Cut and Run

22

Tasha closed her eyes, the gun nuzzling along her jaw, and thought: It can’t end like this, not now, not when I’m so close.

‘I figure you owe me about sixty dollars’ worth of talk still.’ Whitman Mosley stepped back from Tasha, the gun off her jaw now, but still trained on her.

‘Sixty dollars’ worth,’ she said. She kept her voice steady. ‘That’s cool.’ When he took the step back she sighed out a held breath although she still sat ramrod-straight in the chair. ‘Odd spot for a movie location, scout.’

‘Why you playing with the computer?’ He glanced over at the screen. A status bar, burning files to a CD, showed it was halfway filled.

‘My friend owns this house and everything in it,’ Tasha said. The thought of Paul gave her confidence. ‘He gave me a key. I come and go as I please.’ She ventured a smile. ‘You’re the burglar, scout. Or did you have a key, too?’

Whit said nothing. Watched her.

‘Eve,’ Tasha said, putting a little creak of fear in her voice. ‘You found her.’

Whit shrugged.

‘She hiding in here, too, Whit?’ See what that got her.

‘No, she’s not.’

‘Whitman Mosley was the name on the credit card you used to charge my time last night. I Googled your ass this morning, scout. Whitman Mosley’s a justice of the peace down on the coast in Port Leo. Feature stories written about you in the Corpus Christi paper. A bad-ass judge. Took down a senator, busted up an illegal archaeology dig. Haven’t you been busy.’ Tasha squinted. They didn’t include a picture though.’ She’d played the one card she had; she knew who he was. If he was going to hurt her, he’d do it now.

Whit shrugged. ‘A name to use.’

‘Let’s say it’s you. Why does a small-town judge care about a woman like Eve Michaels?’

‘Why does a smart woman like you hang with thugs?’

‘Job market’s tough,’ she said. ‘Might be tougher for you real quick. Makes me wonder what the Texas Board of Judicial Review would have to say about a JP smacking people around and pulling guns on them and harboring felons.’

‘I wonder,’ Whit said, ‘what the FBI would make of you discussing a hit.’

‘I didn’t say hit. I said it. I have that urban accent thing happening.’ What else had he heard? Her throat tightened.

‘Who’s the hit on, Tasha? Eve? Me or my friend? All of us?’

The laptop stopped its whirring. ‘I’ll take that CD, please,’ Whit said.

Wordlessly, she ejected the CD and handed it to him. She thought: this is not good.

‘Copying files instead of taking the laptop,’ Whit said. ‘Makes sense if you didn’t want Frank or Bucks to know you had all these files. What’s the data about?’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘We’re playing twenty questions until Bucks and Frank come back?’

‘Answer me. What are these files?’

‘Stuff Paul wanted,’ she said. ‘Everybody in this is cheating and stealing from him now, he wanted to know if there was any record of it.’ She shook her head. ‘Eve’s a dead woman walking, you know that?’

‘I want you to deliver a message for me, please.’

‘I love your manners,’ she said.

‘You tell Paul that Eve doesn’t have the money. She didn’t take it.’

‘She accused Bucks.’

‘He’s a solid bet. And now you’re all at each other’s throats, and Bucks could benefit. Or Kiko. Or someone else.’

Tasha crossed her arms. ‘Yeah. Eve.’

‘You’re wrong. I don’t give a. rat’s ass about the money,’ Whit said. ‘I want whoever killed the men at the office, all right? And I want Paul – and his people – to leave Eve alone. Forever. Guarantee her safety.’

Tasha shook her head. ‘Better ask for nuclear disarmament. More likely to get it, scout.’

He held up the CD. ‘This buys me a treaty, Tasha. FBI would love records relating to the Bellini family.’

She didn’t want him to leave with that CD. A cell phone lay on the desk by her purse, a bigger, old model, and she slowly took it, turned it toward him. ‘Fine. You win. Call Paul yourself.’ She turned the antenna toward him, her finger sidling to the side button, and thought you don’t want to kill him but girl, you better.

He started to reach for the phone but then he shoved her hand and the phone went off, a shot popping from the little snub antenna, and the window that faced out onto the backyard shattered. He yanked her up from the chair, smashed her wrist against his knee. The phone gun dropped and she screamed. He kicked it under the desk.

‘Bad girl,’ he said. ‘I read about those in the papers. Big with gangs in DC and Miami. And I saw the antenna was open-ended. Handy if you don’t want anyone to know you’re armed.’

‘You’re hurting me.’

‘You just tried to shoot me, so you lost all room to complain,’ Whit said, but he let her go, pushed her back into the chair. He steadied the barrel of his gun at her face. ‘Give me a reason why I shouldn’t shoot you right now.’

‘I aimed at your shoulder,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t gonna kill you.’

‘Let’s be friendly and clear. I’ll shoot you in the knee if you do one more single thing to piss me off.’

She was silent.

‘Now. Who’s the hit on, who’s carrying it out?’

Tasha bit her lip. ‘The hit’s on Eve,’ she said. ‘Paul could get any of a dozen people locally to carry it out.’

‘Give me names.’

‘Well, Bucks.’

‘How about fresh new names?’

‘There’s a guy, real vicious bastard, named the Wart. He used to have a bad one on his face, but he got it taken care of. The name stuck.’

‘Who else?’

‘I don’t know. Truly. I don’t. Probably more. Five million is a lot of money to lose.’ She squinted at him. ‘Simplify, scout. Tell Eve to give back the money. Leave it in an airport locker, call us, leave the key where we can get it. Tell her to walk away and I can chill Paul down.’

‘She doesn’t have it. Bucks framed her.’

‘Or she’s got it and she’s sharing it with you, and you’re blowing smoke,’ Tasha said.

‘If we had it, and we intended to keep it, we wouldn’t be sticking around Houston. She wants to prove to Paul she didn’t take it. Tell him for us.’

‘Since you have the gun,’ Tasha said. ‘You didn’t do it. Not at all, scout. Let’s all go have a latte.’

‘If we get into a fight with Paul,’ Whit said, ‘this will end badly. For everyone. I assume you don’t want Paul or his business hurt.’

‘Useless to negotiate with me. I’m merely the girlfriend.’

‘Behind every great man,’ Whit said. ‘You’re smart and you can help me. And help yourself and Paul.’

‘I’ll tell him you’re trying to find the real thief,’ she said. The cold look that had come into Whit’s eyes scared her a little now. He meant business as much as Paul did. She suddenly envisioned him taking her with him, forcing a deal with Paul, and that would ruin everything. Like Paul would pay to get her back. He wouldn’t.

‘I already gave you the message he needs to hear,’ Whit said. ‘But I want information. Has the deal with Kiko Grace been called off?’

‘If Eve didn’t have a death sentence on her for stealing the money, she’d have one for telling you about the deal.’

‘Answer me, please.’

‘You don’t have to say please when you have the gun,’ she said. ‘As far as I know the deal’s still on.’

‘So what’s Paul going to tell Kiko if he can’t get the money back?’

‘Call off the deal, I suppose.’

‘And what? Ask Kiko not to sell to Paul’s rivals?’

‘Call Paul and ask him. What do I look like, Robert Duvall in The Godfather? I’m not his consigliere. I’m just a dancer.’

He held up the CD. Tell Paul to cancel the hit on Eve. Look hard at everyone else who has a motive to bring him down, because she didn’t do it. If he doesn’t want the Feds to get a detailed phone call from Eve about the Bellinis over the past thirty years, with these files, he needs to back off. Am I making myself crystal clear?’

‘Like Waterford, scout.’

Downstairs, the front door opened, the alarm giving off its little soft bleep of announcing entry.