The Hitman: Dirty Rotters (22 page)

“
But it wasn’t his wife. It
was Anna.” Palo stared blankly. “We walked right past
her.”

I replayed it all again slowly. I saw
the man kneel down to the woman. I saw him turn to her and whisper
something as we approached. He had told her to stay down, to stay
quiet. His right hand was around her. I had missed it too. It
probably held a knife or gun to her throat. Her hair blocked it, as
well as all of her face. And she wasn’t vomiting, she was gasping
because he punched her in the gut once he saw us coming. Maybe to
keep her from talking. Maybe to keep her unable to see who we
were.

But he knew. Just as we got to him, I
saw the look in those dark, beady eyes. He was surprised. A bit of
concerned. Then they filled with relief as we swept by.

My mind clicked then on something I
had forgotten all about. The list. Ponytail had given me a list and
at the bottom were letters that were faded and I couldn’t read
them. But I knew right then without any doubt what they were. Two
letters, used twice.

ANNA
.

Another thing clicked then. My skin
ran cold. I grabbed the gun out of my pocket and held Palo close to
me. I was aiming ahead at the parked cars, at anything that moved.
I was scaring Palo, but I didn’t care.

I was scared too.

I realized why Ponytail had called me
over to his car. I realized why he thought I was their hitman.
Because we looked alike.

And we did.

And then I knew that Jeff Dimeglio had
Anna and that Andrik knew I was a phony.

Chapter 17

The ride back wasn’t quiet.

“
Who are you?” Palo asked
quietly.

Simple question. The best kind of
question. But at that moment, it wasn’t the kind of question I
wanted to answer. My answer wasn’t going to be simple.

We were back on the expressway with
the pedal to the floor. It was a quarter past four in the morning.
There was no traffic. We had left Anna’s hideout worried about
several things. I explained a lot of it to Palo, who took it all in
with a very unresponsive attitude. She sat buckled up, staring
forward, chin down, hands held together in her lap. She had a lot
to think about.

Anna was in bad hands. I was
frustrated and angry. I tried to talk myself out of it, because
really, I got there when I could. Still, I was the one they had
counted on. I was the one that failed them. I felt terrible. God
only knows what they had planned on doing to Anna. And by the time
I found her…

If I find her.

It was hopeless at best. I gave my
word to Palo again that I would do what I could. I promised her in
the car that I was going to bring Anna back. Palo had kept quiet
though. The kind of quiet that spoke volumes.

She looked at me. Her eyes said it
all.

Who are you?

My response back to her
stayed in my head.
I have no
idea.

I had heard her ask the question but I
had purposely kept talking about the need to get back quickly and
get Sally Rhode out of town. I told Palo that none of us were safe
until Andrik and The Bear were underground. She understood.
Probably far better than I did. She agreed to it, but what else was
she to do? Where could she go now?

Who are you?

I looked over to her. She kept staring
straight ahead, almost looking lost in a trance. I had to tell her
the truth. I had to tell her that I wasn’t the person she had
trusted and that I had lied to her all along. I didn’t want to. I
felt bad. My conscious had gotten the best of me.

I took a deep breath and tried to tell
her, as I had practiced the words in my head repeatedly, but what
came out of my mouth was, “Anna will be okay.”

Palo gave me a look. Her eyes were
distant. She said nothing. We were quiet for a few minutes as I
built up the courage, hating myself for being a coward.

We exited the expressway when she
asked again. Her voice was smooth and even and her words were not
bitter or questioning, but rather filled with a moderate intrigue.
She had a genuine interest to know. I owed her at least
that.

I took a deep breath and words spilled
out.

“
I’m just a simple man who
came looking for revenge on whoever killed Pamela. I found a big
mess and decided to do something about it. I just happened to be in
the right place at the right time. Andrik thought I was the man you
hired. It was a pretty good coincidence. But I’m not.” I looked
over to her. She was looking down at her hands. “I wasn’t. But I am
now, Palo. I came here looking to do the one thing you needed done.
And I will.”

We were quiet for a brief moment. I
gathered she was letting it all sink in.

“
I know.” She turned to me
slowly. “I knew the moment I saw you.”

I was stunned. “How did you
know?”

“
When I talked to hitman on
the phone he was nothing like you. His words were harsh and cold.
They did not match your eyes.”

“
My eyes?”

“
The man I hired was a
killer. The man I saw did not have a killer’s eyes.”

“
Why didn’t you say
something?”

“
Because I knew I had the
right person.” She smiled warmly.

“
How?”

“
When I come here, I find
many contacts and discover a man for hire, a killer, like my
father. The timing was perfect. Everything fell into plan. And then
I saw you.” Palo repositioned herself. She looked right at me. “I
prayed for a killer, but what I needed was an angel. You were
it.”

“
But you didn’t even know
me.”

“
In the room when Anna was
going to hurt you, I walked in, and when I saw you, for a moment,
what I saw was an angel.” Palo smiled. “You think I am crazy, but
it is the truth. I believed I had been given what I
needed.”

I almost cried. I felt strange. I felt
important. I felt needed. I felt as if everything I was doing was
actually much greater than I realized. Palo was next to me, just as
beautiful as any woman ever made, and she trusted me to save her
life. It was such an honorable feeling that I had no
response.

“
I am safe with you,
Hitman. I believe with all of my heart.” Palo’s warm left hand
reached over and took my right hand and simply rubbed it. A soft
and comforting touch. It sent chills throughout my body and made me
quiver with excitement.

I looked into her deep blue eyes.
“Thank you, Palo.”

She smiled a wondrous and authentic
smile and slid over to press herself against me, resting her head
against my right shoulder. She smelled amazing.

It hurt.

And I loved it.

There were lights on in Sally’s home.
I saw them before we reached the driveway. I made a left turn off
the empty road and sped up the driveway to her garage, braked hard,
scrambled out of the car quickly, and dashed to the front door with
Palo a step behind. The door was locked. I felt better knowing
it.

I used a key to get in. I opened up
the door and rushed inside. Palo walked in and shut the door behind
us. The running water of the shower was heard. The kitchen light
was on and through the half open bedroom door light spilled out
into the hall. No sign of foul play.

I exhaled with relief and gave a half
smile to Palo. We walked to the kitchen and I offered her something
to eat and drink. She gracefully declined, but said she was tired.
I was tired too. I stepped by the bathroom door, closed, probably
locked from inside, heard the shower running hard and knew I would
talk to Sally once she got out. We would gather some things and get
out of town. Maybe hole up with Frank and Belsay until I finished
business. Regardless, we had to leave fast.

I helped Palo into the guest bed where
I had been sleeping. I tucked her in. She was falling asleep as
soon as her head hit the pillow. I would give her time to rest,
until Sally and I were ready to walk out to wherever we were
heading.

“
Get whatever sleep you
can,” I said softly.

“
Thank you.” Palo’s eyes
closed. I brushed a few strands of hair from her face. I walked out
and shut the door behind me.

I headed into the kitchen for a drink
and something to eat. The shower was still running. It was nearing
five in the morning. I was dead tired and starving. I poured a
giant glass of water and looked for something to eat. I was too
tired to cook, so I had a bowl of cereal. I sat at the table and
ate and looked out the window. I set my Glock 17 on the table in
front of me and tried to think of where Anna would be.

The running shower filled the
silence.

Anna was presumable now in the hands
of Andrik. Being so early though, I figured she was in a warehouse,
or a basement, or a trunk, until Jeff could drop her off. The
problem was that we didn’t know where. The Red Square was a big
place, and these guys didn’t have an issue with working in
abandoned parts of the city either. They could be
anywhere.

Which got me thinking that Jeff
Dimeglio could be anywhere too. It made me nervous. My gut was
telling me that something was wrong. I was anxious to the point
where I thought for a moment I would vomit. I could no longer sit
still. He knew where Sally lived. We needed to get out of her house
soon.

I had finished eating and drinking and
I walked around, checked the windows, peered hard into the dark
pools of shadows outside. There was more traffic now. Early risers
heading to work. Probably hating the fact they were working on
Saturday. Maybe they were slightly hung-over and tired. I was
tired. My head hurt. The shower was a soothing sound though. Some
people had devices that played the sound of running water. I
wouldn’t waste the money. Though people with houses near the ocean
or near waterfalls swear to the relaxation given by the sound. It
was simple. On second thought, maybe I would waste the
money.

I was anxious as hell and the shower
was helping.

Shower
.

Warm and relaxing.

I wished then that Sally had a hot
tub. I had never been in one, but I wanted to. Especially at night
in the winter under a blanket of stars. Palo might have
one.

I smiled. I wouldn’t spend five
seconds in a bathtub, yet I would sit in a hot tub all
night.

The minutes dragged on. I paced back
and forth. I held my gun in my right hand, ready, listening to the
shower.

Shower
.

I couldn’t seem to think of anything
else. It was the only sound in the early morning stillness. It had
been running now for over twenty-five minutes.

How long did it take for
her hot water to go cold?

Dammit!

I bolted out of the living room and
through the hallway with my heart in my throat. I had a panicked
feeling pulling me under like quicksand. I raced to the bathroom
door and grabbed the handle, expecting it to be locked, but it
turned easily. I threw the door open. I yelled Sally’s name, though
I knew it didn’t matter.

The bathroom was empty. There was no
steam against the mirror. It wasn’t hot or humid. Sally had a
separate bathtub and shower. The shower was small, with a glass
door wide open. A struggle had definitely taken place. Shampoo
bottles were open and leaking, scattered across the white linoleum
floor. Thick, plush towels, white and pink, were on the floor along
with the wall rack. Frilly white rugs were crumpled up against the
tub and toilet. Items were tossed across her sink countertop. Sally
was in trouble.

My heart pounded. I was breathing hard
and sweating. I reached in the shower and shut the water off. It
had been set on hot. The water was freezing.

I ran out in panic. I was shaking. I
raced down the hall to the guest bedroom and yelled for Palo to get
up. She sprung up quickly with fear in her blue eyes. I didn’t wait
for her, I turned back and dashed through the house to Sally’s
bedroom. I barreled through the half-opened door and stopped dead
in my tracks.

The room was a mess. A disaster. The
12 gauge was lying on the bed, several red spent shell cases were
around the floor, probably buckshot due to the size of the holes in
the wall and closet doors. Sally had made a dash to her arsenal, I
thought. She must have screamed for me. She must have been scared.
I heard Palo breathing hard coming down the hall towards me, I
turned and saw on the wall behind me was blood splatter and a trail
smearing down to the plush white carpet.

Then the vomit came.

My hands trembled so hard that the gun
slipped out of my hand. On the floor with a bloody handprint lay
Jeff Dimeglio’s file. Maybe it was Sally sending me a message,
trying to point me in the right direction. But I knew
already.

I felt something wrap
around my arm and then the sensation of being pulled away, but it
all was a blur. I was looking at it in slow motion through foggy
glasses. I was slipping into shock.
Anna!
Sally!
I was struggling to breathe. I was
drowning and unable to move my arms fast enough to save my
life.