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TWENTY

After es I needed to be alert, so I couldn&039;t risk a pain pill Instead, I sed a half-dozen aspirin I put on jeans, a tan pullover, and fished my navy pea coat out of the closet I hadn&039;t bothered with the thermostat, and the house held a deep chill

I dialed the Hilton and asked for Marcie Kramer&039;s room

"Where have you been?" Marcie&039;s voice blared harsh through the phone She didn&039;t sound sleepy at all, ot tied up"

"I tried to call It rang like a million times"

"Sorry" I must have been zonked on the pain pills I was just lucky to coh to hear the break-in "Listen, stay put, okay?"

"What about you?"

"I have to clean up sos here"

Weup

I tore the tags out of two sets of sheets and wrapped up the Minelli brothers The blood started soaking through right away, except for Teddy, because I&039;d choked his and wrapped the bodies in a second layer in plastic

I searched the whole house and garage, but couldn&039;t find any duct tape I wished vaguely Marcie was there to help with the bodies She was a good hand

I put each brother over my shoulder and carried them to the alley one at a tirabbed them, unlocked the trunk, and filled it full of Minelli

The blood on the kitchen floor was the worst of the mess I mopped quickly, then threw the mop and bucket in the trunk with the boys The rest of thein action, so I gathered up the two410 cannons the Minellis had carried and educated reen revolvers with one-inch barrels Each held six410 shotgun shells, solid lead slugs They&039;d put a good hole in a guy, but really they were pretty stupid guns Still, I didn&039;t have any more ammunition for the32 automatic with the silencer, so I put one of the cannons in each front pocket of the pea coat They hung heavy, looked suspicious

I filled a to-go cup with the rest of the coffee and drove the sedan to a shopping center twelve miles away I pulled around back, parked, made sure no one was around I heaved the bodies into the Duain All clear So long Eddie, Freddy, and Teddy

I&039;d spent a lot of ti bodies, and I wasn&039;t happy about it

Dawn cracked over the horizon

I pointed the sedan toward don Orlando

Mercury had sent the Minelli boys to put the snatch on the ledgers and put a couple of410 slugs into et some answers out of him by any means possible And Stan I had to know about Stan

I stopped at a gas station, bought a small can, filled it with unleaded

I drove don and parked on the street in front of Mercury&039;s club, Red Sky, where the punk kids ca I eas can into the backseat, punched in the car&039;s cigarette lighter When it popped, I grabbed it and tossed it in the backseat The gas caught immediately, and the car went up in flames I put my hands in my pockets and walked away like it was none of orillas in shiny wise-guy suits stepped out of the club and watched the car burn I ducked down the alley and headed for the back of the club Behind me, I heard the car explode In the distance, a woman screamed

In the alley behind the club, I found the back door to the place I&039;d been here dozens of times before, when Stan had sent me to collect protection from the club&039;s old owner, so I knew the layout of the place fairly well

I didn&039;t want to walk in on a party, so I pulled over an empty metal trash can and used it to boost myself up and look in Mercury&039;s officeIt was elass, but the as locked I climbed down and drew back a foot, ready to kick in the door, but I stopped myself I tried the knob It was open I pushed the door in with an ugly ate

The office was like I re the place, he hadn&039;t implemented thehly, just to see if anything looked i did I scouted behind the heavy curtain that hid the bar That would be my spot

Sirens in the distance, fire trucks

I cracked open the door, looked down the hall past the restrooms into the club There wasn&039;t ht in front of the club now I heard footsteps at the far end of the hall, so I closed the door I took my place behind the curtain, drew one of the Minelli cannons, and stood ready

Three hoods shuffled into the room with Mercury I watched the a lot of sneaking around lately The hoods were typical low-forehead bruisers: polo shirts, bellies hanging over chinos, gold chains Fifty-dollar haircuts on ten-dollar heads The bulges under their windbreakers erous

Only Lloyd Mercury stood out, lithe and sharp, straight and lean as a knife blade He le cat

One said, "Hey boss, let&039;s get a drink How &039;bout a pitcher of Bloody Marys? Me and Lenny had a late night" I saw him start foron Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

"Don&039;t even start," Mercury told his henchht when the Minelli brothers arrive Freddy didn&039;t quite sound right on the phone I have a strange feeling"

"What about that fire?"

"I don&039;t know Vandals Kids maybe?"

"It just seems kind of funny, that&039;s all"

Mercury scratched his chin "Okay You and Dale stay out front and watch the street Lenny, check the kitchen And leave the box here"

The one called Lenny handed Mercury a metal box, which he in turn put in the bottoh to hold twenty thousand if the bills were large My escape one, I stepped out fro a gun at him

He startled maybe a tenth of a second before a slow, thin smile spread across his face "Hello, Swift"

"Let&039;s keep it quiet We need to have a little conversation without Lenny and the others"

"If you like"

"Get your hands on the desk"

He put them on the desk, palms down

I backed up to the door, looked in the hall All clear I closed it again and locked it

"Tell me about Alan Jeffers"

"What about hiuys this ot the Minelli brothers" It wasn&039;t a question

I shrugged "It got messy"

"Who was that on the phone?"

"Freddy"

I saw hirew "Well played"

"Jeffers," I prompted

"What&039;s to tell?"

"Tell it like a little story I want details"

He shrugged, keeping his hands on the desk, fingers spread "Once upon a tiar Johnson He had an accountant write colually into little books One of Beggar&039;s men-at-arms- Myron- betrayed him The evil FBI had cast a spell over Myron to snatch the books away froar&039;s accountant"

That explained the initials A A on the briefcase "Keep talking"

"So this disloyal Myron person made off with the secret books to the faraway land of Orlando, where he sought refuge with his kinsman, Kyle Donovan, owner and operator of the dubious establishents to turn over his prize and keep hi house"

"I asked you about Jeffers"

"Patience" Mercury&039;s s to hi creatures of habit, cast the same spell over Alan Jeffers that they cast over Myron They told Jeffers he couldn&039;t very well be able to enjoy his house and his nice car and his tiers to any good use if he landed hiovernment men, Jeffers promised to sacrifice these books once they came into his possession"

"I know all this already"

"Indeed But did you know that the FBI agents who cornered Jeffers and threatened him with jail were in fact suspended?"