One Dead Witness (6 page)

His response had been to throw himself into his work in a big
way. Often he worked fourteen hours per day: never less than
eleven. Then, because he had problems sleeping even after such
exhausting hours, he found himself drifting through Miami
nightlife; clubs, bars: strip-joints, often finding solace at four
in the morning: clutching a half-empty bottle of
bourbon.

Since the age of fourteen, Felicity had been trying to make it
big as a singer. She was always on the periphery of a big break and
had been the backing singer for several big acts. She had released
one single which sold a couple of thousand copies before sinking
without trace.

When she hit her thirties her agency dropped her like a hot
fajita; it became apparent that despite her good looks and superb
voice, she lacked that certain ‘something’ to set her apart from
the crowd. And she had passed into that dangerous decade in life
when women do not become stars.

She gravitated south, following club and hotel work, hit the
bottle, dabbled in dope, and managed to eke out a reasonable living
as a hotel singer around. Miami and Fort Lauderdale. It was in a
hotel in the latter town at three in the morning that she met
Kruger, clinging precariously to a bar stool.

After exchanging their tales of woe, the next logical step for
two lonely people was obvious. That same night they booked into a
suite, ripped each other’s clothes off, fell onto the bed and
humped way past dawn. They emerged three days later, much the worse
for wear.

A whirlwind romance followed, with little thought for future
compatibility. Marriage seemed the natural progression, though each
soon discovered that a relationship based solely on
mutually-attracted genitalia does not make for a lasting
partnership.

Living together as man and wife proved to be a horrendous
experience for both.

Felicity was naturally a slob. She kept late hours, slept all
day.

Kruger, on the other hand, was a well-ordered man who liked
routine and tidiness. When he eventually got himself back on an
even keel and out of the bottle, he realised that returning home to
an apartment which looked like it had been burglarised and a wife
who was still in bed - usually full of crumbs - was not what he
wanted.

The disputes between them were out of this world.

Then one night Felicity was singing in a grotty hotel in Lemon
City owned (although she did not know this at the time) by Mario
Bussola. He happened to be in the audience and became smitten by
her gravelly voice and curvaceous appearance. After her set, he
summoned her to a private room and they almost immediately began an
adulterous relationship; Bussola also gave her a fat contract to
sing in his chain of six hotels.

She fell in love with the overweight gangster.

It was the end for her and Kruger. Though she was technically
responsible for the downfall of the marriage, that didn’t mean she
left the relationship without a fight for a huge percentage of
Kruger’s stash.

Kruger wasn’t sorry to see her go.

Back in the present, Kruger glanced down at his gold Rolex.
With a quick grin he thought maybe he was being too harsh. A few
good things had come from the brief relationship: the London
honeymoon, the Rolex, the sex - which had been tremendous - and he
had recovered his self-esteem.

He smiled at her and sighed. She did look good sitting there
in her work-out gear, the spandex clinging tightly to the shapely
outline of her body.

‘
So, c’mon, what’s all this about? I didn’t return your calls
and you have me kidnapped by two extras from
Goodfellas.
It’s a federal offence,
honey.’

She shrugged and took a sip of her multi-coloured cocktail
through a wiggly straw which looked like a piece of spaghetti. ‘So
go to the fibbies, ya big cry baby.’

‘
Liss,’ Kruger said firmly, using the pet name he had always
called her, ‘stop assin’ around and tell me what’s goin’
on.’

‘
How’s business?’

‘
Good to booming.’

‘
I wanna hire you for some detective work.’

‘
Such as?’

‘
I want somebody followed - to see what they’re gettin’ up
to.’

‘
Is that it?’ Kruger growled. ‘You drag me here for that? Why
in hell didn’t ya tell the fucking telephonist? She woulda sent
someone round.’

‘
I don’t just want someone, Stevie . . . I want
you.’

His eyes narrowed, suspicion growing in him like a cancer.
‘I’ll send one of my best guys round in the morning. I don’t follow
people any more.’

She shook her head stubbornly. ‘No, honey. I want
you.’

Kruger leaned back in the cane chair. It creaked under his
weight. There was the remnant of an ache in his back where he’d
been punched.

‘
Why?’

She pouted. ‘It’s Mario.’ Her eyelids flickered, eyes
moistened. ‘I think he’s being unfaithful.’

Kruger staunched a belly laugh. At last - something to
brighten up his day again. ‘Expand.’ He interlocked his fingers
around a knee and bowed forwards like a counsellor whilst trying to
keep a straight face.

‘
Oh, it’s just - oh, I don’t know - something, y’know? The
hours he keeps, the times he doesn’t come home, how we ever only
seem to screw maybe once a month, if that. God, I feel so horny. I
think he’s got someone else, Stevie,’ she concluded
desperately.

‘
Felicity,’ Kruger stated. ‘Your husband, as you well know, is
one of the biggest and most feared gang bosses in the United States
of America. The fact that he has time to come home at all is a
blessing. He’s a busy guy. He’s got fingers to break, debts to
collect, people to blackmail and intimidate ... and all those
groupies hangin’ around. It must be very tempting for him. He’s
only human - like you once were. And if you think he married you
for any other reason than to have a good-looking woman on his arm,
you’re kidding yourself.’

‘
You’re a son of a bitch, Steve,’ she said tightly.

‘
I tell the truth, that’s all. And to be completely honest with
you, Liss, I hope he is seeing someone else. It’ll teach you a
lesson.’

‘
Our marriage was over long before I slept with Mario,’ she
protested.

Kruger looked at her pityingly for a few moments, tutted,
slapped his thighs and said, ‘Gotta go, babe.’

‘
I still want to hire you.’

‘
Naw - it’s company policy not to get involved in anything
which remotely stinks of the mob. Mario Bussola is very definitely
mob. I don’t like to find my operatives with their brains blown
out, so the answer’s no. Now, if you’d be kind enough to beckon
your human Dobermans back here, I’d like my vehicle keys.’ He stood
up.

‘
Sit down, Steve,’ she ordered him, a hard edge to her voice,
an uncompromising expression on her face. Something made him obey.
‘You
will
work for
me - and you wanna know why? I’ll tell ya - because if you don’t
I’ll put, you out of business like that.’ She snapped her fingers
with a crack. ‘I can ruin you, Stevie babe, because I know things
about you, don’t I? Things you would hate the Feds to
know.’

A trickle of sweat rolled down the valley between Danny’s
breasts. Her whole body was on fire, every nerve-end tingling,
overloading her with pleasure. She could feel her toes against the
sheets, the skin on her inner thighs holding and moving over the
skin on the outer thighs of the man underneath her. His fingers
kneaded into her backside, his hands then caressed her breasts,
fingering and rolling her dark, purple nipples, tugging them
gently, so they became long and hard. But above all she could feel
every inch of him deep inside her and the growing sensation
radiating out from her clitoris as she ground hard against his
pubic bone.

She shuddered, threw back her head, arched her spine, rising
and holding him there, the tip of his penis wedged at the entrance
to her throbbing vagina. It was coming. They were coming. She could
keep him positioned there and not move and know she would climax,
but he was there too and she could feel he was hard and big and
ready for his orgasm.

She gazed down at him. They locked eyes.

‘
I think you’ve hit the button,’ she moaned.

She rammed herself down onto him at the same time as, he
thrust upwards and they collided in an intense, writhing, wild
orgasm which seemed to go on for ever.

When it was eventually over and Danny had got her breath back,
she rolled languidly off him and reached for her cigarettes on the
bedside cabinet. She lit two simultaneously and handed one across.
He took it gratefully from her fingers.

Danny inhaled the strong smoke deeply, held it in, then blew
it slowly out. Her heart slackened its pace as the magical
sensation of just having had great sex ebbed away.

‘
That was fantastic.’

Danny sighed. She turned to look at him, brushing her hair
away from her eyes. ‘I know, Jack ... but it’s going to have to
stop. This can’t go on. This is definitely the last
time.’

Words she had said many times before.

The difference was - this time she meant them.

Felicity’s mouth turned into a wicked smile of triumph. She
sat back, took a long draw on her straw, and watched her
ex-husband’s face turn deep red.

She did not have to spell it out for him. He knew exactly what
she meant. A shiver of fear rippled down his spine. He licked his
dry lips.

‘
Things you would hate the Feds to know.’

The words echoed around in his head.

In truth, what she’d said was an understatement. Not only
would Kruger
not
like the Feds to know, he’d be darned upset if the CIA got to
know, absolutely desolate should the State Department ever find
out, or for that matter any godamned person walking the
streets.

What Felicity was referring to was the time when he left the
cops and started out in business, and the first six months of
trading were hell on earth. He struggled to make any sort of
living, was on the verge of giving up and becoming a security guard
in a shopping mall.

Then, out of the blue, he was approached by two different
people on the same day.

One had goods to sell.

The other wanted to buy.

Knowing that no such circumstances could be purely
coincidental, Kruger sussed he had been targeted because the
parties obviously didn’t want to be seen doing business directly
with each other. They needed the buffer or an agent and Kruger,
down on his luck, seemed the perfect man.

He had wrestled with his conscience, his mind in a
turmoil.

It was possible he was being set up by the authorities for
some reason. But if he wasn’t, it was just the piece of luck he
needed. One which would kick-start his business to the tune of two
hundred grand in fees.

With both eyes wide open, conscious that if the deal went
belly-up he would become an inmate of Dade County Correctional
Institute, not just a visitor, he took the chance.

He arranged to sell over two million dollars’ worth of I8-inch
electric shock batons to a Middle Eastern buyer, knowing full well
the end user was Iraq. Which, twelve months after the Gulf War, was
a very naughty thing to do.

Although he lived on a wire for several months after, there
were no repercussions. No midnight raids by SWAT squads. No visits
by men in black suits. Nothing. The surge of money was accounted
for creatively and Kruger’s business went through the roof. He had
never since, to his knowledge, made any illegal deals.

All was well.

Until now.

Felicity, his ruthless, unfaithful ex-wife, had plucked it
right out of the mist and slapped it across his face like a wet
fish.

Kruger rubbed his eyes. His knee began to ache. He recalled
telling Felicity the story of his dubious deal one night early in
their relationship, in the days when he confused lust with love. He
had vowed her to secrecy. She had, of course, promised silence.
Damn pillowtalk, he thought bitterly. It always ends up biting your
ass.

‘
What d’you want me to do?’ he asked with an expression of
resignation on his countenance.

Danny looked directly into the eyes of Detective Inspector
Jack Sands, the man who was her boss. The man who had become her
lover.

‘
No, Jack, I really mean it this time. There’s no future for
either of us in this ... unless you leave your wife, that is. You
know how many times you’ve promised to do that and never kept your
word.’ Her voice was shaking with emotion as she spoke, delivering
a speech she had practised over and over again in the last few
days, but which at that moment she struggled to remember. ‘You’ll
never leave her, will you? I accept that now and that’s why this
has to stop. Now. Whilst no one else knows, whilst we’re still in a
position not to hurt people.’