Dying for the Highlife (24 page)

Jimmy took a deep breath and risked a brief glare at Debbie and Eric. Did this muscle-bound moron and his fake-titted cohort really think he could walk into a bank and withdraw $3 million in cash? When Jimmy was in a bank last, in South Lake Tahoe, he tried to take out fifty grand and was told only thirty thousand in hundred dollar bills was available. If these two were stupid enough to think ripping him off for three mil was so simple, maybe the best answer was to get into a public situation at the bank, and wait for the police to arrive.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said.

Eric let Jimmy brush his teeth and put on his boots. Then they headed downstairs and opened the front door to a late afternoon warmed by a sun low in the blue and cloudless sky. It had been overcast for days, and the clear weather was a welcome change, but there was a slight problem. Standing in the doorway were four men who shouldn’t have been there. And one was pointing an ugly little automatic at Eric’s gut.

“I
t will take me about an hour to finish my report,” I told Cody. “Why don’t you relax and read a good book?”

Cody looked at me as if my suggestion was the silliest thing he’d ever heard, and wandered back to the computer he’d been using. In fifteen minutes he was back by my side. He slid a sheet of paper over my keyboard.

“Here’s the address where Jimmy’s logged on. It’s a residential neighborhood about twenty minutes from here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Finish your report later. Let’s roll.”

I raised my head. “I need to do this now, if I want to get paid in time for my mortgage. Why don’t you wait until I’m done?”

“No guarantees how long he’ll be there, Dirt. Let me borrow your rig, then.”

I sighed and pulled the keys from my pocket. “Don’t stop at any bars.”

“Hey,” he replied, his large paw outstretched. “Maybe I’ll come back with your ten grand.”

“That would be nice,” I muttered, but my interest in Cody’s scheme had waned. I needed to prioritize my time on work that would definitely result in a payday. “Call me and let me know how it goes,” I said, dropping the keys in his palm and turning back to my report.

I raised my head again when I heard tires squealing and the blare of horns. I looked out the window and saw Cody pull away from the curb, cutting off an elderly lady driving a ’70s Plymouth sedan. She jammed the horn and shot her middle finger out the window. I could see Cody grinning as he stabbed the accelerator and drove away.

• • •

When Hector Escobar saw the scowling hulk of a body builder appear in the doorway, it took him no longer than a second to decide what to do. Escobar pulled the trigger of his .32-caliber Kel-Tec pistol, the three-inch barrel bucked, and a small red hole appeared in Eric’s shirt. Then Escobar raised his arm and fired a round through Eric’s forehead. Eric fell back into the hallway, dead before he hit the ground, his stunned eyes locked open as if he’d just learned that all he ever believed in was illusory, and his true role was that of a bit player and a dupe.

Heather and Jimmy stared down at Eric in mute horror, watching the pool of blood spread across the marble tile. Then they simultaneously looked up, as if their heads were attached to a puppeteer’s string. Three Latinos and one white man stood before them. The Latino with the gun was clearly in charge—the other men stood back and seemed to await his instruction. He was almost six feet tall and rail lean. Tattoos covered most of his exposed skin, including his unusually narrow face. His eyes were dark and set deep in his skull, his lips thin as blades, his sharp, angular jaw highlighted by a pointed goatee. Looking very out of place, his nose was broad and flat, like a boxer’s nose.

“Inside,” he said. Jimmy and Heather, stunned and speechless, backed in as the men crowded into the foyer, stepping around Eric’s body. One of the group, a stocky Mexican wearing a red bandana, gave Heather’s ass a long squeeze as he went by. “
Hola, chola
,” he said. The third Latino, an older, mustachioed fellow who looked like a migrant farm worker, stared at Heather with a lusty smile, his teeth brown and disgusting.

The fourth man was Tony Sanzini.

• • •

“It’s too bad about your friend out there,” Escobar said, once they were assembled in the kitchen. “I guess it just wasn’t his day.”

From where Heather stood, she could see Eric’s arm and the trickling path his blood had taken to the edge of the tiles. She felt nauseated and lightheaded and thought she might be in shock. The only thing that held her together was a tiny, happy thought in the back of her mind: Eric was dead, and she would no longer have to fear him. But when she took account of the men holding her captive, she realized she might have bigger problems to deal with. They were all leering at her, except for the beefy white man.

“You owe me two grand, shit for brains,” Sanzini said, stepping toward Jimmy. “Plus interest and late fees. Call it twenty grand even. You got the cash?”

Before Jimmy could respond, Escobar cut his eyes to his associate and said, “Santiago.” The one with the bad dental situation reached out and smacked Sanzini with a sharp backhand across the face. “You were told to keep your mouth shut, white boy,” Escobar said. Sanzini froze, touching the blood on his lip. Jimmy glanced at Sanzini and looked away quickly when he saw the murderous glare in his eyes.

“Tie them up,” Escobar said.

“Hey, whoa,” Jimmy said. “There’s no need for any more violence, okay? Why don’t you just tell me what you want, and I’m sure we can find a happy ending.”

At that moment they heard the clunk of a car door shutting.

“Expecting company?” Escobar said to Jimmy. “Go see who it is, Octavio.” The stocky c
holo
opened a leather bag, removed a few items, and went toward the front door.

“On your knees,” Escobar ordered. “And keep your mouths shut.”

• • •

Cody pulled up to the executive home in the posh South Reno neighborhood. Except for a gray Chevy Blazer out front, the house looked unlived in; no oil stains on the driveway, no potted plants, no knickknacks visible on the windowsills. He parked, finished a beer, and knocked on the front door. When it opened he caught a brief glimpse of a red bandana over a white shirt, then he was hit in the eyes with a blast of Mace.

“The fuck?” Cody said, staggering back, his eyes on fire. A fist struck his ear, and Cody threw a blind roundhouse, catching nothing but air. His eyes were burning and tearing heavily, and when he opened one eye he could make out only the faintest of colors and motion. He punched and flailed blindly at his attacker, taking a kick to the groin and another to the shin. One of his wild punches made contact, possibly a shot to his adversary’s shoulder or chest. He tangled with the man and tripped, his weight crushing downward. A loud crack sounded, the snap of bone, then a voice cried out in Spanish. Cody scrambled to his feet but was knocked down by a sharp blow to the back of the head. Another blow, and after that, nothing.

Octavio Sanchez pushed himself up, his body shaking, his face contorted in pain. “He broke my arm!”

“We’ll make you a sling,” the man called Santiago said, a lead-filled sap dangling from his hand. “You’re going to have to tough it out,
guerrero.”

Sanzini came outside and helped Santiago drag Cody into the entryway, after they pushed Eric’s blood-soaked body to the side. Escobar led Jimmy and Heather, their hands bound behind their backs, to where Cody lay unconscious.

“Your friend?” Escobar said.

Jimmy stared at Cody in surprise, recognizing him as one of the two men he’d met when Sheila confronted him at the small town bar off 395. But Sheila had said he was working for a Mexican drug gang. Obviously that was not the case, at least not these Mexicans. Other than that, Jimmy had no idea who the huge, red-bearded man was, or what his motivations were. The events of the last hour had left him in a state of utter confusion. Who were all these crazy people messing with him?

“Yeah, he’s my friend,” Jimmy said, deciding it might somehow help his situation to portray the big dude as an ally.

Escobar ordered Santiago to pull the gray Blazer into the garage, and they bound Cody’s wrists and wrestled his mass into the rear section of the vehicle. Octavio, his arm in a sling, sat in the front passenger seat. Heather, Jimmy, and Santiago crowded into the bench seat in the rear. Sanzini stood outside the SUV, looking at Escobar, who started the engine.

“There’s no room for me. What do you want me to do?” Sanzini said.

“You wait here. Stuff that body in a closet and clean up the blood. We’ll get you when we’re ready.”

Sanzini opened his mouth to protest, but when he looked into Escobar’s eyes, he quickly decided otherwise.

• • •

About twenty minutes outside of Reno, the Blazer turned onto a dirt road. The road was rutted and the vehicle swayed and bounced hard off the furrows in the terrain. Escobar steered around a huge pothole and looked at his friend in the passenger seat. Octavio clenched his teeth, holding his arm by the elbow, trying to insulate it from the sharp pain he felt every time they hit a bump.

In the back, Santiago sat wedged between Jimmy and Heather, who were squirming uncomfortably, their hands tied behind them. Santiago put his arm around Heather and cupped her breast. She looked at his pitted face and jerked her body away from him. He snickered, pulled her close by the hair, and whispered in her ear.

Jimmy watched Heather’s predicament, still feeling some leftover affection because she was so hot, but also fully aware she was part of a scheme to rip him off. Fine, then. Let the bitch be raped. She was the enemy. Maybe she and her partner, or boyfriend, or whatever he was, made a career out of scamming Lotto winners. But now the boyfriend was dead, and she’d have to fend for herself. Jimmy would be too busy looking out for himself to worry about what she would have to endure.

The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together for Jimmy. The Latinos had to be Sanzini’s coke connection. Sanzini probably told them Jimmy would be an easy mark, once Sanzini found out he’d won the lottery. As weird as it seemed, maybe there was some truth to Sheila’s story. The arrival of the red-bearded tough guy probably meant Sheila was still lurking somewhere in the background.

The Blazer slowed and made a sharp turn down a steep path that was little more than a trail overgrown with brush. They crept along the narrow passage, shadowed by a canyon wall rising some forty feet. At the end of the wall the terrain gave way to a shallow desert valley. Bare rolling hills lined the small basin on either side. A decrepit structure, perhaps twelve feet square and built of ancient barn planks and adobe, stood at the base of one hillside. A ways out, a section of barbed-wire fencing began and ended with no seeming purpose. In the middle of the area, a half dozen six-foot fence posts had been set, as if a brief attempt to develop the land had been made and then reconsidered.

Escobar hit the brakes and the vehicle rumbled to a stop. Santiago shoved Jimmy out the door. Santiago followed him and reached in and pulled Heather, struggling, out into the darkening afternoon. Octavio Sanchez climbed gingerly from the vehicle, his brown face pale. He walked to the building and sat against the wall, clutching a bottle of tequila.

It took ten minutes to tie Heather, Jimmy, and Cody to the fence posts. The three sat with their backs against the wood, tightly bound and unable to stand. Cody was only half conscious. His chin lay on his chest, and every now and again his head would loll from side to side. Escobar and Santiago stood watching them. Then Escobar reached back and snapped his arm forward, the bullwhip in his hand hissing through the air. The string popper tip cracked on Cody’s forehead, and blood spilled down his face. Santiago grinned and spoke to Escobar in Spanish. Escobar moved to where Jimmy sat.

“I gave your friend a small idea of what is to come,” he said. “But your girlfriend there—she is so pretty, it would be a shame to give her a taste of the whip, don’t you think?”

“Hey, slow down there,” Jimmy said. “I already told you I’m easy, man. Just tell me what you want and let’s take care of it. You don’t have to hurt anyone.”

Escobar squatted down next to Jimmy, grabbed his hair, and leaned into his face.

“That’s a good start. Now, we’re going to take a drive, you and me. If you behave and it all goes smooth, we’ll end up back here, and your friends will still be alive.”

“Okay, then. Where are we going?”

“Your bank.”

T
he Blazer bounced off the dirt track and onto the two-lane highway. The only sign of civilization other than the paved strip was a line of telephone poles that grew tiny in the distance. Jimmy sat in the passenger seat, glancing at Escobar, considering the outcome of the next few hours. He knew his life depended on how he played it. Although he was being held captive by a man who had just murdered a person in cold blood, Jimmy felt oddly calm. Part of the reason for that was the tattooed Hispanic had actually saved him from a very ugly situation. As concerned as Jimmy was about his current predicament, he still felt a sense of gratification for being rescued from the violent, muscle-bound motherfucker, who Escobar shot dead with no more hesitation than if he was swatting a fly.

“Listen, you just want money, right?” Jimmy said.

Escobar eyed Jimmy and gave a brief nod.

“Right. And all I want is to be let go unhurt, and the same for my friends, okay?” Jimmy thought that was a clever move; let the Mexican think he gave a shit about Debbie and the big dude. “So how about untying me? My wrists feel like someone took sandpaper to them.”

Escobar didn’t respond, but when the freeway entrance appeared a few miles further, he abruptly hit the brakes and pulled to the shoulder.

“Here’s how this is going to work,” Escobar said, his
cholo
accent thick and his black eyes boring into Jimmy. “There’s a Wells Fargo branch in Reno that keeps large amounts of cash on hand to support the casinos. They’re expecting you today and have one million in cash prepared. I’m going with you into the bank. They’ll ask you questions, but nothing you shouldn’t be able to answer. Understand? They will have an armed guard that will escort us back to the car. As long as you keep your mouth shut, he shouldn’t be a problem. If you mess this up, I’ll shoot you dead on the spot, and then I’ll kill your friend and rape your bitch.”