Sin (The Waite Family) (22 page)

~Chapter 12~

Roger moved
among
the other people in the airport and found a seat near the food court. He’d been here before, twice now since he’d landed in Ohio three days ago
,
and he had the information needed.
When
he saw his contact
coming
toward him, he gave a small shake of his head and picked up his coffee.
Not yet.

David stayed back and waited.
When Roger saw the other man coming toward him he nodded
,
set his coffee down
,
and picked up the envelope he’d had ready.
This man was who he was waiting on.

“You find him yet?
The boss said to tell you he would like for you to hurry your ass along.”
The man flopped down in the chair across from Roger.
“Where’d you get that crap at?”

“It’s coffee.
And yes. Tell him I have an address for where he was last time he was here.
There’s a hospital on Central that caters to the druggies here and he was sent there by his
chief
and someone else, I think his mother
.
I’m still trying to find Wickett’s missing wife
,
but by all accounts she disappeared a few months ago. Left the country.
Still trying to find more on her.”

Roger didn’t tell him she was married
or
that she’d left to go on her honeymoon then later to visit his
c
aptain.
Roger left that bit of news out of his report too.
At least to this party.
It was beginning to look like Wickett was in deeper and deadlier
than
they had first thought. Everyone was.
When the man left, Roger got up and headed to the head…
the
bathroom.

Getting used to civilian life was proving to be much harder than he’d first
thought
it would be.
The people were al
l
right
,
he supposed, if not a bit over taxed.
They all seemed to use their cell phones as if
they
were their lifeline
s
.
A lot more people carried guns, and
a great deal of them w
ere
women.
And coffee, the one thing he missed on assignment more than anything, was getting harder and harder to find.
Oh
,
he supposed he could get any kind of fat free with a hundred different names attached to it, but good old coffee?
Not happening.

He was urinating when David moved in to one of the stalls
behind him
.
When he came out he washed his hands
,
laid an
envelope on the counter
,
and took the one there with him.
After he was finished
Roger slipped the envelope
under his shirt then washed up.
His first contact came in just as he was shaking the water off
his fingers
.

“Forget something?”
The
guy started looking under the stall door and then when he was
apparently
satisfied he drew a gun.
“You thinking of using that
,
pencil
dick?”

“I don’t like you much. The boss told me that if I wasn’t met by you today then I was to hunt you down and make you understand he pays the bills. I don’t think you’ve been here once over the past couple of days.”
He waved his gun to the right and Roger didn’t move.
“I want you over in that stall.”

“Nope.”
Roger threw his
paper towel
in the trash as he continued.
“You been
lying
to the boss
,
huh?
Not too terribly smart of you.
Especially
since he called me last night and asked me if you were showing up.”

“You lie!
He said you didn’t have his number. Said you
were
a piece of shit and he wanted you dead.”
The man’s eyes darted around the room.
“I’m going to kill you and take this job over and he’ll make me his number one.”

“Better come up with a better story than the one you just
spun
out or he’s gonna know why you…well, you’re gonna have to kill me before you get to talk to him and I’m reasonably sure that just ain’t gonna happen.”
Roger reached out and snatched the gun from the man.
“You see
,
dumb fuck, my captain used to tell me, don’t talk to your
victim
, just fucking
kill ‘em
and move on.
Could be there are two more just waiting to take his place.
”
He snapped the man’s neck.
“Sounds like good advice.”

Roger stuck the gun in the back of his pants and then p
icked up the dead man.
T
here was no way he could leave him out like this in a busy airport so he put him in one of the stalls and pulled his trousers down around his ankles before setting out. He pulled off a wad of toilet paper and stuck it into the door
seam to make the door secure.
He was just going to the sink to wash up when someone else walked in.
It was David.

“He followed me in here.
Didn’t check for ID, don’t care really. Here
.
” Roger handed him the
small Glock
.
“I don’t want this tiny pop gun. You take it.”

“I’ll wait a few hours and if nobody
finds him, then I’ll call it in.
He hurt you?”
Roger quirked a brow at David’s question.
“Okay then. See you in three days.
Be careful. I’m
going
to follow up with Waite sometime tomorrow.”

Roger wanted to ask how she was, what she was doing, but he didn’t. The girl had been through enough and with this shit going down with her new squeeze, there was going to be plenty more.
He didn’t
doubt
she’d protect herself, but her family wasn’t about to let her get hurt again.

“I’ll get what I can. Gotta call this in.
Patterson?”
When David turned back before leaving the men’s room Roger continued.
“I know who the leak was that got her hurt.
You ain’t getting it until I take care of him.”

David looked like he might have said something
,
but simply nodded and left.
It wouldn’t have matter
ed
to Roger if he had an opinion or not. The man was walking around as a corpse and Roger was going to make him lie down from now on.

Just after leaving the hospital after seeing Capt the last time David had met him right outside.
He’d only handed him a slip of paper then walked away, but Roger knew he was being asked to keep things on the low side.
He went to the
men’s
room and opened the paper.

“The United States Army and the President would like for you to do some special uncover work for them.
I
and one other
will be your only contact. The pay is a grade higher than you were making, the benefits suck just as badly
,
and you’ll be expected not to kill too many people.

The good news is you’ll wear whatever you
want
, which you mostly did anyway, carry any weapons you want, again pretty much your standard, and you will help find the person responsible for
trying to bring down your squad.

Meet me at the library on Tenth, it’s that large structure with the books lined against the wall and on shelves
. Be there
at eight tonight if you’re interested.
If you aren’t then I’m sorry to say, you’ll be a dead man before morning.

David Patterson”

Roger had debated right up until seven-fifty that night
on whether or not he wanted to chance it
. He’d been followed all day,
he
knew it
,
and he knew they knew he knew…something like that.
He’d been able to
lose
one of
them, but
not all. Walking up the steps to the structure he did notice that two of the cars
peeled
away, but another simply parked next to his car
…

David stood up as Roger
approached
him. As David reached
out
his hand Roger grabbed it and pulled his body to his and
turned him to face the room. Rogers’s chest to his back and his arm around his neck, the other hand held a Glock to his temple.

“Call them off.”
David didn’t say anything so Roger let up a little on his throat. “The three by the stacks, the librarian, and the little thing putting the books away next to the movies. Tell them to back off or I fucking break your neck and
then have a killing spree in this library.”

David seemed to relax a bit and lifted his hand slowly.
All the plants, the people Roger had pegged
,
had moved toward the door with the exception of the girl with the cart.
With a hard shake to David
, Roger didn’t let him go as
she walked toward them.

“I’m
with him.” She pointed at David. “I’m going to get you what you need to complete your assignment. I don’t know who you are, nor do I give a
rat’s
ass. This man you are currently choking to death is my boss. I do what he tells me.”

When she sat down and pulled out a large phone
-
looking thing then looked up at them both expectantly Roger
simply laughed, things were not always what they seemed
.
He let David go
,
sat down in one of the reading chairs
,
and regarded them both.