Against The Odds (Anna Dawson #1) (25 page)

“He’ll stay here as long as he’s needed,” I said and walked out the door, praying nothing would happen to my boys while I was gone.

I wouldn’t be able to bear anything happening to them anytime, but the guilt of it happening while I was cleaning up a mess of my own making would put me over the edge.

“W
hat am I supposed to tell Jack when he comes back?” Lorelei asked me in my bedroom as I packed a carry-on bag. None of JoJo’s usual clothes had to come this time, so I was able to pack in front of Lorelei after I’d dropped my bomb on her.

“Tell him you don’t know where I went, but that I’ll be back in a couple of days. It’s the truth.”

“How can he get in touch with you?”
 

I pulled my iphone out of my jacket pocket and placed it on my bedside table. “He can’t.”

“How can I get in touch with you…if something…happens.”

I thought about it for a minute. It was a chance I’d have to take—telling Lorelei about my old phone. She needed to be able to get me if something happened to one of the boys.

“Do you still know the number to my old phone?”

She narrowed her green, cat-like eyes, but only nodded.

“Don’t tell anyone else I still have that phone and only call it if there’s an emergency.”

She gulped. “Cripes, Jo, you’re starting to scare me.”

I was scared shitless myself, but I tried to brush off her concern. “It’s fine, it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine, or you wouldn’t be leaving the boys right now.”

“They’re in good hands with you and Jack, and the police car outside. Anybody would think twice about trying anything.”

“I don’t know. Whoever this is seems pretty determined. Jack and Frank still have no leads?”

I shook my head. “They don’t tell me a lot. But I think they’re still checking into the Pittsburgh guys. Probably banking records, stuff like that, to see if any of them made big withdrawls recently.” At Lorelei’s puzzled look I added, “To pay for a hit man.”

“Jesus,” she said under her breath.

“I know, this is so crazy. To think someone could want revenge so deeply, for so long that they’d try to kill five old men…” I shook my head, unable to finish.

I went into my bathroom, grabbed some necessities, and threw them into my bag, and zipped it up.

“Jack’s a detective, you know. Do you really think he’s not going to look for you?”

“I thought of that,” I said. My look cut off her follow-up questions. “I have to go.”

“Jo…”

“Please, Lor, this is hard enough. I can’t take a lecture right now.”

She sighed, threw up her hands in defeat. “All right. Do what you have to. Come back as soon as you can. I’ll look after the boys.”

I hugged her quickly then stepped away, afraid that I’d never let go if she hugged back. “I know you will. I can’t thank you enough for everything you do. You’re a life saver.”

“I’ll be expecting diamonds your next win,” she teased.

“You got it,” I answered as I started to leave the room, hoping I’d have working opposable thumbs able to play cards with after this was all over.

“But Jo,” she said, and I turned from the doorway to face her. “If nothing else makes you take a look at your life…leaving the people you love when they need you most…”

I nodded, totally agreeing with her, but not wanting to deal with it right now.

Hell, not wanting to deal with it. Period.

I
called Jimmy on my way to his house. “You still up?”

 
“Yeah.”

“Can I come over?”

“Where are you?”

“About a block away.”

“There’s a cop car out front. You need me to shake ‘em and meet you somewhere?”

I didn’t even want to guess at what Jimmy thought I might be involved in, but I was touched at his willingness to forgo his own protection to help me out.

“I’ve been wanting to test the balls of those two young shits for a couple a days now,” Jimmy added, wiping away his points.

“No. Not necessary. They can know I was there.” I didn’t want Jimmy leaving the house if it wasn’t necessary. I knew he might have to leave for me in the next day and that was enough.

“They’ll probably call Jack,” he said, but I’d already thought of that.

“I won’t be there long enough for it to matter,” I said and hung up.

I parked in Jimmy’s driveway. I crossed to the patrol car and they rolled down their windows. “Hey, guys,” I said. They were two that had rotated with the ones in front of our house, so they knew me. I knew them, too, but couldn’t remember their names.

“I’m just bringing Jimmy some of Lorelei’s dinner tonight.” They nodded. I handed them one of my two grocery bags. “She made a lot. Here you go.” There were two containers, plastic utensils, napkins and a couple of Cokes. Lorelei had fixed it for me, so I knew she’d have thought of everything.

“Wow, thanks, Ms. Dawson,” the blond one said and the other one nodded.
 

“No problem, I’m just the delivery person. Lorelei did all the work.”

“We’ll thank her next time we’re at your place,” the dark-haired one said and they both got a glassy look in their eyes, thinking of Lorelei and her spectacular dancer’s body and flowing red hair.

I made my way to Jimmy’s front door hoping the food
 
- and thoughts of Lorelei—might delay them in wondering if they should call someone and let them know I was at Jimmy’s house. I only needed ten minutes.

Jimmy let me in, took the grocery bag out of my hand and led me to his kitchen. Jimmy still lived in Henderson in the cute little bungalow-style house that Ben said Jimmy had shared with his wife forty years ago.

He’d taken care of it. It still had all the original wood and fixtures. He could probably get twenty times what he’d paid for it now, but Jimmy seemed content to stay where he was—in his comfort zone.

Who could blame him?

“What do you need?” Jimmy asked as he put the bag in his refrigerator.

I pulled the envelope of money out of my jacket pocket. I had taken an empty envelope from my desk. I took two thousand out and put it in the empty envelope. I put that one back in my jacket. I put the other envelope on the table. “I might call you tomorrow and ask you to place a bet for me.”

“Might?”

“Might.”

“What will determine if you make that call?”

“There’s two things, neither of which might happen. So, it might not happen at all. But I need to know you can get to a casino, make the bet and still keep yourself safe.”

He snorted. “That’s not a problem.”

“You don’t have to elude the cops, Jimmy. Take them with you. You’re just placing a bet, perfectly legal.”

“Do you really want them to know what game I’m betting on? Or to see how much I’m betting?” He nodded at the envelope of money on the table.

“If you can place the bet without that information getting out, that would be better…but…it’s not as important as you not being in danger.”

He shrugged. “If you and I are the only ones that know about it, there’s no way that this fucker that’s shooting at us would be aware of it ahead of time, be able to plan for it.”

“Right. That’s what I was thinking. You just let the cops know you need to run an errand and that they should come along—better yet, ask them to drive you.”

I could see he didn’t like that—he really wanted to show he could best the young cops and lose his tail. But Jimmy wasn’t stupid. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.”

“And Jimmy, if things don’t feel right, or if anything else happens in the meantime, don’t do it. Don’t leave the house to make the bet.”

He thought for a moment before speaking. “If it comes to that, I can have somebody stop by, get the money and make the bet for me.”

“You have somebody you trust enough to hand thousands over to and hope he makes your bet?” I said, having just done exactly that. But that was the point…I trusted Jimmy to do this for me.

He shrugged. “I know a guy.”

M
y last stop before the airport was to meet Paulie in the Bellagio parking deck. He handed me an envelope. I looked inside. A license with the name Marie VanSipe on it and the picture Paulie had taken of me yesterday when I’d come to him with my request—and my money.
 

There were two credit cards also in the envelope both in Marie’s name. Stolen account numbers no doubt, but I’d only use them for extra identification and at the hotel when I registered. I’d pay for everything with cash.

I was about to break a whole bunch of laws, but I wasn’t a thief.

Chapter Twenty-One

I
sat in the parking lot at the apartment complex in Dubuque, waiting for Raymond Joseph’s roommate to leave for class.

I looked at my notes, sitting next to me on the passenger seat of the rental car. The roommate had a ten-fifteen on the other side of campus, so he’d have to get going pretty soon.

I thought of my own attendance at Friday morning classes years ago and hoped this kid was a little bit better student.
 

I grabbed the other sheets of paper from the passenger seat. Stats. Names of people and places in Chicago. All things I might need and should be able to rattle off like I knew what I was doing.
 

When I placed them back on the seat I noticed that my hand was shaking.

Five minutes later the roommate emerged and headed to the parking lot. I waited until he got in his car and drove out of the complex lot before looking around to make sure the lot was deserted, which it was.
 

I got out of the car and quickly walked to the apartment door. I knocked loudly enough to be heard by the boy inside, but not so loud that others in the building would hear and perhaps look out their peepholes at me.

I heard the shuffling of feet coming to the door, then the door was swung wide and a half-dressed Raymond Joseph stood in front of me. He had sweats on but his ebony chest was bare. I had either interrupted his getting dressed or this is what he slept in. It didn’t matter.

I pushed past him and into the apartment just like I had at the motel in Minnesota only a few weeks earlier.

“We need to talk, Raymond,” I said. I then put on the JoJo twang and added, “Or should I say Mr. Smith?” I saw the recognition quickly come to his eyes.
 

He shut the door behind him, then followed me into the living room of the apartment. “How much money did you make off of that Minnesota game?”

“None,” I said.
 

“Bullshit,” he said.

“None. It was a fee-based transaction.”

He studied me, then nodded. “Go on,” he said

I knew right away I’d made the right choice. Raymond Joseph was a very smart kid. And savvy. And he’d need both of those qualities for what I had in mind.

It was just a shame that I was really starting to like him.

I pointed to the kitchen. “Is that coffee I smell?”
 

“Probably,” Raymond said. “My roommate always has a couple of cups before class.”

“Any left?”

“Why, you gonna slip something in it?”

“It’s not that kind of visit, Raymond.”

“No? What kind is it?” He made his way into the tiny kitchen. I sat at the kitchen table and waited for him to pour himself and me a cup and sit down across the table from me.

He was keeping his cool, waiting to hear me out, which only reconfirmed that Raymond was the one for the job.

“Did Lurch ever put together what happened in Minnesota like you did?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Did you tell him?” He shook his head again.

“Did you tell anyone?” Another shake as he took a gulp of coffee. So did I as we studied each other.

“Why not?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Dunno.”

“I think you do know, Raymond.”

“You tell me, then, JoJo.”
 

“Instinct. Instinct told you not to tell anyone about my visit. That there might be a reason not to. It’s what makes you a great basketball player, Raymond. Instinct.”

He stared at me, not giving anything away. He’d make a good poker player.

“I bet you’re not entirely surprised to see me on your doorstep, are you?”

There was just a hint of a smile and I knew I was right.

Maybe he wouldn’t make that great of a poker player after all.

It had been between Raymond Joseph at CIU or Karl Richardson at Louisville. In some ways, Richardson would have been the easier mark. He was greedy and he didn’t really care about his team the way Raymond Joseph did. He made up eighty percent of Louisville’s points.