by Jonas Saul
He crumpled up the papers on Arkady and his bodyguard as they had been taken care of. He flipped through the rest, discarding the ones he didn’t need and putting into a separate pile the ones of the faces and locations he didn’t recognize.
He had thinned the file considerably. Under the paperwork that showed known businesses associated with the Russian Mafia, the FBI had listed the restaurant on Queen Street that Yuri owned. It also listed an adult store in North York on Finch Avenue.
He stopped browsing and snapped his fingers.
That’s right. The Italians run a store in Mississauga.
The entire nightmare had started in an adult store in Mississauga when Darwin had been given an address of an abandoned airplane hangar. He had been in the store to purchase a bottle of mint tree, a minty liquid that Rosina used for her teeth and bathing. She loved the stuff. But what Darwin got was an address that day to a meeting where he thought he would be able to work on his phobias in a group setting.
How ironic.
That day started his foray into the world of the Mafia, but he’d come out the other side with his phobias healed. The group setting wasn’t traditional, but the end result was the same.
There was a knock on the door. Then a soft voice said, “Housekeeping.”
“I’m still here,” he said.
The door opened anyway.
The woman who had been cleaning next door stepped inside, towels in her hands.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I didn’t hear you.”
“I’ll be done in a moment.”
Darwin gathered the papers up and folded them together. He stuffed all of them in his pocket as the maid moved farther into the room.
“Excuse me,” Darwin turned to her. “I haven’t checked out yet.”
The towels dropped away from the woman’s hand and a gun popped up as the door behind her closed. The petite woman aimed it at his face and ordered him to sit.
Darwin was too far away to swat at her and not stupid enough to reach for his own gun.
He backed up and sat in the chair by the desk.
“It’s past checkout time,” the woman said. “Time for you to go.”
“Interesting way for the hotel to ask their guests to check out.”
She two-handed the gun and slipped her finger inside the trigger guard.
Darwin closed his eyes and braced for the bullet.
Chapter 16
The bullet didn’t come. He opened his eyes. The woman sat on the corner of the bed, the gun still up. More than eight feet separated them. Too far to attempt to knock the weapon out of her hand and too far to rush her.
“Who are you?” Darwin asked. “Who do you work for?”
“No talking. We wait. When my backup arrives you can tell your story.”
Police?
If she was a cop, why didn’t she identify herself right away? Would he be right in assuming she would know the FBI agents up here in Canada dealing with Darwin and the Red Mafia dispute? He decided to take a gamble.
“You’re wasting valuable time,” he said.
“Shut up.”
“I will have your job when this is over.”
“I said, shut up.”
“Why the delay with the backup? They busy cleaning up all the bodies left behind by The Scythe?”
Her eyes flickered.
Got you.
She met his gaze. This time she didn’t tell him to shut up. Her silence was enough to let him know she was listening.
“My search has led me from the catastrophe at the restaurant on Queen Street last night to the aftermath at the strip club. My sources told me Yuri Pavel would be in this hotel with a hostage. I’m trying to locate The Scythe before he continues his spree and you stalling me here is outrageous.”
“What? But they said …”
“I know, I know. My name is Special Agent Kirk Williams.”
If she had met Williams, his gambit was over. If not, he was on a tangent.
“You look young to be—”
“So do you,” Darwin cut in.
“What happened to your face?”
“Didn’t you hear what happened to us yesterday in Barrie? Our car was stolen on the way into town?”
“Yes, we had to send another car out to the agents stranded on the highway. They were pretty pissed that guy Darwin got away.”
“Darwin Kostas is almost as bad as the Mafia.”
“I’ve heard he’s some kind of hero throughout our ranks.”
She lowered her gun to rest it on her leg.
Darwin raised his hand slowly so as to not cause alarm. Then he circled his face. “Darwin did this. That’s why I’m dressed this way. I’m hunting him and the Russians.”
“Are you armed?”
“Of course. I’m surprised with your training that you’re just asking me that now.”
Sirens outside the building were loud enough to hear through the thick walls.
Shit. Gotta go.
“Can I show you something?” Darwin asked.
She hesitated.
“It’s in my back pocket.”
“Slowly,” she said.
Without any sudden movements, Darwin twisted in his chair and pulled the pile of papers that he was done with and unfolded them.
“Here, look at these.”
He tossed them on the bed closest to him. The woman walked over and picked them up. She scanned through the pile while the sirens pulled up out front and were turned off.
“These are confidential FBI releases from their files,” she said. “At least that’s what it looks like to me. How is it you have these?”
“How would I have them if I wasn’t FBI?”
“Do you have ID?”
“Have you ever worked undercover? Not just dressed as a maid, I mean deep cover?”
She shook her head.
“If I was searched at the strip club, that would’ve been it for me. Now, I’m running out of time. I’m going to leave.” He stood from the chair. “Your team can sweep this room, but you won’t find much. In our experience, Yuri never leaves prints behind. I’m just pissed that I was an hour too late.”
“Last question.”
Hurry up, hurry up. At any second someone’s coming through that door and I’m toast.
“How did you get in here?”
“This key card.” He held it up. “The front desk gave it to me. We’d called it in an hour before I got here. You’d be surprised at the access we can get.”
She bought everything he was selling. She lowered her weapon.
He walked up to her and held out his hand. She shook it.
“Pleasure to work with you, Agent …”
“Shelly Paulson. I’m not an agent. I’m an Inspector with the RCMP. Although I’m pretty new at it.”
“Brave of you to do what you did, but you were too late. The Russians have left the building. I’ll favor you in my report.”
He stepped past her and walked to the door.
“Wait,” she called.
He grabbed the door and waited, knowing each second counted.
“Don’t you want these files? Aren’t they confidential?”
“Shred them. Those are the files of the Russians who are dead now.”
As he opened the door and stepped out, the elevator pinged. He turned away from it, walked as fast as he could to the next door in the hallway and stood by it for a brief moment. He watched the end of the hall toward the elevator.
Then five men filled the entrance, briskly heading his way.
He banged his foot on the door in front of him and pulled his shoulder back as if he had just shut it hard. At this time in the day, right after checkout, he didn’t have to worry that anyone was in the room. Unless they were staying for more than one night.
He turned away from the five men and walked without purpose, slowly making his way down the long hallway, acting as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He listened to everything behi
nd him, trying to make out if they were closing in on him.
The men reached the door to room 456 and knocked. Shelly opened it. Their voices traveled down the empty, quiet corridor.
Three doors away from the end Darwin picked up his pace.
“Shelly Paulson, and yours?”
The voice was distant, but he discerned who the speaker was and what they were saying.
“We’re with the FBI. This is Special Agent Scott and my name is Special Agent Williams.”
“What?” Shelly said.
Darwin half jogged the last bit.
“ID please,” Shelly demanded.
As he hit the door to the stairwell, he heard Shelly say, “There was a guy in here who said he was you. His face was bruised up—”
“Get him!” Darwin heard Williams shouting through the stairwell door as it closed behind him.
He dropped down the four flights of stairs as if his ass was on fire, the wound in his side screaming at him to slow down. At the first floor he decided not to risk walking out into a trap. They could’ve radioed down and men could be running at the stairwell door right now.
He passed the exit door and continued down to the basement parking level even as footsteps pounded from above.
At the basement, he ripped open the door and ran for the sunlight pouring down the exit ramp. A lone vehicle turned the last corner and started toward the parking attendant behind a little glass enclosed booth.
Darwin hopped between two cars, ran by a cement pillar and then jumped out in front of the brown Impala a dozen yards from the exit.
The driver hit the brakes and raised both hands in a ‘what’s up’ gesture.
Darwin pulled his gun out, aimed it at the windshield and motioned for the driver to get out as he moved to the driver’s door.
But the hardened Toronto driver shook his head, defiant.
“What the hell?” Darwin shouted. “I’ve got a gun.”
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Darwin turned to see the parking attendant had stepped out of his little glass booth. He brought the gun up and fired a bullet into the glass hut the parking attendant had just vacated, shattering the glass on both sides. The attendant ducked so fast he stumbled and fell on the ground.
The stairwell door burst open.
Darwin tapped the glass on the driver’s side window of the stopped Impala and aimed the weapon at the driver’s face.
“Okay, okay,” the man shouted, his voice muffled through the window.
The door clicked and the driver started getting out of his car.
“Darwin, stop running,” Williams yelled. “We can help.”
“Fuck you!” Darwin shouted back.
He yanked the driver out of the way, dropped down behind the wheel and gunned the engine. Luckily, the parking attendant had already gotten off his ass because Darwin came close to the booth as he rounded the corner and squealed the tires on his way into the sunlight of a bright Toronto day.
He hit the brakes so hard, the car slid a few feet to the chagrin of pedestrians walking by. The sidewalk was jammed with businesspeople out for lunch. He waited for it to clear while studying the rearview mirror.
Williams showed up at the bottom of the ramp.
There was no end in sight of people walking back and forth in front of him.
Williams ran up the ramp toward the car, so Darwin edged forward, nudging people out of the way. He honked the horn and kept moving forward.
Someone shouted at him. Someone else slapped the passenger side window.
Then Williams jumped on the trunk and banged the back window.
Darwin made it through the people but had to wait for two taxis to pass before jumping out into traffic.
Williams slid off the trunk and jumped up beside the driver’s side window. He smacked it with the butt of his weapon as Darwin hit the gas, bunny hopping into the lane, where he slammed it down and sped away.
“The door was unlocked, asshole,” he said to the empty vehicle.
Chapter 17
Darwin headed deeper into the city. Getting on a highway would be a mistake. The authorities would be watching for him and were probably sending the information about this car to every available unit in the area at that moment.
He sped north on Mount Pleasant Road, continuing until he hit Lawrence Avenue. Then he turned left and hit Yonge Street where he headed north again. He needed to get as far away from downtown as he could by staying on side streets, but Yonge would get him above Highway 401 and nearer the Russian adult store on Finch.
Without interruption, he made it to the corner of Yonge and Finch, drove by the adult store and continued on for two more blocks. After pulling onto a residential side street, he turned the car off and sat listening to the ticking of the Impala’s hot engine.
He wiped his face with his hands and took a couple of deep breaths.
He knew this was a warpath against some of the most dangerous people on earth, but he couldn’t stop now. He had to keep hunting Russians until he got to the one who had his wife or knew where she was.
Having the cops and the FBI on his tail didn’t help. He almost got stopped back at the hotel. He wondered how many charges he was adding to the docket that his lawyer would read one day and curse his idea of defense.
It was time. He checked his weapons and then got out of the stolen vehicle.
On the walk back to the adult store, he crossed the street and bought a coffee at one of the nationwide chains. He took it to go and headed to the adult store, drinking it on the way.
Red lights flashed in the windows where mannequins in lingerie stood in various poses. A couple of adult games and lotions were also on display.
Looks like an average adult establishment. It would surprise a lot of people to know the Russian Mafia runs it.
He opened the door and stepped inside. A young, pretty girl sat behind the counter. She looked up and greeted him, her smile wide, showing perfect white teeth.
He sipped his coffee and acted nervous as he passed the counter, like it was his first time, and walked down to the section where the wall was covered in dildos.
I can’t hurt a woman. Her head was down as she read a magazine. Correction, a girl.
He needed to know if the Mafia meeting location was being given out through this outlet as the Italians did with their adult business.
He moved to the counter.
“Is there something you’re looking for?” the clerk asked, her accent clearly Russian.
“I’m here to pick up my paper for the meeting tomorrow night.”
She frowned, confused. “I don’t understand. We have no meeting here.”
“Not here? Yuri would’ve left notes on where the meeting will be. This is how they did it the last time. I was told to come here and you would tell me where the meeting was going to be tomorrow.”
“I don’t know this man, Yuri. I’m sorry.”
Something moved behind him. He spun around just as the curtain at the back dropped in place.
“Who’s in the back?”
“None of your business,” the girl said. “I think you should leave now.”
Darwin set his coffee on the counter, turned and started for the curtain.
“Hello back there,” he said.
“Excuse me,” the girl raised her voice behind him.
Darwin kept walking. At the curtain, he stood to the side, pulled out his gun and placed a finger over his lips for the girl to be quiet. He glared at her and showed her the gun.
After parting the curtain, he jumped through it, his back to the wall.
Someone banged through the back door ahead of him. It slammed against the outer wall and came lazily around.
He ran for the door and jumped outside and off the stairs fast, in case someone was waiting to shoot at him.
The man had a head start and was at least twenty yards ahead. Darwin couldn’t run that fast with the hole in his side, so he took careful aim. The back of the
strip mall was empty except for garbage bins and a couple of cars.