The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (18 page)

Her voice quietened but remained hard, ‘this isn’t one of your crime novels, Adela where the good guys come to the rescue at the last moment, there
are
no good guys, just two women, one scared to death and running for her life, the other too innocent and too naive to see that this is
real
and not some story. No private investigator is going to come to our aid, there is no Fenn Llewellyn just waiting to leap to our defence.’

When Adela said nothing but stared at Olivia her face pale and wounded she sat down next to her on the bath and said softly, ‘please, please understand, you can’t come with me, Adela. If anything happened to you because of me, because you helped me,
I’ll
never know another moment’s peace.’

Adela looked into Olivia’s concerned frightened eyes for several seconds then said, ‘Olivia, why don’t we go to the police, or better still the F.B.I. If you have something on Glissando you could help to bring him down and put an end to him once and for all. They’ll protect you, put you in a witness protection programme, give you a new identity, keep you safe.’

‘Adela, I’ve told you, he has the police on his payroll, even federal agents. How do you think they found me so easily last time?’

‘He can’t have all the federal agents in the country in his pocket. Surely his reach doesn’t extend to say New York or Washington.
Yes, we can go there, to the FBI offices in Washington. They have special departments that deal with cases like yours, I’ve read about them.’

‘Even if they believed me they wouldn’t get him anything on him, he’s too clever, they couldn’t protect me, someone would betray me and he’d track me down eventually.’

Adela said placatingly, ‘all right, don’t get upset, it was just a thought that’s all.’ She stood up, ‘look, it’s time to wash your hair; we’ll talk about the subject of my coming with you later.’

Olivia stared at her then shook her head in frustration but stood up and let Adela wash her hair. Adela took out her hairdryer and blow dried it, fluffing it up as she did so.

When she’d finished she said, ‘right, are you ready to look?’

Olivia seemed uncertain but blew out her breath and stood and once again looked in the mirror. She stared then leaned forward towards the mirror as if uncertain who she was looking at, then she giggled, then she began to laugh, a real laugh, the first real laugh she had made in a long, long time and thought she had forgotten how to do.

Adela turned to her in complete amazement then she too began to laugh and they fell against each other as though they would never stop. It was a while before either woman realised that their laughter was just a little hysterical.

CHAPTER 8.

        Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had been in Alban all morning asking questions, and were now sipping coffee in the same café that Adela had frequented two days before, being served by the same waitress. They were hot and frustrated, and although neither would admit it to the other, scared witless.

They had spoken to a lot of people today but of the ten people…not including Jonas Lando…that Adela had spoken to since she’d been in Alban the two men had questioned only seven of them, none of whom had seen or heard of an Australian woman staying in the town or near by. And luckily for Adela and Olivia not one of the eight had thought to mention that, although they had not seen an Australian woman, an English woman had frequented the shops and café’s nearby, maybe because they never thought of it or perhaps they unlike the two men did not consider the two accents similar in any way.

They men had pulled in every marker and favour they could think of in both their old department in the F.B.I and assorted police departments in Alabama, but as yet no one had come through, Desi had simply vanished.

Rosencrantz said, ‘my gut tells me that she didn’t wander far from the town we almost had her in, she had no money and no means of getting about.’

‘Well, give Mr. Glissando a call and give him that really useful piece of information,’ said his friend, ‘I’m sure he’ll be just as pleased as all hell’

‘You being sarcastic, you fuck?’

‘Who me? Sarcastic?’

‘Well that ain’t helping, partner.’

Guildenstern sighed, ‘sorry, partner.’

‘Okay.’

‘You know, I’m damn sure that was her we saw with the hat, my gut tells me that she’s her somewhere, hiding out. Wanna try that weird guy again, put some pressure on him, see how he likes looking down the wrong end of a Glock?’

Rosencrantz shook his head, ‘much as I’d like too, Mr. Glissando said to play it cool, be nice.’ They both laughed.

Jill the waitress came over carrying a pot of coffee and asked if they wanted a refill, they both nodded.

Just then the door opened and Sammy Know It All entered. Jill said, ‘be with you in a tick, Sammy.’

Sammy smiled and said, ‘no problem, Jill honey, I ain’t in no hurry today.’

‘You ain’t gone and got yourself fired again, Sammy?

‘No nothing like that, Jill, just running errands for Mr. George, he said to take my time.’

Jill smiled to herself, she knew why George told Sammy to take his time, the more time he spent in here the less time he spent at the ranch.

Sammy was a great guy, funny and kind and sweet, but he was slow and simple and over eager to please, getting in the way and causing more work for everyone else. George Monday was a good man, a kind man, who should have let Sammy go a while back but he didn’t have the heart so gave him easy jobs and told him to take his time. Sammy spent hours in the café. The people sitting at the table closest to Glissando’s two goons, a man and a woman with a child finished their drinks left their money on the table and said goodbye. They were at the door when the women came running back saying, ‘I’d forget my head if it weren’t fastened on.’ She picked up her hat from the chair and looked at Jill who returned her smile. The woman put on the hat as she joined her husband and son on the pavement.

Sammy said, ‘that’s made me think, Jill, ain’t seen that lady in here again.’

‘Which lady?’

The foreign lady.’

Jill frowned perplexed and Sammy said, ‘ya know, that lady, she was hot.’

Jill poured Sammy’s coffee and said, ‘now, Sammy, that ain’t no way to talk about a lady, foreign or not.’

Sammy looked at her not understanding then blushed bright red as her meaning came to him. He spoke very quickly, ‘no, Jill, no, I meant hot as in hot from the sun, she walked a lot she said, came in all hot and bothered, was wearing a real pretty hat, said she was doing a tour or some such.’

Jill laughed and said, ‘I know, Sammy, I was just fooling with ya. But I remember who you mean, nice lady, English.’ Jill would certainly remember the twenty dollar tip the English woman had left that was for sure. ‘No, I ain’t seen her since that day either.’

‘Maybe she moved on to the next place on her itinry.’

‘Itinerary. And yeah, probably.’

She moved away to the next table and Sammy sipped his coffee looking forward to an afternoon of ease. Neither of them noticed the two men at the next table listening intently to their conversation nor the glances that passed between them.

Guildenstern opened his mouth to speak but Rosencrantz shook his head, took out his wallet, dropped ten dollars onto the table, stood up and walked to the door. Guildenstern following almost at a run.

Once outside Rosencrantz grabbed Guildenstern’s arm and pulled him down the side of the building out of sight, once out of earshot of any passer-by he said, ‘a foreigner, an English woman wearing a pretty hat. That woman in the alley, the one who called out to us that night, she must have been English.’

‘I thought you said she was Australian.’

‘Whatever, they both sound the same to me. And Tallahassee is only ten miles or so from here.

Maybe the English bitch brought Desi back here and it
was
her we saw yesterday wearing the ill fitting clothes and the hat. If the woman is staying around here she might have run back to her.’

‘But we’ve questioned lots of people here and no one remembers seeing her.’

‘That’s because we were asking about an Australian woman you stupid prick.

‘Well at least they knew the difference which is more than you did, so who’s a prick now.’

‘Do you want to get into it or do you want to find Desi?’

For a moment Guildenstern looked as if he might go for the former but then shrugged and said, ‘we have to question some of the town’s people again. Ask for an English woman this time.’

‘No, that would look too suspicious; first we’re after an Australian woman then an English broad.’

‘Then the man and woman in there?’ Guildenstern gestured towards the café.

‘No, not both, the guy, he’s simple or something, sounds it anyway, he likes to talk, so we’ll let him.’

Guildenstern’s expression was concerned and Rosencrantz said abruptly, ‘what, what now?’

‘I think it best not to tell Mr. Glissando that we got our nationalities screwed up, not unless we have too.'

Rosencrantz grinned well pleased that Guildenstern had said “we” and not “you. He said, ‘got ya, pal.’

They decided it was best not to go back in the café that would be to obvious so they walked towards the woods and secreted themselves amongst the trees waiting for Sammy to emerge.

Guildenstern took out his cigarettes and matches. Guildenstern watched him fascinated as always by the dexterity of his fingers considering he had only three on his right hand. He had lost two in the line of duty when with the F.B.I, but he had not been as concerned about losing his fingers or the hearing in his right ear as he had at the fact that he had been shot by a bit of a kid no more than thirteen years old. He had been with the bureau for twelve years at that time and had been pensioned off through a lucky shot from a two bit punk high on crack cocaine.

Guildenstern had then gone off the rails big time and taken to drink, plus the occasional drug he blamed for his disfigurement and his present situation in the first place.

He was in one of his favourite bars not nearly as drunk as he would have liked, when he was approached by a guy who told him he worked for a very important man and that he might have a job for Guildenstern, whose name had been Stanley Perks then.

He had laughed and told the guy to go fuck himself. But the guy was nothing if not persistent and had laid out a lucrative package, including a three figure annual salary, a dental and medical plan next to none and a nice little bonus at the end of each year if the boss was satisfied with his work. Stanley drunk as he was knew that if something was too good to be true it usually was, nevertheless agreed to meet the guy’s boss the next afternoon. The guy had told him to get himself sobered and cleaned up and had given him one thousand dollars to help with the process.

The next day Stanley had met with Mr. Big whom he discovered was named Dashiel Glissando. Glissando did not seem to care one iota that Stanley only had three fingers on his right hand because he would be taught to use his left as proficiently as ever he had his right. As for his being deaf in one ear, well, Mr. Glissando had said that sometimes it was wise to turn a deaf ear. Stanley had laughed, Mr. Glissando did not, although he did smile which Stanley was to discover was a real concession. Thirty minutes later he was no longer Stanley but Guildenstern, Mr. Glissando’s bodyguard, his enforcer, his slave.

He had been partnered with Rosencrantz, A.K.A James Fuller, who had worked for Glissando a year by then. Rosencrantz was also ex F.B.I and taller than Guildenstern by at least a foot being six foot six, he was also heavier than him by a hundred pounds. They looked odd together, one short, one tall, one large the other as thin as a pike staff. Not to mention that Rosencrantz was bald and Guildenstern had long hair which he tied back in a pony tail. But they worked well together; they got the job done, and they would get this job done because not getting it done did not bear thinking about.

They waited for almost two hours before Sammy emerged from the café. Guildenstern threw down his cigarette and nudged Rosencrantz, ‘here comes the half wit.’

They both watched as Sammy walked down the street towards them, smiling at everyone he passed and calling out a greeting. The two men stepped out as he approached. Sammy pulled up short startled. Rosencrantz said, ‘oh sorry, pal, didn’t mean to scare ya there.’

Sammy recovered from his fright and said affably, ‘oh that’s okay. Hey, I saw y’all in the café, right?’

‘Yes, that’s right; you’re very observant, Mr…?

‘Oh, call me Sammy, everyone calls me Sammy.’

The two men glanced at each other and their look said, this one is so easy.

Guildenstern said, ‘we heard ya talking to the lady in there, the waitress.’

‘Jill?’

‘Yeah, that’s right, Jill, nice lady.’

‘Yeah, yeah she is, Jill’s a real nice lady.’

‘Speaking of nice ladies, we heard ya say that a nice foreign lady came into the café not long back.’

‘Yeah, she was real nice too.’

‘And she was wearing a hat you said.’