by Tim Miller
“Something funny?”
“You want me to find almost $2 million in heroin, and do a hit on your shitty ass mule, for ninety-thousand? I don’t think so. One hundred for the hit, and twenty-five percent of the find.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Sonny said. “You must be high on fucking heroin.”
“All right,” Gus stood and headed for the door.
“Where you going?”
“Told you I don’t like my time wasted.”
“Ok hang on. How about fifteen percent?”
“Twenty-five.”
“Eighteen.”
“Twenty-five. I wonder how much your buyer will pay for the job on you if you don’t find it,” Gus said.
Sonny felt a knot in his gut. The asshole was right. His buyer was not one to be fucked with. He’d heard stories of shit he’d done to people who’d screwed him over. Rumor had it he tied one guy to the back of a pickup truck while he was alive and dragged him along the road before cutting him loose.
“All right, all right. Twenty-five. But that is for both the girl and the dope.”
“You want her alive.”
“Fuck no. Just waste her ass and send me a picture of her body.”
“I can do that. You want a body part or something?”
“What?”
“You know, a body part. A finger or an arm or something. Some jobs they ask for that as proof. One guy wanted the guy’s head.”
“Jesus. Are you fucking sick?”
Gus shrugged.
“Makes no difference to me. Just asking.”
“No, you can keep her fucking head or arms or whatever.”
“Hey, just makin’ sure. You need anything else?”
“No, just keep me posted.”
“You got it.” Gus stood and walked out. Sonny sat there staring at the door after he left. The guy was goofy as fuck. Sonny wasn’t convinced this cowboy clown could do what was advertised but at the moment he didn’t have much choice. He wondered if one of his rivals had found out about Christiana and grabbed her and the drugs. If only he knew it was in the car he’d feel much better. His phone rang again. It was the buyer. He’d been ignoring the calls but needed to take it.
“Yeah.”
“Why the fuck have you been ignoring me? Where is my stuff?”
“Sorry. There’s been a situation.”
“What kind of situation?”
“Hard to explain, but I have someone on it. Don’t worry. You’ll get your product.”
“I know I will. Or I’ll have your head. Literally. You get me?”
“Yes, I get you.”
“You have until the end of the week,” the buyer said before hanging up. Fuck. This cowboy had better do what he says. If anything, Sonny would make sure he took his head before the buyer got his own. The other option would be to leave town if it didn’t look like the guy would come through. He had plenty of money stashed away. The key would be slipping out before anyone noticed he was gone.
He reached into his desk and took out a bottle of Patron and poured it into his coffee cup. In the other drawer, he took out a bottle of Pepto Bismol and poured it into the same mug. Using a spoon, he stirred it before taking a drink. The mix burned his throat as it went down. While it sounded disgusting, it soothed his stomach. He took a few more sips, sat back, and let it sink in as the Patron went right to his head. Hopefully, Gus would have results for him soon.
Chapter 17
Gus pulled up just down the street from the impound lot. This was a privately owned lot which doubled as a salvage yard. He’d waited until it was late at night to make the trip. He thought of going and asking if he could look in the car, but sometimes people at these lots were assholes. He’d since ditched the duster, but still wore his hat, boots, and a work shirt.
He parked the pickup truck and locked the door as he headed to the lot. Gus approached from the side carrying his bolt cutters, with his bowie knife strapped to his leg. If there were any trouble, he’d drop both and run back to the truck. At best he was looking at a low-level felony, maybe misdemeanor for property damage. That’s if he got caught. The lot was pretty far south of town, however, not likely cops would be just hanging around.
Once at the fence, he knelt down and used the bolt cutters to cut a hole large enough for himself to crawl through. He made it into the lot easily enough and headed toward the rows of cars. He pulled his phone out to look at the picture once again. It had just come in, so it should be near the front of the lot. Making his way there, he was sure to stick to the edges of the cars and in the shadows. There were some lights set up sporadically, but spread enough out for him to remain in the darkness.
The front of the lot had a few new cars lined up. New as in new arrivals, far from new vehicles. Most of them had been in recent accidents. There on the end was Christina’s car. He walked over to it, pulled out the knife and used it to jimmy the trunk open. It was empty. He walked around and popped one of the doors open and fished around inside while looking under each of the seats, the glove box, and even under the car itself. No sign of any heroin in or around the car. The girl either took off with it, or someone got her and got the dope. Whatever it was, his work was done there.
The following morning, Gus headed into the Smarty Mart and asked around for the manager. The girl at the counter said he would be in around noon. It was just after ten, so Gus headed down the street and had tacos for breakfast, along with a beer. By the time he was done it was close to noon, so he pulled back up to the Smarty Mart. After waiting almost twenty minutes, a white Escalade pulled up, and an older man jumped out. He wasn’t sure who drove white Escalades or why, but the guy parked behind the station and rushed toward the store.
Gus got out and followed him inside. Once inside, the man headed toward the back to an office. Gus managed to catch him before he disappeared.
“Excuse me, you’re the owner?”
“Yeah, that’s me. I’m Dave Henry. You need something, cowboy?”
“Sorry to bother you. My employer had a close friend working here the other night, and she seems to have taken off.”
“Christina. That little bitch. She’s lucky someone didn’t rob the whole store blind with her taking off mid-shift like that.”
“Yeah. I can imagine. So my employer has hired me to try and locate her. She had some property of his that was quite valuable.”
“Oh really? Like what?”
“Private property. Would there be any way I could watch your security tapes? Maybe get an idea what may have happened to her? Would only take a minute.”
“I don’t know. What’s in it for me?”
“I’ll give you Five-hundred dollars right now.”
“Five-five hundred? Is that a joke?”
Gus pulled his shirt aside exposing the bowie knife.
“Yep. The punchline is the part where I cut your throat and let you bleed out here in the middle of your own store.”
“Jesus Christ. Fine, step in the office.”
He turned the key as they stepped into the small office. Dave opened his desk drawer and began fishing for something. Gus pulled out the large knife and slammed it into the drawer barely an inch from his hand which was resting on a gun.
“You really want to get cut, don’t you? I’m not fucking robbing you. I just want to see your footage from that night.” Gus picked up the small automatic handgun, dropped the magazine out and ejected the round before placing the gun back onto the table. “Now, play.”
Dave fumbled around with his laptop until he had something up.
“Here it is, not the best quality. I haven’t even watched it myself.”
Gus watched as Christina talked to some weird looking guy inside the store and followed him outside. She got to the pump and the little guy struck her and began shoving her into his trunk. The man then walked out of camera view and came back to his car carrying a large trash bag. The heroin. That little fucker.
“I need you to
blow up the part with his face and print it.”
“I’m not sure I...”
“Do it!”
Dave fumbled around with some keys before printing out the photo. He handed it to Gus.
“Should I call the cops? Since she was kidnapped after all?”
“No cops. I’ll take care of this.”
“She could be in danger.”
“You could be in danger.”
Gus folded the photo and headed out to his truck. Once inside he took a picture of the photo with his phone and sent it to a friend. He had an old Army buddy who owed him a favor. Once the picture was sent, he dialed the man’s number.
“Hey, Tiny. It’s Gus.” Tiny wasn’t the guy’s real name of course. He was huge, but had a squeaky voice, so everyone in their unit had called him Tiny. After getting wounded in Iraq, he took a job with the Pentagon. Occasionally he could look something up for Gus.
“Yeah, the picture come through? Good. I need you to run him through facial recognition. I need a name and last known address plus anything else you might have. The sooner, the better. Thanks, bud.” Gus hung up and called Sonny.
“Hey boss, it’s me. The cat has found the mouse. Setting the trap soon.”
Chapter 18
Donny got his Candi dressed and brushed her hair. It was hard since her head kept wanting to flop forward, but he managed to make it look nice. Her bath had taken much longer than he’d hoped. It took forever to get the blood out of her hair. He didn’t have any decent clothes for her. He’d used some of Christina’s clothes along with the other girls. He did take her measurements and decided it was time to take her shopping.
Picking her up in his arms, he carried her to the car and strapped her into the passenger seat. He placed a pair of sunglasses over her lifeless eyes and got into the car. Once he arrived at the store, he decided it might be best to leave her in the car. He ran in and did some looking around. He picked up some nice underwear and a flowery summer dress he thought she’d look nice in. On Criminal Brains, she often wore suit type clothes or jeans, but those would be trickier to get fitted.
He brought the clothes back to the car and placed them in the backseat.
“All right sweetheart. I think you’ll like what I got for you. You want some ice cream? I know a good place.”
He started the car and drove to a nearby Sonic. Puling in he pushed the button on the intercom and ordered a large milkshake. When the girl came out, she didn’t pay Candi any notice. He got the shake and sipped at it.
“Would you like some? It’s really good.” He held it to her mouth and squeezed the straw between her lips. After a second he took it back and took another sip.
“See? Good, isn’t it? I can’t wait for you to try on your new clothes. You’ll look beautiful. Not that you don’t already. I mean you already are beautiful.”
Once he finished the shake, he threw the cup away and pulled out of the drive. As he headed home, a police car behind him activated its lights. Donny tried not to freak out as he pulled over. Looking in his rearview mirror, he took several deep breaths. The officer approached as Donny rolled the window down.
“Good afternoon sir. You know why I stopped you?”
“Uh, no sir.”
“You ran a red light back there. License and registration please?”
“Ok. One second.” Donny leaned over and dug through the glove box.
“How are you today ma’am?”
“Excuse me?” Donny asked.
“Your lady friend. I just asked how she was doing.”
“Oh. She’s not feeling well, so I’m taking her home. She fell asleep earlier. Migraines I guess.”
“Oh right. My wife gets those. They can be real bitches.”
“Yes, sir. Here you go.” Donny said as he handed the officer his paperwork. The officer returned to his car as Donny swallowed hard while watching in his rearview mirror. It felt like hours before the officer returned with the ticket. Donny signed it, and the officer sent him on his way. Once he was back on the road, he felt as if he’d been holding his breath during the entire traffic stop. His breathing sped up as sweat dripped down his forehead. Finally, he was home and pulled into the garage.
He carried Candi inside and laid her on the bed. Once she was in place, he went and got the clothes out of the car. As he was dressing her, he noticed her left arm was tearing loose.
“Oh no!” he said as he tried to fix it, but the more he messed with it the looser it became until the stitches tore completely through the decaying skin as the arm fell off. He ran and got his sewing kit and tried to reattach it, but the skin just kept rotting away. He threw the kit across the room in frustration as he paced around trying to catch his breath. His love, his beautiful, perfect love carefully constructed with his bare hands was literally falling apart. Why?
He ran into the garage and got into the car and headed back out. She needed to be fixed immediately. He headed to the south side of town near one of the underpasses. It was getting dark finally, and he could move around a bit more easily. He didn’t care what it took; he would fix his beautiful Candi and make her whole again.
He reached the underpass where several homeless people were lying around. There was one woman who was pushing a cart filled with soda cans. He pulled up and got out of the car.
“Hi ma’am, excuse me. Do you need help? You need some money?”
“Money?”
“Yes. I have some money for you. Could you come over here for a second?”
As the woman came closer, he could see she was much older than he’d hoped, but he could, at least, use her arm until he found someone younger. He didn’t have time to look too long for another girl and didn’t think it a good idea to go back to the Chesty Chola for a while. Once she was closer, he grabbed her and threw her into the back seat. She tried to fight but was weak and a little frail. Once she was in the back seat, he got back in the car and stepped on the gas.
Upon arriving at the house, he pulled into the garage and tried to pull the woman out. The woman had screamed the whole way home which had almost caused him to crash the car. He’d closed his eyes at one point trying to drown her out with his thoughts, and veered into another lane almost hitting a semi. Fortunately, he got the car back under control and made it home with no incident. She kicked and struggled as he pulled her out, and he had to punch her in the face a few times to take some of the fight out of her. Even that didn’t calm her down; she just kept screaming.
He finally got her out of the car, but she kneed him in the nuts and went running for the side door. Grabbing a shovel off the hook on the wall, he ran after her and swung the shovel like a baseball bat, bashing in the side of her head. Her lifeless body collapsed to the floor as stood over her. He hadn’t meant to kill her so he’d need to act fast. He picked her up and carried her inside to his lab and went to work.
Chapter 19
Claudia sat in her captain’s office while he read her report. She’d already explained the shooting to him several times as well as to two different detectives. The media was all over the café. The captain had to bring Claudia back in an unmarked SUV so she wouldn’t get mobbed by the press. Some people on the scene were angry she’d taken the shot so close to the hostage. It was a dangerous move, but that situation had had no good ending in sight. She was confident in her marksmanship and went with her gut, and it had worked.
“I still can’t believe you took that shot,” Captain Villareal said. “What if you’d hit the hostage?”
“But I didn’t.”
“What if you had, though?”
“I knew I wouldn’t.”
“How did you know you wouldn’t?”
“Because I’m a good fucking shot. Why are you grilling me like this? Rich shot a guy last year. Did he get this kind of full court press?” She was trying to be careful not to lose her temper with her captain, but he was making it difficult. There was already enough attention drawn to her as it was, no need to make worse.
“No. But his guy was pointing a gun at him in an empty street with no bystanders or hostages.” He was leaning on his desk with his arms crossed.
“Whatever. It’ll be up to the grand jury and review board anyway.”
“You’re right. It will. The shoot itself was clean. The guy had a gun and a hostage. It was also a reckless shoot. So just a heads up. For the time being you’re on administrative leave.”
Shit. She’d forgotten about being put on leave after a shooting. Right in the middle of this investigation.
“What about the case I’m working? The missing girls?”
“The strippers? Yeah, Rich can handle it.” He sat down at his desk and began shuffling papers.
“I know he can. I’m his partner. We have a suspect. We need to get him before he takes another girl.”
“Like I said. Rich can handle it. Is there anything else?” he said without looking up.
She got up and walked out of the office. Rich tried to talk to her as she stormed past his desk.
“Hey! What’s wrong?” he called out as he followed her.
“Captain shithead just giving me a bunch of hell over the shooting. Plus, I’m on leave during the investigation.”
“Yeah, that’s standard. The leave part. And him being a shithead.”
“Well, it sucks. I know that Donny guy is behind these disappearances. Fucking weirdo.”
“I think you’re right. And we’ll get him. It will be ok.”
She shook her head.
“I just wanted this to be my first big bust.”
“You just shot a fucking guy in the head from twenty feet away while he was holding a hostage. I mean that is some serious ninja shit. Forget the captain. The chief will probably give you a medal once all the details come out. That civilian opened fire and got himself killed. You kept it from turning into a bloodbath.”
“You think so?”
“Hell yeah, I do. Go home and get some rest. I’ll follow up with Mr. Spanks.”
“What kind of stupid ass last name is that?”