Dorothy's boss turned out to be a minor mob boss who needed help in moving his assets around in ways that wouldn't show up on the tax rolls. The money was great — paid in cash as promised. He relished the challenge of outsmarting the IRS. He never did see Dorothy again, much to his disappointment.
Being a mob accountant worked quite well for a couple of years. Then the whole thing crashed in on him with the FBI showing up at the accounting firm's office asking some hard and difficult questions. He didn't receive any jail time because he cooperated, and had covered his own ass quite well, but it still was very close. The partners in the company were furious. He was allowed to quietly resign.
The good times over, he had to go, hat in hand, to beg his former roommate for a job. Nathan had agreed, but never, until his dying day, let him forget it.
Unlocking the car, a battered Buick, Patrick tossed his purchases on the front seat. He could almost taste the porterhouse cooked medium rare on his grill. Get home, crack open the Chianti to let it breathe, fire up the barbeque — no gas grill for him, charcoal was the only way to go for providing the best flavor. He'd toss some water soaked apple chips in the grill to add a bit more flavor.
He stuck the key in the ignition. There was a click and a roaring sound. He never finished hearing the explosion that blew his upper body from the waist up through the windshield.
Chapter 9
Jackie had a lot to think about. Had Nathan set her up to be killed? What had he unleashed?
She was surprised that Leo was willing to talk to about what he had been. He used to kill people for a living and, according to him, he was decent at it. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to kill someone, close, far or whatever, but it was still very far outside her scope of experience. Give her a security system to break into, an unlimited supply of Cherry Coke Zero, and she was happy.
The man sort of appeared enamored with her for some strange reason. She didn't have any feelings right now for Leo one way or the other. But he would probably clean up pretty well. And his loose clothing hid what she figured was a decent body underneath. The most important thing was that he talked to her face, not her chest, like most men did. His riveting eyes, when they looked at you, were unsettling and seemed to hide more than they revealed.
She didn't really want to learn how to shoot, but she was afraid that she would have to do so to survive. She had spent her whole life fighting, starting from being a female hacker, being taken seriously by customers, dealing with the directions in which Nathan wanted to take the company and much more. She was an attractive — according to Nathan — woman trying to make it in a man's world. While she couldn't piss her name in the snow like most guys, she could hold her own against most men.
For something to do, she fired up her laptop. Might as well see if she had made the news. As the page loaded, she saw that it was true; she had made it, but on page two. But there was breaking news: a Denver Building Inspector had burned to death in his car. Brian Case was his name. It was familiar. She dredged around in her head for the name. Then she recalled it with a shock of horror — it was the building inspector that Nathan had gone to war with over the construction of their current facility and had lost in a very bad way. They had to pay several large fines and had production seriously hampered on several big clients when the inspector had padlocked the door shut after having the police basically throw them out of the building. Nathan had vowed his revenge — was this it? Murder from beyond the grave?
Leo must have heard the sharp intake of breath because he asked, “What's wrong?”
She took a moment to gather her thoughts and then said, “It's the building inspector that Nathan fought against. He burned to death in his car this afternoon.”
“Do you think Nathan had something to do with it?”
She shook her head, and said, “I'm not sure. He could have. But I'm not sure as to how he would have done it.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked at him and said, “Do you think Nathan could have arranged it?”
“Heck yes. That settles it, you will learn how to shoot. There are probably some killers on our trail right now. In fact, turn off that computer, remove the battery and do the same thing with your cell phone.”
“They can track us with that?”
Leo shrugged. “I don't know. But it isn't worth the chance.”
She considered what he had said. There had been rumors in the computer security industry for a number of years about the possibilities of remote tracking with a cell phone, it didn't even have to be GPS enabled, but could find a pretty good location based on the nearest towers and their signal strength. There was even an oft whispered rumor that the feds could install software on your cell phone that would allow it to listen in on conversations around the cell phone and the phone didn't even need to be on for them to work.
Jackie did as she was asked, putting both devices in her duffel bag.
Leo pulled into the parking lot of a large brick building. The weathered sign said, “Jack's Sporting Goods and Gun Range.”
He turned to her and said, “Let me do the talking.”
All she could do was nod. It seemed like everything that she had worked so hard for had been yanked out from under her.
Leo climbed out of the truck. Numbly, she followed him.
He grabbed the bag that held Nathan's, no, her pistol and the ear muffs that they had used. He also grabbed two pairs of safety glasses.
She followed him into the store. It was wall to wall guns, rifles hanging on the walls, cases full of handguns and racks of ammunition. Holsters, slings and other gun related things occupied the aisles. The place was a gun-nut's dream.
Leo stepped up to the counter. A hawkish looking man with a thin black mustache and a shaved head nodded at Leo. “What can I do for you?”When she got close, she saw that he had a well-worn holster holding a shiny pistol on his right hip. On the other side of his body were pouches holding something like what Leo had pulled out of her pistol that held bullets.
“I need to rent some space at the range, a .22 pistol and a hundred rounds for it, and the same in 9mm.”
The guy looked her up and down like he was grading meat. She did her best not to sneer at him.
“Taking the girlfriend out shooting? Could find a cheaper place to have a date.”
Leo ignored the man. “A Browning Buckmark in .22, if you have it. If not, one of the new Ruger Mark III's will do just fine.”
The man said, “Sure. I've got a Ruger here that will do quite nicely.”
He then quoted a price that caused Jackie to start. The man was right, this wasn't a cheap date by any means.
Leo paid without comment out of a roll of bills that would choke a boa constrictor.
The clerk said, “When you get inside, I'll bring the ammo in. You have your own ear and eye protection?”
Leo nodded. They followed the man towards the back of the store. Through a thick plexiglass window, she could see that there were other people on the range — one was a woman shooting a small pistol. A couple of guys were at the other end, and she couldn't see what they were doing.
The clerk unlocked the door and motioned them inside. Leo said, “Put on your eye and hearing protection.” She did as he asked, still overwhelmed by what she had found herself doing. When she had gotten up this morning, she had no idea that her car would be blown up in front of her, that her dead boyfriend was probably killing people from beyond the grave and that she would be trusting her life to an ex-assassin.