“You good, man?” the attendant queried.
Daniel eased his grip on the pistol. “As long as you know this guy.”
“I see him every night. You can go hang out down by her room if it would make you feel better.”
Not a bad idea. Daniel started to get up.
“Just don’t bother Kevin or I’ll have to call security.”
He sank back into the cushions. There was no way he wasn’t going to bother Kevin if he got up, and the last thing he needed was a run-in with hospital security or, even worse, a police officer.
“That’s okay,” said Daniel, turning his head toward the attendant for a moment. “Sorry if I’m making you nervous.”
“I totally get it. Just trying to keep things low-key around here.”
“You’re doing a good job.”
Daniel took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, bringing his surface-level tension down a notch. He checked his watch, dismayed by how little time had passed since Jessica entered her mother’s room. On the bright side, it was enough time to convince him that the visit wasn’t going to end in disaster.
Chapter 23
Dragan Ilic shifted uncomfortably in the cramped laundry cart, his knees nearly touching his cheeks. When the cart bumped across the lip of the elevator door, the hard plastic base of the cart jarred his tailbone. He should have put one of the towels under his ass before climbing inside. Better yet, he should never have agreed to this insane plan. How the fuck was he going to pull this off without both of them in the same room?
He craned his neck as far forward as possible without pulling a muscle and squinted through the two-inch-diameter hole that had been drilled into the front of the cart. Even worse, Marko Resja, or whoever the fuck he really was, had a clear sightline down the hallway. The son of a bitch had moved a chair to the edge of the lounge and was staring right at him!
“How are we doing up there?” he said softly, but loudly enough for Kevin Shaw to hear.
“Everything is normal. Just like it always is,” said Shaw. “Just like I said.”
“It better be, for your family’s sake.”
“I guarantee you it will be fine,” hissed the man, in a tone Dragan didn’t care for. “As long as you don’t keep talking.”
“You better watch your tone,” said Dragan. “I alone determine what happens to that little girl of yours. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t,” said the man in a defeated voice. “Is the plan still the same? I see a guy watching us.”
“The plan is that you do exactly what I say, when I say it. Service the rooms as normal.”
“Understood.”
Srecko had a few guys “babysitting” the man’s wife and daughter. If all went as planned, the man’s family would be released within the hour. Unfortunately, he’d never see his family again. Dragan needed to make a slight adjustment to the plan in order to ensure a clean getaway from the hospital. With Resja watching the hallway like a hawk, he couldn’t take the chance that Shaw might make a noise and draw the trained operative’s attention.
The original plan had been to take them both down in the old woman’s room. Kill Resja with a suppressed pistol and Taser “the whore,” then knock her out with a strong sedative for the return trip. Things would go down differently.
The whore. He had to laugh. Srecko had called her by no other name since he’d been hired to work on this job. Not even during the detailed briefings leading up to tonight. He’d warned Dragan repeatedly that she was lethal and that he wanted her delivered alive. He wouldn’t get paid a penny beyond the down payment if he killed her or allowed her to kill herself.
“Do not underestimate this one,” Srecko had echoed, over and over again.
The woman intrigued him. From the limited number of newspaper clippings Dragan had found hidden in a shoebox, he’d learned surprisingly little about Nicole Erak, “the whore,” that had arranged the upscale town house on her mother’s behalf. She’d been one of those varsity athlete, National Honor Society types, got into a good college, graduated with honors, then essentially disappeared — at least from her mother’s life.
He’d found no pictures or evidence of a father. How she’d ended up in Belgrade, infiltrating Srecko’s Panthers, remained a complete mystery. If any clues had been kept in the house, he would have found them. He’d spent the better part of the past two months as Vesna’s daytime caregiver at the town house. Ironic considering the fact that he had been the one to prick her skin at the nearby Jewel-Osco grocery store with a tiny drop of dimethylmercury, guaranteeing her rapid, but controlled decline.
Framed photos of Nicole alone or with her mother adorned the mantel and nightstand at the town house, all of them taken long ago. The daughter had been a seriously hot piece of ass back then. She’d looked pretty damn good in the dossier Srecko had given him too. Dragan seriously hoped Srecko let him take part in the rumored festivities planned for the woman. He might even consider discounting the job to get a backstage pass. Why not? It wasn’t every day you got to be part of a snuff film. And a patriotic one at that! Nicole Erak had apparently played a major role in the downfall of Srecko Hadzic’s Panthers, one of the cornerstones of Serbia’s Nationalist movement.
Dragan bumped against the sides of the cart as his hostage went about the business of removing and replacing the towels and linens left in each bathroom. As discussed prior to exiting the elevator, he was to drag the cart at least halfway into each room to conduct his business. The front of the cart had been modified to swing open so he could slip out undetected and load Erak’s unconscious body into the bin. A false top had been installed three-quarters of the way up the interior of the cart, layered with used towels. Anyone casually inspecting the contents would see a nearly full bin full of dirty laundry. Anyone pushing the inspection any further would get a hollow-point bullet to the face.
Smaller holes had been drilled into the sides of the cart, allowing him to see in either hallway direction when the cart was parked inside each door. Marko Resja appeared to remain alert in the lobby, never taking his eyes off the cart. He’d have to be extremely careful in the final stages of this operation. Any slipup would undoubtedly lead to a messy situation. He was convinced that he could deal with Resja if necessary, but he had little confidence in his ability to take out Resja and silence the attendant simultaneously from this range. Dragan cursed the moment he refused the offer of a suppressed, compact rifle. With that type of weapon, he could Taser “the whore” and quickly hit both Resja and the attendant with headshots and be long gone before somebody raised the alarm. Based on his hostage’s assurances, the place was a mausoleum at night. Figuratively and literally. Everyone here was on death’s doorstep, including Resja and Nicole Erak.
After a few more minutes of rumbling through the hallway, he heard a distinct sound: triple knocking against the back of the cart near his head. After a long pause, the triple knock sounded again. Their next stop was the room across from 451. He acknowledged the notification with a double knock. Now for the moment of truth.
The cart turned and stopped, the interior darkening when Kevin repositioned himself in front of the cart to pull it into the room. Four knocks indicated they were safely in position within the room. Dragan felt along the left, front side of the cart and released two latches. He slowly opened the door and peered into the dark room. Half of Kevin’s body was visible, outlined by the illumination from a night-light in the bathroom.