But he hadn’t joined the enemy, he was only using the enemy. He had a noble goal. A goal so noble and lofty that he’d allow a child to die so that he could achieve it?
“I’ll make up for it,” he said softly. “I swear on the lives of my children and grandchildren that as soon as this is over, I will devote every waking moment of the rest of my life to hunting down Carlos Salinas and his kin and putting them away.” No doubt Salinas thought he had an ally high up in the government. He was wrong. Very wrong.
10
Carlos slammed down the handset and signaled to Llosa to turn off the tape recorder.
“Our contact has hung up. I believe I upset him. Did we get a good recording?” Llosa pulled off his headphones and gave a thumbs up.
“Excellent. Now get hold of that pendejo, MacLaglen. Tell him I must speak to him immediately.” As Llosa crossed the room to the secure phone, Carlos leaned back and closed his eyes.
Mierda! This was what he had feared. MacLaglen had not frightened the doctor enough. The federales were now involved. Which meant it was time for a quick cleanup. Get rid of the child and MacLaglen’s two helpers—kill them, bury their bodies deep where no one will ever find them. Carlos knew where a new parking lot was being paved in Alexandria. A perfect spot for disposal.
He wished he could include MacLaglen in the paved grave as originally planned, but the cabron had outmaneuvered him.
He sighed. Ah well, not so bad. MacLaglen was a professional. He was a good risk. And he’d pushed the doctor far enough to get the chloramphenicol into Thomas Winston. That was what mattered The President was entering the hospital. When that news reached home, Emilio Rojas would be pleased.
Now Carlos had to hope the medicine would do its work. Whatever happened, it was out of his hands. The doctor’s confession only meant that the cleanup would begin earlier than anticipated. This was no problem.
Llosa finished speaking into the phone and turned to face him. He spoke in Spanish. “I paged him and left a message on his voice mail. He should be getting back to us any minute.”
“You told him to call back immediately?”
“Just as you directed.”
“Very good. Follow the usual routine when he calls.” Llosa nodded and left.
And Carlos sat and wondered: Did the doctor really believe that we would not find out about him? Did he realize that he had ended his daughter’s life when he confessed? What a reckless, foolish man.
11
Poppy sweated behind her Minnie Mouse mask, doing some curls with her dumbbells in the front room while Katie watched cartoons. When she heard a car door slam out front, she glanced out the window. Her heart suddenly twisted in her chest, then took off like she’d just snorted a gram of crank.
“Oh sweet Jesus! It’s Mac!” She heard a kitchen chair fall over as Paulie bolted into the room.
“What? Where?” Panic chased her to the center of the room.
“Outside! He’s coming in!”
“Shit!”
He pointed to Katie. “Get her out of here! I’ll clean this up! Move!”
Poppy grabbed Katie under the arms, lifted her, and rushed her toward the guest room.
“What’s wrong?” Katie said. “Why are you so scared?”
Poppy placed her on the bed and shut the guest-room door. “It’s our boss. We can’t let him know that we let you walk around without your blindfold.”
“Why not? I only—” Poppy placed a finger over Katie’s lips and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Shhh. Boss’s rules. You gotta be real quiet while he’s here. Quiet like a mouse. Okay?” She stared at Poppy and matched her whisper.
“Okay.”
“Great.” Poppy hid those big blues behind the blindfold. Her shaky fingers fumbled the knot a couple of times, but finally she got it good and snug around Katie’s head.
“Okay.” She pulled off her Minnie Mouse mask. “Now lie back and let me tie up your arms.”
Katie’s lip pushed out and she sobbed. “I don’t wanna be tied up.”
Oh, Jesus, Katie, Poppy thought, biting her own lip. Don’t give me a hard time now. Not with Mac about to come through the door.
“Shhh! Please, Katie, you gotta be quiet. Remember how I said you had to be quiet like a mouse? Well, you gotta be tied up too. Boss’s rules. And he don’t like his rules broken.”
Katie sobbed again and her voice got louder. “But it hurts!” And that was when she heard the front door open, and heard Mac’s voice. She couldn’t catch the words, but it was him.
Oh, Jesus, don’t let him come in here yet. Just give me another half a minute.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tie you real loose, okay? It won’t hurt, I promise you, but you gotta look like you’re tied up, see? Boss’s rules, remember? You don’t want to get me in trouble, do you?”
She shook her head. “No…”
“Okay, then. Quick now. Lie back and let me do what I gotta do, and I promise you, it won’t hurt.”
Katie sniffled a little, but stretched herself out on the bed and put her hands out to be tied.
“You’re a good little soldier,” Poppy whispered.
But now her bad case of fumble fingers had got even worse. She could barely hold the cord, but somehow she got it twisted into things that looked like knots.
“Okay. You’re tied. Do they hurt?”
Katie shook her head.
“Great. Now I’ll just—” Poppy glanced at Katie’s feet. Her heart had been racing since she spotted Mac’s Jeep outside, but now it kicked up to light speed. Katie’s left foot was in a little white sock, but the right one was… bare!
“Jesus, where’s your bandage?”
Katie wiggled her five exposed toes. “I guess it fell off.”
No! This couldn’t be happening! Not with Mac just a dozen feet away! Frantic, she checked the floor, checked in the covers, but no bandage.
And Mac could be popping in here any moment.
“Okay, look,” she said. “I’ll just pull the covers over your bottom half. Don’t kick them off. Even if it gets a little warm, keep your legs under the covers. Got that?”
Katie nodded.
“Good girl,” Poppy said. She leaned over and kissed Katie’s forehead above the blindfold. “Soon as the boss goes, we’ll play another game of Chutes and Ladders. Okay?”
Katie smiled.“ ‘Kay.”
Poppy adjusted the covers, backed away for a last look. Everything seemed to be in place. All right. One last look at Katie… and it was time to face Mac the Monster.
She stepped out into the front room and closed the door behind her. She saw Paulie standing by the couch, and Mac wandering around the room, casually twirling his key ring on his finger. He wore jeans and an open Orioles baseball jacket. She could smell the tension.
Mac stopped wandering and smiled at her, but only with his lips.
“Tending to our little asset?”
Poppy nodded. “Just put her…” Her mouth was so dry she had to clear her throat. “Just put her down for a nap.”
“Good. I knew you’d come in handy on this job. A nice little mother hen for the package.” Poppy stole a few glances at the room. Looked like Paulie had done a good job cleaning things up. The Chutes and Ladders board and pieces were gone, as was his Mickey Mouse mask. He never picked up after himself. She never thought he could. She’d have to remind him of this sometime.
Where had he stuffed all the stuff? Under the couch?
“Your boyfriend was just telling me that he hopes there’s no hard feelings about our little contretemps yesterday.”
Contra-what? What was Mac talking about? He had a funny look in his eyes. Was he looking to start a fight?
“We don’t want no hard feelings with nobody,” Poppy said. “We just want this thing over and done with.” She was going to say more but something white by the rear leg of the coffee table caught her eye. It lay between her two dumbbells. She didn’t want to lean closer so she had to focus out of the c
orner of her eye. Something white with a little bit of red…
Oh, Jesus, the bandage! Katie’s foot bandage! If Mac saw it he’d start asking questions, maybe want to see Katie’s foot! Oh, Jesus, oh, Christ, oh. Mother of God, she couldn’t let Mac spot it!
“I’m sure you do,” Mac told her. He turned to Paulie. “But am I to take that as an apology?” Poppy edged closer to the coffee table. If she could get herself between Mac and the bandage…
Paulie shrugged. “If you want. All I’m saying is you’re the boss, you’re calling the shots, but we got our limits.” She watched Mac shrug out of his Orioles jacket and toss it onto a chair. He tried to make it look casual, but as soon as Poppy saw the dark-brown pistol handle jutting from the little leather holster next to the beeper on his belt, she knew he wasn’t being casual.
What’s Mac up to? she wondered. Trying to scare us? I’m already plenty scared.
She saw that Paulie had noticed it too. Don’t mention it, Paulie, she told him, wishing he could read her mind. Don’t give him the satisfaction.
She edge closer to the bandage. More important now than ever to keep him from seeing it.
Mac said, “Let me get this straight: You’re saying I’m the boss, but only up to a certain point. After that, you’re the boss?”
“No, Mac,” Paulie said, his voice easy. “It don’t mean that at all. It means you hired me, you didn’t buy me.”
Mac stared at him, like he was thinking about what Paulie had said. Poppy used the lull to make it the rest of the way to the coffee table. The bandage was right near her foot. She wished she could simply step on it and keep it under her sneaker, but it was on the other side of the stretcher. All right, she’d just stay here and block it from Mac.
But then Mac started wandering around the room again. Cold dread seeped through Poppy. He was going to spot it, she just knew it.
“I think you’ve got a point there, Paulie,” Mac was saying. “And maybe it’s a good one.” Jesus, he was moving her way. He couldn’t miss it.
Quickly Poppy put her right foot up on the coffee table and began fooling with her sneaker lace, like it was loose and she needed to retie it. Mac was about five feet away. With her heart thumping, she undid the knot, made a loud, “Tsk,” then turned, sat on the edge of the table, and bent over to retie the sneaker. While her hands were down near the floor, she snatched the bandage and balled it up in her fist.
Got it!
“What’s that?” Mac asked. He’d stopped twirling his key ring and was staring at her.
She glanced up at him, then at her hand.
“Hmmm?” What could she say? “Oh, just a tissue.” Mac looked like he was going to say something else when his beeper went off. As he angled it up to read the message. Poppy sniffed, made a quick swipe at her nose, then stuffed the gauze in her pocket. And held her breath.
Mac pressed a button and released the beeper.
“ ‘Immediately’ might take a little while,” he muttered, then began wandering again.
“Yeah, Paulie,” he said, talking slow, like he didn’t really have a point, like he was just killing time, “but a guy hires on to do a job, don’t you think he should do that job?”
“Absolutely,” Paulie said. “Take me and Poppy, for instance. We hired on to baby-sit. And that’s cool. That’s the job and that’s what we do, and do it good. But we didn’t hire on to slice and dice a kid. That wasn’t in the job description, so to speak.” Poppy was barely listening. She just sat there, feeling weak, breathing deep while her muscles relaxed and her heartbeat wound down to a normal rate.
They were okay now. Long as Mac didn’t go in there and check Katie’s feet, they were home free.
And then she heard a click and looked up and thought her slowing heart was going to stop dead because there was Katie standing in the doorway to the guest room with no cords and no blindfold and no sock on her right foot.
Fighting through her panic. Poppy snapped around and saw that Mac had his back turned. But Paulie was facing this way and he looked like he’d just swallowed a couple of feet of razor wire. Poppy coiled to make a sprint for the door, to tackle Katie and carry her back into her room—
But then Katie spoke.
“I have to go to the bathroom.” Mac whirled and time seemed to stop, like the projector of her life’s movie got stuck and all action screeched to a halt. All the air seemed to get sucked out of the room but that didn’t matter because no one was breathing.
Her life became a photograph. But only for a single, long, agonized instant. And then it all returned to horrific life.
Mac’s eyes bulged and his face turned a dark, furious red as he gaped at Katie.
“What the fuck? She’s… she’s… I” He couldn’t seem to believe what he was seeing. And then his eyes widened even further as he pointed to her bare foot.
“Her toes! How come she’s got all her fucking toes?”
“Hey, Mac,” Paulie said. “It’s not like you think.” But Mac was pulling the pistol from his belt. He thumbed back the hammer and aimed at Katie.
Poppy couldn’t move. She seemed’to be stuck to the table, the floor. But she could scream.
“Mac, no! Jesus, NO!” Whether Mac heard her or not, she couldn’t say.
Maybe he was afraid of the noise a shot would make, and the attention it would attract. Whatever, he jammed the gun back into his belt, thank God.
“Goddamn!” he shouted and started looking around for something—what, Poppy couldn’t guess. He kept saying it over and over. “Goddamn!”
“Easy, Mac,” Paulie was saying.
“Goddamn!” Mac couldn’t seem to find what he was looking for in the living room so he stalked into the kitchen.
Finally Poppy could move. Paulie was looking in her direction with a stricken expression, motioning her to get Katie out of sight, but Poppy was already on her way.
She was just dragging Katie back when Mac reappeared.
His face was back to normal color but had lost all expression, and his eyes… his eyes were flat and cold, like everything human had gone out of them. He gripped something long and slim in his right hand. Sunlight flashed off its steely surface as he passed the window.
Oh, sweet Jesus, a knife—the big, foot-long Ginsu knife she’d seen in the utensil drawer.
Poppy whimpered as she pulled Katie close against her and cowered back into the room. Oh, no, he couldn’t… he wasn’t going to try and cut her toe off now, was he?
This couldn’t be happening.
“Paulie!” she cried. “Paulie, he’s got a knife!” But Paulie was way ahead of her. He stepped in front of the door and put his hands out.
“Stop right there, Mac. Don’t do anything crazy now. It’s not like it looks.”
Mac slowed but didn’t stop. “It’s not?” he said in a voice as cold as his eyes.
“We sent the persuader just like you told us,” Paulie said, rattling out the words like a machine gun. “A little kid’s toe. Only it just wasn’t this kid’s toe. And it worked, didn’t it? I mean, you said yourself the guy was ready to do anything after he opened that envelope. So there’s no harm done. Everything worked out okay, right? So what’s the point in cutting off her toe now? What’s that gonna get you?”
Finally Mac stopped. He stared at Paulie with this look of complete disgust. “You fucking idiot. What the fuck do I care about her toe now. She saw me! She’s seen us all!”
The words were spikes through Poppy’s heart. He’s gonna kill her! He’s gonna kill my little Katie!
“It’ll be okay,” Paulie said.
“Damn right it will,” Mac said, starting to move again.
“Just as soon as I’m finished with her.” He tried to get past but Paulie blocked his way.
“Hey, Mac. You can’t be serious. You’re not gonna off a little girl!”
“Out of the way, Paulie! I’m not getting sent up because some little brat can point the finger at me.”
Paulie shoved
him back. “Time out, Mac. You’re not thinking.” Mac went wild then. His lips drew back from his teeth and he slashed with the knife.
Poppy screamed. “Paulie, look out!” Paulie jumped back, holding his arm. His hand came away wet and red.
“You son of a bitch! You cut me!” Poppy knew that tone. Now Paulie was pissed. He made a move toward Mac, dodged another slash, and then they were grappling, kicking, cursing, grunting, snorting like animals as each tried to get control of the knife.
Poppy pushed Katie back onto the bed. “You stay here! Don’t move!” She eased herself into the front room, pressing her back against the wall as Paulie and Mac rolled around on the floor. She had to find a way to stop Mac. But how?
And then she spotted her dumbbells by the coffee table.
Yes!
She grabbed one and raised it just as Paulie rolled on top of Mac. She crept closer, looking for an opening, waiting for a clear shot at Mac’s head.
And then she heard Paulie let out a loud, “Uhn!”—a cross between a strangled cry and an agonized grunt— and in that same awful, horror-filled instant saw the bright red point of the knife blade pop through the back of his shirt.
She screamed his name and rushed forward just as Mac was pushing Paulie off of him. She’d all but forgotten the dumbbell in her hand, but when she saw Mac getting up she let out a sound she’d never imagined she could make, a screech of rage and fear like a truck with bad brakes.
Mac looked up, and for an instant she cherished the look of sudden terror that filled his eyes when he saw her and realized what she had raised over her head.
He shouted, “No!” and tried to get a hand up but he was too late.
Poppy smashed him square between his cold, rotten little eyes with the end of the dumbbell, flattening his nose and spraying blood all over his face. His head slammed back against the floor and he didn’t move again.
Poppy immediately forgot about him and dropped the dumbbell. She turned to Paulie who was on his back now with the knife’s black handle sticking out of his stomach, right under the breast bone. His black shirt wasn’t showing the red of the blood, just looking blacker—and wet.