Cut and Run

44

‘Jose Peron has Eve,’ Frank said. ‘He therefore has the money.’

Bucks sat across from him at the dining-room table Monday night, hands steepled in front of his mouth. ‘I knew it.’

‘Greg,’ Frank said, and Bucks looked up, a little surprised at the use of his first name. No one but his parents and Robin, who wasn’t even talking to him now, ever called him by his given name. ‘You’re the dirty guy here. The police know that you’re dirty because Jose tried to hit you. They’ll keep digging until they find evidence to truly connect you with Jose, Kiko, or Paul. It’s over. Your only hope is that money. You can do anything, go anywhere with it. Brazil. Ecuador. Thailand. Places where cash shuts folks up and they never ask questions.’

‘You want me to have the money?’

‘I just want Eve back if she’s still alive,’ Frank said. ‘That’s all.’

‘Because you care,’ Bucks said.

‘Because I love her,’ Frank said. ‘You don’t have much time. Robin’s not gonna keep her mouth shut for long once the police start leaning on her.’

‘Robin doesn’t know shit.’

‘Son, women always know more than you think they do. Look at Tasha. I heard she’s taken off. Because she knows too much about Paul and she don’t want the police bugging her. Or us whacking her to keep her quiet.’

‘I’m not whacking Robin.’ Bucks found, to his surprise, he was really missing her. She wouldn’t talk to him. He had never felt so alone in his life, even with Chad Channing’s reassuring words playing in his head for company.

‘You act like you still have choices.’ Frank shook his head. ‘The police can haul you in at any minute, lean on you hard if you’re not cooperating with them about why Jose tried to kill you. Paul’s dead. And you’re the one doing the dirty work for him and for Kiko both. Trying to play them against each other has left you on the bottom, son.’

‘I didn’t…’

‘Save it,’ Frank said. ‘I can guess what went down. How long do you live if Paul’s guys knew you’d helped Kiko?’

Bucks swallowed. ‘I didn’t have a choice, Frank, I…’

‘It seems to me, though,’ Frank said, like he didn’t care about excuses, ‘you and I are the ones that truly suffered.’

‘What?’

‘I’ve lost the woman I love. You’ve been through hell.’

Bucks looked like he hadn’t slept in two days. He’d shaved, but missed spots, and one scraggly bit of stubble lay along the edge of his cheek. The immaculate grooming was slipping. ‘So why are you even talking to me, Frank? If I screwed Paul so bad, why do you want me to have the money?’

‘You in jail is a bad thing. Not just for you. For everyone. The pressure on you to talk will be huge. And any friends of Kiko, they believe you killed him and that’s why Jose tried to kill you, well, they’ll whack you in jail. Simple as a phone call.’

Bucks raised an eyebrow. ‘But that would take care of the problem of me.’

Frank cleared his throat, tented his hands under his chin. ‘How about a private little deal between you and me? You take care of Jose, you get Eve and the money back. You give half the money to me and Eve, you keep the other half for yourself, and nobody ever knows you screwed over Paul. I’ll keep my mouth shut.’

‘I didn’t kill Paul.’

‘I don’t think you did. You know they found Gooch’s van where Paul died?’

Bucks said nothing.

‘Wasn’t in the paper. I know that from Whit Mosley. Now, what does that suggest to you?’ Frank said quietly.

‘Whit killed him.’

‘Getting Gooch back.’

‘I’m not gonna kill Whit Mosley because he killed Paul,’ Bucks said. ‘I’m out of the ring. I don’t do revenge.’

‘Then get rid of Whit because he can bring you down. Keep you from the money. If Eve’s dead, he has no further reason to try to deal with you. Eve is his mother.’ Frank watched Bucks blink. ‘So Whit, eventually, will tell everything to the cops. That you tried to have him and Eve killed, you kidnapped his friend, you’re in with drug dealers. But if you and I have Eve, the money, and plane tickets, our worries are pretty much over.’

‘You act like you know where Jose has the money,’ Bucks said.

‘Oh, I do.’ Frank pulled a Sig Sauer out from under the table, leveled it at Bucks. ‘But you get rid of Whit for me. He’s willing to meet you because he thinks you know where Jose has Eve. And Jose called him, told him Eve was still alive.’

‘Why do you want him dead?’

‘I want Eve with me, not her kid. He’s a judge down on the coast. She goes with him, she gives up our life together, and I’m not letting her go.’

‘Wow, you’re a really romantic old fart. So where’s the money, Frank?’ Bucks asked, the low growl coming back into his voice. ‘Tell me or no deal at all. You want Whit dead, that’s sweet with me.’

‘They’re at an old warehouse off Mississippi,’ Frank said. ‘I know the dealers in this town, the big ones who like to come to the club, and I got more eyes than a fly. Our time’s running out, son. You take Whit with you, he’ll fight these guys to save his mom, you get the money, we get Eve. But make sure Whit doesn’t make it out alive.’

‘Can I state the obvious?’ Bucks said. ‘I could risk getting killed, take the money myself, and why should I worry about saving Eve?’

‘Because, if you don’t, I’ll tell the cops you killed Kiko.’ Frank watched Bucks. Frank knew that Bucks probably thought Jose had the movie, had taken it after killing Kiko, because if the police had found it, then his Brooks Brothers ass would be behind bars, getting warmed up to be a jail boss’ new bitch. Bucks didn’t know Whit and Frank had both seen the movie.

‘But I didn’t.’

‘But you had every reason to, didn’t you, Bucks?’

Bucks tented his cheek with his tongue. Frank waited. Let the greed and the fear work their magic. It wasn’t that different from dealing with music promoters. If you appeared quiet and relaxed, not desperate to sing, even if every fiber in your body was screeching please, God, book me, please let me get up onstage because I know they will love me then the other person usually blinked first. Frank never wanted a real agent, not when he had Tommy to cut the infrequent deals. He had watched and learned.

‘All right,’ Bucks said. ‘You got a deal. Get Mosley here.’ He gave Frank a wicked little smile. ‘Chad Channing always said you should turn enemies into friends if it shortens your to-do list.’

*

‘Gomez will kill me for pulling this stunt,’ Vernetta said, changing lanes to get around a stalled bus.

‘You don’t work for him,’ Claudia said.

‘No,’ Vernetta said. ‘But he’ll kill my boss, and then, with his dying breath, my boss will shoot me.’

Tasha Strong lived in one of the many complexes near Hobby Airport, along Telephone Road. The complexes lay in a steady necklace, with withered yards and peeling paint. Monday evening was settling in for another long stretch of unease. Claudia had hijacked Vernetta at the Harris County Courthouse as she got off work, insisting that Vernetta come with her to find Tasha Strong.

‘He won’t shoot you. He’ll fire you. Think positive,’ Claudia said.

‘I’ll see if the Bellinis are hiring,’ Vernetta said. She pointed at one decrepit apartment building. ‘Love what they’ve done with it. A Chinese gang here took over a wing of one of these complexes, ran a whorehouse and peddled dope out of it. They had elementary school kids as their gofers.’ She shook her head. ‘If I don’t sound caustic, I’ll cry.’

‘Here. This is the address.’

‘Gomez and his team already tried to get in touch with her,’ Vernetta said. ‘No dice.’

‘Yes, but we’re not the scary police, are we?’

‘You are. You’ve scared me since you came into town,’ Vernetta said. She pulled into the parking lot, past three hard-faced working girls. The bored ladies watched them ease into a slot and walk across to the stairs, up to apartment 325.

Claudia knocked. No answer. But she could hear the soft strains of a radio playing on the other side of the door.

‘Tasha? Tasha Strong?’ she called softly. ‘I’m a friend of Robin Melvin’s. She’s worried about you. Please open up.’

The door opened. An old woman stood there, dressed in a faded pink robe and a maroon baseball cap. ‘Tasha don’t live here,’ she said. ‘Sorry.’

‘Hello, ma’am. Do you know where we could find her?’ Claudia said, ignoring the woman’s blunt manner.

‘No,’ the old woman said. ‘She’s gone for good.’

Claudia and Vernetta looked at each other, then at the old woman. ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, when did Tasha leave?’ Claudia asked after a moment.

‘Who are you?’

Vernetta and Claudia both showed their official IDs. ‘Oh, God,’ the old woman said. ‘She’s in trouble, I’m sure of it, but she won’t help herself get out and she sure won’t listen to me.’

‘We can help her,’ Vernetta said.

‘Come inside, then,’ the woman said. They came inside the apartment. It was small but clean, although there was a clutter of a tea mug, tissues, a rumpled newspaper. A cane was next to the door and the woman used it as she headed back for a chair. ‘Gettin’ over flu,’ she said. ‘Shouldn’t be contagious any more. Sit.’

‘Are you Tasha’s mother?’ Claudia asked.

‘Grandmother,’ the woman said. ‘Mrs Annie Strong.’ She sat. ‘I don’t hold with lying, and I haven’t slept well since the police called looking for her. Tasha asked me to lie for her, and I can’t do it no more because you folks are gonna keep knocking on my door.’

‘What lie did she want you to tell?’

‘First Tasha told me that if anyone came looking for her, say she was dead. Not to say she moved, or gone on a trip, but dead. Killed in a car accident in New Orleans, that was her story. Showed me what looked like a death certificate she’d faked up. I said you’re crazy, girl, what kind of trouble you in?’ Mrs Strong shook her head. ‘That’s a tall order to give me, after I done half the raising of her. I told her I’d tell people she’d left town, but not that she was dead.’ Mrs Strong spit out the last word.

‘So where is she?’

Mrs Strong shook her head. ‘I don’t know. She ain’t lived here in years.’

‘She gave this as her address to her employer.’

‘Huh. She got her community college degree, she moved uptown fast. Left me in the dust. Came to see me when it suited her.’

Claudia remembered Robin’s mention of the photos. ‘Does Darius live here?’

The old woman closed her eyes for a moment. ‘Darius, he really dead. Five years ago. Out playing basketball down the street with a group of boys who dealt. Other group of boys shot at ’em all. Killed Darius. He was fifteen.’ She leaned against the door. ‘Fifteen-year-olds killin’ each other for crack. Tasha, got everything in the world going for her, she tells me to tell the world she’s dead because she’s in bad trouble she won’t let nobody help her fix. Like I could bear her and Darius both dead. It would kill me. I can’t pull off such a lie for her. I ain’t doing it. No. Ain’t doing it. You find her. Please.’

‘She’s running because of what happened to Paul Bellini,’ Vernetta said as they drove away.

‘But why would a woman whose brother was killed by drug dealers take up with a drug lord?’

‘She didn’t know Bellini’s business.’

‘She knows enough to be scared, so she’s asking her grandmother to do clumsy lying for her,’ Claudia said. ‘Can you ask HPD to look for her?’

‘If she’s a witness, or she’s charged in a crime. But if she’s left willingly and doesn’t want to be found, well, you hire another PI to find her.’

‘What?’

‘If she’s left willingly…’

‘No,’ Claudia said. ‘You said another PI.’

‘Yeah. I was thinking of your friend Harry. Like him looking for Eve Michaels.’

Frank Polo said something about another PI, when she was getting ready to leave his house. Another, like he’d known of a first one. Harry. Perhaps Whit had told Frank about Harry. Of course. Yes. Probably.

The thought irritated her brain like a thorn prick. Whoever killed Harry had stripped him of his ID. Possibly of his notes on the Eve Michaels case; none of those had been found by the police, and she knew Harry kept his notes with him. There was a simple way to test her theory. ‘Have they identified all the prints at the Chyme/ Doyle murder scene?’

‘I don’t know. Gomez would. I don’t even know if they have suspect prints to compare to.’

‘How quickly could Gomez get prints done?’ she asked.

‘Why?’

‘That photo of Frank Polo that’s on my back seat,’ Claudia said. ‘Let’s put it under the powder, see what shows.’