Dead Money Run

by J. Frank James

  After a few pages more, I started to get a headache. I saw nothing further of value and felt like I needed a drink. I picked up the telephone handset and dialed room service and ordered a bottle of scotch. Any brand would do I had told them.

  I needed someplace to start. My hope was that I could keep my sanity long enough to see this thing to the end.

  Chapter 27

  Before going to bed in a hotel room, I always prop a chair under the doorknob. It wasn’t much, but if someone was trying to get in, it would give me a few seconds to grab a weapon. Sitting in the small kitchen area, I had a clear shot at the door. I had placed the Glock on the kitchen table within easy reach while I drank my coffee. The front door of the room did not open straight out into the parking lot, but had a small alcove you had to step into before entering the room. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but twenty minutes more or less would cover it. I had ordered a bottle of scotch from room service and was waiting for the knock at the door when I saw the chair move slightly. If I had not been looking at the door, I wouldn’t have noticed it. Getting up from my chair, I grabbed the Glock and screwed in the suppressor and walked to the door. Looking through the security hole I saw two guys looking back at the door. One guy had a sap in his hand and the other guy had a small caliber pistol with a silencer on it. I didn’t see anyone standing out there with a bottle of scotch.

  Our room was one of those two bedroom suites where one of the bedrooms could be joined with the suite making for two bedrooms or closed off and rented as a hotel room by itself. The extra room also had a door to the outside. I had to move fast. Removing the chair from under the doorknob, I was hoping that Hilary would stay in the bathroom for the next few minutes singing her heart out while I tended to these two out in the hall.

  Walking into the other room, I opened the door to the outside and stepped out onto the walkway. I could see the back of one of our visitors rocking back and forth like a fighter waiting to go into a ring. I heard one of them say, “He’s probably in there fucking the girl. If he is, I want sloppy seconds.” I heard them both laugh. Hugging the wall, I inched my way down the walkway until I was able to put the end of the Glock’s barrel behind the guy’s head that was rocking back and forth. I shot him in the neck just above his shoulders severing his spine. He was dead standing up. I heard the other man say, “Frank, what’s with you…” I grabbed the one I shot and shoved him into his partner, knocking them both through our room door. As they fell on our floor, I shot the first guy in the groin.

  Shooting someone in the groin tends to hurt like hell, but they usually don’t die right away from the wound. This one dropped the pistol he was holding and grabbed his crotch.

  Hilary walked out of the bathroom holding a towel in front of her just as I came through the door. With a surprised look on her face, she smiled and said, “I take it we’re checking out?”

  Lifting the dude with the groin problem by his hair, I said, “Not until I get some answers from this fucker.”

  “I’m not telling you a fucking thing asshole.”

  “Little early to be making rash statements, don’t you think? By the time I get through with you, you’ll be singing the National Anthem, trust me.”

  Walking over to the dead guy, I emptied his pockets. He had a roll of hundreds that would have choked a horse. I threw the roll on the bed. His driver’s license gave his name a Stan Goldman. He was from College Park, Georgia. The rest of the stuff amounted to a pocket knife, a set of car keys, which I threw on the bed, along with the money. The car keys were the kind where you pushed a button to unlock the doors and another one to start the engine. It made it easy for me when I had to find the car.

  I stood up and looked at the other guy holding his groin and said,” Okay wise guy, you’re next.”

  “What are you going to do with Stan’s money? Add it to the fifteen you already got?”

  So that was it. “How do you know about that?” I said.

  “You dumb fuck, we’re GBI and you’re in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

  “You’re a little off your reservation aren’t you chief?”

  He didn’t answer the question, but just kept looking at me. I turned and smiled at him and said, “If you and your dead buddy here are GBI, then she’s little Orphan Annie and I’m Sandy, her dog.

  “You got any ID?” I asked.

  He still didn’t say anything and just looked at me. I walked over and rolled him on his stomach and did the same thing to him that I did to dead Stan. He had a little more than Stan in the way of money. I added it to the pot. Next, I found an ID that was in one of those little wallet type cases Joe Friday would pulled out on Dragnet and flash to some terrified witness saying, ‘Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.’ But he wasn’t Joe Friday and I wasn’t Sandy the dog.

  Searching through the rest of his pockets, I found a leather sap with a spring handle. I threw it on the bed along with everything else.

  “Okay, Friday, if you’re GBI, tell me where you did your basic training?”

  Nothing.

  “I take it you don’t know. Here’s a bit of trivia for you, Friday. It’s in Forsyth, Georgia.

  “Now I need some facts.”

  “My name is not Friday,” he said.

  “It’s going to be mud in a few minutes unless you start talking.

  “Who do you really work for and don’t ragtime me,” I said. “We’re about out of time.”

  “You’re going to kill me like you’ve killed all the rest. Why should I tell you anything?”

  “Aha,” I said. “So someone is keeping score. You want to add your name to the list?” I stepped on his stomach and he gave out a grunt and rolled over.

  “God…I need a doctor,” he said. “I’m gut shot.”

  “You should have thought of that before you knocked on the door,” I said.

  “You’re killing people faster than we can get them in the field. No one wants to mess with you.”

  “So what are you doing here?”

  “Money. We want the money. Everybody does. You have some powerful people after you. When they catch you and Bright Eyes here, you are going to pay and it won’t be in any prison.”

  “Okay,” I looked at his ID to get his name, “Renaldo Maddox. Funny name for a cop. I use to know a Renaldo Maddox who had a cell three doors down from me in the Atlanta Pen. You ever in prison, Renaldo?”

  Renaldo was done talking. He was lying on his back. A pool of blood had formed under him. I kicked him and asked him again who he worked for.

  “GBI. You got my ID.”

  “No, I have a plastic card in my hands with your name on it, but it is not an official one. The official ones have the State of Georgia seal embossed in gold on them. This one looks like something you got out of a box of Cracker Jacks,” I said.

  “I need a doctor. Get me a doctor and then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” He was looking at Hilary as he spoke.

  “There has to be a doctor in this place,” he said. “They all have them.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But you’re not going to see any of them.

  “I can do one of two things. Pack up and leave you here for the maid to call the cops and an ambulance or I can shoot you and still leave you here for the maid, only she won’t be calling for an ambulance. Your choice.”

  While Renaldo was thinking things over, I went and got my sister’s address book and started playing ‘Who do you know’ with him. As I read off the names he didn’t say anything. Finally I had enough. I picked up the small caliber pistol he had with him when he came through the door and shot him above his right eye. He shook like he couldn’t believe it, but at least I warned him.

  “Well, that’s that. What do we do now,” said Hilary. “So far it’s eleven for the home team, visitors nothing.”

  I told Hilary that I wasn’t keeping score.

  “Look, this thing is going to get real messy,” I said. “I think this deal is more than just about my s
ister’s killing and the money they think I have. I can give you some money, enough to go see your parents and you’re out of this.”

  I watched as Hilary wrinkled her forehead, “You think that’s what I want?”

  “Not sure, but if you left, I wouldn’t blame you,” I said.

  “Well, Clyde, it looks like I’m your Bonnie. I just don’t want to end up somewhere beside the road in a shot up car. These people are ramping up. Pretty soon they’ll send the first team in. When they do, you’re going to need all the help you can get and right now, I’m it. Besides, where would I go? Home to Deadsville? I don’t think so. Probably be worse off. At least with you I have a chance of shooting someone before they shoot me.”

  I had nothing to add to that. I got up and walked over and kissed her. If I didn’t watch myself, I could end up on my back with my legs kicking in the air asking her to scratch my belly.

  After a few minutes, Hilary pointed at the two dead bodies and said, “What are we going to do with them?”

  “I’ll think of something,” I said. “We need to finish getting dressed and leave. I’ll drive their car to a quiet spot I saw coming in. Looked like a public park. No one bothers a car at a public park, at least not right away.”

  As we packed to leave, I stopped for a few moments. Something was not right.

  “What’s the matter?” Hilary said stepping around the dead men as she packed.

  “I never got the scotch I ordered from room service.”

  “So? If you think you need it, we can get something as we leave town.”

  “No,” I said. “When was the last time you stayed in a hotel and room service failed to bring you what you asked for. We need to hurry.”

  It took five minutes to get everything in our car. I fished out a laundry cart, loaded the two bodies in it and pushed it out onto the parking area. I hit the unlock mechanism on the key and a trunk lid popped up on a four door Ford Taurus two rooms down from our room. Pushing the cart over to the rear of the Ford, I loaded the bodies in the trunk.

  Hilary tossed our stuff in our car and while she did that I rolled the cart into a men’s room and hung an ‘out of order sign’ on the outside.

  When Hilary came out to get in the car, I said, “I’m having second thoughts about this GBI thing. Maybe I was wrong.”

  “Or, maybe this was some rogue cop outfit that just was trying to cut themselves in for a share of money. No got time to be wrong, Kemosabe,” said Hilary.

  “I admit, it seems a stretch, but it does happen from time to time.”

  “If you’re right, then these two are no better than the crooks chasing us. Your call,” she said.

  “Too late to do anything about it now,” I said.

  Whoever was after us had the juice to make dead people disappear without a trace. I was betting the two in the car trunk would soon be in the same hopper. Fifteen million dollars tax free is a lot of money.

  “Lou?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “What if it isn’t the money?”

  Chapter 28

  After we got in the car, I told Hilary about Max Reynolds and my theory about his involvement.

  “Maybe he’s like a minder,” said Hilary. “You know. Maybe Susan had been arrested for something and they were using her as a snitch. When a guy is getting it on with a girl, he might say things that he otherwise wouldn’t say. You get my meaning?”

  “What do I say when we are in bed?” I said.

  “A whole lot of grunts and ‘baby don’t stop’. The rest I can’t recall.”

  “What is it that they say, ‘Loose lips, sink ships’, or something like that,” I said.

  “No, I think it is more ‘Keep mum, she’s not so dumb.’ I like that better,” Hilary said.

  As we drove to Atlanta, I kept kicking around the Reynolds connection, Susan’s death and Hilary’s idea that maybe it wasn’t the money at all. One thing for sure, more than one group was in the mix. One trying to get the money, another trying to stop us from doing something we didn’t know about and another trying to get something that we had but didn’t know we had.

  “Hilary, maybe you’re on to something. We have something, but don’t know we have it. What if my sister wasn’t working under duress, but was undercover.”

  “Lou, all girls work best undercover.”

  Things needed to make sense and my sister working with someone was more her style. She loved being on the edge. I always told her she would have made a great criminal. Max Reynolds, Shelia and Billy Marks and my sister all having the same address in Atlanta was no coincidence.

  “Lou, I think I got it.”

  “Got what?”

  “Why this is just like what happened in that movie ‘Casablanca’.

  “You got me there,” I said. “I don’t watch television.”

  “Not a movie on TV, silly. ‘Casablanca’ is a famous movie. It’s about this guy who runs a bar in Casablanca and this girl who is in love with another guy the Germans are looking for. While they are hiding out, she takes up with this guy who owns the bar because they had been lovers once. His name is Rick and the bar is called Rick’s. Anyway, the guy named Rick has to choose between helping them escape and keeping the girl. Maybe your sister was in love with this Max and she was helping him in some way.”

  “That sounds nuts. Hollywood is nothing but fairytales.”

  “You got something better?”

  “No,” I said. “Anything is possible. I just don’t believe in fairytales.”

  “You don’t?” said Hilary. “Then how do you explain you and me?”

  “I can’t. Just something that is. No other explanation for it.”

  “Yeah, sure,” said Hilary. “You just hold onto that thought for later.”

  As we drove down the road, I made a call to someone who I knew who I thought could get some information for me.

  John Goodman was in the computer security game. There wasn’t a computer system that he couldn’t hack or information he couldn’t find.

  “John, this is Lou Malloy.”

  “Lou, I heard you were getting out. How are things going for you?”

  “Not bad,” I said.

  “What can I do for you, Lou?”

  “I have a few names that I would like you to run down for me.”

  “Fire away,” Goodman said.

  “The first name on my list is a Max Reynolds. I think he is connected with Homeland Security in some way. He has an office in Atlanta. And John, get a description of him for me. I want to know what he looks like.” I then gave him Max’s address.

  “Next is Sonny Cap.”

  “Sonny Cap. What the hell are you messing with him for?”

  “You know this guy?”

  “Who in Atlanta doesn’t know Sonny Cap? Cap is bad news, Lou. But his Old Man is the one you need to watch out for. Name is Nick Cappoleto. He’s very dangerous.”

  “Why?”

  “Why you ask? Because he’s in the killing business. Killing someone is a regular event for him. Has his fingers into just about anything that is illegal. His Family is the Sex Depot of the crime world. Any size you want, at any price and in any style. They got it. Strip clubs, porn, drugs, prostitution, anything.”

  “Okay, throw his name in the pot.

  “Now I need some information on an entity called Sixty-Six, Partners. I think they are in Atlanta someplace, but that’s all I got on that.

  “Next, I want to know the real owners of a place called the Golden Slipper Casino and Resort on Cumberland Island and a place called the Timucua Casino and Resort in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.”

  “That’s easy, bunch of Indians.”

  I could hear John laughing at his own joke.

  “You’re serious on this casino thing?”

  “Very, John.

  “Next, I want you the check out a person named Angel Garcia. He works for Sonny Cap. I want to know where he lives, what he drives and who his friends are. He’s supposed to ru
n a place called the Starlight Club.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Find out what you can about a woman named Kandi Kain.”

  “Sounds like a candy salesman,” said John.

  “She was my sister and she’s dead. I’m looking for her killer.”

  “I’m sorry, Lou. I didn’t know you had a sister.”

  I didn’t want to get melancholy over Susan’s death with John or anyone for that matter. What was done was done.

  “Her real name was Susan Malloy. She may have been hooked up with this Max Reynolds on something.”

  “When do you want this stuff?”

  “This afternoon if possible,” I said.

  “I got it. ASAP.”

  “Yes. Don’t try and call me. I will call you.”

  “Seriously, give me a few days, Lou.”

  “I need it as soon as you can, John.”

  “You thinking of setting up shop at the Starlight?”

  “No, John,” I said. “Just find out what you can. I’m especially interested in Sonny Cap and Angel Garcia. Also, see if you come across someone named Hightower in the mix. Be careful, John. They play rough.”

  “Lou, you don’t have to warn me. Sonny Cap, is not a schoolboy. I don’t know the others, but if you are thinking about messing with Sonny, better be careful.”

  “Thanks, John. I’ll keep that in mind,” I said and disconnected the call.

  John was right. The stakes were getting higher. At this point there was no turning back. If I didn’t stay in the game now they would still kill me, Hilary and anyone else that had anything to do with the money or whatever they think we had.

  “How did that go?”

  “That was a friend of mine named, John. Said we were as good as dead.”

  Chapter 29

  When he finally got to the scene of the crime, Ramiro began with his usual questions.

  “Who called this in?”

  “Someone from across the street. Neighbor was out walking his dog. The dog broke loose and went behind the bushes at the front of the vic’s house. When the dog began howling, the neighbor went to haul his dog out of the bushes and found the body, dialed 911. Got Mandi and she patched it to us. We were around the corner at the other crime scene when she called. Took five minutes to get here.”