Crime Always Pays

by Declan Burke

  Johnny with a double-take, from Rossi to Terry in the wing-backed armchair. 'Oh shit,' he said, his jaw flopping around. He said, 'I didn't know. How could I know?'

  'Don't worry about it,' Terry said. 'You know now.'

  'You know forty gees worth,' Rossi told him.

  Mel said, 'Rossi? If you don't mind, we're right in the middle of --'

  Except then Rossi's phone rang. Rossi checked the caller ID and handed Johnny the phone, saying, 'Here's this guy Niko wants to talk to you. Whyn't you make it a conference call, huh?' Putting the CZ, 9mm Parabellum, in Johnny's face.

  So Johnny took the call, hit speaker-phone. 'Niko?'

  'Who's this?'

  'It's me, Johnny.'

  'You alone?'

  'Sure, yeah. Where the fuck are you?'

  'Where're you?'

  'Up in the village, man. You get away?'

  'Fucking amateurs he sent.'

  'Who sent?'

  'Pyle, the fucking hippy.' Niko taking a deep breath, letting it out with a hiss.

  'You alright?' Johnny said.

  'The fat guy, bastard caught me one in the shoulder.'

  Rossi winked at Terry, gave him a thumbs-up.

  'The fat guy?'

  'The ex-fat guy.' Niko with an evil chuckle. 'Went down so hard there'll be quakes in Australia.' Rossi frowned. Madge put her fingertips to her lips. 'Johnny? You got serious problems with Pyle. He had me took by a guy thought I was you, I think he's a pro hooked up with these Sicilians, working freelance. Told Pyle he had you someplace safe.'

  'Bluffing him,' Johnny mumbled.

  'What I thought, yeah. Where're you now, the Orange?'

  'Yeah,' Johnny said, 'coordinating the, y'know, search. You coming in here?'

  'Fuck no, are you kidding? Meet me at the place, a boat's coming in from Santorin to take me off, they'll be here in three, four hours.' Another slow hissing of breath. Niko swore.

  'You need that thing seen to?' Johnny said.

  'Yeah,' Niko said. 'Any of the guys there know First Aid?'

  'I dunno. I'll ask.'

  'Ask fast,' Niko said. 'Shit, hold on – here's a car now. Johnny?'

  'Yeah?'

  'That boat's for me. You get off the island after you deal with Pyle.'

  Niko hung up.

  'The ex-fat guy?' Rossi said, not wanting to believe it.

  Madge looked at Terry.

  Terry said, 'Where's this place this guy's talking about?'

  'Up north,' Johnny said. 'Near Homer's Tomb.'

  'How long'll it take to get there?'

  'Half-an-hour, maybe more.'

  'What's the read?' Rossi said.

  'I'm thinking,' Terry said, 'if anything's happened Ray --'

  'Or Karen,' Madge said.

  'Or Gary,' Mel said.

  But Rossi only stared at her, stony-faced. 'You're a day late,' he said, 'and more'n a few dollars overdue.'

  This being the moment, for no good reason Melody could figure, the baby chose to take its first kick. She put a hand to her belly and said, 'Oh.'

  Sleeps

  'How about this?' Sleeps said. 'I got one, you got two, Ray's got none.' Anna quartering the sand behind them, snuffling. 'You give him one, we all put 'em away, it'd be like a Mexican stand-off in reverse. Everyone knows everyone else is packing, who's likely to draw?'

  This after Ray made the introductions, how Gary was the guy pulling the Sicilian's strings. Pyle allowed he was agreeable, it requiring all three of them to push the Punto out of the sand anyway, Ray not much use with his busted arm, the idea being to get the car going again with a running start. So Pyle gave Ray the .38, Ray insisting it was his before it was Karen's, and Sleeps put Karen in the driver's seat to turn the key once they got the Punto moving.

  Once they were off the beach Ray said, 'Gary? You're a wheelman, right? How about you drive, me and Pyle'll sit in the back and admire how a pro does it.'

  Karen huddled up riding shotgun beside Sleeps, hugging herself. Anna trotting alongside.

  'So where to?' Sleeps said, nosing the Punto up through the bends, the engine whining against the steep climb, the weight in the car.

  'Back to the village,' Ray said, 'the health centre. Karen needs seeing to.'

  Karen shaking her head. 'This Niko first,' she said.

  'We don't even know where the guy's gone,' Ray said.

  'I've got a pretty good idea,' Pyle said.

  Ray said, 'Gary? How do you want to play it?'

  Sleeps considered. 'We get all the way up to the main road and we haven't passed him, it means he's behind us.'

  'Then what?'

  'We could turn around and come down slow. Maybe walking it, beating the bushes.'

  'What's the other option?'

  'We keep going, get Karen to the doctor. Then find this guy and kill him.'

  'Kill him?' Pyle said.

  Sleeps was still only realising how close he'd come when Niko squeezed one off, Sleeps ducking away behind the boulder, getting horizontal fast. But it was like the bullet, whining by so close, had punctured some cloudy bubble, leaving Sleeps staring up at the star-twinkling sky for the first time in his life, aware now of how much he'd had to lose, how fragile and temporary it all was.

  Although at the time, lying there face down in the dirt, not knowing for that split-second if Niko would keep going or stop to administer the coup de grâce, Sleeps'd had time for only one thought: Christ, he's going to get her too.

  'Guy tried to kill me,' he said simply. 'It's open season now.'

  'I'll dig you the hole,' Ray said.

  Karen, cradling her ribs with one arm, got herself twisted around. 'Ray? We lose him now, we'll never find him again.'

  'She's right,' Pyle said. 'And the fucker'll come back with a SWAT team, man. Calling in the hammerdown option.'

  Ray said, 'Gary?'

  'If Karen reckons she'll make it,' Sleeps said, 'then it's Karen's call.'

  Karen gave a little shudder, an after-shock. 'I'll make it,' she said. 'Pull in.'

  Sleeps pulled over to the verge. Karen opened the door and chucked at Anna, pulled the girl's head into the car, onto her lap. A little game of tug-o'-war ensued, when Anna refused to give up the rag in her mouth.

  'What's that?' Pyle said.

  'From the stench,' Ray said, 'I'm guessing she found Niko's gag.'

  'Christ,' Sleeps said, 'I could track him from that myself.'

  'The boy likes his garlic,' Pyle said.

  Karen wrenched the rag free and then waved it under Anna's nose, hissed in her ear. Anna's ears pricked up and then she threw her head back and howled again, Sleeps knowing he'd be hearing that sound for years to come in his bad dreams.

  Karen shook her head unbuckling the muzzle, put a finger to her lips and then buried her face in the wolf's ruff. The wolf ducked around the open door, then took off at a steady lope up the road.

  Sleeps put the Punto in gear, got going. He said, 'Ray? The hound being free and all, no muzzle, this might be a good time to put in a courtesy call to Rossi, give the guy a sporting chance if Anna misses out on Niko.'

  Karen turned her head, slow, to raise an eyebrow at Ray.

  'It's a long story,' Ray said.

  Rossi

  Rossi took Johnny in the bathroom and had him stand in the bath and drop his trousers, bend over grabbing the taps. 'Ever see Things To Do In Denver, Johnny?'

  'Listen, Rossi, I couldn't have known. If I'd --'

  Rossi rammed the CZ between Johnny's buttocks. 'They've this thing in the movie, it's called buckwheats. Guy takes a round up the hole, it's a horrible death, lasts hours.'

  'Rossi, for the love of Jesus --'

  'I'd a thought,' Rossi said cocking the CZ, 'you'd be more a Judas man. I mean, Johnny, you set me up with a hot fucking rod. So it’d be what they call, y'know, that thing, you were to take a round up the hole from your own hot rod now.'

  Johnny with wobbly knees. 'It wasn't meant for you, man.'


  'No?'

  'You were supposed to hand off to Niko, let him take the heat.'

  'Meanwhile,' Rossi said, 'I'm running all over with a smoking gun. For ten fuckin grand?' He shoved the CZ a little further between Johnny's white hairy buttocks. 'I'm thinking, that forty gees you owe, it's maybe double-bubbling again.'

  'Sure thing,' Johnny said. 'Anything you say.'

  'Don't agree so easy, man. You do that, you're either fink all the way through or you're planning some other grift. Either way, I'm worried.'

  'You got nothing to worry about, Rossi.'

  'I got my main man down, Johnny, maybe bad, I dunno. And I got this Niko guy running free, guy's a rogue cannon who maybe wants you, setting you up for a meet at this commie joint you're calling it.'

  'Why would he want me?'

  'You tried to stiff him,' Rossi jamming the CZ a little further, 'with a bogey rod.'

  'How would he even know?'

  Rossi thought about that. 'You don't think he gave it up a bit easy?' he said. 'How he's scooting out, leaving you to clean up? I mean, this is a guy, he's just been in a firefight with some crew he thinks is working for the guy works for you, this Pyle guy. You were Niko, you'd already stopped a slug, you wouldn't be maybe wondering who's with who?'

  'Oh-kay,' Johnny said. 'But if he thinks I'm offside, why's he telling me where to meet?'

  'See if you show up. Or if you don't, y'know, send some more Sicilians.'

  'So if I show it's all cool. But if I send a crew, he's dead.'

  'You don't have any Sicilians, Johnny.'

  'You think Niko's taking that chance?'

  'I dunno. I mean, you know the guy better'n me, he's your guy.'

  'Hold up.' Johnny peered back over his shoulder. He said, 'You think Niko's my guy?'

  'You're saying he isn't?'

  Johnny shook his head sadly, said, 'I'm betting you don't even know he's a cop.'

  Rossi let the CZ drop away. 'You're telling me,' he said, 'it was a cop took out Sleeps?'

  Johnny like a toy dog in a car window, head bobbing.

  'Jesus, Johnny.' Rossi shaking his head. 'You're tied in with cops?'

  'It's not what you think, man.'

  'See, that's been my problem all along,' Rossi said, giving the CZ a vicious twist as he rammed it home between Johnny's buttocks, Johnny giving a little yelp and rising up on his tippy-toes. 'Too much fuckin thinking.' He cocked the gun, slipped the safety off. 'Y'know the real beauty of buckwheats, Johnny? The whole body works as a silencer. Not a lot of people know that.'

  'What do you want?' Johnny screamed. 'Just tell me what you want.'

  'Blood,' Rossi said and squeezed the trigger.

  Doyle

  Doyle picked up and said, 'Ray?'

  'Steph?'

  'Hold on a sec.' Doyle none too comfortable negotiating through hairpin bends with sheer drops the other side of a low rail. She tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder, said, 'Okay, go on.'

  'The fuck're you doing with Rossi's phone?'

  'Rossi's a nice guy, Ray. Thought you and me should talk once in a while. Plus I reminded him, if we were to swap, about all the contacts he'd get from Johnny's phone.'

  'He's there now?'

  'Nope.'

  'Where's Johnny?'

  'Johnny, yeah. I gave him to Rossi too.'

  'You gave him to --'

  'I figured, you and Rossi being best buds now, you're telling him sad stories about you and Karen, that wouldn't be such a problem. I mean, maybe if you'd rang me when I still had Johnny, maybe then we could have --'

  'Let me talk to Johnny, Doyle.'

  'I don't have him.'

  'Fuck.' A heavy sigh, Ray accepting it. 'So where are you?'

  'Right now? Coming down the valley towards this beautiful beach, all moonlit and shit, trés romantic. Karen still have you, y'know, pinned down?'

  'Shit, Doyle – which fucking beach?'

  'Neraki, the one Rossi said Karen had you --'

  'Get out of there, Doyle. Do it now.'

  'Don't you dare take that tone with --'

  'Niko's loose, Doyle. We're coming up the road behind him, we don't know where the fuck he is.'

  Doyle slowed down to make another bend, fumbling with the gear-stick, still coming to terms with it being on the right-hand side, Doyle half the time trying to change gear with her left hand and grabbing the window-winder. She came out of the bend saying, 'Shit, yeah, I think I can see his lights, way down --'

  'That's us, Steph. Niko's on foot.'

  'He's on --'

  Niko reared up in the headlights, wild-looking, one hand holding up something shiny, the other pointing a gun at the Suzuki's windscreen. Doyle jammed on so hard the phone flew out from between her ear and shoulder, bounced back off the dashboard, Doyle following its general trajectory, the bridge of her nose cracking against the rim of the steering wheel. The Suzuki skidding to a halt about three feet short of ploughing Niko off the road and out over the low rail.

  He came around the driver's side brandishing his badge, shouting something guttural in Greek, then hauled open the door and cut off, staring. 'Stephanie?'

  Doyle, her vision blurry, tears stinging, felt something warm and wet oozing from her nose. Niko said, 'What are you doing here?'

  'Oh Niko,' Doyle bawled, 'they took Johnny.'

  Niko bundled her across into the passenger seat and sat in, tucked away his badge, the gun. Executed a fast three-point turn, then burned rubber surging back up the road, all the while watching the rearview.

  'Can you believe this shit?' he said. 'They sent a fucking wolf.'

  Karen

  'Where now?' Sleeps said, the Punto climbing out of the valley onto the main road.

  'Go right,' Pyle said. 'He'll head for the port or the coast, probably the coast. He needs to get out.'

  Sleeps went right and pushed up a gear and said, 'Pity we didn't remind the wolf to stay on the road, not go tracking the guy cross-country.'

  'Shssssh,' Ray said. Doyle, her phone still on, her voice crackling on Ray's speaker-phone, said, 'You want me to take a look at that arm?'

  'It'll wait,' Niko said.

  First time she set eyes on Doyle, Karen'd known the girl was trouble. Bad enough she was a cop, one with something to prove to the guys down the station, but then she starts batting the lashes at Ray, chasing the guy all over Christendom. No shame. Doyle the first time Anna ever got it wrong, cuddling up to the cop first time she met her, Doyle under the impression Anna the two-time killer, three parts wolf to one husky, was what she called a wee dote.

  Karen was starting to wonder, the way Anna'd taken to Pyle so fast too, if the girl's instincts weren't haywire. Anna stopping Rossi's bullet with her forehead, it'd be strange if that hadn't fritzed up her works a little. Karen feeling all kinds of fritzed herself, in shock but buzzing, still kind of stunned but feeling electrified too, adrenaline coursing.

  Doyle, she wanted Ray, that was one thing. But if the girl tried to get between Karen and Niko, pull some mutual appreciation shit between cops, Karen'd go through her for a short-cut …

  'So who told Johnny?' Doyle was saying.

  'Fuck's it matter?' Niko said. 'He knows. It's blown.'

  'What happens now?'

  'We get out. After that we worry about what happens.'

  'We?'

  'If I'm a cop, they'll think you're a cop too.'

  'They didn't when they took Johnny,' Doyle said.

  The clink-flick of a Zippo. 'What happened?'

  'Johnny, I couldn't put him off, he wanted to get to the Orange, said he was worried about you. I'm saying no, we need to stay out of sight, but he started wondering, I could tell, how come I'm giving all these excuses. So I thought I'd take him along, stick tight.'

  'And someone hit you?'

  'When I wouldn't back off.'

  'Bastard.'

  Karen gritted her teeth. Sleeps said, 'Pano Kambos coming up fast. What now?'

  'Shss
ssh,' Ray said.

  'The Blue Orange,' Pyle whispered. 'You know it?' Sleeps nodded, stayed with the main road.

  ' … paranoid as fuck,' Niko was saying. 'I'm guessing Pyle, the way it sounded back at the beach, is planning a reverse takeover on Johnny, maybe cutting these Sicilians in. Or just using them for muscle, a flat fee, I don't know.'

  'A reverse takeover on what?'

  'This dope they're running, I told you in Athens, it goes out through the hippy commune.'

  'And this is where you're meeting Johnny,' Doyle said. 'The hippy commune.'

  'Are you insane? I go in there I'm coming out horizontal.'

  'So where?'

  'This other place. Hey, is that your phone?'

  'Yeah, shit. It must've fallen when I jammed on that time.'

  A scrabbling sound, then click-brrrrrrrrr.

  'Shit,' Ray said.

  'It's okay, I know where he's going,' Pyle said. 'Gary? Get back to Pano Kambos, go left.'

  Sleeps pulled in, u-turned, got back on the road.

  Karen said, 'Ray? We get there, you best look out for Doyle. She gets in my way she's going down too.' She said, 'Which reminds me, who's got my gun?'

  'That'd be me,' Pyle said, handing it forward. He said, looking from Karen to Sleeps and back again, 'So that's both of you want Niko. Ray? You got a coin we could maybe flip?'

  Ray

  They came off a bend and over a small rise and straightaway Sleeps cut the engine, the lights, allowing the Punto coast down slow into the parking area, tyres crunching on gravel. A Suzuki jeep parked to one side, a crazy-paved path leading away from the parking area to some kind of pagoda halfway up the hill, the black sea sparkling beyond. No one around. Sleeps scooching down in the driver's seat, just in case. 'Think that's them?' he said.

  'Why don't you just ring Doyle, Ray?' Karen, with an edge. 'See if she's out for a moonlight stroll with our boy Niko.'

  'No need,' Pyle said. He pointed off to the right, the mouth of a ravine a jagged black chunk dug out of the silvery landscape. 'Guy thinks he can't trust us back at the commune, he's called a boat in here.'