Dead Money Run (10 page)

Chapter 2
6

Whe
n
I woke up, the door to the bathroom was closed and I heard Hilary singing ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’. From the sound of it, Dianna Ross had nothing to fear, but I liked the song. It kind of fit some of our problems.

I
gave some thought to taking a shower with her, but if I did, I knew we wouldn’t leave until sometime in the late afternoon. Besides, she needed her own downtime.

So far,
all I had in the way of leads on who might have killed Susan were Sonny Cap, Angel Garcia and someone named Hightower. Since I didn’t know any of them, I needed some idea how they fit into my sister’s life. While I knew my sister in some ways, I didn’t know her in others. I needed something to go on. The question was, where to go first.

I had her diary which I had not looked at until now.
I was behind the curve on this investigation stuff. Picking it up, I must have looked like a geologist inspecting a rock.

The diary
was black imitation leather and divided up into years and months. I turned to the last few entries. The last page contained what my sister did in her life right before she died. I felt like a voyeur peeping through the window at someone.

On the day she died,
she met a john by the name of Maddox at the Casino in Jacksonville Beach at six o’clock in the morning. At nine that morning met another one named Reynolds. After that she had a meeting with Shelia in one of the restaurants in the Casino. She wrote that she was angry about the meeting with Reynolds. From what I could tell, Reynolds was an important man hooked into the Casino somehow. Shelia told Susan that she shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. I wrote down the name Reynolds. There was an entry next to the name that my sister had written telling her diary that there was nothing pleasing about what she did, but she had to get information for the people in Atlanta. I had to find out who these people were. That afternoon she met with Lockman. He wanted some money. The next line she had written the word ‘Jerk’. Well Sis, he’s a dead jerk now.

Reading
through the rest of the earlier entries, I got the impression that my sister was gathering information and passing it on to this Max Reynolds. Probably the same Reynolds she had met at nine in the morning on the day she died. What did Susan know that was so important someone had to kill her? I needed to find this Reynolds and I had to go to Atlanta to do that.

I couldn’t look through the book any longer. It was ge
tting to me. I put it down and picked up the address book and leafed through it. I looked under ‘R’s’ and there was the name, Max Reynolds, and an address for him on Marietta Street in downtown Atlanta and a telephone number. Only people on Marietta Street were lawyers, accountants or politicians and not necessarily in that order. Next, I found an address for Angel Garcia. It had a Buckhead address. Whoever Angel was, he had expensive taste. There was no listing for anyone named, Hightower. Shelia was in there and so was her husband, Billy. Only thing was, their address was not in Jacksonville Beach, but in Atlanta at the same location as this Max Reynolds. Since all the people connected with Reynolds were dead, that made him someone I needed to get to.

After a few pages more,
I started to get a headache. I saw nothing further of value and felt like I needed a drink. I picked up the telephone handset and dialed room service and ordered a bottle of scotch. Any brand would do I had told them.

I needed someplace to start. My hope was that I c
ould keep my sanity long enough to see this thing to the end.

Chapter 2
7

Befor
e
going to bed in a hotel room, I always prop a chair under the doorknob. It wasn’t much, but if someone was trying to get in, it would give me a few seconds to grab a weapon. Sitting in the small kitchen area, I had a clear shot at the door. I had placed the Glock on the kitchen table within easy reach while I drank my coffee. The front door of the room did not open straight out into the parking lot, but had a small alcove you had to step into before entering the room. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but twenty minutes more or less would cover it. I had ordered a bottle of scotch from room service and was waiting for the knock at the door when I saw the chair move slightly. If I had not been looking at the door, I wouldn’t have noticed it. Getting up from my chair, I grabbed the Glock and screwed in the suppressor and walked to the door. Looking through the security hole I saw two guys looking back at the door. One guy had a sap in his hand and the other guy had a small caliber pistol with a silencer on it. I didn’t see anyone standing out there with a bottle of scotch.

Our
room was one of those two bedroom suites where one of the bedrooms could be joined with the suite making for two bedrooms or closed off and rented as a hotel room by itself. The extra room also had a door to the outside. I had to move fast. Removing the chair from under the doorknob, I was hoping that Hilary would stay in the bathroom for the next few minutes singing her heart out while I tended to these two out in the hall.

Walking into the other room, I
opened the door to the outside and stepped out onto the walkway. I could see the back of one of our visitors rocking back and forth like a fighter waiting to go into a ring. I heard one of them say, “He’s probably in there fucking the girl. If he is, I want sloppy seconds.” I heard them both laugh. Hugging the wall, I inched my way down the walkway until I was able to put the end of the Glock’s barrel behind the guy’s head that was rocking back and forth. I shot him in the neck just above his shoulders severing his spine. He was dead standing up. I heard the other man say, “Frank, what’s with you…” I grabbed the one I shot and shoved him into his partner, knocking them both through our room door. As they fell on our floor, I shot the first guy in the groin.

Shooting someone in the groin tends to hurt like hell, but they usually
don’t die right away from the wound. This one dropped the pistol he was holding and grabbed his crotch.

Hilary walked out of the bathroom
holding a towel in front of her just as I came through the door. With a surprised look on her face, she smiled and said, “I take it we’re checking out?”

Lifting the
dude with the groin problem by his hair, I said, “Not until I get some answers from this fucker.”

“I’m not telling you a fucking thing asshole.”

“Little early to be making rash statements, don’t you think? By the time I get through with you, you’ll be singing the National Anthem, trust me.”

Walking over to the dead guy, I emptied his pockets. He had a roll of hundreds
that would have choked a horse. I threw the roll on the bed. His driver’s license gave his name a Stan Goldman. He was from College Park, Georgia. The rest of the stuff amounted to a pocket knife, a set of car keys, which I threw on the bed, along with the money. The car keys were the kind where you pushed a button to unlock the doors and another one to start the engine. It made it easy for me when I had to find the car.

I stood up and looked at the other guy
holding his groin and said,” Okay wise guy, you’re next.”

“What
are you going to do with Stan’s money? Add it to the fifteen you already got?”

So that was it. “How do you know about that?” I said.

“You dumb fuck, we’re GBI and you’re in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

“You’re a little off your reservation aren’t you chief?”

He didn’t answer the question, but just kept looking at me. I turned and smiled at him and said, “If you and your dead buddy here are GBI, then she’s little Orphan Annie and I’m Sandy, her dog.

“You got any ID?” I
asked.

He
still didn’t say anything and just looked at me. I walked over and rolled him on his stomach and did the same thing to him that I did to dead Stan. He had a little more than Stan in the way of money. I added it to the pot. Next, I found an ID that was in one of those little wallet type cases Joe Friday would pulled out on Dragnet and flash to some terrified witness saying, ‘Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.’ But he wasn’t Joe Friday and I wasn’t Sandy the dog.

Searching through
the rest of his pockets, I found a leather sap with a spring handle. I threw it on the bed along with everything else.

“Okay
, Friday, if you’re GBI, tell me where you did your basic training?”

Nothing.

“I take it you don’t know. Here’s a bit of trivia for you, Friday. It’s in Forsyth, Georgia.

“Now I need some facts.”

“My name is not Friday,” he said.

“It’s going to be mud in a few minutes
unless you start talking.

“Who do you really work for
and don’t ragtime me,” I said. “We’re about out of time.”

“You’re going to kill me like you’ve killed all the rest. Why should I tell you anything?”

“Aha,” I said. “So someone is keeping score. You want to add your name to the list?” I stepped on his stomach and he gave out a grunt and rolled over.

“God…I need a doctor
,” he said. “I’m gut shot.”

“You should have thought of that before you knocked on the door,” I said.

“You’re killing people faster than we can get them in the field. No one wants to mess with you.”

“So what are you doing here?”

“Money. We want the money. Everybody does. You have some powerful people after you. When they catch you and Bright Eyes here, you are going to pay and it won’t be in any prison.”

“Oka
y,” I looked at his ID to get his name, “Renaldo Maddox. Funny name for a cop. I use to know a Renaldo Maddox who had a cell three doors down from me in the Atlanta Pen. You ever in prison, Renaldo?”

Renaldo was done talking. He was
lying on his back. A pool of blood had formed under him. I kicked him and asked him again who he worked for.

“GBI. You got my ID.”

“No, I have a plastic card in my hands with your name on it, but it is not an official one. The official ones have the State of Georgia seal embossed in gold on them. This one looks like something you got out of a box of Cracker Jacks,” I said.

“I need a doctor. Get me a doctor and then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” He was looking at Hilary
as he spoke.

“There has to be a doctor in this place,” he said. “
They all have them.”

“Yeah
,” I said. “But you’re not going to see any of them.

“I can do one of two things. Pack up and leave you here for the maid to call the cops and an ambulance or I can shoot you and still leave you here for the maid, only she won’t be calling for an ambulance
. Your choice.”

While Renaldo was thinking things over, I went and got my sister’s address book and started playing ‘Who do you know’ with him. As I read off the names he didn’t say an
ything. Finally I had enough. I picked up the small caliber pistol he had with him when he came through the door and shot him above his right eye. He shook like he couldn’t believe it, but at least I warned him.

“Well, that’s that. What do we do now,” said Hilary. “
So far it’s eleven for the home team, visitors nothing.”

I told Hilary that I
wasn’t keeping score.

“Look, this t
hing is going to get real messy,” I said. “I think this deal is more than just about my sister’s killing and the money they think I have. I can give you some money, enough to go see your parents and you’re out of this.”

I watched as Hilary wrinkled her forehead, “You think that’s what I want?”

“Not sure, but if you left, I wouldn’t blame you,” I said.

“Well
, Clyde, it looks like I’m your Bonnie. I just don’t want to end up somewhere beside the road in a shot up car. These people are ramping up. Pretty soon they’ll send the first team in. When they do, you’re going to need all the help you can get and right now, I’m it. Besides, where would I go? Home to Deadsville? I don’t think so. Probably be worse off. At least with you I have a chance of shooting someone before they shoot me.”

I
had nothing to add to that. I got up and walked over and kissed her. If I didn’t watch myself, I could end up on my back with my legs kicking in the air asking her to scratch my belly.

After a few minutes, Hilary
pointed at the two dead bodies and said, “What are we going to do with them?”

“I’ll think of something
,” I said. “We need to finish getting dressed and leave. I’ll drive their car to a quiet spot I saw coming in. Looked like a public park. No one bothers a car at a public park, at least not right away.”

As we packed to leave,
I stopped for a few moments. Something was not right.

“What’s the matter?” Hilary said
stepping around the dead men as she packed.

“I never got the scotch I ordered from room service.”

“So? If you think you need it, we can get something as we leave town.”

“No,” I said. “When was the last time you stayed in a h
otel and room service failed to bring you what you asked for. We need to hurry.”

It took five minutes to get everything in our car. I fished out a laundry cart
, loaded the two bodies in it and pushed it out onto the parking area. I hit the unlock mechanism on the key and a trunk lid popped up on a four door Ford Taurus two rooms down from our room. Pushing the cart over to the rear of the Ford, I loaded the bodies in the trunk.

Hilary tossed our stuff in our car and while s
he did that I rolled the cart into a men’s room and hung an ‘out of order sign’ on the outside.

When Hilary came out to get in the car, I said,
“I’m having second thoughts about this GBI thing. Maybe I was wrong.”

“Or, maybe this was some rogue cop outfit that just was trying to cut themselves in for a share of money. No got time to be wrong, Kemosabe,” said Hilary.

“I admit, it seems a stretch, but it does happen from time to time.”

“If you’re right, then the
se two are no better than the crooks chasing us. Your call,” she said.

“Too late to do anything about it now,” I said.

Whoever was after us had the juice to make dead people disappear without a trace. I was betting the two in the car trunk would soon be in the same hopper. Fifteen million dollars tax free is a lot of money.

“Lou?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“What if it isn’t the money?”