It was early evening, and the office was dim, the only illumination coming from a single desk lamp, the light of which spilled off the desk in various directions.
Mickey looked at me. “You have five minutes.”
“Did you bring the pictures?” I asked.
He nodded, and Burke handed me two pictures of Mickey’s wife.
“What are those?” Angel asked. “What’s going on? When did you talk to Mickey?”
“This afternoon,” I said. “I needed a couple pictures of you and I didn’t know who else to ask.”
“You could’ve asked me,” she said.
I looked at the pictures, the blonde hair, the curvaceous figure, and nodded.
Looking over my shoulder, Angel said, “Why did you want old pictures of me?”
“Okay, Mr. Adams,” I said. “Here’s the story. This man”—I paused and pointed to Weller—“came into my office last night claiming to be your personal attorney and hired me to follow your wife on your behalf because you suspected she was cheating on you.”
As I had suspected based on his reactions this morning at breakfast, Mickey was surprised.
“What happened to Howard?” Angel asked Mickey. “When did you hire this guy?”
“I didn’t,” Mickey said. “Howard’s still my attorney. I don’t know who this fat fuck is.”
“You thought I was cheating on you?” she asked.
“I told you,” Mickey said, “he’s not my attorney. I didn’t hire anyone to follow you.”
There it was. I let it hang there in the dusky air for a moment.
“Are you even an attorney?” I asked Weller.
“Actually, sir, I am an actor,” he said. “Just playing a part.”
“Which is why you wouldn’t let me come to your office,” I said. “You don’t have one.”
“So this whole thing was all just a big misunderstanding,” Angel said.
I turned back to face Mickey. “When we had our little altercation last night, I thought I was working for you, and I thought I was protecting your wife—something I thought you would want me to do. I didn’t know it was you because I wasn’t supposed to.”
“Who hired you?” Mickey asked Weller.
“I honestly thought you did, sir,” Weller said, turning to face the small gangster. “I was hired over the phone, and received cash in the mail the next day.”
Mickey looked over at me. “So who’s behind all this?” he asked. “Who gets a visit from Burke?”
“He’s lying,” I said, nodding toward Weller. “He knows who hired him, and I’ll bet my left arm it wasn’t over the phone.”
“Who?”
“Your wife,” I said, turning toward Angel. “She did her homework. Somehow she found out about Lauren and altered her appearance to look as much like her as she could. She dyed her hair, lost some weight, changed the way she dressed. These pictures show that. She figured I’d fall for her, come to her rescue, and generally play the sap. I think her plan was to get me to kill you or us to kill each other. They both encouraged me to shoot you.”
Mickey looked down at Weller. “Remember that your life depends on your honesty. Is he right? Did she hire you?”
Weller nodded.
“How else was I supposed to get away from the bastard?” Angel asked. “It was kill or be killed. Don’t you understand? I didn’t have a choice.”
Angel seemed to be talking to me, but no one was listening to her.
“I would kill you now,” Mickey said to Weller, “but I don’t want to be faced with the task of getting your fat ass down the stairs. You can go. Just know your minutes are numbered.”
As the fat man stood and began to plead for his life, something hit him in the side of the head, knocking it back slightly and causing him to fall to the floor.
The noise in the small room was jarring.
In the split second before I realized what was happening, two more shots were fired. One hit Mickey in the throat, the other in the center of his chest.
By the time I turned to see Angel holding the small pistol she had pulled from her purse, a fourth shot exploded in the room and a small hole appeared in the center of her forehead.
I spun back around in time to see Burke holstering his weapon.
He looked down at Mickey, who, like Angel and Weller, was dead on the floor.
“I should’ve been faster,” he said. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“He didn’t hire you for protection,” I said.
“No,” he said, “to kill you. And you’re the only one still alive.”
“Everybody has bad days,” I said.
He nodded.
“Anything between us need sorting out?” I asked.
“I got no reason to take you out if no one’s payin’ me to do it,” he said.
I nodded.
“I’m leavin’ now,” he said. “Can you clean this up?”
“I’ll need your gun,” I said.
I knew it couldn’t be traced back to him.
He hesitated a moment, then pulled it out and handed it to me.
“Take Mickey’s,” I said.
He did. He then stood and tipped his hat to me. “See you around, soldier.”
After he left, I stared down at Lauren for a long moment. Except for the small seeping wound in her forehead, she appeared to be sleeping. If I hadn’t been impervious to women I would have wanted to lay down beside her, hold her just a little longer. I then realized it wasn’t Lauren at all, but Angel.
Eventually I wiped down Burke’s gun, put it in Mickey’s dead hand, and squeezed off a round into the wall close to where Angel had been standing. I then called a couple of my buddies from the force. When they arrived a few minutes later, I spun a story for them of an adultery case that ended badly, the tale of a deadly spider, the two victims in her web that could have easily been three, told in graphic detail by the one who got away.
Check out these thrilling Jimmy "Soldier" Riley mystery adventures today! THE BIG GOODBYE, THE BIG BEYOND, and THE BIG BLACK NIGHT.
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In a Spider's Web -- a Jimmy Soldier Riley short story (Soldier Mysteries) Page 3