Hunter's Moon.htm (18 page)

"Let's go!"

Her voice had a thoughtful edge and she stubbornly held her ground. "Why does Leo hate you enough to do all this?"

We didn't have time for this! I could hear squealing tires not too far away. "If I promise to tell you later will you get a move on?"

She nodded and we took off at a run.

We entered the next block and found ourselves in the middle of a group of elderly tourists. We tried to get around them, but they wouldn't be hurried. We tried to turn around to find another group of gamblers filling in behind. The casino in front of us was likewise packed with people. We were stopped cold. I looked back down the alley. With the limo in the way and the key useless, the pair of thugs had to struggle to get around to reach us. We had only a few seconds of respite. I sneezed suddenly as multiple scents assaulted my nose from the crowd. The primary scent was pineapple. God only knows why. I sneezed a second time and tried to edge us through the group.

"Slow down and enjoy the day, you two!" said a smiling woman with a cane and a bright pink sun visor that read, "Born to Gamble!" over thinning silver hair.

"Oh, look, Leonard!" said another elderly lady. "Let's take the shuttle." I glanced at the goons again. One of them was crawling over the roof. I turned at the old woman's words. Perfect! No grand theft auto for us today!

We waited in the crowd as the bus slowed and then stopped. When the bus door opened with a hiss, I noted that another one was just about to depart across the street. That's the one! It was heading in the direction I wanted to go. I grabbed at Sue's hand and pointed. She took another look behind at the commotion from Vito's boys. Her eyes got wide and we darted across the street. The bus was just pulling away from the curb and I had to rush to bang on the door with the briefcase. It stopped with a lurch and the doors opened. Fortunately, they hadn't gotten back into traffic yet. Sue was breathing hard as we stepped up the stairs. I was reaching for my wallet, hoping I had a couple of singles when Sue produced a bus pass from her bag. She handed to the driver with a flourish.

I glanced at her in surprise. She shrugged. "They were for sale in the casino store. I thought it would be easier to get around."

I grabbed her face with both hands and planted a kiss on her lips. "Good job!" She beamed at me as the driver handed her back the card with a shake of his head at our antics.

I turned to look behind as Sue settled into a seat beside me. Her heart was still beating fast and I realized that the pineapple scent was coming from her. I don't know that particular emotion yet. Or maybe it was the drugs. I looked at her closely. The edges of her nostrils were red and she was squinting a little.

"You doing okay? I don't know what the kid gave you. You look a little rough."

She turned to me. "I'm fine. I didn't get much more than a whiff," she replied. "I've got a little headache, but it'll be gone soon." I couldn't detect any pepper. Just pineapples.

The two men had finally reached the street and watched as our bus pulled out into traffic. One of them took off his baseball cap and threw it against the wall in frustration.

Sue was busily tucking the bus pass back into her purse.

"What the hell's in that thing?" I asked. "It weighs a ton!"

She looked sheepish. The scent of hot sand was edged with cloves. It blended with tangerine and the remaining pineapple. Fruit salad in the desert. Weird.

"I didn't have a chance to turn them all in." She reached into her bag and pulled out a large stack of oversized copper coins. I remembered her heaving it into the kid's head. I laughed— a sudden burst of sound that caused people around me to turn.

"You're a dangerous woman, Sue." My eyes sparkled with humor and pride.

It wasn't funny for long, unfortunately. I was angry with myself for going to the Lucky Strike. I'd nearly gotten Sue captured and I'd lost the whole damn million. Still, I'd replaced it with a case of dynamite. I just didn't know what the package was going to blow up.

Chapter 16

Renting a car didn't take much time. We used Sue's name for it. Leo probably wouldn't be able to trace us that way and she had more cash than I did right now. We didn't dare take a flight. Leo would already have someone posted at the airport.

By the time we reached the outskirts, Sue was finally relaxing. Ozone filled the rental from both of us as relief replaced adrenaline in our system. Hmm. Maybe pineapple is a rush of adrenaline. I'd have to do some investigating. I would have thought it would smell more bitter.

"So, are you going to tell me about Leo now?"

"Hadn't planned to." I said flatly. The question reminded me that I was still pissed at myself.

She looked at me with confusion at the strength of my statement. Her head cocked sideways a bit and she turned in her seat. The seatbelt cut into her neck.

"I want to know. Why does he loathe you enough to want to frame you?"

A burst of brittle laughter escaped me. "He isn't trying to frame me, Sue. He's trying to kill me. Whether Carmine does the job, or Vito's boys do it instead. He wants me dead."

"But why?"

"It's a long story." My voice went cold and empty. I stared at the road.

"It's a long drive," she replied tentatively, a small attempt at a joke to lighten the mood. When it failed, she shrugged. Emotions bled from her. Soured milk, just-burning coffee, burned metal and antifreeze. Annoyance edged her voice. Not quite anger. "If you don't want to tell me, fine. It's your business. But I think I've sort of earned the right to know."

True. More true than she knew. This wasn't over yet. I'd had a chance to look through the case while we were waiting for the rental to be brought around. I didn't know where he'd gotten them, but the papers documented a series of intended hits on Carmine's various businesses. There were names, addresses, as well as photographs and schematics. The case held payrolls for Carmine's legit businesses, along with schedules for material shipment for the under the table stuff.

The problem was, I didn't know what the hell was being planned or who was planning it. Was Leo planning a takeover of our town? Was the case intended to go to Vito— or to the unnamed person Leo was planning to meet? Or was it even more sinister? Was the case going to be delivered to Carmine along with photos of me walking through the casino with it? My prints were all over the outside and inside. I just didn't know. But I knew that Leo would want it back. I just had to get it to Carmine before that happened. I was hoping that someone's fingerprints, other than mine and Sue's, were still on it. It wouldn't do much good to just tell Carmine that the papers smelled of Leo.

Sue was sitting with her arms crossed. The nose-tickling scent of her annoyance filled the car. I sighed. I had promised.

My hands flexed rhythmically on the steering wheel more than once. Where could I start? I leaned back in my seat, trying to get comfortable. A little tough, given the circumstances. "Leo wanted my mom."

Sue smelled surprised, like she hadn't expected me to tell her. Hadn't expected her appeal to matter to me. It sort of annoyed me that it did.

"He wanted her bad. Rumor was that he went so far as to actually court her. She couldn't stand him. That was from her own mouth." I looked sideways. Sue was watching my every movement, hanging on my every word. I looked back at the road. "He was a little perverted even then. Wanted to do strange things and my mom said no. Repeatedly. At first, he'd just back off and go. But over the years he got more insistent." I never saw Mom and Leo together. She'd always send me to my room when he would show up at the door. But I wasn't deaf.

"Early on, he never went so far as to beat her or rape her but he was loud. She had to threaten to call the police more than once." Sue continued to watch me intently as I drove. She really was interested in Leo's rationale.

"When Mom hooked up with my father," I said, then interrupted myself to add a disclaimer, "Keep in mind that most of this information is third hand since I wasn't born yet." I glanced at Sue and she nodded.

"Anyway, Mom told Leo that she wasn't on the market anymore. She really went for my father and he for her. She started tapering off her clients and intended that by the time she married him, she would be a proper wife." She always phrased it that way whenever she talked about it. "A proper wife." My hands tightened on the steering wheel. Part of me is glad that I never witnessed most of this. Part of me wishes that I had been there at my present age to break Leo's skull open.

"Leo went insane when she told him that she was going to get married. Leo called my father a lot of names— then he started calling her names. Joseph— that was my father's name— got to her place just as Leo had started to slap her around. He really believed that hitting her would change her mind. Joseph jumped Leo and pulled him off. Then he punched Leo in the face. Leo threatened them both. Said they'd never reach the altar." I paused, letting the hate wash over me. "They didn't."

My fingers started to drum on the wheel as I remembered the story I was told by Jocko. He was around for the end, a teenager when it happened. "Only a couple of months after that, Joseph was killed. There was gossip that Leo had a hand in his death. Mom suspected it. She told me as much when I was about the age in the picture you saw. She could never prove it, though."

I'll always wonder if anyone tried to help her pin the murder on him. Leo's an asshole but he's got a lot of pull.

"After Joseph died and Mom started to show with me, Leo came sniffing around again. He tried to convince her that she needed a man around if she was going to be a mother. Mom told him to shove off. Said she knew he had Joseph killed. Said she hated him and would die before she would ever let him touch her." I flipped on the left blinker and switched lanes to go around a slow-moving car. Sue's eyes were focused on me. I knew that she was creating a picture in her head to go with my story.

"If the Family hadn't been at her back, I think Leo would have just killed her right there. But they were being real attentive and apologetic to her for Joseph's death. There were flowers all around the house months later from the top dogs in the Family." Mom had always been proud of that. Proud that Joseph had been respected. That's a big deal in the Family. She kept all of the cards they sent. I found them after she died.

"Leo couldn't have helped but notice. So he left her alone. But I'm a constant reminder of what he couldn't have. What he never had."

I laughed, a harsh sound in the closed car. Sue flinched at the ugly sound. I heard a snarl in my voice as I continued. "And he's a constant reminder of what he deprived me of. I could have had a real family if not for him, instead of a whore with a broken heart for a mom and no father. It was only luck that I ended up with a dad. It's the only reason that I've never killed him outright."

Sue was silent for a moment. I could feel her discomfort, smell her concern and sympathy. "Wow. That's quite a story. I see now why you reacted like you did." Her voice continued with a note of confusion. "But is that all there is?"

I looked at her sharply. "Isn't that enough!"

"For you to hate him, sure," she said. "But for him to try to kill you all these years later? Just because your mom wouldn't sleep with him? That is just really out there." Her eyes blinked and a blend of confused scents muddied the air.

"People are strange, Sue. Look at Bosnia and Serbia. Those guys are fighting for things that happened centuries ago, between people that are long dead. This isn't nearly as strange. All I know is that the first time he saw me at Dad's house, when I was eight, he swore that he would see me dead."

Sue was open-mouthed. So was I when it happened. He had laughed at my expression and walked out. I never told Dad what he said. Leo was my battle, not his. I paused for a second, and then amended.

"But first he has to ruin me. Those were his words. I'll ruin you, kid. Then I'll dance on your grave like I danced on Joseph's."

As soon as I said the words, it hit me. I knew which scenario he was planning. I shook my head angrily as the picture cleared.

Vito's boys would take me back to New Jersey and rough me up for a few days. Then Leo would hand over the case to Carmine, saying he "found it in my room." Sal would be able to back up that I'd gone to see Leo. Vito would turn me over to Carmine as a gesture of good faith. It would be Carmine who would finish the job. Like I said, nobody crosses him— not even me. Vito would be satisfied, Leo would be satisfied and both would have clean hands. I would be the bad guy. Torturing Sue was probably just a pleasant bonus to him. Clever. Very clever.

"I'm having a hard time even imagining that level of hate," Sue said with still-wide eyes. "I guess you're right. I've heard of things like that. I've just never encountered it first hand."

I shook the scene out of my mind. Fortunately, Leo's plan was blown out of the water now. I had the case. I was in control. Carmine would be able to do a little housecleaning—find out the leak in his organization. I was confident he would think of a suitable demise for Leo.

I just wished I could have thanked Leo personally for his clever plan. Hell, the whole thing had to have been on impulse. He couldn't have known I decided to go to Vegas or that I'd end up at his place. Or could he? When's the last time I checked the hotel room for bugs?

A jackrabbit hopped across the road and I blinked suddenly. I swerved to avoid it and just barely succeeded. It brought me back to myself and threw a question into my mind. Now there's a segue for you— from a nearly squished rabbit to a purse full of copper.

"By the way," I said. "Why did you fight so hard against the kid? He would have killed you just fine and you wouldn't have owed me a dime."

The question startled Sue. She stared at me open-mouthed and her jaw worked noiselessly for a moment. "I— I don't know." Her eyes darted from side to side as she tried to think through the logic.

"Why did you save me?" The best defense is a good offense. Fortunately, I was expecting it.