In It for the Money

by David Burnsworth

  Grandfather? Blu asked, “George Dicks?”

  “You know him?”

  “I met him.” And he said he hadn’t seen Jeremy. What the hell? “Did he know about the money and drugs?”

  Jeremy flinched like he’d been slapped at the mention of the drugs. “No.”

  “What kids?” Tess asked. “These kids here?”

  “Yes.” Jeremy stared at the floor.

  Blu said, “Why not just ask your mother for it?”

  Jeremy shot up off the floor, standing toe-to-toe with Blu. “My mother would never give money away for any kind of real charity. And this place was about to go under.”

  “I get it. You were on a mission from God.”

  “That’s right.”

  Obviously, the kid missed the parallel to the Blues Brothers.

  Tess asked, “What did you do with the drugs?”

  A sheepish grin came across Jeremy’s face. “You know.”

  “Oh, I get it,” Blu said. “You were on a mission from God to get the money for the kids and the drugs were your reward.”

  “Yes!” Jeremy let out the word like a hiss.

  This kid deserved to get whatever Skull had planned. Except Blu couldn’t bring himself to let the idiot die. Whatever he was, Jeremy seemed to have a good side to him that wanted to help people. It was the part about helping himself to the drugs and using them to pay the strippers for sex that was troubling. Blu grabbed Jeremy by the wrist and led him to the front door. “We have got to get out of here now. I’m not sure how many steps ahead of the owner of the suitcase we are.”

  Tess pointed ahead. “None, now.”

  Blu let go of Jeremy and reached for his Glock.

  Chapter Fifty

  Through the glass of the front doors, Blu saw Sinclair Walters, a.k.a. Skull, and three goons walking toward them.

  Tess said, “Is there another exit?”

  Jeremy had already turned and was running down the corridor.

  Blu said, “Follow him!”

  They both ran after Jeremy and turned a corner just as the sound of the front door opened.

  Ahead, Jeremy cut another corner.

  Blu and Tess cut the same corner three seconds after him and bounded through a door that had just retracted itself closed and into a room.

  And Blu realized it was one big fatal mistake.

  Inside the room was Jeremy along with Philip, the woman they’d seen earlier, and all the children, all of whom had surprised looks on their faces.

  Tess went up to Jeremy and slapped him hard across the face. The blow sent him backwards and onto his butt. She loomed over him. “You led us, and maybe Skull, right back to these kids. You are pathetic.”

  In his heart, Blu knew what he had to do. To Philip, he said, “Bar this door. Don’t let anyone in when we leave. And call 911.” To Tess, he said, “Get Jeremy away from the kids. I’ll distract Skull.”

  He slipped out the door and closed it softly behind him. Then he ran back down the corridor. At the next intersection, he stopped and listened.

  The building, Blu realized, was an old school. It had many rooms lining the corridor and linoleum flooring. And cinderblock walls, which did not mask sound. What Blu heard was footsteps approaching.

  It had to be Skull and or his goons.

  The intersection was ten feet wide and the corridor went another thirty feet before what he hoped was a “T” and another corridor.

  In the Rangers, he’d been on point many times, meaning out in front—the first to engage the enemy. This was not the same thing. This was him being the bait. There was no time left to come up with plan B.

  Blu darted across the open area and heard someone say, “Get him.”

  Bullets ricocheted off the concrete block as Blu cleared the other side and ran full out.

  They were real close, like less than ten feet when he crossed in front of them.

  And he had thirty feet to cover. He didn’t make it before they were behind him, shooting. Luckily, no one was a good shot while running, and he made the next intersection and stopped.

  Someone had left a wheeled bucket with a mop sticking out of the wringer. Knowing he only had one chance, he kicked the bucket toward the corner just as the first man turned it. It caught him in mid-stride and he went down, face first on the hard floor, followed by the second goon who slipped on the spilled mop water and fell on top of him. The gun in the first goon’s hand slid out and stopped at Blu’s foot.

  Blu stooped and picked it up, aiming at the corner. Skull did not come.

  The second goon tried to get to his feet but Blu shot him. The first one was out cold.

  From around the corner, he heard Tess scream.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Blu approached the corner, gun trained in front of him.

  A man said, “I’ve got your girlfriend.”

  Then Tess, with a strained voice, said, “They’ve got me. I’m sorry.”

  She emphasized “me.” He took that to mean they had her only. Not Jeremy. This wasn’t good.

  There were no options left.

  The man’s voice said, “Come out so we can all have a chat.”

  The goon on the floor who’d been the first around the corner, the one who knocked himself out, started to come to.

  Blu manhandled him to his feet, all six foot and two hundred plus pounds, stood behind him, and put the gun to his head, which settled him down quick. With the goon as a shield, Blu walked out into the intersection. From behind the man, he saw Skull with a gun to Tess’ head. The other goon pointed a pistol at Blu.

  He confirmed Jeremy was not with them.

  Skull wet his lips as if in anticipation. He was about thirty with a deep, but fake, tan. “I’ve been waiting for this. Lose the gun.”

  Blu had stared death down many times before. He could tell Tess had not. Her eyes were wide in shock.

  Blu said, “I can’t figure out why you even care enough about this to come yourself.”

  Skull tilted his head like Doofus did when he was trying to understand what someone had spoken to him. “Care? Of course I care when someone steals from me.”

  “Fifty grand?” Blu asked. “Really? Murder two women and tear up the town over that?”

  “Fif—” Skull stopped himself. “You think this is over fifty grand? Try two hundred and fifty thousand. Plus a kilo of cocaine. No one takes from me. Period.”

  Jeremy had lied.

  This was bad. There was no easy exit strategy without risking Tess.

  And then Blu watched Jeremy’s friend, Philip, with a baseball bat, step behind Skull and the goon and crack the goon with the gun pointed at Blu in the back of the head. A fatal blow.

  The giant fell forward. Lights out. Game over.

  Skull made a rookie mistake and turned to see what happened.

  Standing behind the man he used as a shield and with Tess in the line of fire, Blu fired and hit Skull with a perfect headshot.

  The gangster fell away from Tess, who turned to look at him and screamed again.

  The man Blu used as a shield tried to struggle free. Blu swung his pistol and struck him in the temple, knocking him out again.

  Jeremy made it outside and to his van. He’d feigned following the witch who’d slapped him until she got far enough ahead that he’d slipped down a different corridor and lost her. That stupid PI had left to distract Skull, and he heard gunfire from the other side of the building.

  Whatever.

  This old school didn’t have a lot of exits, but it had windows in every classroom that cranked open. And that’s exactly what Jeremy had done. Slipped out through one of those windows, snuck through the bushes, and now sat in the front seat of his van.

  He gave one last look around, started the engine, backed out of the slot, put it in
drive, and stared at five police cars approaching, the lights on their roofs bouncing off his retinas.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Tuesday morning

  Blu sat in the front passenger seat in Cynthia Rhodes’ Mercedes and watched his client as she exited the car and walked up the stairs to her father’s home on Kiawah Island. Trigger Rick had driven while Cynthia and her assistant, Rebecca Morn, rode in the back. Her father, George Dicks, answered the door. It would not be a good conversation.

  When she was inside the house, Blu turned to Rebecca and said, “How about you and me step outside for a minute.” This also would not be a good conversation.

  Rick said, “What’s this about?”

  Blu ignored him, still looking at Rebecca.

  She seemed to study him for a moment, and then without a word opened her door.

  “What’s going on?” Rick asked.

  Blu said, “Wait in the car.”

  “The hell I will.”

  “I need to have a conversation with Rebecca,” Blu said. “You can watch from inside here. If she decides afterward to tell you what we talk about, I don’t care. But, if you step out of this car, I will shoot you.”

  It was Rick’s turn to study Blu. With everything that had happened—the failed assassination attempt in which Blu had killed his attackers, the deadly confrontation with Skull—Rick really had only one choice here if he was smart.

  Lucky for him, he was. He finally nodded.

  Blu opened his door and got out.

  Rebecca stood beside her car door and seemed to be unsure of what was about to happen.

  His eyes met hers. “I’m not rich by any stretch, but lately I’ve made my living working for the wealthy. Do you want to know what I’ve learned?”

  She remained silent but didn’t look away.

  “Most aren’t bad. They know the power and influence they wield. But there’s one thing they respect. You know what that is?”

  Slowly shaking her head, her eyes seemed to him to well up.

  He said, “Loyalty.”

  She looked away.

  Harmony, healing nicely from her gunshot wound, and Tess, both working on the clock for Blu but off the clock for Patricia, went back and turned over every rock associated with Jeremy Rhodes.

  To Rebecca, Blu said, “Jeremy knew his mother had been sending people to look for him. I’m thinking his grandfather told him.”

  She still didn’t reply.

  A detail Harmony and Tess had come up with was Rebecca and extra payments above and beyond what Cynthia had been paying showing up in her bank transactions. This conversation was speculative, but Blu had a good idea where she received the payments from and for what.

  Blu stuck the proverbial knife in when he said, “There’s nothing that can really link you to all that has happened. I’m giving you a choice. Resign today, right now, and walk away. Or face Cynthia. Either way, she will know what you did.”

  Rebecca put a hand to her mouth and turned from him.

  He waited, catching Rick glaring at him.

  As if to push the knife in deeper, Blu said, “Remember, at least three women died in this. Some might say they chose their lifestyles and the risks of whom they worked for. But I don’t think you’re like that.”

  After a moment, she nodded, opened her door, grabbed her purse, and then walked away.

  Rick tried to speak with her, but she hadn’t replied. He opened the door. “Where’s she going?”

  Rebecca made her way to the gated entrance and turned the corner.

  Like Blu, she’d been in it for the money. He said, “I gave her a choice, and she made her decision. You’ve also got a choice, and you need to make it right now.”

  Tess had tailed Rick around and confirmed he’d been seeing Rebecca. Blu had suspected as much when he’d seen them together outside that day at Cynthia’s. But there was no evidence he’d taken any extra money for anything.

  Rick got up. “What’s going on?”

  “She was also on George Dick’s payroll,” Blu said. “And he told Jeremy Cynthia had sent me and someone else to look for him. It kept him on the run and dragged this whole thing out long enough for some people to get hurt.”

  “You’re lying!” Rick said, almost shouting.

  “The proof is in the fact that she walked. So, back to your choice.”

  “Just great.” Rick slammed the door. “So you’re saying my choice is to leave with Rebecca or work for Cynthia.”

  “Yes.”

  After a moment with him looking in the direction in which Rebecca had gone, he said, “Tell Cynthia for me?”

  Blu nodded.

  Rick handed him the car’s key fob and sprinted after Rebecca.

  Dicks might have thought he was helping his grandson, but all he really did was make matters worse. Hopefully Cynthia was letting him have it.

  Blu watched Cynthia exit her father’s house and descend the stairs toward her car.

  When she noticed he was alone, she asked, “Where are Rick and Rebecca?”

  He opened the back door for her. “They regretfully turned in their resignations today.”

  She seemed to wait for some kind of punchline to a joke that wasn’t funny.

  Blu said, “Your father had to get his information from somewhere.”

  “Rick and Rebecca?”

  “Rebecca,” Blu said. “Rick chose love over employment.”

  After a long moment, Cynthia turned her head from side to side as if saying “no” to a question no one had asked and got in the backseat of her car.

  Blu got in the driver’s seat and met her eyes in the rearview mirror.

  She said, “Anything else you’d care to enlighten me on, Mr. Carraway?”

  “How’d things go with your father?”

  Looking out the window, she said, “I asked him to stop working against me with Jeremy. He didn’t seem to understand what he’d done was wrong.”

  Blu nodded, pushed the engine start button, and drove them away.

  Later the same day, Blu filled the water trough while Billie fed the horses apples.

  A dark blue Rolls Royce pulled between the live oaks and parked next to the black Nissan Xterra Jimmy Zoluchi’s salesman had given him a good deal on.

  Adam Kincaid stepped out of the backseat of the Roller and onto the crushed shell drive. Blu watched the wealthy white man, slicked-back hair going gray, sunglasses, and a tailored suit over his small frame, approach.

  Turning off the water, Blu coiled the hose and moved away from the horses, wiping a palm on his jeans and holding out a hand. “Mr. Kincaid.”

  Kincaid took the offered hand. “Adam, Blu, please. Good to see you.”

  “You too,” Blu replied.

  “Turned out Jeremy really needed saving after all. I thought it was Cynthia who needed to be saved from him.”

  Blu didn’t reply.

  The rich man said, “I’ve known the Rhodes family for a long time. There’s a lot of sorrow there.”

  Blu said, “I’m not sure I’d call Ms. Rhodes a satisfied customer.”

  Although she did give him a monster bonus and emphasized she expected him to adhere to the client confidentiality clause in the contract she signed. Especially with the press swarming all over the story. The public, now more than ever, was more concerned with who than why.

  Kincaid nodded. “I’m more of a big picture type. Jeremy is no longer being hunted. Cynthia can focus her efforts on her charities. And you have your place here. You can say I am satisfied with the outcome.”

  The truth was the police had recently released Jeremy. He had no money on him and no drugs, and he basically kept his mouth shut, not saying much of anything. And of course he had vanished again. But he was back to making withdrawals from his trust fund account. Tess sti
ll tracked him for some reason. Somehow, the children’s center where they’d found Jeremy had accumulated enough funding to purchase a second property.

  “Thanks, Adam.” He motioned to Billie. “This is Billie Day.”

  Billie approached and offered a hand which Kincaid also took.

  “Ms. Day. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Kincaid turned and looked around Blu’s island. “I’ve never been out here before. You’ve really got something special.”

  “My great-grandfather bought it and settled here. He was a little unorthodox.”

  “Like yourself.” Kincaid turned back to Blu. “My offer still stands. Any time you want to come on board, you have a job.”

  “Thanks, Adam,” Blu said. “And thanks for all you’ve done. But I’m going to stick this out.”

  He nodded. “Cynthia paid you well, I assume.”

  “She did.”

  “Good.” The titan offered his hand. “Well, I’ll leave you to your friends. Take care of yourself, Blu.”

  “You too.”

  Kincaid smiled, slid in the backseat of the Rolls, and closed the door. His driver backed the car out of the drive.

  Crome, also recently released, was still nowhere to be found.

  Billie said, “You aren’t going to take any security job, are you?”

  “No. Are you upset?”

  She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the lips. Then she said, “You’re my man. I’ll take you any way you want to be.”

  Blu figured the briefcase that Jeremy had stumbled across was a regular drop in Skull’s network. As soon as it ended up missing, according to Andeline, Skull put out a reward for information. Tim the dealer suspected Angel and Cleo were involved when they showed up with coke he didn’t sell them. After all, the drop had been in the club they worked. Jeremy’s name probably got floated around soon after their foursome party. And then Blu started asking around for the kid. In order to get Blu out of the way, a hit was put on him. When it had become obvious that Jeremy was in the wind, and Blu wasn’t going to go down easy, the crime boss must have changed his mind, canceled the contract, and tracked his own movements.