Page 92 of A Breath of Life
“If I wanted my father dead, I would do it myself. Do you think I would give that pleasure to someone else? Fuck no. I’ve been dreaming of choking the life out of him since I was eight years old. That pleasure is mine.”
Tallus laughed. “I can imagine you have it down to a science. Don’t take this the wrong way, but strangulation? Really? I always figured you would choose something messier.”
“It is messy if I strangle him with his own fucking intestines.”
“Now there you go. See? That is appropriately Diemesque. I’d help you hide the body. I have ideas.”
“Great. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“If you got caught, I’d visit you in prison.”
“I wouldn’t get caught.”
“I saidif. I’d even suck your cock in front of the guards if you wanted me to. Put on a real show and make everyone jealous.”
I… didn’t know how to respond to that statement, so I motioned to the laptop. “Can we focus?”
“Sure, Guns. We’ll save discussions of my deep-throating skills for later. I’m getting better, though, aren’t I? You’re a lot to take. That’s not a complaint. It’s a compliment. I consider deepthroating your monster cock a personal challenge. Particularly when—”
“Tallus.”
“Okay, okay. I’m done. All focus. No play. Got it.” With his humor barely contained, Tallus veered back to the problem at hand. “So, you think our boy Clarence hired a hit man to kill his wife, then couldn’t pay the bill when it came due, so Ace wants him dead?” He glanced at the card. “I assume we’ve decided this thing isn’t listening to us?”
“Highly doubt it. It’s a theory.”
“It’s a good theory considering who we’re dealing with, but it doesn’t tell us where Clarence is.”
“No, and the only activity on his bank account in the past week is a withdrawal on the day he discharged himself from the hospital.”
“For how much?”
“Everything.” I adjusted the filters on Clarence’s bank report and scrolled to the bottom to show Tallus the zero balance.
“Well, shit. We’re never going to find him at this rate. He probably left the city. Cash in his pocket means no money trail.”
“We’re not giving up. If I can’t find him, I’ll save him the trouble of running by killing Ace.”
“I thought you were against shedding blood.”
“The man threatened you and Nana. If I accidentally break his neck, he only has himself to blame.”
“Seems fair. D? Are we really going to hand this Clarence guy over to Ace to be killed? If we find him.”
“I don’t know.” The thought troubled me, but it was moot if we couldn’t locate the guy. I would worry about the moral decision later.
I tossed Tallus the pen and notebook we had used to communicate. “Find out what Clarence drives. Where he works. Who his family is, and where they live. Check in with Kitty and see if she can find out the details surrounding Janessa’s death and if the police ever had suspects. There would have been a murder investigation.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Go through Clarence’s account more thoroughly and see if there are locations he frequented or places he commonly spent money. If I can figure out where he spent his time, it might give me an idea of where he met these people. You can’t exactly take out an ad for a hit man in the local newspaper. You have to know someone who knows someone or be invited into certain circles.”
Tallus puckered his lips to the side, narrowing his eyes as though trying to read a thought that was too fuzzy to see.
“What?”
“Have you looked up St. Michael’s?”
“Fuck. No.”Why didn’t I think of that?“Hang on.” I opened a new tab and typed St. Michael’s into the search bar. The entry in the bank account hadn’t been more specific, so when a long list of churches, elementary schools, high schools, colleges, foundations, hospitals, healthcare facilities, and cemeteries filled the screen, I sighed.
