The Hired Man (40 page)

As if on cue, which in fact it was, the phone rang. I got up from my chair.

“Excuse me, guys,” I said. “I'll take it in the bedroom.”

I then walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind me, feeling a little lightheaded. It was Richman, of course.

“Want to listen?” he asked.

“Yeah, please.”

There was a pause, a bit of static, and then an oddly hollow sound. And then, in a voice obviously held low but more than making up in intensity what it lacked in volume, I heard Gary.

“You stupid,
stupid
son of a bitch!” he hissed. “You were stupid the day I met you, and you're
still
stupid. We could have had everything…
everything
…and then you had to blow it all by killing that fucking prostitute!”

“So, I was just supposed to sit back and let you frame me for that Anderson guy and Billy?” Matt asked, his voice equally low but calmer.

“I'd never have done that!” Gary answered. “Anderson was an accident! I was pissed at him for being such a ball-less bastard who would throw his own kid away but was too high and mighty to suck cock. Well, he sucked it. I didn't mean to kill him. And how the hell did I know Billy had asthma? We had an argument when I wanted to fuck him without a condom, and he started to wheeze a little, so I put on the damned condom and turned him over on his stomach and took the condom off when he wasn't looking.

He must have sensed it, because he started to turn over, but I just pushed him down and did my thing. After a few minutes, he relaxed, and I thought he was enjoying it. But he was
dead
, for chrissakes!”

“So, you planted
that
evidence on me just in case, huh?” Matt said. “If you think I'd buy that for one second, I'm a hell of a lot stupider than you claim I am. You think I wanted to kill that girl? When I found out what you'd done to me, I didn't have any other choice.”

There was another moment of silence, and then Matt said, “So, what do we do now?”

Another brief pause, then Gary's voice.

“Nothing right this minute. We can't kill Dick right here and now…”

Jeezus H. Kryst!
I felt a wave of panic so strong I almost didn't hear Matt say, “What the
fuck
are you talking about?” His tone of voice echoed his incredulity. “I'm not going to kill Dick! Maybe
you're
developing a taste for murder, but I sure as hell ain't. One was way, way too many for me!”

“Dick is the only one who knows enough to tie all the ends together. With him out of the way, we'll just stick to our stories, and they won't be able to prove anything.”

“For chrissakes, Gary, you're insane!”

“No, I'm not. We can't just do it here, but it's got to be done before he goes to the police at noon. Let me think…”

“Lieutenant?” I said into the phone, hoping he could hear me. “Are you there?”

“Yeah, I'm here, Dick,” he said. “Hold on just another minute till we find out what Gary comes up with then go back in there. And be cool.”

Oh, sure,
I thought.

Gary was saying something.

“…how you hot-wired Jamison's car at Pendleton? We'll leave here, you go to that office building parking lot a couple blocks away and get us a car. I saw Dick's car parked on the street. When he comes out to get into it, we'll do a hit-and-run. I'll follow you, you ditch the car, and we're home free.”

“You don't seriously think that will work, do you?”

“What choice do we have?”

Richman said: “Go.”

I hung up the phone and returned to the living room, trying very hard to pretend I hadn't just heard these guys plotting to kill me.

“Sorry,” I said. “A client.”

“So, what happens now?” Matt asked again.

“Well,” I said, “to be honest with you, I'm hoping you'll turn yourselves in. Kind of stupid of me, I know, but it will go a lot easier on you if you do. Even if you stick to your stories, one or the other of you will go down eventually.”

“Well,” Gary said, “I think we'll just let them earn their money.” He got up from his chair. “Nice try, though.”

Matt got up, too.

“Gary's right, I guess,” he said. “Maybe they'll never be able to get enough hard evidence on either one of us. I don't have to tell you I wish none of this had ever happened.”

“I know,” I said, and odd as it may sound, all things considered, I firmly believed him.

As Gary reached for the doorknob, he turned and gave me a big smile.

“Take care of yourself, Dick,” he said.

There was a knock at the door.