Three Shot Burst

by Phillip DePoy

  ‘I don’t know if that’s true or not,’ I said, ‘but I never took you for the especially brave type. I mean, you were surrounded by your guys when you decided to gun down a fourteen-year-old girl. Which is to say, I wouldn’t doubt that you brought a small army with you now, since there are two scary girls involved.’

  I was trying to get his goat, knowing his penchant for deriding the opposite sex.

  He smiled. ‘In a few minutes you’ll be dead on some floor just like Cypress.’

  Took me a minute to remember that Cypress was Crew Cut’s real last name.

  ‘Bold talk for an old man with two guns pointed at him,’ Lena sneered.

  Ironstone sipped in a single breath and then moved like lightning. He dropped, twisted, and wound up behind Lena with her gun in his hand. He had her in front of him like a shield and the gun was at her temple.

  ‘I’m not an old man,’ he corrected harshly. ‘I’m a Seminole warrior.’

  ‘Bullshit,’ I told him. ‘No respectable Seminole warrior would consider beating a little girl anything but an embarrassment.’

  He shook his head, backing toward the living room area.

  ‘I know you’re trying to rattle me with that kind of talk,’ he said calmly. ‘It won’t work because you’re a Jew, and I know that all Jews are women. Of course you’re on this little worm’s side.’

  ‘Well, see,’ I responded, ‘now I have to kill you. It’s a matter of principle.’

  He laughed. ‘You know I won’t hesitate to shoot her. And I already shot you once, so you know I wouldn’t mind doing that again.’

  ‘Foggy,’ Lena began.

  ‘Shut up,’ Ironstone said, and then he smacked Lena hard in the side of her head with the gun.

  I took an involuntary step toward him, and he fired the pistol.

  A second later there was a jagged line of blood along Lena’s forehead. It was just a graze, but it would have really hurt. She didn’t make a sound, tough little biscuit that she was.

  ‘That’s just the beginning,’ Ironstone said. ‘I shoot her a couple more times like that, and she really starts to bleed – maybe her right hand, or the inside of her thigh. Wouldn’t kill her. Just hurt like hell. So put your gun on the floor and walk around it. Follow me.’

  He continued backing into the living room.

  I locked eyes with Lena. She exhaled.

  I set my gun on the floor and gave it a wide berth, moving very carefully into the living room.

  It was empty.

  Ironstone looked around. ‘Where’s Redhawk?’

  ‘Went out the back with Ellen and Ester,’ Lena said, ‘when we heard you come in.’

  The blood was down her face like a mask.

  ‘At least put something on her forehead,’ I said to Ironstone. ‘Redhawk’s going to be very upset if you ruin his floors.’

  Ironstone glanced at her.

  ‘Right. There’s a bathroom over there. Get a towel.’

  I dashed. It was a half bath, and the towels were snow white. I grabbed one, but something caught my eye. On the lid of the toilet there were several seashells. One was a large scallop shell with a nice sharp jagged edge. I scooped it up, wadded it into the towel, and headed back into the living room.

  I motored up to Lena, but Ironstone backed away.

  I sighed. ‘This towel’s only going to work if it actually touches her head. Let me—’

  ‘Hand it to her very carefully,’ he interrupted, ‘with your arm stretched out. Not close to her.’

  I nodded. Then I locked eyes with her again, glanced down at my hand, and then back at her. Before she had a chance to wonder too much about it, I held out the towel.

  ‘Careful,’ I said. ‘Don’t drop it. No telling what Ironstone might do.’

  She was busy trying to read my mind when her hand felt the shell in the towel. Her head only moved a half an inch back, but I could tell she got it.

  ‘Just wipe your head right now,’ I told her. ‘Don’t do anything else. I want to see how bad it is.’

  ‘Head wounds bleed worse than they are,’ she said. ‘But I’m not going to lie, it really stings.’

  She got the towel with both hands and wiped it across her face. The crease where the bullet had zinged was about three inches long, which, on her relatively dainty head looked pretty menacing. But it wasn’t deep, and it was already starting to dry up a little.

  ‘Better hold the towel up there right on it,’ I said. ‘Leave it there until I say, all right?’

  She nodded and moved the towel to her forehead – right next to Ironstone’s gun hand.

  All of a sudden there was a male voice from the other room.

  ‘You’re really making a mistake, Ironstone,’ Redhawk said softly.

  Then he appeared at the other side of the living room. He didn’t have a gun, and his hands were folded in front of him.

  Ironstone stumbled backward a little and turned to face Redhawk.

  ‘I’ll kill her,’ Ironstone snarled.

  ‘I know you’re willing to,’ Redhawk said soothingly. ‘But you won’t have to. Not when I explain to you that you’re operating under a false assumption.’

  ‘What?’ Ironstone snapped like he hadn’t heard correctly.

  ‘Ellen Greenberg does not possess documents of any kind,’ Redhawk explained, ‘that implicate you in the larger nefarious world of the Florida drug business.’

  ‘The thing is,’ Ironstone rejoined, ‘she does. I don’t know what she’s told you, but when she left town, she took David’s pocket calendar and several of his ledgers. I wouldn’t mind except that my name is in all of those documents. The whole idea was to have David take the blame for the business and then get himself killed by the Cubans or the Columbians before anybody realized that I was really running things. That way the Federals would think their operation was over here in Fry’s Bay and turn their attentions to Miami, where they’d do my work for me: exterminate the competition. It was a very nice plan.’

  ‘Until Lena showed up,’ I said.

  ‘Yes,’ Ironstone agreed. ‘David was really more a disease than a son – I often told him that. I was happy to have him dead, just not that way.’

  ‘Because that way meant more Federal attention in Fry’s Bay,’ I said. ‘Not less.’

  ‘Right.’ He put his mouth next to Lena’s ear. ‘You and your sister are little vermin, you know that?’

  Lena responded conversationally. ‘Well, that’s what our mother used to say. I didn’t take it personally. She was pretty loaded most of the time.’

  ‘I’m telling you, Ironstone,’ Redhawk muscled in, ‘Ellen Greenberg never had anything on you. She’s not in possession of any documents. You know me. You know I only tell the truth.’

  I was a little surprised to see that Redhawk’s pronouncement gave Ironstone pause. His shoulders sagged a little, and his face contorted.

  ‘You’ve lost your way,’ Redhawk went on. ‘You’ve fallen into the Caucasian trap of wanting money and power at the expense of spiritual awareness and peace of mind.’

  ‘No.’ Ironstone shook his head a little too vigorously. ‘Look at all the money you have.’

  Redhawk’s voice remained steady. ‘But not at the expense of my spirit.’

  I sensed that Redhawk’s argument might have taken hold, except for the fact that the entire condo was suddenly overtaken by burly men.

  Two guys burst in from the stairs, and somehow one more came out of the guest bedroom shoving Ellen in front of them. She was clutching her baby tight as a drum. There were guns everywhere. Lena twitched, but I shook my head.

  Redhawk didn’t move a muscle.

  ‘Ah,’ Ironstone said, ‘the fabled Ellen Greenberg.’

  ‘Whatever you want,’ she said fervently. ‘Let my sister go, and leave my baby out of it.’

  ‘It doesn’t end well for you, I’m afraid,’ Ironstone said, working his way closer to her, still clutching Lena in front of him. ‘Moscowitz, get over the
re with Redhawk.’

  I moved.

  ‘Let Ellen give the baby to Mister Redhawk,’ I said.

  Ellen and Redhawk both started to object, but I got them both in my sights.

  ‘He’ll take care of the baby,’ I said, willing them to read my mind, ‘no matter what happens. He’s a stand-up guy.’

  ‘All right,’ Ellen answered, taking the baby to Redhawk. ‘What now?’

  ‘You’ll turn over any documents you have concerning my business,’ Ironstone went on. ‘And then you and your sister will come away with me. Understand?’

  He jostled Lena.

  ‘Ow!’ Lena squirmed.

  But I knew better. She wasn’t hurting that bad and she wasn’t bothered by a little roughhousing. She was working her way into position.

  ‘Hey!’ I objected a little too loudly. ‘Leave the kid alone!’

  I took a step forward.

  Ironstone aimed the Lilliput at me, away from Lena’s head – just like I wanted him to.

  I smiled. ‘You know,’ I told Ironstone, ‘Ellen Greenberg isn’t her real name.’

  ‘What?’ he barked.

  I looked at Lena. ‘Well?’

  ‘Oh,’ she said.

  Then she moved like a freight train. She dropped the towel, slashed Ironstone’s inner wrist with the jagged edge of the scallop shell. He dropped her a little, and she stomped down hard on his instep.

  The gun went off, but I was already on the floor barreling toward the goons who had come up the stairs.

  Lena twisted her gun out of Ironstone’s hand as he fell. Then she popped the henchman standing next to Ellen.

  Ellen whirled like a dervish and wrenched the gun out of the wounded guy’s hand.

  I tackled one of the guys close to the stairs and he went down. Ellen shot the other one twice and he stumbled backward, confused.

  Then I did a thing I had only done once before in my life: I put the palm of my hand against my guy’s nose and leaned my whole weight onto it. The cartilage crunched, and the guy howled like a shot dog. If I’d leaned any harder, the busted gristle could have gone all the way to his brain and he’d be dead instead of unhappy.

  I got to my feet.

  Redhawk still hadn’t moved much, except he was clutching the baby and turned so that his body protected hers.

  Ironstone was on the floor groaning and bleeding. His man who had been beside Ellen was also on the floor; he wasn’t moving at all. The other guy by the stairs was clutching his leg and trying not to cry; Ellen had popped him in the leg with both her shots.

  I looked at Lena. ‘Damn. The three of us, we’re, like, the Musketeers.’

  Without batting an eye Lena said, ‘I work for Disney, that’s Mouseketeers.’

  I glanced at Redhawk. ‘Everybody’s a comedian.’

  He offered up a very Jewish shrug. ‘Depends on your definition of comedy, I guess.’

  At that precise moment, the elevator doors opened and Baxter appeared, gun drawn.

  He was momentarily knocked back by the tableau that presented itself, but he recovered right away.

  ‘You’ve been busy,’ he said to me, aiming his police issue right at my chest.

  ‘Not just me,’ I acknowledged. ‘The sisters were pretty righteous.’

  ‘You took long enough,’ Ironstone groaned from his place on the floor.

  His wrist was bleeding all over, and he couldn’t quite seem to get to his feet.

  ‘This is a pretty big mess to cover up,’ I said to Baxter before he could answer Ironstone. ‘It’s Redhawk’s home, and he’s a citizen above reproach around here.’

  ‘I responded to a report of shots being fired,’ Baxter answered, ‘and when I arrived – everybody was dead.’

  I glanced in Ironstone’s direction. ‘Everyone?’

  ‘Oh, Mr Waters wasn’t here. You shot Redhawk and his men, but not before they killed you and the girls.’

  ‘No, see,’ I protested, ‘somebody had to be alive to fire the last shot.’

  ‘Yeah, that was you, apparently,’ he told me. ‘You got off a few shots before you succumbed to your wounds.’

  ‘I succumbed?’

  ‘You’re tough,’ he said, smiling, ‘but you’re not invincible.’

  Ironstone struggled to his feet, then, and was lumbering toward the elevator.

  ‘Just kill them and have done with it,’ he mumbled to Baxter.

  ‘It’s not that simple,’ Baxter snapped. ‘This many people dead? It’ll be a major investigation. And with Redhawk, it’ll also be the Tribal Council. And Betty Jumper.’

  ‘Betty Jumper,’ Ironstone growled. ‘I wouldn’t mind if a bullet found its way into her brain. Twice.’

  ‘So,’ Baxter went on, ignoring Ironstone, ‘I have to stage the scene, figure out which gun shoots who. You go on downstairs. Which, by the way, is a mess. Foggy killed your guy down there.’

  ‘No,’ I corrected, ‘Ironstone did that.’

  ‘Jim Cypress was a Fed,’ Ironstone explained to Baxter.

  ‘Jimmie’s dead?’ Ellen’s voice was hollow.

  ‘We were in the lobby,’ Ironstone said, ‘and he was stalling, saying we should wait to go upstairs. That’s when I got my gun out and explained to him that I had already figured out he was a Fed. A Seminole Fed – there’s a strange creature. Anyway, all that remains, really, is to say thanks to Foggy and the little girl for helping us find Ellen. All Cypress had to do was keep an eye on you two, and you brought us right to this stupid little DEA informer.’

  But I was smiling.

  Baxter noticed first, and he didn’t like it.

  ‘What’s so amusing, Moscowitz?’ he asked me. ‘You’re about to be very dead.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I conceded. ‘But why do you think Crew Cut was stalling?’

  ‘Who?’ His head jutted back.

  ‘Jim Cypress, the Fed. Why was he trying to keep Ironstone in the lobby?’

  ‘Oooh, pick me!’ Lena said, hand raised.

  I turned to her. ‘Yes? You, the cute one in the front row?’

  ‘He’d already called his pals in the DEA,’ Lena answered, grinning. ‘He was waiting for them to show up.’

  ‘That’s what I think,’ I said. ‘Which means they’re on the way here right now. Probably out in the parking lot, loading their guns. You’ll never make it past the lobby.’

  Baxter glanced at Ironstone.

  ‘Could be,’ Ironstone conceded.

  But he was bleeding and starting to look a little dizzy. Baxter was momentarily unnerved by the possibility of Federal law enforcement agents in the parking lot. It seemed like a good time to move.

  I lunged right for Baxter. Then, before he could react, I fell to my right. So when he fired his gun, the bullet sizzled past me and into Redhawk’s wall.

  In that same second Redhawk handed off the baby to Ellen, who twirled and ran for the bedroom.

  Lena was on the floor, scrambling for a gun, any gun.

  And then all of a sudden Redhawk had a knife in his hand. He threw it like he was flinging a dart at a target, and it hit Baxter in his gun arm just above the wrist.

  The gun went off, and the bullet burrowed into Redhawk’s thigh.

  ‘Into the elevator!’ Baxter bellowed.

  He and Ironstone managed to scramble into the elevator before anyone could stop them. They pounded buttons until the door closed and the cab started down toward the lobby.

  ‘Go!’ Redhawk shouted, clutching his thigh.

  I looked around, snatched up a gun that belonged to one of Ironstone’s men, and threw myself toward the stairway. I hadn’t hit the first step when I heard something behind me. I turned and there was Lena, a pistol in each hand, barreling toward the stairs along with me.

  Before I could protest, she shot past me and it was all I could do to keep up. We ran, stumbling, falling slaves to gravity, until we hit the ground floor.

  Ironstone and Baxter were already out the front door, headed toward some car. The
re were no Feds in the parking lot. There wasn’t anybody in the parking lot.

  I flew toward the entrance doorway, but again Lena was ahead of me. She blasted through the door like a grenade and started firing randomly.

  Ironstone and Baxter weren’t firing back. They were piling into Baxter’s big black Buick, his detective car – the one with the bullet-proof glass.

  Safe inside, doors locked, Baxter cranked the engine.

  ‘Tires!’ I shouted.

  Lena and I both went for the front tires at the same time. One of us hit, and a tire exploded.

  Baxter cracked his window just enough to stick the muzzle of his gun out and fire several rounds. Before I knew what was happening, Lena was flying. She sailed through the air right in front of me, blasting both pistols, hoping to get a bullet past the crack in the window.

  But one of Baxter’s bullets got to her instead.

  I watched, like it was slow motion. The blood spit out from her side.

  She took a bullet that would have gone right into my chest. I saw her crumple, midair. I watched her fall at my feet and lay there like a pile of dead leaves.

  I realized that Baxter’s car hadn’t started. He was trying, but nothing was happening. I just didn’t care.

  I was crouched over Lena, at a loss for what to do.

  Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw John Horse and Hachi creeping up to the back of Baxter’s car.

  At the same time there were – I don’t know – maybe a dozen Seminole citizens, all just standing in front of the car. No weapons. No words. Just cold eyes and stone faces.

  ‘Foggy!’ John Horse called. ‘How’s the girl?’

  I fought panic. ‘Shot, bleeding, unconscious!’

  ‘Maggie!’ he called.

  The next thing I knew, Maggie Redhawk was beside me, holding something at the place in Lena’s body where all the blood was coming out.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Maggie said to me softly. ‘We have to get her to the hospital right now. Is my brother all right?’

  ‘He’s shot in the thigh,’ I said vacantly. ‘But other than that …’

  The rest of the scene was a blur. As Maggie and I were getting Lena into the ambulance that had been hidden just around the corner of the building, men in suits emerged from cars all over the parking lot. Anyone would have spotted them for Feds. They might as well have been wearing uniforms.