by Jeff Abbott
Three was all Whit had hidden. He wanted to sit down badly.
Frank looked again at Whit. ‘This is bugging me. You look like Eve. What the hell’s going on here?’
‘He doesn’t look like me, don’t be an idiot,’ Eve said.
Frank sat down on the ottoman in front of a heavy leather chair, put his face in his hands. ‘Okay, if you won’t cut a deal with the cops, my idea is tell Kiko that Bucks stole the money, that Paul is breaking the deal. It’s supposed to close tomorrow night. Kiko then comes after Bucks and Paul, guns blazing.’
‘Or Kiko finds another buyer?’ Whit said.
‘Sure. That’s gonna dry up revenue for Paul, gonna hurt him bad. Real bad.’
‘Why should Kiko talk to me?’ Eve said.
Frank cleared his throat. ‘Because if they all think you’re gonna turn to the Feds, you’re as much a threat to Kiko as you are to Paul. You can finger him as having been in on the deal. That’s real leverage.’ He tapped at his forehead, gave Whit a crooked smile. ‘No one thinks I have one of these. But I do. Eve wouldn’t have given me the time of day if I was dumb as a stump.’
‘So we tell Kiko,’ Whit said, ‘and what if Kiko doesn’t believe us and comes after us?’
‘Then we’re screwed. But what if,’ Eve said slowly, ‘Kiko already knows the money’s gone. This kind of news, it gets out on the street fast.’
‘He’s Miami,’ Frank said. ‘He don’t have ears on the street here. But if they war, they take each other out and you’re safe.’
‘I wish,’ Eve said.
‘None of this rescues Gooch,’ Whit said. He told Frank about Bucks’ offer, keeping the story simple and not adding in all of his and Eve’s theories as to Bucks’ true loyalties.
‘Your friend, consider him dead,’ Frank said. ‘Sorry. They have three sick bastards hunting you. You have your hands full without an impossible rescue, kid. As for Bucks, he’s following Paul’s orders to the letter so far as I can see.’
Whit went to the phone. ‘All I have to do is call the police, say a man is being held against his will at that address. End of story.’ He wanted to see Frank’s reaction to his suggestion.
He got a shrug from Frank. ‘And the cops got their asses taken to the cleaners the last time they set foot on Bellini property. They’d have to have reasonable cause for a warrant,’ Frank said. ‘They’re not in a hurry to get rid of Gooch, not while he could tell them where you or the money’s at, and for sure not while Paul’s mom is around. Paul’s not gonna let his mom hear him kill a man.’
‘Then you help us get Gooch,’ Whit said. He turned to Eve. ‘His safety is nonnegotiable. We’re getting him out.’
Eve nodded. ‘I agree.’
‘Who is this Gooch guy to you? Why you running around with these younger guys, Eve?’ Frank sounded hurt. ‘Who are you?’
Whit nearly laughed. ‘It’s so not what you think.’
‘Gooch saved my life, Frank,’ Eve said. ‘He and Whit saved me, okay, and they’ve helped me out. I owe them.’ She gave Whit a glance, almost embarrassed, freighted with guilt.
‘Yeah, babe, you’ve always been so debt-conscious.’ Frank cleared his throat.
Whit said, ‘I sure don’t trust a scum-ass drug dealer any more than I trust Bucks or Paul. But Frank’s right, if we can make Kiko believe the Bellinis are trying to screw him on the deal, the heat goes up on them.’ He paused. ‘I’m going to call Kiko and set up a come-to-Jesus meeting.’
‘No. I should go,’ Eve said.
‘No. Me.’ Whit turned to Frank. ‘I’d like to know what your plans are, Frank.’
‘My plans?’ Frank asked with a blank look.
‘Are you leaving town?’
‘No. I’m not leaving Eve. Ever.’ He took her hand.
‘Your concern is touching,’ Whit said.
‘It’s the most he’s ever shown,’ Eve said, but not unkindly.
‘I’m here, at total risk of my life,’ Frank said. ‘That counts for more than roses that wilt in a day and poems nobody can remember.’
‘Go to where they have Gooch,’ Whit said, ‘and do everything you can to keep them from harming or killing him in case they change their minds. We turn Bucks’ timetable around to our advantage, use Frank’s idea. Kiko’s going to miss his cartoons tomorrow morning. We’ll tell him there’s no money, but not until he has much less time to plan or react, less than twenty-four hours before he’s supposed to get his payment. Make him escalate the pressure on the Bellinis in exactly the way we want. Eve. We’re spending tonight at a motel. Not here. You better go, Frank. It’s best you don’t know where we’re at.’
Frank gave Whit a measured look. ‘I’m trusting you to take care of the woman I love.’
Someone loved her. He watched his mother touch Frank’s shoulder, Frank’s defiant frown.
‘I’ll take good care of her,’ Whit said. ‘You take care of Gooch for me. Tomorrow morning I call Kiko, and we let the shit hit the fan.’
29
‘You don’t know me,’ the young man said, ‘but I have an important business proposition for you.’ He sat down next to Kiko on the cool granite of the bench, not looking at him, watching the college students amble by, drinking their Saturday-morning coffee.
‘Propose away,’ Kiko Grace said. He had been lying on the bed in his rented condo, watching a rerun of a boxing match on ESPN with the TV set to mute, listening to his pregnant wife gripe on the phone about her morning sickness. He was about to switch over to A amp;E and see who was on Biography when call waiting clicked. He thumbed the button and a voice said, ‘If you want the five million in cash that’s due to you and you want to know why Paul Bellini’s screwing you over, be at Rice University in thirty minutes. Near the statue of the man sitting in a chair in the main academic quad. Come alone. I see anyone with you, I call the police and your ass is in jail in five seconds.’
‘How did you get this number?’ Kiko had asked.
‘I’ll see you in thirty minutes,’ the voice said. ‘Dress like a student. But no backpack. No weapons. We’re giving you critical information. Do what we ask or you won’t be seeing your five million any time soon.’ The caller hung up.
Kiko clicked over to his wife and said in Spanish, ‘Baby, I’ll call you back. Go shopping, it’ll pick you up.’ Spending money seemed to cure every other ailment she had, but he couldn’t deny her a thing.
Kiko, walking toward the rendezvous point, decided whoever called him had made a brilliant move. The quad at Rice University was beautiful, a manicured expanse of lawn and walkways, the statue at the middle of the grounds, a few students milling around the front of the library. It was Saturday, so there wasn’t a heavy traffic of people going to and from classes. Not an easy place for him to bring Jose and tuck him away. He felt himself not fitting in, even though he wasn’t much older than these kids. He wore jeans and a Miami Hurricanes sweatshirt, looking too old to be in college and knowing it. He sat at the granite block under the sculpture of William Rice sitting, open book in hand.
Jose lingered in the archways near the art gallery at the quad’s corner, wearing a T-shirt and baggy khaki work pants, pretending to be maintenance even without a uniform, poking at a shrub as though it were diseased, his pistol on a calf holster under his trousers.
But Kiko couldn’t see him now. He risked a glance at the guy who had sat next to him. Blondish, thirtyish, dressed more like a grad student than a professor.
‘Paul Bellini is screwing you over,’ the man said.
‘I don’t know any Paul Bellini.’
‘You had dinner with him Wednesday night. You ate a salad with way too much blue cheese dressing, most of a ribeye, caramel cheesecake. The wine was an Australian merlot, you drank one glass. You didn’t stay to watch the strippers dance in the private room.’
‘Who are you?’
‘A friend, because we have a common enemy,’ the man said. ‘Paul Bellini is setting you up, Mr Grace, because he’s despe
rate. He has no intention of paying you your money. He’s going to take the candy you brought into town and then he’s going to whack you.’
‘And why should I believe you?’
‘You don’t have to,’ the man said. ‘Wait for the bullets, then make up your mind.’
‘I’ll be gone from Houston by late tomorrow night,’ Kiko said.
‘They fly caskets out late? I thought that was more of a morning operation,’ the man said.
‘You got any proof or you just moving your lips?’
‘I can’t prove that he’s ordered a hit on you. That’s entirely your gamble if you choose to believe me or not. But he doesn’t have your money. He had it ready for you, but it got stolen. You know Bucks? Bucks stole it.’
Kiko gave a smile. ‘Did he now.’
‘Has Paul confirmed with you the money’s missing? Or is he feeding you a steady diet of “just a minor delay”? Promised you the money tonight, and he still doesn’t have it. Because Bucks has found his fool, and it’s Paul.’
Kiko didn’t answer the question. ‘Why you telling me this? What’s in it for you?’
The man didn’t look at him, watched two young women walk by, their laughter floating on the air. Waited until they were well past. ‘Paul thinks Eve Michaels stole the money. If you want your money, force Paul to cancel a hit he’s put on Eve.’
Kiko waited. ‘Why shouldn’t I let Paul deal with his own internal problems? I hate interfering with other folks’ staffing issues.’
‘We have financial information that could bring Paul down. We give it to the Feds, they’re gonna know you were dealing with him.’
‘No money’s changed hands,’ Kiko said. But he felt a sick little sinking of fear in his ribs, his gut.
‘We’ll tell the Feds, the police. They’ll watch your ass under a microscope, Mr Grace. You don’t want that.’ He shrugged. ‘Bucks turns over the money to either you or Paul, I don’t care, as long as they know Eve didn’t take it, we’re off safe, we’ll give up our financial data to you and Paul. You see? We don’t want the money, we don’t want the drugs. We want the hits called off, we want Bucks brought down.’
‘To do all you ask,’ Kiko said, ‘I have to kill both Bucks and Paul.’
‘Your call.’ The man stood, handed Kiko a slip of paper. ‘Here’s a phone number where you can reach me, day or night. You do your part and I’ll do mine and then your name is safe.’
‘How do I know you’re not playing me against Paul?’
‘I guess you don’t. But Paul Bellini’s lying to you, and I’m not.’ The man smiled. ‘I’m going to walk away now. Good luck.’
‘I’m not done talking to you.’ Because he decided when meetings were done, not this nobody.
‘Yes, we are done,’ the man said. ‘And if you don’t take any action, you go down with the Bellinis. We want to be left alone. You want your money. We have a mutual enemy. Take care of him. Please.’ He turned to walk away.
Kiko stood. Started to follow him, watching to see if Jose could see him now, glancing to the left. Jose was talking with a man in a university maintenance uniform, pretending not to speak English, starting to back away from the college worker.
The man turned, held up a hand. ‘There’s a lot of windows in that building to the left. The classrooms are empty today. I’ve got a friend up there with a high-powered rifle. He’ll take your arm off if you take another step or follow me until I’ve left the campus.’
‘Don’t you threaten me.’
‘Not threatening. Promising,’ the man said.
Kiko watched him vanish around a corner. Stood there, hating that he couldn’t move, watching Jose turn and walk away from the maintenance guy. Finally taking a step, walking, no shot coming.
No sign of the man in the parking lot. Gone. He got in his rented Lexus, Jose already sitting in the driver’s seat. Kiko got in the back and didn’t say a word until he was on Main Street, driving on the edge of Hermann Park. His furnished condo was on Fannin, in the heart of a trendy real estate area for those who favored convenience to downtown.
‘Well, this dink says there’s no delay in getting the money. He says there’s no money, period.’ He relayed the conversation with the man.
‘You believe him? Think Bucks has got the money and is holding out on us?’
Kiko tongued his cheek, clicked his teeth. ‘I don’t believe Bucks would risk that film coming to light. So no, I don’t believe our new friend regarding Bucks.’ He drummed fingers on the dashboard. ‘Now Paul-boy, Paul might be working a new angle and not clueing Bucks in. Telling Bucks there’s a delay and Bucks don’t know better. That’s a serious worry.’
‘So now what?’
‘I don’t like complications. We’re gonna have an A- I serious talk with Bucks, right now. If he’s lied, he’s dead, too. I’m thinking this guy and Eve Michaels have the money and want me and Paul shooting at each other.’
‘You’re dead-on right,’ Jose said. ‘Like Willie S said. “ Be able for thine enemy rather in power than use…” ’
‘What the hell does that mean?’ He liked Jose but didn’t like Jose acting too smart.
‘Means that you have to be competent to deal with those who piss you off. No holds barred, Kiko.’
‘Fine. So when we get what we want,’ Kiko said, turning on the radio, fiddling to find a salsa beat, not wanting to hear another word of Willie S, ‘we be able for our enemies on a big scale. We kill everybody.’
30
‘Not another roach motel tonight,’ Eve said to Whit as they drove away from Rice. They’d spent Friday night in a cheap dive out on 1-45 north of downtown. ‘We can find one that’s laid out better for defense.’ The open lot of the motel made her nervous; she’d been standing by the window when Whit fell into restless sleep, and when he awoke this morning.
The Greystoke was a quiet, elegant hotel, owned by an old oil family, at the edge of the Galleria shopping district. Eve liked it because anyone following them or trying to find them could not park on Westheimer to watch the flow of traffic in and out of the hotel’s doors. All the hotel’s parking was handled by valets, so you couldn’t be watched from the hotel lot. Across from the Greystoke a gas station had been razed, and construction was under way on yet another needless upscale restaurant and shopping plaza. Security constantly guarded the construction site, so it could not be used for surveillance.
‘This feels relatively safe,’ she told Whit.
Safe. It wasn’t necessarily the condition he worried most about as he went about life, but life wasn’t life any more. Frank had called this morning, said, ‘Gooch sedated, okay, roughed up a little’ and hung up. And now Whit had hopefully unleashed Kiko against the Bellinis. While Whit waited in the quietly tasteful hotel lobby, Eve – wearing dark glasses and a blondish wig – got them adjoining rooms with her Emily Smith Visa card. Within five minutes they were in their rooms.
‘I’m not sure Kiko believed me,’ Whit said. ‘I got the distinct impression he knew more than I did. He seemed overconfident. Could he be behind this? The theft of the money?’
Eve looked blank. ‘I don’t see how. He couldn’t have known where the exchange point was.’
‘Harry followed you. Why couldn’t Kiko have? In a way, it would be brilliant. He’d have the money and the Bellinis are turning on each other, self-destructing without him lifting a finger. Then he steps into the vacuum, with their money, and still with his five million in coke to sell. He’s doubled his profits in a day.’
He saw that the thought had not occurred to Eve, with her unrelenting focus on Bucks, and her face went ashen. ‘Whit. Let’s just run,’ she said.
‘And leave Gooch? Absolutely not.’
‘He matters a great deal to you, doesn’t he?’
‘Yes.’
‘Sort of odd, considering you have five brothers. You hardly needed another one, honey. Aren’t you close to your brothers?’
‘I’m close to Mark. Not so much to the o
thers. I love them all. But we don’t all see each other much, I’m the last one still in Port Leo. I’ve seen them more since Daddy got sick.’
Eve knotted her fingers together in her lap. ‘I would have thought me leaving brought you all close together.’
‘The wounded crawl off to their own corners,’ Whit said. ‘We all died a little then. In certain ways it toughened us, did make us close. But it screwed up how we got close to people.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘No, you’re not,’ Whit said. ‘You know, I don’t hate you. Clearly I don’t, considering what I’m risking to save you. But an “I’m sorry” won’t cut it. Because I don’t believe you’d change a thing about what you did. You’ve had the life you wanted, Mom.’
‘How do you know that, Whit?’
‘Because you chose never to come home.’
She sat next to him. ‘I’d change one thing,’ she said quietly. ‘I’d have taken you with me. I nearly did. But Babe would have never let you go.’
‘You’re right. He loved his children.’
She winced. ‘I loved you, too.’
‘Abandonment is a strange form of affection.’
‘I was a strange mother.’
‘So, really, why’d you do it?’
‘Does it matter?’ She got up from the bed, went into the bathroom, washed her face, washed her hands. She came back into the room, mopping at her face, wiping it clean.
‘Does it matter why me and my friend might die trying to save you?’
‘In your heart, you’ve either forgiven me or you still love me. The human heart is capable of a lot more than it gets credit for.’ She folded the towel. ‘I’m not sure I still loved you a few days ago, Whit. You and your brothers were abstractions to me. I didn’t know you as men. I didn’t know the people you’ve turned into. I had no years of memories to tie you to me. Although God knows I’ve imagined. And I sacrificed more for you, years ago, than you’ll ever know.’
‘Like what?’
She pursed her mouth, like she had said too much. ‘It doesn’t really matter. If I tell you, I sound like I’m pleading a case for you to understand me. Or to love me. You either do or you don’t,’ Eve said.