Mike Jastrzebski - Key Lime Blues

“What about Elvis? He was there when she killed that guy and Gail let him live. Maybe she doesn’t want to kill us.”

I shook my head and regretted it. The pain made it harder to concentrate on the ropes. Even listening to Tanya’s voice made my head vibrate. I didn’t complain. As long as she kept talking, she didn’t have time to worry about the bind we were in. I was afraid she might panic, which would make things even worse. Taking a deep breath, I gave my wrists another twist. I felt the knot slip, and I was able to ease my left hand out from the rope.

“Destiny considers Elvis to be her confessor, something like a priest.” I tossed the rope out of the way and reached down to untie my feet. “She thinks he’ll keep what he knows about her a secret.”

“Will he?”

I finished untying my feet and used the arm of the chair to help me stand. “I don’t think so,” I said. “But I do know she’ll be back here. I’m going out to the kitchen to get a knife. If you hear her coming, call me.”

My knees were wobbly, and it took longer than it should have just to walk across the living room and into the kitchen. My vision was no longer blurred, but each step I took reverberated along my spine and played havoc with my head. The mounting pain forced me to stop and lean against the wall twice before I reached the drawer where Tanya kept her knives. My hands felt disassociated from my body. I had trouble opening the drawer. Trouble picking up a knife. After what seemed like an hour, but could only have been minutes, I managed to wrap my hand around a knife handle. Dragging it out of the drawer I started back across the kitchen to where Tanya was waiting for me.

I felt a little better by then, but I was still fighting for balance with each step. When I passed the kitchen table I yearned to sit for a couple of minutes and regroup. Time was the unknown factor, so I pushed on into the living room.

The knife was dull and my coordination was off. It took several minutes to cut through the ropes. When they parted, Tanya jumped up and threw her arms around me. Her warm tears ran down my neck and I pulled her close.

I didn’t want to let her go, but when I heard the outside gate slam closed I shoved Tanya away and spun around. “Get the hell out of here. Go next door and call the cops.”

I didn’t wait for her response. Tanya took off running while I headed for the door. My fingers were still stiff and before I could throw the latch the door slammed open and caught me in the chest. I tripped, fell on my ass and rolled twice before scrambling behind the sofa.

Destiny swore when she saw me. “Get the fuck out from behind the couch, Wes. I’ve had it with the bullshit.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. Drawing my knees toward my chest I tried to make myself into the smallest target possible. I was hoping she wouldn’t shoot until she had the diamonds, but I was wrong. Her answer to my suggestion was a shot that blew a hole in the sofa three inches from my head.

“Stand up you coward.” Destiny’s voice was high pitched and her breathing uneven. At this point she seemed more interested in killing me than in getting her diamonds back. She was an angry woman with a gun and that scared the hell out of me.

“I’ll take you to the diamonds. I only wanted to make sure Tanya was out of the way.”

She wasn’t in the mood for bargaining. She fired again. This bullet wasn’t quite as close. I could hear her moving toward me and I knew I needed to do something. I drew my legs under me and tried to judge where Destiny was by the sound of her approaching footsteps. Just as I was about jump her, Tanya called out from the hall.

“ Gail-stop.”

I glanced around the corner of the sofa and saw Tanya standing at the edge of the room. She was bent into a shooter’s crouch and held the gun out in front of her like she knew what she was doing. I hoped to hell she had remembered the gun needed a key.

“You aren’t going to shoot me, Tanya.” Destiny gave a dry laugh. “You can’t step on a damn spider without crying about it.”

“I know how to shoot,” Tanya said.

“Knowing how to shoot and being able to shoot someone isn’t the same thing,” Destiny said.

She was right. If I were going to bet on the outcome of a shootout between the two of them, I’d have put my money on Destiny. I stood up from behind the sofa, slowly so as not to startle them, and faced Destiny.

“Don’t hurt her,” I said. “She doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on.”

Destiny licked her lips and I could tell she was weighing the odds. Her gun was pointed halfway between where I stood and where Tanya stood, and she couldn’t know for sure that Tanya wouldn’t shoot. Then her cheek quivered, her eyes went cold, and I knew she’d made her decision.

“Watch out,” I shouted. I vaulted over the back of the sofa at the same time that Destiny swung her gun up toward Tanya. Destiny must have seen me from the corner of her eye because she changed direction and swung the pistol back toward me.

I expected to die. To my surprise Tanya was faster than Destiny. She fired her gun twice and Destiny stopped, looked down at the red stain spreading across her t-shirt, and collapsed onto the floor.

I sprang to Destiny’s side, shouting as I knelt down beside her, “Get me some towels, Tanya.” I didn’t look to see if she had followed my orders, instead I tore off my shirt and pressed it against the two holes in Destiny’s stomach.

There was hatred in her eyes, but it turned to fear when the pain engulfed her. I added pressure to the wounds in an effort to stem the bleeding, and she said something. I couldn’t quite catch the words and I put my hand under her head and moved my ear closer to her lips.

“What was that?” I asked.

“I want my diamonds,” she said, and then she died.

I laid Destiny’s head onto the floor and stood. Tanya was looking down at Destiny, three towels in one hand, and the gun in the other. When I reached over and took the gun from her hand she stiffened and looked away from Destiny.

“I didn’t want to shoot her.”

“I know.” I put my arm around her shoulder and she shook it off.

“Don’t,” she said. “I just killed my friend.”

“She was going to shoot both of us,” I said. She didn’t reply and I added, “We should call the cops.”

Tanya nodded her head and took a final glance in Destiny’s direction before spinning away from me. She ran from the room. I followed her down the hall, but she burst into her bedroom and slammed the door in my face. When I knocked she didn’t respond, so I headed back to the living room. It was time to call the cops and face Detective Davies’ wrath.

When Detective Davies arrived she made a pointed effort to ignore me until after the crime scene investigators had completed their work. She spent most of her time pacing back and forth across the living room muttering to herself and shifting her huge purse from one shoulder to the other. She continued her routine until everyone else had cleared out. I was exhausted and I felt myself drifting off. This seemed to irritate Davies. She stomped over to where I was seated on the couch. She stared down at me as if daring me to say anything, and then she leaned over so close to me that I could smell the dead cigarette smoke on her clothing.

“I’ve got six bodies on ice,” she said. “I didn’t have one before you came to the Keys. I’ve already got three helicopters in town filled with reporters.” She straightened, turned her back to me, and started pacing again.

“I only killed one of them,” I pointed out.

Davies swung around and her face was as red as a smoldering ember. “Don’t be such a smart ass, Darling,” she said.