The last quarry q-6

by Max Allan Collins

  All the air went out of Harry, and if Louis had been one pound heavier, both men would have gone down in a pile in the snow, right there. But he stayed on his feet, even though the despair must have been heavier than Louis.

  “Quarry…Quarry…will you just fuckin’ kill me. Kill me here and be done.”

  I shrugged. “Thought you might like a sporting chance, Harry. Before you know it, you’ll be out of range…maybe you can make it over to those trees, where I can’t catch up with you.”

  He summoned a sneer from somewhere. “If the ice don’t break first.”

  I shrugged again. “That’s between you and the ice.”

  He sneered at me; but the sneer dissolved into this pitiful, lower-lip trembling thing that got only a single shake of the head out of me. That, and another nod toward the lake.

  Cradling Louis like a groom carrying a bride across the threshold (which was fitting, as Louis had been the wife), Harry heaved a sigh, took a tentative step, and found the ice firm. He drew a deep breath, as if he were diving into water, not about to walk on the frozen variety, and then he was making his way with the mummy-like bundle out onto the lake, walking carefully, hesitantly, testing the ice with one baby step after another, always letting the tentative ground settle under him.

  It took a long time-maybe two minutes. Harry would look at his feet, then off to the bank on the right and the thick darkness of trees, clearly considering that option. His breath was visible, small puffy clouds, and the heavy sound of it came back over the stillness of the lake, interrupted only by the call of a loon. Or something-some damn bird too stupid to fly the fuck south.

  Subtle at first, the cracking seemed something I was only imagining, in my anticipation; but Harry had heard it, too, because he was poised out there as frozen as the lake.

  Actually, more frozen, because suddenly the ice was snapping under his shoes, as if he were standing on a window, and that window was breaking…

  He didn’t even have time to run. He was clutching onto Louis, which might have been bittersweet, only I think he was hoping he could use Louis like a big piece of driftwood or something, but it didn’t work out that way.

  Louis disappeared, sliding under like a turd down the crapper, leaving Harry to flail, and try to hold onto the bigger chunks of ice; he was screaming my name and swearing, then the splashing was louder than the screaming and then the screaming stopped altogether and finally the splashing subsided.

  And he was gone.

  I studied the lake-soon you could barely see the hole Harry had made-with the black starry sky my only companion. Even the loon had nothing to say, the frozen expanse and the surrounding blackness of trees as quiet as, well, death. Suddenly this wintry world seemed austerely beautiful to me, a study in white and gray and gray-blue and black, but enjoying myself like that seemed vaguely creepy, so I headed back to the cabin, shotgun slung over my arm.

  Back inside, I got the girl’s clothes out of the closet-her cell phone was in a pocket-and went in and gave them to her, keeping the phone. A black hip-hop t-shirt and designer jeans and Reeboks.

  “Did you kill those men?” she said, breathlessly, her eyes dark and glittering. She had her clothes in her lap.

  “That’s not important. Get dressed.”

  “You’re wonderful. You’re goddamn fucking wonderful.”

  “I know,” I said. “Everybody says so. Get dressed.”

  She got dressed.

  I watched her.

  She was a beautiful piece of ass, no question, and even with those rings in them, the titties were cute as puppy dogs. The way she was looking at me made it clear she was grateful.

  I said, “We need to call your father.”

  “What’s your hurry? After a reward? There’s all kinds of rewards…”

  I held her cell phone out to her. “We should call him.”

  She shrugged and came at me and I found myself backed against the wall, as if she were holding a gun on me. Then her arms were around me and the pretty little mug was looking up at me devilishly.

  She had to get up on tiptoes to do it, but she kissed me long and slow and her tongue knew things it shouldn’t have at her age.

  Then she drew away from me, her arms still around me. “What do you say, hero?”

  “Kind of a bad time, isn’t it?”

  Her eyes flashed. “I think it’s exciting.”

  “I mean…of the month.”

  That made her laugh. She raised an eyebrow. “Other ports in a storm…?”

  “Maybe later,” I said, and smiled.

  She looked like AIDS-bait to me. I could be reckless, but not that reckless.

  Disappointed, she took a step away and accepted the cell phone, and within seconds was saying, “Daddy?…I’m fine, I’m fine…yes!..Daddy, you know that man you sent…what?”

  She frowned up at me in confusion. “He says…he says he didn’t send anybody.”

  I gestured impatiently for the phone and she gave it to me.

  “Good evening, sir. I have your daughter. As you can hear, she’s just fine…Get together one hundred thousand dollars in unmarked, non-sequential tens, twenties and fifties, and wait for the next call.”

  I hung up.

  She looked at me with wide eyes and wide-open mouth.

  “Relax,” I told her. “I’m not going to kill you-just turning a buck.”

  “You bastard! You prick! ”

  She spit in my face.

  I wiped it off with a hand and gave her a look.

  She started backing up, her eyes wild, and I got hold of her, carried the squirming creature back to her bed and dumped her there.

  I thrust a stern finger in that cute face. “Look! I gotta get some sleep. Pipe down, or I’ll duct-tape your little trap.”

  She behaved after that, though she cried and sniffled and tried to make me feel as sorry for her as she did for herself, which would have been impossible; on the other hand, some of it was genuine-she did have cramps. I cuffed her to the bedpost and she was able to recline. I even covered her up.

  Then I went over and curled up on the other bed, nine millimeter in my waistband.

  I’d taken some risks tonight.

  I lived and worked on this lake, after all. But it was winter, and the bodies wouldn’t turn up for a long time, if ever, and the Outfit had used this part of the world to dump its corpses since Capone was just a mean street kid. Very little chance any of this would come back at me. And killing Harry and Louis had, at least, killed my insomnia.

  For the first time in a long time…

  …I slept like a baby.

  Four

  The Log Cabin, true to its name, was a log cabin, a roadside gas station and latter-day diner a good hundred miles from Lake Sylvan, a minor intrusion of civilization into a world of snowy pines. At eleven A.M., breakfast was a memory and lunch the future, so the graveled parking lot was home to only a couple of cars and two trucks.

  I was keeping watch through binoculars on the slope across the two-lane highway, sheltered and concealed by more of those snowy pines; the ground had only a dusting of snow but the air was brittle with cold. I’d left the ninja-black wardrobe home-in daylight, it would have only made me stand out against the winter whiteness-and was in work boots and jeans and a brown corduroy fleece-lined jacket that were comfortable enough. I’d been keeping tabs on this ransom drop for half an hour already, and it took that long for the girl to speak.

  “He won’t come himself, you know.”

  Julie Green was seated like an Indian, leaning back against a big nearby tree, looking utterly bored, an old brown leather jacket of mine loose over her shoulders, her nipples perked under the black hip-hop t-shirt that peeked out, her designer jeans brushed with snow, her handcuffed hands in her lap.

  Basically, she looked like a surly high school student waiting outside the principal’s office.

  “Well, Daddy should come,” I said, “if he has any use for you. Those were the terms.”
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br />   She shrugged and smirked. Her teeth chattered now and then. “He doesn’t have much use for me. Plus, don’t ever forget-he’s a lying untrustworthy shit.”

  I lifted the binoculars again. “Good to know.”

  A money-green Lexus was pulling in, taking one of half a dozen stalls next to the restaurant. I re-focused the binoculars and watched millions of dollars get out from behind the wheel.

  Jonah Green was not exactly a typical patron of the Log Cabin. At least sixty, he had a commanding presence, even from a distance, six foot one and perhaps two-hundred-twenty pounds with only a slight paunch and a close-cropped, almost military haircut that minimized both the gray and the receding hairline. His face was square, including his jaw, and grooved with lessons learned and given.

  From my perch I couldn’t see his eyes, but they were searching the landscape and, for one unnerving moment, his gaze seemed to linger on me, even though he couldn’t be seeing me, not without his own binoculars.

  I lowered mine. “Your father.”

  “No shit!”

  “He’s early-a good hour.”

  “So are you.”

  I raised them. “I’m a lying untrustworthy shit.”

  “…Good to know.”

  From a pocket of his topcoat-dark gray and probably Saville Row, unbuttoned and providing a glimpse of a well-tailored gray suit over Italian loafers-he withdrew something. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it seemed to be a cell phone.

  He spoke into it, briefly.

  The object was returned to the topcoat pocket, and Green stood there inhaling deeply and exhaling smoky breath until, within a minute, a second car pulled in, a nondescript number, a brown Taurus.

  This gave me a momentary start, because the car was similar if not identical to the rental Harry Something had driven, an automobile I had yet to deal with (it would need disposal, probably in one of the gravel pits intended for Julie, before I came along).

  But this turned out to be a coincidence-and how I hate those-when its driver got out, a brawny dip-shit in a brand-new green-and-black hunting jacket and matching flop-ear Elmer Fudd cap. In his early twenties, this ripe specimen had broad shoulders and close-set eyes in an oval face that seemed utterly blank from this distance. I had a hunch a closer look wouldn’t fill that oval in much.

  The two men began to speak, though Green did most of the talking, gesturing, giving orders. At the start of this one-sided exchange, Green’s flunky took off the Fudd cap respectfully, revealing blond hair, cut even shorter than his boss’s; he would nod when it seemed appropriate.

  I centered on their faces, and I had a good three-quarter angle on Jonah Green, with a decent side view of his boy. Much of what I have done over the years involves surveillance, and while I never studied the art, I’d picked up lip-reading early on.

  Green was saying, “Prick’ll probably show early. Stay sharp.”

  “How will I recognize him?”

  “Oh, I don’t know-maybe because he has my daughter with him?”

  The subordinate blushed. I’m not lying. He fucking blushed, and shook his head and said, “Right. Right! Sorry. That was dumb. Really dumb.”

  The millionaire just looked at him, for the longest time, then said, “Form the thought. Examine it. Decide if it’s worth sharing. Understand this concept, De-something?”

  Green didn’t say “De-something,” obviously; I just hadn’t gotten the name-DeWitt maybe?

  Whatever his handle, the Fudd-hatted fool nodded, his eyes lowered, ashamed. “Yes, sir.”

  Then his disgusted boss, with a dismissive gesture toward his subordinate’s brown rental, headed inside the restaurant, and the doofus got in the Taurus and drove it over and parked in the graveled overflow lot, turning the engine off but not emerging.

  Keeping watch.

  I lowered the binoculars again. “Your daddy’s not alone-young guy. Blond. Body builder.”

  “That would be DeWayne.”

  “DeWayne.”

  She shrugged, not giving a shit. “He was some kind of…I don’t know, super soldier.”

  I looked at her. “Really.”

  She shrugged again. “Cleans things up for Daddy, these days.”

  “…Too young for Desert Storm.”

  “Iraq.”

  That made me smile, and she said, “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  An hour went by, during which the girl said she had to pee, twice, and I ignored it the first time and the second time said, “Hold it. You can use the restaurant’s john.”

  “ When? ” Her teeth were chattering again. “How much longer are you going to keep my daddy waiting like this?”

  “Not much.”

  I’d spotted Green in a window, seated in a booth within the restaurant, and right now he and DeWayne were having a cell phone conversation, a little heated on Green’s part. No lip-reading was possible, but I got the gist- where the fuck was I?

  I put the binoculars in my left jacket pocket, and stuck my right hand in the other pocket for the nine millimeter which I then stuffed in my waistband, and said to her, “Time for Daddy and pissing,” and she said, “Aren’t I the lucky one,” and I hauled her up off the snowy ground by the elbow.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked, as I led her through the woods.

  But I didn’t answer her till we’d crossed the highway, a good half-mile down from the Log Cabin, when we were in the wooded area, heading back around behind the restaurant.

  “The plan,” I said, “is you behave yourself and I don’t kill your pretty ass.”

  “I didn’t know you cared.”

  When we entered through the kitchen, the girl’s handcuffed hands were still under my draped-over loaner jacket, and I had to give her credit, she didn’t cause any trouble or indicate anything was wrong.

  The short-order cook, an olive-skinned guy who might have been Greek or Turkish or some shit, didn’t understand English; but he got the drift of a ten-spot quick enough, and-when I gestured toward the dining area-let us pass without incident.

  We stopped at the ladies’ room (“Setters”)-a single seater, but there was room enough in there for both of us.

  “What are you-kinky?” she asked, as she undid her jeans.

  “No,” I said. “Careful.”

  She sat. “You could turn your back.”

  “Girls with nipple rings don’t get to be shy and retiring.”

  “Fuck you,” she said over the noise she was making.

  “I already passed-remember?”

  She smirked, wiped herself, stood, pulled up her drawers; her pussy was shaved, and I caught a glint of another ring down there-why was I not surprised?

  But punkette or not, she took time to wash her hands, dainty little thing that she was. I gave her plenty of room, not caring to have her toss soapy water in my eyes.

  As we emerged, a middle-aged woman in a kitty sweater was waiting and she gave us a look.

  “You don’t want to know,” I advised her, and she seemed to agree, slipping inside the little ladies room. The gulf between shaved pussy and kitty sweaters is a wide one.

  The folksy, hunting-themed restaurant had filled up some, farmers, truck drivers, assorted locals-half the booths taken, most of the stools at the counter, too.

  Sticking out like a well-tailored sore thumb, Jonah Green-still in his Saville Row topcoat in his window booth-half-rose when he spotted us coming from behind the counter toward him. He glanced ever so slightly, frowningly, toward the window-out where DeWayne was sitting guard, not missing anything, remember? — and Julie and I slid in opposite him.

  “Mr. Green,” I said, with a nod.

  He formed a tiny sneer large with contempt; his eyes, like his car, were money color. “And what shall I call you? Besides forty-two fucking minutes late.”

  “Quarry.”

  “What kind of name is that?”

  “A false one.” I glanced at Julie. “You seem overjoyed to see your daugh
ter, alive and well.”

  Prompted, he leaned forward and sent his eyes to her. “Are you all right, Julie?”

  “Fuck you,” she said.

  Her list of responses was limited, but got the job done.

  Her father sighed and looked at me as if seeking support or sympathy or something the fuck he wasn’t going to get.

  He asked, “Do you have any children, Mr. Quarry?”

  “Besides your daughter? No.”

  He shook his head. “I fly through the goddamn night in a goddamn private jet to deliver this goddamn money, and this…”

  “Mr. Green,” I interrupted tightly. “Some discretion, please?”

  “…is the thanks I get. The appreciation.” Another sigh, a world-weary shrug. “But that’s the modern world, isn’t it, Mr. Quarry? Values. They’re nonexistent these days, aren’t they?”

  I shifted in the booth. “You really don’t want to stall me, Mr. Green. Your daughter will tell you how little compunction I have about making people who annoy me go away.”

  He studied me for perhaps five seconds-it seemed longer; and he smiled a little, as he did, which would have been unnerving if I impressed easily.

  “An intelligent man,” Green said softly. “Possibly educated.”

  “Flattery is probably not the approach you want to take, Mr. Green.”

  “…How did you happen to, uh…intercept my daughter from those people?”

  I shook my head. “That information is not included in the purchase price-shall we get on with business?”

  His eyes tightened and he nodded. “Yes. Why don’t we?…And let me assure you, sir, that’s how I view this transaction-strictly business.”

  Julie said, “Jesus Christ-now I’m a transaction. Can I get some fucking apple pie or something?”

  Her long-suffering parent closed his eyes.

  “Charm school didn’t take?” I asked him.

  The millionaire flagged down a waitress, and said, “Apple pie for my daughter, please. And coffee. She likes it black.”

  The waitress, a redhead who’d been beautiful fifteen years ago, scribbled, then looked at me over her pad. “Anything for you, honey?”

  “No. Thanks.”

  She disappeared.