Wildcase - [Rail Black 02]

by Neil Russell

  He smiled slowly, then looked at Birdy. “That you, Marlene?”

  She never took her eyes off his while she uncrossed her legs and parted her knees just enough. When he had taken in another eyeful, she smiled back. “I like a challenge.”

  The office was hot. The temperature was now up another few degrees, and all of us were wearing a little sweat. Major forced himself back to business. “Donnie was maybe smarter than I thought, but this gig requires a pair.”

  “I told you, this is it. Take it or leave it.”

  “She got a passport?”

  “Yes,” I answered.

  “Saturday. She’ll take the eight o’clock to Hong Kong. Be here four hours before with one bag. Carry-on only. I’ll have her ticket and a visa. Any questions?”

  It was Birdy’s turn to show the flag. “I want to know what I’ll be carrying”

  Major shifted his gaze to me. He was weighing his answer when I took it out of his hands. “Nothing on the way over. A baby coming back. Isn’t that right, Maj?”

  “Donnie tell you that?”

  “I wasn’t going to reach out to this kind of talent for a mystery tour,” I said. “But if it matters, he didn’t volunteer. I had to help him.”

  He relaxed slightly. “Figure two weeks, maybe a few days longer. You’ll do a little entertaining while the people on the other end get the documents together. Then you’ll go on a nice cruise and bring back an orphan for a wonderful family. Very simple. Think of it as God’s work.”

  “What else will God’s mule be carrying?” I asked.

  He flashed angry... started to say something ... stopped. I waited. Finally, he said, “All she’s gotta do is present some paperwork on this end.”

  “The wrong paperwork gets her the same sentence as a key of China White strapped to her ass.”

  “That’s not the way this works. The paperwork’s for the baby, and it will be completely legit. That’s all you need to know.”

  “Is there a dress code?” Birdy asked.

  “Just like you are now, and let people know you got a pair of tits. Don’t be bashful about flashing man’s best friend either. Understand?”

  Birdy smiled. “I like clothes. A carry-on isn’t going to cut it, especially if I’m ... entertaining.”

  “Everything you need will be provided . . . but this kind of entertaining, you’re not going to be going out much.” He let that sink in. “For the return, pack comfortable. A coat’s a good idea too. It can get cold out on the water.”

  “You missed something,” I said.

  “You’ll get paid when she gets back.”

  “We need to go through the stand up, sit down routine again, or can we just cut to the chase?”

  He didn’t like my attitude, but he bit his tongue. “How much did Donnie promise you?”

  I shook my head. “I got to tell you, Major, where I come from you’d have been dead before first grade.”

  He hesitated, then stood and walked to the desk. He bent, and I heard a heavy drawer slide open. When he came back, he was carrying several bundles of banded cash. “Half, now. You want to count it?”

  When I didn’t answer, he grabbed a yellow plastic Don-nie’s Electronics bag, shoved it inside and handed it to me. “We all set?”

  “No.”

  “What the fuck do you mean, no?”

  “How do I know you’re not selling her? That I won’t be meeting ships a couple of weeks from now with my Johnson in my hand?”

  He should have told me to get the fuck out, but he didn’t. That meant he was behind schedule. The look in his eyes also told me he was on the hook to somebody a lot more dangerous than he was.

  “What do you want?”

  “Let me see your Wallet.”

  He looked unsure, but he got it out and handed it over. I fanned through his cards and let him see me memorize his address. I also now had a last name to go with Major— Martin. I took out a picture of a couple of kids. Boy and a girl, maybe three and five. “Yours?”

  He nodded.

  “Marlene’s going to call me twice a day. Noon and midnight. She’s five minutes late even once, you’ll be down to one. She misses twice, you can’t run far enough. And if you’re thinking of sending the family away, remember what city you’re in and where I’m from. You ain’t going back to China, so sooner or later, I’ll settle up.”.

  He tried to hide it, but he was shaken.

  “We on the same page ... motherfucker?” I said.

  He recovered, but not all the way. “See you in a few days.”

  Major walked us to the front door. “Where you staying, Marlene?” he asked.

  I stopped and looked at him. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Can’t blame a guy for trying. There a last name to go with Marlene?” When she didn’t answer, he turned to me. “I need it for the visa and to get things started in Hong Kong.”

  I nodded an okay to Birdy.

  “Monroe,” she said.

  He forced a smile and tried to get some of his strut back. “This is getting better all the time.” But he’d lost his rhythm.

  * * * *

  We were half a mile away when Birdy pointed to a deserted construction site. It looked like a new mall had hit hard times. “Pull in,” she said, her voice suddenly husky.

  I followed her directions to a ramp leading to what would eventually be underground parking. As we wound down to the second level, the sun disappeared. “Stop,” she said, her voice trembling. “I can’t wait any longer.”

  I did, and she reached over and turned off the car. Seconds later, she was naked except for her shoes and collar as she tore at my jeans. When my engorged cock sprang free, she inhaled it, masturbating herself at the same time. We both only lasted seconds, coming in spasms and shudders.

  We climbed into the back, and I sat while she faced forward and pounded herself down on me. I held her hips and thrust into her as deeply and as violently as I had anyone in my life while she hugged the driver’s seat and bit into the headrest. None of the noises we made were human.

  Finally consumed, we held each other. She tried to say something, but all that came out was a small whimper. I felt tears on my chest. She tried again, and managed, “My God, Rail, I can’t find myself. I’ve never wanted a man more. Not any man. You.”

  “It’s called a danger fuck. Wars are full of them. Careful, they’re addictive.”

  “God, I hope so.”

  I put my finger to her lips to indicate she didn’t need to talk. She took it in her mouth and began sucking it. Then she returned to my lap.

  When I awakened, I didn’t immediately know where I was. Then I felt the cramps in my legs and remembered. My cock was against her sleeping lips, and as she breathed, it started to respond. I moved her onto the seat, got out and dressed. Then I found a blanket in the trunk and covered her.

  Before I did, I admired her nakedness. I didn’t know where Birdsong Nash left off and Marlene Monroe took over, but I liked them both.

  * * * *

  Judita met me at the door of the villa, and I motioned toward the car. A few moments later, she led a still-naked and out-on-her-feet Birdy up the stairs. I stripped and got into the downstairs shower, where I stood for a long time letting the 360 degrees of hot needles work their magic. While they did, I thought up a couple of songs for Hyundai I didn’t think they’d use. I reserved judgment on the one entitled “Danger Fuck Zone,” but they might want to install mouthguards on the headrests first.

  After toweling off and putting on a robe, I found a cold Tecate, sat on the couch and counted the money in the Donnie’s bag. Twenty-five grand. Lot of cash for a plane ride. I went to the hall closet. As usual, the combination to the safe inside the phony electrical panel had been set to my father’s birthday.

  I returned to the couch and turned on my phone. The mailbox was full. Fat Cat.

  * * * *

  The Inca heliport was well away from the hotel, adjacent to their golf course. Arriv
ing by chopper for your tee time has an up-your-ass resonance not easily duplicated at most country clubs. Personally, I hate helicopters just a little more than I hate golf. At least with golf, there’s a bar at the end. With helicopters, all you can do is wait for it to go down, something I managed to live through in the army—twice. One also saved my life by pulling me out of an off-the-books combat zone, but I was barely conscious at the time, so I don’t count it.

  Nick drove me directly onto the pad and offered to ride to San Francisco to keep me company. I almost said yes but decided against it. “Depending what happens up there, I might be gone a few days. That going to be a problem?”

  “What, with the villa? Forget about it. Besides, I want you to feel beholden. What do you want me to do with your lady friend?”

  “She’s going to be busy horse bonding during the day. Maybe, you could see that she doesn’t get too lonely after work.”

  “Consider it done. I’ve got a couple of escorts who’ll show her the time of her life and know how to keep their hands to themselves.”

  “Hands aren’t the problem.”

  “You get a look at the arms on Bronis? They’ll behave.”

  He pressed a small envelope into my palm. “Valium,” he said. “One should be enough.”

  I took two. After all, flight time to McCarran, where the hotel jet was waiting, was ten minutes. Before I got out, I handed Nick the phone from the backpack I found at the Brandos. “There’s a number on this.”

  ‘You want to know who it belongs to?”

  I shook my head. “Only if it’s not a guy named Major Martin. I’m interested in who might have been in the background telling him what to say. It would be somebody who speaks Chinese.”

  Nick tossed the phone on the dash. “I can tell you right now. Major is Donnie Two Knives’ brother, and if they were taking orders from anybody, it was their old man, Lew. He runs the police union over here. The boys used to be cops too, but they couldn’t stop stealing.”

  “What’s the threshold to lose a badge?”

  “Lower than you might think, but these two would have exceeded unlimited. Their big brainstorm was to catch a cab driver pimping or dealing and put him to work.”

  “Doing what?”

  “The cabbie’d lay a hundred on a casino valet to bring him to the front of the line when a well-dressed single came out a little too drunk. Before we had cameras all the way down the drive, Donnie and Major would be waiting down at the end. They’d get in, hit the guy hard enough to make him groggy, then drop him buck naked a couple of miles out of town. Sweet deal. They were picking up five, ten grand a week.”

  “And nobody reporting it.”

  “Not something you want to discuss with the little woman back in Omaha.”

  “I think I can guess how it came apart.”

  Nick nodded. “This is a town where you better stick to pistol-whipping 7-Eleven clerks. We were all running decoys, but it was the Polynesian that got them. Anybody else would be playing shower tag upstate or anchoring a subdivision in the desert. But Lew made some problems go away for the right people, and the boys got a pass.”

  “After that, they’d put their dicks in a meat grinder if Lew told them to.”

  “Lew Martin. Doesn’t sound Chinese.”

  “Used to be Martino. Changed it when they ran the mob out of the big hotels. Went from an asset to a liability overnight. The boys are adopted. There’s another brother and a sister too. Older, but I never met them. Separate transactions. Like maybe twenty years apart. Same deal, though, Chinese.”

  “Then I assume the mother is?”

  “Was. She’s been dead a while. They met when Lew was a Marine in Taipei doing embassy duty. He came home speaking Mandarin and married to a Miss World. I remember her when I was a kid. One sweet-looking lady.”

  “You and Lew acquainted?”

  “After a fashion. He’s using his language skills to make inroads with the restaurant workers. Much bigger deal than fuckin’ around with cops. Right to the head of the payoff line. But I gotta warn you, Rail, he’s one nasty asshole, so don’t be nosing around with half a plan.”

  “I’ll check with you for the part I’m missing. Thanks for the lift.”

  “Get the fuck out of my car.” But he was smiling. “Oh, one more thing.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks to you, my best dealer turned in his retirement notice.”

  “What about Prince?”

  “Shit, he’s already made me promise to let him work your next game.”

  “Bring back Quan.”

  “That’s not gonna happen. I had to comp him a floor so he could fly in some friends and party. God knows what that’s going to cost me. But you better brace yourself. Word’s going to get around, and some other schmucks are going to show up asking for you. Gonna want to take down the man who took down Quan.”

  “Make it soon, will you.”

  “That’s what I was hoping to hear.”

  “By the way, forget your Hyundai deal.”

  “Really?”

  “You use those courtesy cars, nobody’ll take time to gamble.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  I winked and got out. “Check with Birdy.”

  At McCarran, I stepped off the big Bell, walked five yards and got on the G5. We were into our takeoff roll before I was belted in. Now I could spend an hour thinking about dropping into some Bay Area fog in a second chopper.

  The dead hack driver in Victorville now made sense. He’d almost certainly been one of the drunk-rolling team and was probably shaking down the Martin family or talking to a reporter or any of a thousand things that might screw up Lew’s new union plans. He had to go.

  But whacking a cabbie is one thing. A famous cop and his wife are something else. Smart guys like Lew Martin don’t kill unless there’s no other choice, so going to Chuck and Lucille’s afterward had been Donnie’s play. And since the car he’d arrived in was already in a storage shed with a body in it, he needed a ride to the next event.

  Calling a local cab or renting a car was out, so who was the other person? It had to have been somebody who could drop him away from the ranch, then be cool enough to sit in the dark and wait. Somebody who wouldn’t seem out of place if another car happened along. And it wouldn’t have been Major because he wouldn’t have bolted on his brother.

  I dialed Eddie Buffalo, my excellent but mostly lawless pilot who couldn’t hold a left seat until I hired him. His phone rang seven times and went to voice mail. I told him to get back to me in a hurry. Ninety seconds later, he did.

  “Where are you?” I asked.

  “Thirty-one thousand feet over Arizona. Fuckin’ driver’s crawling along just fast enough to keep this goddamn thing from being a road hazard. About ready to go up front and show him where the throttles are.”

  “Isn’t your cell supposed to be off?”

  “It’s cool, I’m in the john.”

  In the background, I heard pounding, then a woman’s voice. “Hey, are you on a phone in there?”

  I heard him call out, “Scared of flying. Talking to my imam.” Then he was back with me. “That should send them to the PC handbook. What do you need, boss?”

  “Assuming you’re not in federal lockup, I’ll meet you at the Huntington tonight. So before they wrestle you out of your booth, call up there and tell whoever’s on duty I want that big suite on the second floor, and I don’t care who they have to move.” Normally, it doesn’t matter where I sleep, but every time I’m in San Francisco, they seem to have an earthquake, and Nob Hill is high enough without adding extra stories.

  “You care which airport?”

  “Use Oakland. Less hassle if we need to leave in a hurry.”

  Helicopters and earthquakes, all in the same night. I didn’t have enough Valium. Then I got really lucky. As we went into our descent, a thunderstorm was waiting.

  * * * *

  Lonny, my pilot for the third and last leg, was good but w
ay too chatty for sideways rain and Tilt-A-Whirl winds. I also could have lived without the endless loop of Mick Jagger’s “Brown Sugar” dialed up to head-pound.

  Over the music, Lonny ranted about other galaxies listening to our radio signals and rap music fucking up their perception. He had some interesting observations about earth’s being hit with a death beam to keep us from infecting the rest of the universe and that a mandatory Stones Hour on every station would let the aliens know we had our shit together. I might have written down his Web site, but I was busy helping drive since he felt he had to look at me while he talked.