Page 99 of Lion & Lamb

Veena was digging in her purse, most likely for her phone. He wanted to tell her not to bother—even if the AC police responded, they’d arrive just in time to load his and Veena’s shot-up bodies onto a meat wagon. But he didn’t dare make a sound.

“Cover your ears,” Veena said. She pulled a COP .357 derringer from her purse and started firing toward the boards above them.Blam-blam-blam-blam!She blasted four shots through the weather-beaten wood. A moment later, they heard a heavy thud, like a sack of potatoes hitting the boards.

When enough time had passed, Cooper and Veena climbed back onto the boardwalk and walked up to their assailant. All four bullets had blasted into the man’s chest. Now that Cooper was closer, he could see the man’s face wasn’t scarred. It had been hidden behind a clear plastic Halloween mask.

Veena crouched down and pulled away the mask. Cooper expected to see Mickey Bernstein, but for the umpteenth time today, he realized he’d made the wrong assumption. The man’s face wasn’t familiar to either of them.

“Is this the Quiet One?”

“No idea.”

“Is he the one who tried to shoot you last night?”

“Roll him over so I can see the back of his head; maybe I’ll recognize him,” Cooper said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“I didn’t know you had a gun.”

“I live in the city, what do you expect?”

“You used to be famously anti-gun.”

“I used to be someone who wasn’t on the Mob’s hit list.”

Chapter105

THE SURPRISEpunch knocked Red Doyle out of his chair and set off a noisy chain reaction in the nearly empty lounge. Red’s cocktail tipped over and flooded the tabletop; his chair flipped over in the opposite direction and bashed into a chair at another table.

Cooper didn’t care. He kicked all of the furniture out of the way so that Red couldn’t hide from the ass-beating he was about to receive.

“The hell’s the matter with you!” Red cried out, half worried and half furious.

“You sent a killer after us,” Cooper snarled.

“I didn’t send anybody after you!”

That earned Red a literal kick in the backside, which flipped the man over onto his belly. Cooper planted a knee in Red’s spine and twisted his right arm behind his back.

“Agh!” Red screamed. “You lost your damn mind?”

“I want you to think about spending the rest of this year without the use of your arms,” Cooper said. “And that’s just the beginning unless you start telling me the truth.”

“I’m not saying another word to you, asshole. I’m going to let the police do all of the talking. You forget—this ismytown.”

Cooper was so focused on deciding which of Red Doyle’s joints he was going to dislocate first that he didn’t notice Veena crouch down in front of the bookie and place the barrel of her petite handgun against his bony forehead. She lowered her sunglasses.

“I was just forced to kill someone,” Veena said calmly. “This is something I’m going to have to carry with me forever. But let me tell you this: I have zero problem doing it again.”

Cooper could feel the fight leave Red’s body. Whatever he saw in Veena’s eyes, he believed it.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Red said softly. “Whatever just happened to you, I had nothing to do with it. I was trying towarnyou. You two have big fat targets painted on your backs.”

“Why?” Veena asked. “Because someone shot a football player in downtown Philadelphia and we’re trying to find out who pulled the trigger?”

“No. Because you’re poking around at one little corner of a very dangerous situation.”

“Detail it for us.”

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