Steve Hamilton - A Stolen Season

It happened that quickly. But it was all wrong.

Forget if he was lying or telling the truth. In that instant, I knew something even more important. Natalie Reynaud would never be afraid of this man.

“You’re not Laraque,” I said.

If there was any doubt, his reaction was all I needed. The eyes went wide before he tried to regain control. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not Laraque. What’s going on here?”

The gun came out of Rhapsody’s bag. It was just like some of the guns I had seen on the boat, an automatic with a suppressor fixed to the barrel. The damned thing was so long, it was a wonder she could get it out of the bag so fast.

“Okay, enough of this,” she said. “Just tell us where the merchandise is.”

“Where’s Laraque?”

“Never mind him. You need to deal with me now.”

“I told you I wouldn’t talk to anybody else.”

“You don’t understand what I’m trying to tell you. Laraque is out of the game. You can’t talk to him.”

“First thing you can do, you can take Mr. Dress-Up here back to Canada. Was this Laraque’s idea, by the way? Send a stooge over here to take his place? Is that the kind of man he is?”

“Alex, listen to me…”

“Second thing, you tell the real Laraque he has twenty-four more hours to get his ass over here.”

“You see, that’ll be hard to do, on account of his being very dead right now. Unless you’d care to join him. Maybe you can talk to him on the other side. I don’t know.”

“What are you talking about? Who killed him?”

“Who do you think, genius?”

“You did? Why would you do that?”

She shook her head. “I know you’re a man, so I’ll try to talk slow here. I killed the boss so I could take over the operation. You understand me?”

“That’s not a good enough reason,” I said. “Not compared to mine.”

“Whatever you say, Alex. Just get over it, because we’re not joking around here. Why don’t you wise up and tell us where the stuff is right now, before we really hurt you?”

“Who’s we? You and your caddy here?”

“No, not him. Jacques is my driver. He’s quite harmless.”

“Then who are you talking about?”

“And just for the record, this whole fake Laraque thing, it wasn’t my idea. I thought it was a little over the top myself.”

“Whose idea was it? Who are you talking about?”

“I think that’s your cue, Babe,” she said. She raised her chin, said it loud enough for anyone else to hear, anyone who might be waiting in the trees.

I heard the footsteps. I turned and saw the man. I recognized him in a second.

It was Cap.

He had a gun just like Rhapsody’s, with the same long suppressor screwed onto the end of the barrel. He walked over to me with a smile, like he was renewing his acquaintance with a long-lost friend.

“Alex and I have come to an agreement,” Rhapsody said. “Your idea was ridiculous.”

“Is that right?” He moved closer to me, never taking his eyes from mine. He put his gun in his back pocket for a moment, just long enough to pat me down and to take Leon’s gun out of my jacket pocket. I waited for him to go down each of my legs, to find the ankle holster.

But he didn’t.

“Alex saw right through it,” she said. “Jacques never had a chance.”

“The man wanted Laraque,” Cap said. He transferred Leon’s gun to his right hand and threw it in a high arc. It splashed in the middle of the channel. Then he started to walk around me in a slow circle. “So we gave him Laraque. I thought it would be easier this way.”

The fake Laraque put his hands up. “Hey,” he said, “you didn’t tell me this guy would be here.”

“Shut up, Jacques,” she said.

“No, this guy’s crazy. I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Just shut the fuck up.”

“Seriously. I’ll let you guys work this out. I’ll be right over here.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“The hell I’m not. I just quit.”

Cap turned from me and shot him twice in the throat. Shoomp shoomp, two muffled shots like the sound a nail gun would make. Me on the roof of my cabin, nailing down a shingle. That was the exact sound.

At first, the man showed nothing but surprise. He tried to speak, but couldn’t make a sound, his vocal cords obliterated with everything else as the blood rushed down the front of his coat. He went to his knees, looking at the ground like he still couldn’t quite fathom what had happened to him. He tried to speak again. Then he pitched sideways and spent the next few seconds staring up at both of us.

“Was that necessary?” she said.

“You told me he wasn’t even a good driver.”

I watched the man die on the ground. It occurred to me, maybe this was one of his reasons for shooting him in front of me, so I’d know exactly what he was capable of.

“I thought you were long gone,” I said to him. “After you tried to trick me into going after Mr. Gray.”

“What’s this?” she said. “This sounds interesting.”

“Never mind,” he said. He kept circling me. “It was just an idea, a spur of the moment thing.”

“I thought you weren’t afraid of Gray,” she said.

“I just put a bullet in his head two days ago. Does that sound like somebody who’s afraid of anybody?”

“You killed Gray?” I said.

He stopped in front of me. “Yes, I did. Now tell me where the guns are, or you’ll get the same deal. I promise you.”

“I think he was afraid of you, too,” she said to me. “I think that’s why he came up with this idea.”

“Rhapsody…”

“‘Get Jacques to pretend,’” she said, imitating him, exaggerating the swagger in his voice. “‘McKnight won’t know any better. If he ends up killing him, so what?’”

“What do you think?” he said to me. “Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

“I think you talk pretty big,” I said, “when your woman has your back.”

He made like he was going to turn away, then surprised me with a punch right in my gut. It folded me in two. I went with it, going all the way to the ground, feeling for the mini automatic under my pant leg. Lift and fire, if I do it fast enough…

No. Not yet. Either one of them would mow me down in a second.

“Okay, enough chit-chat,” Cap said. “Where are the guns?”

Play this out, I thought. Buy some time, figure out what the hell is going on.

“They’re out there,” I said, pointing to the water. I was struggling to get my wind back. Laraque was dead. Gray was dead. I couldn’t believe it was all coming down to these two.

“What are you talking about, McKnight? Out there where?”

“I have to take you to them.”

“What did you do, hide them on some island like a pirate?”

“That’s exactly what I did, yes.”

He leaned down closer to me. “Do you have any idea how much you’ve fucked up my life already? Do you?”

“The man says he’s going to take us to the merchandise,” Rhapsody said. “So let him do it.”

“You actually believe him?”

“He looks like a smart man. He knows if he gives everything back, we’ll let him walk away.”

He grabbed me by the back of the collar. “Where are they, McKnight?”

“He said he’d take us to them,” she said. “Are you deaf?”

“I’m not falling for it,” he said. “I swear to God…”

“You got a better idea?”

“Yeah, I do.”

He put the gun against my temple.

“That would be smart,” she said. “We’d definitely get the guns back that way.”

He made a long muffled sound in his throat as he let go of me. I was starting to see the way things were between them. They obviously had a long history together.