Ambush (Michael Bennett 11)

His right hand twitched and eased toward his jacket’s front pocket.

I said, “Don’t do it.”

The hand froze about halfway to the pocket.

“Surrender and we can work this out.”

Then Marat spoke. His voice was even and he clearly had an accent, but his English was good. “If I surrender, you can ignore the people I killed?”

I just stared at him for a moment. I had no answer.

Marat said, “Neither can I.” His voice had a catch in it. “I had to do it. They have my wife and daughter.”

“Is that why you said hawqala?”

“I didn’t know if anyone would pick up on it.”

I kept the pistol trained on him. I was still expecting someone to come help me shortly.

Marat said, “They told me I had to do this one job. Drive the truck into the parade, then detonate the explosive they had built into the truck. That was my first clue they’d abandoned me. When I hit the detonator, it was supposed to give me thirty seconds to escape. Then there was no one waiting to drive me away like they were supposed to. They’ve been trying to kill me ever since. Now it looks like they tricked you into doing their dirty work.”

All I could say was, “Who? Who is trying to kill you? Who do you work for?”

He looked like he wanted to tell me. Like he knew it was over. He started to speak, then hesitated.

His right hand moved. That’s when I heard two gunshots.

Chapter 31

AS SOON AS I heard the shots, I couldn’t keep from turning to see where they came from. Behind me, partially hidden by a wooden bench, Darya Kuznetsova kneeled with the other Russian mob hitter’s pistol in her hand.

I spun back to Marat. He seemed to be frozen. Somehow, in that split second, his right hand had reached the gun in his jacket pocket. Now he held it loosely with the barrel pointed to the ground.

He looked at me and tried to speak. That’s when I noticed the two red stains expanding on the front of his jacket. Both were close to his heart.

The pistol dropped onto the seawall. Marat stood for a second longer, then toppled over into the river.

I raced to the seawall and leaned over to look at the dark water. The tide was going out and there was a serious current. But there was no sign of Temir Marat. The swirling black water would hide anything more than a few inches below the surface.

Darya joined me at the seawall. She carefully placed the pistol next to the one that had dropped out of Marat’s hand.

I looked at her and simply said, “Why?”

“I thought he w

as going to shoot you. You have no idea what men like that are capable of.”

“I’m starting to get an idea.”

“He would’ve shot you.”

I said, “That’s bullshit. He’s one of yours. You’re just trying to cover his tracks.”

Darya shook her head and said, “He’s not one of mine. I had nothing to do with anything this man was involved in.” She was convincing. Then she said, “And I really thought your life was in danger.”

Two patrol cars pulled up to the edge of the park and the four patrol officers started jogging toward us with their weapons drawn.

I immediately set down my revolver, pulled my badge from my back pocket, and held it in my right hand. To be on the safe side, both of my hands were above my head before they got too close.