Trish is sensing my reluctance. She smacks me in the back of the head: Lois style. “Don’t overthink this, Hooterville! Give me some respect. It’s just Eric and his girlfriend. No alarms, no video cameras, no dogs, and a rather rude wakeup call for Eric. We’ll grab him on the way in the house. She’s renting one half of a duplex with a neighbor who is seldom there… like tonight.”
“You mean like this morning. It’s almost 2am. Maybe he decided to stay home tonight.”
“Nope. Bone says it looks like he’s going to close down the Lucky Bastard Saloon. He’ll call us when Tamaro leaves the bar.”
At least the place had some cover. There was an old beat up green Ford truck in the driveway. We could stay down in front of it and wait for our guy after Bone called. Then Trish asked me something from left field.
“Do you think Adina went back to Israel?”
No, I didn’t. Neither did Lois. That’s why we were still checking our vehicles, and watching the skyline. Like I told Lo when we were alone after the meeting – there was something real odd about her stopping at my motel room in Nogales with her shadows. “I would imagine so. Why do you ask?”
Trish smirked over at me in the darkness. “Because I’ve been watching you two old coots doing vehicle check-overs when you think no one is watching.”
“Just covering all our bases. We didn’t hit our seventh decade being stupid or careless. She caught me off guard in Nogales. I think maybe my killing Yuri hit her harder than she lets on. They were probably a lot like Lo and I.”
Then the phone rang. “Stakeouts are us. Rick Cantelli at your service.”
Trish snatched my iPhone. “Give me that! Hey, Bone. We getting a visitor?”
“He got in his car ten seconds ago. Is Rick disrespecting our setup?”
“Yep. I’ll be collecting on it too. You can take off now. Thanks.”
“No problem. See you both tomorrow.”
“Yeah, if we’re not in jail,” I added loud enough for Bone to hear me and laugh before disconnecting.
“Wow… ever since you got back from Nogales, your vagina has been showing. Drop and give me twenty, pussy!”
That’s all I need – Lois Junior. “Let’s get into position. Make sure he goes down without a sound. I’d like to not have to handle another dead body this week.”
Trish coughed/muttered, “Pussy.”
Moments later we were hiding in front of the Ford truck, black masks in place. Batwoman and I were both already wearing all black outfits. Tamaro arrived in a BMW of all things. He staggered up his girfriend’s driveway and into Trish’s Taser needles. He plopped on the cement doing the dance of a thousand lights.
“I think he’s done, Batwoman.”
Trish turned off the juice, and I dragged lumpy in front of the Ford with us where we could watch for witnesses. Nothing stirred, and no sirens approached as we duct taped Eric with a bag over his head. Trish brought the GMC in front with our altered plates once again, and I stuffed Tamaro into the cargo area. I directed Trish to an empty building over on West Cedar. The pitch black recess near the front corner was perfect. Trish backed the GMC into the corner. I unloaded Tamaro. We had voice altering equipment. If we were going to let him live, then I didn’t want to take any chances. Trish thought it was overkill. See, contract killers don’t leave anyone behind. If she’s going to be Batwoman, Trish needs to gear up for not killing.
I smacked Tamaro back into consciousness, which wasn’t easy, since Trish has a lot of Lois in her. She overcooks. When he began moaning, Trish turned on her mini-Maglite in his face. I got right to it, because Trish had opted for a clever device for making a point with thugs I hadn’t considered. “Hello there. We’re the attitude adjustment team. You’ve been having your gang of ass-wipes terrorize a convenience mart. That store is under our protection now. Anything done to it from this moment forward, and we come get you again, only we’ll leave the body for the rest of your crew to see hanging from your front door.”
I plucked the duct tape off his mouth. “Please acknowledge you know what I’m talking about… right now!”
“You… you got the wrong guy! I don’t know shit about no-”
I jammed the duct tape back into place. “Uh oh. He doesn’t remember, Batwoman. Could you help jog his memory?”
Trish hit the button on the cordless sander in her hands and went to work on one of Tamaro’s arms for about twenty seconds of light hearted agony. I removed the tape. “You remember it now, sparky?”
Tamaro couldn’t speak yet. He was whining, but bobbed his head in an energetic affirmative nod. “That’s very good, because we were going to take your pants off and work on some parts a little more sensitive. Now that we have that cleared up, here’s how it’s going to be. You and your bangers better make sure you stay clear of that convenience mart and everyone connected to it, or Batwoman here is going to sand your balls off. You feel me, sparky?”
Again, an energetic head nod.
I patted his head. “We have your girlfriend’s cell-phone number. You will remain here so you can consider your poor choices in life style. We’ll call your girlfriend and let her know where you are in the morning. Pray you don’t come up on our radar again. Batwoman is going to give you a lovely parting gift just to cement tonight’s romantic meeting in your memory.”
The sander went into action on his other arm for ten seconds that must have seemed like eternity. The high pitched keening whine of pain heralded a new moment of attitude adjustment. “I believe our work here is done, Batwoman.”
In the GMC, Trish was coming unglued while we sped away from the scene of our vigilante action. “Oh… oh my God, Rick! If I’d known how much fun doing right would be, I would have been a good girl a long time ago.”
Now that was funny. “Good girl?”
Trish glanced over. “Yeah, okay then… ah… disciplinarian.”
Oh boy.
* * *
Lo and I exited Jadie’s after the Friday night workout together. Everyone else in our workout group, including Trish, reported for their first on scene location for the movie. The significant others did not work out without their partners. Friday’s work schedule had been light. We’d shared laughs about the unfortunate plight of Eric Tamaro in private. Lo and Trish bonded over the damn cordless sander. Disturbing.
“This was a quiet one tonight, Hooterville – boring as hell,” Lo stated.
“Look on the bright side, Lo. Tonight on Casablanca Night, you have a new audience for your Doc Stuart story with Cheech Garibaldi.”
Lo’s eyes brightened even in the parking lot darkness. “Good Lord, I’d forgotten he was coming. Oh baby, this will be so-”
I shoved Lo so hard she went sideways to the pavement while drawing my reacquired .45 caliber Colt from behind my back. The black shadow I’d seen detach from a parked SUV fired a short burst from an automatic weapon that would have nailed both of us. I fired at the legs, as I dived away from Lo. The .45 caliber hollow points took the masked assailant down with an ear piercing scream, the weapon clattering to the pavement.
“I’m good, Rick!”
Knowing Lo was okay, I moved in on our still screaming attacker. It was a woman’s screams that lapsed into panting agony. I looked over at Lo. She had her Glock out, trained in a sweeping motion everywhere around us. Only then with her at my back did I move in. I pulled the black mask off to reveal Adina’s pain scorched features. A moment later, Lo joined me in a shooter’s crouch, still scanning for targets. I put my Colt away, and picked up Adina in my arms as I knelt next to her.
“Hi, baby.”
“Rick… I… I can’t feel my legs,” Adina managed to gasp out, as Lo put a reassuring hand on my arm.
“Let me do it, Rick.” Lo understood we couldn’t leave this scorpion alive at our backs ever again.
I looked at Lo in tight lipped silence for a moment. She nodded and kept watch. There are some places in hell we don’t share. This was one of them. “You should have
returned to Israel, baby.”
“Yuri…” Adina gasped. “He was… my soul mate. I…I should… never have-”
I made a shushing noise, with what I’d hoped was compassion. “I know. Don’t give it a thought.” I covered her nose and mouth, gripping her as she jerked through the last moments into eternity, her hands clutching mine. When it ended I kissed her forehead gently. “You sure were something, baby.”
Lois put a comforting arm around me. “She came alone, Rick.”
“Yeah… Lo… she sure did.”
The End
Thank you for purchasing and reading Rick Cantelli, P.I. Book II: Deadly Liaisons. If you enjoyed the novel, please take a moment and leave a review. Your consideration would be much appreciated. Please visit my Amazon Author’s Page if you would like to preview any of my other novels. Thanks again for your support.
Bernard Lee DeLeo
Rick Cantelli, P.I. Deadly Liaisons (Rick Cantelli, P.I. Detectives Book 2) Page 28