The Mermaid & The Crocodile (The Kill List Series Book One)

by Edee M. Fallon

  “What are you doing, Jenks?” I asked, taking a step back.

  “Giving you a hug.”

  It sounded more like a question than a statement.

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s what … people do.”

  “Don’t get weird on me now. I told you I was fine. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  With a deep sigh, he nodded his head and walked away.

  My luggage and the boxes I had packed were laid out in the sitting room. When I found the case with my weapons, I moved them to the bedroom, ignoring the other items for the time being. Stepping out onto the balcony, I was immediately embraced by the salty air the wind blew in off the Atlantic. The moon was almost full, reflected in the soft waves that beat gently against the white sandy shore. I would have enjoyed the view if I were there for a different reason. Feeling guilty for taking a moment of pleasure for myself, I turned around and walked back into the room, closing the sliding glass door behind me.

  Grabbing my essentials, I headed to the bathroom for a much needed bath, but was halted by a sudden knock at my door. I left the water running and tiptoed back into the bedroom in search of my weapon stash. Someone knocked again, but I stayed silent as I crept towards the door, gun now in hand.

  “Who’s there?” I asked with my back against the wall, shoulder against the doorframe.

  “Room service,” the person on the other side of the door answered.

  “I didn’t order room service. You must have the wrong room,” I replied, adrenaline now pumping through my veins.

  I chanced a quick look through the peephole as the employee started to walk away with my bottle of Jameson. “Wait,” I said as I stashed my gun in the waistband of my jeans and opened the door. “I’m so sorry. I forgot I ordered the bottle,” I said as I searched my pockets for cash. “Can you just charge it to the room?”

  “Yes ma’am, of course.”

  I handed the attendant a twenty for his troubles. He smiled brightly and asked if there was anything else I needed. I told him no and headed back inside, making sure to engage the deadbolt. I took the bottle into the bathroom and set it on the lip of the tub, added some bubble bath to the steaming water and undressed. After turning on my favorite playlist and cracking open my bottle of whiskey, I submerged myself in the hot water, allowing the tension of the day to slip away.

  As I lay soaking, I sorted through my mental checklist of to-dos. The first order of business was to call my father’s attorney and settle his affairs. My father made decent money on the job, but it was his extracurricular activities that put me through college and paid my bills. Mom’s life insurance money had been set aside in a trust for me that I was given access to when I was eighteen. One of my father’s colleagues, for lack of a better term, helped me make some wise investments and soon my funds had quadrupled and continued to grow exponentially.

  Once I was nice and pruney and a little buzzed, I dragged my ass out of the tub and wrapped myself in a terry cloth robe that was hanging on the door. The boxes I had packed from my father’s house waited for me in the corner like a bomb that was about to go off; I could either open and dismantle them, or let it all explode around me. Grabbing the bottle and the paperwork I had retrieved from the safe, I sat down on the couch and opened up the first envelope.

  My father had created a dossier for every person he had come into contact with during his time with the Valdez family. We studied most of this information together every night before bed. These files were once my bedtime stories. I skimmed over the information and decided to come back to them later if necessary, since most of them I had memorized years ago.

  Towards the end of the pile I found a manila folder I hadn’t seen before—the name Eduardo Valdez scrolled across the tab in my father’s handwriting. I was aware that Eduardo, or Eddie, was Tony Valdez’s only son. As far as I knew he had been kept out of the family business. Unless, of course, something had changed that my father never made me privy to.

  Since Eddie’s mother had died of cancer when he was young, Tony protected Eddie like his most valued possession. From the pictures inside, it seemed as if he had grown up into a striking young man, barely a year older than I was. Upon further inspection, I discovered that he had begun doing some low key work for his father, mostly collecting debts with a team of enforcers. He had become the new face around town at the casinos. Eddie was a small time criminal for the most part, it seemed. His was the thinnest file of them all. It listed his closest associates, William “Willy” Ramirez and Gustavo “Gus” Morales, both known killers. Their job was to protect Eddie and keep his hands clean, as they did all of the dirty work. I yawned as I set all their files aside to peruse later. My brain had become too clouded with booze and exhaustion. I stood up to head towards the bedroom and knocked over the files I had set on the table. Kneeling down, I started to gather the scattered envelopes, noticing a scrap of paper that had drifted further from the pile. I crawled towards it and picked it up.

  Little Birds are nesting in the walls.

  Shit! To anyone else this tidbit would mean nothing. To me it was a clue. My father was leading me further down the rabbit hole. How could I forget? I had to go back to the house. The clock said it was almost one in the morning. Somehow, I had to make it past the surveillance team that was surely watching the hotel, there and back again without being detected.

  Searching through my stuff, I grabbed a baseball cap and some dark clothes. Using one of my prepaid phones, I called a local taxi service and asked them to meet me at a bar I spotted a few blocks down when I was driving to the hotel. I grabbed a gun and stuck it in the waistband of my pants, placed a second at my ankle, added my keys, my wallet, a small flashlight and the cell phone to my pockets. Traveling light was the best way.

  Taking the stairs, I made my way down to the lobby and out the back of the hotel that led to the beach. Sticking to the shadows as often as possible, I made my way down the shore towards another hotel, waiting under the cover of the building to make sure I hadn’t been followed. Sensing the coast was clear, I walked up the stairs and entered the bar of the hotel. It was almost empty considering the hour. I made my way to the lobby and out the front door then walked down the street until I found the bar. The taxi was pulling up to the curb as I jogged the final steps towards it. Perfect timing. Maybe this would be easier than I thought.

  The drive took almost a half hour. I had the cabbie drop me off a few blocks away, just in case someone was watching the house. Even though the moon was almost full, there was enough sporadic cloud coverage to allow me to move invisibly through the sleeping neighborhoods. When I reached my block, I decided to make my way through the neighbor’s backyards, hoping none of them had acquired any dogs since I moved away. With no other viable alternative, I realized I would just have to take my chances.

  The night was quiet as the sleeping families rested safely within their homes. I made my way around the first house and headed towards the fence guarding the backyard. Standing on my tiptoes, I glanced over the fence, but didn’t see anything but a swing set. I hitched my foot up and pulled myself over, praying for no motion sensors. Landing silently, I stayed close to the house as I made my way to the other side. So far, so good, I thought to myself. I could only pray that the rest of the night went that smoothly. Only two more yards to go until I reached my own.

  Again, I stood on my tiptoes to see what lay on the other side of the fence. All was still quiet. The lights of the pool were on in the next yard and there was no dog in sight. The house next to mine was vacant, the yard just as empty and unused. I made it to my backyard without incident, sending up a silent thank you as I crept towards the backdoor of my childhood home. The absurdity of the situation was not lost on me. I never would have thought that one day I would have to sneak into my own home. Soundlessly, I reached for my keys and unlocked the backdoor, heading directly towards the front window to check out what was happening on the street. A few houses down I could see an unmarked po
lice car watching the house. Feeling secure that my presence was unknown, I turned and headed to my old bedroom.

  When I was a child, I had lifted the carpet that lined the floor of my closet, discovering a small crawl space that I eventually used to hide the things I wanted to keep from my father. One day he walked in on me as I was closing the makeshift cover I had made for it. Back then I wasn’t as good at sneaking around. That day, my father called me his Little Bird for the first time, later explaining that it looked like I was nesting in the small space that I had found.

  I checked the curtains of my old room to make sure no light would escape, then stepped into my closet and closed the door behind me. The smell of Dade County Pine and moth balls permeated the air, bringing with it the vapors of my childhood. Memories came flooding back to me of the many hours spent there when I was too scared to face the world outside. According to my father, there were monsters everywhere, and he was right. I was struck suddenly by one memory that I wished to keep pushed to the back of my subconscious.

  I was so excited to tell my daddy about what I got at school that day. It was my very first party. I ran up the steps and swung the door open wide. It banged and rebounded against the outside wall as I rushed into the house in search of my father.

  “Daddy, Daddy, look what I got today! I—”

  “One minute, Berty. I’m on the phone,” he said as he used his fingers to cover the mouthpiece.

  I stood in the corner waiting and listening.

  “When did you say the party was again?”

  Pause.

  “This Saturday?”

  Pause.

  “That’s very kind of you to invite Roberta, but we have plans this weekend.”

  Oh. He already knows.

  I could have stood there and begged my father to let me go to my first sleepover, but there wasn’t any point. What daddy said was what happened. I turned around and walked out of the room, staring down at the Little Mermaid invitation in my hand with absolute disappointment blossoming in my chest. Silent tears rolled down my face as I walked into my closet to put the invitation in my hidey-hole. I wanted to bury it alongside all the other missed opportunities of my childhood.

  My father was leaning in the doorway as I walked out of my closet. “Was there something you wanted to show me, Berty?”

  “No, sir. I’m sorry if I interrupted your phone call,” I said as I took a seat on my bed, refusing to meet his eyes.

  “That was your classmate’s mother on the phone asking permission to invite you to a sleepover. She mentioned the invitations were going home today. Did you get one?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Is that what you wanted to show me?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “We’ve had this talk, young lady. You understand why you can’t go, correct?”

  “It isn’t safe, sir.”

  “And who isn’t it safe for?”

  “Them. It isn’t safe for them.”

  He nodded his head and left the room, leaving me to grieve alone.

  The details of the closet came back to me as the memory faded away. It was obvious someone had been in here recently. The dust had been disturbed around the faded purple area rug that was covering the secret door to my hidey-hole. I moved the carpet to the bottom of the closet door and used it to keep the light from my flashlight from escaping into the bedroom. I knelt down and lifted the small door. There was nothing there. Reaching in and feeling around the ceiling of the compartment, my fingers moved over what felt like duct tape and paper. I laid down on my stomach to extend the reach of my arm and pulled away at the edge of the tape until the envelope came loose.

  Glass shattered from the back of the house. Frozen in place, I tried to think of how I was going to escape without being discovered ... or killed. Now was not the time to panic, I reminded myself. If someone was here to find something my father had left behind, they would most likely search his room or study first. I had only a few moments to make my getaway undetected. At least I had the element of surprise on my side, but I hoped it would not to come to that.

  As I sat and waited in silence trying to figure out my next move, the smell of fire crept into the small closet. The fucking house is on fire. So maybe now would be an acceptable time to panic, I thought as I pushed myself off the floor and grabbed an old t-shirt that I wrapped around my mouth to try to breathe easier through the smoke that was collecting in the air.

  Slowly and quietly, I opened the door and stepped into my bedroom. In the distance, I could hear sirens approaching. The surveillance team must have called for emergency services. Not knowing where the fire was in the house, I decided to chance it and escape out of my bedroom window. Whoever started the fire would be long gone by now. The front yard was clear so I made a run for it, heading back the way I came, through the backyard and over the fence.

  When I was a few blocks away, I turned around to see the telltale signs of a large fire as the sky glowed an eerie shade of orange and smoke billowed up into the night. I stood there for a moment and took stock of my life. That house was the last part of my old life and now it was gone as well. I had no anchor left in this town or in this world. I was set adrift on a sea of loneliness. If I allowed myself to have feelings, this would be a proper moment to break down and cry—but crying was a sign of weakness, and weakness had no place in my life. I had become a Ronin.

  I kept walking until I was a few neighborhoods over and called for another taxi to take me back to my hotel. As I waited, I wondered who knew what was hidden within the house. My father never trusted anyone enough to share all of our secrets, not even Jenks or Hugo.

  Inside, I was a little thankful for the fire. It was one less burden for me to carry and the insurance money would be put to good use.

  The taxi pulled into the underground garage of the hotel at my request. I was too tired to play hide and seek with anyone who might be watching the hotel. I took the elevator up to my floor and entered my room. My cell was lit up with messages and began to ring as I made my way towards it. Jenks’s name and number were flashing across the screen.

  “What, Jenks?” I asked, already annoyed.

  “Where the fuck have you been, Berty? I’ve been calling your cell and your room for the last hour. I even sent someone up to your room to check on you and you didn’t answer.”

  “I went for a walk on the beach and I must have left my phone. I’ve been cooped up all day and needed to expend some energy … get some fresh air. What crawled up your ass? And why are you blowing up my phone in the middle of the night and sending your babysitters up to check on me?”

  “I’ve got something I’ve got to tell you,” he said, sounding defeated.

  “Just spit it out. I’ve already lost everything. It’s not like things could get much worse.”

  “The house is gone, Berty. Someone set it on fire and … Well, there isn’t much left.”

  “Whatever.”

  “What do you mean whatever?”

  “I told you earlier to burn it. I don’t care about the damn house. Both my parents were killed there. It’s just a house. I can buy another one.”

  “Well, since you’re taking this news so calmly, there’s something else I need to tell you.”

  I waited for him to speak, wondering what other mental torment he was going to send my way to try to break me.

  “Tom Lewis is dead.”

  That was not what I was expecting to hear. Tom was my father’s partner on the force. He was in as deep with the Valdez cartel as my father had been. Maybe I should have expected that news. For some reason it caught me off guard, even more so than the death of my father. It also explained why I hadn’t heard from him since I’d learned the news of my father’s death, a thought that was only now crossing my mind. We were never close—I wasn’t close to anyone—but I had spent a lot of time around him when I was growing up.

  “How?” I asked, even though I was certain I already knew the answer.

  “I c
an’t tell you yet. It’s still under investigation.”

  “When?”

  “I’m still not sure. All I know is that he didn’t show up to work tonight and after what happened with your dad, we sent someone over there to check on him. One of the agents found him this evening.”

  “Fuck me,” I said in a whisper to myself.

  “You really need to get out of town, Berty. They’ll be gunning for you next. It’s just a matter of time. You know what to do. Please don’t fuck around or try to make this right. Nothing can ever fix this fucked up mess. Get out while you still can. It’s not too late for you.”

  I was shaking my head no as I replied, “Of course, Jenks. It isn’t safe for me.”

  Lies. Truth was it wasn’t safe for them. I was the bird that nobody sees coming: the angel of death.

  “I still have to call the attorney tomorrow and now I have to deal with the insurance claim on the house. I need a couple more days in town and then I’m leaving this place for good.” More lies.

  “Berty,” Jenks said with a lot of apprehension.

  “Yes?”

  “I have one more thing to tell you.”

  “Do you have to?”

  “Yeah, I kinda do.”

  “Go on then. Just get it over with.”

  “I called Bobby’s attorney after I left you. I wanted to see if there was any way he could meet you out of town so you didn’t have to stay. He told me that a few weeks ago your dad changed his will.”

  “If you tell me that I have some long lost brother or sister I swear to God I will rip your nuts off,” I said, my voice rising in volume with each word.

  “No. Jesus Christ, Berty. I’m just the messenger. Your dad left everything to Estefania.”

  “That’s it?” I asked then exhaled a sigh of relief. “Can I at least call her to tell her?”

  “The lawyer said he would call her in the morning.”

  “I was going to give her the money anyway. She needs it more than me.”