THE FOURTH WATCH (46 page)

"Alright, alright - fine. Calm down, what
happened?"

"Well, so we tailed this Hillsil guy, watched
him, and it all checked out, what the job guy said, this fucking
Elvis or whatever ... this is the guy, I'm telling you." Carlos
shook his head.

"How'd that work?"

"Well," Carlos said, leaning in across the
table, "he plays it very, very low key. He's got this nice house,
nothing extravagant, kind of a Spanish Hacienda type place, all on
one floor. Wife, one kid, hot little thing, maybe 17, 18 years old.
Still in high school. Big tits and ... "

"Yeah, yeah ... "

''Nice neighborhood, nice corner lot, town
about fifteen miles south of here. Meridith.”

"How about the four guys and the accountant?"
Sal asked.

"Yeah, we got'em. Names, addresses, work, all
that. Got people on them now. Think we should take them out first
and see how he scrambles?"

''Nope,'' Sal said, shaking his head, "other
way around. We need the rest of them. We'll get him to tell us
about them and the whole organization. We're going to go visit him
and his family."

"Well here's the thing about that," Carlos
said. "He's got guards. All night, everynight. Three guys, three
cars. One on each leg of the corner lot, parked about two hundred
yards down, in the driveways of other houses, and a backup on the
street behind the house. Radio's to stay in touch. Pretty slick.
The houses where the cars are parked, he owns. They're
vacant."

"Yeah," Sal said, smiling, "that's our guy. Any
soldiers in those 'vacant' houses?"

"Don't know yet," Carlos said, "but it doesn't
look like it. Remember, this guy is invisible to begin
with."

"Okay." Sal rubbed his face with both hands and
thought about it for a minute.

"The wife and daughter, they home at
night?"

"Yep. I think he has this 'everybody has dinner
together' thing going on."

"What time do they eat?"

"Seven sharp. We only been watching a week, but
that's what it looks like."

"Gets dark early these days," Sal
said.

"Yep."

Sal smiled. ''Nice work, Carlos."

"Thanks. Now I'm fuckin' thirsty over
here."

Sal yelled across the room. ''Hey, Wendy, what
the hell are you doing over there? Poor Carlos is dying of thirst.
Bring us a couple, and tell Frank to get us some lobster tails to
start."

Carlos laughed. "You prick."

"Nice work," Sal told him again.

*****

FOUR DAYS LATER
, Monday, Sal called his under-bosses together. He liked to
move things around, so they met for breakfast at a hash joint
called the Ham & Egg'r. He, Ramon Carlos and Juan gave the
waitress their orders and sat quietly while she poured them coffee.
When she was gone Sal said to Ramon, "We're gonna need three
hitters."

"No problem."

"We have to have good people, Ramon, this is
gonna be Ninja shit."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Synchronized watches, perfect execution.
No mistakes. The watchers need to be off the board before we go in
the door."

Ramon nodded confidently. "We can do
that."

"Good."

Carlos frowned. "So?"

Sal said, "You take three guys and creep the
houses this guy owns in the neighborhood. If there is anyone in
there, kill them and leave' em. Do it about an hour before we go.
Bring in gas and soak it down. Torch all three places the second we
come out the door."

Carlos swallowed dryly and looked around at the
others. "You're kidding me."

"Nope. We're sending a big message tonight,"
Sal told him. "When we pull up to the curb, Ramon, your guys take
out all three babysitters. Silencers, one shot in the head each. Do
not fuck this up or it will be the worst night of your life - and
the last."

''I got it," Ramon assured him.

"Juan, you're going in with me, just the two of
us. Mr. Hillsil is going to be very forthcoming with us, I
guarantee it." Sal looked around the table, "What else?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Okay. Ramon, I don't know where your guys are
going to hide, but that's your problem. I don't expect to see you
or Carlos again until this is over. Juan, meet me at the shop at
six o'clock. You guys can expect us to show up at Hillsil's house
at 7:15 - exactly at 7:15 - you understand?"

They nodded.

"We'll be inside less than an hour."

Their breakfast came and they all waited
patiently as it was served. When the waitress left Sal said,
"Questions?"

No one said anything.

"Good."

*****

THE SKY WAS
flat gray, sagging, threatening rain, the moon behind it,
nearly invisible, leaching through the sop, shapeless. Juan drove a
dark green, nondescript Chevy slowly down the street, then quickly
into the Hillsil's driveway. They came out of the car fast, and on
the way to the door Sal saw a bright flash flare up inside a
vehicle down the block. Juan kicked the door hard, just below the
lock and they went in fast, both wearing gloves, weapons
drawn.

The Hillsil family was around the dinner table.
Alan Hillsil leaped up, knocking his chair back. It crashed to the
floor. Juan pointed a big .45 at him and shook his head. The women
remained seated, starring at them with wide eyes, their mouths
hanging open.

"Sit down, Mr. Hillsil," Sal told him. "Ladies,
put your utensils down on your plates and push them away. Keep your
hands on top of the table. We don't want to hurt you."

Hillsil said, "You, my friend, have just made
the biggest mistake of your life!" He righted his chair and sat
down in it.

Sal slipped his pistol back into his coat
pocket and produced a pair of handcuffs. ''Hands behind you," he
said, approaching Alan Hillsil.

"You listen to me fuck head ... "

Sal hit him across the face with the steel
bracelets, laying open part of his nose and cheek. Blood splashed
across the table. The women screamed. Hillsil's hands flew up to
cover his face. ''Hands behind you, Mr. Hillsil," Sal said, not
harshly but with an edge in his voice.

Hillsil spat blood out of his mouth and put his
arms behind him. "I don't have any money in the house you dumb
shit," he said, as Sal snapped the manacles on him.

Sal squeezed them down tight until Hillsil
screamed. ''Dumb shit, huh." He pulled another two pair of cuffs
from his pocket and held them up to the women. "Ladies?" he
said.

The daughter was crying. The wife looked at him
with cold eyes. But both quickly put their hands behind their backs
and Sal cinched the handcuffs in place. Sal said to the daughter,
"Stand up please, Miss." He ran his hands through her hair, behind
her ears, down her sides, over her breasts and crotch and down her
legs and had her kick her shoes off. She balled hysterically the
whole time. Sal marched her down the hall, into a bathroom. He had
her sit on the floor and used another set of cuffs to hook her
shackled hands to the drain-pipe below the sink. He ripped the
front of her shirt off, yanked her head back and forced the torn
fabric into her mouth. "Calm down and breath through your nose or
you're gonna strangle yourself" he told her and went back to the
dining room.

Juan was motionless and expressionless, looking
down the barrel of his gun at the man and woman. Sal turned a chair
around next to the wife and looked across the table at the husband.
"Mr. Hillsil," he said, ''you been fucking with me." He took out a
pair of bolt cutters and laid them on the table. "You have been
killing my men, interfering with my business, costing me money and
generally being a pain in my ass." He unfolded a large, white
section of construction paper and laid it on the table in front of
Hillsil. Sal saw him twitch. On the paper were a series of blocks.
Alan Hillsil's name was at the top, and below it were the names of
his accountant and the four others that they had identified as RAT
operatives.

Hillsil looked up at him. "What the fuck is
that?"

"It's the beginning of a block diagram of your
operation," Sal said, smiling. "You and I are going to finish
filling it out."

''I don't know what the ... "

Sal shook his head side to side. "Alan...may I
call you Alan?... I want to save you some time here. There is no
sense in stalling. Your men up and down the block, and on the back
street? They're dead. The people in the houses? Dead. Nobody is
coming to the rescue here. Are you following me?"

Hillsil's eyes narrowed, but he kept his poker
face. The wife's eyes got as big as saucers, and the calm went out
of her face. She knew about them, Sal noted.

Sal tapped his index finger on the paper.
"These other guys? Well, they're having a similar experience right
now at their homes,” he lied. “They are also taking this quiz. Then
we are all going to get on the phone together and compare notes,
and if you lie to me about this, I'm going to kill you and your
family. Do we understand each other?"

Blood was dripping off Hillsil's chin onto his
lap. "Fuck you," he said.

"Good," Sal said, "let's start. Who supplies
you with your product?"

"I don't know what you're talking about,"
Hil1sil told him. “I'm in the construction business. Get the fuck
out of my house!”

Sal shook his head. "Listen, I know this is
hard. You figured you'd get to me first. I know you have figured
out who I am by now, and you're bitter. But it didn't work out that
way. What can you do? So I'm gonna let that slide and give you
another chance, before this gets really ugly." Sal had his pencil
poised over the paper. "So question one: where do you get your
dope?"

"I can't answer your question because I don't
know what you're talking about!" Hillsil yelled at him.

"That's a damn shame," Sal told him. He turned
to the wife. ''I was hoping this wouldn't have to go this way for
your sake, Mrs. Hillsil." He put down his pencil and picked up the
bolt cutter and went behind her. She was trying to reason with her
husband when Sal snipped off the middle finger of her right
hand.

She let out a hair raising scream that echoed
through the house. Sal tossed the finger down on the table in front
of Alan Hillsil. He twisted and wreathed and jumped to his feet,
hissing profanity until Juan swatted him to the floor, then tipped
his chair back into place. Sal took a dinner napkin off the table
and stuffed it into the wife's mouth, muffling her howling. Sal sat
back down at the table and picked up his pencil. "Now, Alan, who
supplies you with your dope?"

*****

MRS. HILLSIL WAS
down to a thumb and two fingers by the time Sal was satisfied
with her husbands answers. She had passed out in the early going.
Sal figured that, in the end, Hillsil knew they were going to move
on to his little girl if he didn't come clean. They marched Mr. and
Mrs. Hillsil into the bathroom with their daughter and Juan put a
bullet in each one of their heads before dousing them with gas and
setting the house on fire. The windows were filled with a warm glow
as they backed out of the driveway and drove away. Sal noticed a
similar glow starting at another home up the street.

32

THE STOLEN KISS
was a smut joint on North Main Street, south of the
courthouse. Walter knew the place well. He wasn't exactly a fan of
meat movies - didn't rent them and sit around the house watching
them all the time - hammering away at his business. But, you know,
at stag party, or whatever, he liked to watch the movies. To a lot
of guys it was just in the background while they talked baseball
and business, peek at it now and then, but Walter liked to sit down
with a little chips and dip and watch the action. And he'd
watched
Cleopatra and the Palace
Guard
and he remembered that
tattoo.

He went down Pleasant street, across Park Ave.
and up over Highland. He turned right onto Main and trolled for a
parking spot. He found one about two blocks south of The Stolen
Kiss, dumped his car at the curb and walked back.

The door was recessed into the store front. Big
glass windows, covered in brown paper, angled out on either side of
it. In one a neon sign said: SEX, SEX, SEX and in the other ADULT
MOVIES AND MORE! Walter pushed his way in, a chime ringing as he
entered.

The retail area was a long rectangle with what
must have been a mile of movie display shelving all around the
perimeter. Life size cutouts of cardboard bimbos in varying stages
of undress were set in the corners. There were magazine, book and
newspaper displays under a XXX sign at the back of the store, with
a sofa and two arm chairs arranged around a coffee table. A fat guy
wearing a Yankee's hat sat in one of the chairs, paging through a
magazine. There were a few men and one woman spread out around the
store looking at the movies. In the center of the store, a four
sided counter area made up of jewelers display cases held an
extraordinary collection of erotic toys. In the middle of the
counter area there was what appeared to be a demon.