The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (138 page)

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As Adela was telling Leyton her story Lando and Hennessey had reached the front door undetected.

They had had to stop and pet the dogs, or at least Hennessey had, three more times as they made their way through the trees and set off the lights all the time avoiding the cameras. But each time Hennessey had prevailed and the dogs had gone on their way, much to the frustration of the guys who had run after them, they cursed squirrels, cats, foxes and all animal kind but had gone back inside.

Lando had thought of rushing in when they came out but each time the door closed behind them, two men standing guard until it was completely closed. As they closed Lando heard one man say, ‘if the lights come on again let the dogs take care of it, I’m tired of getting up and down for rodents.’

So now they were at the front door, Lando stared at it in frustration, the damn thing was huge and appeared at least six inches thick. How the hell did they get past that? He looked at the windows, they were all securely locked and bullet proof. Besides, they couldn’t afford to make any noise, if Glissando heard them coming he might kill the woman and Leyton instantly, they had to be as stealthy as possible.

He whispered, ‘so, Mr. Magician, what else do you have in your pocket of magic tricks to get us through
that
?’ He nodded at the door.

Hennessey turned to him and gave that now familiar grin, ‘you know, Lando, the more time I spend with you the more I like you.’

Lando grimaced, ‘that’s all I need to end this week of hell, being liked by a killer for hire.’

Hennessey laughed then put his hand over his mouth like a schoolboy trying not to giggle in class. He whispered, ‘sorry. But to answer your question I have no magic trick for this one. We can either wait until someone comes out, which may be sometime and possibly too late, or…’ He broke off and shrugged.

Lando looked at him incredulous, ‘so we’ve come all this way to fall at the last hurdle.’

‘Lando, you’re the only man I know who can be optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. No, we haven’t come all this way to fail now, I’ll get us in. But you’re being

presumptuous thinking that this is the
last
hurdle. When we get through this door we still have to get past Glissando’s heavily armed men.’

Lando raised his rifle, ‘I ain’t worried about that part of it, Hennessey.’

Hennessey chuckled, ‘liking you more and more.’

Lando gave him an exasperated look, ‘So what do we do now? Even if we cause the lights to come back on you heard the guy, they won’t come out again, so how do we get that door to open?’

‘We knock?’

‘Knock?’

‘Well,
I
knock,
you
hide.’

‘You think they’ll just let you into Glissando’s main residence?’

‘Why not?’

Lando stared at him, he didn’t want to trust this man, this killer, but despite himself he did. He knew he would get them in, what happened afterwards was anyone’s guess, but whatever it was he would be ready.

As though he knew what Lando was thinking Hennessey said, ‘we’ll get in and get the lady out, what happens after is up to you, Mr. Lando. What you do with what you know, what you’ve seen and what you’ve heard, with
her
, will be your decision.’

Lando frowned not quite sure what he meant, or maybe he did and just didn’t like the inference. He decided not to reply to that but asked, ‘if you thought you could get us in just by knocking, why didn’t you do that in the first place? Why all the cloak and dagger?’

Hennessey shook his head and as if speaking to a dense child said, ‘well, one, I didn't know how things would work out, I told you I ain't been here before. And two, ‘cos I thought you wanted to be in on this too, and how would I have explained
you
to them?’

Lando nodded, ‘all right, point taken.’

‘Besides, ‘Hennessey added, ‘why miss out on all the cloak and dagger?’

Lando gave him the now habitual impatient look but remained silent.

Hennessey said, ‘when the door opens give me a few minutes then I’ll give you a sign then you run over there,’ he pointed to a spot twenty yards or so to his left,  ‘that’s where the lights last came on.’

‘Why?’

‘Just trust me, okay?’

Lando looked doubtful for a moment then nodded and Hennessey said, ‘right, stay out of sight.’ Then he began to walk up the steps to the door.

Lando in a loud whisper said, ‘wait,’ Hennessey turned, ‘what’s the signal?’

Hennessey smiled, ‘you’ll know.’

Lando didn’t like that one bit and opened his mouth to tell Hennessey to stop being so damned enigmatical, but he’d now reached the top of the steps.

Lando ran a few paces and hid behind the huge rose bush. He heard Hennessey pull the big ring which was attached to a long chain situated at the side of the door; it made a loud clanging noise. Lando held his breath hoping that he would not miss Hennessey’s signal, whatever it was.

As he waited he thought about the woman and what she might be enduring behind that door. Was Glissando torturing her, or Leyton? Would Glissando rape her first? A fire ignited in his belly at that thought. He hoped that whatever happened he had the chance to confront Glissando, one on one, man to man.

He stopped his thinking abruptly as the sound of the door opening came to him. He could imagine the men behind it wondering what the hell was going on and who had gotten into the grounds to be able to ring the door bell, not someone playing knock and run that was for sure.

He heard Hennessey say, ‘hi, is Mr. Glissando at home?’

Lando would have been amazed at the man’s calm, not to mention his nerve, if he hadn’t become used to his character within the last twelve hours or so.

He peeped around the bush and saw four men all heavily armed and all pointing those arms at Hennessey.  One of the men exclaimed, ‘what the fuck, how did you get in here?’

‘I walked in.’

‘That ain’t what I meant, and get your hands up.’

Hennessey obeyed and said, ‘my name is Hennessey, Mr. Glissando knows me.’

There was a silence while the men looked at each other; it was obvious they had heard of him too.

Hennessey said, ‘he set me a task, I’ve come to tell him that I’ve completed my mission. And now I’ve come for the cop and…
the
woman
.’

Lando was so engrossed in what was happening at the top of those steps that he almost missed his cue. He left his hiding place and ran to where he knew the lights had last come on when they had ran by previously. They came on instantly and a few seconds later he heard the sound of barking and snarling.

One of Glissando’s men yelled, ‘what the fuck is going one?  Who’s with you?’

Hennessey said calmly, ‘they are.’ And stepped to one side as the dogs ran around the corner towards them. Hennessey in Glissando’s voice said, ‘here boys, come to daddy.’

They did and Hennessey stepped out of their way pointed at the men and said calmly, ‘kill.’

The men never even had chance to point their weapons at the dogs before they were on them. They pounced at the same time Hennessey drew his Glock fitted with the silencer and took out one of the men with a bullet in his forehead. He was the lucky one.

The first two dogs, the Doberman and the Mastiff bore the nearest man to the ground, the Alsatian the man standing next to him and the pit bull the last man.

The three men on the ground screamed and tried to fend off the vicious dogs that growled and snarled, their jaws making an awful ripping sound as they tore the flesh from the men. The first man went first as his throat was ripped out, he twitched a few times then was still. The other two men still yelled and fought as the dogs tore at their throats and faces.

Hennessey now joined by Lando stood watching his face impassive. Lando looked at the two men and the dogs. He had seen some horrible sights in his time but never anything as horrible as seeing these  men being practically eaten alive by savage dogs. He tore his eyes from the horrendous sight and snapped, ‘call them off, Hennessey.’

Hennessey merely looked at him and Lando pointed his rifle at him and through gritted teeth repeated, ‘call them off.’

Hennessey shrugged and said to the dogs, ‘be still now.’ The dogs immediately stopped but panted and whined as though he had just taken away their favourite toy. He looked at them then at the men then at Lando, who was looking at him with loathing. Hennessey pointed his weapon at the first man and shot him through the head then did the same to the other guy, thus ending their suffering.

Hennessey bent down and patted the dogs’ heads saying, ‘good boys.’

Lando felt sick as he looked at their blood stained paws and teeth.

Hennessey stood up and said, ‘told you you’d get my signal.’

Lando stared at him as though he had been personally responsible for tearing out the men’s throats, which in a way he had. Hennessey said, ‘what? I got us in didn’t I?’

Lando’s eyes narrowed and his voice was filled with repugnance as he said, ‘I don’t suppose it occurred to you to leave one of them alive to tell us which way to go?’

Hennessey shrugged again and Lando went on, ‘so now you’ve gotten us in, let’s go and
try
to find what we came for.’

Hennessey pressed a button which closed the door and turning to the dogs ordered, ‘stay, guard.’ They did and stood beside the dead men as though guarding their prey. Hennessey nodded towards Lando’s retreating figure and said, ‘don’t mind him, he’s just sensitive.’

He caught Lando up and said, ‘this is a huge house, we can’t just wander around, we need a plan.’

‘Like the last one do ya mean?’

‘You disapprove of my tactics, Mr. Lando, but they’re effective.’

‘It’s not just your tactics I disapprove of.’

Hennessey chuckled, ‘now you sound like Miss. Faraday. She has that condensing tone and superior air down to a T too.’

Lando stopped walking and turned on him, ‘maybe that’s because we are superior, to
you
anyway. As for condensing, I tend to look down on mass murdering psychopaths, must be the cop in me, or maybe the human being.’

Hennessey was no longer smiling, ‘I do what I have to do.’

‘What others pay ya to do ya mean. You don’t have a mind of your own, just a big bank balance.’

Hennessey’s jaw clenched as did his fist and it looked for a moment as if he might hit Lando. But he visibly calmed himself and said, ‘we’re standing here arguing while “The woman” and your fellow cop are more than likely being tortured to death. Maybe you can save your criticism and condescension until later, when this is over.’

Lando took a step towards him, ‘they’re not the only things I’ll save until later.’

The two men stared into each other’s eyes until Hennessey suddenly smiled and said, ‘game on then Mr. Lando.’

Lando glared at him but Hennessey ignored it and said, ‘I believe the best place to start would be the kitchen.’

Lando frowned and Hennessey said, ‘that’s where you usually find men with boring, tedious jobs.’

Lando nodded in agreement. They headed down the corridor, Lando once again amazed by the size of the place. He realised as they walked that no one had come running because this part of the house, the entrance, was isolated from the rest of it and they must have communicated by radio or phone.  But he was furious with Hennessey, not only because of his cold blooded dispatching of those men but because they were wasting time looking for Leyton and the woman when they could have gotten the information from one of them.

But there was no point dwelling on that now, what was done was done, which sounded odd coming from someone who dwelt on things every day, done or not.

They came to a door at the end of the corridor, they opened it quickly ready to open fire if need be but there was no one there. Then they heard voices coming from behind a door at the other end of the long room. They moved swiftly and silently towards it. Now they heard laughter and men’s voices, maybe two or three of them.

Hennessey indicated to Lando that he would go in first which Lando didn’t like, he knew what would happen. Hennessey read his expression and smiled mouthing, ‘don’t worry.’

Then before Lando could object he thrust open the door and burst in closely followed by Lando.

Three men sat at a table eating but looked up startled at the sudden intrusion. Hennessey shot the guy directly in front of him then the one to his left before either man could pick up his weapon. They both went down and didn’t move again.

Before Hennessey could deal with the third man who had by now risen to his feet. Lando leapt at him and punched him in the stomach knocking the wind out of him. He hit him in the face then flipped him face down and held him there with a knee in his back as he searched him for weapons, he found one which he threw across the room. He put his mouth close to the man’s ear and said, ‘how many people in the house.’