If I Should Die (30 page)

“Who do you think killed your brother?”

He paused, probably trying to decide if he should even discuss this with me. “What the hell. This ain’t goin’ no further than this room …”

 … Which meant that I wasn’t leaving here in one piece if my hands remained cuffed like this
.

“So you want to know who killed him? Gary killed him. Erskin had stood up on principle and word got to me that Gary took him out because he knew too much.”

“And so you took care of Gary?”

“Had to. It was the principle of the thing.”

“What if it wasn’t Gary?”

“What do you mean by that?” The foot swing stopped and he left the table to stand over me. “What do you mean by that?” he repeated.

“I’m trying to say—listen, could you lighten up on my wrists a little? They’re beginning to hurt. My hands are starting to swell up. What I’m saying is what if it was someone else … somebody whose name is stuck in an envelope somewhere and you don’t know anything about it? An envelope that disappeared when Jackson Lee was killed.”

The look on his face told me that I was on the right track. When thieves fall out, watch out.

“That’s right,” I continued, pressing in quickly, “remember what you said about folks gettin’ greedy … and treacherous? I don’t have to tell you, in fact you said it yourself, those are the ones you have to watch. You don’t believe me, just ask your advisers, whoever they are. When they get here, ask them about that envelope. There’s something in it you ought to know.”

He had begun to pace and I could feel the wheels turning. Here was a man who had gotten by on his wits for years. Played on the fact that he understood human nature and knew how to move one pawn against the other, outslick everybody and run off with the goodies. Like he planned to do in December.

The end of the year. Check the end of the year … when the kids return from Europe. When the stuff is delivered. That’s when he closes the door on this chapter and opens a new one, probably in Spain or Mexico. Tell everyone he and Maizie are going on a honeymoon and just don’t come back. Check the end of the year …

“Look, Johnnie. I can’t run anywhere. Kenny’s boys are downstairs and mad as hell so I’m staying right here. Take these cuffs off my hands before my circulation stops.”

He thought about it and glanced at his watch again. “Yeah, why not? Why not?”

It was not out of the goodness of his heart. The news of the envelope had probably persuaded him to
switch to plan B, whatever that was. The gold Rolex flashed again as he glanced at it.

“Where the fuck are they? See? Didn’t I say that free enterprise is a bitch?”

“Then how come you’re still in it?”

“For somebody who don’t know if they gonna walk or be carried outta here, you askin’ a hell of a lotta questions.”

“You said that sometimes we only get one chance …”

“But I’m different. I’m movin’ outta this shit and into somethin’ else. Computers. Right now on the black market, memory chips are untraceable and worth more than gold. More money and less hassle. I don’t pay off nobody but the thieves. I’m tellin’ you this because you ain’t—” He was pacing again but stopped and looked at me. “Okay, listen here. Stay in your seat, pretty. Don’t move!”

A beep had gone off and at the sound of the footfalls, he moved to the desk and put the gun in his pocket. He smiled again as the door opened but I stared, speechless, at his advisers.

D
anny Williams and Terry Keenan stared at me and then at Johnnie. Danny was the first to speak.

“Man, what the fuck is goin’ on? Why is she here?”

“Ask her,” Johnnie said, waving his hand lightly toward me.

I watched Terry Keenan as he stood just inside the door, visibly shaking. “Shit, what’s goin’ on, Johnnie? This your idea of a joke?”

The smile disappeared from Johnnie’s face and in a quick step, he was in front of Terry.

“I don’t joke with my employees, Terry. Remember that, motherfucker!”

“Okay. Okay. I was just—”

“You was just nuthin’. Watch your mouth, you goddamned—”

Danny stepped between them. “Wait a minute. Listen. Both of you. Calm down. Everything’s gonna be all right. Johnnie, how’d she get here?”

“Like I said, she invited herself. But now that she’s here, we gonna figure how she’s leavin’ … and that shouldn’t be too hard.”

Johnnie returned to sit on the edge of the table and it didn’t take but a minute for both men to look at Terry. Terry stared at me and began to back away, shaking his head.

“Aw no. Not me. Hell no. She got me down on that lawsuit. The first person they gonna point the finger at is me. And she’s Honeywell’s woman. Naw. Not me. Get somebody else. Get one a the guys downstairs, but me, I ain’t in this.”

“Like you weren’t in on Erskin’s killing,” I said.

Wild guess, but if I hoped to walk out of here, I had to mix this dirt up as much as I could. I still had not absorbed the fact that Danny was here. In this room. Long Island Danny who had run from the city because of all the crime. Tad’s partner, with the huge “Just Say No” poster plastered on the wall behind his desk.

I stared at him, openmouthed, but he turned away, to concentrate on Terry.

“What the hell are you doin’?” Terry shouted. “You can’t pin that on me. That was—”

Danny grabbed him. “Shut the fuck up, you son of a bitch!”

Johnnie watched the whole thing in silence but I noticed he was no longer smiling. The expensive fragrance that had floated around him when he moved had all but disappeared and the air had suddenly gotten thick. Like in the rooms below with all those desperate bodies.

“So, Terry. My man. Tell me about Erskin. What you got to say about my brother?”

Terry said nothing now but Johnnie went on anyway.

“And all this time, I thought it was Gary. I hated to pop him. Gary and me went back a long way. To Wall
Street. Kind of prestigious, you know what I mean, transactin’ all that business with a big-time, big-appetite, Wall Street man. No, you wouldn’t know what I mean.”

He was speaking to Terry, but he had Danny in his sights. Danny had moved into the room to stand near my chair.

Johnnie continued to sit on the edge of the table with his arms folded but he seemed coiled, ready to spring at the slightest movement. Terry leaned back against the closed door. In the silence, I listened to Danny’s heavy breathing. I felt his closeness and I felt sick.

Johnnie spoke again and his voice was almost a whisper:

“So tell me, Terry—”

“No. You ask Danny—”

I could hear Danny’s quick intake of breath. “Look, that was—it was an accident. We wanted to snatch the kid. Hold ’im until the shipment came.”

Johnnie looked at him in disgust. “Hold ’im for eight months? Who you kiddin’, man? That’s what comes from not followin’ orders.”

Danny looked at me now and I knew that if they had succeeded, the child would have been killed. They would not have held him for long. Children have a way of growing on you.

Danny ignored the question: “Erskin just happened to be there. Wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all.”

“ ‘That’s all.’ My brother gets killed and all you can come up with is ‘that’s all.’ Plus you gave me the wrong wire. Said it was Gary that did it.”

“Well, I knew how you felt about your brother. And besides, Gary had to go. He couldn’t produce so he had to go.”

“And you got me to do it. As insurance in case things didn’t go the way you wanted … And you also took that envelope from Jackson Lee. Took it off of him
or out of that girl’s apartment … My, my. Ain’t we enterprising …”

Danny’s eyes were wide, surprised. “Shit, listen now. I—”

“What was in it, Danny?”

“That’s just it, man. Nuthin’!”

“Don’t hand me that fuckin’ shit. What was in it?”

“Just a lotta papers. Old news photos of you and Gary hangin’ out in some of the clubs downtown. Articles, clippings about Gary. His court case. His probation report. The fact that he had gone to the Chorus as community service. But it was the pictures of you and him that was blown up almost life-size, almost—”

Danny was talking fast now and Johnnie interrupted.

“Well, where are they? How come I didn’t get to see ’em?”

“I got rid of ’em. Like I told you, they wasn’t important.”

Johnnie rubbed his chin. “Got rid of ’em, you say. Not important enough …”

He turned to me now, as if remembering I was still in the room. “Ain’t that somethin’, pretty? And it wasn’t important for him to tell me that he’d killed Erskin.”

Danny raised his hand, looked at Terry, and said, “I didn’t kill Erskin, Johnnie. Somebody else decided to have a little too much fun that day … probably was boozin’ it up and overplayed his hand.”

I watched this whole chess play, wondering who eventually would be checked. To make sure that Johnnie stayed in line, Danny had set him up to kill Mark. Now Johnnie needed the same thing. He’ll force Danny to get me in order to balance the equation. He could’ve killed me when he grabbed me in the hall. But he waited. He needs this insurance.

I glanced at Terry, still leaning against the door, and
I could smell his sweat from where he stood. His eyes were wide and darting and I could see behind the panic the greed that had brought him to this point: first step was to stop whining, rationalize that “what the hell, everybody else is gettin’ some, so take a bundle and walk.” Easy money is the easiest thing in the world. It was there. Take it for a little while. Then a while longer. Then maybe transfer to another precinct. But the money bundle kept growing, getting larger. And a little while became a while longer as luxuries became everyday necessities.

Transfer out next year. Or the year after. Or never.

Danny had probably seen the greedy eyes, heard his whiny song of trying to make it on next-to-nothing pay. Got to get the car, the house, the boat, the wife, even the dog taken care of. One small bundle. And he was in …

I felt my own sweat sliding down my back, pouring from under my arms, and decided that, whatever happens, they had a fight coming, even if it is three to one. I wasn’t about to sit here politely and be taken out.

In my mind’s eye, I saw Dad, I saw the note left on the mantel, I heard all those phone calls again, and my adrenaline, already at high level, was now spilling off the scale. My anger always seemed to get me in the most trouble but now it balanced the fear that had had me sitting so quietly trying to think my way out of this. Hell, if there’s no way out and I have to go, I’m taking at least one of them with me. At least one. I didn’t know how but the sweat was running heavier and I knew that when the deal went down, I wasn’t going quietly.

Danny nodded to Terry, who was still leaning against the door.

“Okay. Cuff her. We’re takin’ her outta here.”

Johnnie did not move from the table, but held up one hand.

“Sorry. Whatever you got to do is gonna be done
right here. Where we all can see it gettin’ done, ain’t that right, Terry?”

Terry looked from one to the other, like someone who had stepped in a fast-closing vise.

“Listen, man. I—”

“You gonna do it, Terry?”

Danny had stepped behind me now and, from the openmouthed look on Terry’s face, I knew that Danny had drawn his gun.

“You gonna do it?” he repeated.

Danny drew back the hammer and the click was loud and close against my ear. I turned around quickly to face him, to tell him that nobody was going to tie me up.

“Uh-huh,” he whispered, glancing at me for a second and time enough for Terry to decide. Danny aimed just over my head and pulled the trigger, dropping Terry as he pulled his weapon.

“No fuckin’ good anyway. Had to go sooner or later.”

The shot was so close to my ear I felt dizzy and the echo lasted longer than it should have. I tried to hold my breath as the hot smell of the powder drifted under my nose.

The door slammed open and two men with drawn weapons stood just outside.

“What’s goin’ on? You okay Johnnie?”

“Everything’s cool. No problem …”

They glanced at Terry sprawled on the floor but said nothing. Instead, they closed the door, leaving us alone again.

When Johnnie spoke again, the menace was more pronounced.

“So your boy’s gone. Now, whatever needs doin’, you got to do it yourself. I wondered—”

A beeper went off, sharper than the earlier one, and
Johnnie moved quickly from the table to click on a speaker. A voice crackled into the room.

“Nine-eleven! Nine-eleven!”

Doors out in the hall slammed open and the sound of runners filled the corridors. The two men looked at each other and at the table.

“A fuckin’ raid?”

Danny put his gun away and pulled out his badge, but Johnnie glanced at him and laughed.

“That ain’t gonna work for you this time, my man. There’s a dozen people downstairs know you, plus the video.”

“The camera was on? Why, you fuckin’—”

“You know the deal. You shoulda checked!” Johnnie beckoned to me. “Come on, pretty. We steppin’. You my passport.”

“Like hell she is—we in this together. Either we all leave or no one leaves.”

I was crouched in the chair midway between them, trying to make sense of the noise in the hallway, trying to gauge when the chaos would spill into the room and how quickly I would be able to dive under the table once the stuff hit the fan.

I was closer to Danny and I knew what he was going to do but Johnnie beat him to it, drawing and firing almost instantly.

I fell screaming off the chair and tried to scramble under the table but I felt a hand gripping my ankle and turned to look back at Danny. He looked surprised, as if he couldn’t understand this thing that had happened and how it had happened to him. His eyes grew larger and he opened his mouth to say something but a gush of bright red spilled over his shirt.

I looked at Johnnie, who had moved from behind the table and was stuffing a videocassette in his pocket. He waved his gun in my direction.

“Okay. Let’s step. We ain’t got all day!”

I jerked my foot away from Danny’s grasp and my sneaker came off.