No More Birthdays (Carol Ann Baker Crime)

by Pelzer,Lissa

  And Lilly did think of consequences. Two murders instead of one, maybe if she’d not shot Gary in the foot, she wouldn’t have shot him again. If she’d never met Cassandra, she wouldn’t have this gun in her hand. And if Davis hadn’t sent her back up north every damn time, maybe she’d have worked out for herself what a waste of time it was being down in Florida.

  She could have gone home and straightened out, got a scholarship like Moon Face, been enrolled in some East Coast university right now. But none of that had happened. She was here in a crop of pine trees and Bobby was wrong. Gary wasn’t dead. He was nowhere near dead once that ambulance crew showed up to his last known destination.

  ‘Today’s my birthday,’ she said to no one in particular and Gary looked up, lifted his head and gave her the only gift she’d received this year. Lilly took two steps closer and aimed, aimed like she was going to win that goldfish and take it home to put in a good sized bowl, went for the bull’s eye and he went down on his side, twitched and was still twitching while she held her breath.

  ‘Get in the car!’ Bobby growled.

  But she was transfixed. The image of his eye socket exploded in his face amazed her. Gary was gone, but his body was still pumping and squirming like a piece of road-kill that anyone with any humanity would reverse back over to finish off. Lilly raised the pug again but stalled. She didn’t need to shoot him again. Four times was just being greedy.

  ‘I’m leaving!’ Bobby shouted. ‘You better get in the car, now.’

  She snapped out of it. Lilly stepped back and threw the phone down on the floor next to his body, but Bobby went down like he was going to retrieve it.

  ‘Leave it. He had the location setting on. It might go back on.’

  ‘I don’t care about that.’ Bobby picked up the phone and hurled it deeper into the woods. ‘But you don’t leave a body out in the open like this!’ He grabbed at Gary’s belt and Bobby’s face contorted as he dragged the body towards the car.

  Lilly recoiled as the sounds came out of him like an upset child.

  ‘When they get here and find a body, they’ll have helicopters out for us. Did you think of that?’

  Gary’s body resisted his tugging. It was like he was still fighting.

  ‘What have they got now? A possible kidnap – no motive – an out of town cop who saw him laughing in the back seat of my car? You better start using your head Miss Lilly or Lilly or whatever you want to call yourself. Kick those needles up,’ he said and Lilly turned around, saw the darkened ground and did as she was told.

  ‘Here and here.’ Bobby pointed and she followed.

  The spikes caught in her open toes as she covered up the path made by his legs dragging across the floor. Bobby popped the trunk. Except for a small open box with a couple of beers in it, the trunk was empty. Bobby put Gary’s shoulder to his hip, checking for blood on his chinos and against his own shirt.

  ‘Why’s the trunk empty?’ she asked.

  ‘Just in case.’

  ‘Just in case of what?’

  Bobby turned his face away like a guilty dog. ‘Don’t stand there on ceremony. This isn’t the White House. Get his legs.’

  His legs were heavier than she had imagined and Lilly had to stick the gun in her pocket to get a grip. She grabbed his feet and saw how the sole of one shoe was almost all gone. There was nothing to cover him with and no point. When they got pulled over, they’d find him with or without a blanket. And he twitched again and her stomach retracted into her mouth.

  Now there were sirens again and Bobby grimaced. They passed on the closest lane, the one riding the other’s ass, but there was an empty field between them and in the dappled light of the trees, frozen in place as they were, the green Ford mustn’t have shown up. She jumped in the driver’s seat and started the engine.

  ‘We need to move fast,’ Bobby said, pushing her over the center console. She felt something tug and reached behind, stared him in the eyes as she pulled back the pug that was still pointed at his crotch.

  ‘I was just getting it out of the way of my fly. Is that too much to ask? You need to be more careful with that thing.’

  Lilly slid into the passenger seat. ‘You need to be more careful how you speak to me.’ And she stared him out. ‘Let’s just go.’

  They crawled out onto the field, sticking the nose of the car into the road, looking for the next place to pull over.

  It was the only chance they had, to go half a mile at a time, until what? She had no idea.

  Bobby said, ‘I’m heading for that barn. You keep your eyes peeled. All directions. I’m going to have to swap this Ford up.’ Bobby tapped his fingers against the wheel. ‘I don’t know how soon that’s going to happen. We can’t stay together. Where do you want me to drop you?’ He said it like they were on a date that had gone wrong before nine o’clock. ‘You want to try your luck at a house or you want to hitch on the highway? You can go up the slope.’

  ‘Drop me? You’re not dropping me anywhere. What the hell do you expect me to do around here with the cops all over.’

  Bobby let out a sigh. He pressed his hand over his mouth. ‘You’re still a girl with a nice face and a good ass. A guy will do a lot for that. It’s worth a try, lie down in a bed for a week or two till the heat passes. Play it nice. No man is going to turn in a blonde in his bed while she’s still being sweet.’

  ‘You’re taking me with you,’ Lilly said. ‘Don’t act shocked. Don’t act like I’m asking for something I shouldn’t.’

  Bobby shook his head. ‘Darling. I’m just trying to help. Why do you have to pull me into this.’

  ‘I’m not pulling you into anything. You think I forgot that you owed me ten thousand? You think shooting Gary made me forget about that?’

  ‘Don’t threaten me now. I’m warning you.’

  ‘Where are you going after this, Bobby? Because wherever it is, I know you know people, someone who will get me a new ID.’

  ‘Canada….’ he said it like it was a dirty word. ‘You ever been to Canada?

  ‘No, but I guess we’re halfway there already. You get me that money and a new ID and I’ll be able to take care of myself. I won’t be a problem. If I ever get taken in for The Judge then it’s all-square. I won’t say anything.’

  ‘You still thinking you’ve got ‘mitigating circumstances’?’

  Lilly bit her lip so hard she tasted the blood. ‘I’m just saying…’

  ‘No! Goddamn it. I’ve got to change up this car. I’ve got to rid myself of a dead man. I’ve got to live by my wits for a few days. I’ll have to sleep rough, hide out, go one step at a time… Hell, I have to start my own life over – again. I cannot do that with you in the car. They’re looking for two people, just like they always were. We’ve got a chance if we go our separate ways. But like this…’

  ‘So what? You’re just going to go, leave Cassandra to take care of herself?’

  He went in his pocket for his cigarettes, gave the box a shake to see how many he had left. ‘She’ll be better off without me.’

  ‘I won’t argue with that, but you’ve got responsibilities. Did you give her enough cash already to get back to Miami, to set herself up with somewhere to live?’

  He took one out and lit up, cracked the window not more than two inches.

  ‘She’ll have options. You know Cassandra. She’ll struggle for a while, but she’ll come out good.’

  ‘But she shouldn’t have to.’

  ‘She’s a grown woman. What responsibility is it of mine? I’m not her father.’

  Lilly laughed. ‘No, just her husband.’

  Up ahead a car was coming off the exit and Bobby swung the Ford into a driveway and pulled up behind the trees. They reversed fast and hit the trashcans at the end, but that made room enough behind the tall fence not to be seen.

  Bobby sucked on his cigarette until it hissed. ‘Yes, Cassandra is my wife, on paper. You think you were the first bright spark to come up with the idea of blackmail, to test
ify against me for your own benefit? Well, guess what? You’re nothing new. Only Cassandra knew what she was doing. She knew this job was coming up, that I had the connections to put her where she needed to be. We made a deal. We put it all down on paper…’

  ‘That must have been one fucked up prenup,’ Lilly said.

  He took a hit. ‘All prenups are fucked up.’

  Chapter 22

  The car came closer. It was a cop car and the words dried up in Bobby’s mouth. They watched it cruise past, Lilly feeling the tips of her fingers lightly against the seat, having that sense like right at this moment she could do whatever she liked, breathe in and out, touch whatever, say whatever, but in a few moments that would all be taken away from her. She’d be arrested, she’d be face-down, she be strip-searched. Some fat cop would want to put his fingers inside her looking for weapons or drugs. The cop in question slowed and stopped. He was looking about and she could see him through the strips in the fence. He was staring back, but not seeming to know what it was he was looking for. They weren’t the only car on the property.

  ‘But I didn’t get rid of her just for talking to Davis.’

  ‘Then what?’ Lilly whispered.

  ‘Miss Cassandra was acting all jealous because The Judge wanted to see someone new and not her, that was all. He’d already seen her, six months before.’

  The cruiser pulled away slowly and Bobby let the window down again and blew smoke out the crack.

  ‘Jealousy is as unladylike a quality as you can get and I don’t put up with it. As he didn’t want to see her again anyhow, I let her go.’ He flicked the cigarette away from the car. ‘He thought she was too ‘mature’. Perhaps she was.’

  Lilly cringed. ‘She was eighteen.’

  ‘Taste is a funny thing. Come on. Concentrate. Eyes peeled.’

  They pulled slowly out from behind the thicket of trees and off the driveway.

  ‘But after what happened, I figured, what’s a touch of the green-eyed monster compared with a girl who beats a man to death in his own hotel room – with his own dildo?’ His eyes landed on her. He wasn’t afraid of her. ‘I needed someone I could trust for this job. I made a deal with her. No sex required, a marriage of convenience. She’d get the job and I’d get the arrangement fees as per usual and no chance of her coming back a few years down the road and asking for more.’

  ‘Except she didn’t get the job.’

  ‘I paid the upfront costs, used my contacts and arranged everything and she dropped the baby. So you’ll excuse me if I don’t seem too troubled about seeing her straight. As far as business is concerned, this time, we’re done.’

  ‘Time to find a couple of new girls?’

  Bobby gave a half nod but kept staring out the front. His lips pressed so tightly together the smoke had to come out of his nose.

  ‘Cute.’

  ‘Darling. Don’t act like it’s anything of a surprise. I play it like a gentleman, but I’m no sucker!’

  And she watched him drive. He was pathetic. Not worth the air he breathed. ‘Why don’t you drop me off at that bridge over there.’ She pointed to the concrete structure jutting out over the field. There was an embankment going up the side.

  ‘With pleasure.’ His shoulders dropped. He thought he was getting away with it.

  The overhang was shaded, not that it mattered now, the sun had gone and the bugs had come out, but Bobby pulled underneath the bushes to keep the car out of view. It was only a matter of time, he told her before these rednecks found the keys to the ‘copter. They were doing the right thing by splitting up.

  ‘What does it cost to get to Canada?’

  ‘It costs what it costs.’ He squeezed the wheel, maybe knowing what she was going to say next.

  ‘Still. I’m going to need that two thousand.’ It was easy now, just holding the pug loosely in her hand, not even thinking about the pain it caused when it went off, or the noise or the effect it might have on her in the future. Because it was Bobby, he deserved it and she was already fucked. Maybe she’d sleep better in her cell, waiting for her time to run out, knowing he was dead and cold. She flicked her wrist like she’d seen them do on TV. ‘The two thousand, where is it now, in your case? In Cassandra’s case?’

  ‘I can’t give you that money. It’s all I’ve got.’

  She sighed loudly. ‘What makes you think I’m joking? I’m not joking.’

  He opened the door and got out, came around to her side, to the backseat and Lilly got out too.

  ‘You think you’re a big girl with that little gun, don’t you?’ He was unzipping his hold-all, digging through a bunch of dirty, white t-shirts and blue jeans as if he were looking for a handkerchief, the smell coming out of there was pungent and filthy.

  Lilly covered him, waited for the little black bag to appear.

  ‘You got any more bullets for that thing? You’ve already used three.’ He said and he pulled it out, not huge but bigger than the pug, more than twice the size, shiny and heavy looking, an old school Browning 9 mm. ‘See what happens when you play with guns? What did I tell you about pulling one out?’

  Lilly held the pug steady. It wouldn’t be a case of who shot first. Even if she did, even if she got a very lucky shot, Bobby would shoot her back and he’d get her where it mattered and he was right, his wasn’t a toy. And he could shoot more than twice. She wasn’t so naïve to think she wouldn’t die.

  ‘You can shoot me now,’ she said, ‘or not give me the money. The end result will be the same.’

  His eyes tightened.

  ‘Out here, in the middle of nowhere, no money, no friends… You can see what would happen. I’d get in a truck and get as far as the next town before the old guy heard a description on the radio…I’m not going to lie in a man’s bed for two weeks wondering whether or not he’s going to turn me in. When he’s had enough, he will.’ She held the pug like it was nothing more than a cell phone. ‘I’ve really got nothing to lose. You shoot me – so what? It just makes the whole thing quicker. I’ll still shoot you back.’

  ‘You keep bluffing like that, see where it get’s you.’

  ‘I’m not bluffing. I need that cash!’

  ‘You want to shame me that bad, have me give money to a woman who pulls a gun on me?’

  ‘I don’t care how you feel about it.’

  Bobby lowered the gun. ‘Time is too precious right now for this baloney or I’d teach you a lesson.’ He pushed his hand into his hold all again and came out with the bag he’d offered her yesterday. It was stupid. All this just to get what she could have had yesterday morning. He was right, but they had no time to play games now. Maybe in a year or two when she was in a better place, she’d find him again, let him earn some money before she waltzed in and took it all away from him. Next time she wouldn’t bother getting dressed up. She’d just bring a bigger gun.

  She opened the bag. It didn’t look like much. The bundle just looked like a lot of soft, old singles. Taking it out she pulled off the elastic band and saw the notes inside, a twenty on the top and singles below and then what? Adverts for someone to clean gutters, graduation announcements and local sports. It was a boodle of fakes. It spread out between her fingers like a fan and she let it fall to the ground. ‘Wallet!’

  Bobby took out his billfold.

  She pulled two twenties off the top before reaching the newspaper filling.

  ‘I can’t believe this.’

  ‘Darling I wasn’t joking with you. I’m broke.’

  ‘Is this a scam? Where’s your real money?’

  He held his hands out. ‘Why can’t you see that I’m telling you the truth? This was it, my last shot. This was my last chance to make some money. I’m an old man. I’m done.’

  Lilly laughed. ‘Yeah well, you’ll bounce back.’

  Bobby shook his head. ‘Times have changed.’

  ‘What. Old guys don’t want to get with young girls anymore?’

  ‘I’m too old to start over. Jail’s probably m
y best option unless I want to die, an old man on the street with no medical insurance, no family, no one who loves me.’

  ‘Drop it, Bobby!’ She couldn’t stand to hear him trying to make himself out to be the victim. She remembered too well, his apartment at The Pelican Suites, him sucking his teeth like it pained him to teach her, telling her to go take a shower so he could show her how to please a man, like he was doing her a favor.

  ‘Your Rolex!’ she snapped and he took it off. He almost handed it to her, but let it drop on the floor. Playing up the feeble old man act a little too strongly now.

  ‘Pick it up!’

  But he didn’t. He stamped on it with the heel of his boot and it broke, plastic and cheap, a couple of big pieces, white and black inside and she got the message.

  Lilly lowered the pug. She’d have to try to draw him out, play on his pride. ‘Well, I guess you’ll just have to get used to washing cars for a living.’

  He shook his head. ‘I can’t do that.’

  ‘You can’t wash a car. Okay, picking up trash, look for refunds on bottles down on the beach…whatever.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m too old… And I still have some self-respect.’

  Lilly knew what his self-respect entailed. She looked in the back seat. ‘So give me Cassandra’s Louis Vuitton – and her case.’

  ‘What do you want with that? You going on the run in style?’

  ‘I need clothes. Maybe I can sell the bag. Is it fake?’

  He bit down. ‘It is not.’

  ‘I guess that’s why you wanted to hang onto it too then.’

  She watched him pull the luggage out the back and toss it to the side of the road. She watched him get back in. He wouldn’t look at her, shoulders hunched, trying to make himself look small. He didn’t want to give her an excuse to hate him more than she already did. And she stood there, a foot from his head.

  Lilly lifted the gun.

  She waited.

  She was glad Gary was dead.

  She was glad The Judge was dead.

  She would get the same feeling from Bobby too.

  But it wasn’t a powerful feeling. It didn’t make her feel any better. It didn’t erase the things that they had done.