LITMIR.BIZ

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to see Silent Sam make a dash for the door.

      The blast from Rellik’s pistol echoed like a cannon inside the room.

      Silent Sam would remain forever silent. “Damn it, Rellik!” said Damien. “You shouldn’t have killed him until we found out who he was working for. Couldn’t you have just capped one in his ass?”

      “Sorry, boss. Thought that’s what you meant,” replied Rellik, looking embarrassed.

      “Clean it up!” Damien looked at Lance and said, “Come on. We’re out of here.”

      Jack heard Danny’s breath coming in pants and saw that his mouth was opened wide, while his eyes stared at the cement wall in front of him.

      “What is it?” whispered Jack. “You okay?”

      Danny blinked his eyes a couple of times, then said, “We committed murder.”

      “What did you think was going to happen? That he’d be asked to leave the club?”

      “Jack ... his brains are oozing out onto the floor.” He gave Jack a glazed look and added, “Doesn’t this bother you?”

      “Not really. I’m glad this worked. Don’t look at it as killing him. Look at it as saving our friend.”

      Danny shook his head and said, “I don’t think I can handle any more of this shit.”

      “You’ve handled it before.”

      “As I said, I’m still having nightmares. This won’t help.”

      “Danny, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this would bother you that much.”

      “Well it sure as hell does!”

      “Keep your voice down,” said Jack, glancing quickly at the monitor. He looked at Danny and said, “I couldn’t figure out any other way to pull this off, but I’m done now. Tomorrow I’ll look after the dope. On Thursday I’ll show Damien the evidence. If I hadn’t owed him, he’d be looking at spending the rest of his life in jail for this. The deal between him and me is over.”

      “You think Damien will see it that way after what we did?”

      “Why not? We seized the dope and have proof of his involvement. It might be considered a little dirty, but...”

      “A little dirty?”

      “This business is. If I hadn’t owed him, I would have done the same thing, except he would be in cuffs right now.”

      “And Silent Sam? How would that have looked in court?”

      “If you fly with the crows, expect to get shot at.”

      “That’s what you would tell a judge — or a homicide investigator?”

      “Guess it would be better if I said ‘Gosh, I just thought they would ask him to resign.’”

      chapter fourteen

      It was five in the morning when Jack stopped watching the monitor and went to nudge Danny, who was sitting in the car.

      “Wake up,” he whispered.

      “I was never asleep,” replied Danny.

      “That’s right. You weren’t snoring. The janitorial service is packing up next door. We’ll give them a few minutes’ head start, then skedaddle before the owner arrives and sees his busted padlock and comes snooping.”

      “The sooner the better.” Danny saw Jack check his BlackBerry and added, “Now what?”

      “It’s from our friend. Wants to meet us. Says it’s urgent.”

      “Gee, I wonder what he has to tell us,” said Danny sarcastically.

      “We better meet him. Could be interesting to hear what Damien had to say.”

      “You still want me to follow you out to the farm and give you a ride back after you drop the van off?”

      “You bet. It won’t take long. Ben took his loader out yesterday and dug a pit. He already had some brush to burn so it won’t take long to layer it in. Speaking of which, I wonder what I owe him for a barrel of gas?”

      “You could just give him a kilo or two as payment.”

      Jack ignored the comment and added, “I don’t want to arrive until after Marcie has gone to school. Ben doesn’t want Liz to know either. We may as well meet our friend while we’re waiting.”

      “I suppose the notion of having any sleep just never occurs to you.”

      “You’re the one complaining about nightmares. Don’t sleep and you won’t have them.”

      “I have them when I’m awake too,” replied Danny somewhat sullenly.

      Minutes later, Jack had only driven a few blocks away from the storage locker when his BlackBerry alerted him to another message. Jack continued driving but handed his BlackBerry to Danny and said, “That’ll be our friend. Bet he wants to change the meet.”

      Danny read the message and smirked.

      “What is it?” asked Jack.

      “If it’s from our friend, he has pretty strong feelings for you ... but he sure has you pegged right!”

      Jack grabbed his BlackBerry back and read the message: Love you, Turkey!

      Lance took one look at Jack and Danny and said, “Holy fuck! I can’t believe you did that!”

      “Did what?” asked Jack.

      “Don’t hand me the bull! I was close enough to Damien to recognize Danny’s voice. I couldn’t believe it!

      I was afraid you’d reneged on our deal and were gonna come bustin’ in and arrest us when Damien picked up that key.”

      “I don’t renege. Hadn’t expected you to be there. Otherwise we would have had Damien.”

      “Fuck, if I’d known what was goin’ on, maybe I wouldn’t have. I was at Damien’s tellin’ him that the deal was done and went without a hitch. All of a sudden we hear Silent Sam screamin’ into the intercom.”

      “Any heat in your direction?” asked Danny.

      Lance gave Jack a glance and said, “No, you took care of that with Silent Sam. Rellik put one through his head-bone.”

      “Yeah, we saw,” said Jack.

      “You had it videoed?”

      “Of course.”

      “Fuckin’ Damien and a murder on film and you let ’im off all because of me! I never would have believed it!”

      Danny gave Jack a sideways glance as Jack looked at Lance and said, “A deal is a deal. I was just fulfilling what I promised.”

      “Man! If I ever had a doubt about trustin’ ya, it’s gone now.” Lance paused for a moment, then added, “Just remind me to never get on your bad side. I don’t want to end up like Silent Sam.”

      “We just have to catch Damien again. Next time without you being so close to the action.”

      “I’d tell ya that it’s impossible to nail him, but I said that before and was wrong.”

      “What did Damien have to say about it later?” asked Danny.

      “He’s hot. I’ve never seen his face that red. The pulse in his temple was just a-jumpin’. I only got about three blocks away from the locker when he told me to pull over so we could go for a walk and talk. He was really pissed at me for havin’ a striker that screwed us.”

      “How pissed?” asked Jack.

      “Well ... not bad, cuz it wasn’t me who sponsored him into the club. It

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