BULLETS (27 page)

“And state and federal prisons have to follow set guidelines in terms of the incarcerated care and rights. Private prisons don’t, they can cut corners,” Camilla said.

“Yeah. Walmarting incarceration. And looking at the size of it, we’re talking about millions of dollars of state and federal money, not to mention local jobs. I’ll bet someone’s lobbied and landed a sizeable state contract, for THIS county, that’s why that area was so important. It’s the only one the right size in the county. If they don’t get that land, the prison and the money go elsewhere. To another county.”

“There’s something else,” Camilla said. “We arrest and convict a lot of undocumented people in this county. Ted and his boys are infamous for it. Even families simply driving through the county are at risk. We’re on a hub of a major highway and he was taking advantage of it.”

“And?”

“And if we just arrest someone for being here without papers, they simply get sent back. But if an undocumented person is arrested and convicted of a crime, any crime—”

“Like resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer. Drugs.”

“Right, or if they’re arrested and confess to a crime, they’re not sent back, not right away. They’re sentenced and sent to jail and after they’ve served the entirety of their sentence, only then are they sent back to their country.”

Slick whistled. “Now that’s a moneymaker, right there. You’re a sheriff and you have a piece of private prison profits. You nab an illegal, plant drugs on him or just beat him in custody until he confesses to a crime, any crime, and send him to a prison where he’ll make money for you just by being there, courtesy of the American taxpayer.”

“Yes. I’ve had issue with a lot of Ted’s arrests and convictions for a long time, had many an argument with George about it, but George is a politician, he knows what plays well, he doesn’t care about specifics, especially when voters respond to it. And voters did respond to Ted’s song on crime and illegals. That’s a whole other tune that the crowd responds to.”

“If the crowd is too stupid to pay attention to the lyrics.”

“So someone brokered a deal from a private company, one that had the contract already, promised them the land in this county, and then, when things got complicated, they used Ted to remove Roger.”

“They used Ted to cover it. Ted wasn’t smart enough to take Roger out, someone else did that. They gifted Ted with a prime suspect for Roger’s murder and he still fucked that up. He killed the kid in the diner and then he arrested me, too, which gummed everything up. If he’d just let me go, chances are I’d have left town, made it to the airport, gotten on the plane and never even looked in the rear view. Instead, I stuck around out of pure spite and started asking questions. And so did you.”

Camilla didn’t say anything for a bit, just drove.

“It’s all just conjecture at this point,” she finally said.

“Yep. Entirely conjecture.”

“We have not a single piece of evidence to support any of that, none.”

“True. Not yet, anyway. At least until you lean on Del and Javier gets his teeth into it. You know what he’s going to do once he gets hold of this.”

“Yes, I know.”

“We drop this in his lap, we go to New York City and see the Empire State Building, eat lots of great food, catch some shows and sleep in late in the morning.”

Camilla pulled into the parking garage of her office, not replying right away. Slick could feel the steam building up inside her, however.

She parked her car, turned it off and just sat there.

“Or don’t we?” Slick finally asked.

“Are you comfortable just walking away now?”

“I could now. Ted’s dead, I know what the scam is, we can sic your friend Javier on whoever is responsible and he’ll chew them up and shit them out again. You and I can be drinking mimosas in the East Village by tomorrow morning. I say we walk away.”

Camilla didn’t say anything at first, just sat there.

“I don’t think I can do that,” she said. “I can’t.”

“Okay.”

“I can’t … walk away. Not now. I could have before, but not now. I’m too angry. I’m the angriest I’ve ever been in my entire life. All this … killing. For money. For a prison. A private prison!”

“Love or money, this time it was money.”

“It’s stupid and evil and … it infuriates me. Infuriates me! Our law enforcement officers involved in this! And I can’t stop thinking about that poor girl, Pedro’s girlfriend, who was the happiest she’d probably ever been the night before the man she loved was killed. I want to find out who she is and I want her to know that I found the people responsible for his death and brought them to justice.”

She glanced at him. “I can tell you don’t agree. You want to walk away.”

“I want us to walk away. Together.”

“Don’t you care about the girl?”

“I cared about cracking it and getting justice done. We’ve done it, it’s over. Javier will carry the ball into the end zone. We got it to the five-yard line. Nothing is going to change the girl’s situation, once he does that. You’re not going to bring Pedro back.”

“I know, but I can’t walk away from her now. I can’t. And I don’t want to just hand this over to Javier and George, to the men, and let them deal with it. I need to finish it. I want to do this for her and for myself and for my community. It’s my job. I can’t walk away, not now. I’m going to make George give this case to me, he owes me and knows it, and I’m going to see this all the way to the end.”

“Okay.”

“You think I’m being silly.”

“I think you’re caring too much about the wrong thing, but we’re all guilty of that. You need to do what you need to do to be you. I get that. Stay if you have to.”

“You should go, though.” She turned to him. “Go back home and I’ll come see you when it’s all over. You’re in danger here.”

“And you won’t be?”

“I’ll have Javier and George and Joe looking after me. I’ll be fine. I’m going to find the girl and—”

“You stay, I stay.”

“After what just nearly happened to you, you want to stick around? No, if something were to happen to you, I don’t know what I’d do—”

“I’ll stay in your condo the entire time … if I’m welcome there, that is.”

That brought a smile to her lips. “You mean I would get to keep you at home, full time, like a pet? I think I like that. I like that a lot.”

“I’ll be your household pet and kept man until everything is said and done. Won’t even go outside without you. Cross my heart.”

She stared at him, her smile growing. She leaned forward and kissed him hard.

“Take my car and my condo keys, drive back to my place. George and I will be busy for the whole afternoon, so I’ll have Javier drop me off when I’m done. I need to have a heart-to-heart talk with him about us anyway. It may be late when I’m back, but make yourself at home.”

“Will do. And I’m warning you right now, I’m a good cook.”

Camilla’s eyes widened and she kissed him again. She climbed out of the car and Slick slid over to the driver’s seat, got settled. Camilla leaned in through the window.

“I’m warning you right now,” she said, “I may be falling for you, hard and fast.”

She kissed him a third time. Slick smiled at her then nodded to a nearby security camera.

“We’re putting on a quite a show for the powers-that-be.”

“Let them watch,” Camilla said. “I don’t care.”

She stopped as a thought struck her.

“What is it?”

“You just gave me an idea. I’ll tell you later.” She leaned in and kissed him a final time, gathered herself together and walked away.

S
lick drove through
the city in Camilla’s car without incident and pulled into the garage at her condo. He parked in her reserved spot, grabbed the satchel with his bail money, locked the car up and headed for the stairs.

He always preferred stairs to elevators whenever it was a reasonable amount of steps. Camilla lived on the third floor, so it was doable. His cell rang as he hit the second level. He saw it was Camilla and answered right away.

“Listen, I don’t have much time,” she said. “I’m sending you a video, you have to send it to your cloud to save it for me, okay? Don’t let anyone else have it.”

His phone dinged, indicating an email message.

“Okay. What is it?” he asked.

“I surfed all the traffic and bank cameras in town on the night of the murder and found additional footage of Pedro and his girlfriend. I know who she is now.”

“Great, who is she?”

“I can’t say right now, it’s not private enough here. I’m going to leave as soon as I can get a ride. Just save that video for me, okay?”

“You want me to come get you?”

“No, just stay there, it’s not safe. I’ll come to you.”

“Did you tell your boss or Javier?”

“I don’t know where Javier is, he’s not answering his phone. And when you get to my condo, you’ll find out why I can’t tell George. Just look on my mantel.”

Slick reached the third floor. “What does that mean?”

“It was love AND money, in the end. You’ll see. I have to go,” she whispered. “I hear George. Jon, I know we’ve moved very quickly, you and I, and I know it’s only been two days, but … I wanted you to know that, no matter what happens, I think I’m in love with you. I know that I am.”

“Camilla, I—” he began but she’d hung up.

He stopped, clicked on his messages and downloaded the video. He watched it as he went through the stairwell door to the third floor hallway. It was security footage from a camera near the edge of the city. Pedro and his girl appeared in the darkness, holding hands. She had her hood down now. They walked toward the camera, closer and closer. Her face came into focus. She was blonde, pretty and most certainly white. Her face was familiar but Slick couldn’t place it right away, not at first. He reached for Camilla’s condo keys.

“Mr. Elder, or can I call you Slick?”

Del Martin leaned against the wall opposite Camilla’s apartment.

“No, you may not.”

“I feel like I know you so well already, so I will anyway.” Del straightened up. “I checked you out, you know, I know who you are. You’re not just a poker pro. You do freelance murder for money on the side, you and your little boxing buddy … Thumper, that was his name, right? You are ‘hit’ men. Here I thought you were just a general pain in the ass, but it seems not. Hit men. I’m still chuckling about it.

“You’re not really connected, you do the occasional gig for different syndicates here and there in Chicago and New York, but freelance is freelance. Live or die by the gig. I mean you guys do all right, but you’re strictly ham-and-eggers, really. Which is why I can’t understand why you’re still hanging around here. I mean, seriously, did you even look in that bag?”

“Nope. Why should I?” Slick closed the video he was watching on his phone and emailed it to his home server. He struggled to place the girl’s face, he knew he’d seen her somewhere before but it was eluding him.

“Because there’s a lot more money in that bag than there was when your little buddy handed it in. An incentive for you, seeing as you’re a man of this business, to pick up and leave town. One would presume that after the close call you just had you wouldn’t think twice, you’d just take the money and run. But you didn’t even LOOK in the bag. I mean is she really that good in the sack?”

“You don’t know her or me well enough to ask that, friend.”

“Why, what are you gonna do, beat me up—like you did those five guys outside of the bar? I don’t blame you, I mean, any man who’s ever met Camilla had to have fantasies and you’re living it, my man. I get it. But here’s the thing…”

Slick assessed the situation. There was no one else in the hall except for Del and himself. But something didn’t feel right. The salesman kept talking as he strolled closer.

“You have been a big pain in the balls, ever since you came to town. I mean, really, it’s astounding to me how one guy could fuck things up for us so badly. I know you went to the county clerk’s office today, and I know what you found there. And after the mess of your arrest this morning, Doris Carlson won’t even speak to me now, she’s holed up at her place, cursing up a storm. It’s a huge clusterfuck. So here’s my question. How much?”

“How much what?”

“How much do you want? I will pay you to work for me. Hell, I’ll pay you to go away just so you’re not working against me.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You realize how big this is? We’re talking millions. Tens of millions, more than that, even, for decades to come. It’s a very big pie and there’s even more of it to go around now that Ted’s gone. How can you say no?”

“Pretty damn easily. There’s a reason I work independently. I don’t like to do things I won’t want to do. And I don’t want to work for you in any capacity.”

“Well, that’s too bad.”

“Too bad for you.”

“Even worse for you.”

Slick sized Del up. He didn’t seem to be carrying a weapon.

“You going to kill me like you did Ted?”

“Me? No, not me, I don’t get my hands dirty, that’s not my game. And how could little old me handle such a big strapping buck like you? I’m not stupid. You’d go right through me like a hot knife in butter. But, see, I don’t need to, because I’ve got an ace in the hole.”

The door to Camilla’s condo opened and a pistol came out, pointed right at Slick.

“I was praying you’d turn down that money,” Javier said. “So I could do this.”

“My ace in the hole,” Del said. “And he’s very, very unhappy with you. But not to worry, we’re not going to kill you right away. You’re still potentially useful.”

Javier clubbed Slick across the head with the gun. Slick went down to his knees.

Javier clubbed him again and again, cursing in Spanish, until Slick lost consciousness.

S
lick drifted in
and out of consciousness for quite some time before he finally woke up, unable to see because nearly everything was black. He knew he was in the trunk of a moving car and it was driving on gravel. He knew his hands were cuffed behind his back with plastic ties and he knew that he was hot and thirsty. And it was dark outside.