Linda Fairstein - Hell Gate

We had made it to the top. Daylight poured in through the windows and the brightness hurt my eyes as we emerged from the dark climb.

“Is there really a tontine, Rowdy? Somebody in line to get all the money in Salma’s shoe boxes?” My hands were deep in the pockets of my jacket.

“That was just seed money to ship in the precious cargo.” He was motioning for me to give him my right hand. “It’s a small club, Alex. Last man standing’s going to be able to set himself up for a nice life anywhere he wants to go. Now, give it up, girl.”

“The mayor?” I was trying to clear my head, sitting on the lacy metal fretwork and trying to meet Kitts in the eye, instead of looking all the way down.

“Clean as a hound’s tooth. I don’t think Vin Statler likes the ladies.”

“Donny Baynes?”

“He might like to be a player, but he just doesn’t have the cash. It’s probably what keeps that boy honest. Same with that loser Spindlis.”

“Ethan Leighton?”

“Like father, like son. That gene pool must have been really screwed up.” Kitts liked the sound of his own voice. He clearly relished telling me about his ability to outsmart the richer, more powerful men who surrounded him. “Those boys play rough.”

“Who tagged me, Rowdy? You do it yourself?”

He frowned as he tugged at my hand. “I don’t usually have to do this kind of shit myself, Alex. I got men. I got people I pay to do things for me. You know how that is, don’t you? I need you to just hold out your hand.”

Kitts wrapped one end of the smooth cashmere sock around my wrist, doubling the knot until I winced in pain. I was trying to think of any word that applied except panic. That had consequences I didn’t want to accept.

“I’m surprised you missed the signals, Alex.”

I couldn’t make up my mind whether to look out at the bright blue sky, praying for a miracle, or watch Kitts tie the other end of the long sock to the banister.

“You hear me?”

“What signals?” I asked.

“Jeannie Parcher. That paralegal I got messed up with. She wanted to talk to you so bad. She threatened me that she’d go see you for advice. What to do when I got nasty.”

Mike had guessed right about that. Jeannie had tried to tell me about her experience-Mike had asked me if Rowdy had gotten rough with her-but I didn’t pick up on what terrified her about this hideously evil man.

“What did you do to Jeannie?” I asked softly.

“Nothing you want to hear right now,” he said, sneering at me. “You ought to give her a ring sometime.”

The arm that Kitts was tying up jerked so badly that he grabbed my shoulders and started to shake me.

When he let go, I realized for the first time that he had bound me securely to the iron rail. I’d been so fearful of falling throughout the entire climb that it was almost a relief to be anchored to something that wasn’t going to move.

“It’s too tight, Rowdy.” I was still afraid of what he might do to me before he left.

“I don’t really think you’re in a position to be calling the shots, Alex. Shit, there’s always the Civilian Complaint Review Board.” He was laughing as he balled up the other sock between his hands and leaned over to stuff it in my mouth. “You can take up all your problems with them.”

I recoiled as he came at me. I clutched the banister as tightly as I could, almost chained to it as I was. Both of my knees came up between us, almost reflexively. I kicked my legs out in front of me with all the power I could muster and struck Rowdy Kitts squarely in the gut.

I screamed as I watched him fly backward over the railing, shouting my name, falling through the middle of the spiral staircase until his body hit the floor of the water tower, several stories below me.

I covered my eyes with my hand and tried to make myself breathe.

“I’ll tell you what it’s going to take, Loo.” Mike was talking to Peterson on his cell, standing at one of the windows. It was more than an hour after I had pushed Rowdy Kitts to his death. “Go to the Bronx Zoo, get yourself the kind of tranquilizer gun they use on elephants. She’s not coming down that staircase unless you pump her full of that stuff.”

Mercer had untied me and was massaging my wrist, trying to stop the tremor in my hands. The two of us were sitting on the floor of the tower’s platform, leaning against the wall while we waited for backup.

“Coop’s not going anywhere unless you put a bag over her head and have somebody carry her down. She can barely open her eyes up here. Vertigo, smertigo-I’m not cleaning up after her if anything happens. I draw the line at my assignments.”

“I can’t move. I don’t feel steady enough to stand.”

“Did you hear that, Loo? Tell you what. I’ll lower down a bucket. Maybe you can fill it with a few Bloody Marys to loosen her up. No, I’m not kidding. Hurry along.”

“I just killed a man.”

“Correction. The murdering son of a bitch got a faster exit than he deserved. Me? I would have plucked out all his finger- and toe-nails, then I would have gouged-”

“Enough, Mike,” Mercer said.

“I would have tortured him. I would have taken pleasure in it. What does that say about me? He bought his own ticket out of here, Coop. You know how many lives he ruined, how many girls are dead because of Rowdy Kitts? Think forward-think of the women you’ve saved. Those can’t be teardrops, are they? You’ll lose me if you start to cry. I’ll abandon you right here.”

Mercer wouldn’t let go of me. “You do anything that makes you feel better.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and checked my emotions. There would be plenty of time for all this to settle over me when I was safely at home.

Mike was circling the small platform, checking every crevice and jiggling the bricks, as though to see if they were loose.

“Can you please be still? You’re making me dizzy again.”

“Rowdy didn’t say what he was coming up here for?”

“I didn’t ask. I just assumed it was to get rid of me.”

“No offense, kid, but it’s not always about you. He took a real gamble on this climb. Turned out to be his death gamble.”

Another chill went through me. “He couldn’t get out of the basement as long as I was keeping warm, waiting for you in the lobby.”

“Yeah, but why was he in here in the first place? Why did he waste all that time forcing you to climb to the tower? He could have just cold-cocked you and kept heading for the highway. There must be something up here he wanted.”

Mercer looked away from me for the first time and got to his feet. I closed my eyes. Mike’s idea had piqued his interest.

“Rowdy thought we’d have caught him because of the first Jane Doe on the beach. Did I tell you that?” I was rambling, but I couldn’t remember which parts of the story I had repeated to Mike and Mercer when they found me.

“Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, Alex. My mother used to say she could tell when I was being bad ’cause she had eyes in the back of her head. Would have saved me a lot of lives if I could have stopped perps before they got started.” Mercer extended a hand. “You want to try standing?”

I shook my head. “What’s happening downstairs?” I could see flashes of light that reflected off the shiny black paint of the stair rail.

“Crime Scene’s finishing up with photographs. There’s a bus ready to take the body out. We’ll head down after that.”

“Seriously, I don’t know how I’m going to move.”

“We’ll get you down.”

Mike was on his tiptoes, running his fingers around the rim of the fancy trim that topped the brickwork. “You’ve got a few inches on me, Mercer. Help me out.”