by Nora Kane
“Sorry, you don’t get to volunteer.”
“I didn't, she picked me. You were just too stupid to notice.”
“Okay, fine. It can be you.”
“Could you tell me what the hell this all about first?”
“I could, but I’m not going to.”
He raised his gun, but before he could fire, the other man said, “Sweeper—wait.”
“Uh, why?”
“There’s a dot on your forehead.”
“A dot?”
“Yeah, like a red one.”
Margot saw it too and breathed, “Like a laser sight.”
“After you put down the guns, I’m going to need you both not to move,” Harry Lee said as he came through the front door. Two more men with H&K MP5s came through the back door Sweeper had shot out. Neither was the man who had the laser sight on Sweeper’s head.
“If I say no?” Sweeper ventured.
“Are you saying no?”
Sweeper dropped his weapons, and the other man did the same.
“What are you doing here?” Sweeper asked.
“Killing this asshole for starters,” Harry said as he raised his gun, put the barrel against Sweeper’s partner’s head, and pulled the trigger. Sweeper’s partner covered the low seat with his brains before he fell on top of the coffee table.
Harry looked at Margot. “Sorry, it took a while to get set up.”
“You did this for me?”
“I said I like you,” Harry replied but then he smiled and added, “though I have to admit, saving you was just a bonus. Mostly I’m here for this piece of shit.”
“How’d you know I was here?” Sweeper asked. “I didn’t even know I was coming here until this morning.”
“I knew you were looking for these two, and I knew Shaw took Margot somewhere he thought was safe. If it were me looking for them, I’d go ask Mr. Shaw, so I figured you’d do the same.”
“You staked out my office?” Shaw questioned.
“I did. If I’d been better prepared, I would have gotten to this piece of shit before he got this far, but I only had one man watching your office. Since these assholes showed up, I’ve lost some manpower.”
“Do you know who I am?” Sweeper asked.
“I have a good idea.”
“Then you know my employer isn’t someone you want to mess with. Maybe if you walk away, they’ll forgive what you did to my driver.”
“Spare me the nonsense. I know you’re on loan to somebody else.”
“How do you know that?”
“I do a lot of business with a lot of people, including your boss. I asked.”
Sweeper looked a lot less confident after that.
“So,” Harry continued, “while they certainly weren’t going to help me, they said I was free to handle business in my own backyard as I saw fit.”
“But…”
“Yeah, they’re backing someone else and letting you come up here and wreak havoc, but let’s be honest, in the end, no matter who wins this pissing contest, they’re still going to want to be in business with the winner.”
Sweeper didn’t say anything.
“Where’s Mal?” Harry asked him.
“I don’t know, he was just the go-between mostly.”
“He works for the other guy?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, who’s the other guy?”
“I’m not sure, but I think he has the initial, F U.”
“Do you really want that to be your answer?”
“Let me ask you something your little blonde asked me just a few minutes ago: Would it make any difference?”
“That’s the first smart thing you’ve said to me. Figures it would be something somebody else said.”
“So, you going to have your sniper shoot me now?”
“Sniper? That’s my driver with a laser pointer.”
“Are you serious?”
“Ask Margot, I’m not much of a kidder.”
Sweeper let his eyes drift to the pair of guns at his feet.
“You never should have killed Tommy,” Harry said as he raised his gun, “I would have negotiated.”
“No reason we can’t still do some negotiating…”
“Yeah, there is,” Harry declared before he shot Sweeper through his right eye, leaving another pile of brains and blood to clean up.
Harry looked down at Ms. X. “I don’t know you, but I think we can come to an arrangement since I just saved your life.”
“I suppose we could.”
“How about you, Shaw?” Harry asked. “Do you want to call your old pals in the police?”
“I don’t see anything here that should involve them.”
Harry looked at Cassie and Margot. “Anyone else feel differently?”
“Seems like justice was served, if you ask me,” Margot agreed.
“I can assume this won’t be on your YouTube show?” Harry asked Cassie.
“Yeah, even if I wasn’t done with it, I’m never mentioning it to anyone. In fact, I can hardly remember how these two gentlemen came to be dead on the floor.”
“That’s a good attitude. Keep it up.”
“My recollection is pretty foggy as well,” Ms. X said. “But there is something of a mess.”
“That’ll be taken care of,” Harry assured her. He motioned to one of the men with the machine guns, and he hustled out of the house. “Why don’t you all wait in the kitchen? After we’re done, we might have a little more to talk about.”
Chapter 8
An hour later, Harry sat down at the table with Shaw, Cassie, Ms. X, and Margot. They hadn’t really talked while they waited, other than everyone agreeing it would have been nice if Ms. X had liquor in the house since even though it was still morning, everyone would have liked a drink.
“Before we get started,” Harry began, “I want to tell anybody who’s having second thoughts about how they feel about what happened here that no evidence of what I did remains.
The back door is still gone and there are still some bullet holes in the wall, but I never fired that gun and there’s nothing to link me to it. The two men you saw will never be found.”
“No one changed their minds,” Shaw told him. “You saved all of us.”
Harry nodded and looked to everyone at the table one at a time. Everyone nodded to show agreement with Shaw.
“Good,” Harry stated.
After a long silence, Harry remarked to Ms. X, “You know what looks really nice?
French doors. They also are a lot harder to shoot out, and you can put a deadbolt on them as well.
I think you’d really like them.”
“I hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess I would.”
“Good, I already arranged it with a guy I know who does excellent work. He’s put in a rush order and should be here later today to put them in.”
“You’re going to buy her silence with French doors?” Margot asked, bemused.
“They’re going to be really nice doors but no, not entirely. I assume this place is for abused women?”
“Yes.”
“You run on donations?”
“Yes.”
“Consider me a new benefactor. A very generous one. I believe in your cause, so it’s a win for both of us.”
“You’re going to help me keep this place going with blood money?”
“Last I checked, it spends the same.”
Ms. X nodded. “I’m good with it.”
“Excellent. I’m going to ask you to leave for a few minutes so I can talk to these three.
I’m guessing you’d prefer to know as little as possible about what I do.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Ms. X said as she stood up. “I’m going to the liquor store, any requests?”
“Vodka and something to mix it with,” Cassie said immediately.
“With her pain medication and me still having to do some work today, Margot and I are going to pass,” Shaw said before
Margot could speak up.
Margot considered telling Ms. X to pick up a bottle of Maker’s Mark anyway but decided Shaw was her boss and more importantly, he was right.
As soon as Ms. X was gone Harry said, “I need to know who’s behind this, and I need to know sooner rather than later. The Cartel might say they’re good with me staying in power, but having someone they back lose isn’t really in their best interests. As long as my unknown competition is still around, giving them a choice, they’re going to keep coming. I need your help.”
“How exactly do you want us to help you?” Shaw asked. “I appreciate what you just did, but there are certain lines I’m not willing to cross. Just because you killed someone for me doesn’t mean I'm going to be murdering people on your behalf.”
“Of course, I respect your position, and frankly I don’t have any shortage of people who can and will kill on my behalf. I just want you to tell me who they are. Unlike them, I don’t have a problem with any of you, so it’d be in your best interests to help me out.”
“You make a good point, but honestly, I was hoping you could tell me,” Margot explained. “It’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Really? I was hoping you’d come around on my offer.”
“Your offer?” Shaw asked.
“Nothing illegal,” Harry assured him. “I just offered for her to be my mistress.”
“I thought you had Phoebe for that?”
“She lost interest after she didn’t have a husband to cheat on, plus she had that thing with the cop. Even if she didn’t, Margot would be an upgrade, and I’m a man who likes the best.”
“Thanks, but the answer is still no. I’m in a relationship.”
“My father always told me that just because there’s a goalie doesn’t mean you can’t score.”
“Your father told you that?”
“I come by my appetites naturally. Anyway, we’re getting off subject. Who is trying to kill us?”
“We don’t know either, but whoever it is, Mal is mixed up somehow,” Margot told him.
“I already knew that. It seems he’s the public face, but even when he goes away, we’ll still have the same problem. If we could find him though, it’d be a start.”
“Looking for Mal isn’t exactly a new idea,” Shaw commented.
“So, we’ve got nothing,” Cassie concluded and the silence that followed confirmed her view.
“You’ve probably got a few days before they can arrange a new crew of assassins to get up here,” Harry said finally. “I’d use it wisely.” He looked at Margot. “You know how to get a hold of me. When you know, I need to know. I’m not asking about that part.”
Margot didn’t like it, but she nodded in agreement.
Harry stood abruptly, said “You guys have a nice day,” and walked out.
“What do we do now?” Cassie asked after Harry was gone.
Shaw and Margot looked at each other and then they both shrugged.
“I have no idea,” Shaw conceded.
Margot got out her phone. “While Harry was talking, someone tried to call.”
“Let me guess, your car’s extended warranty is about to expire,” Shaw suggested, thinking of the call from telemarketers he’d been getting the most of lately.
“I don’t even have a car anymore, and I can say from experience none of the warranties they’re selling cover bullet holes. Looks like it was Radcliff.”
Margot called him back.
He was working, so the conversation was short.
“It hardly matters since the guy driving the car is in an unmarked grave somewhere, but they found a match on the partial plate we gave them,” Margot told everybody after the call ended.
“It kind of sucks we couldn’t use that,” Cassie said.
“You’re telling me; I almost died for it.”
“It is kind of cool we actually figured it out though.”
“I’m not sure it would have done us any good anyway. Just like before, it was a rental and just like before, the information from the rental company turned out to be fake.”
“Mal again?”
“Probably. Though he did use a new fake name this time.”
“Where did they rent it?” Shaw asked. “I’m guessing the first place is burned.”
“I didn’t ask. Why?”
“Well, there are a couple of places that are known for not checking too hard when renting a vehicle. They have a well-earned reputation for looking the other way. I know the first time he went to Len’s Luxury Leases, but after the attention it brought them, I doubt he would have gone back. That leaves two other likely destinations, one of which installed security cameras about a year ago after I caught the employee who was ripping them off. After paying my bill, they decided it would be cheaper to install hidden cameras. If it’s that one, at least we can confirm whether it was Mal or not.”
Margot picked back up her phone and dialed Radcliff again. After a short conversation, she asked Shaw, “Was your client First Rate Limousines and Rentals?”
“Bingo. Can you get the date and time of the rental?”
While Margot did that, Cassie grabbed her notebook. Margot repeated what Radcliff told her, and Cassie wrote it down in her book.
“Do you want to tell me what you’re going to do with that information?” Radcliff asked after Margot finished passing the information to Cassie.
Shaw must have heard him or sensed he was going to ask because he shook his head at Margot and quietly said, “It’d be better if we left the law out of it.”
“Not yet,” Margot told Radcliff, “It might be nothing. If it checks out, you’ll be the first to know.”
“You know you’re not supposed to be doing anything but resting.”
“I’m passing the information to Shaw. All I’m doing is making phone calls. Talk to you soon.”
“All right, stay safe.”
“You ladies wait here and I’ll go check it out,” Shaw said as he stood up.
“No, I’m going,” Margot said.
“That’s not what you told Radcliff, and you are supposed to be taking it easy.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t, and I promise not to try to lift anything.”
Shaw considered arguing with her, but he knew it would be a waste of his time.
“Then I’m going too,” Cassie added. “After what just happened, there’s no way I’m staying here alone.”
