured it would only be prudent to stock up on all of the necessary carbs and minerals and fats. There was a whole lot of relaxing to be done on the trip back down to Seattle.
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Breacher
Copyright © 2021 General Projects Ltd.
Breacher is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN 978-1-8380475-6-6
General Projects Ltd.
London, UK.
www.jacklively.com
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
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