One Last Kill

by Spenser Warren

  “You’re saying Cal has to be the fall guy,” Vinnie said. “He answers for the MacErlean murder, the murder of all the mayor’s guys, maybe we throw the police a bone for a few others if we’re creative enough. It’s a risk. You think our lawyers can keep our noses out of it?”

  Vinnie pulled at his bangs that nearly reached his eyebrows and ran his hands through his freshly cut hair. He didn’t like the idea of Cal going down for all of this, but it was better that his adoptive brother take the fall than him. Vinnie had a future of running the mafia and keeping it powerful, while all Cal had if he left the mafia was a future of being a poor warehouse worker like his father.

  Vinnie smiled at those thoughts. He no longer relished the early memories of their childhood friendship. Instead, he welled with pride that he’d finally won out over Cal and that his father felt that the hit man was no longer worth keeping around.

  “I pay these lawyers a lot of money. They know what to do. Besides, there’s no evidence we committed any of these murders, especially now that you got rid of that gun after making such a rookie mistake. You did get rid of it, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I got rid of it.” Vinnie couldn’t believe his father. Did he think he was a complete amateur like the posers who stood out on the front lawn? He pulled hard on a clump of hair near his ears, wishing he were causing the discomfort to his father.

  He wanted to ask his father the question that he had been circulating as fact in his brain the entire meeting. “So, we’re going to get rid of Cal? For sure?”

  “We have no choice. I’ve worked too hard to keep this family in power, and I’m not going to risk any more damage. Cal did what we needed him to do. He was a tough killer who got the job done. It won’t be easy to replace a guy with skills like that. Just like it won’t be easy to replace Frankie. But we’ll find a way.”

  “You want me to find someone?”

  “Make a list of guys and get it to me as soon as you can. Hopefully, we figure out who this witness is and Cal can take care of her pretty quick. After that, we move fast. Hit him when he least expects it.”

  Vinnie felt a need to play an assertive role in this. He needed to show his father that he was capable of running the family, and having Cal taken out would prove a lot. If Alfredo was determined Cal had to go, then Vinnie would make sure it was a clean, swift kill that his friend never saw coming. Cal didn’t deserve the long, torturous death that he often inflicted on the mafia’s victims. His excellent service warranted something quick and painless. It would be a way to thank him for all of his hard work. A sudden idea formed in his mind.

  “You know, Pops, I understand there was some chemistry involved in Grandpa’s death.”

  Alfredo looked at him quizzically and set his cigar on the ashtray below his wrist.

  “There was.”

  “Let’s have a big send-off dinner after the witness is killed. We’ll have Mom cook Cal’s favorite meal, let him invite his girlfriend and his buddies over. All we’ll need to do is slip whatever we slipped in Gramps’s pills into his food.”

  Alfredo shook his head and his face reddened in fury. It wasn’t the way Alfredo would’ve wanted to eliminate a hardened killer like Cal. He would’ve wanted to bury the muzzle of his gun into Cal’s temple and pull the trigger. The shaking of his head and the reddening of his face softened into a gentle shaking of laughter. He was coming around to the idea.

  “You sure are a passive-aggressive fucker. Not the way I’d have him go, but I like it. It keeps it simple and keeps it between us. That’s exactly how we’ll do it.”

  Vinnie bid his father goodbye, left the office, and prepared to head down the elevator to his own luxury suite, smiling at his creative ingenuity and his ability to please his father.

  44

  Cal couldn’t help but notice a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he watched Maria leave in her cousin Julia’s gray Audi. Helplessness washed over him like a cloud of moving fog. He hated not being there to watch over her.

  What he couldn’t tell Maria was that her friend Reema made an ideal replacement as a witness he could present to Meransky and Alfredo. Aside from the fact that she was Middle Eastern and was likely wearing a hijab with Maria that day, she was considered a loner. Other than Maria, she didn’t have a lot of friends. No one would notice, or even care, if she went missing for a length of time.

  After a light lunch of cold sockeye salmon, avocado, and some almonds, Cal felt the crisp fall air slap his face like a cold-hearted ex-lover as he ventured out. He knew Reema’s apartment wasn’t too far away from Maria’s. He boarded the Number 28 bus for the apartment complex, Beretta and jackknife in tow. If Reema cooperated as he hoped, he wouldn’t have to threaten her with them.

  Cal sent a text to Fonzie asking him to fetch a car and meet him in the vicinity of the University of Chicago campus. If he found Reema at the apartment complex, they would pick her up, stuff her in the car, and take her down to the same place they’d killed MacErlean. Fonzie would find a more permanent location to store her if they needed to.

  Getting Reema on board to sign her own death warrant was going to be a challenge. Cal felt increasingly awful that it had come to this. He knew Maria would hate him if she found out that her friend was sacrificed for her own safety.

  It was a choice he had to make. If he wanted the woman he’d grown to love more than himself to remain alive, he would have to sacrifice the life of another. It made him feel terrible, even though he wouldn’t have cared about this a few months ago, when he didn’t give a damn about who lived and who died.

  Fonzie answered his text, saying he was busy but would try to get a car in a few hours. Cal’s shoulders tensed as he exited the bus and walked the familiar path to Maria’s building. He wasn’t sure which building Reema lived in but knew it wasn’t too far away. He considered asking a few girls walking past with stacks of books underneath their arms but decided against it. The last thing he needed was one of the girls calling the police saying a large man was asking questions about a girl. Despite wearing an oversize University of Chicago sweatshirt, Cal stood out like a sore thumb.

  He saw a bench nearby and sat on it. He would pass the time people watching, hoping one of them was Reema. It would be much easier to formulate a plan for interrogating her once he knew exactly where she lived.

  Half an hour passed before Cal saw a tawny-colored woman approaching from his left, turning to the building directly across from him. Though the girl wore a dark-red hijab, he wasn’t sure if it was Reema. He’d only seen one photo of the girl on Maria’s phone.

  Cal watched as the woman entered the apartment building through the front doors. A few other tenants entered and exited the building and loitered near the trees surrounding his bench. A wrinkly maintenance man passed from one building to the next.

  He saw an opportunity and hoped he could still take advantage of it. Through the main upstairs window, Cal could see the woman had reached the landing of the second floor. She began a turn to the right. Acting fast, Cal transformed his voice into one that was higher pitched than his usual baritone and shouted her name, hoping it would carry through the open window.

  The girl turned around with a flash just as her silhouetted face passed the window. His plan had worked as intended, confirming she was the girl he was after. She crawled closer to the window and searched for the voice that had called her name.

  Cal waited until he was confident Reema had entered her apartment, then took two steps to his right to see if she would open a window, giving him direct knowledge of which second-floor apartment she lived in. After what seemed like hours, he saw her hands appear behind a lacy white curtain, unlatch the window from the inside, and lift it open.

  Cal now had two pieces of valuable information. He knew the girl in the hijab was indeed Reema, and he knew exactly which unit she lived in. If she was as much of a recluse as Maria said she was, she’d find little reason to leave the apartment. Cal had to act fast.
r />   He smiled and thought a career as a private investigator could be in the works once he was finally free of the mafia. He had the toughness for the job and might even have enough street smarts for the work.

  Cal figured the building’s main door was locked but knew he wouldn’t have a tough time attempting to break in. He had a few small tools in his front pocket, beneath his wallet. His jackknife, resting in the rear pocket of his jeans, could also come in handy.

  He entered a gate leading to the small garden entryway of the apartment building. Once he got to the door, he tried it, only to find it locked. He dug out his tools. A quick glance behind him revealed no one else walking about. He had the tools in his hand and was prepared to pick the lock when a resident opened the door to the left, startling him.

  “Forget your key, man? Go ahead.”

  Cal nodded at the stranger, his heart pounding with relief that he wasn’t busted. He found the stairwell and marched up to the second floor. It didn’t take long for him to find the last apartment on the right, which is where he’d seen Reema open the window.

  Cal reached the door. A sense of calm washed over him as he rapped on the door. He’d been in this position so many times before, he was numb to any bodily reaction. When he needed to extract information from someone, especially to save the life of a person he cared about, he wasn’t concerned with how much pain that someone had to go through. He blocked all such considerations from his mind and focused on the task at hand.

  His right hand reached for the Beretta tucked in its holster. He was surprised at the speed with which Reema opened the door, and that she had an infant in her hands. The presence of the infant startled Cal; he couldn’t manage to bring the gun from his holster. His hand stayed frozen at his side, his mind quivering at the idea of bringing harm to a baby.

  Regardless of why the child was there, it completely changed Cal’s plan. He’d have to go through the friendly routine after all.

  “Can I help you with something?”

  Reema’s soothing voice calmed Cal’s nerves, despite his shock at the baby’s presence. The child kicked its little legs out, squirming in Reema’s arms.

  “Hi. I’m Maria’s boyfriend, Callahan Boyle.”

  Cal wasn’t sure what else to say. He’d have to improvise.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you and your baby, but can I come in for a second? Something’s happened to Maria.”

  It was the best tactic he could come up with. Cal hoped the mention of her best friend being in trouble would play on Reema’s good nature to let him inside.

  “Oh no, this isn’t my baby. It is my sister’s girl. Her husband is a bad man. I watch the baby sometimes so my sister can be in peace and quiet. Let me set her down and we can talk.”

  Cal sighed in relief while Reema went to a room in the rear of the apartment to set down the child. He was relieved it wasn’t hers. He’d be able to do the work he’d come to do.

  His hand reached for the Beretta as he stepped through the threshold and into the apartment, gently closing the door behind him. He held the barrel down in his hand, behind his back, while he waited for the young woman to return. The beating of his heart steady, he gazed into the woman’s eyes as she approached him.

  In a flash, Cal raised his gun and lunged forward, ready to get this over with.

  “Oh my God, don’t shoot!”

  Reema threw her hands in the air and took a step back. Cal held the gun in front of him and closed the gap. He was ready to get on with the show. He was going to explain that she was the witness who had seen the murder. He would ingrain it in her brain with as much force as he could muster.

  The phone in his pocket vibrated. Perfect.

  Fonzie must have arrived and was ready to take the woman to the spot. The spot where Cal would make her confess her crimes to Alfredo so he and Maria could be free. Together.

  Cal clicked the phone on, ready to answer. Reema saw this as her opportunity, breaking into a run to get to the door. Cal jumped to his right to block her attempt. They collided, and Cal’s brute strength sent Reema careening to the floor.

  Cal thought the screams that filled his ears were Reema’s. He was ready to shoot the bitch if he needed to. Only upon closer inspection, he realized the screams were coming from the phone. They were the screams that filled his nightmares.

  Cal knew that voice. It was the voice that whispered sweet nothings into his ear. The voice was in trouble. Not safe. In pain.

  Maria.

  45

  Cal’s head shook with the ferocity of an earthquake as he heard his girlfriend scream on the phone. He wanted to unleash a roar of anger himself. Thousands of questions ran through his mind.

  Did she not make it to Julia’s? Was Julia a rat? Who had her? Were they hurting her?

  Cal squeezed his left fist tightly while holding the gun at a dazed Reema, who was sobbing on the floor. Perhaps she’d heard Maria’s screams too.

  After what Cal was sure was hours of screaming, a masculine voice came on the phone. It was accented in heavy Italian.

  “We’ve got your girlfriend, Mr. Boyle. We know what she saw a few weeks ago. And in twenty-four hours, we are going to kill her. Unless you come to us and give us what we want.”

  Cal growled. He wasn’t sure who this man was, but he was sure the kidnapping had the approval of Alfredo Petrocelli. He wondered how Alfredo had found out about Maria’s presence at the shootings. Surely the police couldn’t have fed him information that fast.

  That didn’t matter now. What mattered was finding a way to get her back. But what did they want?

  He asked, still pointing the gun at Reema, despite his shame. Since he could no longer use her for leverage, he felt disgusted for being there.

  “That’s for us to discuss once you get here. Come alone—no guns, no funny business. You fuck up, your lady dies. You got it?”

  Cal was even more certain that Alfredo was behind this now. He’d even heard the voice before. It had to be one of the boss’s low-level flunkies who stood outside the compound, watching the cars come in and out. Bruno came to mind at first, since he was the most recent to get the job, but it could have easily been someone else.

  “Where is she? Tell me where she is.”

  The man laughed before blowing his evil breath into the phone.

  “I’m afraid you aren’t in a position of power here, Mr. Boyle. We are. Just know your lady is safe and sound, and she’ll stay that way as long as you come to us. We’ll be in touch with instructions.”

  Cal thought the man was going to hang up. He wanted to shout at him, tell him he would tear him limb from limb if that’s what it took to get Maria back. Maybe his yells would give Maria some encouragement that she would be saved. Her knight in shining armor would be there to rescue her. Instead, the man spoke again.

  “Speaking of touching, your girlfriend is sexy as hell. I think I’ll take advantage of the situation and play with her a bit.”

  That was the last straw.

  “You motherfucker! I’ll—”

  Cal’s yells fell on deaf ears as he realized the call was disconnected. He took a glance at the screen before throwing the phone across the room, where it bounced hard off of the wall, separating the phone and case that enclosed it.

  Reema’s gentle sobs turned into high-pitched wails. Cal was sure neighbors would come pouring in at any minute. He had to clean up the situation as fast as he could, then he would find Maria.

  He shifted his gun toward the ground to show he no longer meant harm, then put the gun back in the holster and extended a hand to Reema to help her off the floor.

  Reema slapped Cal’s hand away and scuttled to her feet.

  “Get away from me!”

  The young woman staggered toward the bedroom at the back of the apartment, where her sister’s baby joined Reema’s cries. Cal would have to recover fast if he wanted to avoid spending the rest of the night in jail instead of finding Maria.

  “Reema, I’m sorry.
I shouldn’t have barged in here the way I did,” Cal called out. “Maria’s in trouble and I overreacted.”

  Cal followed her into the bedroom. Despite the fear written on Reema’s face, she made no effort to shoo him away again. She coddled the baby girl and rocked her gently, whispering reassurances into her ear.

  “Reema, did you hear me? Maria’s in trouble.”

  Her eyes snapped up at him like the crack of a whip slashing across a bare back.

  “Yes, I heard you. What can I do? Maria’s my best friend, but if a bunch of guys have her, I don’t know what to do. Call the police.”

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  Cal couldn’t tell her why it was more complicated. He didn’t want to bring up his occupation now any more than he’d wanted to tell Maria what he did for a living when she’d confronted him a few weeks prior.

  “Well if you don’t call the police, I will,” Reema hissed. She walked past him and back into the living room, the baby safe in her arms. “I’m going to call them right now if you don’t leave my apartment.”

  “Hold on. Calm down for a second.” Cal rushed to keep up with the woman before she reached the door.

  “I need to ask you a few questions about your shopping trip with Maria the other day. Did anyone follow you around? Was she meeting anyone after your trip?”

  Reema made a loud tsk noise and shook her head as she reached for the door. Cal put his hand over hers, hoping she wouldn’t scream at the intrusion. Her gaze resembled pure rage. She was anything but the passive woman he’d first encountered when he’d entered her apartment.