Stilettos & Scoundrels (58 page)

“You go where the money is.”

Dirt was so wrapped up in trying to watch all of
us
that he didn’t notice Cooper making eye contact with Simon and Chris, who finally quit shooting daggers at Helen. Cooper thought if they could time it just right and all rush
the guys holding the guns, we
just might have a chance of getting out of this alive.

I noticed the looks they were trading. I
couldn’t figure out what they were saying or
planning, but all I
could hope was that it was some sort of guy thing and
that
they each kn
e
w what the other was thinking.
Then I
looked at
Cooper, and he smiled at me with his eyes. I
felt reassured
;
I
cou
ld tell he was going to get us
out of here safely.

“Get on the floor
,
all of you
!
” Dirt screamed again.

“Oh, please, Dirt. This
i
s really getting tiresome,” Helen said, rolling her eyes and looking like she really wanted a cigarette
, though I
had to hand it to her, she didn’t look worried
about all the guns and threats. I
wasn’t sure if
Helen
didn’t think they would hurt
us,
if she just lived that much in denial
, of if she didn’t care
.
Maybe she knew exactly what was going on. Could she have been a part of this all along?

“Shut up, Helen.”

I
was overwhelmed by the thought that Dirt killed
Tom Daniels. I
didn’t understand at all what
his motive could have possibly been
.
How would he have benefitted from it?

I couldn’t help myself. I
had to ask
again
. “Why
,
Dirt?”

“Does it really matter, Presley?” he asked sarcastically.

“Actually, yes. If you are going to kill me, you at least owe me an explanation. After all, if it wasn’t for me
,
you would never have passed Mr. Woodburn’s photography class.”

“Seriously, Pres? You are going to try and guilt me over helping me in high school when it was over ten years ago?”

“It was a big deal at the time since you would have had to sit on the bench during basketball
season if you hadn’t
pass
ed
that class.” This exchange sounded ridiculous considering the am
ount of weaponry around, but I
was trying to buy some time
and get some answers
.

Apparently, he
wasn’t the only one getting tired of this juvenile banter.

“Oh, for God’s sake
,
Dirt! Just kill them and be done with it. Simon
,
c’mon,” Garrison said with a nod of his head in Simon’s direction.

“No, Dad.”

“Excuse me? This is no time to argue. We can settle our differences later. C’mon, now!” Garrison said menacingly.

I
almost felt a little sorry for Simon,
even if he did have a gun pointed at me
earlier. It must suck to have a dad like that. It made
me
appre
ciate my parents more. I started to think about how I
might not see them again and
my eyes teared up a bit
. The realization
that I
m
ight
not get out of this alive was starting to sink in.

“Simon!” Garrison
growled.

“Sorry, Dad,” Simon said, shaking his head. “I have stood by long enough. This has got to stop, now.”

“You’re making a big mistake, Simon.”

“No, you’re the one making the mistake. You’ve underestimated me for the last time.”

“You’re such a disappointment, Simon,” Garrison
said
sneer
ing
. “Dirt, get this taken care of. Simon too.”

I didn’t know what surprised me
most,
that
Simon really was a good guy, or that Garrison was such a cold-hearted killer that h
e didn’t care about his son. I
was still proc
essing this information when I
noticed
Cooper inching closer to Dirt. I
also saw that Garrison had relaxed his gun to his side during this heated exchange with Simon.

All of a sudden I
heard
Cooper
scream, “Get down!”

As I
hit the ground,
Cooper
dove for Dirt, who looked shocked when
Cooper
tackled him and grabbed the gun.
At the same time, Simon lunged for Garrison’s gun
and successfully grabbed it. I
saw
Cooper
and Dirt wrestling on the floor, the gun still out of reach of both of them.

I
started to stand up when all of a sudden a gun went off and the sound of gunshots filled the air.

Dropping back to the ground, I covered my
eyes, praying the bullet
hadn’t actually hit anyone. I
waited to hear something, anything, especially from
Cooper,
to
assure me
that he was okay
, but it was hard to hear because
everyone
was
yelling. Garrison and Simon were back to arguing
, and as I
started to get up to check on
Cooper,
after what seemed like
hours, but was only seconds, I saw Garrison leaving. I
couldn’t believe
that
Simon would just let him go, but at
the
moment
,
I
was more concerned about
Cooper. I
looked around and saw both
Cooper
and Dirt lying face down on the ground.

“
Cooper! Oh my, God!” I
shrieked and ran over to where he was lying. “
Cooper!” I
said again, reachi
ng out to touch him. I
was so afraid he was dead.

Just as I
started to kneel down beside him, he rolled over and slowly opened his eyes.

“So, this is what it took to get you to admit you like me?”

“You jerk! And to think
I was worried you were dead!” I
said, trying to act mad, but I
didn’t pull it off so well
. He knew I had been truly worried that
he might be
seriously
hurt, or even worse
,
dead.

“Ah-ha! That’s the Presley I know and love!”
Cooper
said softly.
He wasn’t happy he had been hurt, but if that’s what it took to get her attention, then it was a nice by-product.
Just when I
was about to make a smartass
retort
, the FBI burst into the room yelling, “Freeze!”

That may have been helpful, oh, say, ten minutes ago…
I thought to myself.

As the FBI
darted
through the place, Helen was still screaming.

I
looked over to see what the problem was, since the major drama was over.
Helen
was yelling at one of the FBI agents
,
and
I
couldn’t really understand.
Had she been hit?
Then
I
saw
Helen
pointing at something
,
and all of a sudden,
Helen’s screams
made much more sense. That stray bullet had gone right through
her
wonderful Prada bag.
I
sighed.

“What’s wrong
,
King? I’m fine.
”

“Please, it’s not you I’m worried about. Just look at that beautiful bag. What a waste.”

Cooper looked at me. I
could tell h
e was trying to determine if I
was joking or not. Then the FBI grabbed Dirt off the floor where
Cooper
had knocked
him
unconscious
. They
handcuff
ed
him and read him his rights. He wasn’t saying much, but he didn’t look happy.
I
was glad he was handcuffed
, but so
sad that he
had done
this.

“Thanks for the call
,
Cooper
,” said one of the FBI guys
while
handcuffing Dirt.

“No problem, Hank.”

“Give me a call later, will you? We’ve got a few more things to discuss.”

“Sure.”

I
looked at
Cooper,
and he knew what was coming.
He said,
“I am sorry I didn’t share
everything
with you, but I promise I will tell you everything now.”

“You are so going to pay,
Cooper
Sands
.”

“Promise?” He teased.

“Dirt, you might as well tell us everything. We caught your friend Garrison, and we have more than enough on him to make him come clean if he wants a reduced sentence. C’mon, this will go much better for you if you comply with our request, Dirt. You know it will.” This was coming from Officer Schultz, who had not long ago reported to Dirt but was now trying to keep the FBI from locking him up for good by getting Dirt to roll on Garrison Palazzo. He wasn’t having much luck.

“Why does it even matter now?” Dirt asked bitterly.

“A lot of reasons, Dirt. A reduced sentence, maybe some more bargaining power. You want to separate yourself from Garrison and his pack of thugs as much as you can,” Cooper said. Because of his involvement in tipping off the FBI, they were allowing him some leeway. Cooper was trying to talk some sense into Dirt, hoping to convince him to tell all he knew of Garrison’s operations. But thus far, Dirt wasn’t being overly cooperative. Personally, Cooper thought Dirt was just feeling sorry for himself. Once he came to his senses, Cooper was sure Dirt would realize it made much more sense to cooperate. “Dirt, Garrison’s not going to protect you, and as soon as his lawyer gets here, he will be sure to throw you under the bus. Right now though, the FBI is much more interested in using Senator Daniels’ murder as leverage against him. For God sakes…help yourself.”

“Do you think you can get them to keep me here in the county while I’m waiting for all this to come to an end?” Dirt asked starting to come around to the idea that he needed to help himself out of this.

“I’m sure we can get that worked out,” Cooper said. The FBI had already talked to the District Attorney, and the D.A. had given them permission to further build the case against Garrison.

Once they got Dirt talking, he talked non-stop for three solid hours. He had a lot of information on Garrison’s hold on Senator Daniels and the subsequent murder plot. Dirt also had somehow become privy to a lot of Garrison’s inner workings in his Vegas crime ring and knew more than Garrison probably realized he did. Dirt was able to fill in some areas for the authorities, which was sure to buy him some goodwill at some point. Cooper thought it was such a shame that Dirt had chased the money in this direction. What a waste.

Dirt, who
we
thought was
our
friend, had hooked up with Garrison Pala
z
zo and had killed Senator
Daniels
in exchange for money. During questioning, Dirt revealed
that Garrison had
approached
him after he heard of Dirt’s
stint in the military, because of Simon
. He wanted Dirt
to monitor the Senator
,
w
ho owed Garrison a ton of money. Dirt, taken in by the prospect of what he felt was a lot of money for
such
an easy job, agreed to work for Garrison, not thinking it would soon turn in to murder for hire. Once he realized how far in he was, he didn’t see any way out of Garrison’s clutches, so he planned on taking his money and leaving town
,
t
hinking no one would know it was him. After all, he was the Sheriff.
Unfortunately for Dirt, it didn’t quite work out that way.