The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (144 page)

Lando halted mid stride and Glissando smiled, ‘that’s better. Now drop your weapons.’

Neither man moved to do his biding, so again he pressed the knife against Adela’s neck, and once more drew blood, and once more she gritted her teeth.

Glissando said, ‘you, Lando, throw you rifle into those bushes, ‘he tipped his head to the left. Lando did. ‘And you, Hennessey, throw
your
weapon at the traitor’s feet.

Hennessey shook his head, ‘no way, Glissando, just like a cop, an assassin never surrenders his weapon.’ Lando looked at him and Glissando moved the knife back to Adela’s breast and pressed it against her shirt, this time she hissed in pain as the blade sliced her skin ju
st below the nipple. ‘The next one slices off her nipple.’ He warned.

‘F
or God’s sake, Hennessey.’ Lando snapped,

Hennessey cast his eyes Lando’s way and
the two men kept eye contact for what seemed like forever until Hennessey, with great reluctance, threw his Glock at Adela’s feet.

Glissando p
ushed Adela’s head down demanding, ‘pick it up.’ She didn’t, so he forced her head almost to her knees this time causing her to let out a cry of pain, ‘pick it up,
now
.’

From her position she looked up at Lando who looked back. He noticed her expression was quite calm belying the pain and terror in her eyes. He nodded once, so without taking her eyes from his she bent down, picked up the gun and held it between her index f
inger and thumb as though it were a deadly rattle snake.

Gliss
ando snatched it from her, ‘thank you, Katherina.’

‘D
on’t call me that,’ she replied sharply, ‘it’s not my name.’

Glissando laughed in her ear, ‘yes it is, Katherina, the shrew.’

‘And you’re Julius Caesar, a man with delusions of grandeur, who died an ignoble death, just as you will.’ Hennessey chuckled as was expected at Adela’s words but Lando, although he admired her courage and her stand against Glissando even in the face of pain and death, was terrified for her and his terror made him lash out.

‘F
or God’s sake, woman,’ he barked, ‘don’t you know when to keep your mouth shut?’

He regretted his words instantly, not so much because of the hurt that momentarily replaced the fear in her eyes, but because he didn’t want the last words he might ever say to her to be angry ones. He was about to apologise when Hennessey said, ‘so what now, Glissando?’

‘Now? Now I kill you two and wait for the police to arrive when I shall hand over the shrew to them, she’s a wanted woman you know.’

Hennessey laughed, ‘you’re a real hoot, Glissando, you think they’ll just accept that Lando and I broke in here and did all this for, well, for what, for fun, to see if we could, what?’

Glissando giggled like a schoolgirl, ‘you’re on my grounds, you broke into my house, you killed my men.
You’re
the trespassers, I’m entitled to defend my property, my life, from would be assassins. And you shot me, Hennessey, with this gun, ‘he waved it to and fro, ‘but first you killed your accomplice of course, obviously not wanting to share the fee for this particular assignment, but I managed to get the gun away from you and shoot you.’

Lando looked at Hennessey who was still smiling but he sensed the tension in him. This must be a first for him, being on the receiving end of a gun, his own gun at that. But Hennessey obviously knew as well as he did that Glissando was probably right, the police would buy it, and even if they didn’t they would go along with it.

‘And her?’ He pointed at Adela, ‘why would she be here? Back up?’

Hennessey chuckled
and Glissando sniggered, ‘we were having an affair,’ Adela tensed at this and her face conveyed her repulsion, fortunately Glissando couldn’t see her expression. ‘Yes, we met in England when I was there on business and fell for each other; unfortunately she fell much harder than I did. When I ended it she came to America looking for me, begging for one more chance and when I refused to pick up where we left off she hired you, Hennessey.’

Adela gasped and tried to extricate herself from Glissando’s hold before she threw up all over him. Funny how the thought of her and this odious repulsive man being intimate nauseated her more than the knife he held at her throat. He held her tighter still and
she winced as he continued, ‘then you, Hennessey, recruited another killer to aid you in your assignment, Mr. Lando here.’

Lando’s raised his eyebrows and with more composure than she actually felt Adela said
acidly, ‘they might think I’m a criminal, but they’re not stupid enough to believe I could have so little taste as to fall for a short, ugly, pasty faced troll like you.’

Hennessey laughed out loud thinking, that’s my girl. As for Lando he closed his eyes in dismay and fear. Glissando pulled her head back by her hair again and shoved the knife into the soft flesh of her neck and she yelped in pain.

Lando took a step forward but Glissando keeping the knife against Adela’s throat said simply but chillingly ‘don’t.’

Lando stopped dead and Glissando sneered and into Adela’s ear whispered, ‘I said you were brave and you are, brave but foolish. If you speak again I’ll sever your vocal chords.’ As if to enforce his warning he shoved the knife further into her throat so that she couldn’t even swallow. He said, ‘that’s better. Anyway, as I was saying, you can rest assured that even if they don’t believe my version of events they’ll go along with it, and the shrew will spend a lot longer in this country than she ever intended, although not in the comfortable surroundings she had envisioned.’

He raised the Glock and aimed it at Hennessey, ‘I can’t begin to tell you how much and how often I’ve wanted to do this,
Mr
. Hennessey.’

Both Adela and Lando tensed as he squeezed the trigger very slowly savouring the moment. But Hennessey seemingly very relaxed said, ‘haven’t you forgotten something, Glissando?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘What about Leyton? He knows the truth too.’

‘Oh, him. Poor Detective Leyton, he’s had such a bad day, accumulating in his untimely demise, untimely for him that is.’

He squeezed the trigger some more just as a voice behind him said, ‘I ain’t demised yet, asshole.’

Glissando instinctively turned to the voice as Leyton fired his weapon. His eyes were misty with pain so his aim was not good but he managed to hit Glissando in the arm that held the Glock. He cried out and dropped it; Adela pushed away from him and threw herself to the ground.

Hennessey and Lando reacted with inhuman speed as they drew weapons from behind their backs, aimed them at Glissando and fired simultaneously. And kept firing.

Glissando stood swaying looking down at his body as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, then looked up at the two men. Hennessey fired one more time hitting Glissando right between the eyes. He went down never to get up.

The two men stood for a moment gazing down at the dead man then looked up quickly as Leyton gasped out, ‘Adela!’

They both followed his gaze as he began to crawl towards Adela still lying on the ground.

Lando got there first and knelt beside her, he turned her over slowly and gently. His hand came away covered in blood. He turned her all the way over and saw the knife sticking in her side. She must have fallen on it as she hit the ground. He pressed his ear to her chest listening for a heartbeat, it was faint but there.

Hennessey looked at Lando’s bloodied hand which he noticed was shaking then at Adela’s white seemingly lifeless face. He took out his phone to call an ambulance at the same time saying to Lando, ‘don’t pull the knife out.’

It was evidence of Lando’s preoccupation with Adela that he did not snap back, “I know that.” He pulled his shirt ove
r his head and pressed it gently to the wound in her side. The hilt of the knife was keeping pressure on the wound and he wrapped the shirt around the blade of the knife trying to stop the flow of blood.

He hoped she would not regain consciousness just yet
, the pain would be excruciating he knew. But as if to defy him one last time she opened her eyes and met his. Her lips moved but no sound issued from them. Lando whispered, ‘shush, shush, don’t talk, and try not to move.’

But her voice weak and faltering she managed to get out, ‘Gli…Glissando?

It was Hennessey who having called 911 squatted down beside Lando who answered, ‘he’s dead.’

‘Are...are you cert…
’ That was as far as she got. Both Lando and Hennessey turned to look at Glissando’s body riddled with bullets. And it was Hennessey who again answered, ‘oh yeah, we’re certain all right.’

She was obviously in great pain but she smiled and they knew she was thinking about Ol
ivia and that she was now finally free of him. Then she looked at Hennessey and her smile faded. She became agitated and tried to rise but Lando held her gently but firmly down, ‘I told you, don’t move, the ambulance will be here very soon.’

But once again she defied him and the pain as she said to Hennessey, ‘please,
please
leave her be now, just do this one thing for me before…before I…. Then all debts are paid.’ Then she lost consciousness. Lando once again pressed his ear to her chest, she was breathing, just. He looked at Hennessey who was looking at Adela a strange look on his face.

Just then they heard a montage of voices yelling and leaves rustling as people came through the woods towards them. Hennessey leapt to his feet and aimed his gun towards the sounds.

But someone shouted, ‘police, drop the weapon, drop the weapon, NOW.’

Lando looked up at Hennessey and said quietly, ‘do as he says, Hennessey.’

Hennessey hesitated for a moment before dropping his weapon, the guy now yelled, ‘on the ground hands on your head.’

Again Hennessey hesitated and the man screamed, ‘I won’t tell you again, asshole.’

This time Hennessey did as he was told. Four men came into sight. A deputy stepped forward and bending down yanked Hennessey’s arms behind him and cuffed him, then dragged him to his feet. Another deputy ran towards Leyton who, with the effort of getting there with his substantial injuries, had lapsed into unconsciousness. Yet another deputy grabbed Lando’s arm and pointing a gun in his face yelled ‘are you deaf, asshole, on your face.’

Lando said, ‘this woman is hurt you idiot, let me tend to her.’

Suddenly a voice said, ‘Jonas, is that you?’

Lando’s relief was intense as he recognised Sheriff Lomax’s voice. Still kneeling beside Adela he said, ‘sheriff, I’m not armed. But we need an ambulance, the woman is hurt, bad, Leyton too.’

Lomax moved swiftly to Lando’s side and knelt down beside him. He examined Adela’s wound then looked back at Lando and his expression spoke volumes.

The deputy with Leyton yelled, ‘this one has a gun shot wound and what looks like whip marks.’

Lomax turned to him, ‘get that ambulance in here, as close to the trees as they can get.’

The young deputy who could not have been more than twenty said, ‘sure thing, Wendell, I mean sheriff.’

Lomax looked at Lando again whose face was almost as white as the woman’s. He placed his hand on Lando’s shoulder and squeezed, Lando just looked at him. Lomax had expected to see concern in the other man’s eyes and even the fear was no surprise, but there was something else there too, guilt, a horrible, torturous, soul destroying guilt. He shook his head thinking that this shouldn’t be happening to this man…not again.

He stood up leaving Lando with his pain. The deputy handed Lomax Hennessey’s Glock who studied it then looked at Hennessey before casting his eyes around, they landed on the dead body
for the first time. ‘Who’s this guy?’

Hennessey who was being
watched closely by a deputy answered, ‘that’s the scum sucking bastard Dashiel Glissando.’

Lomax’s eyes almost popped out of his head so wide did they stretch. He spluttered, ‘Glissando,
that
Glissando?

Hennessey nodded, ‘one and the same. But deceased now of course.’

Lomax stared at him suspiciously. ‘And just who filled him with enough holes to put a sieve to shame?’

Both Lando and Hennessey answered at the same time, ‘we did.’

Lomax divided a look between them and Hennessey said, ‘and Detective Leyton got one in too. Don’t forget to mention that in your report, they might want to give him a medal.’

Lomax jerked his head and said to the deputy, ‘Mickey, go and help Ben direct the ambulance here.'

Mickey looked disappointed, he wanted to linger and hear all about the shoot out, he was most disappointed that he had missed it. Still, he was here now and it would be something to tell Lorna tonight, preferably in bed. But he knew better than to argue with Sheriff Wendell Lomax and went to join his buddy, Ben.

Lomax walked towards Hennessey stopping only a foot from
him then looked him up and down and speaking to Lando asked, ‘who’s your friend, Jonas?’

Lando stood up and faced Hennessey who knew he had made a mistake; he should have gone out fighting. But he did not want to go out killing cops. Besides if the woman survived who would extricate her from the trouble she was in?