Hit List

Fourteen

It sounded crazy.

“Maybe it is crazy,” Dot allowed. “Maybe he’s crazy. When did sanity get to be part of the job description? As far as the dollars-and-cents logic of it is concerned, I don’t see how you can argue the point. If you kill off the other people in your line of work, there’s going to be more work coming your way. Either you’ll increase your volume or boost your price, but one way or another you’ll be putting more dollars in your pocket.”

“But who thinks that way? All the years I’ve been doing this, all I ever did was come up here when I got a call and then go where I was sent. The old man would tell me where to go and what to do, and I went wherever and did whatever, and when I came home I got paid. I didn’t try to work out how to get more money. I didn’t have to, I always had more money than I needed.”

“You never went looking for business.”

“Of course not.”

“You let it come to you.”

“And it always did,” he said.

“Uh-huh. Remember when I ran that ad?”

“In the magazine. Not Soldier of Fortune, the other one. What was the name of it?”

“Mercenary Times.”

“We got one job out of it,” he recalled, “and we had to sneak around to keep the old man from finding out, and then the client tried to stiff us.”

“For all the good it did him. But the point is we went looking for work. I was the one who did the looking, but that’s what it amounted to.”

“Special circumstances. The old man was in a mood, turning jobs down left and right.”

“I know.”

“There was plenty of work out there. We just weren’t getting it.”

“I understand that, Keller. It was just an example.”

“Oh.”

“Remember when the call came for the Boston job? The client told me I was the first person he called, but I didn’t believe him.”

“Because he had problems working with women, I think you said.”

“I think he made a few calls before he got to me. I think guys who do what you do are getting harder to find, and I don’t think it’s because of a dramatic elevation in the moral climate of the nation. I think this son of a bitch has been running around the country shooting the shooters, and I think his strategy’s working. There are fewer of you guys around.”

“And more work for him.”

“More work and more money.”

“Dot, what could he possibly need with it? There’s plenty of work to go around.”

“There’s less than there was five years ago.”

“I’m working as much as I ever did.”

“Maybe because this guy’s thinning the ranks. He’s doing you a favor, if you want to look at it that way.”

“I don’t think so. Dot, how much money does he think he needs?”

“For some people, the phrase ‘enough money’ is as meaningless as the sign he held up in Louisville. There’s no such thing as enough.”

“What’s he going to do with it?”

“Buy something he couldn’t afford otherwise. Keller, you sink a lot of dollars into your stamp collection. Are there stamps you can’t afford to buy?”

“Are you kidding? There are stamps, plenty of them, that run into six figures.”

“And that artist you didn’t kill. Niswander. Did you ever buy one of his paintings?”

“No.”

“But you thought about it. You could have bought one if you wanted to, couldn’t you?”

“Sure.”

“Suppose you wanted a Picasso.”

Or a Hopper. “Okay,” he said. “I get it.”

“The guy’s a pig,” she said. “The more he gets the more he wants. He wants to be the only hitter out there so he can get all the money. What the hell’s the difference why he wants it? That’s not the question. The question is what are we going to do about it.”

If somebody was trying to kill you, what you did was kill him first. That much seemed obvious.

But how? Keller killed people all the time, it was what he did, but it was easier when you knew who they were and where to find them. The whole operation was fairly straightforward. It demanded resolve and ingenuity, and it helped if you could think on your feet, but it wasn’t rocket science.

“I keep thinking he’s from Louisville,” he said, “but he probably flew there himself, same as I did. You know, that may not have been him at the baggage claim. He could have given some mope ten bucks to hold up a sign while he was over to one side, keeping his eyes open.”

“There has to be a way to find him.”

“How?”

They were silent, considering the question. Then Dot said, “How would you do it, Keller?”

“That’s what I can’t figure, and-“

“No,” she said. “Suppose you were him. You want to be the Microsoft of murder and wipe out the competition. How would you go about it?”

“Oh, I see what you mean. How would I even know where to start? I don’t know anybody else who does what I do. It’s not like there’s an annual convention.”

“That’s good, because I’d hate to see all you guys in funny hats.”

“He doesn’t know anybody, either,” he said. “That’s why he has to stand around airports. But how does he know what airport to stand around in? You know what I’d do, Dot? Turn down work.”

“How’s that?”

“I get a call, can I do such and such a guy in Omaha. I find out all I can about the job and then I make some excuse, why I can’t do it.”

“Your grandmother’s funeral, that’s always good.”

“A conflict, a prior commitment, who cares what. I tell the man he’ll have to hire somebody else and then I go to Omaha and see who turns up.”

“And wait until your replacement does the deed before you take him out. Why wait?”

“So nobody knows. Say he takes me out that first day in Louisville. Say instead of looking for Ralph he just plants himself outside my door, and when I show my face he gives me my two in the head. Right away, the client knows.”

“And after the job?”

“The best thing to do,” he said, “is follow me home.”

“Which he did, but he went to the wrong room.”

“No,” he said. “Follow me all the way home. Follow me back to New York, find out who I am and where I live and take me out at leisure, while I’m living my life.”

“Seeing a movie,” she said. “Pasting stamps in your album.”

“Whatever. That’s how he worked it with the guy who died in his sleep. Followed him home and bided his time.”

“But with you he couldn’t wait.”

“Evidently not, one reason or another. It’s a good thing, too, because he would have had me cold. I wouldn’t have expected a thing. And if he tried for me in New York and killed the wrong person, he could come back the next day and try again.”

“The miserable son of a bitch.”

“You could call him that.”

“It’s not like he doesn’t have enough work. The way you laid it out, he turns down a job every time.”

“Well, that’s the way I would do it.”

“And I’ll bet it’s the way he does it, too, the rat bastard. Well, he made a mistake. He’s in trouble.”

“He’s in trouble? We don’t know anything about him, Dot. Not who he is or where he lives or what he looks like. How much trouble can he be in?”

“We know he’s out there,” she said grimly. “And that’s enough. Keller, go home.”

“Huh?”

“Go home, lie down, put your feet up. Play with your stamps. This guy’s not a danger today. He probably thinks he got the right person when he nailed Louis Minot. And even if he knows better, he doesn’t know where to look for you. So go home and live your life.”

“And?”

“And I’ll pick up the phone,” she said, “and ask a few questions, and see what I can find out about this unprincipled son of a bitch.”

“What I don’t get,” she was saying, “is where they get off calling this a Long Island Iced Tea. There must be half a dozen different kinds of booze in it, but is there any tea at all?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.”

“No tea,” she decided. “Are they being ironic? Like this is what they drink for tea on Long Island? Or do you figure it’s a reference to Prohibition?”

“Beats me.”

“And I bet you don’t care, either. Well, one of these is going to be enough, I’ll say that much. I want to be sober when I shop, and the last thing I want is to sleep through The Lion King tonight.”

They were at a restaurant on Madison Avenue. Dot didn’t come to the city often, and when she did she managed to look like a suburban matron all gussied up for a day of shopping and a night at the theater. Which was reasonable enough, he thought, since that pretty much described her.

When the food came she said, “Well, let’s get to it. I didn’t want to do this over the phone, and why make you chase up to White Plains when I had to come in anyway? I ordered this ticket so long ago I feel as though I’ve already seen the play. I made some calls.”

“You said you were going to.”

“And I found out a thing or two about Roger.”

“That’s his name?”

“Probably not,” she said, “but that’s what he goes by. No last name, just Roger.”

“Where does he live?”

“Nobody knows.”

“Somebody’s got to. Not his address necessarily, but the city.”

“Roger the Lodger,” she said. “But wherever he’s lodged, it’s a secret.”

“If somebody wants to reach me,” he said, “they go through you. Who do you call to reach Roger?”

“Any of several brokers. Or you call him direct.”

“Well, there you go. His number must have an area code. What is it?”

“Three-oh-nine.”

“I don’t know that one.”

“ Peoria, Illinois. But all you get when you call the number is his voice mail at Sprint’s central office, and that’s nowhere near Peoria. You leave a number and he calls you back.”

“You figure he lives in Peoria?”

“There’s a chance,” she said, “but I’ve probably got a better chance in the lottery, and I haven’t bought a ticket. I think he went to Peoria once and bought a cell phone just so he could have the voice mail.”

“He calls you back,” he said. “Probably not on his cell phone, he probably just uses that for his messages. Then what?”

“You tell him about the job and he says yes or no.”

“You give him the name and address, the other details.”

“And anything else he’s going to need.”

“Suppose you want to point out the target?”

She shook her head. “No finger men for Roger. Nobody ever meets his plane.”

“In other words, nobody ever sees the guy.”

“Right.”

“Well, that’s damn smart,” he said. “And from now on it’s how we do business, and not because we’re afraid of the client.”

“But because we’re afraid of Roger.”

“Not afraid exactly, but-“

“But close enough. How’s your veal?”

“It’s fine. What’s that, filet of sole?”

“And it’s nice,” she said, “only a Long Island Iced Tea may not be the best way in the world to pave the way for it. Very nice, though. Delicate. But you’re right, no more airport pickups, no more jerks supplying a car and a gun.”

“Still,” he said, “he must have a way to collect his half in advance. And if you want to send him keys or a gun.”

“FedEx.”

“FedEx to where?”

“A FedEx office, and he calls for it.”

“I don’t suppose it’s the same FedEx office every time.”

“Never the same one twice, never the same city twice. Then afterward when it’s time to pay him, it’s another FedEx office in another city. And the recipient’s name is different each time, too. This guy doesn’t make the obvious mistakes.”

“No.”

“He’s a pro.”

“Right, a pro,” he said. “You know, I got back from Boston and I couldn’t stop looking over my shoulder. I was jumpy, I couldn’t sit still.”

“I can imagine.”

“But you get used to it. At first I thought, all right, I’ll pack it in. Who needs it? I was thinking about retiring that one time, and this time I’ll do it.”

“Neat trick, now that you’ve spent all your retirement fund on stamps.”

“Not all of it,” he said. “A good part of it, but not all of it. But even if I had the money back, even if I could afford to retire, am I going to let this son of a bitch chase me out of the business?”

“I get the sense the answer is no.”

“We’ll be very careful,” he said. “We’ll take a cue from Roger. No face-to-face with the client or any of his people. If they insist, we’ll pass.”

“And I’ll ask some questions I don’t normally ask. Like who turned this job down before you offered it to us? Sometimes a contract goes through different brokers, so the man who calls me may not know who had first refusal, but I’ll make it a point to find out what I can. And if I get a whiff of Roger anywhere near it, I’ll find a reason for us to take a pass.”

“And I’ll keep my eyes open.”

“Never a bad idea.”

“And somewhere down the line,” he said, “we’ll find a way to cut his trail.”

“ ‘Cut his trail’? What’s that mean?”

“They say it in westerns,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what it means. We’ll double back, get behind him, something like that.”

“What I more or less surmised.”

“Well, we’ll do it,” he said. “He’s a pro, but so what? I’m a pro myself, but that doesn’t mean I never make a mistake. I’ve made plenty of them over the years.”

“He’ll make one.”

“Damn right,” he said. “And when he does…”

“Bang bang. Excuse me, better make that pop pop.”

“No, bang bang is fine,” he said. “When I get this guy, I don’t care if I make a little noise.”