On The Grind

Chapter 44

We went into the small one-bedroom apartment, where Rocky grabbed a silk fight robe with EL ALBOROTADOR embroidered on the back. The furnishings in the unit were sparse. No pictures or personal effects. A queen-sized bed dominated a small bedroom barely large enough to accommodate it.

I caught a glimpse of a naked woman as she slipped into the bathroom and closed the door.

"Okay. Who's trying to kill me?" Chacon said suspiciously.

"C'mon, you can't be that dense. You really think you can take all this away from Bratano and still get to city hall?"

"I've got people coming to protect me."

"Yeah. The Marines from Pendleton." He looked surprised. "Your phones are tapped. They know those guys aren't coining till tomorrow. That's why this is going down tonight. Right now there are two cops outside to make sure I do it right."

"You're Bells partner. How can I believe anything you say?"

"Come here," I said, moving to the front door. "I want to show you something."

I stepped into the hallway. He hesitated, not moving.

"Whatta you afraid of? You got a gun."

He followed me reluctantly into the hall and then into the staircase. We walked down one flight, where Horace was still cuffed to the railing, glaring malevolently out of one swollen eye.

"Remember this guy?" I reached down and yanked my socks out of Horace's mouth.

"You're gonna fucking die, Scully," he growled through broken teeth. "You're a corpse."

"That's enough," I said, holding out the socks. "Open wide."

He clenched his broken jaw, so I kicked him in the shin. He opened his mouth to scream out and I jammed my socks back in.

"You really fucked him up," Rocky said.

"I'm supposed to kill you and Carmen, put the gun in her hand so it looks like a street divorce."

He thought about it. "Okay, let's say I believe you," he said. "Whatta we do about it?"

"Not here."

We left Horace where he was and climbed back to the fourth floor and entered the hallway. As I passed the window, I looked at the street out front. Alonzo's white Escalade still wasn't there.

We went back into the apartment and locked the door. Carmen had changed into a conservative black pantsuit. Rocky immediately stripped off his robe and started to get dressed while I filled both of them in on the rest of the plot and how Alonzo had instructed me to do it.

After I was finished, Carmen said, "Is Bratano insane? Mow does he think lie can get away with that?"

"Me controls the cops, so he controls everything from the crime scene to the booking desk. Believe me, if I hadn't managed to slip in between these guys, it would have worked."

Just then, my shoulder rover clicked twice. Alonzos impatient signal for me to check in and tell him what was taking so long.

"I lave you got a car wc can use to get out of here? We can't use Rocky's Mercedes. We'll never get it out of the garage."

"I have a little red Mustang," Carmen said. "It's parked on the street half a block down."

"Okay. We'll use that," I said. "We have to get out of this jurisdiction. There's supposed to be some FBI or Homeland agents around here somewhere to back me up, but so far I haven't seen them."

"It's gonna be next to impossible to get out of Fleetwood going east," Rocky said. "All they have to do is block the three bridges that cross the L. A. River. We're better off trying to head toward Monterey Park or Cypress."

I nodded, then explained exactly what we needed to do.