The Hitman: Dirty Rotters (19 page)

Sally’s bedroom door
squeaked open and she walked back into the kitchen looking as if
she had cried slightly, but overall that she was better than
before.
I love you
was said. I gather it had been by him. She exhaled sharp, and
looked at peace with the situation.

“
How’s Frank?”

“
Good. Belsay was checked
into a hospital, under a false name, and has some bruising. They’re
going to keep him overnight. Frank said he’d find a motel for the
night, then check back in with Belsay tomorrow.”

“
Good. They’ll be fine,
Sally.” I finished eating. I put my plate in the sink. “We need to
talk about us now.”

I sat back down. Sally pulled out a
wooden chair and sat opposite me. She looked slightly
confused.

“
What about us?” she
asked.

“
What are we going to do? I
don’t think we can stay here. Not with some maniac on the loose
trying to play a revenge card on me.”

“
So, what do you
propose?”

“
Get out of town. Maybe a
hotel, like Frank and Belsay.”

Sally leaned back and folded her arms
against her chest. Her face tightened.

“
Sally, we can’t stay
here.”

“
This is my home. I will
defend it to the death if I have to.”

“
It just might come to
that.”

“
Let it come
then.”

“
Sally, we
can’t-”

“
Michael, listen to
yourself. Talking about running away, hiding out from someone? I
wear a badge. I took an oath to serve and protect. This is my home.
I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m not going to be running away from
someone like I have.”

“
Did you read his
report?”

“
Of course.”

“
And it doesn’t bother you
that he’s a trained killer?”

“
I have an arsenal of my
own, thank you very much. I have had plenty of hours training for
personal protection, Michael. I am not going anywhere. I’m not
giving him the satisfaction of making me make a decision based on
fear. We don’t even know where he is.”

“
Exactly my point.” I sat
back and sighed inwardly. There was no point in arguing with her.
She was as stubborn as she was big. And I saw her point. She had
plenty of training and there were several shotguns and handguns in
her bedroom. We could hole up here for the night and let Jeff
Dimeglio come and find us.

“
Okay, Sally. I’m with you.
We’ll stay.”

“
You’re damn right,” she
said hard. “I’ll take the first watch. You look dead tired. Go get
some rest.”

I argued with her for a few moments
about which one of us should do what, but in the end I gave in and
went into the guest room and plopped onto the bed. My eyelids felt
like concrete.

I was half in this world and half into
a dream stage when I heard Sally enter the room, shuffle her hands
under my pillow, and whisper something about a Glock being under my
head. I didn’t catch it all. I didn’t want to. I could easily just
have been dreaming the whole thing.

The last thing I remembered was
thinking of Palo eating the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger.

It was midnight when Sally’s firm
grasp of my shoulder woke me. I sprang upright instantly. The house
was dark and real quiet. She stood beside the bed holding a
Remington 870 Express 12-guage pump shotgun.

“
If you need more sleep,
let me know.” she said.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and
shook my head. “No. I’m up, Sally.”

I got out of bed. She handed me the
shotgun. “There’s been no action at all. Quiet night.”

We walked out of the bedroom and down
the hall towards hers. “My alarm is set for 6:00 a.m.”

“
Okay,” I said.

“
If you even begin to grow
tired, just wake me.”

“
I will,” I
lied.

Sally climbed into bed. There was a
standard police issued Glock 17 sitting on her lampstand. She threw
some blankets over her and rolled onto her side, facing the door. I
backed away silently, just as quiet as the rest of the
night.

I walked slowly through the pitch
black interior because I wasn’t used to where everything was
positioned. The last thing I wanted to do on guard patrol was bump
into a table and have a glass lamp fall and shatter. It would have
sounded like a grenade in this quietness.

I made it to the front windows, facing
the street. A few headlights sped past. Not slow enough to cause
alarm. I stood pressed close to the long red drapes, probably
invisible to someone hiding outside in the dark. I stood there for
at least thirty minutes before I backed away, not walking in front
of them, but keeping close to the walls, as I made my way across
the house to the door to look at the driveway.

Sally’s home had two doors. One in
through the garage. One at the front. The windows were not big
enough to permit access. And the black interior would make it
almost impossible for someone outside to see me before I saw them.
I watched the driveway, turning my head to the left each time I
heard a car approaching, only to see the headlights whip past in a
hurry. There wasn’t much traffic.

An hour passed. I grew tired. I could
still function though. I drank a Coke. I thought about what it was
doing to my insides. I thought maybe it was the reason why they
served it at McDonalds. To help the French fries erode.

Another silent hour passed and I grew
weary. Not just sleepy, but bored out of my mind tired. Forcing
myself to stay awake wasn’t something I had done before. It wasn’t
simple. Simple is when you’re tired, you go to bed. You don’t stay
up for hours into the quiet night taking long blinks and catching
yourself with a quick, alert start.

I slumped with my back against the
wall, staring out the front windows at nothing. I was fighting off
the feeling of letting my body slide down the wall to the floor.
Traffic was almost nonexistent. Everything was pitch black, though
now my eyes were used to the darkness to where I saw everything in
Sally’s well-manicured home. I could hear anyone approaching the
garage, and could see anyone attempting to force entry through the
front door. I felt secure where I was. I felt secure enough to sag
a little in my posture. Secure enough to close my eyes for a
moment. Just a second. Just long enough to ward off the stinging
sensation.

Then I slid down the wall. I hit the
floor. I didn’t care.

I would have slept until
dawn.

But my phone rang.

It scared the hell out of me. I jolted
awake with a slight groaning yelp, fully alert. There was sound and
light shining from my front pants pocket. I felt the vibration in
waves.

I stuck my right hand into my pocket
and pulled out my phone. The light was so bright that I used my
left hand to shield it. I answered it with a soft voice. It was
Palo at the other end. She sounded worried.

“
Can you meet
me?”

“
When?”

“
Now?”

“
What’s wrong?”

“
Please?”

I rubbed the sleep and sting from my
eyes. “Are you in trouble?”

“
Can you meet me at the
corner of Jean and Kalis?”

I had to think for a moment. The house
would be locked tight. Sally had a small arsenal around her. The
night was half over. I doubted that Jeff Dimeglio was going to
show. I trusted Sally would sleep undisturbed until I
returned.

“
I’m on my way.”

“
Hurry.”

Silence. Palo ended the call. Her
phone probably held firm in her hand. Her eyes probably full of
worry and desperation. I could hear it in her pleads. She was
probably pacing the way Sally had been a few hours ago.

I grabbed my keys off the kitchen
table, snatched up my hooded sweatshirt and put it on, leaving my
leather jacket over the back of the dining chair, but checking the
pocket for my gun first. It wasn’t there. Then I remembered what
Sally had told me and went to look under my pillow to find my nine
millimeter. I put it into the sweatshirt’s front pouch, then walked
into Sally’s room and set the shotgun next to the bed. I wrote a
note and left it beside the Glock on her nightstand. She couldn’t
hear me. She snored loud.

I took a deep, reassuring breath, then
walked to the front door. I opened it carefully, silently. I
stepped out into the night. The air had a chill to it. The sky was
clear. A few stars were visible. The city lights killed any
enjoyment it would have given me from the country. I shut the door
slowly, until I heard the lock catch with a click. I tested the
door knob. It was locked. She was safe.

I walked around to the El Camino.
There was no sign of movement in the yard. Still, I reached my car
and stood for a few minutes looking carefully deep into the
shadows. It was black everywhere. I shrugged off all the eerie
whispers that the late night filled my mind with and convinced
myself that I was alone.

I opened the door, got in, started it
up, turned the heat on medium blast, backed all the way out to the
road, then turned on the lights and drove back into the Red
Square.

I was excited.

It had been so long since a woman
called me during the night.

Chapter 15

“
Anna is
missing.”

Night’s shadows could not hide Palo’s
stunning features. Her eyes were flush with worry. Apparently it
was out of character for Anna not to be at home this late. Which
meant one thing really. Neither of us said it aloud.

I had found Palo easily
enough. The white Phantom was literally the one other vehicle I saw
with its lights on, parked on the side of the street at a stop sign
at 2:30 a.m. It might as well have had a giant neon sign
flashing
I’m right here!
I’m right here!
I’m
right here!

Palo got out as I pulled in behind
them, and she rushed to the passenger side door. I reached over and
unlocked it, just as her slender hands were reaching for the door
handle. She threw the door open in a rush and got in. She told me
immediately.

“
Please, help me find her.”
Palo finished.

I stared at her for a moment. Stunned,
really. She looked fabulous. Her hair was teased and loose, her
lipstick was a soft shade of pink, to match her nail polish I
guessed, and she was dressed in all black: jeans that were just
tight enough, a matching blouse, long sleeve with slight ruffles at
the cuffs, a short black leather jacket, and black flats, no
socks.

“
Andrik asked me where she
was after lunch,” I said, suddenly remembering. “Was she missing
all day?”

“
No. I had talked to her
after dinner. She called me and said that a strange man came by the
office looking for her, but she was out. When she returned, he was
gone.”

“
Get a name?”

“
No.” Palo shrugged. “We
see a lot of people all of the time. We have business all over the
world.”

We sat in silence for a
moment.

“
She’s not answering her
phone. She’s not at home.” I was stating what I thought were the
obvious points. She confirmed with a head nod.

“
Maybe she’s out with a
friend?”

A samurai,
perhaps.

Palo shook her head
doubtfully.

“
Maybe she just wanted some
privacy.”

“
No. She was worried. She
would not want to be alone.”

“
Let’s not jump to
conclusions just yet.” I realized that I sounded just like the cops
I talked to the day Pamela went missing. All sorts of calm
questions, while the truth burned inside me with a fury. Palo knew
Anna like I knew Pamela. “Okay, Palo. Where do we
start?”

“
I want to check out a few
places. I want you with me.” Palo took a folded up piece of white
paper out of her front pocket and handed it to me. I looked at it.
It had an address. I had heard of the street before; it was on the
other side of the city.

“
I can find
this.”

“
Okay,” she
agreed.

We both turned for our doors, me
reaching for the door handle to exit, thinking that we would be
taking a ride in the luxurious Phantom, and Palo reaching for her
seatbelt, concluding that I was driving. I caught on before I
opened the door and embarrassed myself. I turned the key and the
engine came alive. I turned the lights on. I had plenty of gas for
a late night ride.

“
I am sorry,” Palo said. “I
had no other option.”

“
Don’t worry. I’m glad you
called. I was just up doing nothing.”

She stared ahead to the Phantom and
said, “Is not my driver tonight. I do not know him. I told him stay
here. You must drive, Hitman.”

“
Okay.”

“
Anna is very smart girl.
Out of town she has a private room. A hideout if needed.” She
motioned to the paper she gave me.