by Paul O'Brien
They noticed he had his radio to his mouth.
“What’s going on?” Katy asked Nestor.
“Keep your head down,” Nestor said as he crouched.
The cars were moving the opposite way but he didn’t want to take any chances.
Nestor waited in silence until he was sure they were gone.
“What are we going to do now?” she asked.
“I’m going to drop you off somewhere. I appreciate the car but … ”
He could tell she was not happy. Nestor leaned into Katy and kissed her gently.
“You’ve done great work on this case, Katy.”
“I’m not going home. I want to know exactly what you’re doing here.”
Nestor took a second to ask himself how much he trusted this woman.
“There’s something about the captain. I don’t know, before you say anything. Just something.”
He waited for a big reaction. A big rebuttal. There was none.
“Okay,” Katy simply said. “What’s your plan?”
Nestor turned on the ignition.
“I don’t really have one,” he said as he pulled slowly into the road. “I just want to finish this.”
Nestor switched on his lights. They drove down the quiet road a little before noticing a car stopped on the side of the road.
As they drove past the car Katy’s neck swiveled to the right. “Wasn’t that … ?”
“What?”
Katy turned to look out the back window as Nestor drove. The parked car’s passenger door closed.
“That was Danno Garland that got into that car.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I’m sure it was him. He must have come out onto the road through the field next to his house.”
“You sure?” Nestor asked.
“Yeah. One hundred per cent. He’s in the car behind us.”
Nestor looked back and saw the headlights of the car behind him appear around the bend.
“We need to pull in somewhere and get behind him.”
In the car behind, Danno sat in the passenger seat. He didn’t want to run the risk of taking a car of his own to Lenny’s mother’s house, so he flagged a car down.
The driver was a stranger, but a very well paid one.
Lenny watched his boys settle down on the couch. He knew he should probably go but they looked so comfortable. And Danno didn’t know. Not that Lenny could tell anyways. He just didn’t want to go back to Bree without her rings. Lenny gave them away and he wanted to get them back.
But he didn’t know how to do that without telling Danno what happened.
Nestor and Katy kept their distance and followed Danno’s car into a small, quiet, working-class street on Long Island.
“What are we doing?” Katy asked. “I thought Captain Miller told you all to contact him before … ”
“I’m just looking.”
Katy wasn’t comfortable. “I think we should … ”
“We’re not doing anything wrong,” Nestor reminded her as he pulled into a nice dark spot.
Danno’s ride had done the same a few cars up.
Lenny saw car lights drift down his parent’s street. Normally such a thing wouldn’t even catch his attention, but this evening had him twitchy. Anxious even. He walked to the window and saw Danno getting out of a car he didn’t recognize.
“Quick,” Lenny said to his kids. “Up, up.”
Luke sat up and rubbed his eyes. Lenny looked around for a quick, safe place. Just in case.
“Go and hide,” he told Luke as he handed him his little brother.
“What’s happening?” Luke asked.
Danno knocked on the door. “Lenny?”
His voice wasn’t angry and his knock was light enough. But Lenny still wasn’t sure.
“Go now,” he said to his oldest son.
Luke got the message. He nervously ran for the kitchen pulling his brother along behind him.
“Don’t make any noise,” Lenny warned him.
Danno knocked again. “Lenny.”
Lenny made sure his sons were in the other room before he walked to the front door. He wasn’t a religious man but Lenny said a little prayer before he opened the door.
Nestor and Katy watched Lenny let Danno into the house. It seemed calm and reasonable. Nestor was tossing around the politics of him being here without anyone else from his precinct.
“You’re right,” Nestor admitted. “It’s not worth it.”
“What?”
“Call it in.”
Katy looked around for a payphone. She was willing to knock on doors and show her badge if she had to.
Danno closed the front door with his heel and produced his gun. He put it to Lenny’s head.
“What are you doing?” Lenny was immediately paralyzed with fear.
The fright of seeing a gun and Danno’s eyes go dead behind it made Lenny backpedal at speed. He put himself between Danno and his children.
“You fucking liar,” Danno said. “You put her in harm’s way.”
“Wait,” Lenny pleaded. “The kids. Wait.”
In the kitchen Luke could hear the voice in the other room. He could see that his little brother was getting scared and agitated. He took him gently by the hand and led him out into the garage where he closed the door.
“We have to be quiet,” Luke told James Henry as he put his finger to his lips. The dark was scaring the younger son. He began to cry and call for his Dada. Luke didn’t know what to do.
“He can’t come to you now, James Henry,” Luke explained.
James Henry was tired and his gums were sore. He was in the dark and scared. He cried as he looked for a way out to find his father.
Luke looked up at his grandfather’s car. “Come with me.”
Katy got inside an old lady’s house and made the call. Nestor sat in the car wondering whether or not his captain was dirty. It didn’t feel right to him to stay seated when Danno was only a few hundred feet away from him. Nestor could finish his job and get the collar. He’d be known as the man who got the boss no one could get.
It was all right there.
Danno pushed Lenny back into a seated position and aimed the gun at his head. Tears rolled down his face as he saw his one-time driver in front of him.
“How could you do that to me, Lenny? How could you steal from me?”
“I … ”
“Can’t you see what it did to me?”
“Yes boss. I didn’t mean to … ”
“Shut up,” Danno shouted.
Luke could hear the shouting getting louder in the house. His brother was sobbing on his lap in the passenger seat of the Ambassador. Luke wanted to make him better. Make him less scared. He moved his little brother, leaned over and turned on the ignition.
“Do you want to hear Mommy, James Henry?”
James Henry nodded.
Luke pressed play on the eight track and climbed back up into the passenger seat. As usual, Bree’s voice coming through instantly settled the younger one. Even Luke got something from hearing his mother singing this time.
Both little boys sat in the dark, in a small garage, with the ignition running.
Danno left his gun on the table between him and Lenny.
“Take it,” Danno said.
Lenny nodded.
“Take it or I will,” Danno warned.
Lenny carefully picked up the gun.
“I’m sorry Danno,” Lenny said. He meant it too. His heart was broken thinking of what happened to Annie.
“Use it,” Danno said.
“What?”
“Shoot me.”
Lenny moved to put the gun right back on the table.
“Lenny,” he warned through gritted teeth. “There’s one bullet and it’s getting fired into one of our heads. That I promise you.”
Danno couldn’t take the pain of being alive anymore. “You will fucking know what I feel like.”
“Danno … ”
&nbs
p; Lenny was desperately trying to listen out for where his sons were.
Danno rose from his seat. He could now hear the sirens approaching. He could wait and spend his life in jail, or act and put an end to all of this.
“You have ten seconds to pull that trigger. You fucking hear me? You fucking cunt. You have ten fucking seconds to use that gun or I will. I want you to suffer through this for years. You hear me? I want your family to know that you killed someone. I want you to know what it feels like directly.”
“I’m not going to do it.”
“I have someone who will track down your wife, Lenny. He will spend every day of his life until he gets her. He’s just waiting for the word.”
The sirens were growing louder. Danno was growing more impatient. He was begging to be killed. To be reunited with Annie.
“If I leave here I will give him the word.”
Lenny could see by Danno’s eyes that he was serious.
“10 … ”
“I have the money,” Lenny pleaded. “It was an accident.”
Danno exploded with rage. “You think I want fucking money? I want you to suffer. I get no pleasure out of killing you Lenny. You hear me? You fucking understand me now?”
“But it was a mistake,” Lenny said as he broke down. “It was… ”
Danno grabbed Lenny by the collar and slapped him across the face. He pulled him out of his seat and locked him forehead to forehead. Danno’s face was red and contorted with fury.
“Do it,” Danno ordered.
Danno wasn’t going to jail. There was no way.
“Do it.”
Nestor knocked on the door. “Danno? Police.”
Time was running out. The sirens had arrived outside and Nestor was now pounding on the door. Lenny was shaking with fear.
“I will find her. And kill her.”
Danno threw Lenny back onto the seat and walked for his parent’s phone.
“3 … ” Danno counted.
Danno picked up the receiver and looked back.
“2 … ”
Lenny stood. “Don’t.”
“Danno,” Nestor shouted once more before he kicked the door.
“1 … ”
Lenny fired a single shot at Danno’s head that killed him instantly. Danno’s body fell to the floor as Lenny dropped the gun. Nestor broke through the door and fired a round that hit Lenny in the chest. The impact lifted him back into the seat. He was alive but choking on his own blood.
“Medic,” Nestor shouted as he entered the house with his gun still raised. “We need a medic.”
Lenny tried desperately to tell him about his kids but he couldn’t speak through the blood that was filling up his mouth.
Nestor kneeled down beside Lenny. He recognized his face from his investigation.
“Lenny?” Nestor asked.
Lenny tried to talk but he was choking.
Five hours before Danno’s murder.
Katy Spence was listening intently to Danno’s lawyer. She still didn’t feel like he was going the whole way. She needed to know exact details.
“Who did he sign the business over to?” Katy asked.
Troy thought about how he was to answer. He wanted out of the cell in the worst way. He felt a certain loyalty to Danno over the years. But here he was, cell number four, and there was no white knight breaking down the door to rescue him. He always knew that the wrestling business was cut-throat. He just didn’t think that he was far enough in to have to worry about it.
“Mr. Bartlett?” Katy asked again. “Who did Danno Garland sign his assets over to?”
Troy could see the file in his mind. He took it from the barn where Danno signed it and placed it deep into his own filing cabinet.
Katy tapped the cage to get his attention.
Troy’s head shook in amazement at what he was about to say. “He didn’t trust his wife for some reason.”
“Who did Danno Garland sign his business over to?” Katy asked more pointedly.
Troy looked her dead in the eye. “His driver.”
The End.
For more information about the books in Blood Red Turns Dollar Green series, please go to www.paulobrien.info
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul O’Brien is a writer from Wexford, Ireland. In the last fifteen years he has written sixteen plays and two screenplays. He has been commissioned or produced by The Abbey, Druid, Red Kettle Theatre Company, Town Hall Theatre, Galway and Spare Key Productions in New York.
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, his debut novel, became a #1 Bestseller in both the US and UK in 2013.