Page 15 of Nobody's Fool

Smaller Tee nods. “No one will question it.”

“No one,” Gun Guy agrees. “We make it look like we had no choice.”

They both smile at me, clearly warming to this plan.

“So”—Gun Guy aims the gun at me—“what do you say to all that, Sami Kierce?”

Now it’s my turn to smile. I have a good smile. You should knowthis about me. It’s far and away my best physical feature. Molly said she fell for me when I smiled. But that’s not the smile I’m displaying now. This smile of mine is far more maniacal. This smile is just south of sane. It makes both men, even the one holding a gun on me, step back.

“Say it louder,” I say.

Gun Guy looks confused. “What?”

I shake his hand off my hair. Then I lift my other hand into view. My phone is still in it, only now they can see a face on the screen. While they talked, I managed to hit my FaceTime.

“Come on, Tee,” I say as I rise to my feet, the maniacal smile still plastered on my face. “Or should I call you ‘the Tee-ster’? I’m not sure my friends at the NYPD heard you clearly. Say how you’re going to kill me louder.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Smaller Guy Tee and Gun Guy escort me back to my car.

I try to get them to talk, but they clam up. I ask about the woman in the upstairs window, no longer using Anna’s name. They still don’t talk. After they let me out of their SUV, Smaller Guy Tee rolls down the window and says, “You stay away from her.”

Then they drive off.

Craig is still on my phone’s FaceTime, and no, he was never a cop. There was no time to scroll around for Marty’s number or anyone’s number really. I just hit the redial and since the last person I called was Craig to tell him I was picking up my car, I got lucky he picked up.

“What was that all about?” Craig asks me.

“What did you hear?”

“Not a word. It was all garbled.”

“What did you see?”

“Same. It was too dark.”

I thank him for staying on the line and tell him I’ll call him later. I get in my car and start down the road before they have a chance to change their mind and come back. I dropped a pin when I was near the edge of the grounds. When I hit a red light back on Main Street, I text the pin’s location to Marty with a brief message:

Need to know who lives here ASAP.

I check the car clock, but then I remember that it doesn’t work. I check my phone’s clock instead. It’s late. Marty is a health nut who is in bed every night at ten p.m. and wakes up precisely at six. He’s annoyingly regimented, which is to say he’s anal, and I know a stronger word for anal, but I love him too much to call him that. At the time of my firing, Marty was my junior partner, foisted on a reticent me by a boss who sarcastically insisted Marty would benefit from the wisdom of an older, more experienced officer.

He didn’t.

I debate calling Molly to let her know I’m on my way, but it’s late and a call may wake up Henry and I just don’t know what to say to her right now. I settle for a text. I take the car back to Craig’s driveway. He is waiting there for me.

“You okay?” Craig asks.

“Fine.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Yes, I think,but not with you. “I’m fine, Craig. Thanks, man.”

“Want a brandy before you head home?”

“Not tonight,” I say.

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