Crime Always Pays (38 page)

          'You'll get Johnny for this guy,' Ray said. 

          'Okay. But what I'm wondering is, where's Johnny?'

          'He's safe.'

          'Safe where?'

          'Ray?' Karen said. 'You want to take that Johnny shit some place else? Last thing I need right now is witnesses.'

          Ray, generally speaking, the situation was any way normal, he'd have used Niko as a shield. But the way Karen was looking, he figured presenting Niko as any kind of target would be a bad idea. For Niko, first, sure. But for Karen in the long run. So he stood beside Niko, Niko on his knees grabbing his ankles, Ray with the .38 cocked and ready to go.

          'Where's Anna?' he said to distract her.

          Karen showed Niko the .32 and said, 'I've five left. Two for you, one in each ball.'

          'Karen --'

          'Back off, Ray. He's mine.'

          'There's a queue,' Ray said. 'And Pyle got in there first.'

          Niko, lids heavy, glanced from Karen to Pyle.

          'All we're trying to do here,' Pyle said, 'is get Johnny back safe. Okay? Everything else we can talk about.'

          'Last I heard,' Ray said, 'the point of the exercise was to get Karen safe. Now I see she's in one piece, just about, the rest is between you and Niko.'

          Niko said, 'Pyle? Bring me up to speed. How come something feels off here?'

          'Nothing's 
off
, man,' Pyle said. 'Ray here was just helping out, the Sicilians have Johnny. Except there's no way we're trading you to any Sicilians.'

          'Less of the 'we' shit, Tonto,' Ray said. 'Me and Karen, we're out.'

          'He got it right about not trading the guy anywhere,' Karen said. 'He's going nowhere 'til I'm done.'

          'Guy's a cop,' Pyle said. 'You don't want to go shooting any 
cops
, for Chrissakes.'

Karen swung the .32, pointing it now at Pyle. 'Tell me just once more,' she said, 'what I don't want to do.'

          After, when he had time to think about it, Ray consoled himself with the fact that when you take an ankle gun off a guy, you never think he might be packing another on the other ankle. You did, you'd never put him on his knees leaning back to grab his ankles.

But that was after. 

          Niko, once Karen swung the .32 away, came up fast chopping at Ray's wrist with his right hand, the ankle gun, the Sig's twin, in his left. The .38 went AWOL, Ray rocking back and stumbling in the soft sand as Niko body-charged him out of the way, Niko already sprinting for the village. Not forgetting, the guy cop-trained, to loose off a couple in Karen's direction.

Ray, going down backasswards, heard a high-pitched scream, the sharp crack-crack of Karen's .32.

Sleeps

Ray, before he took Niko out of the shack, told Sleeps he'd try to pull Karen and Pyle as far over on the beach as he could, give Sleeps a chance to get around the back of the shack, sneak up along the headland in the shadows, take up a covering position near the village. 

          Sleeps'd said, 'You're sure?' Hoping Ray wouldn't change his mind.

          'Anything goes wrong,' Ray'd said, 'you're our ace in the hole, they won't be expecting you. Okay?'

          Sleeps, ready to pass out in the tight suit, sloshing around in there now, just nodded. Watched as Ray took Niko across the beach level with the shack, not up towards Karen and Pyle, then put Niko on his knees. Sleeps pulled the loose cane at the rear of the shack wide apart enough to struggle through, then crawled on his hands and knees to the nearest outcrop, started back up towards the deserted village. Hearing the murmur of conversation, not able to make out what was being said. He took up a position behind the boulder Karen'd been hiding at and wiped his slick hands on the front of the suit. Checked the Sig, making sure it was ready to go, and then nearly dropped it when the night kicked off.

          Sleeps peered around the boulder expecting carnage, saw Niko lurching for the jeep, Ray sprawled on his ass, Karen down and squirming in the sand. The wolf howling like a banshee from the back of the jeep. Ray, hampered by the plaster cast arm, got up on one knee and fired down on Niko, two rounds, both whanging into the jeep. Niko, Christ, like a greyhound hitting the bend, changed direction fast to come shuffling through the sand towards Sleeps.

          Sleeps froze.

          Had a moment, it wasn't like his life flashed before his eyes, any of that shit, but saw himself, like out-of-body looking down, a fat guy in a small suit holding a gun about to, what, 
shoot
 a guy? Gary Rennick from Nelson Mandela Place, a redbrick two-up two-down estate, the nothing special guy, trained to drive fork-lifts and I'm shooting some fucker now?

          It was for only a second, no more. But that was plenty. By the time he'd started to bring the gun up, Niko, amped, caught the flicker of shadow and fired from low, still swiveling, not aiming, just squeezing one off. The jolt causing Sleeps' finger to spasm on the double-action trigger, get one away.

          The last thing he saw was Niko, framed for a split-second in the yellowy-blue corona of the jeep's headlights, a killer in the sun.

MONDAY

Madge

Madge, out on the balcony in a winged-back cane armchair, a potted palm behind, this back at the Poseidon, said, 'It's just not that simple, Liz. I'm on standby but it's the height of the tourist season here, the place is full of Italians, they can't just yank someone off the plane because Frank died, cause a diplomatic incident ...' She said, 'Say again? I've got a bad line here, I'm losing you … A tragedy? Well, there's tragedies and then there's tragedies. How's Jeanie doing?'

          She had a sip of Cristal while Liz snuffled something incoherent down the line. 'Liz? Look hon, I could be on a flight within the hour, there's no way of knowing. But right now you need to be strong for your sister, you know she was always the dependent one … Listen, I don't suppose Doug has said anything about, y'know, the autopsy results, like when they're due?'

          She said, 'Uh-huh. Well, I'll definitely be home before then, they're working overtime here to get me on a plane. Meanwhile, keep taking any drugs they'll give you. Oh, and Liz? Tell Doug I said that if any newspapers are buzzing around, the TV, you've got my permission to talk to them. Especially the tabloids. Doug'll work out the fee, don't worry about that. And if Doug gets pissy about prejudicing the trial, some shit like that, tell him I'll sue his ass for freedom of speech … What's that? No, I'm losing you again … I'll ring first thing in the morning, okay? Love to Jeanie. 'Bye.'

          She hung up and said, 'Girl thinks she's distraught now, wait'll she meets Rossi, her brand new brother from Knackeragua.'

          Melody leaned out of the other wing-backed cane armchair to top up Madge's glass from the chilled magnum in the silver bucket. She said, 'Madge, there's something you really need to know.'

          'What's that?'

          'Ray and me, we got drunk on the ferry the other night. Well, Ray got drunk. I listened.'

          'And?'

          'Say someone was to hook you up,' Melody said, 'I mean, prove to you for sure who your son is. Show you his passport. What d'you think, would that someone be due a finder's fee from this inheritance? I mean, nothing too outrageous. Ten per cent, say.'

Ray

Anna's howl had Ray expecting the worst. Which was why, jogging up the beach crouched down, he made his second mistake in two minutes, realising too late Pyle wasn't tending to Karen, he was scrabbling around in the sand for her .32.

          Pyle came up pointing at Ray, backing away, saying, 'Just put it down, man.'

          Ray, still moving, dropped the .38 and went past him to Karen, hunkered down. A quick murmur for Anna, get the girl onside, Anna with this anxious whine as she butted her muzzle against Karen's shoulder trying to lick her face. A perfectly round hole in Karen's t-shirt just off-centre below her ribs, Niko cop-trained to aim for the biggest target, the torso. The girl white-faced, skin taut, twitching like she'd been electrocuted. Shock already wearing off, pain now starting to burn.

'Karen? Just try to relax. Don't move, okay? The more you move the more blood you'll lose.' Karen, teeth clenched, just nodded. 'I'm taking a look,' he said. 'Watch my eyes.'

          Ray eased the t-shirt out of her jeans, gentle as he could, Karen sucking in a sharp breath as he pushed it up over her belly. The girl, Christ, more worried about her weight than Ray'd believed she would be, wearing some kind of corset, a sheet wrapped tight and knotted low above her left hip.

          'How's she doing?' Pyle said from off to the side, Pyle like Billy the Kid, the .32 in one hand, .38 in the other.

          Ray undid the knot in the sheet, pulled it away, then realised why there was no bleeding.   

Pyle shuffled a little closer, grinning now, saying, 'Now that right there is not a sight you see every day.'

The slug just lodged there below her bottom rib, flattened against Karen's extra weight, half-buried in one of the bundles of cash she'd strapped to her stomach. Ray used a thumbnail to flick it loose. Karen grimaced, the crooked jaw grinding hard. '
Dead
 man,' she gasped.

          'We'll worry about Niko later,' Ray said. 'First we get you to a doctor.'

          'Why's she need a doctor?' Pyle said. 'The slug's right there, no penetration.'

          'She could be bleeding internally. And I'm guessing she'll have broken ribs, at least. Then there's general trauma, the shock.'

          'If it's broken ribs, the doc won't be able to do anything. Meanwhile he's asking how it happened, the girl got this internal bleeding you're saying she might have.'

          'She's seeing a doctor,' Ray said, 'fast as I can get her there.'

          Pyle held up the .38. 'Sorry compadre, no can do.'

          'He wasn't asking for no favour,' Sleeps said stepping out from behind the Punto, both hands braced on the butt of the Sig.

Melody

'Now I know you're shitting me,' Terry said. 'Ray is the kid Israel?'

          Madge just stared, lying flopped back in the wing-backed chair. 

Mel, nodding, said, 'I have his passport back in the room.' She considered. 'Well, three of his passports to be precise, Ray likes to keep his options open. But yeah, one of them says Israel Brogan. Be a bit of a coincidence if this Israel you're looking for wasn't our Ray. I mean, how many Irish kids were named Israel that year?'

          '
Any
 year,' Terry said. 'And it's definitely the right date?'

          'The date I can't be certain about,' Mel said, 'but it's the right year, yeah. I mean, Israel Brogan – that one caught my eye.'

          'And your maiden name,' Terry said to Madge, 'it's Brogan?'

          Madge shook her head. 'That must be his adopted name,' she whispered. 

          'Maybe they thought he was Jewish,' Terry said. 'Had him circumcised.'

          'This isn't a 
joke
, Terry,' Madge said.

          Mel said, 'Anyway, this finder's fee we were --'

          There came a knockity-knock-knock at the door. Terry went through, let Rossi in, Rossi parading Johnny out onto the balcony like the guy was Lord Lucan, saying, 'Johnny? I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, name's Terry Furlong. You might've heard of him as Terry Swipes.'

          Johnny with a double-take, from Rossi to Terry in the wing-backed armchair.
'Oh shit,' he said, his jaw flopping around. He said, 'I didn't 
know
. How could I 
know
?'

          'Don't worry about it,' Terry said. 'You know now.'

          'You know forty gees worth,' Rossi told him.

          Mel said, 'Rossi? If you don't mind, we're right in the middle of --'

          Except then Rossi's phone rang. Rossi checked the caller ID and handed Johnny the phone, saying, 'Here's this guy Niko wants to talk to you. Whyn't you make it a conference call, huh?' Putting the CZ, 9mm Parabellum, in Johnny's face.