by Max Austin
“Shep? Like a dog?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Hmm. You got away from them how?”
“I caught ’em off guard. Kicked ’em a few times. Knocked ’em both out. Found the handcuff keys. Got the hell out of there.”
“And where was this?”
He glanced over at Vic, who sat watching him, mouth hanging open, as if he were waiting for Ryan to put a bad taste in there.
“That’s the weird part. It was at that same house where we met. The one with the sheets over all the furniture.”
Vic clapped his mouth shut. Ryan stopped for a red light, his blinker going. He looked over at Vic, saw a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“Those guys,” Ryan said. “You know them, right? That’s why you’re so pissed.”
“Just get me to Penny’s.”
Chapter 51
Finally alone in her house, Penny ran a brush through her hair and got dressed in weekend clothes: jeans, sneakers, a loose white blouse trimmed in red ribbons. Then she sat at the kitchen table, Vic’s pistol next to her coffee cup.
She fiddled with a police band radio, picking up some sheriff’s department chatter about a shoot-out in the North Valley before the reception faded. She feared the damn batteries were dead.
Gravel crackled in the driveway.
Penny went to the window. A dusty black SUV with tinted windows stopped at the kitchen door.
Ryan climbed out from behind the wheel. On the far side of the car, Vic unfolded to his full height. He was still dressed in denim, dusty now, bits of dry grass in his hair. He was looking right at her.
Unnerved, Penny went back to the table and put the radio away. She sat facing the back door, the pistol in her lap under the table. She watched the brass doorknob as it slowly turned. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
The door swung open and Vic stood there. His hands were empty.
“Vic,” she said. “Thank God you’re all right.”
He pursed his lips, glaring at her. Uh-oh.
Ryan crowded into the doorway behind him, wide-shouldered in his biker jacket. The two of them made quite a target, but Penny couldn’t force her finger to pull the trigger.
In two smooth strides, Vic was across the kitchen.
“Close that door, kid.”
Ryan came inside and shut the door behind him.
“That’s better,” Vic said. “Shuts out the traffic noise. I want us all to hear what’s said here.”
“Yeah?” Penny tilted her head, giving him her famous crooked smile, same as on the billboards. “You got something to say?”
It took Vic a second to work up to it, as if he had to swallow his anger first.
“You’ve been lying to me, Penny. About Zamora. About Marino. About the kidnapping.”
She kept smiling.
“You set it up,” he said. “You had Shep and Marty snatch Ryan out of his motel room. You had them keep him at that porn guy’s house, the one where Ryan and I first met.”
Penny lifted a shoulder. “It seemed fitting.”
“What if they’d killed him when he tried to get away?”
“They had strict orders not to hurt him.”
“They punched my guts out!” Ryan protested.
“You should’ve gone along peacefully,” Penny said. “I just needed them to hold you there long enough for Vic to get rid of Zamora.”
She turned to Vic. “Did you get him?”
“He’s dead, but not before telling me he never heard of Harry Marino. That’s when I put it together.”
Vic gave her his fake grin, a wolf showing his teeth. “Harry Marino had nothing to do with the cartels, did he?”
“No,” she said. “I made up that part. Harry was a whistle-blower in a court case against some solar energy company. Completely unrelated, but the timing was perfect. I knew you wouldn’t question what I told you about him. You never do.”
“How much are you getting paid to make Zamora disappear?”
Her hands were sweaty on the gun, but she kept smiling as she said, “A cool million.”
“You knew I’d never go for it,” Vic said. “Not even for a million bucks. So you cooked up the kidnapping. Made me believe going after Zamora was the only way to save Ryan’s life.”
“The kid gave me leverage,” she said. “I saw how you’d gone nuts over him. Suddenly, because of this kid, you’re making retirement noises. What was I supposed to do without your revenue stream?”
“You could train somebody else. Shep, maybe, since you now trust him so much.”
She made a face. “He and Marty couldn’t handle a simple kidnapping. I needed you for this job.”
“So you lied to me.”
“I was trying to engineer the biggest score we’ve ever made, and were you any help? No, you’re all googly-eyed over your bouncing baby boy.”
“Fuck you, lady.”
Vic held up a hand. “Now, Ryan, there’s no reason to be rude.”
“You’re kidding, right? She set you up, had me kidnapped, pulled a gun on my girlfriend. We’re supposed to be nice to her?”
“Good manners are a sign of good breeding,” Vic said. “Also, she’s holding a gun under the table. Unless I’m mistaken, that gun is pointed at the very jewels responsible for your existence. So mind your manners until we get this sorted out. Okay?”
Ryan looked twitchy, barely containing himself. Under the table, Penny aimed the pistol at him. At the moment, he seemed the more dangerous one.
“Nobody else has to die,” Vic said. “We left a pile of bodies at Zamora’s house, and the heat’s going to be intense. No reason to bring it here.”
“There’s nothing to connect me to Zamora,” she said. “Shep and Marty don’t know anything.”
“You shoot either of us, and the cops will connect the dots. Your world will come tumbling down.”
She said nothing, busy watching Ryan.
“Or, we can all just walk away,” Vic said. “Get out of town before the cops link us to anything.”
“Go our separate ways? After all these years?”
“I’m afraid it’s got to be that way,” he said. “We’d have trust issues.”
“I can see that. You’d always worry that I’m setting you up.”
“And you, my dear, would worry about finding me standing over you in the night.”
She gave him her saucy smile. “You make it sound kinda sexy.”
“You wouldn’t like it. It wouldn’t last long.”
Penny’s mind was busy. The Zamora bounty was set to go directly into her overseas bank account. She could catch a plane, be far away by the time Vic fully sorted out the depths of her treachery.
She eased the pistol out from under the table. Rested her hand on the table, the Ruger pointed at a spot between the two men.
Ring!
The phone was on the wall behind Penny, and she jumped at the sudden noise, nearly pulled the trigger. She involuntarily glanced at the phone, and another sound came from the other direction. A sound like the slapping of a leather belt.
Ryan. She turned toward him, but too late. He’d pulled a big pistol from inside his biker jacket. Had it pointed squarely at her face.
Chapter 52
“Whoa! Whoa!” Vic held up his hands like a cop stopping traffic. “Everybody take it easy!”
Ring!
Ryan and Penny froze in place, guns pointed at each other. Vic slipped his hand under his shirt in the back, gripping the .22 stuck in the waistband of his jeans.
“No reason to shoot.” He tried to keep his voice calm. “We can talk this out.”
“She’ll just lie,” Ryan said. “We can’t believe anything she says.”
Ring!
“Please,” Vic said. “I don’t want either of you hurt.”
He eased his gun out of his belt, but kept it pointed at the floor. Ryan and Penny didn’t waver, didn’t even blink.
Ring!
“However,”
Vic said. “You should know this, Penny. If you shoot him, I’ll be forced to put you down. I don’t want to, but I will.”
Penny snorted. “Don’t kid me. You’d never shoot a woman. It’s against your code.”
He raised the pistol. “I might feel bad about it. But you’re guaranteed to feel worse.”
Her finger tightened ever so slightly on the trigger. If she fired, Ryan would be gut-shot, but he might live. If Ryan fired first, a big .45-caliber slug would decorate the walls in Penny.
Ring!
“Come on,” Vic said. “Put the guns down. We can still walk away from this.”
Neither moved.
“Okay,” he said. “I think the phone’s done ringing now. Everybody take a deep breath and relax.”
Nothing.
“Let’s all put our guns on the table. We can step back from the table, everybody at the same time, and then we can talk about this thing calmly. Like adults.”
Still nothing.
“Goddammit! Put the guns on the table. Right now.”
Ryan broke the eyelock with Penny. He looked over at Vic and smiled.
“Sure, Dad.”
He set the .45 on the end of the table farthest from Penny, then stepped back, hands out to his sides.
Vic said, “Your turn, Penny.”
She looked up at him from under her bangs. Vic felt a little thud in his chest. He’d miss her, no doubt about it.
She turned the Ruger on its side and set it on the tabletop. She scooted her chair back and stood, running her hands over her hair. He gestured with the gun, and she took a step back and leaned against the wall behind her.
“There,” she said. “Happy?”
Vic set down his gun and stepped back. “All guns on the table. Everybody calming down.”
Penny crossed her arms and said, “Now what?”
Vic sighed.
“I’m afraid our partnership comes to an end,” he said. “In fact, I never want to see you again. Keep the million you’ll get for Zamora. Set yourself up in a new life somewhere.”
“Not here?”
“I think you’ve worn out your welcome in Albuquerque.”
“It’s my home.”
“Our paths would eventually cross. I might not be feeling as charitable as I am now. It’s better if you’re gone.”
Penny hesitated only a moment, pooching out her lower lip, then said, “I can live with that. I was getting tired of this cow town anyway.”
She stepped away from the wall, and Vic tensed, ready to lunge for his gun.
Ring!
The wall phone made everyone jump again.
“Good Christ!” Penny said. “I’ll answer it.”
She grabbed the receiver off the hook and shouted into the mouthpiece.
“What?”
A smile spread across her face, and she raised her eyebrows at the men.
“Hello, Tina,” she said. “Yes, I know you’ve been calling. Take it easy. Everything’s fine. Ryan’s fine.”
Penny rolled her eyes, mocking the girlfriend’s concern.
“No, really. He’s standing right here. So’s Vic.”
She listened for a few seconds, then said, “This is a bad time, Tina. But we’re almost done. He’ll be there soon. Okay?”
Penny hung up the phone.
“She’s having a shit fit. You’d better go tend to her.”
“All right,” Vic said. “But you leave first.”
“And go where?”
“Your office would be good for now. We’ll tidy up here. You can go sit at your desk and dream about the new life you’re going to make with that million bucks.”
She went around the table to reach a copper-brown jacket hanging on a peg by the door. She slipped it on and checked the pockets for her keys.
“I suppose this is all I need. So long, Vic.”
Penny went out the door, the screen slamming behind her. Vic watched her walk along the driveway until she reached the street. She paused for traffic, then crossed to her office and let herself inside.
She never once looked back.
Chapter 53
“You’re letting her go?” Ryan howled. “After all she did? You’re letting her walk away?”
Vic raised his hands again. Ryan was getting awfully tired of being told to calm down.
“Not exactly.” Vic turned to the cabinets, started opening doors and checking shelves.
“What are you looking for?”
When Vic turned back, he had a box of quart-sized Baggies in his hands. He pulled one free and slipped it over his hand.
“This gun here?” he said as he went around the table. “The one I loaned to Penny?”
He gingerly picked up the Ruger with his bagged hand, then rolled the plastic down over it. Started sealing the bag shut.
“I told her it had a history. It’s the one used to shoot Marc Troy.”
Ryan tilted his head to the side, not getting it.
“The record producer in Santa Fe? You shot his poor dog?”
“I know who you mean. What about this gun?”
“It’s got Penny’s prints all over it. If somebody were to deliver it to the Santa Fe cops, they’d match her up in no time.”
“They couldn’t make it stick,” Ryan said. “Not with just fingerprints and ballistics.”
“Maybe not. But they could be a pain in her ass.”
Ryan smiled.
“Think of it as insurance,” Vic said. “If Penny makes any kind of stir, I’ll threaten to drop this in the mail. I’d rather let the police deal with her than shoot her myself, if it comes to that. I’ve known her since she was a kid.”
They stowed their guns and went outside into the crisp air. As they climbed into the battered Escape, Ryan said, “Wouldn’t the cops find your prints, too?”
“Maybe. But I’ll be long gone by then.”
Ryan cranked the engine before he said, “You’re leaving?”
“At least for a while. Too much heat now. Too many entanglements. You were right when you said I know everybody in town. Without Penny’s business as cover, I’ve got no context. People will start wondering. They’ll start asking questions I don’t want to answer.”
Ryan had plenty of questions himself. If Vic left Albuquerque, then what? What was Ryan supposed to do? He felt like he’d arrived at a party just as everyone was leaving.
“I could use a change of scenery,” Vic said. “Meet some new people.”
“New waitresses to flirt with?”
“It’s a fine pastime. One a man can pursue most anywhere.”
“Where will you go?”
“Someplace with a beach, I think. Take a little vacation. Eat seafood for Christmas dinner.”
“That sounds good,” Ryan said as he turned the car around in the dusty backyard.
“You want to come along? You and Tina? My treat. We’ll go pick up your new passport from Kirk. Then we’ll take Tina someplace warm and sit in the sun and get to know each other better.”
Tightness crept up Ryan’s throat. He barely trusted himself to speak.
“I’d like that,” he croaked.
“Good. We’ve got lots to talk about. I’ve been thinking, maybe we should go into some sort of business together. Like you always see on stores. ‘Walters and Son.’ ”
Ryan could barely breathe.
“I’m getting too old for the killing business, anyway. It’s a young man’s game. Maybe it’s time I became a broker like Penny. Handle the business end of things, the logistics. Let somebody else do the heavy lifting.”
“I could do that.”
“We’ll talk it over.”
Ryan glanced over at Vic and saw he was grinning.
“What’s so funny?”
“You get to be the one who tells Tina about our business plans.”
“Aw, hell.”
For the first time Ryan had ever seen, his father laughed.
About the Author
MAX AUSTI
N is a pseudonym for Steve Brewer, author of two dozen books about crooks. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Every great mystery needs an Alibi
eOriginal mystery and suspense from Random House
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