A strange high-pitched sound—you couldn’t call it laughter—floated down from upstairs. The lunatic who attacked him was still in the building. He glanced at the phone. Should he call the cops? No way. He was going to sort that bastard out himself. Slap him all the way across the back forty with his own hands.
The noise was coming from the men’s room.
At the top of the stairs he turned the corner and froze. Felt like he’d walked into a brick wall as the scene in front of him failed to register. The madman who’d slammed his head into the counter was leaning his weight against another guy, grinding his face into the remnants of a smashed mirror, strangling him with a length of piano wire.
The guy being strangled scrabbled uselessly in the sink. Tried to get hold of a piece of broken mirror. His hands fluttered pathetically in front of him. Even if he got hold of anything, he’d never stab it hard enough. Not even to rip the lunatic’s clothes. He was one roll of his bulging eyes from a headstone.
Terry hurled himself at the strangler. He was so engrossed he never heard him coming. With the mirror shattered, the first thing he knew was when Terry brought his lead-filled sap down onto the back of his skull with a solid, satisfying thud.
Damn, that felt good.
He whipped his arm back. Gave him another meaty smack. He packed a lot of enthusiasm into those two blows, felt a hot, mean satisfaction right in the belly.
The lunatic let out a loud grunt. He dropped to the floor. Pulled the guy he was strangling down on top of him, the wooden handles of the garrotte slipping out of his hands. The victim gulped air so hard and fast, it tugged at Terry’s pants leg. The attacker was out cold. Terry looked down at his face. He was sorely tempted to stomp it. Then an angry shout from behind.
‘What the hell’s going on here?’
Chapter 53
‘WHAT THE HELL’S GOING on here?’ Guillory shouted as she got to the top of the stairs.
In the doorway to the men’s room a big guy was leaning over an unruly pile of bodies. On the top was Evan. From where Guillory stood he looked dead, a bloody weal around his neck, an open gash on his forehead. Underneath him was the guy from the bar. Jackson Delacroix. He was out cold.
The big guy stood up. She saw the sap in his hand. The guy tensed. She couldn’t blame him. He didn’t know whose side she was on yet.
‘I’m with him.’ She nodded at Evan. ‘For my sins.’
He relaxed his shoulders, his disappointment evident. He had a matching bloody gash on his forehead. He glared at Jackson on the floor. Fingers flexing on the sap.
She moved up next to him.
‘Looks like everybody’s been having fun. You security here?’
‘No, I’m the manager. Terry Loveless.’
She raised an eyebrow. Looked down at the sap in his hand.
‘I’m standing in for my brother in law. He’s the manager but he’s sick. I work security the rest of the time.’
He looked at the sap in his hand. Then down at Jackson again. A look passed behind his eyes he made no attempt to conceal.
She prodded Jackson with her shoe.
‘Be my guest.’
He shrugged, reluctantly tucked the sap back in his belt.
‘Better not, I suppose,’ he said, then took her through what happened. His hand strayed to his sap a couple times as he recounted the story. ‘I don’t know what happened while I was out. It was only for a minute.’
On the floor Evan’s labored breathing turned into a fit of coughing.
Guillory sent Terry to fetch a glass of water, then squatted next to Evan.
‘I can’t leave you alone for five minutes without you starting something, can I?’
He tried a weak smile and failed. She took hold of him by the elbow and helped him up. He leaned against the wall. Rested his head against it for a few moments until Terry came back with the water. Evan sucked it down greedily.
‘Help me stand a moment, will you?’
They each put a hand under an armpit. Held him steady. He nodded his thanks. Then he kicked Jackson hard in the balls. He didn’t stir but it was satisfying to do.
‘Hey! Less of that,’ Guillory yelled, pulling him away.
Terry had a look on his face that said my turn now.
‘You ask me, we ought to work him over a bit before we call the police.’
Guillory shook her head.
‘Do what you like with him. But no police.’
Terry’s forehead grew a few more creases. The bleeding started up again, running into his eyes. He wiped angrily at it with the back of his hand.
‘Why the hell not? The guy almost killed him. Would have done if I hadn’t stopped him.’
‘No, really, it’s alright,’ Evan said. ‘I’m feeling much better already.’
Terry wasn’t having it.
‘I’ve got to call it in. I don’t want to have to deal with him when he wakes up. He’s a maniac.’
‘We can make it worth your while,’ Evan said.
Guillory frowned but didn’t say anything to contradict him. Terry’s eyes had something different in them now, a venal rather than violent interest. But he was wary.
‘Here, I’ll show you,’ Evan said.
He led the way down the hallway to the unit at the end.
‘I was unlocking this when he attacked me.’
He unlocked the padlock. Opened the door. The moment of truth had arrived. His heart was thumping away in his chest as hard as when he was being strangled. They all crowded into the unit.
A lone suitcase sat at the back. It had a combination lock on it. Evan prayed it wasn’t locked. That would be overkill. It wasn’t. He opened it, doing his best to keep Terry from seeing what was inside. He brought out one of the wads of cash. Peeled off five fifties. Held them out. Terry stared at the money, didn’t take it.
‘I don’t know. I really ought to call the police.’
Evan shook his head, a disappointed look on his face at Terry’s inappropriate response.
‘You know what’s in the case?’
‘Got a pretty good idea.’
‘So what happens if you call the police? They come over and want to know what’s going on. You point at me and say the guy attacked me. And they’ll look at me and see this’—he lifted his head to show off his neck—‘and suddenly things are a lot more serious. What am I doing here? Why was I nearly killed? I’ll have to tell them, show them the bag. That’s evidence, they’ll say. They’ll confiscate it. You with me so far?’
Terry nodded. It wasn’t a difficult story.
‘Then—and this is the part you need to pay attention to—the person this belongs to is going to be very upset.’
Terry nodded again. Saw where this was going.
‘He’s going to be so pissed. He’ll be looking to take it out on somebody. Who? How about the guy who called the police? The guy who as good as gave his money to them? It’s a good place to start. And you really don’t want that to happen.’
He lifted his head again to give Terry another good look at his neck.
‘You’ve seen what kind of people we’re dealing with here.’
Taking hold of Terry’s elbow, he led him to the doorway.
‘People like him.’
He turned, nodded towards the men’s room. The empty men’s room.
‘What the . . .’
***
‘WHAT HAPPENED TO THE pedophile?’ Evan said. They were headed back to Guillory’s car, the suitcase in her hand. ‘I hope I didn’t go through all that because you need an eye test.’
‘I lost him.’ Her tone of voice told him he’d regret any wise crack he might choose to make at that point. ‘I’ll tell you about it later. We need to talk about the guy who nearly killed you. Delacroix’s brother.’
‘What about him? Apart from the fact we don’t know where he is.’
Her expression implied the earlier lack of oxygen to his brain while being strangled didn’t excuse any ongoing stupidity.<
br />
‘He’s not just going to give up, is he? Oh well, that didn’t work out. I’ll be on my way.’
‘You think we should let him have the money? The code was for him after all.’
She gave a dismissive flick of the hand.
‘No, it’s not about the money.’
‘What do you mean? He was at the location where it was left for him.’
She shook her head.
‘If all he was after was the money he’d have hit you over the head, grabbed the cash and disappeared. What he did was personal. Strangling somebody to death is a very intimate way of killing them.’
Despite them talking about him nearly being strangled to death, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face.
‘What’s so funny?’ she said.
‘Forewarned is forearmed.’
‘What?’
‘It’s just if you ever suggest getting intimate, I’ll know what to expect.’
They stared at each other for a long moment.
‘Is that so? Good. I’ll take that as you giving your permission. What I was going to say was this was about you. Not the money.’
‘I’ve never met the guy before. Apart from briefly in the bar.’
‘I think somebody told him you killed his brother.’
‘Who? The police? Ryder? He’s the one seems to think it was me more than anyone else.’
‘Don’t be stupid. We don’t go around telling the next of kin we think that guy did it. We’d double our workload overnight.’
‘Who then?’
‘I’d have thought it was obvious. Whoever killed Dixie.’
Chapter 54
‘HEY, LOOK AT THIS,’ Evan called to Guillory.
They were back in his hotel room. He’d just dumped the contents of the suitcase on the bed, started rooting through the stacks of cash.
She pulled her head out of the refrigerator, a can of soda in one hand, some leftover chicken in the other. She turned to see what he’d found. He was holding up a USB thumb drive, a plain white envelope in his other hand.
‘Get it in your laptop, then. Let’s see what’s on it.’
He fired up the laptop, loaded the contents of the thumb drive.
‘There’s an image and a video file.’
He clicked on the image. Wished to God he hadn’t. He was immediately back in Rachel’s kitchen. Fighting hard to hold onto his lunch.
‘That’s just what I don’t need after the morning I’ve had.’
It was nowhere near as bad as seeing her in the flesh, as being in the room with her, but the photograph of Rachel’s mutilated body still had the power to make his stomach turn. He stood up quickly, opened the window to get some fresh air.
‘It must be the same one Ryder saw,’ she said, taking a large bite of chicken. She opened the can of soda and took a long swallow. ‘But why’s he sending it to his brother?’
At the moment he didn’t really care.
‘I don’t know how you can eat and look at something like that at the same time.’
‘You get used to it,’ she said around another mouthful of chicken. ‘I better open the video file first.’
‘What?’ You think he took a video of her too?’
She shrugged noncommittally, stranger things have happened.
‘You never know. You can open it up if you like.’
He shook his head. Stuck it further out the window.
‘No, thanks.’
She opened the file.
‘Oh my God,’ she gasped, her hand covering her mouth.
‘What is it?’
His voice was a mix of impatience and dread. He walked slowly towards her, legs heavy, not wanting to see, unable to stop himself. A crazy thought crossed his mind—had Dixie found a video made by the killers?
‘Here, look.’
She spun the laptop around to face him.
He stared at the screen. A look of puzzlement creased his face. Dixie stared back at him, mouth frozen open when she hit pause. He looked at her. She couldn’t keep it in any longer.
‘You should see your face.’
‘Idiot.’
He leaned over and hit play. Dixie started talking.
‘Hey, Jackson, if you’re watching this it looks like you worked out fuck everything and run. If you didn’t, you don’t deserve the money anyway. It also means I’m dead unless we’re sitting together on a beach somewhere watching it for a laugh at how paranoid I am. Somehow, I don’t think so. It’s a pity I’ve got to be dead to be proved right. For what it’s worth I think Carly did it. She hired a PI called Evan Buckley to get in touch with me. I reckon this is what she had in mind all along. The guy’s okay if you meet up with him. He might be of some help but don’t hold your breath.’
Guillory let out a sudden bark of laughter.
‘Seems like he’s a good judge of character.’
On screen Dixie was looking down at his hands. He suddenly looked up, straight at the camera.
‘I’m really sorry you had to see the photo of Rachel. I thought long and hard about it. In the end I reckoned you needed to see it. It was that murderous little psychopath José. I caught him as he was leaving the house. Beat seven shades of shit out of him, but I didn’t have it in me to kill him’—he shrugged and gave a lopsided grin—‘I am still a serving police officer after all. It’s different for you. That’s why I thought you needed to know. Maybe I was stupid and he came back for me but I don’t think so. And while we’re on the subject of Carly, Rachel’s death is on her too. If she hadn’t given the money to her to hold onto, she’d still be alive today. I think that gives you enough to think about for now. I’m not going to finish with some sentimental goodbye in case we are watching this on the beach and I don’t want to see you cry. You always were a big baby. Look after yourself.’
The video ended. They were both quiet with their own thoughts for a long time. He glanced at her quickly and away again. After their recent discussion about her brother Teardrop, he knew she was struggling with what it must be like to watch a video like they just did made by your own brother. He waited for her to break the silence first.
‘It’s a pity his brother didn’t watch it before he caught up with you. Would’ve saved you a sore neck.’
Evan gave a hollow laugh.
‘What about what he said about Carly?’
‘I’d say he’s bang on the money.’
‘Will it make any difference to me?’
She shook her head.
‘I doubt it. Who’s to say you’re not the one with the camera and you’ve got a gun on him—the gun you shoot him with five minutes later.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘And your prints are still on the shell casings.’
‘Okay, okay. Forget I ever mentioned it.’
She put an arm around his shoulders, gave him a squeeze.
‘It’s better than nothing. Gives us something to work with. That was the whole idea of following the cash in the first place. It’s just not what we were expecting.’
‘If he’s right and Carly killed him—’
‘She’s the one who set you up.’
‘But how?’
She shook her head again, no idea.
‘Anything else in that envelope?’
He picked it up from where he’d dropped it on the table, opened it. Inside was a piece of paper folded in half and then in half again. He opened it out, immediately slapped it face down on the table.
‘What?’
‘He printed out the image. What the hell did he do that for?’
‘For Christ’s sake, Evan, I don’t know. Does it matter?’
He walked over to the bed. Scooped up a big armful of cash, let it fall back again.
‘What do we do with this?’
‘I haven’t decided yet. But you can’t keep it here. We need to stash it somewhere.’
They both gave it some thought. Her face suddenly lit up.
‘What?’
She grinned, tapped her nose.
‘Need to know basis, Evan. Don’t worry, it’ll be safe.’
He didn’t waste his breath arguing. They split the cash into two piles, put it in a couple of trash bags. She took one of the stacks of notes. Peeled them off one by one, laid them out on the bottom of the case until there was a thin covering over the whole of the base.
Then she picked up the trash bags, headed for the door.
‘While I’m gone you get a load of old newspaper and stuff the case with it.’
‘Okay.’
‘And Evan?’
He looked at her.
‘Put the newspaper in first, then the cash on top. Got that? Newspaper first, then the cash.’
He could hear her laughing all the way down the corridor.
Chapter 55
ROBERT GARFIELD CLEARED HIS throat nervously.
‘We’ve got a problem with Guillory.’
‘That’s the cop who pushed your teeth down your throat, isn’t it?’ Liverman, the guy on the other end of the line, said.
Garfield didn’t like the smile he heard in Liverman’s voice. There wasn’t a thing he could do about it.
‘Yeah.’
‘What kind of problem? I thought she got suspended.’
Garfield heard him blow smoke into the receiver. Probably one of the great fat cigars the smug bastard always smoked. He’d like to poke him in the eye with it.
‘She did. But she thinks she’s the Lone Ranger. She tried to tail me today.’
The sound of a chair scraping on a wooden floor on the other end of the line told Garfield Liverman had suddenly sat up to take notice.
‘What happened?’
‘I lost her, no problem.’
He implied a degree of skill that had nothing to do with the lucky diversion he’d seen in his rear-view mirror.
‘Is she following you? Staking out your house?’
Liverman’s voice had something in it that made Garfield shiver. A thought suddenly crossed his mind, made him wish he hadn’t made the call. His intention had been to report what had happened, let them take care of Guillory. It never crossed his mind they might look at the bigger picture, decide their interests were best served by removing him from the equation rather than Guillory.
Hunting Dixie Page 22
