by Nora Kane
Clive looked at Marv who shrugged.
“If I was here to cause trouble, you’d know it already,” Margot told him.
“If you don’t want any trouble, why the pistol? You don’t trust us?”
“No, I don’t.”
Clive went back inside.
“What are you doing?” Marv asked.
“Establishing I don’t take any shit.”
“That won’t help us get in.”
“No it won’t, but it will help us if we do.”
“I don’t know.”
“Plus, it’s not an act. I don’t take any shit.”
Marv smiled. “I always figured Mal like you for your looks, but I might have been wrong. He may have dug your attitude.”
“I’d like to think it was both.”
The door opened and Clive stepped out.
“Keep that purse zipped up and I don’t think we’ll have any problems,” Clive told her.
Margot zipped up her purse.
Clive went inside but left the door open. Margot and Marv followed.
While the outside looked like the place could have been abandoned years ago, much like the clubhouse, the inside looked like something from a model home, with wood floors, modern furniture, and a television that took up most of an entire wall. Manny may not have put his ill-gotten gain into real estate, but he hadn’t skimped on the interior design.
Manny was a mountain of a man who seemed too big for the chair he was sitting in. He had Clive’s clean-shaven head and a jet black goatee long enough the braided end went all the way to his chest. Like all the Devil’s Racers, he wore his vest along with a t-shirt and blue jeans. Even though they were indoors, Manny added a pair of mirrored sunglasses to his ensemble.
In the corner of the room, another vest and blue jeans guy leaned against the wall and kept an eye on everybody. Margot had a feeling he was the one to watch out for. Clive seemed more like the kind of guy they send out to see if anybody’s shooting; him getting shot wouldn’t be that much of a tragedy.
“So,” Manny said as he looked Margot over, “you’re Mal’s bitch.”
“I’m nobody's bitch.”
Manny laughed. “Clive said you had an attitude.”
Margot didn’t reply.
Manny motioned to the chair across from him. “Have a seat.”
Margot sat down.
“I don’t suppose you came here to tell me why your boyfriend didn’t show up for our sit-down?”
“I’m not.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I’m looking for Mal. He’s not the type to flake on a meeting, especially with me.”
“He stood you up too?”
“Yeah.”
Manny stroked his goatee for a second before he said, “I suppose he doesn’t do that often.”
“Never.”
“I can see that, though I bet you could really show me why? Couldn’t you?”
“Could I? Yeah. Am I? No.”
“Don’t be hasty, you might enjoy it.”
“I guess I’ll never know.”
“Your loss. So, Mal stood us both up. I’m not sure that’s enough for us to have in common for a social call.”
“It’s not a social call. I’m worried something happened to him.”
“Well, if it did I didn’t do it.”
“We’d be having a different conversation if I thought you did. I do think whatever happened to him was related to what he was seeing you about. I’d like to know what that was.”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
“But you think I should?”
“It might help me find him.”
Manny thought about that for a second and then said, “I’m not sure this is your business.”
“I don’t want to get in your business, I just want to find Mal.”
Manny considered this for another moment and then said, “He wanted me to set up a meet with a man I did business with. I really can’t tell you more than that.”
“The man have a name?”
Manny smiled again. “This is the funny part. I couldn’t find him. Word is, he is either missing or dead, or more likely both.”
“So, there never was going to be a meeting?”
“No, there was going to be a meeting. Once my missing man’s people heard I was looking for him, they contacted me. I figured my boy was just a middle man anyway. If Mal could go to the source, I figured he’d be okay with it.”
“You still didn’t give me a name.”
“Yeah, I didn’t and I’m not going to. These aren’t the kind of guys I want to be talking about out of school.”
“Cartel?”
“Why would you go there?”
“They are the kind of guys a person wouldn’t want to be talking about out of school.”
“That’s true, but they ain’t the only ones.”
“You said the guy he was originally supposed to meet disappeared?”
“Yeah, maybe he talked out of school.”
“Did he have a name?”
“I’m sure he did, I never knew it though. We just called him the cowboy.”
When Margot didn’t say anything Manny said, “You look like you’ve heard that one before. Maybe I should be asking you the questions.”
“I don’t have anything to tell other than I’ve heard it before.”
“Probably won’t be hearing it again. From what I hear, some chick beat him unconscious with a shovel and then shot him like nine times. Funny part is no one found a body.”
Margot didn’t say anything and Manny smiled again.
The guy in the corner was no longer leaning on the wall. In his hand was some kind of semi-automatic pistol with a long noise suppressor screwed into the barrel.
“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? Margot,” Manny asked her.
Margot shot a glance toward Marv. She’d never told Manny her name and the look Marv gave her said he hadn’t either.
“Actually,” Margot replied, “I know all about that shit.”
“I know you do,” Manny told her. He looked over at Marv and said, “What the hell are you doing bringing a cop into my place?”
“She hasn’t been a cop in a long time and if she was a friend of my brother, she never was an honest one.”
Margot wanted to tell Marv off for that statement. Whatever Mal did or didn’t do, Margot had never been on the take. However, right now, it might be better to have Manny think she was.
“You could have been upfront about that though. I feel like you two were trying to pull a fast one on me. You should have known before I even considered hooking Mal up with my connections that I’d do my due diligence on that motherfucker.”
“I figured you would. That’s why I thought you knew.”
Manny looked at Margot who said, “In your due diligence you should have seen Mal and I were a couple. When I said I was his girlfriend, who were you expecting?”
Manny thought this over for a second while Margot hoped Manny’s sources on Mal’s personal life weren’t completely up to date.
Manny nodded and then looked at Marv. “I suppose you might have a point, but I still don’t like a cop coming in here.”
“She’s private and we both know they can be crooked. Besides, given the way my brother left the cops, you and I have more friends in the police than she does.”
Manny laughed at that and looked back to Margot.
“It’s been nice talking to you. Good luck finding your boy.”
“Was all that about the cowboy and Brantley true or were you just messing with me?”
“You’re going to have to figure that one out without me.”
“Thanks for your help. If you learn anything could you call me?”
“If I call you, it won’t be to pass on knowledge unless it’s what they call carnal knowledge.”
“In that case, don’t call,” Margot said as she stood up.
�
��Like I said before, your loss.”
“I’ll get over it,” Margot remarked before she turned and walked out.
She kept her hand on the purse swung over her shoulder and subtly unzipped it as she and Marv walked out.
They were almost to his bike when Clive stepped back outside.
“Why don’t you go ahead, Marv? One of us will take her back when we’re done with her.”
Margot drew her gun as she spun around. Clive was reaching for the pistol in his belt but she already had the barrel lined up with his chest before he got close. He grabbed the grip but froze when he saw she was already aiming at him.
“Move your hand Clive,” Margot told him.
“You pull that trigger and they’ll cut you down.”
“Okay, but you’ll still be dead and that’s good enough for me.”
Clive stayed still. He looked over to Marv as if he expected his fellow club member to help him out.
“Sorry Clive, but you’re on your own on this one,” Marv told him.
“You picking her over the club?”
“Is that the way you see it? Sorry Clive, but I see it differently.”
“You want to find out if that story about what I did to the cowboy is true?” Margot said before Clive could reply. “You want to find out if I’m the kind of girl who’d pump five slugs into a man already on the ground?”
Clive moved his hand away from the gun.
“Go back inside, Clive.”
Clive was slow about it, but he turned around and went back into the trailer.
Once he was gone, Marv said, “That went about as well as it could’ve.”
“You mean just now or the whole thing?”
“Both. Get on before someone tougher than Clive decides to give you a try.”
Chapter 6
Marv stopped his bike at Margot’s car.
After she dismounted, he said, “Maybe you need to be done with this.”
“Are you firing me?”
“I guess I am.”
“I don’t usually give refunds unless I solve the case early.”
“I’m not asking for any money.”
“You sure you want to do this?”
“I am. If Mal is going to get one of us killed over this, it ought to be me.”
“What is this?”
Marv shook his head. “I don’t honestly know. I don’t even have a good guess. How about you?”
“I’ve got a few guesses, none of them good.”
“Was Manny telling the truth about you and the cowboy?”
“I only shot him five times. I should have emptied the mag. That way, I wouldn’t be worrying that he somehow walked away.”
“You beat him up with a shovel too?”
“Yeah, trust me, he had it coming.”
“You think Manny was just messing with you, or do you think this guy was really who Mal was supposed to meet?”
“If I were to bet on it? I’d say he’s blowing smoke. Mal might have asked about somebody called the cowboy though. The guy Manny was talking about certainly dressed the part so it could have been him, but my gut feeling is ‘the cowboy’ is more management and Deputy Brantley was more hired help.”
“Deputy?”
“I didn’t mention he was in the Sheriff’s department?”
“Nope. Why do you think Mal wanted to talk to ‘the cowboy’?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Give me the condensed version.”
“Mal and I got on the wrong side of the cartel. The cowboy was one of theirs. Mal made a deal with him, but it didn’t work out. The word is that the cartel decided to forget the whole thing when they had a change in leadership. This guy, ‘the cowboy’—according to Mal anyway—wasn’t ready to let it go.”
Marv nodded. Margot thought he might have some more follow up questions, but he didn’t say a word, so she asked one instead.
“I guess that brings up the question, are the Devil’s Racers working for the cartel?”
“I’d rather not say. What Manny said about talking out of school has some merit.”
Margot smiled, “That’s not a no.”
“I guess it’s not.”
“I’d say that makes it likely the cowboy was who Mal was trying to get a sit-down with. I can’t think of another reason.”
“That does make some sense. Doesn’t explain why he disappeared and why there are three dead men on ice back at the clubhouse.”
“No, it doesn’t. Could be Manny double-crossed him. Maybe the cowboy wasn’t interested in talking it out.”
“So, Manny sent three of our own to take out your brother?”
“Who else would he send?”
“Seems to me he could just rat Mal out and let them do the dirty work.”
Margot shrugged. “Maybe that was about something else entirely.”
“What?”
“I don’t know, you’re an outlaw group doing outlaw stuff. Shit happens.”
“Could be. The clubhouse is supposed to be off-limits to that stuff.”
“Is it? You have a ‘workshop’ with a freezer. Sounds like a place to get rid of a body.”
“Yeah, but as far as I know, we never used it. I’m not going to say no illegal business goes down at the clubhouse, but there are limits and there are rules.”
“My guess is whoever did the killing didn’t care much about the rules.”
“Yeah, I’d say they didn’t. Killing members is strictly forbidden, as long as they’re following the rules.”
“If you were following the rules then maybe you don’t have as much to worry about.”
“Yeah, well, Manny makes the rules and I already pissed him off bringing you around. I’m a dead man if I stick around.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“I figure I’ve got a day. Since this might be my last night here, do you want to have dinner with me? Maybe eat some Mexican food and drink Tequila until they have to carry us home?”