That had been little more than half an hour ago. Now Billy was walking the woman through Fast Eddie’s bar using her like a shield. He pointed the barrel of the Walther at her head as he told the old man behind the bar it was best to close the place down for an hour or so. When the old man didn’t move fast enough, Billy shot him in the chest.
He fired another shot into the ceiling and the place emptied.
The woman collapsed back into his arms and he had to carry her down the stairs.
The blue 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado was parked in Sharon Dowell’s driveway. It had been freshly washed and waxed and was gleaming in the afternoon sunshine.
Louis was all smiles as he pulled into the driveway and parked directly behind the luxury coupe. Even if he paid seventy-five hundred for the car, Jimmy’s contact had agreed to pay at least five thousand above the sticker price for the same car. Assuming he threw Jimmy a five-hundred-dollar finder’s fee and maybe handed off something smaller to Sharon, Louis stood to make an extra four grand. Considering what he was driving around with and the way things had gone so far, Louis felt the worm had finally turned; Lady Luck had finally smiled his way.
Twenty minutes ago Jimmy had said the buyer was excited about the car before he reminded Louis about a kickback.
“I hope you intend to do the right thing,” the loan shark had said. “There’s a dozen other guys I could feed this thing didn’t make me wait for my money every week.”
It was the first time Louis wondered why the big man had let him in on the sale in the first place.
He asked why and Jimmy had said, “Because with you I get a finder’s fee.”
“Right,” Louis had said. “What was I thinking?”
Now he peered into the passenger window of the Cadillac and admired the white leather upholstery. He saw the huge dashboard and said, “It’s a beautiful thing.”
“It sure as shit is,” he heard someone say.
Louis turned and saw it was Jimmy. The big man was standing at the gate entrance to the backyard. Louis was surprised.
“Here,” Jimmy said. He held out an open can of beer.
Louis was speechless. He grabbed the can and drank deep. He finished half the can before he stopped to belch.
“Excuse,” he said, then finished the beer.
“Gimme,” Jimmy said. He took the empty can from Louis, crushed it between his meaty hands, then tossed it toward a garbage pail, missing it by at least four feet.
Louis was led up a short flight of wooden stairs to a deck connected to Sharon’s living room. He stepped inside and nearly gasped when he saw a couple of guys he knew were muscle for the two bookmakers he owed money. He thought about running when Jimmy’s huge shadow blocked the sliding glass doors.
John’s head was sore from the head butt he gave Santorra, but then he heard the gunshot and dove to the floor in front of the desk. He heard Vento scramble behind the desk and then there were two more shots before a grunt and a loud thud.
John looked up from behind one of the folding chairs and saw Melinda dangling from a choke hold. He stood up without thinking. He didn’t recognize the man behind her until it was too late. The gunshot knocked him back over the top of the desk. His head struck Vento’s chair before he landed on the wiseguy’s body.
It had happened so fast he didn’t feel the piercing burn just below his right shoulder until he tried to stand again. He stumbled on one of Vento’s arms and had to use the desk to support himself. Melinda was being held from behind in the office doorway. John saw it was the cop he’d knocked out a few months ago and he had a gun pointed at Melinda’s head.
“Don’t,” John told him. “It’s me you want.”
Billy Hastings had his weapon pointed at Melinda’s head. He looked at John and said, “I watched mine die, now you watch yours.”
Then there was another gunshot. Then another two as John scrambled across the desk.
The blood running into his mouth caused him to choke and regain consciousness. Then there was a gunshot that made him flinch. By the time Nick could focus again, John Albano was rolling across the top of Eddie Vento’s desk.
Nick was on the floor, where he must’ve dropped to when Albano head-butted him, but now his hand was inside the bag and he could feel the grip of the handgun. He pulled it out slowly when he heard movement behind him in the office doorway.
He saw it was the undercover cop they’d had trouble with in the past. Billy Hastings had been the guy Vento always joked about and the one John Albano had knocked out. The dirty cop had an arm wrapped around some woman’s neck and was holding a gun to her head.
Nick realized it was Hastings that had shot Albano. He looked across the floor and saw Eddie Vento lying on his back with thin rivers of blood flowing from one side of his mouth.
Albano said something and then Hastings said something and Nick shot the cop at least three times before the sound was too much and he fumbled the gun. Albano tumbled from the desk to the floor and pulled the woman to him as Nick reached for the gun he’d just dropped.
She had tried to make herself deadweight after the bartender was shot, but then her abductor carried her down the stairs anyway. When they were in the basement he pulled her hair and she’d yelped.
“I thought you were faking it,” he’d said.
He draped an arm around her neck and shoved her inside the small office. Melinda had closed her eyes when she heard the gunshots. When she opened her eyes again she saw John a moment before she heard another gunshot. Then she saw he was hit and Melinda struggled to try and free herself until the pressure on her windpipe tightened and she couldn’t move.
She heard John say something and then there were more gunshots as she fell back in the doorway. Her ears were ringing when she sat up and saw John reaching for her. She glanced to her right and saw a man with a bandage on his face. Blood was pouring from his nose. He had a gun in his hand and was pointing it at John.
Melinda cocked back her right leg and then kicked up at the gun but missed and caught him under the chin. His eyes rolled a moment before he collapsed against the back of a folding chair. The chair slowly slid from his weight until it was against the far wall and the man was lying on his back. Then John was holding her against him and she squeezed him back as hard as she could.
There were footsteps on the basement stairs and someone shouted “Police, freeze!” but Melinda didn’t let go of John.
Chapter 52
Nancy had followed her ex-husband to Woodhaven in Queens. She watched from half a block away as he parked at the curb in front of a blue colonial house with a Cadillac parked in the driveway. Louis got out of his car and looked the Cadillac over, leaning on the passenger door to look inside before walking down the driveway and disappearing from her view. She drove to the far corner and parked in front of a small discount store. It was a one way street and Louis would have to pass her when he left.
She decided to make a few calls from a pay phone while she waited. She started with Marie Albano to see what was going on there but the old bag hung up on her three times in a row before Nancy gave up. She had two dimes left when she called Nathan at his sister’s house.
“It’s me,” she said as soon as he picked up. “Please don’t hang up.”
“What is it now?” Nathan said.
“I’m sorry, Nathan. I really am.”
“What do you want, Nan?”