by Amy Vansant
“It’ll take a sec,” she said, moving into the living room. All the furniture Declan had picked out for her from his pawn shop was finally coming in handy. Tilly, Declan and the two goons were the most company she’d had all at once in quite a while.
“No problem. Appreciate it,” said Andy.
Charlotte put her hands on her hips and turned her attention to the two men on her sofa. Both were in their sixties, with dark hair and tan skin. Specks of gray salted one’s impressive coif. The other was shorter, his thinning hair slicked back across his scalp. Both were heavy-set.
“So what do you have for me?” she asked, eyeing the large envelope between them.
Butch looked around until he spotted the package lying beside him on the sofa. He picked it up and held it out to her.
“Simone, er, Jamie said this could help you.”
“She gave it to you?” asked Charlotte, hoping to confirm her suspicion Jamie was near.
“It was delivered.”
Charlotte sat on the leather ottoman that matched the chair where Declan sat. Declan had bought the pair from a Mr. Bing’s estate. Most of his pawn shop’s inventory came from estate sales held at one of the area’s many fifty-five-plus communities.
A lot of her things had come from Mr. Bing.
He’d had good taste.
Charlotte took the packet and slid out a few sheets of paper.
“This doesn’t look like much.”
Andy shrugged. “We don’t get involved in the details. That’s what she gave us.”
Charlotte scanned the top sheet and read aloud. “Andy and Butch will be keeping an eye on you so you can concentrate on the job at hand.” She looked at the men on her sofa.
Andy tapped his finger to his chest. “We’re protection.”
“Hold on,” said Declan, unwrapping his arms long enough to hold up a palm. “Protection from what? Jamie sent you here to be bodyguards?”
Andy shrugged. “Bodyguards, fixers, fetchers and all around help.”
“You got a spare room?” asked Butch, his eyes flicking from Declan to Charlotte.
Declan chuckled, more with agitation than mirth. “You guys are not sleeping here.”
Andy frowned. “Whatever. We can take turns sleepin’ in the car.”
Butch winced, reaching behind himself to touch his back. “I dunno, Andy. I got a little sciatica.”
Andy rolled his eyes and turned back to Charlotte. “Look, bottom line is the boss lady wants you alive and we’re here to make sure you stay dat way.”
Charlotte sighed. “Let’s take this from the top. You guys work for Jamie?”
“Not exactly,” said Tilly, who had wandered from the room and now reentered with a cup of coffee in each hand. She offered one to Charlotte, who declined. Next, she walked past Andy and Butch. They watched her like dogs watching a toddler with a hamburger. Tilly offered Declan a mug, and only when he refused, did she turn to the pair of goons.
“Here,” she said, placing the mugs on the coffee table.
The men both leaned forward and claimed their mugs. “T’anks.”
Tilly sat back in her seat and, turning a steady gaze on Charlotte, motioned to the men. “Jamie’s got them by the balls.”
The men shifted in their seats, looking uncomfortable.
“How do you mean? She was their WITSEC officer?” asked Charlotte.
Andy and Butch glanced at each other and then blinked at Charlotte, seemingly struck dumb.
Tilly snorted a laugh. “Yeah, she knows. They both know.”
Andy’s eyes grew wide. “What? What’re you tellin’ me?”
Butch dropped his head into his hands. “I knew it. I knew it when Simone ran we were blown—”
“You’re not blown. We won’t tell anyone,” said Charlotte.
“But if you know—” began Andy.
Declan leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees. “We have a long history with her. We know she abused her little corner of witness protection and we know she parked a lot of people here in Charity. It wasn’t hard for us to put the pieces together if you’re here, doing her bidding with those accents. You’re not exposed on any larger scale.”
“I can’t say I feel good about this,” said Butch.
Charlotte found herself eyeing Tilly. The boys hadn’t been shocked to find out she knew about their placement in WITSEC. The three of them clearly had a history that included their secret past.
Tilly felt her gaze and glanced in her direction, so Charlotte returned her attention to Butch and Andy. “She’s threatened to expose you? That’s why you’re running errands for her?”
Andy nodded. “Yeah. Though the people mad at us are mostly dead.”
“Mostly,” said Butch. “That’s the important part. The men we flipped on have kids. We don’t know what they know.”
“Why don’t you just leave? She’s gone now,” suggested Declan.
Andy shrugged. “We got families here. And she’d know. She’d still find us.”
Butch nodded, looking grim. “No matter where we went, she’d know.”
“She always knows.”
Charlotte could tell by the expressions on the men’s faces they held no love for Jamie Moriarty. They were her unwilling puppets, and she jerked their strings whenever she saw fit.
“Is it fair to say there are more people around here who’d like to see this psycho thrown in jail?”
Butch laughed. “Captured? They’d give their left—” he stopped and cleared his throat. “Captured ain’t the half of it. If I’m bein’ honest, we’d all like to see her gone. In a permanent way. If you know what I mean.”
“I know I would,” muttered Andy. “But none of us tried anything, even when we knew where she lived.”
“There was that one guy,” said Butch.
Andy rolled his eyes. “If that story was even true.”
“What story?” asked Charlotte.
Andy looked away, as if he was embarrassed to say, so Butch picked up the conversation. “There was a story some guy tried to kill her with spiders.”
“With spiders?”
“Yeah, put them in her car or something.”
“No one ever heard from him again,” added Andy.
Butch looked around the room as if Jamie was hiding behind every chair. “Be honest widcha, I’m not real comfortable talkin’ about her now like this. Far as I know she’s got—”
“Cameras. All over the place.” Andy looked at Tilly. “Like you.”
“Never like me,” said Tilly with a note of pride. “And you know I’m not helping her.” Tilly muttered something under her breath that sounded like an Italian curse.
Andy and Butch took sips of their coffee simultaneously.
Declan cocked his chin in Tilly’s direction. “How do you know her then? And these guys?”
Tilly sighed. “I was in witness protection too, remember.”
“As a little girl. Jamie wasn’t around then.”
Tilly shrugged. “I keep my ear to the ground when things interest me.” She hooked a thumb toward Andy and Butch. “And when these two showed up it didn’t take a genius.”
“She never asked you to do anything, did she?” asked Charlotte.
Tilly snorted a laugh that turned into a rattily cough and took thirty seconds to pull under control. “My problems were long before her time.”
“But you still ended up here with the rest of them? Isn’t that a heck of a coincidence?”
Tilly fingered something in her pocket. “When you want someone to disappear, the middle of Florida isn’t a bad place to start. Then and now.”
Charlotte nodded. Tilly had a point.
She turned to the men. “Would you mind giving us a second?”
They both perked, peering over their mugs at her.
“You want us to go?” asked Andy.
“What, step outside a second?” added Butch.
“If you don’t mind.”
Andy nodde
d and set down his mug. “Sure. Sure. You got it.”
Butch stood, cradling his coffee against his chest. “You mind if I take this with me?”
“No, that’s fine.”
“Thanks.”
Andy looked at his partner, then at his own mug, plucked it off the table and headed for the exit.
Abby stood as the men rose and escorted them to the door. Once they’d left she sat and stared at them through the screen.
“Those two are not staying in your house,” said Declan the moment they were gone.
Charlotte shook her head. “No. Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”
“I hate to say it, but they’re sweet guys,” said Tilly.
“How well do you know them?” asked Charlotte.
“Well enough. We move in similar circles. They’re good guys. Family guys. Grandkids and all that. They don’t like this situation any better than you do. What I’m saying is, you don’t have to fear them.”
Declan frowned. “Unless she changes her mind and decides she wants Charlotte dead. Then they have to do anything she asks, right?”
Tilly nodded her head from side to side. “Yeah, so you might have a point there.”
Charlotte rubbed her neck. The day was starting to make her shoulders bunch. “Do you know more like them?”
“Retired hitmen?”
“Not necessarily. Just more of the WITSEC people here in general. More under Jamie’s thumb.”
Tilly held her gaze a moment too long before shrugging. “Maybe.”
Charlotte smiled.
You know a lot of them. Maybe all of them.
Declan cocked an eyebrow at her. “Why do you have that look on your face?”
“Oh nothing. I was just thinking how handy it might be to know more people who want her gone for good.”
Declan glowered at her. “Please tell me you’re not thinking about trying to take her down?”
Charlotte grinned. “Maybe.”
Chapter Nine
“Can you guys come back in now?”
Andy and Butch reentered the house, both their mugs hanging on their index fingers, empty.
“Do you know who else she uses?” asked Charlotte.
Both men’s brows knit as they looked to each other for help.
“What’re you askin’?” asked Butch.
“Other WITSEC people. People she’s threated to expose, have killed, get killed, etcetera.”
“Um...” Both men looked as if they wanted to turn and bolt back out the door.
“You know, the whole point of the program is to not know anyone, if you know what I mean,” said Butch.
Andy agreed. “Yeah, we’re supposed to be quiet-like, blend in.” He chuckled. “Though that bank robbery last spring had Tophat written all over it.”
Butch laughed. “Yeah, that had to be him.”
“Bank robbery?” probed Charlotte.
Andy pointed to the east. “Yeah, over outside of Orlando. Little town, I forget the name of it. Some fat guy wearing a tux asked to get in there because his diamond cufflinks were in the vault—”
“And once they let him in the vault he robbed them blind and walked right out,” finished Andy. “The funniest part is that Tophat’s a skinny guy.”
“You said he was fat,” said Charlotte.
“He was wearing a suit for carryin’ loot,” said Butch, circling his arms in front of him to show the girth of the suit. “He did the same thing back in Jersey City back in ninety.”
“Ninety-two I think,” corrected Andy.
Butch nodded. “Ninety-two. I think you’re right.”
“His name’s Tophat? That’s his last name?” asked Charlotte.
“Nah, that’s what we all called him back in Jersey ‘cause he was so fancy,” said Butch.
“Nice suits,” added Andy.
“Nice suits.”
“Do you know his real name?”
The men paused and Butch looked at Andy. “Donny Topham, ain’t it?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
Charlotte headed for the back of the house. “Tophat, Topham...”
Behind her she could hear Andy talking. “Yeah I guess his last name had something to do with the nickname too, now that you mention it. But nice suits. It was mostly about the suits.”
“Beautiful suits,” agreed Butch as Charlotte strode back into the living room with Jamie’s fingerprint book in her hand.
Charlotte sat on the ottoman again and set the book on her lap. She flipped through the pages of fingerprints until she found one with the initials D. T. at the bottom.
That has to be Donny Topham.
“I wonder if they lifted any prints from that heist,” she mumbled.
“Did you just solve a bank heist?” asked Declan.
Andy held up his palms. “Whoa, whoa. We didn’t come here to rat anyone out. I don’t know if Donny did that bank hit.”
“Yeah, we’re not rats,” added Butch.
Charlotte squinted at them. “You’re in witness protection, doesn’t that mean you’re rats by definition?”
Butch and Andy began talking over each other, both gesticulating with their hands as if they were trapped in invisible boxes and trying to feel their ways out.
“That was different.”
“Yeah, that’s what you’d call extenuating circumstances.”
“That’s what the lawyers called it.”
“Anyway you cut it, we did what we had to do.”
“And Tony had it comin’ anyway.”
“He did. With or without us.”
Charlotte held up a hand in the hopes of calming them, and they fell silent. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I’m not going after Donny Topham.
Andy laughed. “We know you ain’t going after him.”
“He’s dead,” explained Butch. “Heart attack, about three months ago.”
Andy nodded. “Maybe four. That’s why we can talk about him.”
Charlotte closed the fingerprint book.
So much for Donny Topham.
She stood to pull the thumb drive Tilly had given her from her pocket and moved to her laptop, where it sat charging on the kitchen table. She plugged in the drive and clicked through the files to pull up Tilly’s surveillance of that morning’s kidnapping. Declan moved behind her to watch over her shoulder.
The night vision image of Mariska’s house showed no activity until the front door opened and two men came out carrying Bob between them. Bob appeared limp, unaware he was being toted through his front door. Setting him on the ground, one of the men disappeared and returned into frame with a wheelbarrow. They placed Bob inside and rolled him out of frame. Returning a few minutes later with the wheelbarrow, they repeated the process with Mariska. She slipped as the men dropped her in and Charlotte saw her legs bounce on the rim of the wheelbarrow.
That explained the two bruises Mariska had on the back of her calves.
One of the men wore shorts and Charlotte spotted a tattoo on his calf. She stopped the movie at the best moment possible and zoomed in.
Charlotte pointed at the tattoo. “That look like a sailfish to you?”
Declan squinted at the grainy video. “If I had to guess. It isn’t a great picture.”
“What about your friend with the sailfish tattoo on his leg?” said Charlotte, turning to look at Butch.
“Pollock Johnny?”
Andy slapped Butch’s leg and his partner grimaced.
“Is Pollock Johnny a big guy?” asked Charlotte. The man in the video hovering over Mariska’s unconscious body appeared enormous, in both height and girth.
Butch looked at Andy, who shook his head. “It’s too late now, go ahead and answer her.” Andy glanced at Charlotte. “Johnny’s a big boy.”
“Yeah, he is. Like all those Chicago Pollocks. He sat next to me the other day at one of the meet—”
Andy elbowed Butch in the stomach and Butch cut short.
“A meeting?” asked Char
lotte, hoping to finish Butch’s thought. “You were at a meeting with him?”
Butch shook his head. “Nah, not a meeting. A party. My birthday party. I mean, a meeting for planning my birthday. My birthday’s comin’ up and I was thinking about doin’ sometin’.”
Andy walked over and peered at the computer screen. “Show me a bit of whatchure lookin’ at.”
Charlotte started at the beginning of the clip and let it play.
Andy pointed to the screen. “What’s he doing with those people?”
“Those are my neighbors. Jamie had them kidnapped this morning.”
Andy grunted and wandered back to the sofa.
Charlotte stared at her screen, her finger tapping on the table.
“What are you thinking?” asked Declan.
“There’s something here. I need to go through this packet she sent me. There’s got to be a way to get her with the help of all these people she’s been blackmailing.”
Declan nodded. “They flipped once, maybe one of them can flip on her?”
“Hey,” barked Andy from his perch in the other room. “Come on, you’re hurtin’ our feelings. We’re not rats...” Andy’s gaze drifted to the fingerprint book. “Except what we said about Tophat.”
Butch glanced at him. “And Pollock Johnny.”
Andy’s shoulders slumped. “Shoot. We’re terrible at this.”
“Kind of a miracle we lived this long, now that you mention it.”
Tilly stood. “Well, if you need anything else let me know. I think I’ll turn on the extra cameras until all this blows over.”
“Thank you Tilly, I really appreciate it.”
“Sure.” She glared at Andy and Butch and pointed from her eyes to theirs with her forked index and middle fingers. “Remember, I’ll have eyes on you two. I see all.”
Butch and Andy both offered her a goofy grin.
“Whatever, Tilly. See you around.”
Charlotte strolled into the living room to address her new bodyguards. “You two do whatever you would normally do. I don’t want to endanger you or your family, but you can’t sleep in my house.”
Andy shrugged. “We’ll figure out somethin’.”
Butch looked worried.